In three days, every single living cell on planet Earth will be dead.

You have one chance, Mark Fischbach.

~~~~~

I was right when I said last night would be a sleepless night.

I glanced tiredly down at my phone in order to check the time. My heart began to race as I realized that Amy would wake up soon. Upon realizing this, a sudden surge of energy pulsed throughout my entire body. Pushing the fact that I felt terrible of not even managing to figure out how to stop my creation from destroying humanity even the slightest bit to the back of my mind, I rushed upstairs without even caring if I was making a lot of noise. I almost tripped up the stairs and practically threw open the door to my bedroom before resisting the urge to jump into my bed. I knew that I had to at least try and make it look like I was sleeping. As I carefully laid down in bed, I felt thankful that both Penny and Amy were relatively heavy sleepers and neither of them had woken up when I had bolted upstairs.

I resisted the urge to let out a groan when my alarm clock went off what felt like a second after I had laid down. I forced myself to turn on my side and reach over to turn the annoyingly loud alarm clock off, rubbing sleep out of my eyes after I had done so. As I held back a yawn and began blinking my eyes rapidly in order to stay awake, I felt Amy's leg brush against mine as she got out of bed. I heard her footsteps heading towards the window and my gaze shifted from the ground and over to her. When I saw her, I could feel my mouth dropping open, my eyes becoming wide, and my entire body waking up. She was wearing a dark purple bra and panty set and they were both very revealing. Even though I enjoyed what she was wearing a lot, I couldn't help but think that this was odd behavior for her. The only time she slept in anything like what she had on right now was during our honeymoon. I mean, I really shouldn't even be complaining at all...
"Look at all the plants dying." Amy whispered as she looked out the window with a sad expression on her face. She then looked over at me and a small smile formed on her face. "I'm glad that you came back last night." She walked towards me and my eyes were focused solely on her chest as she did so. "Now, go get the paper and come back if you're not going to work today."
"O-Okay." I forced myself to say as I also forced myself to stop staring at her chest. After I managed to pry my eyes away from her, I slowly and groggily made my way out of the bedroom, being careful not to wake up Penny since I wasn't exactly doing that when I had sprinted upstairs when I realized that Amy would be waking up soon.

*****

After stepping outside, my eyes winced after the sunlight hit them. Being extremely tired, still not quite used to the bright light, and suddenly coming into the sunlight wasn't exactly a great combination. Nonetheless, I forced my tired body to bend down and pick up the newspaper. Letting out a yawn as I repositioned my body, I struggled to read the contents of the newspaper because of just how exhausted I was.

Fifty Percent Dead By Morning

The title of the front article stood out to me the most, just like it always did whenever I read the morning paper. My eyes suddenly widened once my brain fully processed what exactly the title said. Even though I was on the verge of passing out due to exhaustion, I forced myself to read the article.

Scientists have predicted that by Saturday morning, half of the population of the human that were alive on Monday will be dead.

As the death toll rises to a terrifying and indeterminate amount, teams of scientists all over the world are still working on a cure.

Riots are taking place all over the world and mass looting is in effect. This is predicted to continue to occur in the upcoming future, as it doesn't seem like a cure's going to be found anytime soon. Because of that, it is advised that you spend what little time you have left wisely, as it is unknown exactly when humanity will perish.

I put down the newspaper and tried to properly process everything that I had just read. I let out a childish scream and put a hand over my chest as my heart skipped a beat when I saw that Jim, Ryan, and Annie were all standing in my driveway.
"You guys scared the living daylights out of me." I let out a sigh of relief as I realized that there wasn't any threat to me or my family. I walked over to them and asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Mark, we need you at the lab." Jim said, ignoring my question entirely. "We could be onto something, but we understand if you want to be with your family."
"You guys never told me that people were trying to find a cure." I pretty much ignored Jim as I felt an anger building up inside of me. "I was told over and over again that I was the only one who could fix this whole thing. I didn't know that teams of scientists around the world were still working on a cure."
"Mark, the world's in a mass panic." I could tell anger was rising in Jim's voice based on how he spoke. "Of course other people are trying to find a cure. Did you really think that the entire world was just going to wait until you emerged as a hero?"
"That's what you made it seem like!" I raised my voice, my tiredness being replaced by anger. "You literally yelled at me and told me that I got everyone into this mess and that I better get everyone out of it. You made me promise that I would!"
"Even if I did make you promise that you would get everyone out of this mess, that shouldn't have mattered." Jim snarled, obviously trying not to raise his voice."You should've taken responsibility regardless of what anyone told you."
"And you think that I wasn't trying?"
"Your definition of trying must be really fucking different from my definiton." Jim snapped, deciding not to try to raise his voice anymore. "Instead of staying at work to try and find a cure, what did you do?" He didn't even give me a chance to respond and continued to yell at me, "You went home to your family, that's what you did."
"You said that it didn't matter if I went home to my family! Besides, I stayed up all night last night trying to find a cure. I have bags underneath my eyes and dark circles around my eyes to prove it!" I felt both of my hands curl up into fists. "What the fuck is your view of this situation? Two days ago, you were dead set on insisting that I find a cure. Yesterday, you had given up hope that a cure would be found and told me that I could go back to my family if I wanted. And now today, you're right back to how you felt two days ago. You can't keep changing your mind like this. You have to decide how you really feel about this situation and stick with that feeling."
Before Jim had the chance to respond, Ryan stepped in front of him. "You two need to stop your bickering." He spoke in a calm tone despite the fact that Jim and I were basically seconds away from attempting to rip each other's heads off. Ryan looked at me briefly before he looked over at Jim. "Now, Jim, we came here to ask Mark one thing and one thing only, is that not so?"
Jim let out a sigh. "I hate to admit this, but you're right."
Ryan nodded before looking back at me. "Now, with that being said, we again ask you this question Mark. Are you going to come with us to help or are you going to stay with your family?"
Just like yesterday, I thought carefully about my choices. If I chose to go to work, a breakthrough could happen and I could be the hero that I was deemed to be just a few days ago before my creation took a dangerous and deadly turn. But if I chose to stay home with my family, I could have another fun day with them like I did yesterday. I could also catch up on some much needed sleep...
"I'm going to stay with my family." I said as my tiredness swept over my entire body once more. I struggled to hold back a yawn and to just allow myself to drift off to sleep.
"Very well." Jim and Ryan said at the same time as they also nodded at the same time. They then turned and began heading back to the lab.
Annie, who had remained silent throughout this entire thing, gave me a small smile. "Have fun spending time with your family."
Without waiting for a response, she quickly turned and caught up with Jim and Ryan. Simply shrugging, I turned and began making my way back into the house.

*****

"Oh, thank goodness." Amy sighed with relief when I returned to our bedroom. Penny was sitting on her lap and a huge smile formed on Penny's face when she saw me. "I was afraid that you decided to go to work."
Before I could assure Amy that I was here to stay, Penny looked me straight in the eyes and asked me, "Daddy, what was that yelling outside?"
I sighed, trying to quickly come up with a way to explain the yelling that went on between Jim and I.
"It's nothing to worry about sweetie." I said, knowing full well that she wouldn't leave it at that. But I was beyond tired and the only thing that I desired right now was sleep.
Penny shook her head. "Please don't say that. You sounded so angry when you were yelling."
I sighed again. "Penny, you're much too young to truly understand why I was so angry. All you need to know is that I was very angry with my boss."
Thankfully, Penny didn't push the matter any further and got off of Amy's lap before she walked over to me. She gave me a tight hug and rested her head on her stomach. "I'm really glad that you decided to stay home again today."
"Me too." I smiled as I began running my fingers through her long and straight blonde hair. I couldn't help but smile even more at the fact that she was essentially a mini version of Amy. Not only did Penny look just like her mother, but she acted like her as well. It really made me happy that it worked out this way because Amy's a much better person than I am and she deserved to have our only child take after her. "Hey, why don't you and Mommy do something together while I take a nap? I'm feeling very tired."
"Okay." Penny gave me a gentle smile as I bent down so that she would be able to give me a kiss on the nose. "Sweet dreams Daddy."
"I love you so much Penny." I whispered as I planted a kiss on her forehead. She smiled brightly before she left the room.
"Rest for as long as you need." Amy said to me as she laid her head on my shoulder and pulled me into a tight hug. "I know that you stayed up all night last night. I figured it out when I randomly woke up in the middle of the night. I thought about stopping you, but I didn't want to get into an argument with you at four in the morning. Besides, I knew how much you wanted to find a cure and how much you wanted to go back to being the hero that people used to view you as."
I sighed. "I don't even know what I want anymore to be honest." I ran a hand through my hair as I walked away from Amy and walked towards the bed. "I just need a peaceful sleep so that I can just forget about everything that's happened and everything that's going on right now, even if it's just for a little bit."
Amy didn't respond until she was almost completely out of the room. "Like I said before, rest for as long as you need. Penny and I aren't going anywhere."
"Yeah, I'll definitely try to get as much rest as I need." I assured her as I pulled back the covers before I laid down, not even caring that I wasn't dressed in my pajamas. Now that I as finally laying in bed with the intent of going to sleep, I was far too comfortable to leave the comfort of my bed for any reason at all. I smiled as I pulled the covers over myself and took off my glasses before setting them on my bedside table. I closed my eyes and finally allowed my body to have the one thing that it's been needing for over twenty-four hours now, which is sleep.

*****

"Mark?"
My heart leapt when I heard a voice calling my name. I recognized the voice almost as soon as I heard it.
It was my mother's voice.
I turned my head in the direction in which I heard her voice and she started walking towards me when her eyes met mine. I felt tears glistening in my eyes because it had been a while since she last appeared in my dreams and I was starting to get worried that she would stop appearing in my dreams all together.
"Mom, I'm literally so happy to see you." I pulled her into a tight hug once she was close enough for me to do so.
"I'm happy to see you too." She whispered as she hugged me back. Even though I was fully aware of the fact that I was dreaming right now, it still was nice to see my mother after everything that happened two months ago.
As I was starting to think about what occurred two months prior, my mother suddenly disappeared and a white light filled my vision.

****

"Hey guys, I'm home!" I called out as I unlocked the door to my mother's house before swinging the door open and stepping inside. I didn't even close the door behind me because I was too distracted by the gruesome sight that had been waiting for me for when I got home.
I saw the bodies of my mother and my older brother, Tom, lying completely motionless on the floor. Both of their bodies were covered in their own blood and my mother was laying on her back while Tom was lying on his stomach. Upon closer inspection, it looked as if whoever was responsible for the death of both my mother and older brother immediately started stabbing my mother when they were given the chance. My mother had countless stab wounds on her chest and stomach. Dried blood surrounded the area where her body was lying. Meanwhile, Tom didn't have any stab wounds on his body. Instead, he had a massive head wound that definitely broke his skull when the wound was inflicted upon him. He also had dried blood surrounding his body and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a streak of dried blood on the wall.
"No, this can't be real." I murmured as I was trying to take everything in. "My mother and older brother aren't dead. This is just some terrible nightmare and I'm hopefully going to wake up soon."
But I knew full well that this wasn't a terrible nightmare.
It was terrifying reality.
Someone had brutally murdered my mother and my older brother while I was driving to come and visit them.
I broke down crying when I saw a trail of blood that began at the back door and ended where my mother was laying on the living room carpet. I went over to my mother and older brother were and covered my face as I got down on my knees. All I could think was, "Why did something like this happen to me out of all people, especially since I lost my dad to cancer?" and, "This isn't fair. They had their lives wrongfully seized from them."

As I was wiping away my tears, the white light filled my vision again.

****

I couldn't believe just how beautiful she looked.

Amy was standing in front of me, dressed in a long and elegant white dress, and she was giving me the brightest smile she's ever given me in the entire time that I've known her. She had decided not to wear her glasses on our big day and I had made the same decision as her. At first, I was reluctant about not wearing my glasses, but Ammy managed to assuage my fears by telling me that I would look just as wonderful without my glasses as I did with them.

I smiled as I slid Amy's ring over her left ring finger. A moment later, she slid my ring over my left ring finger. We smiled at each other as the words, "You may kiss the bride" left the priest's mouth. As soon as I heard the five words, I wrapped my arms around Amy and carefully picked her up before I pressed my lips to hers. I heard the cheers and applause of all of the guests, but I was ignoring all of that. My focus was entirely on Amy because all I cared about was that I was now going to spend the rest of my life with the girl that I was still madly in love with, even after all of this time.

After I pulled away from our first kiss as husband and wife, Amy smiled as if she was on top of the world. Her smile was the last thing I saw before the now familiar white light danced across my vision.

*****

I found myself standing across from a hospital room. A scream of pain and panicked shouts filled the entire room. It took me a moment to realize that I was reliving the day that Penny was born. I remembered how the doctors and nurses had thrown me out of the room after they saw that I was on the verge of throwing up at the sight of Amy getting an emergency C-section. I was always quite squeamish when it came to medical stuff, even when I was growing up. Plus, seeing Amy unconscious when she was in so much pain earlier only made me want to get out of that hospital room even more.

As I reentered the room after what felt like an eternity had passed, I saw her.
I saw my daughter in the arms of a doctor.
"She's perfectly healthy." The doctor grinned as he walked over to me. "She's seven pounds and eight ounces and she's twenty-one inches."
I smiled as I glanced down at my daughter. The first thing that I noticed about her was that she looked so much like Amy. I was happy to see this because Amy's such a wonderful and beautiful woman and she deserves to have our daughter take after he appearance much more than I do.

The doctor continued to give me a grin as he carefully handed my daughter over to me. I happily allowed her to be held in my arms and I made sure that her head was properly supported so that her neck wouldn't hurt.
"Hi there." I whispered to her, walking over to Amy when I saw that she was awake. "You're a very beautiful girl."
Upon hearing the sound of my voice, my daughter opened her eyes, which were the same brown eyes as Amy. I felt tears forming in my eyes when I saw this because she was honestly just so beautiful and I was proud to call her my daughter.

"Do you want to hold her?" I whispered to Amy once I was close enough to her where she could hear me.
Amy carefully sat up and slowly nodded. "Yes, of course I want to hold her."
I smiled a bit as I carefully placed our daughter into her arms. Amy shifted herself slightly so that she was properly supporting our daughter's head so that her neck wouldn't hurt.
"What are we going to name her?" I asked, kneeling down so that I was at Amy's level.
Amy was silent for a few moments as she thought about my question. A bright smile formed on her face before she said, "I really like the name Penny."
A bright smile formed on my face as well. "I like that name too."
"So, are we going to name her Penny then?"
"Yes, we're going to name her Penny."
It was at that moment that the white light filled my vision once more.

****

"Can you believe that we're going to spend the rest of our lives together?" I asked Amy as I wrapped my arms around her waist when it was time for us to share our first dance as husband and wife.
Amy shook her head. "No, I honestly can't believe it. It's pretty unbelievable that you fell in love with me in the first place."
"Of course I fell in love with you. It was impossible for me not to do so."
"The same goes for you Mark Fischbach."
"Why do you love me?" I whispered as I spun her around before wrapping my arms around her once more.
"Why do I love you?" Amy repeated my question as if I was crazy for even asking such a thing in the first place.
"Yeah." I whispered extremely quietly. "I wonder that all the time. I look in the mirror and think, "Why the hell does a wonderful girl like Amy love me?""
At that moment, Amy placed her hands on both of the sides of my face. Her brown eyes stared directly into my own. "Mark Edward Fischbach, I love you because you're such an honest, kind, and caring man. There are other things, of course, but those are the main reasons why I love you."
I began to feel my heart pounding in my chest. Before I got the chance to relive the response I had given her, I began experiencing a different flashback.

*****

I walked into my new math class in college after switching my major to science and I glanced over at a blonde haired girl who would later on become my wife. She was the first thing I noticed in the entire room.

I gathered up the courage to talk to the same blonde haired girl that I had glanced at in my math class earlier that day. I remember feeling so nervous because I wasn't exactly a guy who was good at talking to girl and the fact that she was surrounded by all of her friends made me even more nervous. Nonetheless, I walked over to her and her friends going dead silent once I had reached the table they were sitting at. Hearing them going completely silent caused my heart to leap into my throat. Despite that, I managed to force myself to say, "Hey, I'm Mark" to her.
A smile formed on her face as she replied, "Hi, I'm Amy. You're from my math class, aren't you?"
A sudden surge of confidence filled my entire body and I ended up sitting down in the seat that was across from her. "Yeah, I am."
After that, we talked as if we were two long time friends having a conversation.
Just as I had started talking to her, another flashback hit me.

****

"I wanna go higher!" Penny whined as I was pushing her on the swing at the park that I used to take her to on my days off of work. "Can you please push me higher?"
I laughed a bit. "I don't know if it's a good idea for me to push you any higher. What if you end up falling off the swing?"
"I promise that I won't fall off the swing." Penny cried out happily as she continued to swing back and forth.
"Well, all right..." I trailed off, feeling quite a bit reluctant about attempting to push her higher. "But I'm not going to push you that much higher."
"Yay!" I could the smile on Penny's face increase in size as I pushed her with all of the strength that I had. "This is so much fun! I wish that you could get more days off of work so that we can do this much more often that we do."
"Me too Penny." I whispered sadly as I allowed her to swing on her own. "Me too."
The white light filled my vision as I watched Penny swing on her own. I wasn't alarmed by it due to the fact that I had grown accustomed to it.
The moment I began to feel like I couldn't breathe was the moment I started panicking.

The feeling of suffocation increased and it soon became unbearable. I fell to the ground and desperately gasped for air. Through my blurry vision, I could see that Penny was still swinging on the swing, smiling as if she either had no idea her father was on the ground and barely able to breath or she didn't care. Knowing her, it was most likely the former.

As breathing became pretty much impossible for me, I clenched the grass and desperately tried to at least get one breath out. But, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't catch my breath. It felt as if someone had a chokehold on me and was refusing to let go.
When my vision faded to black, I was just hoping that I would finally wake up.

*****

The last thing I saw before I woke up was a brief vision of someone holding a bloody knife.

"Amy? Penny?" I cried out in absolute panic. I have no idea what the hell that vision meant, if it actually meant anything in the first place. But regardless of whether or not it actually meant something, I just wanted to know for a fact that my wife and daughter were okay.
"Mark? Honey, what's wrong?" Amy asked worriedly as she walked inside our bedroom. "I heard you screaming for Penny and me. Is everything okay?"
I breathed out a sigh of relief when I saw her and pulled her into a tight hug once she had walked over to the edge of the bed. "Yes, everything's fine as long as you and Penny are all right."
"Daddy, what's wrong?" I could hear Penny's concerned voice coming from the doorway.
I looked over at her and forced myself to smile. "Nothing now that I know that you and Mommy are okay."
"Why did you scream so loudly?" Penny asked as she ignored my statement. "You sounded like you were scared out of your mind."
"I was." I admitted, speaking quietly so that both her and Amy couldn't hear me.
"Why were you scared?" I could still sense that Penny was still concerned for me.
"I had a bad dream." I spoke at a normal voice level because I couldn't figure out any other way to tell her why I had been screaming from the top of my lungs without telling her that I was scared and had screamed because of a nightmare that I had had.
"What?" Penny asked as a look of confusion fell on her face. "But you're a grown-up. I thought that it only kids got nightmares."
I shook my head. "Everyone gets nightmares Penny, no matter how old you are." I then added, "But some people get nightmares that end up coming true." underneath my breath.
Amy sighed and I assumed that she had overheard me muttering to myself.
"Let's put all of this behind us." She grabbed ahold of my hand and smiled very slightly as I interlocked my fingers with hers. "We're all together again today. Let's seize that opportunity and spend some more time together, just like we did yesterday."
"Yeah!" Penny agreed, sounding excited. "I hope today is even more fun than yesterday was!"
I smiled a bit as I watched as Penny turned and ran downstairs. As soon as she disappeared from my sight, Amy tugged on my arm and I forced myself to stand up.
"Cheer up Mark." She placed her other hand on my shoulder as she turned my body so that I was facing her. "You're here with your family. Shouldn't that be the only thing that matters?"
"Yeah, you have a point."
She smiled. "Now, come on. Our daughter's in the living room eagerly awaiting for you to spend more time with her."
Before I could respond, she let go of my hand and lifted her hand off of my shoulder before she turned and left the room. After she left, I forced myself to follow behind her and as I was following her, the brief vision of someone holding a bloody knife that I saw before I woke up replayed over and over again.