Kairos

Today was the day it slowed to 500 miles per hour. I think. Was that yesterday? Perhaps today it was planed to reach 400. I suppose it doesn’t matter either way; It’s hard to remember many things at this point. It was only a matter of time before science went too far and became humanity’s downfall. But who would have guessed it would be the downfall of the existence of life anywhere?

One year ago it was announced over the news that a new method of harnessing dark energy had been discovered. I never understood all the details on what this meant, or how they were able to do it, but I do remember it being explained that dark energy was basically the building blocks of gravity. To be even more exact, it is basically was holds the universe together on a quantum level. Being able to control or manipulate this energy would mean that unlimited possibilities would be at humanities disposal, and it was very exciting. But also very scary. Scary because America was currently on the brink of World War III and this new discovery was planned to be used for military purposes.

A few months passed and The Soviet Union and The British Empire had begun their strikes on each other. There was constant threat of nuclear weapons being used, and America was on the verge of becoming involved. NATO was very much against the experiments planned for controlling dark energy. Many researchers believed that tampering with such energy meant messing with the fabrics of space and time itself and, no matter what precautions were planned, could result in catastrophic and unimaginable effects on the Earth or even affect the very laws of physics themselves. A facility had already been prepared in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico for testing purposes. The matter wasn’t debated long until there was evidence to suggest nuclear weapon strikes from The Soviet Union and China on The British Empire and possibly the United States. Testing was planned to start immediately.
The incident occurred two months ago. America managed to stay out of the war for the time being, but The Soviets were still at war with China and most of Europe laid in ruin. No one knows how it happened, since nobody there lived to tell the tale, but at 12 o clock noon on Tuesday June 10th, and earthquake was felt across the world. A 7.8 level Earthquake was recorded in every continent, country, state and city that lasted 5 minutes long. Breaking news reported that the facility in New Mexico had been destroyed… but “destroyed” isn’t even the right word for it. A pitch black sphere now existed where the facility once was, and took up the entire desert. It was almost as if reality had disappeared from the place. Shortly after, New Mexico soon had to be closed off from the rest of the country. Not even an hour after the incident occurred, people in cities surrounding the desert began to go mad. People claiming to hear voices, hideous deformities and diseases fell upon hundreds, and people began killing other people in the streets. Anyone who would reach a 50 mile proximity to the sphere would begin to suffer from one of the many ailments that befell the poor citizens. Word of what science had brought upon humanity spread quickly, and the war came to end with the arrival of worse news.

A few weeks after the incident it was discovered by NASA astronomers that the rotation of the Earth had begun to slow down little by little. An estimated 11.2 seconds per day, but each day it seemed to become a little bit more. It wasn’t long before the rotation of the Earth went from 1,000 miles per hour to 800. And it wasn’t just our planet. The moon and other planets in our solar system seemed to be showing similar symptoms in their gravitational behaviors. It wasn’t just the Earth’s rotation slowing down. Time itself was slowing down. It was clear without any studies being done that whatever happened in the desert that day was the cause. In another months time, the rotation of the planet had slowed to 400 miles per hour. The air itself began to become heavy, almost damp, and the fate of existence was slowly becoming accepted.

I continued to live my remaining days at home with my wife and son. I don’t know what was happening in the rest of the world,or with my friends or other family, but attempting to talk was like trying to read something far away while yawning. We had accepted our fate. Today was the day we knew it would all end. I approached my son and wife on the couch in our living room. The air felt like there were heavy curtains in front of me as I tried to reach my destination. I sat in between the two of them, and gave them each a slow turn and smile. “I love you’s” were stretched out of our heavy mouths one last time before the shift was felt beneath our feet, as I felt the universe itself stop all around us. And there we stayed, frozen and damned for all eternity, smiling at one another.