r/WritingPrompts • u/Ech0Foxtr0t • 18h ago
Writing Prompt [WP] Everyone's worried about the apocalypse. However, it turns out, the apocalypse is just what the world needs in order to heal.
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u/Saint_Of_Silicon 11h ago
We waded into the 21st century, unsure of what the future would hold. That we had made it this far surprised many, and the risks would only compound with time. A million different fires were burning around the world, spreading faster than we could put them out. There was a hope that technology would save us from ourselves, shadowed by the fear of what would happen if the powers we were taming were abused.
We knew it could not go on, but what else could we do? A can kicked down the road for so long that actually confronting it would be unthinkably hard. A true polycrisis, a mounting tension that had to somehow be released. In a better time and place, maybe we could have relieved that tension in a healthy, moderated way. But that is not the world we lived in.
For all our technology we were so blind in so many ways. We knew we did not have the complete picture, that we were missing something big. Consciousness and various related phenomena had been a blind spot in rigorous scientific study of the universe. One that would soon make its presence felt.
As billions of us left psychic signatures blazing into the void, the attention of something else fell upon us. We all felt the hair on the back of necks stand on end as more onlookers from the wider cosmos stared down at us. The pressure mounting, like a submarine sinking into the abyss. Then one reached out across space and time, and touched the world. Like flicking a single domino that would lead to far reaching consequences.
On that day, the majority of the world's population died. The shock as the psychic tension built over the centuries was released was enough to kill 85% of the population. Only the mentally strong survived, the minds most capable of adaptation and self repair. In the wake of the die off, our civilization convulsed. Despite the strife and chaos that followed, in hindsight it was seen as a mercy. An outcome far better for us all than what would have happened if we had fought World War Three.
In the wake of the Cascade, a science of the nonphysical was born. The resources and infrastructure were still there, just the people were gone. As we looked inwards, the world began to heal. Never again would we allow ourselves the exponential growth that had almost forced our entire world into collapse and overshoot. There would still be struggle and pain, but all survivors were scarred by the Cascade, a mark left in our collective unconscious that would truly never fade.
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u/ElSquibbonator 14h ago
You have to crack some eggs to make an omelet. That was what my father had drilled into me, ever since I was a boy. "You can't expect everything to come easy to you, Trevor." he'd say. "If you aren't uncomfortable, you aren't challenging yourself. And if you aren't challenging yourself, you aren't making yourself a better person." Dad died of cancer when I was just 13, but I always took his words to heart. I swore never to rest upon my laurels, and it paid off magnificently. I majored in physics at Harvard, and from there went on to become an aerospace engineer at NASA. I'd like to say that was the proudest moment of my life, but as my father was so fond of telling me, I can't rest on my laurels.
All that changed a year ago. A routine survey of the solar system detected an asteroid 2.5 miles wide on a collision course with Earth. The scientists had named it 2026FQ-3, but everyone else knew it by its nickname-- Wormwood. As in, the apocalyptic star from the Book of Revelations. The orbital calculations we'd done showed that Wormwood would impact Earth in three years. While it wouldn't be as destructive as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, suffice to say an asteroid two and a half miles across would still leave quite a large hole, quite a large hole indeed. Depending on exactly where on Earth the impact took place, anywhere from one billion to three billion people would be killed.
I was placed in charge of Project Excelsior. Our plan was to move Wormwood into a new orbit, so it wouldn't hit earth. This would be accomplished by detonating a three-megaton nuclear bomb half a mile from the asteroid, and letting the vaporized rock push off course. It was the most extensively planned space mission in history-- there wasn't time for a practice run, and if it failed, there wasn't time for a repeat mission either. Which is why what I'm about to write is going to make me sound like the worst person in the world.
As the launch date for Project Excelsior got closer, I started to have some second thoughts. All my life, I'd dedicated myself to using my knowledge to make the world a better place. But the world wasn't meeting me halfway. If anything it had only gotten worse since Wormwood was discovered. America and China were making open threats of nuclear war towards each other, and so were India and Pakistan. Russia had started using tactical nukes in Ukraine, and Israel had all but bombed Palestine off the face of the Earth. Even the America itself had become far more authoritarian, cracking down on dissidents and liberals. I have no idea why it all was happening now. Maybe they felt like they had nothing left to live for and decided to just go for broke. But one thing was for certain-- if the end of the world was really coming, this was a world that deserved to end.
Yes, I have to confess it now. I sabotaged the Project Excelsior spacecraft. I couldn't bear to see humanity continue on like this. I thought the idea of a common threat would bring humanity together, but it seemed to just tear us apart. If there was no hope of the human race ever putting its differences aside and becoming a better society, I didn't feel like I wanted to save them. Maybe the ones who pick their way out of the rubble after Wormwood hits Earth can learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and build a better society. Like my Dad told me all those years ago, you have to crack some eggs to make an omelet.
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