SepSceneWriMo 2022 – Day 11 – A day off.

After about 45 minutes of swirling in your office chair, you are finally ready to check your emails. Let’s see how much more work is required of me today. First, you open the ones that you know are company newsletters and run-of-the-mill announcements. You scan each one to make sure that there is no end-of-the-world event communicated, and then you send them to the Trash folder. That’s about 25% of the new messages in your Inbox. Then, you open the ones that have the same title but are from different people – hopefully, others have already taken care of the problem, and/or you are just included as FYI. People really need to learn when it’s OK to ‘reply to all’ and when it’s not. If someone sends a group message and asks for people to RSVP, there is no need to reply to all. You can either tell your co-workers when you chat to them at the water cooler in the next 3 minutes or just keep it a surprise until you all meet at the party. Only the person that asked truly needs to know. You roll your eyes and take a deep breath. The bulk of your messages is from your boss. The first one you open asks you to forward your presentation to them so they can review it and potentially add to it. A presentation that you only began to work on the day before. A presentation that has two slides – the title and the thank yous.

Right as you open your PowerPoint, you hear chimes. You look around – at your computer and phone to see if it’s a ringer you forgot about – but the chiming continues, and you cannot find the source. Then, a voice comes from above you: “Today is Eschaton. Please exit the building in a calm fashion. You will then be provided with additional guidance.”

You think of ignoring the alarm and getting back to your presentation, but your co-workers start congregating in the hallway in front of your office, confused as to what is going on. “Today is Eschaton. Please exit the building in a calm fashion. You will then be provided with additional guidance.” The voice from above repeats.

“Escha-what?” Bree asks, but everyone just shrugs.

“Eschaton,” you reply with a sigh and join your co-workers in the hallway. “It’s basically Judgement Day,” you add, realizing that it probably is not going to help anyone anyway. It’s not like like we do Judgment Day drills… You smile and hope that others don’t notice. You don’t want them to think you’re crazy, but you’re just tickled how you’ve only recently learned the meaning of that word from BBprompt – a blogging community. It almost makes you feel like you are the most qualified to be the leader of your group for whatever comes next.

They look to you and then at the windows – more and more people pour out onto the lawn in front of the building. As the voice repeats its orders again, your co-workers go back to their offices to grab their belongings. “You won’t need those where we’re going,” you want to say, but you bite your tongue.

Once everyone has their wallets, their phones, their purses, and more, you walk downstairs and out – people asking one another if they know what is going on. Outside, two of your co-workers call their wives, and another three call their kids – they, too, have heard the chimes and have gone outside.

“Please get in your appropriate line. Single file,” a man with a crossing guard vest on motions towards the two signs that just appeared out of thin air – ‘Wrong doing’ and ‘Right doing.’

You look around to see how people are reacting – if it’s some kind of an elaborate prank, you’ll have great material to write about. There are people crying, people trying to run away, people on their knees praying, and people that just stand around chatting.

A visibly larger crowd gathers at the entrance to the ‘Right doing’ lane.

“What stops someone from joining the line for the righteous, even if they know they have committed grave sins?” You ask the man who announced the separate lanes.

“Sin detectors,” he points to the beginning of the lines to things that look like airport body scanners. “When it’s your turn, you go in, and it either lights up green or red, depending on your soul’s purity. If you get red at the ‘Wrong doing’ lane, you get to exit that scanner and go straight to our ‘Lounge of the Righteous’ – where we have all sorts of foods, drinks, and amenities – to await final transport to Heaven. There, you will receive an additional award for your humility. If, however, you get a red light in the ‘Right doing’ lane, then you get the privilege of being tortured in front of everyone who awaits their scan until everyone is processed. Then, of course, you get an express ticket to Hell.

You gulp audibly. Well, at least I don’t have to finish my presentation.

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P.S. The final paragraphs starting from: “A visibly larger crowd…” have been added five days after the original story had been published. Sometimes you just think of things to add after the fact.

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“Write a story inspired by the word ‘eschaton'”
– prompt used for this CW piece.
[Source: BlogBattle]

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P.S. As always, you are more than welcome to use this prompt to inspire your post. If you decide to write something, be sure to pingback to this post so that I can get an alert and check out your piece. (A post on how to do pingbacks can be found here.) If pingbacks are not your thing, feel free to simply leave a link to your piece in the comment section below. The more, the merrier!

Stay golden,

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