Remembering the End is a series of satirical stories. Please do not mistake anything described as fact. These stories are merely a creative representation of what could happen. The author claims no responsibility for the misinformation that may spread as a result. With that being said, please enjoy.
When we elected Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America, a lot of people thought the world was coming to an end. No one thought it was going to end like this. People today take modern medicine for granted—for almost the entirety of human history, if you got sick, you died—but now, we’ve developed treatments for diseases as severe as cancer and HIV. Humans are resilient; we’re survivors. At least, we used to be.
The year is 2021. It’s late October, and the leaves are just beginning to change colors. A lot has changed in the last two years, but the seasons haven’t (at least not yet). When I was still in school, we learned about global warming—I thought for sure that would be the end of us. Instead, a viral pandemic wiped out 6.8% of the population. At first, everyone said it would be fine. They were developing a vaccine—it was only a matter of time—but things just kept getting worse. Death tolls increased as medical supplies dwindled. The stock markets crashed, and then they crashed again. The grocery stores ran out of food. We were not prepared for this.
Most people stay to themselves these days. Over are the days of concerts and football games. What started out as a mild coronavirus in Wuhan, China in 2019 has since evolved into a resilient killer. Eventually, the doctors did develop a vaccine, but by the time they could distribute it globally, the virus had already begun to change. Seemingly always a step ahead of us, each new treatment yielded similarly futile results. Many people died along the way. It is possible that some of the survivors are simply immune to the virus, but there is no way to be sure. You still hear about someone dying from the virus from time to time, but it has definitely seemed to stall out for at the least the time being.
Some folks have tried to return to some semblance of normal life. I envy those people—their ability to ignore the grief and trauma of the past is remarkable. Others, however, are just biding their time before the next wave. In case we don’t make it to 2022, I’ve decided to share a few stories—hopefully somebody survives to hear them.
