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Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Epilogue

Part 5
IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE)

Present Day

Derek and Sky sleep in bed, as Derek-M wonders through some nearby wheat fields.

*tfftff tfftff tfftff tfftff*

Uh oh.  What’s that sound?

Derek-M’s awareness heightens and he straightens himself, sticking his head up over the line of wheat.

Closer and louder, *tfftff tfftff tfftff*

LOCUSTS!

Derek’s eyes open, the fear still fresh and raw in his heart.  After a moment he shakes his head and thinks aloud to himself, “Man, that was weird.”

He starts to shut his eyes again to go back to sleep.  But as soon as they shut, he hears them again, even closer and louder now, as if right outside his window, *tfftfftfftff tfftfftfftff*

His eyes open again.  He looks over at the clock: 5:13 a.m. Oh well, might as well get up, looks like he won’t be getting much more sleep tonight.

So Derek gets out of bed, makes some coffee, and grabs a book to read until Sky gets up for work.  He says bye, and gets to doing some normal morning routines… but he keeps having this strange sense of déjà vu, like all this has already happened… everything, from the strange dreams, to reading his book, to brushing his teeth.  Every little detail of the day feels strangely familiar to him.

His cell phone rings.  The déjà vu doesn’t stop.  He already knows what it’s about.  “Her car’s broken down, I’m going to have to go get her,” he says to himself as he answers the call.

“Yeah.”

“Hey honey, uh… my car broke down, can you come take me to work?”

“Sure, where are you?  …. … Okay, I’ll be right there.”

He hangs up and heads out the door, thinking to himself on the way, “Man, I remember this… but what’s next?…  … …  … Uh uhh… no way…  It can’t be…  Nope, I think it is…  this is it.  Yep, this is it…  All those dreams I been having..  This is it! … Her car broke down, had to pick her up and go! …  Damn!  …  This is really it!  We gotta get outta here!  But she’ll freak out if I tell her..  I can’t let her know yet.”

Derek takes Sky to work, being very careful not to reveal anything out of the ordinary.

On the way back home, he thinks out loud to himself, “I can’t believe it!  I just can’t!  But this is it, man!  …  Beyond the shadow of a doubt! …  I just can’t believe it, oh my God!  Oh, and what about her?  Saving her from the end of the world!  Oh it’s so ROMANTIC!”

As soon as he arrives home, he grabs his iPod, pushes play and begins packing¹:

He packs everything he thinks they could possibly need.  There appears to be some grand intelligence to his packing, everything perfectly in place in super speed – anything of value at all, and anything of use -  a cooler full of cold foods; bags full of boxed foods; suitcases full of clothes, casual, dress, shoes; sentimental little gifts, music, artwork.  Each time the chorus comes in, he sings along:

It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine

He packs the car so beautifully as if he were playing a game of Tetris.  “The neighbors must think I’m a mad man,” he thinks to himself but doesn’t care.  He knows he’ll never see them again anyway.  This is really it.  There’s not one thing he doesn’t think of taking with him, and of course, lastly he grabs the cat litter and the cat.

He takes off to save his beautiful Sky.

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1. R.E.M. – It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)