Chloe At Worlds' End
Chapter 2

When Chloe awoke the next morning, sheslid out of bed and went directly downstairs. The smell of her favoritebreakfast being prepared, French toast, gave her an immediacy to attend. Dadand Onri were already sitting at the table with their knives and forks jokinglyat the ready in both hands upon the table top as they waited for mom to happilyserve them. Chloe sat down and also grabbed and positioned her utensils.

“So, you both thoughtthat you would get my share as I slept through our favorite breakfast huh?” Herdad replied

“Well, a guy candream can’t he?” Chloe’s mom giggled as she turned around from the griddle tolook at them. When she saw Chloe’s bed head, she just looked at her and rolledher eyes. Chloe said

“What, I’m proud ofmy hair… it’s famous you know!” They all answered

“Yes… we know…”

All of the school children throughoutmodern history read of ancestor Chloe’s wild and messy red hair, and also ofher spunky bravery! Chloe always liked to imagine that she could also be asbrave… she certainly had that same spunk! When they were all sitting andenjoying their French toast, Dad asked

“Well, what shouldwe do today?” Onri offered

“You and mom nevercome with me to feed my pets at the dock, would you come today… please…?” Momanswered

“That sounds nice tobe out in the fresh air, I’m game.” Dad countered

“Yes, that soundsgood to me as well, but lets’ wait until it warms up a little more outsidebefore we go though.” Onri cheered “Yay!”

After finishing their breakfast, theyspent some more time together playing interactive games on their HolographViewer in the family room. When they were finally ready to go on their plannedouting, Chloe went to her room to dress in her favorite colorful outfit. Whenshe was ready she came downstairs to look for Onri and found him in the backyard playing one of his favorite sports… Leviloop. It involved flying throughhoops installed high up all around their property, while chasing a small orbthat led the way through them. The orb could be programmed to appear asanything one wanted. To annoy Chloe, Onri always had it set to perfectlyresemble an animated likeness of her head, complete with her wild hair andtalking face. She was sure he did this to goad her into playing, as shecouldn’t stand seeing her head flying around like that and would alwaysimmediately join in to try and catch it and switch it off…which she couldn’t doso remotely because he always hid the control from her someplace.

When she stepped off the porch, theannoying little orb buzzed right past her nose and blew a raspberry at her asit then shot over the house with Onri in pursuit. Chloe wasted no time inthumbing her suit and shooting after them. The first hoop was mounted at thetop of a tall tree on the front corner of their property. First the orb, thenOnri, and finally Chloe flew through it. One never knew which hoop was next asit tried to shake its pursuers by suddenly changing course at the last moment.If a player couldn’t change course fast enough and passed through a hoop whenthe orb hadn’t, then they were deducted points. It was now presently headed tothe opposite corner of their lot towards the hoop mounted on the roof of theirstorage shed out back when it abruptly changed course, causing Chloe to crashinto her brother when he slowed to change his direction with it. They bothflipped and spun out of control through the air as they laughed and hollered ateach other in blame.

Their mom and dad then came outside fortheir outing, and noticing that a game was in play, they sat to watch andcheer. The orb stopped and taunted their return to the game, saying “Loserscan’t catch me… losers can’t catch me!” and blew them another raspberry, whichinfuriated Chloe… she hated seeing that stupid likeness of her! Their parentswhooped and laughed. It then headed to the other corner of the front yard wherethey had a very high mounted hoop on a pole, as high as was legally permittedwith a required flashing red beacon atop it. It shot through the hoop with themin close pursuit as it then made an impossible direction change back towardsthe tree hoop. Chloe wanted to end this game and get on with their day, plusshe didn’t want to get all tired and sweaty before their outing… she thumbedher suit to access the Quantum Duplicator and immediately vanished andreappeared at the opposite side of the tree hoop with her hands cupped. Thelittle surprised head squinted its’ eyes before it impacted and smackeddirectly into her waiting hands. Onri screamed

“You cheat!”

“No I didn’t, that’sa legal move and you know it… I win!”

Chloe pushed the ‘end program’ button onthe orb and it flew off to seat itself onto its’ base control… wherever thatwas. Mom and dad then joined them above the house. Mom looked upwards.

“It’s a busy day outthere, just look at all of the traffic…” There were skydestrians everywhere andgoing in all directions… as their flight paths were unregulated, but not so forany type of a vehicle, as they were in prescribed ‘lanes’ which were always ata designated further height above them. Onri asked

“What day is ittoday, Sunday?” Dad thought for a moment

“Gosh, I can’tremember.”

Recalling what day of the week it was inSanctum was sometimes vexing for many of its’ citizens, as most chose to nothold any sort of employment. Most things that needed doing were taken care ofin automation. But if one wanted to work, then they could so in any professionthat they chose to. Compensation did not exist, nor did any form of money forthat matter. Ever since the discovery of free and boundless energy, which wasderived sub-atomically, there was no need for an economy that compensated forthe creation of it.

Onri said “Ok, let’s go… come see my petsea lion and her puppies!” They all held hands and slowly meandered into thesky. The fusion orb was at 1:30 pm, and the faux sky had a few slow movingclouds programed upon it. The temperature was a perfect 74 degrees Fahrenheit.Along the way towards the glittering ocean… which was real… they waved and saidhello to some of their friends which they chanced upon in passing. Chloe asusual tried to shoo away her pesky crow friend, which had begun following them.

“Shoo… go away youpest…” Her mom then said

“Maybe one day we’llfinally replace out what that bird wants from you…ha ha!” When they made it to thebay, they held their position above Onri’s favorite dock while he scoped forhis pets. He pointed

“There they are…I’ll go to Charlie’s and get some bait!”

Just then, something happened that hadnever happened before in Sanctum. The entire faux sky rapidly flickered off andon a few times. In the moments that it was off, their actual ‘sky’ of a rockycave ceiling was visible. No one had ever seen that before, and althougheveryone knew of it, it was very frightening and psychologically distressing tobe confronted with the fact that their only known world was in essence… a fake.There was a roar of screams throughout all of Sanctum which was both very loudand seriously horrifying.

Chloe and her family were likewise asshocked as they held their positions with jittering nerves. They watched as thepopulous… vehicular traffic as well as skydestrians, all slowed and stopped.The feeling of anxious panic was palpable. Then it happened again, and amidstall of the screams, the most unthinkable happened as everyone and everything inthe air fell out of the sky. Chloe screamed as she and her family fell whilestill tightly holding hands. The distance to the ground was far, but it came upto meet them shockingly fast. It seemingly slowed slightly, but only as anadrenaline rush inside her brain as Chloe watched the strange and eerie sightof an impossible amount of people and vehicles simultaneously falling alongwith them to an almost certain death.

The sounds of impacts from the multitudeswere chillingly sickening in the tiny, partial moment of time in which Chloewas afforded to hear them before she herself landed in the water of the bay…just missing the dock. She plainly saw that Onri, as he held onto her left handalso was landing with her into the relative safety of the bay, but to her rightas she held her dads hand, she couldn’t escape the horrid sight of seeing hermom and dad hitting the dock as they were wrenched from her hand. The force ofthe impact with the water was shockingly much greater than Chloe imagined itwould be, and as her momentum downwards under water finally ceased, herfeelings of panic escalated as she realized she was choking from water up hernose… and she was already out of breath! With her lungs on fire, she fought herway to the surface while trying to remain calm, all the while seeing stars froma feeling of concussion to her head.

When she finally surfaced she choked,coughed, and vomited up water. And as she swam in place for a few moments whilerecovering, she was alarmed that she did not yet see Onri. She looked right,left, then turned around and there he was… floating on his back just near her…but clearly unconscious! She screamed

“Onri… Onri!” as shequickly made her way to him. She grabbed his shirt collar and franticallytugged him towards the dock. While doing this, the tunnel vision of herpersonal trauma opened up and she became aware that there were also many otherafflicted people in the water all around her and on the dock as well.

As she made it to the dock, a young manreached out his hands to help, it was Charlie, and he quickly hoisted Onri outof the water, then Chloe as well. She knelt on all fours above Onri’s face tosee if he was breathing… and he was not! She said

“Charlie, he isn’tbreathing!” and he replied

“Let me help!” as heproceeded to push rhythmically with both of his hands on Onri’s chest. Chloeheld her hands over her mouth and watched in shock… praying that he would wakeup. And then suddenly after just a few pumps to his chest, he did! Chloephysically shuddered in relief as she watched Onri choke and convulsively coughup water as Charlie turned him on his side. She looked at Charlie and said

"Charlie… he’s ok, oh thank you… he’s ok!”She looked up past his face to the sky… it was still unstable and flickeringoff and on… she said

“Charlie… what ishappening to the sky… and to the grid!?” He looked up at it as well and justput his hands to his temples in fright, exclaiming

“I don’t know… Ijust don’t know!” Chloe then looked to where she last saw her parents as theywere wrenched from her hand… and there they were… lying atop one another on thedock… broken and motionless. She screamed

“Dad… mom!” Shejumped to her feet, ran over to them and knelt by their side.

“Mom… dad, can youhear me?” she said as she put both her hands on either of their heads. “Mommy…daddy… NOOO!” ‘They are both dead.’ ‘They are both dead.’ ‘They are both dead!’That thought just kept echoing in her head… it was just too surreal… it wasn’tpossible… IT WASN’T POSSIBLE!

She collapsed on top of them… huggingthem both tightly while sobbing loudly and uncontrolledly, while not noticingthat her awareness of all of her surroundings had faded to a black out. Shetightly closed her eyes. Her heart was beating so hard and frantically in herchest as she suddenly realized that she couldn’t breathe… her airway wasconstricted from the tightening muscle spasms of her throat as she silentlysobbed… no sound was coming out. Onri was again conscious and also lyingprostrated along with her… hugging and sobbing, as he realized that she waschoking. He stood up and pried her off of them. He looked at her face and itwas beet red with her eyes bulging out… he shook her by the shoulders

“Chloe… breathe…breathe! He panicked and slapped her across the face. She then focused on hiseyes… and started gasping loudly for air. They knelt there and hugged tightlyfor a time as they both sobbed in shock and denied this reality.

Time had stopped… Chloe heard nothing,felt nothing, suddenly cared for nothing. She wished that she had died as well.As she still knelt there with Onri, she opened her eyes. People were runningevery which way, people were dead on the ground, and people were sobbing justas she was. She began to start hearing things again as her unwanted realityfaded back, and looked around her immediate area and beyond. The landscape waslittered with corpses and crushed vehicles.

She looked up at the sky… the fusion orbwas still at 1:30 where it had been before, but she was sure it had to havebeen later than that by now. She also saw that the sky was still flickering,and between the oscillations of a dark cave ceiling and a cheerful blue springsky, something seemed to be playing a trick on her eyes as she watched. Alongwith the off and on of the programmed clouds and sky, there was also theforming of some light lavender colored clouds as well. But they weren’t aprogram… as they stayed visible when the sky was not… they were real…

They began to thicken and turn darker.Onri must have been watching as well, for he pulled himself from her. They bothwordlessly watched this strange cloud as it formed from nowhere. Chloe noticedthat it became quiet all around her, and she saw that everyone else in thevicinity was also watching it… transfixed. Then, impossible as it seemed, thewhole visual of the programmed sky was suddenly replaced with the flickeringvisage of a sharp toothed, snarling, lashing head of a wolf… which could loudlybe heard simultaneously growling like an animal and laughing like a human man!Chloe, Onri, and the populace screamed in terror, firstly from this unfathomable…unexpected visual horror, and secondly… from the realization that this‘accident’ was not a technical malfunction, but a deadly sinister attack on allof Sanctum! This second realization caused her sheer panic… and to the wholepopulation as well, as the screams of the populous gained in volume andemotional intensity.

Then the horrid, impossible imagesuddenly vanished and was replaced by a video transmission of the eerie, darkpurple cloud that had materialized above them. Could all of Sanctum be sharingthis same vision of their cloud? Chloe looked around herself to search thefaces for any sign of an explanation, but all seemed as completely perplexedand horrified as she, as they also gazed upwards, cowering.

Then suddenly, as if her brain hadn’t beenoverwhelmed enough, she was forced to witness even more perplexing horrors!Within the now large purple cloud, something seemed to be beginning tomaterialize… why, it was an eye! A huge eye with a lavender colored iris… itwas the eye of that wolf-man thing! And as it was now completely visible, itlooked to and fro… scrutinizing everything it saw with obvious hatred! Chloelooked around as she heard the many frightened wails of fear… and saw thateveryone was still motionless and staring up at it. She looked back up and alsosaw that the spectacle of it was also being transmitted onto the sky as well.

Then, without warning… their world beganto end. A continuous and roving stream of violet colored energy spewed forthfrom it and struck wide swaths of the ground. It first hit old man Taylors’property, which immediately exploded and burst into flames. Seeing this induplicate as it was being simultaneously transmitted onto the sky,exponentially amplified the terror! Chloe and Onri added their screams to themelee as people began running in all directions to dodge its movements…colliding and tripping over themselves in a mass of confusion and panic. Theplasma stream moved to and fro, vaporizing as it went. People were on fire andrunning… or just being consumed where they lay.

Chloe grabbed Onri and said

“Quickly, we need tojump into the water… it’s our only chance!” They ran towards the end of thedock, and as they jumped over the edge, they both looked over their shouldersto see the beam of energy just missing them, but obliterating the dock. Chloefelt her reemergence into that cold water again was like a slap in the face,and when she and Onri surfaced, they saw the remains of the dock, and theirparents bodies as well, sink out of sight. Chloe sobbed

“Mommy… daddy… wewill never see them again…”

Suddenly, the giant eye vanished… and itsdark purple clouds lightened, then dissipated. But the present horrors weren’tfinished… the replaced image where the sky had been, suddenly changed to abroadcast of another location… it was a view of New Venice in the ItalianDistrict. Chloe and Onri both dog paddled in place there in the water… unableto take their eyes from the ‘sky’. A packed crowd of people, all with horrifiedlooks on their faces could be seen there in St. Mark’s square, also staring upat their replaced sky. Then it was their turn as the cloud and eye againmaterialized. The crowd obviously knew what was in store for them from havingjust watched what had happened in Chloe’s district, as they screamed anddesperately tried to scatter. The eye again spewed forth its destruction.

Chloe looked at Onri

“Onri, I feel sosick… lets’ get out of the water, it looks safe here right now…