The hours went by slowly for Natasha Jones as she sat near the Pod, waiting as patiently as she could for it to finish fixing itself. She had kicked off her flip flops and sat down by the little pond she had bathed in earlier. It was still the water was still soapy, but it was cool and refreshing to have her feet dipped in. The ground was a little uncomfortable at first, with a variety of rocks or gravel or whatever poking her butt as she sat down, but after wriggling her self in the brittle stones shattered under her weight.

She was still feeling a little bloated and gassy from lunch. Several times as she sat watching the incoming sunset she lifted herself up on her leg to relief the pressure in her guts. The first thing she would do upon returning home was make a real meal with actual food and not the overly processed garbage she had to eat on the long journeys in the Pod.

It was finally starting to get dark. She'd have to go inside the Pod soon enough, unless she wanted to be some alien wolf or something to eat her. The strange thing was she hadn't actually heard any wildlife at all since getting here. Maybe some bugs buzzing around, but nothing bigger than a fly. No mating calls, no sounds of something scampering around, nothing. Then again, there wasn't really much here on this planet. Just grass, ponds, and rocks. Maybe it was a planet still in its infancy. She wondered if anyone else knew about this planet.

Still, it was peaceful here. There was a blissful quiet that she wasn't used to, having grown up in New York City. This was a planet that was not only undisturbed by mankind, but also barely touched by any kind of species. There were no sirens wailing constantly, no cars or voices ringing out endlessly. As the sun began to set, and the stars began to come out, she saw the infinite of space with much clearly than ever. She had never been camping, never been out into the wilderness and away from the modern comforts of civilization. The last time she'd seen the tens of thousands of bright orbs that dotting sky with this much clarity was on a school field trip to the planetarium. But faced with it now, she found it beautiful and, for the first time since arriving, forgot about the Pod's long repair time, losing herself in the majesty that was infinite space.

A soft rumble quaked in her belly, and she lifted herself up on her leg...

…

There was nothing left.

The once civilization that, mere hours ago, had been a growing empire, the largest for miles, sat destroyed and abandoned. The crops had, as the buildings and homes had, been leveled, trampled, crushed, and obliterated to mere dust. So much that there was hardly any trace of it; now there was miles of flat earth, inhabited only by the Goddess and the demons she had unleashed upon the world.

Corpses (at least those not reduced to pulp) littered the area. Some were denizens of the once great city, some were the skeletal remains of the livestock that had been mercilessly hunted, and many were birds that had begun to fall out of the sky. The same was said for the Great Lake, whose population of fish had almost entirely succumbed to the wrath of the goddess, their lifeless bodies bobbing in the contaminated water. Splashes from the Goddess's feet trapped some of the few lucky (or unlucky) enough to survive this long onto the shore, helplessly gasping for breath. The native species brave enough to try and explore close enough to the Goddess and eat these fish soon became sick and died from the contaminated food.

The air was thick and heavy and poisonous around the ruined city and lake. Those who hiding in the surrounding forest were forced to venture on as they began to choke and collapse. Many were left where they fell and these unfortunate souls soon perished. As the hours passed, even the vegetation slowly began to wilt. The damage would take days, perhaps months, but the death of the forest, and even the very soil beneath it, had already begun. And as another great eruption boomed, the citizens of the city fled in terror, never to return.

Many would retreat to other pockets of civilization, most of which did not have the resources to sustain a sudden increase in population. Storages of food quickly were quickly depleted and, with it, civility. Blood began to be spilled over meager scrapes, and tools for building and hunting were suddenly lifted as weapons. Though violence was not new to this planet and its primitive population, war was. Towns that had been at peace for years now turned on each other, its people raiding the other for their supplies.

The desperation for food led to a ravage increase in hunting, sending the numbers of many species into a nose dive, as parties traveled far and wide for prey. These parties would often encounter the demons brought by the Goddess. These monsters would often tear the hunters apart, and the few that were killed were found to be poisonous by the desperate population. Other times they would discover the pestilence, bringing it back to their homes.

The apocalypse had come.

…

Just as Natasha thought of heading to sleep, a loud beep emitted from the Pod, the lights of which went from red to green. The repairs were finally done. She stood up, wiping the dirt and dust off her butt (raining a flurry of flattened corpses and rubble to the ground) and turned towards the Pod. At least she'd finally get going on her way now. Slipping her flip flops back on she took one last look at the expansive night sky and then headed to the Pod.

Moments later, with an incredible din, the Pod came to live and a burst of gas and flames belched from the thrusters, razing the earth below. The fires that the population had thought would come from the “erupting volcanoes” finally came, and they spread quickly, further hastening the ruin of the land. But there was more. Ash and smoke were blown into the atmosphere, blanketing the sky and would do so for weeks and months. The fires scorched everything that had once grown in this previously lush earth, and the dark clouds from the Pod would ensure that nothing else would ever grow again. As the massive spacecraft lifted in the air, the smoke spread across oceans and block the sun for several continents whose people had not even laid eyes on the Goddess. Vegetation far and wide would die, and famine would rule the day. Then the migrating birds, seeking new lands, would bring the plague.

Finally, death would make its rounds. As the vegetation died many species followed suit. Mass extinction followed in the wake of the Goddess's visit and they would continue for years. Ecosystems, with no animals to balance them, collapsed. Civilization would outlast most of these species, warring against each other for what scraps could be found. But, eventually, there would be nothing left to fight over, and there were none healthy enough to fight as the pestilence ravaged.

Time would heal the planet. Centuries would pass, the dark clouds would fade and the vegetation would return and so to would civilization. The new generation would find ancient ruins of long gone societies. They found scrolls that described a great Goddess descending in a massive castle and unleashing destruction and death upon the earth. Millions of years after the Goddess's appearance, stories were still told of her and her savage wrath. Religions were founded, and statues were created to worship and offer sacrifices to keep the Goddess appeased. Preachers, often claiming to be able to hear the voice of the Goddess, speak in her authority to masses, telling her laws must be followed, lest she return and bring another apocalypse on the earth to start again, much like she had done before.

And for centuries, those who remained on the planet would occasionally still look up at the sky, worried for the Goddess's judgement.

THE END