[ WP ] You 've spent your entire life leading up to your greatest dream - becoming an astronaut . But when you 're transported to space , a bright light flashes behind you . Earth has become a brilliant fireball before your eyes . Ground control wo n't respond . You 're stuck .

Ground control do you copy?!'' Static... `` Ground control this is Capitan McPherson!'' `` What the hell happened down there?!'' Please respond!'' Still nothing but static... Kevin McPherson let out a long sigh and wearily rubbed his eyes. Hoping against hope that this was all just some messed up dream. Perhaps an hallucination of some sort. He closed his left hand, clinching it into a tight fist then opened it. He sat there staring at his hand for a bit and then stared out through the shuttle window at where the earth should be. Where it USED to be. Indeed this was n't a dream. This was his new reality. `` Jesus...'' he muttered to himself, trying to make sense of it all.What the hell could have possibly caused this? He wondered. Nuclear war? Kevin knew that the political climate was certainly tense, as it usually was but it could n't have been THAT tense for all out nuclear annihilation to happen and even so it would n't have been bad enough to make the whole godamn planet disappear. An asteroid? No way, they would have seen it coming and again there would still at least be something left of the planet. He felt like he was trapped in a bad ripoff of a twilight zone episode or something.... His overloaded mind trying to process what had transpired in the last 20 chaotic minutes after he had entered space. 
 
 The launch from Cape Canaveral had gone smoothly. He was finally living out his dream of being a true astronaut and exploring space. All the years of arduous training and preparation had led him to this moment. Ever since he was a 9 year old kid watching the shows outlaw star and gundam wing on toonami late nights, It's all he ever wanted to do. He grew up in a small rural town where most of his peers would go on to work menial factory, retail, and office jobs. Screw that noise. Space was the place for him and nothing else. He was the stereotypical weird kid in school. Always wearing nasa and space themed shirts and reading books on astronomy. The other kids would often refer to him as the `` alien'' or `` space case''. Kevin smiled to himself as he was exiting the earth's exosphere, reflecting upon this. If only they could see him now. His former classmates, those that had mocked him, the shitty teacher in 7th grade that said to kevin that the best he could probably hope to amount to was to be a garbage man in front of the whole class. They had all looked down on him for all those years and now he was far above all of them. Far above all the bullshit of terrestrial life as a human. He made sure to have Beethoven's `` ode to joy'' playing while he made his fateful entrance into the cosmos. The swirling euphoric chorus reverberating through his head. All was going according to plan. He had done it. He had successfully entered space. His dream finally realized. He could see the earth in all of it's blue splendor, silhouetted against the vast black canvas of the universe. The sight nearly brought tears to his eyes. It all seemed so perfect in that moment. 
 
 Just as Kevin was about to turn away from the resplendent sight, what appeared to be an orange speck suddenly appeared on the earth's surface. The reddish orange light began to rapidly expand like some sort of nightmarish hellflower coming into full bloom. Within a few minutes the entire earth was engulfed in orange and red. Omega was blossoming right before his very eyes. The temperature reading on the spectrometer was going off the charts. Kevin was transfixed in equal parts horror and astonishment. He tried to mouth the words `` what the fuck?'' as if that statement would somehow explain the calamity unfolding before his eyes but all that came out was a hoarse croak. The orange and red fireball that had once been the blue earth then became blinding white. Kevin had to shield his eyes and turn away. It was all happening so fast. There was no time to think, only react. When he lifted his head to continue looking at the unprecedented sight, to his utter confoundment the earth was no where to be seen. Gone, vanished in a flash. Nothing.... 
 
 That was just over 5 hours ago. Kevin now sat there in near delirium. Trying to stay calm and not let a full on panic attack overwhelm him. The reality of the situation just now starting to sink in. So many emotions weighed down on him. At this point though he just felt numb. He glanced at a picture of him and his fiance that he had smuggled on board with him to give himself some comfort whenever the loneliness became too much. The picture was of them at the beach this past summer right at sunset. In it he was giving her a piggyback ride. They were goofing around having the time of their lives, enjoying their youth. Her best friend who was there thought it was a sweet moment and was the one who took the picture. Seeing the expressions of genuine love and happiness on their faces. Both of them laughing like idiots. `` That was a fun day'' Kevin recalled. The memory of it for him now unfortunately was very bittersweet. `` Katie...'' he said quietly to himself. Saying her name eased his mind a bit. They had decided to postpone the wedding until after he got back from his mission. A decision he now regretted. He wondered what she had been doing at the moment of eradication. Had she been thinking of him? There was no point in asking such useless questions. All that seemed to be certain is that she was... gone. His parents who had been so proud of him achieving his dreams were gone. Friends, family, co-workers, enemies, strangers, everyone, everything. All erased and returned to the eternal ether as stardust. The full magnitude of this deprivation for kevin, of how truly alone he now was, struck him very profoundly in that moment. The urge to scream out in frustration and fear had overcome him. He knew that he must conserve what precious little oxygen he had left but what did living really mean anymore? Kevin felt madness and despair wash over him in all of it's totality. He flicked on the switch of the transceiver. `` Ground control. Come in'' he said, his tone of voice flat and disconnected, the voice of a defeated man. `` This is Captain McPherson. Can you hear me?'' He knew it was a futile effort. The last desperate attempt of a man slowly drowning in an infinite black ocean clutching out blindly to a lifeline that led to nowhere, but it was all he had left of what had connected him to getting back home. That is if there had actually been a home left to go back to. `` Someone, anyone'' he says weakly. Choking back tears. How pathetic he must seem right now he bitterly thought. `` Please just... give me a sign that you're there. That you're alive.'' 
 All that was left to answer back was the sound of static. Hissing and filling his head with it's cold unwavering dullness that reassured him that he was truly alone. 
 
 He dropped the transceiver and slunked down deeply in his seat. All semblance of hope leaving him. He stared ahead blankly out the window at where the earth should be. Used to be. Bits of rock were all that remained of the once mighty blue planet. Framed against the backdrop of infinite black nothingness. Creation and destruction. Millions of years of formation and evolution. The emergence of man. The concept of history. All of humanity's achievements, advancements, all of the generations that have come and gone, all of the wars ever fought under the guise of ideologies, political agendas, or want of resources. Each individual person's hopes and ambitions. Individuality itself, Love, Companionship, Morality, fear, anguish, greed, art, religion, knowledge and the seeking of it. All that we had ever known. This is what it all amounted to. All of existence was a long drawn out build up to this moment. The end result that was formlessness and timelessness. It all seemed so clear to kevin at that moment. The concept of Value was such a crazy, preposterous thing he thought. And as he stared long into the abyss, so too did the abyss stare long into him. `` So this is what the utmost depths of existential despair feels like huh?'' Kevin​ thought to himself, feeling somewhat amused by this statement for whatever reason. Then, he suddenly remembered a line from taxi driver. One of his all time favorite movies. `` Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man...'' Kevin giggled to himself breaking the oppressive silence. Insanity seemed to be his only companion now. `` Yep'' Kevin thought to himself. `` There was simply no use in denying it. This was a pretty fucked up situation all around no matter how you look at it.'' 
 
 [ Cue Marilyn Manson's Disassociative. Fade out ] 
 
 To be continued.....? 

