War of the Worlds (Jabbawockeez)

3. The war begins

Early the next morning, Phil had woken up before the rest of the boys, sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. He got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. At the same time, Rynan hears the scuffling of movement in the room and wakes up as well, sitting up in bed with a yawn. Phil then walked out from the bathroom to see Rynan awake and moving around the room. "Hey man, surprised to see you up this early." He whispered lightly, making sure to be quiet enough so he didn't wake the others. "Yeah, well I heard moving around so, that woke me up." Rynan replied with a quiet laugh. Phil let out a small laugh and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry a boy that bro. I didn't know my movements woke you up." He apologized.

"It's alright man, you didn't know." Rynan replied, giving Phil a pat on the shoulder, then walked over to his suitcase and grabbed some fresh clothes to change into. Phil gave a nod and looked out the window outside. "Seems a bit cloudy. At least the sun is blocked for a little bit. I'm going to head to the store to get some things. Want to go with me so you can get some stuff you need?" He asked, focusing his attention on Rynan for his response.

"Sure. I could go for some excersise." Rynan said with a nod, pulling his shirt down and grabbing his jacket and tied it around his waist. Phil changed into some fresh clothes and put his shoes on as Rynan brushed his teeth in the bathroom. When they were finished, Phil took one of the room keys and walked out with Rynan outside. "We'll let the others sleep in. We shouldn't be long anyways." Phil said to Rynan as the two made their way down the street. The sky above them was covered in clouds, some were darker than the rest and they were in a swirl like pattern. Soon the wind began to pick up and Phil had to hold onto his hat so it didn't blow away. Suddenly out of nowhere, thunder clapped above them and a strike of lightning shot down from the center of the clouds multiple times, in the same spot in the middle of the intersection. Phil and Rynan both flinched and took cover behind a nearby car and covered their heads with their arms. "What is going on here?!" Rynan exclaimed over the lightning strikes. "I don't know bro!" Phil shouted back as the last strike of lightning struck the ground.

Just as the lightning stopped, the two boys then peeked out from behind the car and ran over to join a crowd of people surrounding the spot where the lightning struck in the center of the intersection. Both boys made their way through the crowd to the front to see what had happened and saw a small hole in the concrete.

The police where there telling people to remain calm and back up a bit from the scene. Rynan knelt down and picked up a piece of broken concrete and looked at it, lightly moving it back and forth into the other hand every few seconds. "Is it burning hot?" Phil asked, looking at the piece of concrete in Rynan's hand. Rynan shook his head, his attention still focused on the piece of concrete in his hand. "No, it's freezing cold." He replied, loud enough for Phil to hear. Then, the ground started to shake a bit and cracks emerged from the small hole in the ground and spread out all over a certain spot of the intersection. There was movement underneath the ground, causing the concrete to break and move down the street like wave. Glass from nearby stores and restaurants broke to pieces and some buildings were partially destroyed. Phil and Rynan both bolted up and tried their best to avoid the cracks in the ground and made their way to the crowd, a bit far back from the scene. Everyone was frozen in fear as the ground suddenly rose up then fell a few feet down, creating a large crater in the ground.

People scattered away from the crater to take cover as a sound of machinery was heard from within the smoke and dust that was in the air. Phil and Rynan ran behind a nearby car, and saw three metal like legs rise up and come down right in front of them, crushing the car they hid behind. They both jumped up and ran back with the crowd and looked around fearfully at what was going on. One man shouted "Look! Over there!" and pointed over at something that was slowly beginning to rise out of the ground. As the machine rose out of the ground, the lights on it turned on as it slowly stood up. Phil and Rynan both went wide eyed at what they were witnessing along with many other people. Phil then started to back up and grabbed Rynan's arm tugging him along with him and started to run. Rynan turned around and ran with Phil as the other people started to run also, fearful for their lives.

As the three legged tripod was fully stood up above the intersection, looking upon the many people screaming and running in all different directions to get away from it. Phil and Rynan hid behind a building, both panting heavily trying to process the situation at hand. Once the area grew silent, Phil slowly made his way out from behind the building looking up at the tripod with Rynan trailing behind him.

When everyone's attention was focused up at the tripod, the tripod let out a loud bellow, causing some people to flinch and for others to cover their ears to block out the noise. Phil and Rynan both got an uneasy feeling as the tripod powered up two crescent like weapons and started to strike people with bluish, white beams of light. Rynan grabbed Phil's arm and began running as Phil ran next to him, not daring to look back. Multiple people are being hit and disintegrated, nothing but their clothes were left behind. Phil and Rynan ran into a store, dodging the laser beams, and rushing out the side exit of the building and ran behind a few houses which get destroyed behind them as they ran. Buildings were destroyed and burned, and the debris was blown everywhere. Both of the boys hid behind a house at the corner and peeked from behind the house to watch the tripod walk past them and destroy more houses and apartments that stood in its way.

Rynan watched as the tripod moved in the distance far from them, then looked over at Phil, catching his breath. "Man, what is happening?!" He said, gulping lightly and leaning over with his hands on his knees. Phil was leaning against the side of the house, still trying to catch his breath from running to safety. "I don't know bro. And I don't think I wanna find out." He replied, looking over at Rynan, as Rynan stood up looking around.

"We have to get back to the others. We have to warn them and get somewhere safe." Rynan said, his heart still racing from the fear of the situation. "Yeah let's go before it's too late." Phil replied and started to run towards the direction of the hotel where the rest of the boys were, with Rynan running beside him. As the two of them ran, they hoped that the others were okay.