Happy Post-Apocalyptic Fourth of July!

We partied too hard and destroyed civilization! Well, these things happen. So, anybody the successor of a secret martial arts school? No? We probably should have checked that before we bought the fireworks.

Awakens the Scourge

Dread Aklakoth sits in his tomb, sipping his terrible tea. Once he slew hosts and threw down nations till he tired of it, for one crown is much like another under a heavy enough foot. There he will remain till some delver in search of ancient secrets and weapons of power unseals the tomb and enters, which is unlikely, because nobody even uses swords these days. He has a bow too, but competitions will certainly ban it if some scamp shows up with that thing. And so he sits, never to stir again.
"Do you really think there's an exotic tea interred in this ancient grave?"
"No, I funded this expedition because my wallet felt heavy. Hey, somebody got in here before us!"
At last dread Aklakoth stirs.
Finis

Happy New Year

Haven't we had enough of these things? Be honest.

The Reddened Firmament

The claim is made that four moons once ruled the sky, alike in their luminescence and their envy. The four armed themselves against one another and fought so that men and animals of ground and sea saw nothing above but mayhem, and birds descended out of fear. Some, they say, have never regained their courage and still walk or swim. The moons died in fraternal strife but one, which rules today as the sun. As for the others, the blood of the first comes as rain, of the second as snow, and as to the third, a lake high in the mountains collected all of it. Fratricides who bathe in it will be relieved from their pollution.
That is the claim. Believing that, a man walked alone and climbed those heights, for he was guilty of that crime. The lake was there from which no river carried the cloudy liquid, and in it the man bathed himself that night.
There his eyesight became as clouded as the water. The world around him dimmed, and he heard a voice say this. "Was it wrong, what you did?"
"No," he whispered.
"Was it wrong?"
"No," he said.
"Was it wrong?"
"No," he shouted, and his throat burned.
"Take this weapon, and with it wreak what is no more a crime than what you wrought before."
He stood and left the lake, and in his hand then was a javelin famous enough that he had heard of it as had every man, despite that it came to be that very day for the first time. It was the sun-slaying spear, and there was justice and piety in the world before he used it.
Finis

An Insightful Observation

Everybody worries about making stories post-apocalyptic when they should be reaching for most-apocalyptic. As for the insightful observation, there's no need to include any of those. Substitute fifty zombies and one explosion for each missing observation.

Sixth of July

And now, world government. You don't need to do anything about that, but stocking up for the following total breakdown in civilization might be wise. Though insufficient.

The Problem with Non-Apocalyptic Settings

We know there's going to be an apocalypse sooner or later. You might as well put one in yourself. Those bunkers under Denver International Airport weren't built for fun.

The Problem with Post-Apocalyptic Settings

They skip all the fun parts.

World's End Track Meet

"Welcome, everyone, to the World's End Track Meet!" The man with the megaphone waited for the cheers and hoots to exhaust themselves before he continued. "We have been assigned the duty and honor of determining the nature of the new world to be created after the old world ends. Not our world, of course!" He paused for laughter but heard more hooting and pious chants instead.
"You can see the hurdles set up on the track for the first race. Our competitors will be running and jumping for the right to make some tricky decisions about gravity. Inside the track our discus throwers are warming up for optimal performance, and with good reason. The stakes are high: Will the new world have elves in it?" The favorite in the discus, a dwarf, paused to look at the stands and wink. The crowd went wild, especially its elven members.
"On the north side we have lovely targets set up for our archers to test their skills and whether the gods will intervene in person, through dreams and signs, or not at all. The south side is perfect for pole vaulting and naming the longest river, not to mention deciding how long and wide it will be." The vaulters waved.
"That's it for the first set of events, but don't forget to refresh yourself with fruit-flavored snow cones at Stations 1 through 6. Hey, what's with those numbers? That's right! The most popular station's number equals the number of moons, so remember to vote with your tongues!" The station attendants smiled, number 3's widest of all. Cherry always won.
"The hurdles will start in a minute. Before that, though, let's all give a huge round of applause and prayer to our sponsors, Hystar World Ender and Protar World Maker! None of this would be possible without their support and infinite godly might." The crowd and participants all clapped as if their lives depended on it, which they almost certainly did not. Nobody wanted to risk dying before seeing the three-legged race, though.
Finis

Power of Love

"There is no doubt the recent attacks in this station are not terrorism or rioting but rather sabotage by our rivals, Ad Astra Design. There is no doubt also that we have so far found no way to retaliate. Their headquarters is on Satellite 8 on the other side of the planet, and no major facility of theirs is within our reach." Vice President Perrault of Mackenzie Extraplanetary Engineering paused, though he anticipated no argument. The facts were clear enough. Only his conclusion would seem unorthodox. "The solution is simple, gentlemen: Love."
"This is no time for jokes, Perrault."
"You mean seduce someone for infiltration?"
"That's not the kind of merger we do here, Perrault."
The vice president pointed to a display. "Gentlemen, I said love and I meant it. Observe." The display blinked on and showed a gigantic cylinder which had been hauled to one of Mackenzie's docking platforms. "Gentlemen, our engineers have demystified the essentials of love and produced this enormous Love Cannon which focuses the power of love into a destructive beam. Just as love transcends time and space, so too does our destructive ability. We can bypass the planet between and strike AAD directly."
"Genius!"
"Madness!"
"I still think this whole thing is a prank."
"Interesting. When will we see a test?"
"A test, gentlemen? The tests are done. We are firing the cannon now." As he spoke, the cylinder whirred and a pink glow surrounded it for a moment before a similarly pink beam stretched out in front of it and disappeared. Perrault activated another display which showed the planetary monopoly news channel at all times.
"This is unbelievable, but we have just received reports that Satellite 8, housing millions, is . . . well, it's just gone. More on this as it develops."
Vice President Perrault turned off the news and turned back to the meeting. "Well then, gentlemen. What should Mackenzie Extraplanetary Engineering do with our colossal Love Cannon next?" In that question, everyone gathered heard the start of a new era.

Enduring Legacy

The inhabitants of a mature civilization can see when the end has come. So it was in Ponnetia when barbarians were at the gates, stars streamed to the ground far from their usual course in the celestial river, and the prophecies made at the very beginning all came true one after another to herald the end. The Ponnetians in response did what they knew had to be done.
While their artificers forged keys for their superweapons in the shape of animals or the sun divided into three, diggers buried potions and ominous diary entries. The stasis chambers contained every monster the military could catch while roboticists considered designs for mysterious girls. The gigantic statues with mechs inside were worth every penny, and also pennies and other coins were spread around and placed in chests. A strict quota for secret passages was established for every mine and castle, and any region without one or the other was soon relieved of the deficiency.
No civilization has ever been more satisfied with its own accomplishments in its last days, though any diary page or audio log saying so failed to make the cut. There were some things the people of the future had no need to know.
Finis