Superwomb

CHAPTER NINE

“Everyone leave the building now.” He shouted and startled all who were still celebrating and congratulating themselves. “What is it?” Max asked him as calmly as possible. “Sir we are running low on oxygen, I have tried to shut down the core and regenerate the main power source to the Superwomb but it just keeps counting down. The oxygen in this room won’t last for another one minute and when it runs out I cannot predict what will not happen to the entire building sir.” Those who had the guts to wait and listen to his explanation were filled with much horror compared to the first group of people who flew out of the room and out of the building immediately he shouted ‘everyone leave the building now.’ The panic had reached outside the building and Scott was transmitting messages to his team who were still inside the building to know what was going on. “It can’t be good Scott. Something is wrong and we need to get out now.” Grace told him. “Meet me down stairs let’s get out of here. It would seem our friend succeeded in destroying the world after all.”

Scott cursed himself for not having killed Mr. Max when he had the chance and worse still for his failure the previous night at the party to kill his daughter as well. He hated the man to pieces and all that had to do with him. Commotion was all over frost-bane and the building became rowdy as people ran for their lives in every direction. “Can’t you shut down Superwomb?” Max asked Oliver. “No sir, I already tried that and moreover, if she is shut down earlier than the programmed twenty minutes after her launch in which she is to develop fully, she might explode bearing all there is to bear with the artificial space.” Oliver told him and ran out of the room leaving just Max, Stanley and Rita in the room and of course, the new technology whose launching while still in progress was already turning into a disaster. “We have to go.” Rita told the two men who seemed out of this world while looking at what they had devoted the better of ten years into, threatening their lives. Apparently, Stanley was the only one who heard her voice. “Hey buddy, let’s go. There is nothing we can do.” Max finally got back to earth and the three started running out of the building which no single human being could be seen other than themselves.

The minute Oliver had estimated for the remaining oxygen in the room to finish was expanded because people flew out of the room and out of the building when they understood what was going to happen if the minute elapsed and regardless of how fast the hearts of the three that were left in the room after everyone ran out were beating, they couldn’t consume by themselves, all the oxygen within the estimated which was why the minute elapsed and nothing happened but now the Superwomb itself was blinking like the warning signal Oliver had seen earlier on his computer screen. Then the artificial space disappeared leaving just the Superwomb. By the time Rita, Stanley and Max started running out of the building, they were obviously the only ones left in the building.

Scott and his team were speeding their way away from frost-bane after what could not be classified as either a successful or failed mission. Before Max made the bend towards the elevator, he looked over his shoulder and saw his precious invention and as his sight caught the Superwomb, as if it meant to say bye to its father, blinked one last time before it went up in flames.

The explosion was unlike any sound ever heard throughout the history of mankind. The roof of the room where the Superwomb had been was peeled away like sardine and a violent looking purple ray of light could be seen reaching up to and touching the sky. Stanley did not make it out of the building. He sacrificed himself so that Rita and Max could make it out just before frost-bane technologies crumbled to the ground along with every building that could be seen by anyone wherever they were. Cars were picked up and thrown away like weightless objects and the ground shook terribly, opening rifts in many places.

Jack who had braced his house in preparation for the blast he very well knew was coming, was not surprised at the explosion but was surprised by the fact that his house along with almost all the buildings that few moments ago stood tall had all graced the ground with their brick. The few houses that remained standing had all been robbed of everything that gave them the identity of houses. What was more Jack could now see a strange ray of purple light that seemed to penetrate the skies. That was strange to Jack because he had not seen that in his dreams.

Scott and his team while speeding in their car were picked up by the explosion and dumped in a wasteland of crumbled buildings. The earth had been opened in so many places and the openings were quite deep because the floor to these openings could not be seen and they were lucky that their car did not drop into one of them. Scott was not surprised but he was scared. It was exactly like in his dreams. There was not a single building that was left standing after the explosion from Scott’s view. When he looked afar off, it would seem he was looking at a building but on getting there, it would turn out to be a heap of ruins. After he got out of his car that was basically remaining just tyres and a half steering with a blown out airbag he checked himself and luckily, was only having bruises. Grace on the other hand was limping while Bob was applying pressure trying to arrest a bleeding in his arm. Timothy was the unluckiest of all – he was unconscious.

Sam was still trying to calm his brother (Jacob) down having got back. Jacob was furious that his brother had left him all alone at night in the house and ended up being referred to as “little guy” by some strange injured girl. “Who does she think she is” Jacob slammed at his brother. “Come on Jacob, I already told you she would be dead if I had not brought her here.” Sam told him. “Oh I see, so now you are...” Jacob started to say when suddenly he heard the most horrifying sound he had never dared to imagine.

Now he was trying to revive his brother who had accommodated with his bare body, the free fall of a cupboard and the refrigerator while their building collapsed along with many buildings he could see. The sight terrified Jacob and he thought his brother and himself were all that was left of humanity. He was equally dumbfounded at the sight of the purple light piercing the skies.

Not quite far away from frost-bane’s technologies, in the house of the CEO, Holly just got out of bed after a little rest and was about taking the painkillers that Dr. Peter had given her earlier when Superwomb came calling. She threw the glass of water she held and grabbed the wood on her bed and squeezed herself. Luckily for her, her bed was placed next to a non load bearing wall and the debris were more of a shelter for her rather than weapons. So she landed relatively well after her father’s magnificent building had been laid waste to by what she was yet to discover. Another mystery was the purple ray of light that had climbed up to the skies. It was beautiful she thought not knowing it was the source of the light that had almost killed her.

As they all watched the purple ray of light in amazement and the beautiful world they once knew and had, they all had one understanding in common and that is – Humanity had been wiped out and the thought of rebuilding bore on their shoulders like unnecessary burdens.