Singapore, Sunday, 02:50 PM UTC+8, D-Day.
Nicolas was a French of almost 32 years old. He came to Singapore to experience the international way of living while trying his luck with an entrepreneurial project. He founded a boutique consultancy company in IT with his friend and business partner Baptiste. Nicolas was tall, 1m90, with light-brown hair and brown eyes and a four-day beard. Lean, he was not very muscular but still looked in good shape.
He met Lexie on the day of his arrival in Singapore. They have started dating a short while later, and they were now leaving together in the same apartment.
Lexie was 28, working as a planner in a famous local advertising company. She was from Shanghai and had been living in Singapore for more than three years and a half now, she too was considered tall, 1m72, she had light-black eyes, long hair and a cute big face. She had quite a good body shape as she has been going to body-combat and body-pump classes three to four times a week in the past two years.
Nicolas was lying on his couch reading a novel, while Lexie was having a nap next to him recovering from the morning body-combat class. In the past few days, they received countless of meme and jokes from their friends about Alien invasion and other incredible stories; those made Nicolas want to try new manga and light novels on the topic.
He found one that was especially thrilling and was in the middle of reading it when suddenly a siren started to ring. He was used to it, as trials were often executed in the governmental owned building next to his condominium. But this time, the registered message delivered sounded different. The lady-robot voice advice in a neutral tone, "The fire alarm has been triggered; this is not an exercise, please keep calm and evacuate the building shortly." The message was in a loop along with other siren sounds.
"Seriously, why they always do that when we are home, I want to sleep!" complained Lexie with an angry voice.
"Wait, try to listen. I think this one is not a test."
"Like I care! I want to sleep!" she replied while taking whatever pillow to cover her head.
Lexie was usually easy-going, but when she was disturbed while sleeping, she could be ruthless.
Ignoring her complain, Nicolas went to the balcony to catch a better look. The building was 200 metres from his condo but he did not see any smoke.
"What the heck!" Suddenly Nicolas realized that not only from this building, but many other sirens could be heard from all around the city. Fear started to strike his gut as Nicolas possessed a wild imagination, thinking about weird or impossible situations. The first thought was that Singapore was under attack. He ran to the second floor of his small duplex to have a better view.
This floor was on the 6th and last floor of the condominium. There, he could confirm that all the city as in uproar. Frenetically he texted some of his friends, while the next minute all his WhatsUpp Singaporean groups started to get agitated. It was apparent that something was going on; he went downstairs and rushed Lexie to check her side.
"This is happening all over the city; it's probably something important. Can you check social media and the news? I'll call some friends to see if they know something."
A few minutes later they were both watching a video of 2 min on MyTube. The video stands clear, a shower of meteorites was imminent, and they had to hide underground or in the bomb shelter of their home if they had one.
"This is absurd, why warn us that late? Are they stupid or something!" Exclaimed Lexie as the video was over.
"I don't know! But this is not the time to curse, let's hurry and put all our food in the bomb shelter then hide. I don't know if it will work as this building is shitty, but this is the best thing we have right now. I'll call Emma and Fred to come over I don't think they have a bomb shelter in their apartment."
"BB, I am scared!" shouted Lexie.
Nicolas started to hug Lexie and said in a soft voice. "Don't worry. I am here. Now, we need to focus! Switch to your planner mode and start the preparation, we need to be able to sustain a few hours even days in this bomb shelter."
Lexie surged her sharp survival instincts and started to fill some bottle of water, while Nicolas called Emma.
"Hello, Nicolas?" Emmanuelle picked up the phone after barely 2 seconds.
"Yes! Do you hear me?"
"Yes, do you know what is happening?"
"Not sure, but according to an official video on MyTube from the government, we need to take cover as a lot of meteorites will be falling soon. I can't tell if it is true or not, but at the very least, the sirens are not fake. Do you want to come to my apartment to take cover in my bomb shelter? It is quite small but better than nothing, and as the saying goes, better be safe than sorry."
"Give me a minute, I'll ask Fred what he thinks about it." Replyed Emmanuelle in a hurry.
A minute later, she continued. "OK we will come over in ten minutes, do you think we can add two more? I want to bring my neighbours; you remember Alice and Julien?"
"Hmm, I don't know if we will fit, it is quite a small one, maybe if we can empty it from all the storage racks, we can." Nicolas made a short pause. "Anyway, we don't have time to think too much, bring them, we can probably endure for a while. Come as soon as possible!"
"Yes, we're coming right away!"
Nicolas hung up and turned toward Lexie. "Emma is coming with her neighbours; they will be four persons."
Lexie looked at Nicolas with her eyes saying, 'You always do too much and must think about us first!'
Before she even got the time to express her thoughts, Nicolas said, "This is fine, it won't be for long, and it might save them, can you endure it a bit?"
"Of course, I am not that bad!" answered Lexie with an annoyed tone.
The next minute they were emptying the bomb shelter while filling bags with the primary necessities.
After barely 10 minutes the bell rang, and Nicolas could see the four-person group in the intercom screen.
"Here I have just opened, you know the way, right?" said Nicolas.
"Yes, don't worry! Do you think the elevator works?" answered Emmanuelle.
"I don't know, I suppose yes, but I think it is better to take the stairs, they are only four floors to climb, it should be fine," replied Nicolas with an impatient tone.
"OK, OK, we're coming." Quickly said Emmanuelle.
A few minutes later, everybody was in the apartment.
Emmanuelle and Fred were a French married couple in their early fifties. They were carrying a bag full of food, water and wine, a flashlight and other stuff that could make the situation more comfortable.
Nicolas met Emmanuelle 2 years ago while doing business development in an entrepreneur afterwork, being neighbours and having a lot to share about the entrepreneur life they became friends. For Lexie, this kind of friendship was odd as the age difference was huge, but it did not really bother Nicolas as he was easy-going with people, as long as they were smart enough.
Following the pair were Alice and Julien. In their mid-thirties, they were relocated to Singapore because of Julien's job. These two were living on the same floor as Emmanuelle, and as they were all French, they started to develop a friendly relationship.
Five minutes later, they finished emptying the bomb shelter, and along with the primary necessities for survival, they got into the small room and locked the door. The bomb shelter was about 4 square metres, quite small to accommodate six people but nobody complained as they were focused on their smartphones looking for more information and chatting with their friends and family.
Nicolas told Lexie in a whisper. "Can you make sure that our friends here in Singapore and your family know our status and what we know? I will contact my friends and family back in France, they have more time to prepare, and I want them to make the best of it. Use group chats to save time."
Lexie rolled her eyes, she has already told her mother everything and was about to text her best local friend, Georgie. "I am on it already; who do you think I am?" She said in a teasing tone.
Nicolas was in the middle of a conversation with some members of his family and friends when suddenly a thunderous sound startled the group.