Antumbra - A Lost Cause

Divine Punishment - Chapter Sixteen

Arva barely let out a whimper as she and the others stood in awe, watching it fall from the sky. It was huge, bigger than a house, and falling like a limp doll tossed out a window, heading straight for the edge of the slums. Arva didn't move, she couldn't. She was frozen in fear, fixated on it, and only snapped out of her trance a moment before impact.

"Oh God..." she uttered. It hit. There was a horrible boom. The ground shook, a plume of dust exploded upwards into the sky and out towards the streets. People screamed, debris began raining down as a cloud swept over the slums. Arva covered her eyes and face, Travis grabbing her as they all ran behind the statue for cover. People everywhere ran in the opposite direction, children crying for their parents and vice versa. It wasn't clear who was hurt and who was just panicking. Some people lay on the ground, not moving. It was chaos, and Arva could only think of one thing.

"Hannah," she muttered, and turned to run back towards her house, despite Travis and the others yelling at her not to leave. The dust cloud was overtaking them now, and it was hard to see into the street. Arva knew Hannah had been playing just outside, and she searched the streets. It was like a brown, sandy fog overcame the slums, and she could barely see more than a few inches in front of her. She covered her eyes, calling out for her sister.

"Hannah!" Arva cried, her voice hoarse, "Hannah! Hannah, come here!" Arva stumbled closer and closer to where she thought home was, and was nearly run over when a car drove out of the dust. She stumbled out of the way, almost collapsing, until she found the sidewalk and began to follow it back to her own yard, and eventually to the house. She opened the door and tripped inside, skinning her knees on the floor as she coughed up dust.

"Arva!" Gramma walked over to her as fast as she could. Arva got to her feet, wiping her eyes as her grandmother looked at her with utter terror. "What happened? What was that noise? Are you alright?"

"Gramma, where's Hannah?" Arva asked.

"Dear God..." her grandmother muttered to herself, then looked to Arva, "she was outside." Arva told her grandmother to stay inside and quickly went back out. The fog had turned into heavy wisps of dusty wind, and it wasn't any easier to see. Arva kept crying out for her sister, but lots of people were screaming, calling for their own loved ones. Finally, she heard the sound of a child crying, Hannah's voice, and ran towards the source.

"Hannah!" Arva called out with elation as she saw her sister crouched behind a garbage can, quivering. Arva scooped her up in her arms without hesitation and ran her back to the house. Hannah was crying her eyes out, terrified. Arva carried her over to Gramma and continued to hold her as she sat down, just thankful that she was alright.

"What happened?" Gramma asked.

"I don't know," said Arva, only just managing to hold her own tears back as her sister continued to tremble in her arms, "something fell from the sky. It was huge, like a plane or... it crashed... it exploded, I don't know..." She was shaking, and Gramma put her arm around them both.

"It's alright, we're fine," Gramma said, "everything's okay now."

"Gramma," Arva said, eyes glassy with tears as she looked at her, "I think a lot of people just died." Gramma rested Arva's head on her shoulder, doing her best to calm the girls down despite the hysteria that was still audible from outside.

It had taken a while for Hannah to calm down, but eventually she stopped crying and accepted being let go, though Arva herself was hesitant to do so. She knew they couldn't just cower indoors, and Arva began to worry about her friends and their families. The phone lines were down, as was power, so Arva decided to go and visit their houses to make sure they were all alright. After a bit of hesitation Gramma allowed her, and Arva explained to Hannah she would be right back. Travis and his family were quickly confirmed to be fine, as they were all out front watching the plume of smoke in the distance once the dust storm settled. Thankfully they were all home, far from the impact zone. Travis offered to accompany Arva as they checked on Elia, whose family was also thankfully unharmed, as well as Chelle's place, and finally Silva's house. Everyone they knew was okay, which was a massive relief. Her neighbours were alright, too, Mr. Baker was checking on everyone himself as well, going door to door with a flashlight in case anyone needed help after the power loss. Arva's immediate vicinity was undamaged aside from a lot of dust, but everyone was alive and uninjured save for a few bumps and scrapes from navigating the cloud earlier. Silva elected to stay at home with his mother until his father returned from work, and Chelle stayed with him since her parents were both at work, so Elia, Arva and Travis decided to regroup back at the Cenotaph. The park was filled with people watching from a distance, the statue and church acting as unofficial borders nobody seemed to want to cross. It was eerie, seeing so many people outside, just standing and watching the devastation. Smoke continued to rise from the edge of the slums, and it was Arva herself who finally broke the silence with the knowledge that ate at her.

"There were houses there," she uttered. Elia and Travis both looked distraught, and they seemed to either not hear her or not process the information, so she made her point more clear, "do you think anyone got hurt?"

"I don't..." Elia swallowed nervously, the reality finally settling in, "I don't know. I think?"

"Should we go look?" Travis asked, "if they need help, that is?" Arva had considered it. No one else was going, and the thought nagged at her. She didn't know what she could do, but just standing on the sidelines didn't feel right.

"I'm-" Arva's voice cracked a bit, "I'm gonna go check." Elia and Travis followed, and the three headed towards the smoke. They walked towards the edge of the slums, eventually noticing more people with them. Hybrids from all around were gathering to see what happened, and they approached what looked like a massive crater. It was right where a house was meant to go, and half of the house next to it was gone as well. Not collapsed, or flattened, just obliterated. Arva couldn't see bodies, but she wondered if there were people inside when it hit. She prayed there weren't, but she didn't know, and she felt sick. She looked into the crater, not wanting to get too close, and tried to make out the thing that was inside. It wasn't a bomb, and it wasn't a plane. It looked familiar, but not in a way she could describe, half-buried in the dirt. Arva's inspection was cut short as she and the others were forced to step back when emergency crews began to respond. Humans in hazmat suits began to cordon off the area, setting up barricades, policing the crowd, and extinguishing the small fires around it.

"You think it's unsafe?" Travis asked, pointing out the fact that all the humans wore protective suits.

"I don't know," Arva said. Humans usually wore protective gear in the Lows, with a lot of superstition about it being unsafe. Arva believed it wasn't, especially if a human like Marcus freely traveled in without protection, but as a result she couldn't assume anything based on how the emergency crew dressed.

"What is it?" Asked Elia, still trying to make out the shape. They were getting pushed back more and more, to the middle of the street, until a dull thud from inside the crater caused everyone to freeze. The human crews scrambled to take cover as the Hybrids all backed away or fled outright. Arva and her friends retreated to the opposite side of the street, ducking behind parked cars, as whatever was in the crater continued to make noise. Thoughts raced through Arva's mind, that it was a bomb about to detonate, or an aircraft that was going to explode from the fires. Arva's heart was beating out of her chest, her knees felt weak, and she couldn't stop shaking. Something in her knew to be afraid, to hide. Something in her knew what was coming next.