While We Were Sleeping...

She walked downstairs, into the kitchen, and found a handwritten note on the table.

It read:

Dearest,

I'm so sorry for leaving you so early this morning, without saying goodbye, but if this really is the end of the world, I hope that you sleep through it. I unplugged the phones and closed the windows, but if you're reading this, you're awake. I guess you should know what happened while we were sleeping. Please don't turn on the television. It will just upset you.

It started at midnight somewhere in Australia and spread North, growing bigger as it moved. It reached Japan in a few hours, then went West, zigzagging across Asia, covering everywhere. They say it'll be the size of Europe when it gets here. It shouldn't take long by then.

The locusts come first. Millions of them. You hear them coming for miles, an enormous cloud blocking out the sun. Earthquakes shake the world to the ground. If I know you, dearest, you'll want to be outside for this so you don't get trapped alive in the rubble. The wind picks up and brings the spirits. They look like long blurred faces, coming down like hail, flying through everyone. But nobody screams. Nobody feels anything.

I'm so sorry, I couldn't wait. There is a place next to me in the garage, if you're too scared to be alone. But I don't think you would ever do what I had to.

I'll miss you. Know that.

Love always,

M.

She put the letter down, walked to the doorway. There was a hum in the air that she now noticed; she could feel it coming through the walls.