The descent of the black clouds was the signal for Mark to move.
He got up and began heading down the street. all around him people were raising their heads seemingly captivated by the sight of clouds descending
"Poor fools" he muttered under his breath. He couldn't afford to care about them, they'll come to realize what would befall them in a few minutes. And why would he care about the lives of those who didn't care about him when he was rotting away in the cold reaches of the outskirts, he only had to survive this moment and it wouldn't be so bleak anymore, for him at least.
Strengthening his resolve, he continued down the streets. His steps heavy, firm and a little hurried but he felt it wasn't enough. Before long, he broke into jog as everything seems to be moving fast away from him, before he realized it his little jog became an all out sprint as the world seemingly faded by him.
Mark didn't believe he could run as fast as this in his entire malnourished life but here he was moving at a pace of 50km/h, a speed that'll put the top athletes of the world to shame but he couldn't bother to pay such thoughts any mind.
All around him people turned to stare at the sprinting human but he didn't even see them. Sprinting across the sidewalk as streams of sweat flowed across the visage of his grim face, the world blackened by the shadows of the descending cloud, he could only focus on his destination which he could see not too far away.
At this point the black clouds have gotten close enough for the civilians brains to start sending wary signals. People had started moving trying to get away from whatever the cloud was.
This turned out to be a problem for Mark. Sprinting was hard enough, but sprinting at top speed while navigating through a frantic mass of people was tasking. He had no choice but to slow down, a luxury which he couldn't afford considering the fact that he was pressed for time.
At this point the clouds had already reached close to the height of the tallest building charging the already chaotic atmosphere with more panic. all around Mark was pure carnage as people pushed shoved and stepped on those that were unfortunate enough to get in their way.
Even Mark wasn't left out. Weaving through the crowd was a very daunting task not to talk of a crowd comparable to a mob. He had to avoid various shoves and also had to shove his own fair share of people.
But his efforts bore fruits. Up ahead he could the entrance to a tunnel leading deep underground below the city. Built for the purpose of sheltering the inhabitants of the metropolis from emergency situations or to put it in simpler terms, it was built to shelter people in the scenario where the city is ravaged by war and the whole surface was blown up.
In this situation in which the whole city was about to be reduced to rubbles, this was supposed to be the perfect shelter where people can seek refuge but no one in the city seemed to be in their right state of mind as the shadow of death looming over the city seemed to be getting closer with each passing second.
Mark stumbled across the pavement, his knees were a little bruised from falling over multiple times but he couldn't pay it any mind. Right below him was a huge metal lid. This was supposed to be the entrance of the tunnel which he had stumbled upon a few years ago when he took an environmental sanitation job but there was an obvious problem. The metal lid seemed to have seen better days as it's surface was rusty and blackened but that was just a passive observation, the real problem were the huge rolls of chains hinged on a huge padlock which seemed to be made from a ton of metal.
Despair welled up in Mark's heart, how could he not have prepared for this, how could he have overlooked such a detail. He looked around, his eyes darting from left to right, searching for something, anything suitable enough to break these chains but he found nothing
A few meters away from him score of humans were scampering away for their lives, trying to escape the impending doom but he was here standing at the doors of salvation his own stupidity serving as the gatekeeper preventing him from going in
'so this is how I'm going to die?'
His face tightened as the insidious thought flashed through his mind.
A stifled bitter laughter escaped this taut lips
"How great is this" he mumbled to himself
"A story indeed, one worth telling to my grandkids if only I'll live long enough to have one" he continued
"Stupid outskirt rat burdened with the knowledge of humanity's doom couldn't save himself, what a captivating headline it would be"
" Guess it might even get a few awards if given enough publicity"
He laughed a few more times, his voice a mix of sorrow and self contempt. How much of a fool could he be, obviously he's not expecting the entrance to be left open for it to serve as an entry point for hostiles into the city.
But he was doing nothing but eat pie and stare at the pathetic about to die residents of the city.
At this point, the clouds had parted revealing gigantic space vessels descending upon the city, countless skyscrapers were already being crushed by the huge vessels and the sky was a showering rubbles all over the place.
Huge stone slabs were falling bringing with them echoes of death and destruction yet the descending ships didn't show signs of slowing down.
Mark turned his face skyward, his hollow gaze fixed onto the descending vessel that was about to crush him any second from then. He could only watch as all hope seems to be lost but then he noticed something unusual with the wind.
What seemed to be blowing calmly against his face was not billowing, it was as it he was being approached by a moving tornado
"Hey move" someone yelled out to him
Before he knew what was happening, something rammed into him sending him tumbling a few steps from his original position.
He raised his head trying to get a glimpse of what has hit him but all he could see was a girl with a metal pipe raised above her head and in one swift motion she brought it down on the chains and they broke off into splinters.
Mark didn't have the luxury of time to be surprised as he hurried towards the now open metal door.
Above him the space vessel was almost upon him. The girl dove into the tunnel first, whether she knew about it beforehand or she just had enough clarity of mind to think about entering the tunnel he didn't know but he'll try to figure it out.
Taking one last look at the dying metropolis, mark dove into the tunnel just before the vessels hit the ground