The Chaos Nexus

19 March 2018

I was still at home when the prison sirens began blaring.

It's three beeps. But why?

Three beeps from the sirens meant there was a threat that endangered the entire town. Everyone in the town had to evacuate.

Mom screamed from across the house to pack the essentials. I heard her sprint up the stairs and into the main bedroom. I jumped up from my desk chair and slammed my laptop shut. I shoved it into my laptop bag and started grabbing clothes from my closet.

I ran over to the upstairs bathroom and grabbed my toiletries and such. I heard Mom rush downstairs.

"Do you think it's serious or just another drill?" I yelled to her.

"Let's not chance it, Owen!" she yelled back, "Get the keys and start the car, I'm going to get Melvin!"

Melvin was our German shepherd.

Once I finished up, I grabbed all my packed bags and headed for the garage. Mom's things were already behind the car, and so were Dad's. She packed for both of them. Little did we know he wouldn't be around to need it. I opened the trunk and loaded our things into Mom's car.

Mom rushed into the garage and Melvin hopped into the trunk. As I was putting the last of our stuff in the car, she sat down in the car with a box of dog treats. I hopped into the driver's seat and started the engine while Mom clicked the garage door open.

We left for the emergency center which was about 20 miles northeast of Whitecourt, just below a small little town called Swan Hills.

We didn't see anything bad on the way there, and we were waiting to find out what was going on. Both Mom and I thought that perhaps someone called in a bomb threat or something of the sort.

After a short drive, we made it safely to the shelter.

* * *

I was a cashier at the SupaSave supermarket in Swan Hills. That day wasn't anything out of the ordinary until I heard the news about what happened in Whitecourt. Jared - a friend of the supermarket manager - came in for the usual supply deliveries when he told everyone about it.

He came in from the main entrance instead of the backdoor and just shouted to the manager, Dudley, "Ya heard about the shit goin' down in Whitecourt? Seems to be a terrorist attack. Whole damn police station got blown sky-high! The news is sayin- Hol' up, put it on the TV!"

"Do you think this might affect us? Directly, I mean," Dudley asked as he switched on his office television.

"Turn it up, they all needa hear this," said Jared.

As the volume was turned up, everyone in the store stopped and listened.

"-station was blown up and launched into the air in pieces at about 07:40 this morning-"

"That's 3 hours ago," said one of the cashiers.

"-with most of the police force in the town being taken by the blast. As the situation has been getting increasingly dire, military forces have been called in and called for an evacuation to the nearby Swan Hills Emergency Shelter, where Whitecourt's population is currently settled."

"Shit, we might get dragged into this," Dudley said with a raspy voice.

"-have not been any further explosions, however, strange creatures have been climbing out of the hole where the police station was, according to one of the military members reporting on-site. This does not appear to be a terrorist attack, but rather an attack-"

"The hell kinda creatures would do that?" Jared asked, clearly shocked.

The lady I was helping at the checkout point took a very deep breath before saying, "Our reckoning day has come. 'Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.' I hope you and your family are prepared, sweetie. Dark times fall ahead of us. God bless you, and may he keep you from harm."

She walked off, and I thought for a moment about what she said. It felt like the typical old-lady-in-a-horror-movie thing, and I didn't like it. But at the time, I didn't think much of it.

Dudley walked to the back of the store and disappeared. We all continued with our jobs, but now everyone was talking between themselves about the situation. About half an hour passed before Dudley returned to his office and the town's sirens went off. He announced that the store would be closing immediately and everyone would be joining Whitecourt in the emergency shelter.

Now our town is being evacuated as well. I hope Owen is okay after all that. I hope he made it to the shelter.

I ran my way to the apartment where my mother, brother, and I lived. They were already packing things into the car when my older brother, Darryn, said to me, "I already packed your bags, Sis. Sorry, I had to go through your stuff, but-"

"We don't have time for this! Get in!" That was my mother.

We hopped in and buckled our seatbelts.

"Did you see the news?" Darryn asked me.

I focused on putting on my jacket.

"Felicia?"

"Hmm? Oh. Yes, I did. It looks like whatever happened there had made its way here."

Mom chipped in, "What doesn't click for me is if those creatures are making their way here from Whitecourt, how would the shelter be safe if it's in between Swan and Whitecourt?"

Darryn answered, "It's an underground shelter, so I guess it should be safe."

"But didn't the things come from underground?" I asked, "Tunneling underground should be nothing to them."

"Point is," Mom said, "the higher-ups are thinking the shelter's safe enough for us and Whitecourt residents to stay in until the problem's solved. Darryn, Felicia, I want us to stay together. Don't stray from the family, and keep together. Remember, we're like the Three Musketeers."

"Well don't look at me. You know I'll look after Sis. I won't let anything happen to us," said Darryn, as if he could stop whatever those creatures were.

It was about a 30-minute drive, not too long before we made it to the shelter. I recognized the Swan Hills residents in between the Whitecourt residents. The Swan residents looked more calm and confused, but the Whitecourt residents seemed uneasy, scared, some of them even panicky. Quite a few of them were bawling their eyes out.

My mother interrupted the ambient silence of the car by saying, "Dear lord, can you imagine what they have just seen this morning? How many of these people lost someone in the police station explosion?"

I then saw Owen as we were driving past more parked and parking cars. He didn't see us as we passed him. His mother came out of a crowd and approached him with something in her hands.

* * *

Mom handed me my phone back.

"Your father's still not picking up. I don't know what to make of it all. I... I can't help but think that he was caught in the explosion. God, I hope not. Please don't let that be it."

I already felt mournful.

There's no way he survived if he still hasn't picked up by now. And the timing seems to line up. He must've been at the station by the time it happened. He's... Dad's dead.

I felt like crying, but at the same time, I wanted to look like this strong, sturdy man to Mom. I wanted to look like I could handle it.

I stood there awhile longer, zoning out when I heard someone call my name. I looked around and saw none other than Darryn and Felicia, two friends of mine.