The Man in the Fire

“The Man in the Fire” By: Brandon Hooks


The place of refuge that I had chosen for myself was substantial enough to ensure my survival for an indefinite period of time. I was aware of the fact that eventually I would succumb, I just didn’t know when the timeframe was. For the time being I was as safe as I could possibly be; after all, I was underground in my own backyard in Troy, Alabama. My shelter contained just enough food, water, and lighting to last me up until the appointed time that I pass from this earth. I would undoubtedly die, but it wouldn’t be by the hands of them. Who am I referring to, and why am I living in my underground storm cellar?

I am television correspondent Noah Franklin, and I had been working under this identity in the field of Journalism for only a year and a half. I had just received my Bachelor’s degree when I turned 27, making me still a ripe 29 year old spring chicken. I had my share of publishing credits and success in the Troy Advertiser, and I was fulfilled.

Soon enough my peace at mind and love for the profession would take a nightmarish turn for the worst. This was a time where I felt so ugly and filthy in my soul that I guilted myself into believing I didn’t deserve to live. If only I had chosen another field of study, I wouldn’t be responsible for this unparalleled tragedy, I had thought to myself.

Not one person alive at the time before the cataclysm understood what was going on, or so the government claimed. The story of the century was in my hands, a young inexperienced correspondent personality. The story first took off as a massive worldwide panic and chaos that the world had never before seen. Reports at the very last minute came in from reputable government sources and astronomers of a huge comet that would virtually end the world as we knew it! It wouldn’t literally crash into it. Instead it would pass within millions of miles of the earth beating and pounding on the planet with its long reaching gravitational pull. Catastrophe was a certainty.

I can vividly recall the world crisis just one day before close approach of the huge star. There was chaos and anarchy unlike anything the world had ever known or experienced. When final word got out of this impending disaster, the population raced to the hills, and to the underground shelters. The world financial structure collapsed into rubble at news of this. People retired from their jobs, saying to hell with it. Children quit attending schools at the guidance of their parents.

Martial Law was imposed on all major cities in the western world, not excluding cities in other countries. Lawlessness and perversity prevailed in the streets. Prostitution increased greatly. Looting and rioting erupted everywhere. Suicides were the common course of action by those who found themselves without a place of refuge and safety. Waves of murders and rapes took place with no police force to protect the citizens from. A total decline of society had taken place, and stretched far beyond the borders of the continental United States.

Religious zealots used this situation to their advantage to further their cause. They unleashed bombing campaigns all over Europe and America in the name of their God, Jihad, and Wahabism. In their eyes and religious views, God had returned to rain down vengeance and judgment on the infidels. Judgment had indeed visited the land!

The world as a whole ran screaming in the streets up until the cool breezy autumn afternoon of September 30, 2006, when the comet finally appeared in the skies as a second sun. At this time world civilization was ripped apart in turmoil and fear, and had reached its climax in panic. This was before and let me tell you about afterwards.

When the destructive comet had passed by and was never seen again, the reports were grim in every corner of the world and in between. Mountains were flattened out, islands deceased under the depths of the hungry oceans, and huge buildings turned over. Every location on earth was decimated and discarded.

Ruin even stretched passed just the physical landscapes and infrastructure of the earth. The debris and the particles of dust and ash from the many erupting volcanoes blasted upwards into the atmosphere, and affected the world climate to a severe extent. Before climate change became a certainty in this aftermath, the world climate was the usual that wouldn’t set off alarm to anyone. There were heat waves, cold snaps, rainfalls, and just the standard atmospheric activity.

The climate now was anything but normal, and there wasn’t anything that could be done about it. The effects of a disrupted climate were evident, and getting worst by the day. Temperatures rapidly dropped to near below zero worldwide and were plummeting further according to the reports of a few surviving scientists!

Troy, Alabama was particularly hard hit by the dangerous temperatures, and the ongoing threat of another ice age. People in this region of the country didn’t own heavy coats or scarves. We were never faced with the onslaught of life threatening freezing temps like our counterparts were accustomed to dealing with in the upper northeast. I wondered just how well that region of the nation had been taking this, and what the survival preparations were for people who were used to thriving on cold winters and apocalyptic winter storms. This overwhelming curiosity brought me to the human condition of comet destruction.

The earth-shattering event contributed to a relative few survivors, with some survivors dying out daily due to starvation or freezing. When the worst effects of the comet’s influence had decreased, the world population of 6.6 billion had been reduced to a figure of 6 million! It’s inconceivable to imagine the composition of the source that could wreak such havoc and misery upon mankind, but the size of this monster comet evidently achieved such a triumph.

I remember quite well the day that I emerged from my storm cellar, and beheld a picture that wasn’t pretty! As far as my eyes would allow me to see, there was desolation and hopelessness. Houses and every other form of infrastructure were gone. Trees were blown to shreds in the 300 mph supersonic wind speeds, that had been a result of the cataclysmic traveling speeds of the earth’s poles to different locations. A pole shift had occurred!

Now, any reasonable person out there after surviving such a calamity would ask themselves why; why and how could something on this order of events take place without any prior knowledge by scientists? This had been the question that I was asking myself after crawling out my cellar and seeing a world after the apocalypse. Normally one would think that the government would have plans and schemes to blow the thing out of the sky, even something this huge. They might even have a contingency plan to back it up, right? One would think so that’s for sure. I was one of them who found it very strange that our species would suddenly disappear without the government issuing plans for our survival, and places we could go to ride it out. What in hell manufactured this giant, red monster? I had thought to myself. What was going on at the observatories and the government offices around the world leading up to the time of comet arrival? How could they not detect its presence within our solar system? I was penetrated by such thoughts.

Where was the president in this time of world crisis like no other in history? That problem was frighteningly resolved, and this is one of the reasons why I hide out here in my storm cellar with just enough food, water, and light. I am getting to that point of the story.

My house had been ripped apart in the winds, so all I had now was my cellar. I remember about two days after I first emerged out into the world following the comet’s final pass away from the earth. I had slept somewhat peacefully, occasionally coughing and gagging at the dirt and radiation slowly but surely creeping into the new dwelling place. The first day of my touring the devastation everywhere and seeing the torn apart buildings and houses, I couldn’t see any one out and about. My first thought had been that I was the only one left alive in the town. That proved to be false, when I opened the storm cellar door and crawled out again. Through the devastation I could see people out and wandering around.

I pushed myself to retrieve a bit of energy to catch up with some of the people that were steadily walking towards whatever destination they were headed. I thought maybe I could be a good Samaritan to someone in need. Hey, I was somewhat religious; I had read a verse or two from the Bible. So I picked up the pace and tried to track down one of the people that came within enough viewing range to confirm to me that it was a middle aged looking man completely shirtless, and with his family, I am assuming. I coughed and spit up on the ground and cleared my throat. I shouted, “HEY THERE, IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT? CAN I HELP SOMEONE?” You would have sworn I was a licensed doctor or physical therapist by my determination to assist.

I figured I might redeem myself by touching someone else, but the only thing that happened after the man looked back to see who it was shouting at him, was what plagued my spirit with the condemnation of being dirty and full of guilt that I mentioned earlier. He shouted back at me as he grabbed his wife and son and ran full fledged, “I KNOW WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE YOU DIRTY AGENT OF DECEPTION! YOU DID THIS TO US! YOU KNEW THIS WAS COMING AND YOU DID NOR SAID NOTHING! ROT IN HELL YOU GOVERNMENT PAWN!”

I remember freezing dead in my tracks at the major attacks to assassinate my character by this man. The surprising thing about this is that I immediately came to the conclusion that something was up and I had to get to the bottom of it. I knew what this man was saying and why he was so harsh in attacking me. I was the man that was paid to bring the news, whatever it was, to all people. They heard nothing about this tragedy out of my lips. What they didn’t understand was that I was powerless to relay the news, when I wasn’t even told about this myself.

There was a complete silence everywhere about this, even in every major news outlet worldwide. A complete cover-up had taken place until the day before the star passed by the earth, and it became impossible to hide it any longer. I must get to the bottom of what had happened, I remember thinking to myself. Unconfirmed evidence pointed to the theory that someone maybe had been watching this thing for years, but didn’t want to disclose such news, fearing that it would create major panic and chaos. Well that proved to be true when all was said and done.

The theory of intentional suppression of this news had sharp teeth and truth to it, and had been confirmed when I had made my way back to the foundation that my house once stood on. Like I have said before, this is one of the reasons why I am in hiding underground.

I walked up the street and to what was remaining of my driveway still reeling from what had happened. I remember looking up as I got to the edge of the shattered driveway. There appeared in front of me, on the rubble of once was my house, a great bonfire. I thought to myself, Oh great, I am now officially crazy! I am Moses staring at the burning bush! As I got closer to the fire I could notice the outline of the human form surrounded in the flames! I got as close to the point that would allow me to see who or what was within the flames. I stared in horror as I recognized who was suffering in that fire. It was the president of the United States! If that wasn’t the commander in Chief, then I am not telling this story!

I saw him and knew that he was dead, and that his tormenting spirit was there in front of me. He was a condemned spirit, but why? The answer to this question came immediately, and the confirming evidence and truth about the comet of doom, and the cover-up was naked before me. I now knew everything that the survivors didn’t, but wished they knew! With a look of terror and wide open eyes, the tormenting spirit said, “I know what happened! I knew about this thing for years! I helped them, I obeyed them! They threatened my life, so I kept quiet! This is why I suffer in these eternal flames day and night! They wanted depopulation of the earth and they have achieved it!” Then the spirit shouted, “THE ILLUMINATI IS HERE! THE STAR WAS THEIR TOOL! THE STAR WAS THEIR TOOL!”