The Flame of Hope
All at once, a blast reverberated off the walls, knocking debris from the ceiling. Screams were heard immediately after, fearing that would be the decisive one. The bomb that would bury us alive. The lights flickered once, twice, then darkness engulfed the population.
The last six days have been spent in a concrete bunker, hundreds of feet below the desolate ground. Terror struck us in every waking moment; nightmares haunted us throughout the night. Of course we were frightened: We were the only human beings left.
My civilization has always been endangered. Famine, drought, disease, recession. But, though all that, we move on. Isn't it ironic that we're the last ones?
We are against a race far superior than us, commonly called cyborgs. These creatures have the capability to feel emotions and make instinctive decisions, like a human. However, the robot side controls analytical data, which creates possible scenarios in an instant. They're never wrong.
How do you beat an opponent who can't lose?
We were completely unprepared for the invasion. The cyborgs had completely annihilated the Eastern part of North America before we were told to go underground. In my city, those who were in denial of our probable extinction or lost the will to live stayed above. Their deaths were swift and easy.
I envy them.
Nevertheless, here I am, sitting in the darkness, waiting for death to take me into unknown territory. All I could do was reflect upon my life and pray for forgiveness of my sins. That was all anyone could do.
Every day, necessities, like food and water, were distributed to each family. At first, we were careless with the supplies. Now we have very few resources remaining.
If we weren’t buried alive, we would surely sta...
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...rming my soul and offering me life. Around this ember, I felt secure.
The ground around it caught fire, instantly creating a large inferno that licked at my eyes. This was not a soothing comfort the small ember had produced, but a terrifying beast yearning to tear into my flesh.
The flames spread, devouring everything in its path. Scorch marks were the tracks of where it had destroyed. Nevertheless, there was a form of magnificence in its mayhem. Shades of dark red, raging yellow, deep blue, and brilliant purple danced in the murkiness. The tongues of fire twisted together then twirled apart. Sparks went flying into the darkness, crackling as they sailed.
Occasionally, a small sprout would rise from the ashes. It would grow, and grow, and grow until beautiful flowers blossomed. They would prosper only for a short period of time before it was consumed by the blaze.
The fire gets Macey interested in a fire that happened years ago, where a man was thought to have been burned alive in it. For a h...
203,000 farm families in dire distress” (1). As a result, people were starving and had nothing to
After the initial explosion, dead and wounded remained everywhere, fires reduce buildings to ashes and persist out of control, leaving the city in utter chaos. Dr. Fujii, Father Kleinsorge, and Mr...
################################# Part 3 ######################################## Nature doesn’t intend for things to be perfect, if it was the contrary we wouldn’t be considered humans. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birth-Mark portrays the story of a scientist, Aylmer, so self-absorbed, and supercilious in his own power of science that he would go so far as to remove the intentional “imperfect” birthmark that Nature has bestowed upon his wife’s face. “Cannot you remove this little, little mark… Is this beyond your power… Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife… doubt not my power” (216). Hawthorne uses the birthmark as a symbol to represent the imperfection that is within the human species, the mark also draws out the imperfection of those who have encountered it by displaying their tendencies to overlook the flawless beauty of Georgiana and focus solely on her birthmark, “Some fastidious persons… affirmed that the bloody hand… quite destroyed Georgiana’s beauty… Aylmer discovered that this was the case with himself” (214). Nature’s symbol is a paradigm of omnipotence. To simply put, Nature created the grand design of human life, and governs over our society but allows us as people to do as we please with our lives, so long as we do not alter with Nature’s creation, “…Our great creative Mother… She permits us, indeed to mar, but seldom to mend, and like a jealous patentee, on no account to make” (217). Despite Nature’s intention, being the pompous scientist that he is, Aylmer believes himself to be something more than a microcosm of Nature’s creation. In other words, because of his unparalleled ability in the subject science, like other...
retaliation for the explosions. The mass killing would be carried out by soldiers under the
The gang was well accustomed to seeing destruction, therefore their imaginations were corrupted with it. In an attempt to be creative, to use their imagination, the gang collectively decided to destroy the house that survived the bomb. “Destruction after all is a form of creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now become.”
The faded voices of choir singers are muffled by a roaring explosion. The sounds from the crumbling building spread down the block. Worn-down bricks, knocked out from underneath each another. Shards of colored glass, shot into the air. Chucks of wood and rubbish litter the sidewalk. Thick smoke and fearful screams saturate the air. A mother’s worse nightmare.
People around the city went to bed, everything seemed relatively normal. Smoke dwindling into the dark night sky, the faint smell of burning wood. All normal for Chicago. Fires were a daily part of life for this wooden city. Near the time of 2 a.m. the fire didn’t seem so normal and average anymore. A mean flame was being born, it was blazing to life.
When the atomic bomb was dropped, the destructive weapon disintegrated and claimed innocent lives in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. On August 6th, 1945 in Hiroshima, around 83,000 people were deceased in an instant and tens of thousands of more died in the following year due to wounds and radiation poisoning. In addition to this, food became scarce and most could not find shelter in Hiroshima, which encouraged civilians to migrate from Hiroshima to other rural areas. Three days later, on August 9th, Nagasaki also suffered the same fate as Hiroshima. The explosion of the atomic bomb destroyed anything within a half-mile radius. Moreover, around 40,000 to 75,000 citizens were killed by this blast. Survivors of the atomic bomb left the city and fled to any other villages near it. Although Japan announced its surrender a few days later, the United States...
trying to keep warm saw their campfire leap and fizzle around like a torch. They soon
The excitement the family had when they received the call about the dead cows, also shows their poverty. Their scavenging and meek options presented how they were in need of money and food. In my family, I am lucky enough to be able to buy clothes and food from stores. Along with necessities, I am able to receive luxuries such as eating out and going on vacation. Even though I grew up with money doesn’t mean my family has no budget, my family has the same ideals to eat what you get and not to waste food. But their family waste isn’t an option for food as it becomes part of a bread pudding when they have leftovers. (Blow, 2014,
In the text, “In Defense of Killer Robots”, it shows how robots would be better than humans at making critical decisions during a war. For example, Brooks claims how robots “...don't get mad, they don’t get scared…” This shows how robot would not freeze during a critical situation. Brooks states how us humans “...make stupid decisions in war…” The reason why is when something bad happens, we get scared and make a decision without thinking because we do not have enough time to think.
A secret label, hushed and never talked about, has followed my name since I was born; “Pyro,” pyromaniac that is. Fascination with fire, the uncontrollable impulse to start fires, has been circulating in my blood from the first day I was born. Smelting heat and flames would spark my attention no matter what my surroundings. Candle lit dinner tables, switch flick colorful lighters, lit cigarette butts and burning matches. Oh matches! How I love them. The smell of gasoline has always been a heavenly scent, burning paper and bonfire parties are two of my other favorites. Smokey haze has always soothed me. One crisp October afternoon, however, that soothing smoky haze turned against me.
The stars shone brightly above the port village of Mercedi, reflecting in the harbor as they traveled their path across the midnight sky. Schools of colorful fish swam through streaks of pale moonlight beneath the calm waves. Small, wooden rowboats parted the gentle waters carrying flame-flickering lanterns held by grinning villagers. Beyond the boats,toward the horizon, loud cracks made way for brilliantly colored explosions, erupting in different shapes and designs. The floating audience oohed and aahed at the spectacular show.
The bombs had raised hell on earth for those few minutes and produced a tremendous amount of casualties. The way people had died was shocking...