"And I saw a pale horse
and a pale rider upon it
and the name of the horse was Pestilence
and the name of the rider was Death."
Revelations 6:8

It was a beautiful summer day. The sun was out, the lake was free of its usual grime, even the criminals seemed to be having a day off, everything was right with the world. It was June. It was eighty degrees. And Amy and Lucy, two attractive high school girls, were sweltering in their tight long skirts and sweaters. They must, both of them thought, go to the only high school in the state that makes the kids where these uniform things, instead of the own clothes allowed in the next town over.

The lesson, math, was frightfully boring. Mr. Reynolds prattled on as he always did "Pi is the circumference of the square of the other two sides", he enunciated in his booming voice, "so if the other two sides equal the circumference, Pi must equal, the same as the other two sides". Amy visibly yawned and made no attempt to hide it.

Finally, a bell rang and the class grabbed their stuff and left the stuffy room. Lucy caught up with her boyfriend Mike outside. "Hey Luce", he said brightly, "looking fineee today", he put his normal emphasis on the "e" of fine. It was one of his many eccentricities. "You too, Mike", she answered, playfully touching his ass.

The three walked out into the sunshine. And froze. For there was a comet in the sky. It burned bright orange against the blue and looked therefore very conspicuous. "What the hell", Mike asked, trailing off as no one had any answers. It seemed like the whole world had frozen as the three stared in mute disbelief.

Amy, Lucy and Mike had finally got home. In all the confusion there had been obscene traffic jams with everyone trying to reach "safety" and generally wanting to be anywhere but where they were. It was chaos. As the three entered Amy's house, they noticed a new report on the television which Amy's mom was watching.

"And the comet entered our solar system some months ago", said an enthused NBC reporter, "scientists around the world thought it to be benevolent, but have now been proved wrong. The mass of molten rock and space debris is now hurtling towards Earth at several hundred miles per second and is estimated to hit somewhere in the North of Canada, wiping most of the country off the map, and spreading dangerous conditions across the whole planet. Us in the States will be among the first after that to go unless something can be done, but President Toby Ronne is not optimistic".

The picture changed to the kindly looking old man who had been elected President two and a half years ago and was generally thought of as practically a lame duck already. This might just restore his chances, if he could sort it out. If not, there would be no election anyway. Everyone would be dead. "My fellow Americans", he began, "this grave danger needs to be met head on", he continued to give a very states-manly performance for some minutes, and then the charismatic reporter continued, aided by some visual effects of the comet passing through the Sol system.

The three stood there in utter panic, and it seemed that the whole world felt the same way. Was this it? Surely not? Or was it?

(cheesy drumroll) To be continued...