Armageddon: A short story

This is a short story I wrote. Feel free to give constructive criticism, please give your honest opinion!

Armageddon

            The nuclear power plant had its usual buzz about. Its home was on an island approximately 6,000 miles away from my home country, Avenda. I walked around the central building; I had a very important meeting about my promotion. I stepped through the door. Its silence was eerie. I stepped through the almost empty halls.

            “Hey Jake, I didn’t know you work in here,” I said to Jake, a security guard.

            “Hi Annie, I started working here last week,” he trotted  down a staircase. “See you around.”

            “Ah, Annie, are you ready to see your future job?” my boss called across the long hallway.   “Yeah,  sure.”

            My boss took me down the staircase. “We need more great engineers like you to work on this beauty. I call it The Armageddon !” A new room opened up to me. I gaped as I stared at its contents. There was a giant metal monster standing before me.

            “Armageddon sounds fitting,” I gasped.

            Night fell, and I couldn’t stop thinking about The Armageddon. My boss told me it was to threaten other countries and gain more land, and if it came to extremes (which he assured me it would) they would attack with it. It was a horrible thing. He told me it could blow up three states or more depending on their size.

            “This won’t go on,” I told myself. I got out of bed, threw on a big jacket, a hard helmet and ran to the central building, through the hallway, and down the staircase. I used the key I got to enter the Armageddon room. I saw a security camera. I tossed the hard helmet I was wearing at it. The helmet unhinged the camera from the wall and let it fall to the ground. There was a knock on the door. “Everything okay in there?” I panicked, looking every which way trying to find a good answer but the room was pitch black. “Uh yeah, just tripped.” “Better be carful, wouldn’t want to hurt the Armageddon.” I sighed with relief. “No way, that would be traumatic” I said, almost saying, but you know what would be more traumatic? If this thing killed someone. I turned on the light and looked at a sticky note on a side cannon connected to the Armageddon that read, “ Side cannon test 2:30 a.m. Range: 1 mile. Speed: 650 mph. Power is to be tested. ”

            This was my chance. I double-checked to make sure that the side cannon was connected to the main Armageddon, and then I blocked it up. If all went as planned, the Armageddon would self-destruct. 

            I stepped up the last step in the staircase, and I was almost to the door when I heard a voice, ”Annie? It’s 2:00 A.M. What are you doing in the central building?”  I jumped, “Oh hi Jake, just looking at the Armageddon. I couldn’t sleep,” I said quickly, “See you around,” I walked briskly out the door and gave one last peek at the building, Jake was still there looking suspiciously around. I raced around the corner, only to be encountered by another security guard, “Ms. Annie, what a pleasant surprise to see you at 2:00 in the morning.”

            I slowed down to a walk. “Yes, you too,” I said somewhat pathetically, seeing as he always guards the central building at 2:00 a.m.

            “Quite,” he replied slowly. As he turned back around I gradually sped up to a run. “Where do you think you’re going?” he called after me.

            I sprinted toward the docks where I saw a ship, almost ready to set sail. I darted to the ship and jumped on just as it began departing. I snuck through the ship, into a room filled with wooden and metal crates.

            I slept for a while until I heard a distant “boom” implying that I did indeed blow up the Armageddon. There were some shouts from the main deck,

” Stowaway?! That’s impossible! No stowaways can board my ship!”

“But sir, I swear I saw a young woman in the exclusive segment of the ship!”

“Fine, check the entire exclusive segment, but this will not permit you the privilege any other time!”

Footsteps. I did my best to hide among the crates. A near by door slam, “Where is that stowaway?” The door opened, I peered through a crack in the crates, a big muscly guy was accompanied by four men. “She’s got to be in here somewhere,” the big one said. The men neared my hiding place. There was a man on each side of my hiding place, finally the big man left the doorway and began searching with the rest of them. This was my chance, I burst through the crates and hurtled out the door,” The stowaway! “The big man jumped in front of the door. “You’re not going anywhere but prison!” He grabbed me by the jacket and was about to start yelling orders, when I slipped out of that giant thing, under his legs, and out the door. I slammed the door behind me, adrenalin running through my body. “Tell the police, she’s got to be the one behind that explosion, I saw her running out of the building a couple minutes before the central building went up in flames,”

            “Yeah, let’s go!” I kept running “it’s stuck, the door’s stuck!” One of the men shouted. I tried to get to the main deck, but the boat suddenly seemed like a maze.

            In a few minutes I could see the main deck. “BANG!” The door collapsed “Brute, do you have the stowaway? The police are coming for her!” I can’t believe I overlooked the fact that the men in the crate room could have walky-talkies. I looked around, the men were one way, and the police were coming the other. I turned a new corner and went down a hall. I skidded to a halt as I saw a map of the ship. I turned a few corners until I reached a big metal door. I opened it up to see 10 safety boats. I hid under a tarp when I heard more commotion on the main deck.

            “Oh good, you’ve arrived. Brute? Bring in the stowaway!”

            I jumped into a safety boat.

            “She escaped!”

            I looked at the boat. It was a speedboat.

            “Escaped?! Everyone search the entire ship for her! And you Brute, secure the main deck.”

            I started the engine.

            “Sir, there are fingerprints on the map!”

            I began speeding away from the ship.

            “The door to the safety boat dock is wide open!”

            I sped through the ocean.

            “Don’t wait, chase her!”

            I approached an island. 

            “I think I see her in the distance!”

            I jumped out of the boat when I reached the shore. I sprinted as fast as I could until I reached a hidden alley I could hide in. I had just found a somewhat comfortable place to sleep, when I heard the roar of a bunch on engines powering off. I peeked around the corner to see lots of men examining my boat. I quickly jump into one of the trashcans at the end of the alley.  The men walked across the alley. “No one in here. Man, this place must be deserted or something.” I held my breath until I was sure they were gone.

            The next day I bought a ticket to fly to an isolated island. When the time came, I went to the tiny airport on the island. Just as I was boarding the plane, I saw Brute. I ran into the plane, peering back. Brute saw me and started running towards the plane. I was the last person to board the plane so the doors started closing. Brute was shouting, the door was closing abnormally slowly and panic set in. Brute was at the door of the plane. I ran to the back, hoping that he wouldn’t see me first thing. The door shut with a click. The plane took off. I cried in happiness.

             The world never was harmed by the Armageddon, the government didn’t rebuild the weapon because the conspiracy escaped to the rest of the world, and Avenda received plenty of threats. I lived the rest of my life on the island, enjoying the peace.