THE BIG BANG

Behind a teaching facility situated in the suburbs of Kyoto, a female teacher, dressed in a pink gown and black shoes, , found herself looking for someone near the school garden.

"Mito, there you are. I have been looking everywhere for you"

She said as she strolled towards a ten year old girl, trying to catch some butterflies. The little girl hadn't seen her coming and was still playing with the flowers. 

She stood and placed her hand on the little girl's shoulder. "Mito, it's time for us to go see your parents", She said but the little girl only grinned wistfully at her.

"What is are you holding in your hand? Is that what you have been busy playing with all the time I was looking for you?",

The teacher asked pointing at the lily flower the little girl had picked from the tree nearby. Mito was perplexed but she stretched her hands towards her teacher to show her what she had been playing with whilst in the garden. The teacher received 

"A handful of dry lily flower?"

The teacher said in astonishment at her discovery and Mito nodded. The teacher sighed recalling that it was already time to accompany the child back to her parents.

"Silly me, Mito let's—"

A loud bang cut her words halfway

*BANG*

She looked up hoping to see a smoke rising from afar but she saw nothing. She noticed that the noise scared off the birds that were hoping around in the trees nearby and wondered what had caused that noise. 

"Let's get going, Mito"

She said pulling Mito along with her to the direction of the school field. Now in the open, she looked around to see if anyone had heard the noise but there was nothing except a dead silence that enveloped the school surroundings since the other kids had already left school for their homes. Minutes later, she saw a thick foggy mushroom smoke rising 

upwards towards the firmament slightly above the cityscape.

The glistened sun fondled the rising smoke under the cloudy sky to the point that the horizon seemed less like to have a painful effect on the humans below, watching it rise from the earth. The little girl saw the colossal mushroom smoke as well and so did everyone living in the whole city of Japan. The apparition stunned them greatly when they saw it ascend to join the clouds in the sky. For several minutes, they watched spellbound at the astonishing but mind-blowing apparition but moments later, the teacher was the first to see large ripples of the blast eroding everything that lies in its path as a result of a destructive shock wave which followed minutes after the giant smoke mushroom became visible in the bright horizon. 

The Teacher was sure she could have made a single effort to save herself and Mito from the incoming blast which seemed to glow at a farther distance in a sort of way that she barely could tell if her earlier foreknowledge about a nuclear bomb blast was accurate or not since the encroaching fire appeared as though dazzling brightly as it keptpassing through every skyscrapers that stood in its path but she knew it was by far too late for her to do anything for little Mito. Deep down inside, she knew that the broad dazzling red light creeping over the face of the earth at every corner was only a disastrous fire burning everything in its path to particles of dusty ashes whilst rapidly encroaching towards where she stood with the little girl standing beside her. 

Instead of seeking a safe refuge from the incoming disaster, the teacher crouched down on her knees before Mito and embraced the little girl without considering the fact that they still had a lot of time to find a ride that would take them to seashore where it would be safe from the devastating fire that had been spreading on a rampage around the border region of Japan to the entire populace inhabiting the island surrounded by the ocean. Mito was less convinced of the teacher's intentions of making her feel better with a hug and felt perplexed if the teacher's decision to hug her at that moment was as a result of what they had seen though Mito knew she could comprehend a little of what she clearly saw. The Teacher gripped her firmly as she squeezed Mito against herself and started sobbing heavily on Mito's shoulders to the point that Mito started consoling the elder woman who knew the dangers of the situation they found themselves in by patting her softly on the back with her right palm. Despite the fact that the elder woman kept sobbing heavily while shivering as she cried her eyes out, Mito remained coolheaded and went on patting her back with her right hand, believing it would make her teacher feel better. 

Meanwhile, a couple of miles southwards to the central part of the small city of Kyoto, at a shorter distance away from where Mito and her teacher were alone in the school field, a streaming live broadcast which had been seen displayed on the four skyscrapers buildings on a colossal television by the people walking by the tall skyscrapers where the live broadcast was being made, Gento-san listened curiously to the broadcast at a corner near a subway underground tunnel where he stood at the opening in the midst of a rampaging crowd hurrying helter-skelter to anywhere they thought would be safe from what was about to befall the entire populace. The inevitable pandemonium of people running around in different directions had first started five minutes after everyone heard the first broadcast following the occurrence of the Big Bang which promptly informed them of what was happening globally in the entire world and Gento-san had coincidentally been present at the main city square like other passersby when he had sought to meet up with one of his street friends for some business venture of his construe. 

Like those who were ignorant of the message, he had thought everything was another hoax and that the media press was spreading another false propaganda like they usually do but it wasn't until they heard a second bang accompanied by video clips of what was currently happening in the real world that Gento-san and those who already believed that it was lie, became convinced that their life and whatever fortune they had made in life was in jeopardy but more importantly, their life. Gento-san didn't react as he thought he would do like the other people beside him did after a heavy glitch that almost sever the transmission of the live broadcast but he was consciously sure that he was witnessing the end of his world falling right before his very eyes. 

Instead of running down the underground tunnel to catch the next train, he stood there moping around without moving a single muscle. Even his hefty black Headset which he wrapped around his neck didn't seem to weigh down heavily on him as he kept staring at the female reporter broadcasted live in the television and it wasn't until there was a final blackout of every other electronics that lacked source of light that Gento-san returned back to his senses. He quickly joined the crowd scrambling down their way to the bottom of the underground tunnel but there was no train like everyone thought when he eventually got there. What he saw was something different compared to what he had hoped like the crowd. It was only the empty bare train tracks that ran to cross destinations on both sides that welcomed the great deal of the crowd who kept pushing to find their way through to save themselves from being charred to death by the incoming disaster and it was only a matter of time before they begin to witness the occurring epidemic. As for Gento, he quickly realized that he was like the rest of those who were in the crowd who had little chances of making it out of the mass of people pushing against each other and sought to find a place of refuge. After choosing eastward through the midst of bodies obstructing his path, He struggled hard to free himself out of the midst of the crowd and eventually stumbled across a brass door having a door locking wheel. Instantly, he grabbed hold of it and wriggle it open before anyone could realize that he was had gone into the sealed door which led him into a narrow long underground pathway where several pipes were connected at both sides of the wall. He was sure that only the hard layers of the brick wall separated himself from the crowd whom he had left behind. Hoping that he would find somewhere important to hide, he decided trekking the north route of the narrow compartment despite having to be concealed in the darkness where there was clearly absence of light but he was clever enough to figure out his way by touching the wall as he went forward till he was sure he could decipher the path all by himself. Half a minute later, the earth rumbling fervently around him accompanied with metals pipes near him clanging and expanding concurrently. Consequently, he felt the underground compartment loses its foundations and everything was tumbled upside down including himself. He could hear faint voices of people screaming in the face of their deaths emanating from the crowd he had left behind but his senses became dull when the whole earth around him descended upon him in such a manner that he could hardly prepare for what was to come during the aftermath.