Once again, I could hear that whistling sound, this time it was louder than before. I could feel a sharp pain at my side, my head was aching like I was hit with a steel hammer. My arms felt numb, and at that point I could swear I had broken a rib or two. Even my spine seemed to have been ruptured.
The pain I felt was immense.
My body was shaking. More like something or someone was shaking me vigorously, causing the whistling to gradually fade away. The screams of people was also starting to pass into my head.
"Wake up!"
"HEHHH!!" I drew in a long breath as my eyes flew wide open. My chest heavily heaving up and down.
"A_ are you okay? Are you alright?" Skye's panicking voice sounded next to me.
"I thought I died, hah." I laughed dryly.
"You have a rod in your side, you idiot, you might die!" Skye yelled. Suddenly making me conscious of my aching side. My head instantly turned and my eyes widened in horror as I saw the rod sticking out. Frantically, I touched myself, trying to feel where I was injured, but then I realized…
"Hahaha haha!" I laughed wearily and thankfully. "It's in my clothes. It didn't pierce me, it got into my jacket." I unzipped my jacket and showed Skye my side. There was a slight bruise there. But thankfully I wasn't pierced.
"Ah," she cried, "ah, I thought," she fell down wearily beside me.
"Don't worry," I gave her a slight nudge at her side. "It's going to take more than a blast to kill me." I remarked. And a chuckle escaped her lips.
At that moment, the screams and cries of people seemed to had suddenly gotten louder. I looked at her, and she stared at me too. With a hard push, we lifted ourselves to our knees, and it was then I realized we had landed on top a bus—or what used to be a bus.
We needed to clearly see what was going on around us, for we hadn't been in the right mind to notice since.
But as we did, our mouths fell wide open with disbelief.
The once bright and bubbly streets, that were always filled with scarcely dressed college girls and trend-making university guys, were now covered in smokes, dismantled bodies, broken blocks, destroyed vehicles… The place was unrecognizable.
Another deafening explosion sounded some meters away from us.
We both lifted up our heads to see where the attack had come from. I had no idea our mouths could open any wider, but it did.
As right before our eyes, coming in our direction were tens, NO, hundreds, NO, thousands of heavy warplanes, accompanied by what seemed to be…
"Are those dragons?" Skye asked.
"Those are undeniably dragons." I responded.
"Holy cow!"
"Come on, Skye. We have to get out of here."
Quickly, we slid down the bus and another race began, to only gods know where.
On the streets were people panicking, and screaming as things were being blown up all around…
Myself and Skye, running along with some other hundreds. The day had gotten darker, and we'd been running for hours, dodging heavy strikes that could squash our bodies so much so that not even a strand of our hair would be found.
Our legs had begun to shake, but we could not stop running. Even though the day was dark, those people in the sky did not sleep. In fact it almost seemed they were more energized as it was nighttime. But then as we continued running, I suddenly noticed something…
"Huh," I frowned. "Do you hear that?" I asked Skye. She turned and looked at me as if I asked a crazy question. But I couldn't blame her, people were screaming and shouting all around us, so that was kind of a stupid question.
"Hear what? The screams?"
"No. The sounds of the explosions… do you hear it?"
"Yes of course I can hear it. I can hear it loud and…" She suddenly broke off and her eyes drifted. Almost as if she was beginning to understand why I asked the question.
"No, no I can't hear it. It's stopped." Her eyes widened with realization.
"Exactly!" I nodded. "Come here," I pulled her out of the way of the running masses, and made our way to a wrecked school bus.
Looking up at the sky, we realized that the warplanes and Dragons were not in sight, all we could see were the clouds in the moonless sky.
"I think they retreated." Skye voiced, but I didn't think that was the case.
"I don't think so. They didn't seem like they planned to retreat until every one of us is dead." I noted. "I feel like they_"
"Greetings, citizens of World 599," A disembodied voice sounded from the sky. It was like the voice of a heavenly being. Thick, loud and clear. And above all, terror-striking. I could see the goosebumps that rose up my arm at the sound of the voice.
"_they are definitely planning something worse," I completed my sentence that was interrupted.
"World 599? Is that us?" Skye muttered.
People had slowly stopped running, every head was turned upward to the direction the voice was coming from.
Suddenly, the sky began to brighten up, like the sun was quickly rising again. Everyone watched on with awe, but there was a certain uneasiness within me.
"I am," the voice called again, and this time, some kind of image was starting to form in the clouds. Like a projection on display. "General Laurius Rein."
And suddenly, the image was fixed in the clouds, a perfect projection that would wow people. It covered the entire sky, so everyone could see him.
The man in the sky.
His shoulder-length hair was as black as night itself, his eyes were the kind I had never seen before, for they were gold and they sparkled, and they seemed to not hold a single care in the world.
He was undeniably good looking. And with the look on Skye's face, I could tell she had instantly taken a fancy to him.
"We have come to take over your nation," He continueed, "more correctly, destroy your nation."
"Bastard! What the hell is he talking about? Why would you destroy our home you heartless imbecile!?" I yelled angrily, and so did many other enraged people.
"Now, the almighty king Leonis has decided to show mercy to the lot of you." He continued. "He has decided to grant you access into our own world."
"Huh? Why would they do that?" I wondered.
"Now, in about four hours time, portals will be opened at certain points. These portals will take you directly into our world. Before then, I give you my word, the shootings will cease. I am mercifully giving you time to replenish your strengths."
"In four hours time, the portals will open, and the shootings will also restart. At that time, if you have to stomp on your neighbor, and trample on your friends just to make it to the portal then do it. If you have to use your brother as a shield from the blasts then do it. Do anything you need to do to make it to that portal so your lives will be saved."
"Bastard!" I seethed.
"It is either you make it to the portal and save your lives, or you die here in your world. Either way, I will destroy this entire world, so it would be in your own best interest to make it to the portals in time to save your lives. Because by the time we are through with this world, not one living being will be left standing."
"Oh and remember, not everyone is destined to live. Some people will definitely die. For many are called, but only a certain willful few are chosen."
And that was it, the clouds became dark once again.
"That bastard! He's literally turning us all against each other!" I hissed. "It's human nature, people would naturally kill others to save themselves, but him stating it would only take away the feeling of guilt from the hearts of people. They would justify pushing their friends to their deaths. These people are treating us like a game inside a freaking computer! They are hunting us for fun, this is madness!"
I was enraged. But what could my rage do? I was no match for just one warplane, more or less a gigantic dragon.