Downfall

1 week later

I stand in silence as I look up at the dark visage of an old apartment complex. Most of the windows are either shattered and lying on the floor in heaps of glass or boarded up with planks and pieces of sheet metal. The old brick walls are cracked and split in multiple places and blood splatters taint the surface of the bricks.

The place had changed so much since I was last here all those years ago.

I step over some debris littering the parking lot and make my way inside.

The reception desk has been flipped on its side; boxes of old ammunition resting against the legs of the table. An old AR-15 lies next to the skeleton of a long-deceased soldier just behind the makeshift barricade. All things I notice yet I can’t get myself to acknowledge as I walk over the corpse and up the stairs.

A long hall stretches across the length of the building as I reach the top of the stairs. The checkered red carpet has been stained black with age and dirt. All the apartment doors are closed or barricaded shut showering the hall in complete darkness.

Walking from memory I pace through the darkened hall counting my steps as I walk along before stopping and turning to my left. The door before me is cracked and covered in streaks of red, it could almost be mistaken for a design choice if the stench of iron wasn’t so obvious to the true nature of the marks.

Looking up I can just about spot an old stain resembling a ‘13’ at the top of the door. Reaching back, I lower my bag off my shoulder and remove and old key from the depths of my bag. The small plastic label attached to the keychain clinking softly against the main body of the key as I insert it into the lock of the door.

The door unlocks with a quiet click and slowly opens away from me.

“Home”

I grab my bag and walk into my old room. The old door mat had been reduced to a pile of tattered threads at the foot of the door. My old coffee table had collapsed due to a broken leg and my fridge had fallen onto its side spilling all the internal shelves across the floor. My couch sits proudly against the wall pointing towards the window where I would occasionally watch the sun set across the horizon.

With a faint click I push the door closed and plop my bag against the foot of my couch before sitting down on the couch itself. The decaying frame groans in protest as I sit down, but I can’t be bothered to care.

My eyes slowly scan the wreck that was once my home. Memories of the life I had lived flash before me in vivid colours. Pico and I playing Mario Kart on my Nintendo Wii as rain poured outside; fiddling with a second-hand DJ set late at night; surfing the internet for cheap speakers and mixers; exercising early in the morning before work and…

Sophia

I cringe as I see her face vividly in my mind. The soft smile she always had when she spotted me appearing crystal clear in my memories as if she were standing right in front of me. Her locks of light brown hair cascading down her shoulders like a waterfall and the bright red dress that she so adored. I clamp my eyes shut tight as memories flow freely behind my eyes.

“I miss you so much,”

Everything starts to go blank as my hopelessness and despair hits me full force. The memories crash down on me in a whirl of colours, sounds and smells overwhelming my senses. I hold my face in my hands in an attempt to drown out .

“You weren’t good enough-“

“Pathetic-“

“You killed them-“

“Waste of space-“

“Trash-“

Sensations and memories assault me in rapid succession as I feel myself tuck into a ball.

“Why didn’t you protect me?”

A voice breaks through the chatter in my mind, cold and accusatory. I freeze as the words echo around in my head, a cold sensation spreading throughout my body.

I cry until I fall asleep.

A few hours later

A harsh crack shatters the silence of the night reverberating across the ruined streets of Glenside. I groggily rise off the couch into a sitting position. I slight tremble shoots through the room rattling the shelves strewn across the floor.

“Somethings wrong”

I quickly stand up and grab my bag. I had experienced minor earthquakes before, but something felt off about this. I wasn’t sure what but considering my instincts had gotten me this far I wasn’t about to start ignoring my gut when it said shit was about to go down.

I lower myself into a semi-crouched stance and strain my ears for any noise at all while I scan the room around me for anything out of the ordinary when my eyes stop on the view just outside my window.

The sky outside is all wrong. Instead of stars and galaxies the sky appears to be covered in corruption with small multicoloured lights flickering randomly throughout the entire night sky. The sight is oddly beautiful as colours dance about the sky.

I am shaken out of my trance quite literally as a slight tremor shakes the room before a low rumble reverberates across the town. My blood runs cold, and an almost incapacitating sense of dread fills my body.

“I need to get out!”

I rush to the door and kick it open knocking the door off its hinges in the process. Taking off at a solid sprint I rush down the hall and back into the main reception area before bolting out of the building and into the dark streets.

A loud crash sounds off to my right as a building a few metres away suddenly and inexplicitly crumbles in upon itself. As I watch the building suddenly crumple out of seemingly nowhere my ears are suddenly filled with the sound of multiple buildings collapsing all around me.

“What the fuck is goi-“

My thoughts are cut off as the ground violently starts shaking causing me to lose my footing and fall to the ground. Wasting no second thought I scamper to my feet and bolt down the street in an attempt to get away from whatever is happening around me. I round a corner down a side street when a corrupted suddenly bolts out of a nearby doorway.

The corrupted is convulsing violently as its limbs contort and flail about wildly. The corruption coating its body is violently flashing in such quick succession that the colours merge to appear white.

As I stare at the convulsing corrupted in disbelief, I suddenly realise that the streets had become a lot brighter all of a sudden. Looking up I am greeted by the same sight as the sky violently flickers. An overpoweringly loud roar shatters the air around me and the ground starts to shake more violently than before.

I fall to my knees due to the sudden movement. The sharp noise of cracking rock and concrete fills my ears as the ground around me starts to break apart and seemingly drift away from each other.

Looking down I see a crack form just below me. I frantically search for a safe before spotting a broken streetlight pole next to me. As quickly as I can I launch myself towards the pole just before the ground below me gives away.

Grasping tightly to the pole with one hand while holding my cap securely with my other I finally chance a look up to the scene around me.

The ground around me splinters and shatters bringing the buildings all around me crashing down. In the sky I spot what looks like frozen lightning bolts suspended all around me pulsating brightly.

Another roaring noise echoes through the destruction as the ground continues to shake. I spot a faint glow weaving its way in between the cracks before a large chunk of land suddenly drops down right in front of me disappearing into the light below with a rush of air.

The ground below me starts to tilt downwards towards the gaping hole before me. With a yelp I grab the pole as hard as I can. My eyes are drawn towards the light below me and what I see freezes my blood cold.

The hole appears to lead to a sea of what looks like TV static. As more rocks and debris falls down into the hole and disappear into the light show below. I suddenly become aware that the wind roaring around behind me is actually air being sucked down into the hole ahead of me.

My mind is in a panic trying to figure out what the hell is happening. I look up and see these sinkholes appear all around me sucking anything and everything into the bottomless pits below.

I hear the sound of creaking metal through all the chaos around me and whip back around. The pole starts to creak under the strain of my weight and the howling winds buffeting against it.

“shit shit shit SHIT!!!”

I frantically search for something else to grab on. My eyes dart about wildly as I search for something, anything to hold onto.

My eyes land on an old newspaper dispenser to my left still standing strong despite the howling winds and shaking ground. I shift myself up to lean against the back of the buckling pole and reach out to grab the metal box.

The noises all around me become a faint drone in the background as I focus all my effort on reaching the small little box.

A loud snap shatters my concentration as I suddenly feel the pole give way under me.

With a terrified shout I tumble down the hole and into the abyss below.

I bright flash of light encompasses my vision before everything went dark.