Long Live the Queen

The broadcast of the Queen's speeches was a spectacle. Hearing her soft stern voice in hard times made the heartiest calm and the weakest strong. She did not speak often or address the nation  in such ways unless absolutely necessary and times were dire indeed. So when it was announced she was going to speak the whole nation was glued to the airwaves waiting to be reassured and calmed.

"I'm speaking to you in what I know is an increasingly challenging time." She began. Regal as always, calm and resolute. "A time of disruption in the life of our country...and the world."

"I had hoped my words could give you solace and hope in these times but alas I fear my words will do the opposite." A beat and then she pressed forward.

"I've been holding a secret in for these last 90 or so years. I wish to tell you all the truth and fix this mess. I will heal you all and rid this world of your suffering." The Queen looks visibly distressed as she stares into the camera, as if she's staring into the eyes of the millions she is currently addressing. This isn't the first disaster she has weathered, this isn't the first address she's given but she seems different. More upset, more distracted, more distant than usual.

"I've been waiting all this time to see if you're all worthy of my love. I have seen much pain and suffering in this life yet I held out hope. That hope has faded though, now I must fulfill my sacred duty. "

Sacred duty? Those who sat in anticipation for the Queen's words looked at each other in confusion. Many of them had heard the Queen speak before, send a word of comfort, of advice, a lighthouse on the cliff bearing all ships to her. Now she spoke in cryptic almost biblical terms. This was not normal.

"To rid this world of suffering I must rid the world of that which causes suffering.....that means you. All of you."

In that moment it was as if the world held their collective breath. The weight of the words crushed all sense of hope, any notion of normalcy. There was a fleeting hint of sarcasm but that was destroyed by the look in the Queen's eye. She was not one to joke, or to mince words. She was a woman of action.

She stood slowly and the lights around her grew bright. With that the transmission was cut. All faces glued to the televisions, all ears on the radio, waiting for some conclusion, some reassurance that perhaps her words were a joke and she was simply, finally, showing her age and speaking nonsensically. But their wishes were dashed as they felt the trembling below their feet. England was not known for earthquakes but those from all places from shore to shore across the land felt a trembling as if the Earth were waking up below their feet.

Those entranced by the confusing broadcast didn't feel it until it grew strong enough to shake items off the walls. Men, women, and children rushed outside to escape the falling items. Children cried and adults screamed in terror as the ground quaked in ways they had never felt on that island. All eyes scanned the landscape looking for some respite, when they saw it.

It towered over the countryside, was visible from all corners of the country. Across the channel in France they could see it, as well as in Spain, and Germany. If reports could go out, if people were able to read them, they'd know that from Iceland to the eastern most parts of Europe they could spy something looming large over the small dwarfed island nation. The same nation that once held dominion over the whole world. The greatest empire, covered in shadow by a giant luminous being. It was silver, free of marks of age or wear, held the visage of a human only in part. It was bipedal with arms that arched far over the horizon.

All eyes were drawn to this entity, frozen in awe and fear. As the being kept growing the quaking grew in intensity. The waves lashed from the sea, crashing on ports and swallowing up ships at the docks, sending ripples up and down the coasts. The observers didn't bother running knowing deep down inside their souls there was no hiding from such a large being. After a minute the being stopped growing and stood still. Its features were imperceptible from those below but they could feel its eyes looking on them sweeping over the nation then moving about to those across the channel and farther still. Like a child looking over an anthill it held dominion over at its feet.

With its movements ceased the quaking subsided and the world could hear the screams of all those trapped or hurt from the devastation wrought by the creature. Even now no one could put two and two together. To know that what they looked upon was once their Queen. No one would understand before it was too late, though it mattered little understanding. It wouldn't save them.

Those below could hear their own breathing until a great wind swept by them. With it came a high pitched screeching as all the air was drawn towards the creature. Buildings rocked at their core by the quakes couldn't withstand the rushing of winds and fell atop those sheltered on the streets. Countless lives lost in the breeze as the creature seemed to take in a breath. Seconds passed as it filled its lungs with all the air of the world, or so it seemed to the people of the island. They struggled to breathe as they clutched their chest wishing for the air to return.

Fighting for air and footing as they too were pulled forth by the act of breathing they found their balance restored as the act was ceased. Any hope for a cessation of actions was lost minutes before as those still alive braced for whatever came next.

Across the world in the farthest reaches from the island called the United Kingdom sat a team of scientists on the ice of Antarctica looking at the horizon breathing easily yet alarmed at whatever was happening to cause their instruments to go haywire. One doctor help up a sound recorder that she had been dictating too as they felt the rush of wind pull at their coats. It wasn't as strong as on the island but akin to a low level tornado. Once it subsided a moment was shared where they talked about what just happened and then the sound came. The recorder would discern it as human speech when reviewed moments later but for human ears it was too loud, too forceful to be perceived. All across the world the wind was pushed back knocking over yet again another swath of buildings like a tsunami of air being pulled and pushed away by the creature.

In a fraction of a second all the ears on the island and Western Europe exploded from the sound. Most perished as their ears bled and their brains could scarcely handle the sheer volume of the sound. On the patch of ice as the doctors held their ears, from the deafening sound the recorder picked up one word, held out for as long as the wind was blowing.

"Perish."

Owing to the distance from the epicenter of destruction the doctors had just enough time to hear this one word before they felt its full effect and what came next.

On the island few remained alive. From the ebbing and flowing of the wind, the volume of the command from the creature and the chaos caused by the quakes, scant a soul persisted. So when the next actions took place no soul on the ground bared witness. From the height of the upper atmosphere the international space station, thus far saved from the destruction below was in silence as it skirted across the sky. They could see the creature, baffled into disbelief as it looked with spectral eyes across the ground below. With a massive effort that took minutes to complete, which could be done in mere seconds for a human, the creature raised its right hand above its head, grazing the space station and destroying satellites that fell to pieces towards Earth. The massive being touched the space beyond Earth and was unfazed by the feat. Its hand cast a shadow across the world, eclipsing the sun and turning the sky red as it readied its next move.

The world was caught in a freeze frame as the living things of the world sensed what was about to happen. Like moments before the air was pulled from those below but from fear and admonition of hope. Those who could still look and see simply watched as the arm swept from on high and plunged deep into the ground. The world shook violently as the ferocity of the strike ripped the ground asunder. Flames shot forth as magma poured forth around the arm of the being. The force sent the fissure forth ripping the world in two. Within minutes eruptions cascaded across the planet, volcanoes roaring to life, the ocean boiling off as it was introduced to heat not seen since the birth of the planet.

Those not directly in the path were sparred for mere moments as the domino effect took hold. One final voice cried out, the voice of the creature as it ripped into its own flesh exposing its bright core to the universe. The power of a star bearing down on the small rock as the creature punctured its core with a flaming fist of molten rock ripped from the bosom of the planet beneath. The few eyes who could see, those of the space station watched as a supernova erupted in front of them.

Silence descended on the solar system as the flash of light threw all manner of matter into the cold void. The Earth, Humanity, Life as was known to the planets in the neighborhood was snuffed out.

All that remained was an absence.