P..A. Nightmares
They dropped more than the ball
It was New Year’s Eve and I had just recently turned twenty-one. My friends and I decided to go out for a few drinks and to have a good time. Last year and all the hell we went through it was nice to have life feeling normal once more. We met at the bar around 8 p.m and started our celebration off with a few shots and dancing. Jess, James, and I had a blast and before I knew it it was eleven-thirty. The Ball would be dropping soon and I wanted to get back to my place to watch it fall. I doubted it would happen, however. We left the bar and got onto the subway. The subway train was old as shit this thing looked like it had not been updated since the creation of the subway in 1897. But if it ran and got us from point A to point B I was fine with that.
James got on the train and practically passed out. He had way more to drink than Jess and I. So while James slept we kept an eye on him and talked. We have always had a bit of chemistry and I thought why not now. So I made my move.
“Hey Jess, you know I have always thought that we had something. I know we've been friends for years and I count you among my best friends. But I wanted to know if you would go out with me.” I finished stammering this all out in what I am sure was one long-winded sentence. To my surprise, she giggled at me.
“I would like that, Leon. Took you long enough to ask me. Seriously if you have not asked me by the end of the night I was going to ask you.” She finished and we were talking when suddenly my phone interrupted us with that damn emergency warning.
Beep “this is an emergency service alert. This has been issued countrywide. Stay indoors, get to your basement. There has been an attack on America and foreign nuclear missiles have been launched at key cities in America. The armed forces have been deployed and are trying to disable them as we speak. Until further notice, America is under martial law. May you all be safe and may God bless America.`` Beep The recording stopped and I looked over at Jess.
“This has got to be a hoax like the Y2k you know, the one where all the technology was meant to stop working right?” I looked at Jess as the emergency alert played through not only my phone but every phone on the subway. As well as playing on the loudspeaker of the train. It played on repeat and everyone was starting to freak out a bit. The subway operator started to ask everyone to stay calm and stay in their seats. But his words were cut short.
A sound louder than thunder shot forth through the inside of the subway. Followed up by the sound of screeching metal. I could feel the train start to tilt as the lights flickered. For a brief moment, I swore I was weightless as I was thrown forward onto the other side of the train car. The moment my back hit it I felt brief pain and then nothing.
Laying on the ground I could feel the cold earth underneath me. I was no longer on the train but outside of it. I could see Jess leaning over another person’s body. Doing what or who it was I could not tell at first as my vision was blurry. But slowly the ringing in my ears reduces, and my vision goes from blurry to having double to finally come into focus. I then saw who she was leaning over. It was James. As I sat up I started to cough. This was when Jess finally noticed I was awake. She rushed over to me.
“Oh my god, Leon are you ok?” She embarrassed me in a hug. The second she did pain shot through my body.
“OUCH OUCH OUCH Jess that hurts. I think my ribs may be broken. Can you not squeeze so hard? Also, I’m happy to see you again. Hows James' ' She lets me go and I comically collapse to the ground But the cool wet dirt feels good as I lay there trying to psych myself up to stand up. I realized I heard sobs coming from Jess
“Jess, tell me what’s wrong? Is James ok?”
“NO Leon he’s dead,” She said in between sobs. “He was impaled by a metal rod when the train crashed.”
Her words caused me to spiral. One of my best friends, someone I had known since I was eight, died. A memory suffused. Something that we had just talked about a week ago.
“Hey, Leon, when are you gonna ask Jess out?” He punched me in the shoulder. Then I replied with
“I don’t know man, I think when we go out for New Year. But we will see.”
“Well, when you two get married I better be your best man dude.” We laughed.
“Who else would it be, brother. Love you man” Leon felt the hot tears flow from his eyes. But it was Jesse’s voice that brought him back to their current situation.
“Earth to Leon. Come back to planet earth, Leon.” I could hear her say as I slowly came too once more. “Where were you just now Leon?”
“I was just thinking about James and a conversation we had last week. It’s nothing we gotta get going. We need to find a way out of this shit show we are in.”
Jess came over and helped me to my feet. I threw my arm over her shoulders and we made our way through the unfamiliar underground corridors. We used our cell phones to help us see. After we walked a few feet the light from the hole we had fallen through faded and we were engulfed in darkness. .
As we walked I could hear the sound of water dripping down into the underground corridor we were in. Honestly, I keep calling it that but fuck I don’t know what to call this? A cave may work, Yeah let’s go with a cave from now on. Jess and I walked on. I noticed something that did not make sense. The wall shines like it houses some sort of metal. I thought this was odd but it was nothing to be concerned with. As well walked Jess abruptly stopped she bent down to investigate something.
“What is it, Jess?” I asked as she picked something up. It was a pickax. We looked on and saw the cave was littered with helmets, pickaxes, and old cases of dynamite.
“Looks like this used to be an old mining site. I wonder what made them stop digging the tunnel and build the subway instead?” I asked but I honestly did not expect to find the answer. However, as we walked we came to a fork in the path. Jess and I argued on which way to go eventually I won out.
“Let’s go left, it looks like it’s downhill. We would probably find an opening or something to squeeze through,” Jess said.
“No, let’s go this way. I think I can feel the wind plus the water sound coming from this way. I know there will be a way out. A hatch or something.” It went something like that to finally Jess just said
“fine let’s go that way we need to keep moving we need to find a way out of here. The cops have to be notified of the crash.”
“Speaking of what do you think caused it? You think that a bomb really did hit the city, Jess?”
“No, if it did, how would we still be alive? There had to be something on the tracks that derailed the train. That’s the most logical answer.” Jess answered but I could tell she did not fully believe her own answer.
We kept walking until we found what looked to be an underwater reservoir. I ran to it and started to drink mouth fulls of water when Jess screamed for me to stop. I swallowed the water I had in my mouth and looked up at her.
“What’s the problem? We needed something to drink and we have a fresh source of water right here.” She just pointed her phone towards a sign that simply read.
“Don’t drink or swim in the water-heavy led-in water.”
“Well fuck that’s not good. I hope I did not drink too much of the water. Either way, we need to get out of here and to keep our strength up. I don’t think a little will hurt us. But let’s keep moving.”
We kept walking and soon enough we came up to an emergency hatch with a ladder leading up to the surface. We both claimed it. The hatch door was shut tight and it took all of our strength to pry it open enough for Jes to climb through. Ater she got out it took her an eternity to get the door opened. But when she finally did it all made sense.
What I came up with was the city in ruins. Buildings on fire the city looked like a war zone no that's not even a good enough discretion. But we both knew what caused this. The remainder of the mushroom cloud still lingered. As ash rained from the sky. The last thing Jess and I say was the horrific actions of mankind. And how horrible we really were. We held each other and started to cry as our skin slowly started to burn