Eclipse
Chapter One: Impact
A phone rang on the night stand by the bed. The grouchy man that lay on the bed twisted his body over and threw the red, velvet blanket off of him.
“Do you know what time it is, Becca?” the grouchy man spoke into the phone in a monotonous tone.
“Sorry Zack, but it’s urgent. He’s really serious about it this time!” she said in a worried voice. “Please come!”
Zack jumped out of bed and put on his jacket. He ran out of his old, run-down apartment building and headed over to the building across from him.
“Becca open up!” Zack said and knocked on the front door multiple times.
She opened the door and her blonde hair covered over her left eye, her right eye was bleeding with make-up from tears. “He’s on the roof. You’ve got to talk some sense into him. You’re the only one he’ll listen to.”
He looked in her eyes. “She’s really counting on me to do this, isn’t she?” he thought, but he had no more time to think. He turned around and ran towards the stairs.
When he got up to the roof, all he could hear was the wind blowing against his face, a flickering light on the side of the street, and a distant cry for help.
Zack immediately moved closer to the cries and found his friend hanging from the edge of the building with both hands. “Delroy!” he exclaimed and ran over to his dangling friend. “Grab my hand!”
His pale-white hand reached out towards Delroy and Delroy’s hand instantaneously latched onto Zack. “Oh my god, Zack, I don’t know what got over me. I’m so sorry” he said. His thin body pulled itself onto the roof with the help of Zack, and a light on the roof lit up the cut across his eyes.
“What did you do to yourself?” Zack asked.
“I was running up here to fix the satellite when a big gust of wind pushed me forward. My face bashed into the antenna, more specifically my eye. I couldn’t really see where I was walking and tripped over myself. The next thing I knew I was dangling from the edge of the building for my life” he said and took a deep breath.
Zack looked at Delroy and patted him on the back. “It’s alright. Becca thought you were trying to commit suicide. You had her real worried.”
“I’m sorry, I should really pay more attention to where I’m walking next time.”
“Come on, let’s get your eye patched up. Becca is probably worried sick, too” Zack said and helped Delroy make his way back to the apartment room.
“Oh my! Delroy, what happened to your eye?” she asked and put her hand over her mouth. “Come here to the bathroom, I’ll patch it up. We’ll see a doctor tomorrow.”
“Becca, he wasn’t up there committing suicide. He just had a little mishap. Your brother needs to take better care of himself.”
She laughed, “the day Delroy can take care of himself is the day I’d finally have a normal life.”
Zack shrugged, “I Gotta get back to bed. Work early in the morning.”
“Bye” she said softly.
“Zack, call waiting on line one” a voice from outside Zack’s office said.
Zack picked up the phone on his desk. “Hello?”
“Hey Zack, it’s me” Rebecca said. “Delroy is going to stop over at your office in a couple minutes to give you a gift I got for you. It’s the least I could do.”
“Thanks, that’s sweet of you. You take care of yourself, I have to get working. The boss says he’ll have my arse if I don’t work harder. I’ll see you later” he said and hung up.
There was a soft knock on the door. “Come in.”
Delroy came in with a small cake in his hand. “It’s vanilla” he laughed and set it down on Zack’s desk.
Suddenly, the room became darker.
“Hey Delroy, mind opening the blinds for me?” Zack asked.
He walked over to the blinds. “They…are open.” Delroy looked outside and saw the event unfolding right before his eyes. “It’s a solar eclipse, man! Come here!”
Zack jumped from his seat and looked out the window. “Is that…a meteor? Two meteors? Four…Seven…” He paused for a long moment and then the first impact made sound.
The ground beneath them shook violently and the buildings a couple blocks away shot up in flames.
“Delroy, go find a safe plce. Now!” Zack shouted.
Delroy dashed off deeper into the office building to take cover.
“What the hell is going on?” Zack thought, but when he looked up into the eclipse, he could see a figure engraved in the eclipse. “Am I hallucinating?”
The second and third meteor made impact with the earth, causing more violent shakes. Zack fell over and hit his head against the edge of his desk.
“Far from Halucination, oh Zackary” a deep male voice said. “This is real, all too real.”
“Who are you?” he shouted out, but there was no response.
A meteorite crashed into his office building, sending the building crumbling down above Zack. A stone piece from the ceiling landed on his head, knocking him out cold.
“Wake up Zack, we have to get moving. Now!” Delroy shook Zack’s unconscious body and hoped it would bring him back to consciousness, but the effort was useless. “Darn it, Zack!” Delroy picked him up and balanced him on his shoulders.
Another meteor struck their office, causing it to burst into flames. The meteor fragments ricochet across the room and one of the fragments lodged itself inside of Zack’s arm.
“What the hell?” Zack groaned and got off of Delroy’s shoulders.
“We gotta make a run for it. The meteor shower just isn’t stopping. The solar eclipse is still there, too!” Delroy exclaimed, but Zack remained calm.
Zack looked at his right arm and saw the glowing meteor fragment. “Dang thing won’t come out” he said as he tried to pull it out.
Suddenly, the meteorite in his arm began to shine brightly, almost blinding him and Delroy.
His whole body started glowing like the fragment. The glowing went on for a couple more seconds, then died down.
“Zack, you alright?”
“I…don’t know. I saw something. Something amazing” he paused and started at his right palm. “Look at my hand. It’s glowing. I saw myself…shooting fire out of my hands.”
“Man, you’re crazy. This whole thing is getting to your head!” he shouted, trying to put some sense into him.
The sky became bright again. “Look, it’s over!...or not. Look at the size of that meteor…Holy –“ the sound of the impact cut him off.
The earth below them cracked in half, dropping them both onto the ground floor. A huge fire tidal wave headed towards their town.
“Zack, it’s doomsday.”
The fire wave moved closer to the town at a rapid pace. It was as tall as a 20-story building and it blasted through everything it hit.
“No, it can’t end like this!” Zack looked at his palm again and it was still glowing a little. He pointed it towards the walls on the side of the inside of the building and closed his eyes. Then, with a slight flick of his wrist, a fireball blasted out of his palm.
“Hey Zack, that’s great and all, but if we stand here and do nothing, that wave will obliterate us!” Delroy screamed in fear.
“There’s nothing we can do” a man from the streets cried out.
“Zack, it’s right there!” Delroy shouted.
Zack ran over and wrapped his body around Delroy. The wave reached over their building, and then enveloped it with its flames.
The building burned instantly, along with anyone in it and on the side streets beside it.
After the wave passed, there was nothing but rubble left. The building had collapsed, crushing Zack and Delroy.
“Don’t disappoint me, young Zackary. I didn’t give you this power just to die!” the deep male voice said again.
Zack’s eyes opened and he saw Delroy right next to him, but both of them were buried under layers of broken bricks and stone.
He grabbed Delroy’s hand and blasted a fireball from his hand, making an opening to escape the ‘trap’ they were in.
Delroy opened his eyes and saw the destruction around him. “Jesus Christ…”
Zack sighed and looked up at the sun. “You were right. This is doomsday.”
