Catastrophe Novels & Stories

General Richards asked, his hand resting on the butt of his pistol, his eyes scanning the red shadows. "It's worse," Stark whispered, clutching his chest. "It's the code. The Americans... they didn't just cut the connection. They sent a worm. A self-replicating virus. It just ate the operating system of the entire national grid. It’s gone. Everything is gone." I stared at the blank screens. Dexter hadn't just frozen the money. He had turned off the lights. Stage Two is initiating. "You can't eat gold," Everyone had said. Now Dexter was ensuring we couldn't see the gold, either.

"What the fuck, witch! Why do you always love to scream like that? Is it your first time that someone asked you out?" "That's the point! Why would you ask me out? Don't tell me you like me!" Zoey was frantic, all of her brain cells were shouting at her, 'Code red! Code red!'. "Can you let me explain first? Goddamn. You are definitely going to be the death of me. I almost ran over this car to someone else's car just because of your screams. See? You almost got us both killed!" "Then, stop joking around like that!" Out of nowhere, Dionysus stepped on the brake, and stopped the cat right in the middle of the street.

Amelia said cheering me up. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it going to be?” I asks. “Well, we’ve never experienced it before but from what Caden’s mom said, it is the scariest rule ever. A lot of ladies eyeing Caden gets a chance to fight you for your position and it is a fight to death” She said making me sigh. “What are you guys up to?” Keith said as he and Caden walks in. “We are just leaving” I said as I drag Caden out of the room towards his office.

It moves diagonally and could take the other piece if it was in its range. Catastrophe's magnet with the symbol of tornado was put aside. Catastrophe has something else to do than to enter the enemy's lair. She's needed to be in Switzerland to make a move in their laboratory. And while Catastrophe is also on vacation leave with her brother somewhere in the islands of the Philippines, she'll just spoil her brother a little since he's too smitten with Catastrophe. She just hoped that Enzo wouldn't be someone to ruin her plans.

But through it all, Justin and I clung to each other — our love a fragile flame in the storm. Until one night, Katastrophe disappeared. Her apartment was empty, signs of a struggle everywhere. Panic surged through me. I called Justin, voice shaking. “We have to find her.” The search led us down dark alleys and whispered threats. A cryptic message left on Katastrophe’s phone was the only clue: “Trust no one. Not even your own shadow.” Days later, a phone call. Katastrophe’s voice — faint, scared. “Help me. They’re coming.”

I was blind, deaf, and utterly alone in the dark. A final, system-wide alert blared from a dying speaker, a distorted, digital death rattle. >CATASTROPHIC CASCADE FAILURE. TOTAL SYSTEMS COLLAPSE IN T-MINUS 60 SECONDS. ANNIHILATION PROTOCOL ENGAGED. Annihilation protocol. Of course. Eleanor’s final gift. A dead man’s switch. If the core went down, it would take the city—and any evidence—with it. I had to get out. I had to try.

Dumb right? I bumped into someone when I took the next turn sending their drink flying out of their hand, and all over my shirt. I reached for her hand to hold her steady, she almost slipped. “Oh, my God, you have no idea how sorry I-” The woman did not even let me land. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? CAN’T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING? ARE YOU STUPID, OR DUMB, OR JUST PLAIN BLIND?”

Motionless form. Zebasthian was gone. The words struck me with an intensity I never anticipated, overwhelming my senses. In a moment of pure instinct, I stumbled backward and found myself collapsing into the chair the cadet had thoughtfully arranged for me. No words escaped my lips; I was frozen in place, utterly lost in the moment. My body betrayed me, reacting to the devastating news; tears streamed down my face as I struggled to breathe, overwhelmed by the unbearable reality that my son was no longer with me.

"Do you have any idea what it means for me to be deregistered? Every project and document signed under my name in the past six months will be rendered invalid! That's a loss of at least hundreds of millions. Will you take responsibility for that?! "It's not just money! It's also the company's reputation and mine! Come with me right now and prove this cancellation was a procedural error!"

Shattered glass. Outside, bodies are scattered in the clearing. The cult members. Harlan is nowhere to be seen. Alex finds a battery-powered emergency radio on the shelf. He clicks it on. Static. He tunes it. "...repeating... catastrophic global infrastructure failure..." a panicked voice says through the crackle. "Worldwide communications blackout. The internet backbone has suffered a critical surge event. Power grids in North America, Europe, and Asia are failing..." Alex lowers the radio. He looks at me in the moonlight. His face is pale.