This is the life on Mars.

Thick black smoke curled overhead, throwing my deep red hair into contrast with the sky. The air was still, but I knew what was to come. It was time—time for action. The cliché of do or die came to mind.

My legs ached as I vaulted a nearby fence, forgetting my initial intentions of the day, and slid into the old Mustang. Foot was on the accelerator within seconds as my back tires left the last marks I would ever leave on the surface of this planet.

My speedometer read 80 mph on the on-ramp to the highway. I was chasing it—I had to. I had to catch it before I was left behind. I listened to my baby roar as she reached 100 mph. I tucked a cigarette between my lips, wishing for a nicotine edge, but forgot to light it as I found a break in the clouds.

Cigarette forgotten on the passenger side seat, I took the next exit and found the tallest building to park in front of. There was panic everywhere: children without parents running and crying on the sidewalk, drivers spinning out of control and crashing, random strangers weeping as they tried to receive signal to their phones to say one last thing to their loved ones.

The chaos was delicious to me, and I fed on it as I skidded to a halt in front of the elevator. A second’s worth of decision brought me to the stairwell instead, and I raced up and up and up. My lungs burned, but I was focused. I had to make it. I wasn’t going down with these fools. I belonged up there, where life would soon be. I had to be the phoenix.

Holster clattering against my hip, boots slapping loudly against the disgusting tiled floor, I continued to run. I was almost there—just two more flights. A knot was forming in my chest. I wished once more for that cigarette, but didn’t have time to think on it much…

I burst into the open air. Darkness engulfed the earth. Distant screaming and crunches of metal on metal and gunshots were heard as I reached into the air. Sunlight made a direct path down into my hand. I had heard some say that on the last day of earth as we know it, one would be able to ride the sunlight into the sky, never to be seen again. I closed my eyes. The sun was warm and welcoming and showed rosy on my closed eyelids. I could feel the warmth slowly spreading down my neck and over the tough leather of my jacket. It sunk deep into my skin, chest, and heart.

And I was glowing. There was peace, and I was glowing. My feet left the ground, but my brain seemed to understand that this was all right. The glory of the sun reached my entire body, and there was no more darkness—no more screams, cries, pain, or crashes. There was just me and the sun. Ascending further, I wasn’t sure if this was death or new life—perhaps it was both—but I didn’t mind. I had made it. I was the phoenix. I had known it all along; and I had reached my destiny, finally.