Mira looked like the weight of the world had suddenly rested on her shoulders as her once bright face suddenly went pale, she pinched her self to make sure she wasn't dreaming but freaking hell she wasn't, it was all real.
Few minutes later
The transition from the horror of the footage to the mundane silence of the bunker was almost harder for Mira to process. After the initial shock, a heavy, hollow numbness settled over her. She couldn't stay in the Command Center—the flickering monitors, the scent of ozone, and the sight of Alex turning back into a machine of war were suffocating her.
"I need to walk," she whispered, her voice raspy. "I need to move, Alex. If I stay in this chair, I'm going to disappear."
Alex paused, his hand hovering over a digital map of the city's power grid. He looked at her, and for a fleeting second, his eyes softened with a look of pure, agonizing hesitation. He knew the facility was "safe," but the world had just ended; nowhere felt truly safe anymore, he also understood that the whole situation would take a little time for her to process and hence she really needed space.
"Okay, Mira but Stay within the inner ring," he said, his voice low.
Planting a soft kiss on her forehead that didn't lack affection, He signaled to a soldier standing near the door—a tall, grim-faced woman with a scar running through her eyebrow. "Corporal Halloway. You are on her. If she moves, you move. If a shadow flickers, you put yourself between it and her. Understood?"
"With my life, General," Halloway replied, her voice a sharp bark.
Mira stood, her legs feeling like lead. Just as she turned to leave with Alex's eyes fixed on her silhouette, the Command Center erupted back into a fever pitch of activity. The "five-minute break" was officially over. Officers shouted coordinates, keyboards clattered like gunfire, and Alex's voice rose above the din, cold and commanding once more.
She stepped through the heavy doors and into the hall, Halloway trailing three paces behind her like a silent, armored ghost.
The facility was a labyrinth of reinforced concrete and flickering fluorescent lights. As Mira walked, the scale of the tragedy began to sink in. This wasn't just a military base; it was a tomb for the living.
They passed the "Medical Overflow" wing. It wasn't a room, but a corridor lined with hundreds of cots. The silence Mira had noticed earlier was even more haunting here. There was no screaming, no hysterical crying. There was only the sound of labored breathing and the rhythmic drip-drip of IV bags.
People sat on the floor, leaning against the cold walls. A man in a torn business suit sat staring at his empty hands; a woman nearby clutched a child's backpack to her chest, her eyes wide and glassy, staring at nothing.
Soon, they reached the Section A wing, which was filled with mostly women and children, Mira bit hard on her lips as she saw a woman sobbing over the lifeless body of a little boy, it was the saddest sight ever.
' 21 hours 'Mira thought, her mind reeling. Yesterday, I was complaining about the rain. Yesterday, these people were at work, at school, at home.
"Why are they so quiet?" Mira whispered, not looking back at Halloway.
"Shock I guess," the Corporal replied curtly. "And the General had also ordered a noise dampening protocol. Panic is a contagion. If one starts screaming, they all start. We can't afford a riot in a sealed environment."
Taking a deep breath, Mira stopped in front of a small, reinforced observation window that looked out into a secondary hangar. Down below, she saw soldiers unloading crates of civilian clothes, suitcases, and toys—the scavenged remains of the city.
It felt like looking at a museum of a lost civilization. She looked at her own hands, at the engagement ring Alex had placed there six months ago. The diamond caught the harsh LED light, a spark of the "old world" that felt garish and offensive in this dim, grey place.
He said we're the only survivors," Mira said, her voice trembling. "He said the whole city is... gone."
Halloway moved up beside her, her eyes scanning the hallway before answering. "The General doesn't exaggerate, Ma'am. We lost contact with the capital sixteen hours ago. The coastal garrisons went dark an hour after that. What you saw on those screens... that's happening everywhere."
Mira pressed her forehead against the cool glass. She tried to imagine the creatures Alex had shown her—the chitinous limbs, the translucent light—moving through the streets where she used to buy groceries. She tried to imagine the sky she had always known being filled with them.
"Is it just us?" Mira asked. "Is there anyone else left out there?"
Halloway was silent for a long time. "We're not sure yet but we're receiving pings from deep-sea subs and a few underground sites in the mountains. But for the cities, we're not quite sure, the government had us the military organize a last minute seige for the people, only the people who got here before those creatures did were theones lucky enough to get in, we had to seal the doors to avoid those creatures coming in, even though they were still a lot of people out there " she explained sadly and helplessly.
Mira could only imagine the scene in her head, it felt like a movie.
Suddenly, the lights in the hallway flickered, turning a sickly, rhythmic yellow. A low-frequency hum vibrated through the floor tiles.
Mira froze. The guard's hand instantly went to her rifle, the safety clicking off with a terrifyingly loud snick
"What was that?" Mira asked, her heart hammering against her ribs.
" Power surge," Halloway said, though her eyes were darting toward the ceiling vents. "The General said the atmospheric interference was getting worse. We should head back. Now."
As they turned to hurry back toward the Command Center, Mira looked back at the rows of silent, broken people. She realized that the "disbelief" she felt wasn't going away. It was hardening into a new, cold reality. The world hadn't just changed; it was being erased.