Sora Town
Near one of the impact sites, a little clump of ash-covered mud shifted before abruptly jerking to the side.
"Urghhh—cough! Cough!" Fred gasped as he inhaled the dust that covered him.
Cough!
COUGH!
It felt like he was coughing his lungs out. He turned over, and he squeezed into himself, blocking the dust and ash with his own body.
He fought his aching body, and he lifted his arms, using his own shirt as a mouth cover, and it was only then that he allowed himself to breathe.
The effect wasn’t perfect, but it was better than nothing.
He looked around and looked at the reddish skies. Had he been out for long?
He wanted to sit up, but he screamed, belatedly feeling a sharp pain in his body. It was here that he recalled the events before he lost consciousness.
From the mountain, they saw something fall from the sky, smashing the nearest Town. He and his friends dashed for cover, using the terrain itself to protect their bodies, though with varying degrees of success.
At the time, he had managed to hold on to protruding tree roots when he was falling off the slope, but he still ended up with a sprain. Hopefully, it’s nothing a hospital visit couldn’t fix.
"Guys? Wake up!" He yelled in a voice a little muffled due to the cover. "Can someone help m—"
His heart shook when he saw a large piece of charcoal next to him. Upon closer look, one would see it was a human, and it was someone he knew.
"Ricky?"
It was only then that he remembered that, unlike Fred, who fell down in time to be covered by the hill, it seemed like his friend was a second slower and had been directly burned by the blast.
Fred crawled to him and turned him over, tears flowing down his face as he desperately checked for vitals when there were none.
He didn’t even care that residual heat burned his hands. He was just hoping that this heat meant there was life.
Sadly, no matter how much he yelled, no matter how much he shook his friend, there were no such signs of life.
When his friend’s charred hand was detached due to his shaking, his mind emptied out.
For a long time, he sat there, staring at the detached charred arm in a daze. He...his brain simply couldn’t absorb the sight.
That was it? A few hours ago, they were making plans for lunch, arguing about what cuisine to eat this time. Now...
His wide eyes couldn’t help but look around him. For the first time, he saw the effect of the disaster beyond his own body, his eyes fixing on the many corpses who—not long ago–had just been moving around, all with bright futures.
Fred covered his face. How could this be?
...
Steph took out her phone, her snot blackish due to the ash, and cried for her parents to fetch her from this place, but the call didn’t connect at all.
Peter, who had rolled down the hill, was stabbed by a branch and could barely move. His teeth were chittering, and then he glared at Steph, who was ignoring him.
"Steph..."
He was a meter away from her, and he protected her as they rolled down. He was bleeding and stabbed, and she didn’t even bother with him.
At that moment, his once-passionate heart cooled down.
...
Several meters away was Alyssa, who was lying down on her back and woken up by the noise.
She was dreaming about her married life with the love of her life. His proposal was simple, but so romantic, and she knew she would never forget it.
In her dreams, they were hiking again, this time with their future kids. All these years, her fiancé hadn’t changed.
Her Chris had always been a kind man. She knew that, even if life would throw them through various challenges, they would be able to go through them as long as they were together.
When she woke up, her whole body shook. She gasped as she felt the heavy weight above her, only to see it was her boyfriend, no, fiancé, who was still unconscious.
She took a breath of relief, lifting her arm to pat his arm.
"Chris? Chris, wake up," she said. "You’re heavy."
Her tone was gentle, almost coaxing. However, even after a minute, he did not respond. There was not even a movement.
A thought came to mind, but her unconscious pushed it away immediately.
Instead, she moved her hand from his arm to his back, but she felt the abnormal roughness there...and she abruptly lifted her hand when she got burned.
Her mind went blank, and she turned them over, realising that Chris’s entire back had been burnt.
Her ears were ringing in shock, her eyes felt like they were burning lava from within. Unsure if it was the excessive tears or the excessively painful sight, she felt like her sight was darkening.
But she did not give up trying to wake him up. How could she? "This...how could this be? No...Nono... Baby...wake up..."
In fact, Alyssa was a doctor-to-be, already in her residency. Not long after she woke up, her instincts could already tell that Chris was no longer breathing.
She already had a dreadful feeling in her gut, but she refused to see it.
She still refused to see it.
She sat and knelt next to Chris and performed CPR. Over and over.
At the back of her mind, the events before she lost consciousness played out.
There was a mass barreling through the atmosphere, hitting the nearby town. It created an explosion, creating a wave of heat that could burn people on contact.
They ran away, using the mountain they climbed for cover, but it was too late for some.
Chris died protecting her.
She was too slow. Had he left her behind—
If only he had left her behind–!
"Wuuu—"
Alyssa was a demure woman and her voice simply wasn’t developed to make loud noises.
Instead, she let out a gut-wrenching cry that was so intense nearly no sound came out of her mouth. It was a silent cry, but only one of many.
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