"Fuck" Chris roared. The road ahead was blocked with destroyed cars and pieces of buildings. He cut the wheel left, and stomped on the gas petal until he did not see any of those things following him. He then pressed the brake and pulled the clutch hiding behind a warehouse, the truck slewing sideways to a shuddering stop. The engine coughed, and sputtered in protest. He killed the lights, and listened dreading what may come. The beating of his heart threatening to break his ribs it felt like. There was nothing, no panting, no sickly pops of a body being pushed too far, no nails on asphalt.
After a few minutes Chris finally was able to take in his surroundings noticing a police car nearby that was turned upside down. Thinking of finding help, or even a weapon would greatly enhance his chances of survival. He eased the door open and slid out, staying low, walking slowly towards the cop car.
Finally ending up beside it, and crouching down to see inside he noticed a police officers body who's head was missing, and chest cavity ripped open. Steeling his nerves, he took out his phone to turn on the flash to look closer to see if the officers firearm was still there. While choking back the bile, he finally saw the officers pistol still in the duty belt, but it was was missing half of it with only 1 extra magazine.
After finally managing to pull it off the corpse, and getting back to the tailgate of his truck; Chris duct tapped the other side of the duty belt to himself to make a semi workable belt. He felt more alive now than he has since coming back home.
With his now pistol high and tight, the way he was taught, Chris finally unfocused on the task he had at hand, and looked at his surroundings taking it all in.
The air pressure changed. That was the first warning. His ears popped as if under emense instant pressure. The light post along the block didn't flicker they bent, the metal poles seemed to bow toward a point down the street like plants turning to sun.
"Not good." Chris said while moving for cover out of reflex, jumping to the other side of the truck. The hum deepened, and got so strog it started vibrating his truck.
Light seemed to fold inward on itself, blue and violet. Air rushed past Chris which made it feel like there was a giant inhaling, but just as suddenly came the exhale.
It hit like a shockwave. He was only registering pain. He slammed the ground and skit against it, being flung into a wall, his pistol torn from his grip. Then he realized he was on his back, dust billowing, the sky throbbing like a wounded eye.
He layed there, blinded for a second, ears ringing under the noise. It wasn't loud, it was the absent of sound that struck his core after he started to come back to reality. He tasted copper.
When his vision cleared, half the street was gone. There was crater at the intersection. Slowly Chris got up trying to inspect if it was a danger or not, he noticed that the crater was a perfect bowl shape of asphalt that was turned to what seemed to be glassily. The collapsed overpass looked as if it was chewed, and then spit out. His truck was now rocked on its side, its alarm screaming in the darkness like a beacon, but nothing came at least for now.
In the crater's center, something glowed.
Chris decided to slide down the slope, boots skidding into the ground that now seemed of been fused by intense heat. Heat soaked his shins. He crouched at the bowl's center.
The object was a shard the size of his palm, glassy but not, as if a storm had decided to harden into crystal. Striations ran through it like trapped lightning. He reached out, hesitated.
It was warm. It pulsed once against his skin *thump* *thump* *thump* unconsciously his body answered. Blue light raced under his forearms like a map of rivers.
He flinched and dropped the shard. In awe , he watched the glow crawl back down from his wrists to his knuckles and fade, leaving his hands tingling as if they'd fallen asleep.
A whisper entered his mind.
First fragment recovered.
"Pathfinder," another whisper appeared
Looking up he noticed the pillar of what seemed to be the same pillar of dark fire he saw from his studio. It has grown not just wider but also higher as if trying to pierce the heavens and swallowing its surroundings. Red streaks of lightning crawled along its edges and froze like veins in stone. Debris seemed to be rotated around it in slow motion. There was numerous vechicles, trees, but what chilled him to the bone was the amount of bodies that formed rings around it. Chris was unable to tell if they were alive or not.
He had to get away Chris decided with absolute certainty now. He snatched the shard again with a strip of torn T-shirt between his fingers, and stuffed it into his backpack. The backpack strangely felt warmer immediately, and almost felt like there was a heartbeat coming from where the stone was.
As Chris was climbing out of the crater, his lungs started to feel as if they were burning from the heat given off from the crater. He had to retrieve his only weapon. He ran to where he was thrown back like a bag of flour, trying to retrieved the lifeline. After a few minutes of using his phones light to search, he managed to find it under the staircase of the building he was slammed against. He racked the slide, checked the mag and, then holstered it. The truck's alarm was still blaring into the night like a wounded beast. He had to stop it! Prying open the hood he disconnected the battery to hopefully not attract further attention.
Across the street, fog began to spill between the buildings. Chris felt an oblivious temperature drop which put him on edge. Coming from instant intense heat to the chilling cold made it as if his blood froze in horror. His breathing became white. The beam of his flashlight cut through the fog , but then reflected, as if light preferred a different route avoiding what he was trying to see.
He swept his light from right to left, slowly. The fog rippled where the beam passed, and beneath that ripple something spherical took shape a trembling lens of air ten feet wide. Inside it: a frog, frozen mid-stride, mouth open, legs outstretched seemed to be trapped in a moment. Or the memory of one.
He took one step back, then two.
The clear sphere in front of him tightened. Air rushed inward again sucking him in. He was sliding now towards the sphere in horror. He felt heat suddenly release from his back. It has to be the shard! It was pulsing now which made the sphere shiver and stop a mere breath away from catching him as well, as if reacting to the thing he carried. A second pulse climbed his forearms, phantom blue color traveling under his skin. The sphere then collapsed with a soft, wet pop. The frog fell flat as if free from its prison, but it was dead. Reveling that without the shard that to would of been his fate. The fog then slowly vanished and the temperature went back to normal steadily.
Suddenly his truck radio came to life which scared him due to the battery being disconnected. Chris looked down at the dash through the windshield; the display wasn't lit, but a voice leaked out anyway, threaded with static like it had to fight to be heard.
*if anyone-copy-north rail-shelter under-"
"-divine sightings-avoid-"
"-don't touch the-artifacts-unless-unless-"
Chris stood in the street now shaken about what all has happened. Another voice echoed in his mind. "You don't get to choose if you always live. You only choose how."
He scanned for movement. Nothing. Which made him feel even worse, because of not knowing what there is to face in the dark. He decided to start walking away from the pillar.
As he walked away he noticed the fog filling up the intersection again. Making it come in like a clean, smooth wave, seeming to erase everything that just happened. For a second, Chris could of swore he saw faces within it. As the road curved the thoughts of it slid away.
Instead there was only his own breath and what could now could be that's haunting his thoughts.
He continued towards the train yards because the rails gave him a chance. A chance of supplies with a possibility of shelter with those who also survived. Slowly while walking a new fundamental truth settled into his mind. It was that, this wasn't the end of the world. It was the end of the world that he always knew.