Y2K

The giant cruise ship rocked gently in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea as the music of the party boomed throughout the top deck.

While most of the super models, company owners and nepo-babies were already partying like the world is going to end in a few hours, John just finished wearing his party clothes.

He looked at himself in the mirror of his small room, trying to gather the confidence to not feel like an impostor.

He wore his best suit and tie with a nice blue buttoned shirt that would have looked perfect if it was only ironed.

“Well… this is it. Tomorrow the world ends” John thought to himself “might as well enjoy my last night”.

There were many conspiracies on how it was going to go down. Some thought that the stock market would zero out, some thought a bug would fry all the power grid and some thought glitch would send all of earth’s nukes at random cities and kill everyone. But there was one thing everyone who was on this boat agreed on ‘this is it, the world ends today’.

As John finished washing his face and walked to the window looking at the night sky. Earth’s first moon, Luna, was just a sliver of light in the night sky while the new moon, Diana, was fully glowing and bright.

John could not help but wonder to himself “what is the end of the world going to be”. As if predicting it would make it less painful.

“Maybe one of the moons would crash into the other.” John thought. It seemed possible, earths new moon was discovered in the seventies and was thought of as an asteroid, only in the eighties did it gain the status of a moon even though its orbit was more elliptical than the original.

“at least my last moments will not be boring” John said aloud as he poured himself a shot of whisky from the mini fridge and downed it immediately.

“Oh! that hit the spot” he said as he poured himself another small bottle of whisky to a shot glass and walked out the room with it.

The closer John got to the central staircase of the ship the more the party became unavoidable. Signs saying “Y2K ! Party like the world is going to end!” pointed with red arrows to the staircase and upwards while the air vibrated from the bass of the music even with a distance of 5 floors between them.

At first, he was overwhelmed with it all. Almost lost in the sounds and smells. But within half an hour john found himself dancing with confidence he didn’t know he had. Finally, for the first time in his life he felt like all these people were his equals and all worries seemed to fade.

For the first time in his life People approached him and tried to flirt, it felt good not having to chase others and play the stupid games, everybody was just all over everyone. The music was so good that he forgot how loud it was and there were whole bottles of alcohol at an open bar just up for grabs, and there were enough for everyone. John even managed to find plates of mini sandwiches the crew of the ship kept handing out the party was everything he wanted it to be.

John had so much fun he forgot to look at the clock; he was so absorbed in drinking, flirting dancing and even making out that he was almost caught off guard when everyone started to count back from ten signaling the end of days. By the end of the count ,in the far distance, a huge missile was flying upwards lighting up the night sky in a streak of light.

“Ah nukes! Called it” John was almost relieved. Almost everyone stopped and looked up as the missile kept getting smaller and smaller.

“it’s not coming down ! we’re saved!” someone shouted.

Before anybody had time to process the fact that this bomb might not fall on them and end them all, the nuke hit and blew up the new moon at the moment it was closest to earth.

It felt like it happened too quickly, but John knew it took about 30 minutes from the moment they saw the missile to when the moon, Diana, exploded.

In that time John only managed to sober up for a moment and get a better vantage point somewhere up on the stairs to the sitting area above the main party zone.

At first, he didn’t know what he was looking at. The moon broke off into dust.

This white powder fell from heaven in a bright white streaks of light; John was unable to remove his eyes from the sky throughout the entire thing, even when people were screaming, or the burning powder touched his skin.

He did not avert his eye for a moment as the substance rained down on the ship and signed the deck. He did not even flinch when a chunk of it fell right beside him, embedding itself in the steel of the wall he was standing next to, the same one holding the stairs he was on.

While the moon dust already covered him from the small bits that fell like rain until this point John found himself unable to resist the urge to pick the stone up.

As he reached out to touch it his hands were already covered in small blue crystals that seemed to grow out of his skin that slowly turned gray.

It didn’t even hurt, for some reason John thought it pleasant.

He picked up the volcanic rock like gray and slightly glowing space rock and looked around.

Most party goers were already consumed with the crystals, many of them with purple crystals growing from their eyes were already hunting anything that is not purple with perfect unity. Another party goer with red crystals growing from their neck started to smash their head against the wall but seemed to enjoy the process and regrow any damage taken.

Some of the folks, already covered in yellow crystals around their back and jaws, were happily eating people. While some dude in a really fancy suit writhed with pain as green crystals emerged from his spine.

“They are not taking this well” John thought to himself calmly as he walked down the stairs to the bar with intent to pour himself a drink.

As he looked at the liquid and saw his own reflection, he was immediately filled with pride as all thirst and hunger vanished, his head was already growing a crown of beautiful blue crystals that made him feel like royalty.

An electric spark glimmered in his eye as a feeling of raw power surged through his hands and feet .

“Poor idiots, crack at the first sign of trouble, I am better than this, I can make them listen“

He stepped forward smiling almost from ear to ear

“This boat is mine” he shouted with his mind to anyone who would dare challenge him.

What was once John immediately went to delete any opposition , claiming the ship as his own.