At the beginning it was the birds: Entire flocks of birds of different races in a gigantic migration, covering the sky completely, darkening the sun. In the courtyard, prisoners and guards were stunned watching that spectacle.
That was the last time you would see something like this.
In the afternoon, tremors, large and small, shook the prison and its surroundings. The main power was cut off and the phone, television and internet signals were lost. There was a significant increase in surveillance that day and nervousness spread among the inmates and guards alike.
At dawn on the second day they woke up to a dark day with the sky overcast, not by clouds, but a layer of dust and ash. Rumors began to spread among the prison population that some kind of terrorist attack may have taken place.
Through the window of your cell you can see the ash swirling in the courtyard as if it were snow. Only when it touched a surface and did not melt was the spell broken.
The guards become more distant and aggressive towards the inmates. Any type of activity, visits, and televisions are removed from the inmates' rooms. The protests are starting to get more and more violent but the guards are standing firm.
The night comes along with a growing sense of unease and rumors of a possible riot begin.
On the third day is when your world falls apart. At 12:45 a.m. the warden issues a statement to the entire prison. Those present listen in a confusion of feelings that go through fear, disbelief and finally fury at the warden's actions for intentionally leaving them in the shadow of what is happening outside the prison. On a throne that hints at authority, he explains that the nation, possibly the entire world, is under attack. The fantastic story of armies of strange creatures, massive mobilizations among the population, and the growing sense of powerlessness among the government to contain the situation do little to quell feelings of dissatisfaction among prisoners.
Half an hour later the first disturbance begins.
At night, you, along with half a dozen other convicts, manage to escape through a security hole caused by the riots. You spend the night at a gas station 3 hours from where the prison is located. The place is completely abandoned and there is hardly any traffic. The light is cut off and you leave it like that, not wanting to draw attention to you.
During a brief meeting you agree to divide. You decide to go with two others to the city and avoid the danger of the desert. Thinking that you could camouflage yourself in the chaos.
During your watch, your eye is directed towards the city and the increasing number of activity of planes and helicopters flying over it, and you wonder if it really suits you to go towards the chaos.
On the morning of the fourth day, you are caught at a roadblock 20 miles from the city. While you are on your knees with your hands handcuffed, you cannot avoid that your eyes are directed towards the two corpses that are lying in the middle of the road. One dressed in civilian clothes and the other in blue. Both with crimson puddles underneath their inert bodies.
You can't help but think that at least they have it easy.
You and the only other survivor of the encounter are locked in the cell area of the city police station. You end up sharing a cell with your companion. You are three men and two women.
Pete, a previous tenant in the next cell, tells you what little news he has been watching through the television set in the walls. Among them the news of the day seemed to have been the capitulation of the European Union and Russia. It is the first international news you have in the last four days and you don't know what to think.
The little that had been shared before the flight seemed to have been bad enough but seeing the number of military personnel deployed in this city you had hoped that the army was beginning to take care of the situation.
Pete just chuckled.
He told them how the soldiers sent against the fantastic metropolis that had materialized in the middle of the country had been swept away just a few hours before you and your companion arrived. There were no official figures on the deceased but there had been speculation about the possible figure of 10,000 K.I.A and similar figures for M.I.A. After what happened, the military commanders had withdrawn any force within 20 km of the city and were beginning to use artillery and air attacks against it. The result of that operation had not been reported at the moment. But rumors were circulating about a plan to evacuate the city if necessary.
At midday all The prisoners have their gaze fixed on the television set in the wall. You could finally have some truthful news compared to all the rumors of the last few days.
As they say, reality always surpasses fiction.
TV basically confirmed each and every fear that you had had for the last three days. In the half hour that the news had lasted, you had seen the terrors that had been innaware of these days: you had seen titanic creatures crawling through the decks of tanks as if they were made of paper. Chicago cut by a divide that divided the city in two. you had seen a small newsgroup live streaming images of a monolithic structure that had been identified as the source from which these creatures had come. In all this time no one knew the exact nature of those beings but the theories ranged from alien invasions to armies from hell.
But the best had been reserved for last. In a special statement from the government, the defense secretary, in a room that resembled the White House press room, announced that special measures would be taken to guarantee national security. He supposed this implied that the situation was going to escalate rapidly. Your cellmate had suggested that perhaps the government was preparing to use nuclear weapons.
At no point was there any discussion of the outcome of the bombing campaign Pete had told them about.
In the afternoon, a police officer named Steve comes to inform you that the priority order of transfers for the evacuation plans had been announced. And surprise surprise you had been assigned to the end of the queue. Therefore you would be among the last to be evacuated.
Steve says goodbye and leaves the cell area. So far Steve had been one of the few police officers who had bothered to keep you up to date on how they were unfolding outside the station, and he had been among the few police officers who had opposed his colleagues when they suggested that such Perhaps more problems would have to be avoided than necessary, and perhaps the prisoners should be disposed of to get a problem out of the way.
At night you decide to go to bed early and sleep late as long as you are allowed to. It was clear that you were going to live some busy days.
On the fifth day, the evacuation of all towns within 500 km around the conical city is announced. Including prisons, the irony of the situation is not lost on you.
Thirteen minutes later the signal of television stations throughout the city is lost, they would no longer transmit news.
At noon, the lieutenant colonel who leads the city's troops announces the evacuation of the city. A small group of civilians has decided to stay behind to help the troops that are going to stay to cover the convoy of civilians and military that leaves to the east.
Due to the lack of television the news was scarce and unreliable. The only information that they could consider truthful information was obtained from the military and police officers who bothered to speak to them and were not encouraging at all. Apparently all contact with forces on the ground had been lost near the citadel and due to the layer of ash that covered the skies they could hardly get reliable satellite images. An air force drone had managed to overcome the wall formed by dust and ash and had transmitted images of military formations possibly belonging to the enemy advancing in all directions.
On the sixth day the city literally collapsed. Entire and streets collapsed, leaving a huge rift that divided the city in two.
Evacuation attempts had stopped and the civilian population was now advised to hide underground. And prepare for the inevitable invasion.
The last time you see Steve, he seems dressed for war; he ,along with other policemen and soldiers, were being deployed around the city in a defensive line.
In the afternoon, an army unit moves you from the cell block on the first floor to the emptied armory located in the basement of the building. They seal the armored door behind you and leave you in that gloomy cellar.
In the afternoon, a doctor friend of Steve's visits you. Shee brings you meals and a few medical supplies that she had managed to get out of the field hospital after the town´s hospital collapsed in the earthquake that shook the city in the morning. You make sure to thank her and wonder if this would be the last time you would see someone else besides your cell mates.
The seventh day dawns in silence. It is a fairly peaceful day. You move your left hand outside a window. It´s too small to tryy to scape. The ash fell from the sky in a way that you would like to compare with snowflakes. You put your hand in the air letting the soft touch of those imaginary flakes but the spell was undone with the touch leaving a dark stain on the skin. It almost seems that this moment would last forever and that some divinity had forgiven you and the rest of the city.
Around six in the morning, a series of tremors began to sound from under your feet. Preparing for an earthquake you try to get covered under the beds. But the earthquake never came, instead the tremors seemed to increase in intensity and were getting closer. The real nightmare was about to begin.
The noise of the gunfire begins around 8:00 a.m. The rhythmic cannonade of artillery and tanks echoes through the streets. A series of tremors shake the shelves in the room, but they sounded ... synchronized. The resonance of the weapons was in crescendo, covering up any other sound except for the earth tremors that were getting closer and closer to where you were.
As the minutes passed the sound of the weapons began to fade and the echo of dozens of monstrous footsteps began to shake the very buildings.
The building in front of you collapses as if made from legos and a gigantic and intimidating shape emerges from the rubble and the cloud of dust. Almost 6 meters high, completely covered by a layer of dark gray metal a monstrous sight no doubt.
The armored warrior climbs over the fence in the courtyard, automatically backs up to the far end of the basement, and crouches under a built-in bed. Your companions respond in kind and seek refuge where they can. Even though you cannot see it, you know that the creature is advancing relentlessly in your direction and that the poor building of the police station, already weakened by the earthquake of the previous day, will barely resist it.
The moment the giant makes contact with the walls of the building you feel as if the whole world is falling on you. Part of the roof falls on you, crushing the person to your left. For what seemed like an eternity the destruction seemed to continue until you heard another wall collapse and the heavy footsteps receded.
The Judgment Day ended like it came but you were still alive. You climb out from under the bed and notice the crushed corpse under the rubble. Your mind goes back to the day you were arrested on the outskirts of town. In the lying bodies of your escape partner and the policeman who had stopped you. And that they could still be considered as the lucky ones, since they had escaped the hell that your world had become.
The room is illuminated by the light coming from the hole left by the giant.
Is it worth leaving the relative safety of this room that until a few hours ago had served as your cell or would you enter a new and unknown world?