Falling

Chapter 2 : The Hotel

Jim turned back to stand with Aimee. She had his attention now.

He pushed the door handle down, and stepped out onto the huge balcony. Several large Rattan couches were strategically placed around a large glass table. Jim didn't even notice these though. He walked straight over to the balcony wall.

The view was amazing. The whole town was laid out below the hotel. Jim felt like he could touch the ancient market place, the golden beach and almost dive into the sparkling blue Mediterranean. Of course being 23 floors up would pretty much prevent any of that though.

He felt Aimee standing next to him, and they both looked off into the distance.

The town itself was nestled in between two large hills. A road could be seen snaking its way along the valley between the two. This road was full of cars.

If you followed the road towards the town, hundreds of cars could be seen, and even more people. Trucks, cars, buses even tractors and horses were there.

This sight itself was disturbing enough, but the thing which really caught their attention, was the smoke billowing from the distance. Thick black smoke, oily and heavy slowly wounds its way upwards. The road which was full of people and cars, came from the same direction. A loud muffled rumbling could be heard at the same time.

"What is it Jim, what's happening?" Aimee took hold of his hand as she gently leaned into him.

"I don't know hunny, maybe a big accident at a factory or something."

Normally he would question how he was supposed to know what was going on, but the sight was so disturbing, he didn't even think of it.

"I'll try and ring reception, find out what's happening." He left her on the balcony, and went back into the room in search of the telephone.

Aimee stood watching the scene unfold. The sight of all of these people on the move was very unsettling. Why would they all leave together?, she thought. What could make them all come here?. She stood at the wall, biting her finger nails, staring out across the town.

"Look Jim, they're fighting!" Aimee's empty hand went straight to her mouth.

On the road, it looked like most of the people had given up on the cars. Many were walking towards their town now. Furthest away from them though, it looked like groups of people were fighting each other. Several of them would run at the others, dragging them down. It was hard to see any details though, the distance was too great. The rest of the column seemed to speed up, running now, trying to get away from the violence it seemed.

"Why would they do that?" he asked aloud.

Before Aimee could answer though, the couple both instinctively ducked. Two large black helicopters flew straight over their hotel. They were travelling in the direction of the column. Jim had never realised how big military helicopters were until now. The sound drowned out Aimee's scream, and the down draft caused them both to huddle down together. As they passed, Jim slowly climbed back to his feet. The helicopters had now dropped below the height of the hotel, and he could see above them. The rotor noise had also greatly diminished. Aimee clung to him as he continued to watch.

A fast dark object streaked in from the left hand side of his vision. It was a plane. A very fast, low flying aeroplane. Jim watched as it crossed over the road, it had to be only two or three hundred feet above the running people. He didn't see anything come from the plane, but within seconds of it passing, the whole road erupted in flames.

They watched as the cars and all of the people were engulfed in a massive fireball.

"Holy Shit!" Jim shouted, "What the fuck is going on?"