Everyone on Earth has at some point in their life looked up toward the sky and wondered the same thing, “Are we alone?” I find myself doing this quite often. Every once in a while I’ll be outside on a quiet night. No wind in the air and no clouds in the sky. I’d look up into the endless void. Look up into the dazzling stars that are so very far away. I’d think about how incredibly expansive this universe we live in is. I’d look into the infinite abyss and wonder the same thing every time, “Why is it so quiet?” I would come to regret that thought.

Ever since we have been able to produce radio waves we have been sending them out toward the stars always asking the same thing. The same begging plea. “Please if anyone is there, let us know.” On November 17 at 7:34 P.M. we finally, after decades of screaming out to the stars like a child who had lost their mother, got a response. The response came from the constellation Hercules. And everyone heard it. Every single living thing on this planet heard it. Every man, woman, and child heard it. Every dog, cat, and animal to walk upon the Earth heard it. The deaf heard it. It rang out among the human race as a mangled, distorted voice, so equally terrifying and amazing at the same time. A voice so strange, scary, and beautiful that words could never do it justice. It asked us two questions.

“Who...is... there? Where...are...you?”

Everyone on Earth simultaneously lost their minds. The scientists rejoiced at the fact that we had finally made contact with an intelligent living being beyond this planet. The religious said again and again that it was not the voice of an alien species but the voice of god and that the time to repent and pay for our sins is now. And there were those who said that they had not heard anything. The ones who died in the following days were marked as the lucky ones. But just a few days after the fallout of this discovery, we went back to our lives. We moved on from “The Voice.” We knew that the scientists were sending new signals to the Hercules constellation directly giving “The Voice” our location and how to get to us. It would just take a long time. We all went back to our jobs and we simply waited. Waited with stupid excited expressions on our faces.

Then after 1 year 3 months and 17 day, we got a second message. Our memories of that horribly beautiful voice that had faded were suddenly refreshed as it gave us a new message. Only three words.

“I...am...coming.”

To most this would have just seemed like a statement of fact. “The Voice” was simply letting us know that it, whatever it was, is on its way. But to others who had been waiting to hear another message and had payed very close attention to it claimed that this message could have a dark meaning. We didn’t know what this thing was. All we knew was that it could communicate with beings millions of miles away. No one had begun to think that “The Voice” could be dangerous. We were so seduced by the possibility of meeting an alien race that we let our guard down.

Once again the world went into a frenzy. The ones who rejoiced at the first message were now beating themselves over the head. The religious once again claimed “The Voice” to be god who was now coming to make us pay for our sins. No one knew what to do. So we all looked toward our government. A government we had been claiming was corrupt and unjust. We now looked toward them for guidance and words of solace. But they had none to give. They were all just as confused as we were. So the world all collectively decided that whatever “The Voice” wanted, whether it be good or bad, there was nothing we could do about it until it got here. So just like with the last message we all went back to our daily routine. We moved on from the possibly malicious message from the stars and went back to work on Monday. Just like every other worldwide event, every natural disaster, every terrorist attack, and every tragedy, we forgot about it in a few weeks.

Then after 2 years 6 months and 5 days something else happened. Something that confirmed that “The Voice was indeed not a kind hearted being from the stars, but a dark and evil entity. An ear splitting roar rang out among the human race. So loud that it felt like the planet itself was screaming. So loud that the dead were sure to hear it. For exactly two minutes the Earth screamed. Then, just as quickly as it started it stopped. Stopped so abruptly that the silence that followed felt enhanced. Quieter than quiet. Like you had suddenly gone deaf. I myself had fallen to the ground and covered my ears to try and drown out the roar. When it was over I stood up and looked to the stars, sure that this must have something to do with “The Voice.” What else could have produced something like that. Sure enough, in the western part of the sky was a large circle of empty blackness. Literally nothing was there. No stars. Nothing. The only reason it was visible was because of the stars around it. Once again we turned toward our scientists and they tried to make sense of what this could be. So they threw every sensor and scanner they could think of at it. All of them came back with the same result: Nothing. It was just void. Like the stars that used to exist there just disappeared. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that it was getting bigger. You couldn’t tell after one day but after a few weeks everyone noticed that the circle of missing stars was getting increasingly larger. This is when humanity started to lose hope. Unlike the first two messages this one showed clear malicious intent. Any being that is able to just make stars vanish can’t be friendly. And we didn’t forget about it this time. The world descended into chaos. Everyone knew that their days were numbered so what was the point anymore. Mass suicides, murder in the streets, and countless robberies. People swarmed to the churches to pray, not to God, but to “The Voice”, begging and pleading for its mercy. Just like god, it never responded to them either. Now that the world was surely ending, everyone had a choice to make. Watch the world burn, or end your suffering early. I myself spent many nights staring at the barrel of a gun. My finger was a millimeter away from ending my life. But I was always too much of a coward to pull the trigger. The same can’t be said for most of the world. The population on the planet was nearly cut in half. There were piles of bodies stacked up to your neck in the streets. Nobody knew what to do with them so we just ignored them. Walked right past them like they were nothing.

Every government on the planet laid down their arms and finally united so they could try to find a way to defeat “The Voice” and restore humanity to what it once was. I found it quite ironic that the only time we stopped fighting each other was when there were no more people to fight.

After a few months nearly all the stars in the sky had gone dark. And every scientist and military on Earth couldn’t give a solution. And that was when the last bit of hope on Earth was destroyed. Like the last bit of flame on a once raging fire had now been extinguished. I still don’t know why i didn’t off myself with everyone else. Maybe I just wanted to see the end. To watch as the Earth finally died. I know that some of the people left were the ones that still think that “The Voice” might not be the end of us. But they were deluding themselves.

Then came another effect of “The Voice.” Natural disasters. Somehow the thing was able to control our weather now. The amount of tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes tripled, and quadrupled in ferocity. Entire cities were collapsed in massive waves and crumbling earth. We don’t know how it’s able to do this but at this point, who cares.

The population on Earth has been diminished to a measly 84,000 and it gets smaller every day. I can’t tell if I am lucky or cursed to be among them. As I write this, there are three stars in the sky. All part of the Centaurus Constellation. “The Voice” is closing in. Hope is now a dream of the past. I will surely be dead in a few days. It still amazes me that all this happened in the span of just a few years. I leave this as a warning. If there is any life on Earth that is able to read this, no matter what you do, don’t call out to the universe. There is a reason that it is so quiet.