Starfall, pt. 2

Turns out that city I was in was Philadelphia. Not that I even got much of a chance to check while we were escaping. That part was pretty hectic. Turns out that when a gigantic tower appears and starts destroying the city, everyone hops into their cars and starts trying to drive away. And of course, being struck in traffic while the world is ending is never a good position. Flint tried turning on the car’s sirens, but no one seemed inclined to move out of the way for us. Aaaand then everything went even crazier when the Black Dog landed on the car in front of us, crushing it completely.

We just managed to jump out of the car before a huge paw tore the top off. Flint drew his gun and ineffectually opened fire, but the Dog was only interested in me. It roared, and leaped at me, fangs bared.

Bad move, you stupid mutt.

Drew back my left arm and swung forward, hitting it right between the eyes. That knocked it out of the air, and we took that chance to run for it. We went into the closest building, which ended up being a bar. Flint flashed his badge at the barkeeper. “Government business. Where’s your back exit?”

I just managed to tackle Flint to the ground before the barkeep nearly blew his head off with a shotgun. Changed my arm into a tentacle and cut through the barkeep’s neck. Only water came out of the stump as the lifeless body.

Flint had just gotten back to his feet when the Black Dog smashed through the door. It lunged for me, and I fell trying to dodge. Still not used to being unable to teleport. Miles grabbed me and pulled me up, then we ran for the back. Found and exit, and ran out it. The Dog tried following, but the door was too small. Before it could smash through that as well, my tentacle lashed out, smashing the building’s walls and supports, bringing the roof down on its head. That would slow it down long enough to give us a breather.

We kept running until we felt we were a safe distance away. “So now what the hell do we do?” I said.

“We should report back to our superiors in D.C.” Miles said. “If we make it to them, they can inform us how the government is responding to this situation.”

Flint waved a hand dismissively. “There’s no way we’ll make it to D.C. with the roads like that. I’ve got a house in Phoenixville, which isn’t that far from here. We’ll head there, and then figure out what to do next.”

Well that sounded like a plan. Flint led the way as we made our cross country trek through chaos. Without the Dog chasing us, things were less hectic, but there was still danger present. A lot of panicking people running in the streets. A lot of dead people once the Tower reached them. Most of the cracks had been sealed, but the Tower was still consuming more material to expand. Black smog poured from it, obscuring the parts of the sky not already blocked by its canopy.

As we continued to travel, I started seeing fewer people. We passed entire city blocks that had been picked clean by the Tower, leaving nothing left alive on them. Other places had been visited by… other things; one street we passed was completely covered in mutilated limbs and bodies.

It had only been a few hours since the Quiet had kicked this whole deal off, but already everything around us felt dead. How many had been killed in such a short time?

As we got closer to Phoenixville, I started to get a sinking feeling. There was a lot of smoke up ahead. That feeling became justified when we reached the edge of a massive crater. The blasted land stretched on farther than I could see, dotted with scattered fires. A pickup truck was parked by the edge, its owner standing outside and staring at the crater in awe. Flint stumbled past him, and then sank to his knees.

“Hey, it’s just a house.” I said to him.

“His husband was there.” Miles whispered.

Oh. Yeah. Flint was married.

Decided to talk to the other guy instead. “So what the fuck happened to this place?” I asked him, hoping he’d snap out of that dazed awe.

“God came down from heaven.” He said in a distant voice. “He descended with black wings and a mask made of bone, and he called fire and brimstone down on all the people.”

Oh, great, the Archangel too. Exactly what we needed. Shame it wasn’t there anymore, because I was in the mood to rip some eldritch heads off.

The pickup truck’s radio had been on this whole time, but only static had been coming through it. And then suddenly, a voice came through that static.

“This is the Emergency Alert Broadcast System. Announcements will follow shortly.” More static, and then another man’s voice came through. “This is General Morgan, United States military. This is a call to any survivors in the continental United States. We are currently attempting to establish a safe haven for survivors in the Fort Worth area. If you can hear this, then….” Static cut him off.

I faced the guy who owned the pickup truck again. “What’s your name?”

“Edward….”

“Right then Ed, wanna give us a ride to Texas?”

“Um….” He slowly seemed to be coming out of that daze. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Perfect.” Then I went to Flint, and put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

He wiped his eyes, then stood up. “Yeah. Let’s get going.”

And now, since everything else is destroyed, we’re heading to Forth Worth to see if we can find any survivors there.