Rumbling was heard and felt everywhere across the globe. Everyone's heart pounded with fear—a mass fear that nobody had ever felt before, a primal dread that clawed at the soul. The world felt wrong, like it had been shifted, changed, and twisted into something unrecognizable, as if reality itself had fractured. The clouds had gone dark, swirling with ominous shadows, and the sun had vanished behind an impenetrable veil.
A young boy named Kai looked up at the chaotic sky. He felt the fear gripping him, a cold knot in his chest, but strangely, he also felt at peace, a numb acceptance washing over him. He did not mind if this was the end of the world. He had nothing to lose or gain—his life was a hollow routine of survival, day after empty day. He was okay with the idea of dying, almost welcoming the release from his weary existence. As the world continued to shake violently, buildings groaning and the ground trembling beneath his feet, he thought to himself, Maybe I would care if I had someone to care about—someone to make this all matter.
He then started walking forward while the world was shaking, each step unsteady on the quaking earth. He had to carry a sack of potatoes to the house of a rich man, the rough burlap digging into his thin shoulders. He was hoping he would get around 10 dollars—a meager sum, but enough to scrape by. It should last him a week if the world could survive a week, though doubt gnawed at him like the hunger in his belly.
As he walked forward with the sack on his back, the weight pulling him down, he heard the piercing screams of a woman cutting through the chaos. She was screaming for help, her voice raw with desperation. Her baby was trapped in a car, and the rumbling of the world had made a heavy pole crash down, damaging the door. It had automatically locked all doors, sealing the infant inside like a tomb. She was unable to open the door, her hands fumbling uselessly against the unyielding metal.
Kai thought to himself, Someone will help them. I need to take this to the mansion as fast as I can for a better reward. The thought was a shield, protecting his fragile self-preservation in a world that had never shown him kindness.
Then he heard someone screaming, "Please help me, sir! I am begging you! Help my baby! She is stuck in the car!" The words were laced with terror, echoing in his ears like a accusation.
He wanted to block out the sound, to drown it in the roar of the earthquake. He needed to think about himself first—his empty stomach, his uncertain future. As he thought this, he heard the pleas increase, growing more frantic, tearing at the walls he'd built around his heart, and he just dropped the sack as he ran toward the woman and car, his feet pounding against the unstable ground.
After getting there, breathless and sweating, he tried opening the door, but it was jammed tight, the metal warped and unmovable. As he saw this, he asked her why it wouldn't open, his voice steady despite the panic rising inside him. She cried out, saying, "I don't know! I just went out to smoke, and the shaking started, and this pole is on the car! Please help me!" Her face was streaked with tears, her eyes wide with helpless anguish.
He then looked around quickly and told her to move back as he clenched his fist, muscles tensing with determination, and used all his strength to punch the window. As he did that, a sharp jolt of agony shot through his knuckles, and he screamed in pain and said, "O MY GOD!!! In annoyance, Why didn't it break?" The glass held firm, mocking his effort.
He realized this wasn't like that one old movie he saw as a child, where heroes shattered windows with ease. This was way harder to do—real life, brutal and unforgiving. So he quickly grabbed something hard on the floor, a jagged piece of debris from the chaos. He had no idea what it was, but he knew it would work as it was very hard, its weight solid in his grip. He used that and broke the front glass, shards flying like deadly rain, the sound a sharp crack amid the rumbling.
Then he tried to open the door from the inside, reaching through the jagged opening, but it still wouldn't budge, the mechanism twisted beyond repair. He then said, "WTF are these cars made of?" Frustration boiled in his voice, mixed with the growing ache in his hand.
Kai then looked at the woman, still sobbing with a look of fragile hope in her eyes, her hands clasped in silent prayer. He sighed deeply, the weight of the moment pressing on him, and moved himself through the broken glass and tried to get in. With the car shaking from the rumbling as he put himself in, the broken glass was stabbing and cutting him all around, sharp edges slicing into his skin, drawing warm blood that trickled down his arms and sides. He still pushed himself in as he groaned, the pain a burning fire that made his vision blur.
As he got in, the confined space reeking of smoke and fear, he quickly rushed to the back and grabbed the baby, her tiny cries piercing his heart. He gave her to her mother through the broken window. The woman cried out thank-yous, her voice breaking with overwhelming relief, clutching the infant like a lifeline.
As Kai was about to rush out of the car, his body aching from the cuts, the ground started to crack with a ominous groan. As he saw this, the fissure spiderwebbing outward, he screamed, "Move back!" at the woman, urgency sharpening his words.
As she moved back, stumbling in her haste, the ground crack increased in size and opened a hole, a yawning abyss swallowing everything in its path. Since the car was at the edge of the crack, it fell in with Kai still inside, tumbling into the darkness. The hole kept getting wider, the earth devouring more with each tremor.
As the car crashed inside it, metal crumpling with a deafening screech, Kai screamed in pain, his body jolted violently. As he tried to move his body amid the wreckage, disoriented and trapped, he realized his hand was not working as it should—the bones shattered, numb yet throbbing. He realized his hand was broken, and the pain rushed at him like a tidal wave as he screamed, the agony consuming him.
A few moments later, Kai said, "I should have minded my business," his voice a weak whisper laced with regret and bitterness.
As he said that, he lost consciousness, the world fading to black around him.