Chapter Text
Sirens blared, pouring out of electronics the city. Phones rang with unfamiliar alerts. emergency broadcasts took over television programs. Radios screamed warnings. They all said the same thing in slightly different words: get inside, underground if possible, take food and loved ones but don’t succumb to panic. We looked around at neighbours and strangers in confusion; all seemed fine as far as any of us could see. The sky was cloudless and blue with the sun still high above us. As meteorologists had predicted the weather was perfect for an early autumn day: we could smell the cool settling in, but most citizens in our home town were out in thin sweaters.
A few people made comments about ‘damned technology’ and how it was probably an error. They claimed that the lack of context meant that it had to be some form of error, that we would be notified if there was a particular risk of our safety. The seemingly sound reasoning of their point did little to quell the fears of those that immediately succumbed to the panic. Some did as they were told, retuning home and hiding in their basements, while others rushed to stores to stock up for whatever was coming.
Because of those that chose to load up their vehicles with ‘necessary’ survival equipment— a range that included everything from first aid to birthday candles— many of us got trapped at work. There was no closing the doors with customers flooding in to spend hundreds of dollars in one trip. People fought over toilet paper like they would die without it, and stuffed their pockets with things they believed they could sneak out amidst the panic. Even as the bright mid-day sky began to darken, desperate individuals continued to pour in.
I wanted to know what was happening, why the world outside of our florescent lights and white-tiles ceiling was growing dimmer, but when I turned my head to look someone would scream at me to pay attention to my work. After all, in panic like this all it took was being a couple seconds too slow for anger and impatience to point over. They didn’t realize, or didn’t care, that we were just as human, and just as scared as they were. We all feared that our lives could end, but for those of us that stayed to work the fear of living and loosing our jobs was just as bad.
We all did our best to keep our wits about us, until the screaming started.
It started with one lady, standing in the door with her cart full of groceries. Whatever she saw outside, the thing we were all supposed to be hiding from, set off a chain reaction. Like the first brick thrown in a riot, her panic spread through everyone else like wildfire. Her screams were echoes by all of those scrambling to get out, or in, and anyone gathered in front of the large windows at the front of the store. They began shoving desperate to get further to the back of the store, or out into the streets, whichever they deemed safest. A The few people that froze in front of the windows, out of fear or curiosity, didn’t remain long before they were shoved out of the way by the swarming stampede.
In a matter of seconds humanity devolved into the wild animals they truly are. They pushed and trampled anything in their way in their desperate attempts to do what they thought just might save them.
I stepped away from my register, wanting to catch a glimpse of what they were all so horribly frightened by, but something snagged my uniform. I turned back to find a middle-aged man, leaning over the belt to grasp my shirt. Despite his clean, grey suit and tie, and perfectly trimmed beard and hair, he was sprawled out in the most undignified way, holding onto me like a frightened child that had been separated from his mother.
“Finish ringing me in. Do your job,” he demanded, anger in his voice but desperation in his eyes.
I looked from him, glancing over the mountain of canned meat her was attempting to hoard. “Just take it.”
He looked like he was about to object, until he realized exactly what that meant, then let go of me to start collecting his stash.
I stepped further from him, approaching the windows while being careful to not be run over by those scrambling away from it. I could see the parking lot stretching out in front of the store, much darker than it should have been for that time of day, but there were not torrential rains o howling winds. With another step forward I could make out what should have been a sky, now blocked out by something dark. Before I could move any closer, someone grabbed hold of my arm and pulled my back.
“We have to get to the warehouse,” one of my coworkers yelled over the panicked arguments happening all around us. I looked back to the shape hiding the sun and the sky, but she was already dragging me deeper into the store.
“What’s going on?”
She didn’t answer, only continued pulling me as we wove through the maze of scared and angry humans yearling and fighting over the last pack of water on the shelf. I thought we were going to make it to the back without incident until a man, taller than either of us and built like he could lift us both without breaking a sweat and dressed as though he had just left the gym before he came to the store, loomed directly in our way.
“Where are you going?” he boomed. He folded his arms over his chest and glared down as if we personally had been responsible for the disaster taking place.
More eyes turned to us.
“My car’s out back,” my coworker answered quickly, almost as if she had been telling the truth, “we’re just going cutting through the warehouse to get back there.”
“Can’t let you out,” he answered in a semi-sympathetic tone.
“I need to check on my cat,” I objected. He didn’t budge.
The man only shook his head sorrowfully. “Can’t let anyone out until we know what’s going on. The messages said to get indoors and stay put.”
My coworker, Daniella, and I turned to each other for a moment to consider our next move. When we faced him yet again, he still hadn’t moved in the midst of the chaos going on all around us.
I pointed behind him to a woman sneaking into the warehouse with her cart full of groceries. “Okay, we’ll stay, but someone else is trying to get out.”
As soon as he turned, we were off. I gripped Daniella’s hand and lead her to the break room. With everyone fretting for themselves, we were able to make out way inside and lock the door behind us. Here we were able to relax slightly, out of sight and reach of panicking customers. We rested against the wall, letting our racing hearts settle before starting down the hallway that would break of into offices, the break room, and an emergency exit.
“What’s going on outside?”
“I don’t know,” Daniella admitted through shallow breaths, “I just saw something in the sky.”
“Yeah, me too.”
We walked past the first office that was usually left open for employees to come and go. The door was locked with no one in sight. I knocked, but as far as I could tell there was no movement inside. We carried on.
“It looked really big.”
“It would have to be to block out so much light,” I answered as we came to the second office. This one was usually locked, used mainly for training new staff or having meetings, and remained locked as we walked up to it. It was also abandoned, but unlike the first office chairs were tipped over and papers had fallen to the floor. We knocked, received no answer, and carried on.
“Could it be a foreign plane?”
“Are you asking if we’re going to get bombed?” I laughed as I asked, but her face was sincere and terrified. “No. No country had a plane that big. It’s have to be at least the size of a city block.”
The words were barely out of my mouth when the ground began to shake. Sounds loud enough to be heard through at least two feet of cement boomed in my chest. I grabbed Daniella and held her against the wall, backing us both for whatever was about to happen, but the shaking subsided and things got quieter. We waited for a couple more seconds to be sure before running to the break room, not bothering with any other offices.
There was no one else there. I had expected, or hoped, to see a few others had sought shelter, but it seemed all the others had either stayed on the floor or already left the building. We ran to our lockers to grab our belongings, and the ground shook again. Daniella and I dove underneath the table, cowering together underneath the only cover in the entire room. She wrapped her arms around me, and I did my best to Sheila her wish my body. I can’t speak for her, but in that moment I was certainly prepared for the worst. The ceiling panels above us rattled. Dust fell around us as the ground continued to move. I closed my eyes and did my best to keep breathing.
When the shaking stopped I was sure I was dead. Everything was usually dark, even as I pulled my eyes open. For a moment I didn’t even register Daniella still wrapped in my arms, until she started to move. I pulled back in a panic, unsure of what exactly was happening.
“It stopped,” she whispered.
“Are we alive?”
Through the panic in her voice she laughed. “I think so.”
We crawled out from under the table to find that only the emergency lights had remained on in the latest quake. We wasted no time scrambling for our lockers, and feeling around in the darkness to collect our things.
“Is it safe out there?” she kept her voice low, ensuring that whatever had caused the tremors wouldn’t hear us and be attracted to our location.
“Can’t be any worse than it is in here.” I double checked my pockets I make sure I had everything I would need, and pulled a sweater on over top of my uniform.
Down the hallway someone started pounding on the door. Daniella and I froze, momentarily listening to the sound of something repeatedly slamming against the metal door. It didn’t quite sound like a fist, more like metal slamming against metal. My heart stopped, and my feet started moving.
“We gotta go.”
We hurried for the emergency exit placed next to the staff bathrooms, and pushed it open. The alarm meant to notify the rest of the store that the door had been opened didn’t even go off. The sound of the locked door being broken was all that followed us as we stepped into the cool September air.
Smoke rose into the air, leaking out of vehicles and buildings into the darkened sky. For the most part the streets were empty, with only a few people still running to get out of the streets. Short of fires and unknown monsters the scene before us appeared to be designed after any apocalyptic media.
Suddenly I was less desperate to know the cause of the widespread panic. Now that we were finally here, I was less daring to face the reality of our situation. I kept my eyes low, refusing to fully acknowledge the dark shadow looming over us, and turned back to Daniella.
Horror had overtaken her soft, youthful features as she stared up at the very object I was trying to avoid. Tears were welling up in the corners of her eyes, and her mouth hung agape. “We should go back inside,”she whispered, her voice trembling.
I nodded hesitantly. “What about the people trying to get in?”
“At least they’re human.”
Goosebumps tingled over my entire body. As we stepped back into the building, I glanced over my shoulder into the sky.
From our perspective all I could make out was a flat surface, at least the width of two city blocks, hovering above us. I knew I needed to get inside, but by body didn’t want to listen to me.
“Emery?” Daniella sounded terrified, but I couldn’t act to comfort her. I didn’t know what was happening, why I was stuck, only that I didn’t want the poor teenager to have this image burned forever in her brain.
All I wanted was to reach out to comfort her, but my muscles had seized entirely. Static began collecting in the corners of my vision, crawling over my eyes.
“Emery!” She screamed. I could feel her grabbing at my arm, trying to pull me inside, but she seemed to be having as much trouble moving me as I did. Something began to hurt, the worst pain I had ever experienced. It coursed through my bones, feeling like every fragment of myself was being ripped apart. I opened my mouth to scream, but I couldn’t heard the sound coming out of me or Daniella’s cries. The static completely blocked out my vision.