Pain.
Daniel's heart was enveloped in pain. His eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes welled up in response. Even his breath became laborious.
Such an atrocity occurred so close to him. During his debate with his friend, the Earth trembled slightly, leaving them bewildered.
Many dismissed it initially, as there hadn't been any official announcement. That was until satellite images revealed the crater that was once Seattle.
"720,000.. People?.. This..." Daniel clenched his fists as emotional pain flared in his chest. Warm tears glistened, cascading down his cheeks like diamonds.
Grief.
It's all you have when you realize that every death was a human with a life as vivid as yours.
Daniel stood up and walked to the window. The TV continued to broadcast a moment of silence for those who perished in flames. All the officials had their heads bowed down and their shoulders slumped.
As static and soft sobbing resonated in his apartment, Daniel observed the reactions of numerous people outside through the living room window.
The children, initially filled with youthful play, suddenly felt suffocated. They looked on in confusion as they intuited the profound emotion present in every adult.
Deep and unrelenting sorrow...
Wave after wave of grief...
...
Daniel stared at the screen as he heard the rustling of clothes and tissues being used. Absentmindedly, he gazed at the little things he would typically ignore during the day.
The birds flying, the clouds gently moving. The blue sky and the expanding horizon. Even the swaying of the trees.
Someone quickly, almost frantically, walked into the frame and whispered to the female representative.
Daniel swiftly redirected his eyes to the TV.
Her eyes widened as she trembled, almost fainting in the process. Gripping the podium with white knuckles, she spoke with obvious shock.
"The look in her eyes... is it fear?" Daniel got chills; his intuition told him to run, but he didn't know from what.
"Washington, Oregon & California, everything West of I-5 needs to evacuate immediately! Do not hesitate! The energy anomaly is approximately 27 kilometers off the west coast of the U.S., and the energies are swelling as we speak! Evacuate immediately!"
*Disaster Siren*
Daniel trembled. Terror flooded the blood in his veins, its only companion being the adrenaline that spiked as his heart rate shot up.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Daniel quickly grabbed his Emergency Backpack and First Aid Kit, immediately bolting down the stairs.
In a moment of carelessness, he slipped on the carpet and fell face-first.
*Thump*
Daniel's vision blurred, and his ears started ringing. His heartbeat rapidly increased to 160 bpm, and his body turned weak.
"D-damn it," Daniel shook his head and finally got to his feet, grabbing the rough handrail. His vision was blurred and hazy.
'Losing your orientation is a fatal error,' he remembered a random piece of information from his video games.
'Out of all the things I could be thinking of. W-why that particular line?' He stumbled towards the door slowly, still remembering to lock it afterward.
He made his way to his truck, using the walls as support. Thank God he lived on the first floor and only had a flight of stairs to traverse before reaching the ground level.
After arriving at his truck, he frantically searched for his keys, only to realize they weren't in his pockets.
His heart dropped.
He looked at his apartment and knew he wouldn't be able to get back in.
He looked west, where only the evening sky and light pollution greeted him. His heart trembled, agitated by his clumsiness.
The masses were panicking! People were running into each other. Out of desperation, people began to fight, shove, and push as they ran to their cars or simply fled on foot.
As Daniel walked forward on the sidewalk, a wave of dizziness hit him, accompanied by nausea and throbbing pain in his head.
He tripped and fell, his chest hitting the asphalt in a rough embrace.
'Ugh.. of course, it's a concussion," he lamented. Luckily, the stampede of vehicles and people was on the main road, almost leaving the sidewalk isolated from the chaos.
Daniel dusted himself off clumsily and got up, his head and chest aching. He started limping, trying to go as far east as possible.
Deep down, he knew the chances of survival were slim to none...
...
After about an hour of walking, Daniel realized that he couldn't hear anything. He looked around and noticed that he was surrounded by people while walking. There were a few cars that passed by, but everyone walking was in a daze. Far away, there were more and more people.
'How did I not notice them?..' He failed to realize that in his daze, his perception was messed up.
As he looked back, he saw the rustling of trees far away, and a bright red-purple light shining from the coast. Daniel covered his eyes as he realized what the light was.
"No... no no no!! I'm still too close," Daniel mustered up the last of his strength to run forward. Many noticed his actions and frantically began to sprint.
As he ran, he felt the earth trembling and groaning. Even the air felt like it was vibrating.
'I'm too close... I'm going to die!!..' Daniel couldn't help the emotions swelling up inside of him. He continued to look back towards the west out of instinct, even though his mind told him to focus on running.
The shockwave was now visible, and it was coming quickly. The dust, debris, and even people were being swept up and either ripped apart or burnt to ash, resembling a menacing tsunami of red and brown.
'Damn... I fucked up by staying...' Tears cascaded down his face as he felt despair, sorrow, and regret.
"Fuck!"
'I'm so sorry!' His heart gave out emotionally as it felt like it was being ripped out of his chest.
He continued running while constantly looking behind him.
Daniel's consciousness was quickly flooded by memories, heartfelt memories he had made with his family. The birthday parties, the vacation trips, even the sad ones too. It all flashed by within his eyes.
Daniel was in the middle of the street as he ran; people were getting trampled, and cars were crashing through both people and buildings, adding to the already frantic chaos.
A sudden scorching heat brought him back to the present.
He looked down as he saw his flesh turn red... steaming and peeling... He felt the debris and dust rip into his back like knives.
*WHOOOOMSHH*
The shockwave passed and sent Daniel flying meters into the air; his bones were broken into dust, and his skin was cut into dregs. As he was about to pass on to the afterlife, traces of foreign energy seeped into his body.
A change occurred.
A wormhole, as silent and transparent as still air, opened up for a split second right in front of Daniel's mangled body.
*Whoosh*
...
As he traveled through the wormhole, the energies mended his body and mind.
Daniel briefly regained consciousness and barely managed to open his developing eyes due to the sudden surge of repairing his body was going through.
All his vision was flipped and warped around him. Time, space, matter. Nothing made sense in those brief moments.
"So beautiful," Daniel spoke softly, his voice deeper.
His eyes grew heavier with every moment they were open.
He could feel his mind drifting...
'If this is the last that I will see, then.. so be it.'
'It was beautiful..'
Daniel passed out with that remaining thought.
The beauty of Death's door lulled him into a coma.