Terminal Chaos

At first, there were normal explanations.  Weird things were happening, but they could all be explained.  Witnesses are known to be unreliable.  Calculations can be in error.  Optical illusions do in fact occur.  No matter how strange something may at first seem, if one digs deeply enough, there is always an ordinary explanation.  Always.

Except that there were too many of them.  At first, they seemed minor.  A misplaced item would be found in a locked safe.  An automobile would change color.  An ancient manuscript turned up in a public library—a new library.

Soon, everyone had an unusual anecdote, and some speculated that some mass hysteria was to blame.

 A large, dragon-like sea serpent washed up on a beach.  A pilotless aircraft crash-landed in a field; it was a fighter plane from World War One.  A large, black cloud emanating lightning was seen by thousands, appearing as if from nowhere, and after an hour or so, it abruptly vanished.

Each thing seemed within the realm of possibility, awaiting further facts.

A herd of bison appeared in Kansas, a herd of at least ten thousand, overrunning a small town.  Previously unknown species of plants began to grow across several continents.  All the great oceans became turbulent, sinking several large ships and swamping large cities while sparing others, with no pattern to the destruction.

There was no longer any denying it, something unprecedented was occurring, seemingly in defiance of physical reality.  Panic was setting in.

It was an artificially intelligent computer that provided the most probable explanation:  the universe itself had become unstable.  Existence itself was ending.

Philosophers had long questioned why there is something instead of nothing.  The AI computer claimed to have found the answer.  “Existence,” it said, “came into being as an anomaly.  It is only temporary.  The force which has kept existence in existence is rapidly fading.  Mutually exclusive phenomena are colliding and annihilating.  The net sum of all existence, once all the positives and negatives cancel each other out, will yield nothingness.  There will soon be nothing, not even a past.”

And then it happened.  There was ---