Tiger Lady

Red Dragon Torching our Village

It was Saturday, July 5th of 2025. Bria was asleep in her room in her San Francisco apartment, hearing loud noises, thinking it was a thunderstorm. She rolled around in bed, trying to get some sleep. Her parents who were staying at her apartment for Fourth of July Weekend were marching up the stairs and knocking on the door to alert her on what was the matter.

"Bria, get up!" Irving, Bria's father ordered.

"What's happening?" Bria looked frightened.

"The Chinese! They launched the missiles!" Shirley told her daughter. "Get to the basement!" Shirley led the family down to the laundry room basement in the building. Once they got there, they were almost too late. Bria's home was destroyed during the missile impact, launching wooden shrapnel planks impaling both her parents. Once the blast had cleared, she came out to look at the faces of her parents.

"Why, you." Bria began to cry. She sniffled and sobbed. Tears rolled down her eyes and fell on the ground. "Why did it have to be like this!" She rubbed the tears off her eyes, trying to hold back her sadness. She wrapped her arms around her mother's neck, crying. She cried for hours until her sadness tanks were no more.

It was three in the morning and Bria could not sleep all night because she was still sad about her parents dying. She decided to sneak out of bed, walk down the stairs and put on her slides and go outside. She saw San Francisco in ruin. There were charred skeletons of cars and trucks piled up on top of each other. A cable car could be seen toppled over on its side with its windows broken and graffiti tags on the doors. A hippie fan could be seen on the sidewalks. It had its windows shattered and its tires slashed open. Inside it was a broken radio playing "Are You Going to San Francisco" on loop. Bria walked down the streets and stopped at a Seven-Eleven that seemed lonely with no cashier, flickering lights, broken glass doors, but the cooler for the drinks was still working. Bria walked in to buy a beer. There were no employees at the dead convenience store that was already in ruin, so she just took it. She walked down the barren roads, when suddenly she was greeted by a lone military commander. He said , "Please, come with me."

"Who are you?" Bria looked scared, in fear that the soldiers would take her to custody.

"I'm Paul Connors, Second Lieutenant of the California National Guard.  You're not in trouble, I want to take you somewhere where you will be safe." Bria got in the lieutenant's staff car. Connors started the engine and drove away.

"I want to tell you about the war." Paul explained. "In 2023, the war began with China wanting to reunite the Mongol Empire, so they declared war on Russia. Russia was mad, so Russia and China fought over the territory of Mongolia." Bria wanted to know how America got involved.

"How did America get involved?" Bria wanted to know the cause of the devastation.

"I was getting to that." Paul drove down to Pier 39 and stopped the car. Bria and Paul got out, seeing the pier deserted. The food stalls were broken and lifeless. The rotten funnel cakes attracted bugs that attracted bats that attracted snakes. Bria and Paul sat on a bench covered in blue and yellow graffiti tags, staring at the Musee Mecanique on Fisherman's Wharf. The museum's windows were cracked and shattered, and the entrance to the museum was boarded up with wooden planks.

"Well, it started when China attacked a US Naval port in Los Angeles." Paul pulled a canteen of water from his pocket and drank it. "China did this as a preventive action to prevent the US from interfering in their conquest of India and America's Middle Eastern allies." Paul handed his canteen to Bria.

"Want some?" He told Bria.

"Sure." Bria drank some water from the canteen. Paul continued his story. "I served in the Battle of Los Angeles against China, which involved celebs from Hollywood registered as Generals in the army, and some even on the front lines. Older celebs were generals, while younger ones were on the front lines. The battle resulted in Los Angeles crippled and dilapidated, so Las Vegas overtook it as the center of Hollywood, due to its isolated location in the desert."