Impact

Ten... Nine...

I grab my bag and leap over the bannister, plummeting through the air for almost the full height of my apartment.

...Eight...Seven...

Heat already radiates through my fingertips from the metal bannister. I struggle to tell if this heat is real or an illusion, but my thoughts are cut off as I land with a thud flat on my stomach and groan in pain.

...Six...Five...

I don't have time for this. I scramble up and hear the faint tap of something falling out of my bag. I bend down to pick it up. It's a shotgun licence for Stephen Knight, member of the hunter's society. I look so normal in this photograph. Back then I would have never believed...I still can't believe that everything, everything I have ever known, everything anyone has ever known will come to an end. I rush into the living room, almost tripping over the furnature that had been overturned in a hurry.

"Kathy! We need to get to cover now!" I yell, grabbing my younger sister by the arm and pushing her under the table. I get under the table myself, knowing that there wasn't long left.

...Four...Three...

"Steve, are we going to make it?" She asks with tears streaming down her face. She wraps Mum's old coat around herself as if it could save her. Nothing can save us, not anymore.

...Two...One...

"Whatever happens, Kathy, we won't be separated." I wrap my arms around her and before I can utter another word I suddenly feel the ground rumble and shake. There is a noise, louder than I could have imagined. So this is what it sounds like when the earth itself screams. A blinding light fills my vision, causing colours and shapes to form in the white void. It blocks out all my other senses, causing them to retreat in the face of such power, except one, the feeling of falling, plummeting infinitely into the white void.

I feel my senses returning to me and open my eyes, my head spinning. How long have I been out? I try to turn to look at my sister but feel something pressing down on my skull. I groan, reaching up with my hand and pushing it off, now seeing that it is a concrete stone. I move my hand away from my head hardly registering the fact that my hand is now an absolutely delightful shade of crimson. I wince, feeling fortunate to be alive. Perhaps I speak too soon.

I look over to where I expect my sister to be and in the darkness, all I can make out is two eyes staring into my soul. My heart rate picks up as my concussed mind tries to convince me that it is something dangerous and otherworldly.

"Steve...?" A young woman's voice comes from the direction of the eyes. I sigh in relief. It's not a dangerous being. It's my sister and she's alive.

"Are you alright, Kathy?" I ask, trying to push the rubble off us.

She groans in pain before finding the strength to reply. "My arm..." She says just as I manage to break through the rubble, revealing the sky above us. But, this is no ordinary sky on a monday afternoon. There is no sun, no clouds, no blue, just a thick, dark, orange gloom covering the entire sky accompanied with the rancid smell of smouldering iron.

I carefully push a rock off her arm, trying to ignore her screaming and tear off a piece of my shirt, tying it around her arm and shoulders as a sling. I help her up to standing and together we climb out of the rubble and into the light. I stand there and take in the remains of our apartment block, all our memories reduced to nothing but dust and rock. I turn away and look first at the ground and then out at the horizon, which was adorned by the shattered remains of London.

"We must move forward." I say to Kathy, beginning to walk forwards onto the street. My mind betrays my sentiments and I begin to dwell on my past, first a small niggling thought and then an overwhelming sadness. My head spins and I collapse to the ground.