Chapter Eleven: The Old Man and the End

The week passed extremely slow and I did not like to feel so weak. I wanted to get up and start to exercise and be active. However, my body was still in the process of metamorphosis and I had to stay in bed while having some strange cycles. At some moments I was lucid and hated to be there, then I got sleepy and then I found myself talking and mumbling things. Sometimes I got delirious and imagined myself in the End once again.

- "I don't have more soda, damn it!"- I found myself checking my mini fridge where only sodas, snacks and power beverages existed- "I need to go out and buy more… fuck my life!"

After losing Anggie, I entered into a life of mediocrity and disorder that only made me more and more depressed and bored with anything. However, after mom passed away, everything went even worse since now a deep sense of helplessness and guilt took over me. I did not care about anything and I simply survived every day in a meaningless routine. I did not care about anyone including myself. My meals were simply cheap precooked stuff and I did not care about the flavor since it had been a while since the food was just tasteless and even the things and hobbies I used to love seemed so useless and boring now. I had lost the only people I cared about. Why should I make any effort or fight for a future? Why should I? For whom? To what aim? I just worked from time to time to get enough money to buy sufficient snacks and order deliveries from time to time. I spent my days in front of the computer playing or watching something just for the point of burning time until I could sleep once again until my stomach asked me for food. I had a very pointless routine with no objective nor dream. I just wanted to numb my pain and felt absolutely nothing.

- "Is this really living?"- I asked myself drinking another beverage before returning my laptop to keep playing- "Everything should just end!"

And then it really ended. For many, the End was the result of a series of absurd and utterly stupid events which will surely pass to History as the most ridiculous and comical collapse that any civilization had ever experienced.

- "After some centuries, if humankind still exists, and it is taught in schools, I am sure the students will laugh their asses off about us saying how dumb we could have been."

It would have been interesting had it been a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion. Gosh, even a nuclear fallout would have made a better story to tell your grandchildren. However, the event which brought the great calamity which ended millions of lives and the collapse of most public institutions and marked the end of the society as we know it was the end of all Religions.

- "Are you kidding me?"- you must be saying right now and I don't blame you.

As ridiculous as it sounds, and believe me it was still a question many survivors still asked many years in the future, the End started when all nations decided that religion was a dangerous thing that should be eliminated to reach true peace.

- "This marks the long-searched of true Peace and Prosperity!"

Humankind celebrated its great success in technological, medical and space exploring development. All nations decided to stop fighting for a month and a great celebration was organized all around the globe. It was a celebration like nothing had been seen in History, it was so big that even me, which was a shut-in noticed and even participated online. I still remember how I toasted with my Friends in the name of peace and prosperity. Of course, it was more for a reason to drink and having a good time.

At the highest point of the celebrations, the UN made an announcement which shook the world. Just a few days after many representatives of multiple religions had publicly prayed for peace and the prosperity of humankind, UN representatives presented a special program in all streaming services.

- "Why religion will never allow peace"- was the tile of the special research that many scientists had done.

These renown researchers showed different studies and proof which showed without a single doubt that religion had been the cause for all the division, violence and segregation that had existed throughout History and in every country.

- "They pretend they care for the poor but what this shows are a different story. If they really cared wouldn't they use all these funds in order to help the poor?"

They showed all bank accounts and pictures of all the money, assets, jewelry and riches many religions had stored in their vaults. They also include proof of bow they had cheated people to make them give them money which were later used by many priests, shepherds and leaders for their own benefit.

- "Should we forget their role in violence, wars, terrorism and crime they had promoted and even participated themselves?"

They showed pictures of priests giving their blessings to the soldiers and weapons to kill their fellowmen which many times were part of the same religion. They also showed videos of terrorists attacks and suicide bombers and many other things.

- "Should we stay silent in face of the abuse to children and women who suffered through these criminals under the covert of religion and God's will?"

They showed many pictures and testimonies of children who had been abused by religious people and how women were treated in middle east and other African countries to the point of being savage. By the end of the exposition, there was no doubt that religions were definitely an evil thing which went against their own tenets and the representative asked how it was possible they allowed such damaging thing to c0ontinue existing.

- "Wouldn't it be much more productive to use those assets for projects which will truly bring palpable and practical benefits to humankind instead of empty words and dangerous fanaticism provoked by hypocrites who only used the name of a so called superior being to abuse and manipulate innocent and sometimes desperate people?"

Truth was that most people was not very religious and even though many affirmed to belong to a religious movement, most of the time it was just by name and they did not really honor their supposed mandates and rules. You could see many Jewish people working on Saturdays, Catholics committing horrible acts, evangelic scamming their own people by charging "tithes." Such show of love to your neighbor. Muslims continued being Muslims and many of them were extremist who did not doubt for a second to kill themselves in order to purge as many "infidels" as they could which included innocent children and babies. There were countless examples of this hypocrisy and people knew very well all of this was true. And so, at the end of the exposition, a unanimous resolution was taken by the UN and all its members.

- "All form of religion and system of belief must disappear for the good of humankind"- said the representative of the UN who made it clear that God was not necessary anymore since now we lived in a world of science and technology where myths and non-proved theories such an invisible creator had no more place- "By this medium, all armed forces must put under arrest to all leader or religious head to be legally investigated about crimes done under the name of their religion in fair trials with the capacity of defense. Meanwhile, all the assets and buildings of any religious organization of sect will be confiscated and put under the supervision of the government in charge of said territory until the investigation finalizes. The governments will decide how to use said assets in order to help society. Only some temples will be used as archeological sites while the rest will be demolished to be reused as hospitals, public offices, schools and others. The actions will be executed immediately and any opposition will be seen as obstruction of the law and as such punished in a quick and firm way."

The claps and ovation were deafening and lasted for a long time. I am sure the politicians were already thinking in how to take advantage of the situation to fatten their pockets and assure the votes from the sheep in the future elections. Nobody knew that would be the last meeting the UN held that ended in applauses.

Most people did note even cared. I was one of them of course, any got happy about the raids they could see all over the net to many religious organizations. The most amazing one and the shocking too was the raid of the Vatican. The UN forces surrounded the so-called "saint city" and it was raided in a single day. For some reason, the defenders which were the Pontifical Swiss Guard, Palatine Guard, Noble Guard, and Papal Gendarmerie Corps, decided to defend the Vatican to the last man. Their defense was ferocious but in the end they were overpowered and the Pope and all of his high leveled bishops were arrested. Many secret videos had shown they had been dragged and many had been shot in site. Some rumors had said that the Pope had been killed illegally, but nothing could be confirmed. The people were more interested in the treasures the Vatican had hidden, and the authorities only shown a small part which was already a substantial sum which would be able to feed all Africa for the next 10 years. Of course, only the authorities, who surely took a great part of the loot for themselves, knew the real total.

- "We will not allow the evil demons to put a foot on our holy land!"

The Mecca was the next target. Millions of Muslim people surrounded the city and vouched that they would defend the site with their lives and had the infidels touched it, they would launch a sint war which would shock the foundations of the Earth. The UN mentioned that the rebels had somehow put their hands in last tech and even nuclear bombs and were preparing an attack so a swift action was needed. The action was an attack so massive they could not react. The UN sent their air force which immediately bombed completely. If you see any postcard showing how many people normally would gather around the Mecca, you could imagine how many people died that day. Especially because according to the UN a secret nuclear bomb had detonated due to the bombardment and had exploded. The massive destruction of the zone was never possible to calculate. Mecca and all cities around it were completely devastated and the radiation poisoning kept many people suffering for years. However, many said that UN had launched the nuclear bombs themselves and that it hadn't been only one. Many voiced their accusations saying UN wanted to annihilate the Muslim world. The UN denied all accusations saying they had preemptively given the warning to abandon the place before the attack started but they were ignored. Of course, nobody could know since all people in the zone had died in the nuclear explosion. In the end, the attack vanished millions of possible radical terrorists and most people saw it as a win. We all knew UN was simply not going to take risks.

After that, everything went very smoothly. After the two most powerful religions had been destroyed, every temple, synagogue, mosque was closed and put under surveillance and others were brought down immediately to avoid future problems. Every single leader and representative of any sect or religion were arrested along with their families and close friends. Any member of the religion who also shown opposition was arrested and put in special camps against the extremism. It was for a time trending in streaming services and social media to see the arrests where many were dragged through the floor and it was fun to see many of the so called die hard and loyal members to deny and even insult heir gods to save their skin. Other plainly accused their leaders and even shown where they were hidden as long as they were promised to be free. Hypocrisy in its finest I must say. Of course, there were also the loyal to the end type of people who did not fight or complain and just went with the police in silence and did not answer any questions no matter what. I must admit you had to respect these people, but they would eventually talk when they were going to be questioned with different methods which could not be shown in camera, of course. There were also many ambushes and many immolations which cost a lot of lives from the police and army. These only provoked the army forces to be more ruthless and decisive. In the end, most politician thought that once their religious symbols were destroyed, most fanatics would stop, hide or cowered in fear.

- "They were wrong of course. They did not only not stop, but they increase in number. Many blatantly got out to the streets shouting and condemning not only the government but also the normal people who in their eyes were accomplices in the sin they were committing. They shouted about judgement and punishment for all the sinners and that only in a short time God would bring his Vengeance.

Most of these people were arrested and silenced of course, but for some reason the governments were not able to enjoy their new loot since the economy started to decay very fast. Even before all these happened, the big super economic potencies were already in decay. At least China had fallen economically a few years prior due to the Housing crisis it suffered and the badly planned attempt of invasion to Taiwan which resulted in a worse defeat than Russia had suffered against Ukraine. Anyway, nobody could have imagined how tied religion and commerce were and only when it disappeared, the consequences could be felt in all its intensity.

Religions and leaders could be hypocrites, but truth was that many places depended on religion to gain money and many people ate due to the earning many festivities and tourism gave to it. You only needed to see the money that Candelaria festivity or Ramadhan, or simply the visits to the Shinto temples in Japan created in tourism to see how much money they started to lose when these events were prohibited by the governments.

Local and international tourism collapsed since many of these vents disappeared along with many of the temples that allowed them to receive guests due to some idiotic politicians who did not thing before acting. Many catholic countries lost millions in revenue doe to this and they seemed to just not find any alternative since the tourists seemed not to like the new places they were creating for that.

Many building operators and construction firms lost many contracts since they wouldn't be able to repair many of these buildings. Hotels and restaurants and many that depended on tourism simply closed since people stopped traveling due to the increasing violence and terrorist attacks that extended all over the worlds. It was normal to hear Muslim extremist exploding themselves, but nobody imagined many new "fundamentalist Christians" were now also doing the same and even some rebels who thought could use the new environment to get more political power and just tried to destroy anything they could to create a new system appeared all over the place. The destruction they provoked cost millions in repairs from building s as compensations. The most popular targets were public institutions, government offices, police stations and military buildings. It was as if these people had chosen the government and anything related to them to be their target and they were very effective about it.

- I'm not an economist so I don't know how much this moved cost but I'm sure it was a lot and most of what they got from religions in the end only was enough to salvage the cost in repairs.

Another thing that shocked psychologists were the social degeneration that came after the disappearance of religion. There was a strange switch in most people's mentality. It was true but most people were never Cristian or religious, but their behavior was normally guided by basic morals and principles based on those principles. However, once religion was destroyed people started to act in a very rebellious way. Some even started to do everything that was in opposition to any principle based on religion. Many governments started to also see the difference in their attitude toward authority in general.

- "If I don't have to respect a superior being like God, why should I respect another human like me, especially a corrupt one?"

New leaders with more radical thinking along with liberation groups rose in every single country. This was also the consequence of the grave economic crisis and the inflation which seemed to never stop. The discontent was generalized and people started to see the governments as unfair tyrants who did not care about the common person. Of course, there were always these types of people and movements, but this time it was in a magnitude never seen and not only in one place but all over the world. Many religious leaders had been seen as representatives of the people in many places so attacking them was seen as attacking the common people.

The governments had no better idea than harden their laws and methods and it was normal to decree martial law. In time, it was heard some governments openly shooting at civilians and this just radicalized them and many fanatics and social leaders started to encourage the peoples to raise in arms and topple the governments. The rebels were many and they went against police and army soldiers. Even in countries were the use of weapons was seen strangely, you could now see common civilians using high tech in order to fight the defense forces. Many weapons sellers saw this as a lucrative business so it was not surprising to see this. I can only imagine the grin on their disgusting faces seeing so many conflict zones around the world. It was like picking up gold for them.

Other countries seeing this tried to distract the population creating external enemies and wars just increased worldwide. The lack of supplies made it even worse and many countries started to be more aggressive in their external politics and it went to the point when if a country did not declared war, it would lack the sufficient resources in a few months. This was especially true with developed countries which had used their natural resources long time ago. These countries openly attacked those countries which still had natural resources, especially in Latin America where they left only blood and death. Some countries were literally dissected and distributed under the same UN who put the good of the many (meaning the big potencies) was before the interest of the few (developing countries with resources). Well, to their surprise, it did not go as they expected since these developing countries put a fiery resistance and even some countries preferred to burn down their resources before allowing themselves to be robbed, which obviously made things even worse.

However, even then, people could still keep certain hope in the future. I know, How could they do that seeing everything go down the drain? Well, people still had their escape door in entertainment. People could still hide in the internet and no matter what happened outside, you could still watch a movie or just watch your favorite streamer and smile for a few hours, even if you had nothing to eat. However, all of this changed when the sky changed.

The day the sky became red, I was playing a horror game when I heard many of my neighbors scream or cry.

- "Shut up, damn you!"- I said frustrated since I really liked the quiet place my apartment was. Due to the rise of the Delivery services. I did not have to get out at all which made me extremely anti-social and I did not even know the names of my neighbors, not that I really cared about them anyway.

After a while, I thought there had been an emergency, like a fire or something so I opened the curtains of my bedroom with closed eyes waiting to be blinded by the street lights or something. The lights were there but for some reason it did not look like it was night. The scene was deep red, but for some reason it was illuminated. I checked the clock and it was night, However, the red tint illuminated the streets as if it were the moment after the sun went down.

- "Huh?"- I took my chest since I felt a terrible emotion filling it- "why? What is this?"

It had been some years since I had shed a tear or felt anything except emptiness. However, now I felt a deep and terrible dread in all my body. I felt as if someone was waiting for me to kill me or as if all my worst fears were about to occur at the same time. I noticed the feeling became even more noticeable every time I saw the sky directly so I closed the curtains and returned to my bed. I decided to sleep after a while since it seemed the game was not helping and then I tried to read something on the web, but the signal just vanished. I was very angry and for some reason I found the lack of internet even more terrible than the fact that there was a red sky giving dreadful attacks to my mind.

After many hours of swearing and cursing at my internet operator, I tried to sleep but then I simply couldn't because I was constantly assaulted by terrible nightmares every time I tried to sleep. These were not your typical nightmares, but realistic, super creepy ones that sent you wake up with a jolt and screaming. It also seemed I wasn't the only one, since I could constantly hear my neighbors doing the same.

"What the hell is happening?"

Saying that the first months of the End were bad was underestimating the situation completely. It was terrible, horrifying and hopeless. The internet and all the stored data in the cloud was lost and most of the organizations that depended on it simply collapsed and provoked a huge chaos. If only they had been online games which were gone, or streaming services, well it would have been good, but it was all including institutions like banks, hospitals and even government offices. In a moment all your savings and debts were gone which sent many to hell or heaven in seconds. The banks were mad and the stock market simply closed since no matter what the technician did, all radio and even the more modern optic fiber simply stopped working. All satellites and space stations lost contact and simply all communications ceased. The best scientists gathered and tried to solve the situation but they at most could conclude that the red sky was creating some kind of buffering signal. What was more, all tries to reach space failed due to the Dread Drowning which became more and more intense as one tried to get out of the planet. The astronauts were affected in such a way that they simply decided to end their own lives by the time the spacecraft had gotten to the stratosphere. Later attempts had the same results. The recordings showed the astronauts being assaulted by terrible visions that drove them mad. Even when they tried to go sedated, the nightmares somehow managed to wake them up. In simple words, the planet was now our prison and there was no way to get out. The International space station and the colonists of Mars were lost forever and their fates remained a mystery.

However, it was also not understood since all the rest of technology seemed to be working just fine. The second most terrible thing that happened was the impact in agriculture and husbandry. The Sun had disappeared behind the red sky and this provoked the crops to be lost due to lack of Sunlight. For some reason the temperature remained normal for humans, but tons of crops were lost in the first month since it hit exactly on the months just after sowing.

This brought the food scarcity which was already a problem, into an even worse situation. In time, countries had to start to ration the food and big food companies closed due to the impossibility of making snacks and sodas. People tried of course to use greenhouses and subterranean slaughterhouses and farms. However, in comparison with the space they could have on the surface, this was simply not effective. Furthermore, the soil seemed to be affected globally and it just did not produce as before, it was as if the soil had been weakened by the red sky and it just had a 10% fertility of what it was before. Many huge companies like Monnsantis which already owned the food industry from the shadows used this moment to gain even more political presence and they allied with some governments in exchange of political power. At the same time raising animals for food also suffered since they could not provide as much food as before so the animals just did not have enough to eat. Fast food restaurants and similar ones could simply not respond to the demand, especially when all the supplies also started to get more and more expensive.

However, soon, people started to react. Maybe it was because there was no internet anymore and they did not have anything better to do, maybe they were hungry or maybe they were just pissed. However, many countries started to suffer super inflation and the poverty rocketed. The point is that the civil unrest grew and soon many people had started to loot and kill each other for food. Many governments decided to respond In two ways, some decided to repress the civilians, after all, they may have thought that few mouths would balance things, however, in many cases, most I would say, they just lost the battle and hungry and enraged civilians torn apart the soldiers and officers without mercy accusing them of being "privileged," and I don't have to mentioned what happened to the leaders of those countries and their families and even close friends. In some countries, this was the start of cannibalism. The other solution was to start wars, at the beginning it was because of water, and it was not against other countries. Sometimes it was inside the same region and they kill each other for water or land. The countries also started to fight each other for resources awhile also reducing the population in order to balance the food supply. It was simply a disaster. The other thing is since there was a lack of ingredients, the quality of food dropped in general and in the end it was considered good to have at least something that did not taste so much to mud.

I suppose most of climate change advocates felt good about the situation since it proved them right. The new sky destroyed agriculture and made the days colder and more dread. Let's not talk about the surviving religious fanatics who saw this as a sign of the heavens in response for the sin of destroying their religions. For tem it was a divine punishment and there is nothing I can say to try and deny this fact.

The disappearance of the internet only brought more chaos. Nobody knew if it was due to a divine punishment or if it was the plan of any government, but the operators could not do anything to fix the problem. All the commercial system and defense from all countries collapsed and not even intranet worked at the beginning. People massively tried to take their money from the banks and any who knows aa minimum of banking knows this was the end of the banking system. They had to stop people from doing so and by doing that, people just got angry and many started to sacked banks which made the government use the army to stop them. Many people died. My government started to shoot and this was the divorce between government and common people.

After a few months it was everyone on their own. Food ad basic necessities were simply too short in quantity. The inflation just made everything impossible to buy including those who were lucky enough to get money from the banks. In months the bills of hundreds of dollar were not worth the paper they were made of.

Government got desperate and seeing their own citizens started to fght against them, they hired foreign mercenaries to protect themselves. Soon the wars were not only among nations, but among citie and peoples inside the same region not for riches or land but for water and food. As years passed, only the strongest and most cunning survived. This somehow included me, I managed to survive surpassing my limits due to my strong fear to death and pain. I was extremely lucky and now that I think about it…. I tremble and doubt myself wondering if I would be able to do it again. Society collapsed and maybe the fanatics were right and God had his revenge on us. The UN just exists as a far myth and no country has as much power as in the past. Cities and countries are isolated and uncommunicated and where I lived it was simply the law of the jungle. You can find many fortresses and walled cities and bunkers where small groups live in constant fear of being raided for their resources.

- "And to think all started with an attempt of bringing peace and security!"- I said to myself- "What a joke… it must be the funniest thing in history."