2012 Apocalypse

The 2024 that you know and live in, is a world that didn't end in 2012, as so many believed at the time. There was even a movie made about this possible future, alongside many speculative pieces of fiction and articles that wondered if the world would really end. It was very much like the Y2K scare from 1999 where so many thought the world was going to end! Fortunately that never happened and let's hope the next doomsday event is also a massive lie that never comes true. Yet, what if 2012 actually did end with a bang? No, I don't mean fireworks and New Year celebrations! I mean, honest to god, worldwide destruction on a scale once believed impossible, only existing in the tales of post Apocalyptic books, movies and television. Could you imagine the earth beneath your feet crumbling before your very eyes, as people fall in-between the cracks and fall fatally into the red hot hell that is the earth's core? Imagine tornados so epic and awful; they devour entire skyscrapers, making cities like New York look like junkyards. Imagine the largest tsunami wave you've ever seen times one million, hurdling towards shore with the cruel intent of destroying all of civilization. Imagine the sky turning red like that of hell itself, as the climate struggles to maintain itself. All of these terrifying tales could have easily come true in 2012. Sure, it's easy to laugh at the scaremongers who genuinely thought all life on earth was about to go extinct. It is very easy to presume anyone who says; "the world will end soon!" Is a liar or simply insane. Yet the earth is an ever evolving planet, one that has been circling the galaxy long before humanity first took its very first breath and will still spin long after we all perish. We'll either die out because of some deadly virus, or Mother Nature herself will decide to unleash some massive world ending event, one that will make every country on earth quake, shaking whole societies into chaos, destroying all roads, buildings and societal structures in one big massive rumble felt all around the globe. Perhaps the oceans will invade the land, sinking whole islands into the bottom of the sea. Maybe the earth's hot core will boil over into the big American cities, as volcanos erupt all over the planet like nuclear bombs! Lava will melt the streets into grotesque mountains of black and red, the people swallowed up by these disasters will die in absolute agony, becoming one with the lava as their bodies melt into soup. Perhaps in an alternate Universe, 2012 was when this earth ending disaster struck. Would anyone survive the initial self-destruction of the planet? only to explore the rotten remains of Earthling society? Maybe? Perhaps those locking themselves deep, deep underground will survive these disasters and inherit a new world full of death and decay. Eventually Mother Nature's plan would have ceased and so anyone surviving might get to experience the rest of their lives without anymore disasters to come.

In an alternate 2024, 12 years after the disaster of 2012:
Chris Harley climbed out of his bunker five years after the world ended in 2012, now it was 2017. He had finally used up all of his supplies and food, feeling no choice but to resurface and witness the horrifying world after the apocalypse. It took him almost a whole year until he found life on the surface. There was a small community of religious folk, all of which believed that God had spared them his wrath, leaving behind a new earth clean from the societal evils of life before 2012. Chris found that hard to believe however, as this religious group (calling themselves The Chosen) acted like the horrifying post Apocalyptic wasteland was some sort of heaven, despite the fact it more closely resembled that of hell. What with its sandy environments and red skies, the world post Apocalyptic wasteland was a far cry from heaven. So the idea that this hellish result was "our paradise" seemed completely false. The Chosen claimed the year was actually 5NW (New World) not 2017AD, as they claimed the calendar had reset after 2012. Chris found these people and their beliefs somewhat amusing at first, but as his time with them went on, he became more and more open to the idea of this faith. By 12NW (2024 to us) Chris Harley was thoroughly convinced that God had spared him too and in his time, they had built a village into something (almost) worth living in. They had bred horses, made small huts out of scrap metal from old planes and other land vehicles. There was a pond which Brother Scott crafted by digging a deep, long hole and collecting buckets of rain water to fill it up with. They put fish in the pond and left them to breed, eventually the pond was absolutely full of them, enough to feed the whole village without having to leave (but many still left to hunt, as eating fish became too common and tasteless among the villagers). Other settlements far and wide, had made shops that often traded with Chris' village. However, many of these different places believed in different things. Some still called 12NW the year 2024AD, and this offended The Chosen deeply. Chris, although he was a believer himself, wished no ill will against the other cultures who didn't believe in his people's religion, it did not matter to him because he was still fairly new to the village when compared to those who had founded The Chosen faith back in 1NW (2012AD). To them, believing the old corrupt world before 2012 was still alive, that sacrilege and blasphemy!
"The old world is dead!" Brother Benjamin would scream at outsiders who dared claim the New World wasn't a true belief. For these people had their own religions which spun from after the 2012 apocalypse, ones that clashed with The Chosen faith. Soon Chris' village wouldn't trade with these unbelievers, but by the end of 12NW, entering the 13th year, Brother Benjamin would build an army, one that sought to take control of these other villages and make them believe in the The Chosen faith. Chris still remembered the horrors of the Roman empire, who forced their beliefs on other less cultured societies. He could see that Brother Benjamin was becoming just as cruel and wicked as the Roman leader Caesar. So Chris left, he left the village before "his people" became tyrants. Nobody else in the village joined Chris as he escaped, for everyone else had built the village since the year of 2012, his five years gave him the sense to get out of there before it was too late. He was the last sane man, in a world of madness.

So this alternate reality which could've spawned after the 2012 apocalypse would not have been pretty, would it? One can imagine history repeating itself in the worst way possible, as The Chosen will have set out and slowly took over the post Apocalyptic world, crucifying non-believers on wooden crosses and championing atrocities in the name of God. Sadly, Chris Harley will likely die in the wasteland, or become some lone wanderer like that of some fairytale cowboy, living off the land on the back of the horse he stole from the village, wearing a muddy trench coat to keep warm, with a Stetson hat upon his head to avoid sun burn, perhaps there will be a single revolver holstered in the belt of his jeans. Maybe right now, in that alternate universe of his; Chris is now riding into the deep red sunset, ready for action and adventure!