I never thought I’d be the one to end humanity

I never thought I’d be the one to end human civilization as we know it. I’m not the type of person one would expect to find bringing down the world on their own. I don’t work at a top-secret nuclear facility that I plan to sabotage, or a lab developing biological weapons that I plan to leak into the world. No, my occupation is far less exciting. I work in an office, scanning documents into a database.<br><br>I do have a secret, though. I hope. That’s what I keep telling myself, at least. It’s all I have left now, and it’s not even close to enough. The world may already be doomed for all I know.<br><br>It started with a piece of paper on a copier. The previous person who used it must have left it behind in a hurry. It was nothing but random letters and numbers, so I figured it was just some coding notes or something. I crumpled it up and tossed it in the recycling bin, but for some reason I second guessed that decision. So I picked it out and stuck it in my pocket.<br><br>On my lunch break, I pulled it out and read it over. it was some basic substitution coding, so I decided to decode it.<br><br>GET OUT<br><br>I laughed to myself at the ridiculousness of it all. Who writes this nonsense? Why would I need to “get out” of the office? Yeah right, as if I *wasn’t* already stuck at my desk, scanning papers for hours every day.<br><br>This went on for a few days, me finding random notes and decoding them. Some were more cryptic than others. The messages escalated quickly, though, and soon I found myself actually considering following the advice of the notes.<br><br>I didn’t understand how whoever was leaving the notes was doing it. I was always alone on a night shift at the end of the week, so my only hope was whoever was leaving them had a restricted keycard. No one had access to the floor I worked on except for the nighttime custodial staff, myself, and my boss. So I confronted my boss about it.<br><br>He seemed confused at first, but quickly a smug, shit-eating grin spread across his face. It was an expression that said, “this is going to be fun to watch.”<br><br>“So, you’re seeing the notes,” he said calmly.<br><br>“How are you doing this? Who are you talking to when you think you’re talking to me?”<br><br>He sat back in his chair and looked at the ceiling before answering.<br><br>“Several years ago, I received a message in the mail. An email. I was going to delete it, but something told me to read it. It was the same nonsense you see now. ‘Get out’. I thought it was spam, but something told me not to delete it. It was an email with no sender and no subject. I figured maybe it was just a spam filter anomaly, but again, something told me to read it.<br><br>I read it over and over. ‘Get out’. It felt important. I couldn’t stop staring at those two simple words. I finally deleted it, hoping to get on with my day, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. ‘Get out’. I started looking over my shoulder, waiting for something bad to happen. I couldn’t concentrate on my work. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I got out.<br><br>I left work and drove to a bar that was out of town a bit and had a drink. Then another. Then several more. I went home. The next day at work, I received another email. ‘Get out’. Again, I couldn’t concentrate on work. I felt like something bad was going to happen. I left work, but instead of going to the bar, I went home and drank. The next day, another email. This went on for quite a while. Every day, I felt worse and worse. I kept hoping that if I waited it out, the emails would stop. They never did.<br><br>Eventually, I stopped going to work at all. I lost my job, which was expected, but strangely enough, I didn’t run out of money. I still receive a paycheck from that job. It’s been years now.<br><br>One day, as I was drinking at home, I received another email. This one was different, though. ‘You will be the one to end humanity as we know it’. It brought tears to my eyes. I cried and laughed at the absurdity of it all.<br><br>Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Nothing happened. I just drank at home, alone, waiting for something to happen. I waited for years, but nothing ever did. I finally gave up and got a new job at the office where you can now find me.<br><br>I bring you back to the original story, scanning papers at my office. In my new occupation, I found that stress and boredom are a bad mix. I was back to drinking heavily every night. To make a long story short, my drinking eventually interfered with my work.<br><br>One day, as I opened a drawer to get a new stack of papers to scan, a half-empty bottle of whiskey fell out and spilled all over some papers that were in the drawer. I groaned. fucking hell. I was in the process of drying them out the best I could when one of them slipped out of my hands and floated down to the floor. As I picked it up, that’s when I saw it. A piece of paper taped to the bottom of the desk. I pulled it off and looked at it.<br><br>‘He will end humanity as we know it’<br><br>A chill ran down my spine as I read it. Who is he? And what the hell does he plan to do? And how did this get here? There’s no way this has been here the entire time I’ve been working here. It would have fallen off of its own weight a long time ago. Someone recently placed this here. Someone with a redacted keycard and access to the floor. Someone who knew my schedule.<br><br>I started to feel like my boss had when he received his first message from God knows where. That feeling that something bad was going to happen, and there was nothing I could do about it. The feeling that there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. I had to get out.<br><br>I walked out that night and never went back. I’m writing this from a public library right now. I haven’t been to my apartment, I haven’t even been back to my car. I can’t risk going back for anything. I don’t know if they know where I live. I don’t even know if I have an apartment anymore.<br><br>The world may already be over. If it is, then it has been for almost a week now. I’m the only one who can stop it, and I’m the one who started it.<br><br>If I’m the chosen one, the one destined to bring down society as we know it, then I’m already too late.<br><br>I’m sorry.<br><br>This is it. This is the last thing I will ever write.<br><br>Edit 10/24/2023: Holy shit, this blew up. Thank you to everyone who has read this so far. I have no idea how this’d I’ll keep updating this story and I’ll let you know what happens to me next.<br><br>Also, thanks to u/CanineCthulhu for platinum-ing this post. I’m blown away by everyone’s support.