To the end of the world/ I will follow you

Yellowleaf and I had a 'End of the world' challenge a while back to write what would happen to our lovely couples if the world was ending. My idea was a disaster of the asteroid kind.

The impact would likely cleave the world in two and there's no hope. But the government is trying to be positive and initiated a Shelter program for the eventual re-population of the earth. If anything survives.

Johnathan and Billy

“Johnathan Thurston?”

Johnathan stands with Billy. The men look dangerous in their dark suits and dark glasses. Johnathan doesn’t know what they want. Billy grips his hand.

“Yes”

“You have been selected for the Shelter program. We are here to escort you”

Johnathan tightens his fingers around Billy’s.

“What about Billy?”

The man doesn’t even glance at Billy.

“Only you have been chosen”

“No” Johnathan is adamant.

“I will not leave without him”

“I’m sorry but you have no choice in this matter, Mr Thurston”

The man nods to the soldiers flanking him. They move forward intent on Johnathan.

...

“Please, please let me say goodbye”

“Fine. But if either of you try anything...” The man pointedly brandishes the taser.

...

All this time he had finally resigned himself for the end and now that he’d be saved, he doesn’t want it. It hits him like a flash of blinding light. His life would mean nothing, absolutely nothing without Billy. He wants to stay home. Wants Billy to be the last thing he sees on this Earth. He can’t leave him. He can’t leave Billy all alone to face the end. Billy touches his face. He’s smiling but Johnathan knows him too well. He can see the tears threatening to spill. He grips the hand on his face.

“I don’t want to go, Billy. I can’t...”

“Yes, you can. Johnathan you need to live. It’ll help me...knowing that you’re safe”

“No. I can’t. Please, Billy” he knows he’s crying but doesn’t care.

“Please”

Billy pulls him closer and kisses his forehead.

“I love you. I love you. I love you”

Johnathan feels himself shaking. He feels Billy’s arms wrap around him. He breathes him in, imprinting in his mind the scents of home. He doesn’t want to understand that this would be the last time he’d hold his love in his arms.

He hears the man cough in the background and feels Billy starting to pull away.

No.

He holds on tighter.

“Johnathan...” Billy’s voice is gentle.

Billy tries to pull back again and this time he lets him. He feels Billy’s hand on his face and opens his eyes.

“Billy...”

When Billy leans forward and kisses him, Johnathan is almost driven back by the face of the kiss. But he replies in kind. When the kiss draws to a close and he pulls back, he sees the tear tracks on Billy’s face.

Suddenly everything is so clear to him. If this is the last time he’d see Billy, then he is not going to waste it. He kisses away the tears from Billy’s face and takes Billy’s hand and places it over his heart.

“We’re forever”

...

Lenny and BJ

Everything he wanted/loved lay manifest before his eyes and he was so grateful that Lenny was his. And even if the world was ending tomorrow, he didn’t care because tonight his life was perfect.

...

BJ didn’t want to miss anything tonight. He explored every inch of Lenny’s skin with hands, tongue and teeth, refusing to acknowledge the finality that kept sweeping in to his mind.

...

This would be the last time. The last time he would hear Lenny whisper his name like that, the last time he would taste Lenny on the edge of his tongue, the last time Lenny would look at him with eyes so darkened with desire. If he thought on it, his heart would break and tonight was not a time for tears. Tonight was theirs alone. The world shall not intrude.

...

Nick and Justin

“Remember the first time we met? You were here, talking to the coach. I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. And then you said ‘hello’”

...

He gently traced the planes of Nick’s face with his fingers.

“You know, I never thought we’d be here”

‘At the end of the world?”

“No. Us. Together”

Nick looked at him, blue eyes bright in the light of the day.

“I kept waiting for us to end. For you to decide that you wanted a normal life or for one of us to get traded or...I don’t know. I just ...think it’s amazing that we’re still together after all this time”

Nick smiled and leaned up to kiss him.

“I always knew we’d make it”

“To the end of the world?”

Nick laughed.

“No. Well yes but... I knew how I felt about you. There was never gonna be anyone else”

...

Matt and Dal

He lay back against the hard concrete floor and looked up at the sky, arms crossed behind his head. The sky was blue. There were no clouds and it felt like any other autumn day if he didn’t focus on the second object in the sky. He sighed. It was so quiet. That’s what he hated the most. This eerie silence that hung in the air. No one had rioted or looted or made any kind of disturbance. Everyone had simply accepted their fate quietly and he’d expected the end of the world to be greeted with a little bit more chaos.

“What’s a boy like you doing in a place like this?”

He smiled up at Matt who stood above him with two glasses of champagne in his hands.

“Waiting for a boy like you” he replied as he got up on to his feet.

He took one of the from Matt’s hand as they looked across at the city sprawled out before them

“Never thought I’d be here for the end of the world” Matt said quietly. Dal looked at him.

Matt.

“Yeah. And we had plans for next weekend”

Matt looked at him with a smile.

“Guess our movie date has to wait for another time”

The day suddenly grew brighter and they both looked up. The asteroid had entered the atmosphere.

It was time.

They turned to each other and held up their glasses.

“To you”

Dal shook his head.

“To us”

Matt smiled.

“Alright then. To us”

They clinked their glasses and drank. The asteroid sailed through the air as they set their glasses down on the concrete ledge.

Matt reached out and took one of Dal’s hands in his own. He stood a moment gently running his fingers over the skin. He knew so well every line and crease on these hands. Dal had fascinated him from the first time they had met. He was this crazy, hyper, beautiful, enchanting creature who had intertwined himself so intimately with every fibre of Matt’s being. And Matt knew, he had always known that having Dal in his life was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him.

He lifted Dal’s hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss on to his palm.

Dal moved closer. He tried but couldn’t stop the tears that spilled from his eyes.

‘Have I ever told you how beautiful you are when you cry?” Matt asked.

Despite everything, Dal laughed.

“No. I don’t think you have”

Matt smiled and leaned forward and kissed him.

The day was warm and the air sweet and he could be anywhere, anytime, simply kissing the boy he loved. He lost himself in the kiss and almost forgot the world was ending.

...

Greg and Israel

Israel gripped Greg’s hand as they watched the world burn. It almost felt surreal as they saw buildings crumble and giant waves take out entire cities and Israel almost heard the screams of all the people dying. It was all too big, too terrible for him to comprehend. Except Johnathan was there. Staring at the screens with blind eyes and whispering to himself.

“I should be there. I should be there...”

Israel didn’t know it was possible for his heart to feel anymore pain before he realised Johnathan had been chosen for Shelter. Johnathan without Billy. He knew Johnathan hadn’t eaten or spoken to anyone since he came in and wished he knew what to do. As the screens slowly all went blank and the earth shuddered and shifted around them, Israel held Greg’s hand tighter and wished he would wake up.

...

Lenny awakened to the earth shuddering. He opened his eyes. So it has begun. He gently touched Brendon’s face, skin pale in the bright light of mid-morning. He slept on, determinedly ignoring the end of the world. Lenny smiled and leaned forward to kiss his forehead. He held Brendon closer and closed his eyes. He bid a silent farewell to his friends in his mind and breathed Brendon in and willed himself back to sleep, unaware of the tears that escaped his eyes.

...

Justin threw the footy up. Nick jostled against him as they both tried to be ruckmen and take the ball out of the air. Justin got his hands on the ball and wheeled around and kicked at the goals before Nick could tackle him. The footy hit the left goal post and bounced back on to the ground.

“The story of my life”

“It’s what happens when you try to cheat”

“I’d love to see you prove that!”

“Oh? You think-“

The ground shuddered and they froze.

Justin made his way to Nick, keeping his eyes focused on Nick who stared at the horizon, eyes wide.

He stepped in front of him.

“Hey Nick”

Nick blinked at focused.

“Justin...”

Justin placed his hands on either side of Nick’s face.

“I love you”

Despite the fear in his eyes, Nick smiled.

“Yeah, I Know”

Justin grinned and closed the distance between them to kiss him. The ground shuddered under them and felt Nick tense and drew him deeper. He felt Nick’s hands gripping his shirt as the sky began to darken.

They drew back slightly as they came up for air. Nick’s eyes were closed.

“I’m glad that...we’re together...at the end”

Justin felt tears threatening and pulled Nick close and wrapped his arms around him.

“Me too” he whispered through his tears and felt Nick’s own soaking in to his skin.

...

The ground suddenly shuddered and they drew up for air.

Matt held Dal close in his arms.

“Everything in my whole life, the one thing that means anything is you. I love you, Matt. I have, from the first time I met you”

Dal was looking up at him with those beloved blue eyes filled with tears and Matt had never loved anyone more.

“I’m yours. Always have been and always will be. I’m sorry I called you short”

Dal laughed and Matt smiled to see him laugh. They had forgotten the world when the building gave way under them as the earth split apart. They never let go of each other. They held on to the very end.

...

He stands on the roof top of his apartment building. The streets are empty, everyone choosing to spend this last day with their loved ones. He looks up and watches the asteroid fly through the atmosphere. He knows he should be scared. The world is about to end. The end of the human race.

But he has been living with the knowledge of the world’s imminent end for months and he just wants it all to...He feels the earth shudder when the asteroid makes contact. He breathes and grips the railing when the building moves under him. He sees the wall of water heading towards him and feels his heart beat faster. It’s different. Knowing that death is coming and actually watch it roar towards you.

He closes his eyes. He never thought it would end this way.

“Johnathan”

Forever. They are forever.

...

The earth couldn’t handle the force of the impact and began to tear apart, the ground heaving and breaking under the strain. The storm approached Moorabbin oval from the west. Justin and Nick watched it arrive. Nick watched his death coming and turned his back on it. Instead he turned to Justin and kissed him one last time.

“I love you”

Justin smiled and then there was nothing else.

...

He crawled through the debris of their house.

‘Lenny?” he yelled. He had lost him as the first quake hit and the house crumbled. He couldn’t believe that he was still alive. He could feel the tremors rippling through the earth and knew things would only get worse. And he had to find Lenny before he wouldn’t be able to anymore.

Then he saw him. A pale hand sticking out from the rubble and his heart froze.

“NO!”

He scrambled over to Lenny, frantically digging at the bricks that half obscured him.

“No, Lenny! Oh God!”

He managed to free Lenny’s upper body and cradled his head in his arms.

“Len? Lenny? Can you hear me? Len, wake up!’ he kissed the dark head desperately, not caring that his tears mixed with the blood matted in Lenny’s hair.

“Please Lenny, you’re not supposed to...we’re meant to go together”

The earth shuddered again and he screamed. He was never meant to lose Lenny. They were supposed to live happily ever after in a house by the sea somewhere. Lenny was everything he loved in the world and suddenly he was glad that the world was ending. The house trembled again and he instinctively moved to shield Lenny from falling debris. He gently touched Lenny’s face in a gesture he’d done thousand times before.

“I love you”

He lay on the broken pieces of their home and wrapped himself around Lenny, waiting for the world to end.

...

“This isn’t right” Israel whispered and Greg held him tighter. There was nothing to say. He knew. It wasn’t right that they were here and everyone they loved died as the world burnt.

They were in the observation room. The cameras had burnt out long time ago. Most people had left for their rooms to grieve in private. The few people who remained seemed stunned. Greg saw two boys, faces white, holding on to each other as tightly as him and Israel. His attention returned back to Israel who shifted and moved back slightly. His heart clenched at the sight of tears on Israel’s face. He gently wiped them away.

“I’m sorry Israel”

Is shook his head.

“No. No. None of this is your doing”

The Shelter shuddered as the ground beneath them shifted. The Shelter was built on hope. Hope that the impact of the asteroid would be less devastating that everyone predicted. That the walls would hold against the earth shifting around it. Greg wasn’t sure. He didn’t know if the building would hold. He didn’t know if he wanted it to. What would be the point when there would be nothing and no one for them to go back to?

...

It was the sound of shattering glass that brought Greg running to Israel’s side and it was the figure curled up in the corner of the room that froze him on the spot.

Johnathan was curled up in the corner of the room, arms curled up against his chest. His wrists were slit, the blood pooled around him in a red halo.

He looked peaceful, like he was sleeping. Greg could almost see the smile playing at the corner of the pale lips.

He heard Israel sob and pulled him closer to wrap his arms around him.

“Oh God!” Israel breathed, voice choked with tears.

“They’re together now, Israel. He’s not alone anymore”

He tightened his arms around Israel as he shook in his arms.

...

He heard the cracking of the walls as Shelter neared its last moments. It hadn’t been strong enough to stand against the end of the world. He heard people running, shouting, screaming and crying and knew soon enough there would be nothing. And he also knew that he was exactly where he wanted to be. Israel’s clear brown eyes were looking in to his’ and he was so glad, so grateful that this would be the last thing he saw. He leaned forward and kissed him, long and soft as cracks appeared on their walls. When they pulled back, Israel was smiling.

“Greg Inglis...” Israel grinned.

“I’m glad to have found you” he said as the ceiling cracked above them.

Greg smiled.

“Goodbye, love. I’ll meet you on the other side”

...

Johnathan took a deep breath and touched the blade to his wrist. This was not how he would have expected his life to end. He had promised Billy that he would never... it didn’t matter now. Billy wasn’t here. Billy was nowhere and Johnathan couldn’t exist without Billy. He wished he had fought harder, wished he hadn’t let them bring him here, wished he had been with Billy when the world ended. But Billy had faced the end alone and Johnathan could never forgive himself for that.

He had never tried to imagine his life without Billy. He knew why now. Because there was nothing. There was no future for him without Billy. And he just wanted to stop. Hurting. Longing. Breathing.

He watched the blood as it pooled on the ground. He curled up on the cold tile floor and closed his eyes. He’d be able to rest soon.

“Forever. Billy, we...”
...

It was night and the breeze was warm. He watched a figure of ivory and ebony come closer, eyes bright and a sweet smile on his lips. He felt his heart beat faster. He smiled. He was home.

The end.