The Apocalypse Spiral

Chapter 3: Peering

I get to the kitchen and realized everything had a fine coat of dust...Strange.

The fridge was also caked with dust and contained no food save for an old box of cookies.

I open the box, see that it was still edible enough, and ate at least three of them. 

The cookies were stale and tasted a bit like cardboard and tin, but it was enough to satiate my hunger for now.

I grab the note off the fridge door and walk back to the living room, intending to read it there instead.

I walk past the front door, where I was standing around earlier, was actually littered with envelopes containing overdue credit card and utility bills, all addressed to "Jonathan Kogan," ME but NOT me...

So it didn't matter to me much right now.

But still, why is everything covered in dust...? 

I lean on the nearby sofa and read the note, written quite crudely but understandable, by Fels' shaky hand.

What kind of name is Fels...? It had only occurred to me at the moment...

I read the note, admiring her handwriting which borderlines on resembling the penmanship of the insane...

It looks like it was written in a hurry.

Written in black pen ink, the words YOUR TIME IS A SPIRAL was written against a crudely drawn spiral.

Below the words and spiral drawing were a couple of more words, more legible to the eyes compared to the overall image. 

LOOK UP AND YOU'LL SEE THAT TIME WILL FLY BY. YOU CAN'T WAIT TOO LONG. GO TO THE MOUNTAIN.

I turn the paper over, there was nothing else to be read.

I sigh, realizing that my case of strangeness had only just begun...

Time travel, Me in someone else's body, a strange cryptic woman...Hell, I don't even know my *actual* name yet...

But hey, what else was there to do...?

I sigh once more and realize that I was shirtless the entire time, the only clothes I wore were a pair of inky black jogging pants.

No wonder I was feeling cold...

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I mustered up enough energy to wash my face and comb my short, unkempt hair.

I managed to dress up too, albeit using a dark hoodie and the same black jogging pants, and a pair of running shoes.

It was still strange, in hindsight, as I was currently walking down the sidewalk outside the apartment, to dress up and leave what was essentially not my house, wearing clothes that never belonged to me...

I know, I sound like a broken record by now, but the sensation of taking over the helm of this man's mind and personality just feels...off.

It feels like a crime.

These things aren't mine. They shouldn't be, but now they are.

I stole a life away from this man.

I don't remember anything from my past.

Who was I?

What were my clothes? What did my apartment look like?

All I know, all that I can recall is that nightmarish vision of violence that I knew ended the world and killed me...The other things I knew to do are inherent in human's I guess...

I still remember how to drink water. I still remember how to speak, walk and dress up.

I wasn't a blank slate.

I was erased.

But why...?

Why?

I come to a pedestrian crossing. The wind was blowing hard and the sky was simultaneously gloomy and bright.

The air smelled of lingering car fumes and dew. Perhaps it was going to rain soon...

I look up ahead, my gaze landing on a massive object looming over the city a fair distance away.

It stood semi-visible, slightly blurred by thin clouds and perhaps lingering pollution in the air. It looked like a massive pyramid, I think it was Mount Jebediah.

The crosswalk light turns Green and I am allowed to cross, walking alongside an old man and three other people. I get to the other side and look around, curious to where I was.

And unsurprisingly, I don't recognize the city.

I pull Fels' note out from my hoodie and read it again: YOUR TIME IS A SPIRAL. LOOK UP AND YOU'LL SEE THAT TIME WILL FLY BY. YOU CAN'T WAIT TOO LONG. GO TO THE MOUNTAIN.

I had to go there. What else could a time-displaced amnesiac do?

I pocket the note and ask a nearby man. He was leaning on by the entrance of a*****e.

"Hey." I ask him, "Do you know how to get to Mount Jebediah? That's the big one over there right?"

The man raises an eyebrow and pulls the cigarette out of his dry lips. The smoke rose and the wind around us blew some into my face. I could nearly taste the ash.

"You one of the hippies who want to congregate on the mountain huh?" He asks me.

I shake my head, forcing myself not to cough from the cigarette smoke. 

"Hm. Anyway, it's easy to get there. Either take the bus, a cab, or walk. Your first two options are cheap but expect to get stuck in hour-long traffic due to them hippies at the mountain...damned idiots..." He says, mumbling at the end as he took another drag of the cigarette. "If you're gonna walk, you're gonna have to walk for about a few miles. It's manageable though, You look fit enough to go that distance." He chuckles.

"Unlike me...I'm in love with these things here." He says referring to his cigarette. 

I couldn't take any form of transportation. I didn't have any money on me, so walking was my obvious course of action.

"Thanks," I tell him with a nod. 

He nods in return, accompanied by a small, two-fingered salute.

I continue down the pavement and keep my eyes on the mountain up ahead, wondering what I would come across.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I walked for about an hour and a half. The sun was setting and was turning into a reddish-orange. 

The mountain was visible now. It was a verdant green due to the presence of plants and trees. It was also quite pyramidal in shape. I could see a path, which looked quite small from my distance, snake up the side of the mountain leading to the top.

There was an energy in the air. Crowds of people were scattered here and there in the parking lot at the base of the mountain. 

They were all quite young. They were all wearing a white shirt with the words I am one with One.

They were celebrating something. There was a band on stage with the banner FESTIVAL OF BINDING written on it. People grilled food here and there, drinking and merrymaking. 

Whatever this was, it was energetic and seemed very important to these people...but none of this mattered to me, I had a feeling I needed to get up there, maybe get a lay of the land or whatever Fels' wants me to see...

I enter the celebration infested parking lot more and looked around. There was a small gate on the far side of the lot. It looked like I could get in...

I quickly run over to it, running past a cloud of smoke that smelled of meat and a car blasting out some music I did not recognize to get to the gate.

The gate was low enough to be vaulted over, I do so and land on the other side easily.

I continue in, the sound of merriment behind, instantly fading out behind me.

The loud noise was replaced by the muted sounds of nature; the sound of leaves being crushed underfoot and crickets chirping in the silence.

The sun had already set fully and the air grew even cooler.

I made my way through a rough path and eventually got to a paved one. 

There was a sign standing by a tree with an arrow pointing to my right, the text on it was still visible it read SUMMIT.

I follow it, breaking into a light jog.

I turn my head to the left as I bounded up the path. The scene below in the parking lot was nice to look at; bright lights, the muted thumping of music. The people below looked tiny, so insignificant...

The images of me floating over a devastated city come rushing back. 

I shake my head, turn my gaze forward,  and ran even faster.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I reach the summit. 

The wind was blowing hard and the sky was indeed clear. It was littered with stars.

The crowd below was barely audible, now just a small patch of light and sound.

There was nobody else here. Just myself, an empty bench, and a trashcan.

I look up, doing what I was told, and waited for something to happen.

I craned my head upwards for a good few minutes until something began to happen...

The wind blew in my direction and there seemed to be a whining noise.

There was something in the air, like a patch of the night sky was vibrating...

The whining grew louder and I felt a force knock me to the ground.

Then the wind died, becoming deathly still, leaving me in an eerie nighttime silence.

The part of the sky was still vibrating but there seemed to be something odd with the sky itself...

The sky was rapidly changing. 

Day.

Night.

Day.

Night.

Day.

Night.

As if the sky itself was being fast-forwarded.

I get to my feet and look around me.

Leaves fell and emerged from the trees rapidly.

People walked around me and vanished instantly.

The sky continued to fly by and an idea popped into my head.

Was I being hurdled through Time? 

And before I could process my surroundings further, It stops, plunging me into an unrecognizable hellscape of red. Lightning cracked the sky and the city below was on fire. I couldn't see what was going on down there clearly, but it was clear chaos reigned supreme.

I could hear screams in the wind as a fierce gale blew against me.

It was like my vision from earlier...Good lord, what just happened? why am I here?

A breeze blows and sends up a piece of trash onto my shoes.

No, not trash, a piece of newspaper...I look at it.

The month of the issue was June. s**t, I was hurdling through Time...to The End?

"And now, that makes it twice now that you've flown through the ether. I'm surprised you're still alive." A familiar voice says, yelling over the chaos.

"Fels!" I shout. She was leaning on a tree, still dressed in the same clothes, with her arms crossed on her chest. 

"I'm sorry. I truly am." She tells me at the top of her voice.

"Sorry for what?" I yell back.

"The fast forward. You couldn't wait long. You needed to get out.." She tells me. "So this was literally the fastest method.."

"Okay, I don't see how that's a probl-

"The Apocalypse? It's Now! Literally, a few hours from now, all of this...Gone!" Fels cuts me off mid-sentence, gesturing to our surroundings, "We'll die if we don't act now! I don't want to loop back again!"

"What do you mean loop back?!" I asking, shouting over the howling wind.

"Your Spiral! This isn't the first time! That's why I had you go through the expressway to speed the process up. See The End ASAP and cut that spiral short! Waiting for months like the usual will royally screw things up...like before."

I did not understand anything she was referring to.

Fels walks up to me, stared directly into my eyes, placed her hands on my shoulders, and smiled.

"You're alive now. That's what matters! Now come on! It's time for The Ritual."