The Verdict

Judgment has been passed

Earth has been judged and found lacking

Modifications will be made

You have 1 hour to prepare

The strange opaque screen had popped up while i was just about to leave the college. "What the fuck is this" I waved my hands at the screen but all it did was pass through it.

As soon as i looked around me i could see i was not the only one who had seen the screen, everybody around me was panicking, i could hear a lot of screaming and shouting asking what was going on. It was hard not to panic myself. I'm not someone who gives into emotions really easy but to suddenly have a strange screen pop up in front of you, it was hard to understand what I was feeling.

I need to find a way to get rid of this screen. The moment I finished my thought it disappeared. The behavior of the people around me made it clear that some had also made their message disappear while the way most people acted suggested that they still had that strange screen in front of them.

Why did mine disappear, was it because of what I thought, had I willed it away? This is all so fucking strange, what the fuck is going on. Honestly it doesn't even matter I need to get home, I need to see if mom and David are OK. Quickly I made my way towards the bicycle parking.

It wasn't until I was on my bike that I started to noticed the chaos that the screen popping up had caused. Almost everybody had their cellphones out desperately trying to call their loved ones. The mobile networks could not have lasted more then a minute if everybody was trying to call home. It wasn't long before I saw the first crashed car. Jesus Christ that screen popping up alone probably killed a lot of people.

Thank god I decided to try and be healthy this morning, if I hadn't been on my bike I would have been on a bus stuck in traffic with half of the city trying to get home. There where Police cars going one way and fire trucks the other. It really looked like they where overwhelmed.

Despite all the chaos I had made good progress towards my home. As soon as I turned into my street in felt a lot safer. The 15 houses around the cul-de-sac had made up the paradise where I had spend most off my youth. The fifth house was where I had grown up together with my little brother David. My Mother had raised us alone after my father had died in an accident soon after Davids birth.

“Mom, David anybody home” when no-one answered I immediately started to get worried. They should be home, fuck, OK they are probably next door. Next door to our right lived the Bakers, Amelia and David had been inseparable since they where 2 and mom and Mrs Baker where best friends.

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As soon as I opened the back door of the Baker house I saw my mothers face filled with relief.

“Where have you been?”

“The entire city is a mess, there where a lot of accidents and the roads where packed with people. Do you know what is going on and where David is?”

“David is upstairs with Amelia they are fine, and all I know is what they said on the news which isn't much.”

As we talked we had arrived in the living room, when we entered I saw Mr and Mrs baker, Mrs Palmer and her kids Daniel(8) Rose(12) and Linda(18). They where all watching the news.

Honestly what I saw didn't make me feel any better, there where a lot of reports on accident across the world and a bunch off scientist trying to explain what happened. The theories ranged from nano bots in our drinking water to cosmic radiation giving us mass delusions. All they knew for certain is that the screen worked with some sort of 'mind reading tech'. The screen could appear and disappear by thinking about it, it seemed like it could interpret your thoughts.

“Shouldn't we be gathering food or something, the screen said we should prepare” I asked.

“You're kidding right, this is obviously some kind of prank”

“I don't know Linda, I don't see how someone would do something like this or why, all I know is if someone is able to do all this they might be capable of a lot more.”

“you're right Ari, we should prepare for the worst and hope for the best” said Mr baker “you, Ann, David and Amelia should go to your house and bring anything you think would be useful over. Priorities should be first and food and weapons”. Mr baker looked towards my mother “do you have any firearms in your house Ann”.

My mother shook her head “Why would we even need one”

“We don't know what's gonna happen but what I do know is that there are a lot of people out there that would have no problem with killing you and taking your stuff if the situation turns really sour”

My mother looked totally overwhelmed but I completely agreed with mister Baker. There are a lot of assholes out there.

As me and my mother headed towards the front door Mr baker left out the back with Mrs Palmer and her kids towards their house. When we passed the stairs, I shouted to David and Amelia and quickly explained what was going on.

As soon as we entered the kitchen we split up. I told mom and Amelia to grab all the food they could find. David went upstairs to grab my baseball bats and the first aid kit from the bathroom. I went to the car to grab the first aid kit and then headed towards the shed. I grabbed the hatchet that I knew was there and looked around for anything else that could be useful. Ultimately I decided that there wasn't anything and headed back inside.

10 minutes after we entered the house we headed back with all the stuff we gathered. Shortly afterwards the others came back also. In the food department we seemed set. There was enough food to for us all for about a month.

Weapons where a different story. We had 1 hunting rifle and 1 pistol both had a decent amount of ammo. Beside the weapons we had brought back from our house there where a couple of big knifes on the table. Against 1 or 2 people we would be fine but if a group attack us we were screwed.

5 first aid kits of different shapes and sizes should keep us covered for a good while unless things got really serious.

“we are gonna feel real dumb when nothing happens in 3 minutes” I heard Mrs baker say

“honey, I rather feel dumb in a couple of minutes than curse myself in a couple of weeks”

There was nothing more we could do but wait till the final minutes passed.