In a destructed city, an exile makes his way back for a homecoming.
I was walking around this kind of dilapidated city area, with a decent sized group of people. We were just walking around quietly, observing our surroundings. Almost everything was covered with a thick layer of dust, leaving footprints that made it seem as though it had snowed. Small buildings surrounded us, with plain concrete facades giving the notion that anything that had been painted on the surface had either faded away, or was blown off. We continued to walk around, looking into the buildings, but seeing only empty rooms.
It was then when a blinding flash of light erupted from the distance, and everyone started to scream. “Another one!” someone yelled, and while I ran in the general direction of everyone else, I could see a huge mushroom cloud, and a slow moving glow coming from it, expanding at all angles. I followed my friend Rory into a building and along with a few others, we entered a room and stopped. Rory told everyone to get in specific places, since according to him by standing in these positions we survived the last “one”. He and I had a system where we would blink twice with our right eye to signal if we were still alive.
The rumbling of the explosion intensified, and this glow of light entered the room. It got brighter and brighter and then reached a point where it stayed. I looked around at the shaking room, and everyone that stood was turning transparent. I looked at my own hand and saw that it was transparent as well. The shaking got worse, and then everything went black.
I got up, buried in rubble, and looked around. All of the small buildings I had seen before were reduced to the ground. I brushed myself off and walked a bit until I met up with a group of people who were surveying the damage. Rory was there, so I joined him in walking around. There was still a slight rumble in the ground, but the glowing cloud was gone, and no one had that transparent look they had before.
The ground began to shake again, and in the distance, dust could be seen being blown up at the horizon line. No one could really make out what it was, but it didn’t matter as artillery rounds began flying at us, setting off explosions all over the place. There was no order to our escape this time, as everyone ran off into different directions. As I ran, I could see that tanks were now driving towards us off in the horizon, shooting straight ahead. I Dodged explosions and continued to run away. After so much running, I was fatigued and found some cover by some rubble formations and just sat there.
The rate of explosions began to die down, and soon after, Humvees started driving past where I was. The dust settled a bit, and I could see that there was a city to my left, untouched by the destruction that had befallen the area I was in. The Humvees were driving toward the city, so as one drove past, I ran behind it and jumped into the back of the vehicle, which was not occupied. There was a black bag in the back that had a pistol in it. I took it.
The driving went on for a bit, and after passing through a bunch of stops and a tunnel, I was in the city. I walked around a bit, but no one was around. I continued on, and turned a corner. There was a fairly large two way avenue, with brownstones lining both sides of the street. On one side, all of the buildings had these large banners at the top of the building, showing a picture of someone with their name below the picture. People emerged and began to see me. Compared to the fancy clothing everyone was wearing, my tattered, dust covered appearance stuck out like a sore thumb. People stared as I walked by. I walked up to one building and looked up. There was a banner showing a picture of my face with my name on it. I walked up the stairs, and opened the door. There was a huge ballroom with people in it, and when I opened the door everyone turned to look at me. Everyone was dressed extremely nice. I saw my mother and father, and smiled to them. Instead of returning the favor, my mother picked up the phone and yelled “Police!”
I had no idea what was going on, yet in the next moment, a police officer came in asking me to take a walk with him. As I walked out, I looked at my mother and she looked back at me with a look of indifference. With no cuffs or anything, I walked down the stairs with the police officer who had his gun drawn. He opened the back of a van and told me to get in. I took one last look at the building my parents were in, and then I punched the gun out of the cop’s hand and started to run. He picked up the gun and fired at me, but the bullet missed. I kept going, and a guy and a girl were walking in front of me. I pulled the pistol out and told them to walk with me. I grabbed the girl and put the gun to her head and turned around towards the cop, but he just kept on firing at me, with no care for the girl I had in front of me. The hostage situation wouldn’t work. I took them with me and ran into a train station. At this point they weren’t even my hostages. They were just running for their lives as well. We climbed over a barricade in the train station that said “Station Closed”, and we continued on. Two shots from the cop’s gun rang off, and they both hit me in my left shoulder. I tried to phase it out and just kept running.
We reached the area where the tracks should have been, yet there were no tracks. Instead, there was flowing water, with these man-like creatures swarming through the water, moving like salmon very quickly through the train tunnel. I called to them for help, and they stopped moving. One of the creatures stood up, and had a kingly look to him. Their skin was scaly and fish-like, yet they had the shape of a human. The one that stood kind of reminded me of a Greek god. I asked for his help and he said he could make me one of them, but that he did not want to get involved with the conflicts of others. I continued to ask for help, until a shot was fired. The cop shot at the creature, killing him. All of the other creatures made a huge groan and we started moving along with the flowing water. Very quickly we were down the tunnel and into safety. This is when I, along with the other two people, was turned into one of them. I looked over at my shoulder, which had two sets of wounds, two entering and two exiting, and they began to pulse and turn scaly. Soon the wounds were gone and I began to swim along with the others.
I then entered a flashback. I was in the same city setting as before, yet it was not completely destroyed. I was walking through the empty streets with two other people, when a crazed man emerged from an alley way and started to chase us. We ran through a small back street and jumped onto an exterior metal frame fire escape to the top of a building. When we reached the top we ran towards a large chimney stack and started to climb up it. The inside of the stack was full of bushes, but by pushing them out, we opened a hidden entrance. We Jumped down, and entered this big room. All of the windows were spray-painted white, so that diffused light was coming it, yet nothing of the outside could be seen.
There was a decent sized group of people congregated in the room. They did not say anything; they just remained in their positions and looked on. The silence was interrupted though, by the sound of a helicopter’s propellers slicing through the air. The sound sent everyone in the room into a panic. They began screaming and running around the room, yet not really going anywhere. The helicopter sounded as though it was right above the building now. The chopping noise became deafening, but that was the least of our worries. Cracks began to form in the ceiling, and through the cracks began to drip this very thick yet clear gooey liquid. A bit of liquid fell and landed on one of the people, and as soon as it made contact, the person began to quickly dissolve into a puddle. More and more of the substance was dripping around the room, and all I could do was try my best to avoid it. As more people were hit and turned into stains on the floor, I picked up chairs and started throwing them at the windows. With light fully coming in, I raised my voice as high as I could and yelled “I surrender!”
The flashback was over, and I was now standing above a sewer lid with the two people. We were now outside the city once again, but the area we were in was still populated and in good shape. We started walking around, and after a few blocks, we came to a dead end. We stopped and surveyed our surroundings, but a feeling of horror returned. In the distance of the city, another explosion erupted, sending a familiar glow outward. As soon as I saw it, I started to move, yelling to the others to follow me. I ran to the nearest sewer cap and ripped it open, ready to jump down. Instead, the opening revealed the hole to be blocked with garbage. I continued to run in the general opposite direction of the shock wave, and continued to look for an escape route. With no opening in sight, all we could do was run. As we went on, we began to run across a bridge, and I ran to the edge. I looked over the edge to see a river flowing outwards. I called for the others and said “Jump!”
We hopped over the rail and fell into the water. Once we hit, it was like I returned to my element. I started to swim and I moved at an absurd speed. I moved faster and faster and swam deeper and deeper until any light was visible and I was only moving towards complete darkness.
