text: Whenever the end of the world happens in movies, it always seems to happen in America. Max thought that this was odd considering that surely the end of the world is just that, the end of the world, and not just this year's actor of choice running away from zombies with artfully placed blood and dirt all over them. Well, as it turned out, the end of the world had nothing to with zombies or a new strain of measles killing everyone or even the rapture as so many people on so many street corners in so many cities would have liked you to think. In truth, it came with plenty of warning unlike all of those other scenarios. The asteroid barrelled its way into the solar system and it was massive, the size of London which made it big news. No one was worries about it at first, it seemed perfectly obvious that it would simply crash into jupiter or some other large celestial body. As time went on, however, that seemed like a smaller and smaller possibility as the magnitude of what was happening sunk in on a global scale. Max felt like the entire world was going through the stages of grief. A massively personified reaction on a global scale. He wasn't sure if they had reach acceptance yet but then again, what was there to accept? Everyone and everything would be destroyed and there was nothing to do about it. How depressing. Just as he had moved out and was about to begin his life as an adult the whole world decided to end just to spite him. Perses, the name of the asteroid, became a fixture of life looming over the world metaphorically and soon enough physically as it was able to be seen even during the day. It had become a sort of tradition for Max and his sister Judy to watch the sunrise and just watch Perse hurtling towards them. "How long did they say it'll take?" Judy asked, leaning forward onto the railing in front of their flat. "Well, some people say three days and some two." "What do you think?" Max shrugged, "I'm not a scientist but looking at it, it can't be long now," he laughed mockingly, "Funny how all of these billionaires, even Elon Musk with his rockets, can't escape this. The end of the world truly is the great equaliser." "That's true," a pause, a shaky exhalation of breath, "I'm scared." A hand gripping the railing, gripping another hand, "Me too." "Do you want it to hit near us or not? I'm not sure to be honest, do I want it to be over in a flash or not?" Judy was a smart kid, top set in all her classes, too bad she wouldn't life to sit her GCSE's let alone do anything with that big brain of hers. "Well I hate all of this waiting, it's torture. People still have hope that NASA will save the day but come on! We're going to end up like the dinosaurs and everyone knows it," Max felt so powerless. Both of their parents had decended into a stupor of drink and drugs, clearly the end of the world meant that they were going to catch up on everything that they hadn't had the chance to do. It left Judy and Max terribly alone at the time when they needed support the most. "Come on, let's go for a drive." "But you haven't passed your test yet!" Judy looked truly shocked and it made Max want to cry, he had missed so much of her growing up even in his short time at university. He looked at her blankly, "Does it matter? It's not like anyone cares." Max wasn't sure where he wanted to go until they were both in their dad's car and he was driving there. The lake was one they would go to on the weekend to walk around and see some nature and he knew the place well. Whatever other people were doing with their last hours, it wasn't going to their local lake and they had the whole place to themselves. Max decided to drive right up to the edge of the lake and sit on the bonnet of the car like in the movies, it made him happy and anything that made him happy nowadays was worth doing. The siblings sat together on the bonnet of the car, not speaking. There was nothing to say, nothing to apologise for and no more amendments to make-those had all been said and done days ago. All that there was left to do was to watch the ducks swimming along the surface of the lake. If they knew that something was wrong they didn't show it. Suddenly his phone started to buzz violently, the news updates were pinging on his phone in quick succession but the information took its time to fully settle into his head. Perses was speeding up at and unprecedented rate and was on a collision course with the moon. A hope that Max hadn't even realised he still had died in him; there had been talks of sending a rocket up to deflect the path of Perses straight into the moon. There wasn't even enough time to tell Judy before it happened. There was no noise but the moon suddenly came lurching into view. It was mid afternoon but the moon shone bright in the sky, too bright and too large. Just grabbed his arm, "What's happening? Max?" "It's Perses, it hit the moon. It's coming towards us," his heart felt like it had turned to lead and ripped out of his chest, "I-I don't know what will happen now. I can see it getting bigger, oh god." "Max," Judy sounded calm, calmer than she had been in days and calmer than he felt, "it's ok. Let's just sit here. Look! You can see the reflection of the moon on the lake, it's huge!" "You're right, Jude. It's beautiful..."