Part 1
It was raining. Alan could hear the pitter-patter of the raindrops landing onto the concrete pavement next to the small, narrow road that led from the factory back to the village. All was silent. He could hear the scrunching of his feet against the damp concrete as he crossed the road and walked straight ahead. To his right was a massive metal fence, gone rusty and old from weathering, with barbed wire perched precariously on top of the cold, hard iron poles.
A small sign was posted nearby, but he couldn't read it. None of them could. He'd never been taught how to. The small squiggles and strokes made no sense to him. Yet they instilled fear among the village; no man had ever crossed the gate and come back alive. People rumored that a grand palace, filled with hundreds of rubies and diamonds and riches of all sorts, lay miles beyond the fence.
He spotted a small hole nearby the fence. It was too small for any grown man to crawl through. He could barely fit through even if he scrunched up his body. When he was small, he'd been pushed through the fence by larger kids who found it fun to pick on him. Alan looked at himself; he wasn't particularly muscular or broad-shouldered, but was agile and could usually make a quick escape when he'd found himself in trouble. He had spiky brown hair than sprouted out in thick, dense layers. His skin was naturally of a peachy-white color, but it always ended up being charcoal-grey after he finished working at the factory.
He hurried home. The rain turned heavier and heavier; the sky starting rumbling, making low, growling noises as the occasional spark of light flashed across the grey, murky landscape. Daniel started breaking into a sprint, running faster and faster as he felt his heart pound against his bony flesh, as if trying to burst out of his body.
He suddenly felt a fierce, throbbing pain in his head. His arms weakened and fell to his sides. The pain became more and more intense. He felt as if the rain was set aflame, burning every part of his body.
He screamed.
---
The alarm flashed red. He awoke from his sleep and watched the monitor as it blinked ferociously. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming: this had never happened before. A Code-3 discrepancy. Subsector 42.35. He paced towards the electronic door, placed his thumb on a small plate nearby, and ran as fast as he could. He hoped the General was in a good mood.
---
Alan awoke up with a start. He felt drained; empty. He remembered seeing a violent flash of a green light before he collapsed on the ground.
It must be some kind of disease, he thought to himself.
He started walking back home as if nothing had happened, but he felt an uneasy, lurching feeling in his stomach. He starting coughing halfway as he breathed in thick fumes of smoke and ash. He continued walking, covering his mouth and nose with a dirty brown cloth to stop himself from choking.
He stopped in his tracks as he felt something blocking his way. He looked down. A dead girl's corpse lay in front of him, her forehead bleeding and her mouth shaped like a large circle, as if she was screaming when she died. Her eyes were crimson-red and seemed to look straight into him, watching his every move.
He tried to carry her limp, lifeless body but she was too heavy and almost seemed to resist his attempts to move her.
Standing up, Alan started quickening his pace. More and more bodies passed his sight; some were strangers, but some were friends: he saw the local baker and the girl's parents too, lying on the floor, lifeless, limp.
He finally reached his village. He gasped in shock as he saw the remains of his village. Ash was everywhere; there was so much of it that it seemed to pile up, forming mountains and hills of black debris. There was not a person in sight. No one.
