[ WP ] The world 's elite buy salvation in bunkers before global annihilation . The remaining people get saved by aliens and people in bunkers do n't realize they 've been left behind to live on a desolate planet .

I rub my bloodshot eyes, closing them, for a moment, to the harsh reality of the world. My family and I have absolutely no chance at survival, not a chance. I want to have no hope left, I want to give up, but I ca n't. That's the price of children, I guess. You always have to keep trying to help them, to save them. Maya and Jordan, my two little girls, my everlasting fountain of hope. Maya is just four, so little to be dead by next Tuesday. Jordan, eight, my big girl, but still do small. She has been brave, oh so brave, it breaks my heart to see her efforts to hide her sadness from her sister. If only I would've taken the job, we might've had enough. It's not like we were poor, we were on the higher end in our little town, but our wealth was nothing compared to other's. On our dying planet, there are not so many resources to be had, so when people focused on the bunkers, well, only the wealthiest could buy all the materials needed to build something to outlast the end of our planet. I start the long walk back to my family's tent. My dusty and broken shoes whiff up dust behind me. The walk seems longer with the last of our'groceries' hung over my back. A few stolen and moldy loaves of bread, a can of sardines and a bag of crushed chips. I ca n't help but be amazed at the changes to the world in just a few months. All meat animals hunted to extinction, to be made into food to store in a bunker. Trees, gone, will be used to keep bunkers warm. Huge scars in the earth are results of the metal and stone taken to build the bunkers. Only to save 3,000 people, not even a quarter of people on Earth. The population of the rest of the world has slowly been waning since then. Suicides is a large culprit. Mass suicides, homicides too. Some people feel that they would rather take their own life, or their family's life, themselves, instead of leaving it to mother nature. More lives are lost due to accidental overdoses everyday, once nice, kind people turned drug addicts to block the end of the world from memory, if only for a little while. Wild animals take more lives too, the ones that are left. Everyone that's still sane has moved out to the country, to get away from the death in the city streets. 
 Finally in the distance I see my well lit tent. Shadows dance across it, there's Amy, my wife, and Maya... and oh! Jordan, learning to cook with her mother. I smile for the first time today. I open the tent and step inside, Amy's careworn face lighting up. Today Amy's teaching Jordan to make a delicious chicken soup. The poor chicken we are using the first chicken I have ever tried to kill, so it did n't go to well, but eventually we got it, and here it is. 
 `` Yum.'' I sniff, smile and kiss Jordan on the top of her head. Maya flies around the tent and I kneel, grab her around the waist, and swing her up into the air, over my head. She squeals, a small, childish, squeak that fills me with joy. Her shiny black hair is sliding out of it's pony tail and I take it out all together. Then we eat. 
 The food is n't the best, that's reserved for the bunkermates, the people who are inside the bunkers, but it's good enough to get down, so I keep smiling. Since we found out about the End, I have committed to smile whenever I can with my family. 
 
 That night I lay on my lumpy bed, sandwiched between Maya and Jordan. Everyone is asleep but me. I gaze up to the roof of our small tent and wonder how it will end. Only high officials know, to keep people from panicking, but I have theories. I've chosen not to share them with my family, hell, Maya does n't even know what's coming yet! I wish we were on the inside. 
 
 I get up- before anyone else. I pack a small lunch, eat a breakfast and head out. Maya lets out a small noise as I slip out, and I pause, but she is not awake. This is the last day of getting into the bunker, before they close it forever. I have a thought of my brother, living it up, surviving, probably not giving us a thought. My face twists into anger. Who does he think he is? We are is only family now! And he runs and hides, leaving us here! What has he done? I pound my fist into a pole standing nearby, frightening off the game in all nearby places. Not that it's anything but lizards and snakes, leftovers of the bunkermates. That chicken I found two days go was just dumb luck. I sigh and head across the dusty land to try and find a couple of lizards. 
 
 With the sun low in the sky I head home. Nothing is in the pack I brought to carry food home so we have a quick dinner of the things I brought home yesterday. Halfway through the meal Maya is n't eating anything. 
 `` Sweetie,'' Amy says, already halfway done with her food, `` You are n't eating anything.'' 
 Maya pouts, and cries as I knew she would, `` I do n't want this! It's GROSS!'' Tears run down her thin cheeks, thin from eating almost nothing. They should still be chubby with baby fat. I take her up into my arms and whisper to her, `` Honey, It's all we have, please try to eat something.'' 
 `` NOOO!'' She screams, pounding her tiny fists on the table, spilling chip bits everywhere. Amy storms out, to clear her head. I rock Maya, calming her. I do n't know what to do. We have nothing else. 
 
 
 The day is approaching fast. Two days from now I will be dead, I think to myself as I stand in the hot air, trying to spot an edible lizard. I wipe below the bandanna shielding my eyes, it's hot, hotter than other days I can remember. Suddenly a lizard comes out of nowhere and I grab it, turning towards home before I even kill the lizard. 
 The trek back is hot and dusty. I promise myself that in these last days I will spend all of my time with my family, they are most important to me now- the only thing that will not run, that will stand with me. They will not break just bend, they will be true. 
 Amy smiles when she sees me home early, with only that ever present worry behind here expression to sadden me. Maya and Jordan run to me, jump into my arms. `` My girls. Oh, My beautiful girls.'' I whisper into their dark hair. My only regret will be not being able to see them grow up. 
 
 That night as I lay in bed, Jordan presses against me and whispers something I can not quite make out. `` What?'' I whisper into the darkness, and she presses soft lips against my ear. 
 `` Daddy, I'm scared.'' Her voice trembles in that endearing way only a child could muster. `` I know.'' I whisper back holding her tightly. 
 
 
 I wake to a whirring, a putting, noises I'd expect a computer to make. No, that could n't be- computers were long gone out here. Next is the light, a bright blue blinding light, hurting my eyes even if they are closed. Is this the end? Did they time it wrong? Maya and Jordan are sobbing silently next to me, they are scared. Amy is scared too, I know it through here tight breathing, the ways she hugs Maya to her. Jordan is sitting up and I sit up and wrap my arms around her. She does n't know what is coming, but she knows she will die. 
 
 cli-click 
 
 I swing around, heart thumping at the sound of a handgun. Amy has it pointing at the entrance of the tent. Then she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath. I know she is going to do. She points the pistol at Maya. My daughter! Our daughter! No! 
 `` You know I have to do this Mark. I do n't know what's out there, but it's got ta be worse than this. I'm going to do it. Do n't try to stop me.'' I do n't try to stop her, but I still scream when I hear the sound. I know Jordan's next. She's even worse, she knows what's going to happen. Her big eyes find mine, she's looking for a way out. She's scared, so scared. I hold her tighter, and then she's gone. Her body feels light, like something really important was taken out. I lay her on the ground. Her glassy eyes watch me and slowly I close them. 
 `` Your turn.'' My murderer wife's voice is surprisingly steady. She is always the weak and scared one. Now it's my turn. But she never gets the chance. the tent spins away like Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz. Now I can see the creature. It's blob like and iridescent and it speaks. But not out loud. 
 `` We are here to save you from the end of times. Come.'' My first thought is'Hell No!' but then I realize that if I do n't I will just die. I walk into the light, Amy following. I ca n't even look at her. She thought she was saving our daughters but instead she was killing them. I ca n't do it. I run back to the tent. Firing the gun is easier than I thought, especially when I have nothing to live for. Even if I know it's going to kill me.
