The power didn't come back.
Elliot sat in the dim light of the lab's emergency generator, staring at the flickering monitor in front of him. The satellite feed was gone, replaced by static. The world outside was eerily quiet, the usual hum of the city replaced by an oppressive silence. It was as if the sky had swallowed all sound along with the light.
Dr. Patel paced the room, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "We need to figure out what's causing this. If the atmosphere is changing, it could affect everything—oxygen levels, temperature, even gravity."
Elliot nodded, though his mind was elsewhere. He kept thinking about Mia, alone in her apartment. She didn't have a generator, and the temperature was dropping fast. He pulled out his phone, but the signal was gone. Of course. The grid was down, and with it, the networks that kept the world connected.
"Elliot," Dr. Patel said sharply, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Focus. We need to run simulations. If we can predict how this phenomenon will progress, we might be able to mitigate the damage."
"Mitigate?" Elliot echoed, his voice hollow. "How do you mitigate the end of the world?"
Dr. Patel stopped pacing and turned to face him. Her expression was grim but determined. "We don't know it's the end. Not yet. And until we do, we keep working. Understood?"
Elliot nodded again, though he wasn't sure he believed her. He turned back to the monitor, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he input data from the lab's last readings. The numbers were all wrong—pressure levels, temperature gradients, even the composition of the air. It was as if the atmosphere had been rewritten overnight.
Outside, the sky continued to burn.
---
Mia wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting in the dark. The power had gone out hours ago, and the cold was creeping in through the cracks in the windows. She'd tried to call Elliot, but her phone was useless. She'd tried the radio, but all she got was static. Even the emergency broadcast system was silent.
She wrapped herself in a blanket and shuffled to the window. The street below was deserted, the cars abandoned where they'd stalled. The sky was still that strange, shimmering gold, casting an unnatural glow over everything. It was beautiful, in a way, but it made her skin crawl. It felt like the world was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.
A noise from the hallway made her jump. She froze, her heart pounding, as footsteps echoed outside her door. There was a knock, hesitant at first, then more insistent.
"Mia? Are you in there?"
It was Elliot. She rushed to the door and yanked it open, relief flooding through her. He looked exhausted, his hair disheveled and his coat hanging open. But he was here. He was safe.
"What's happening?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Elliot shook his head. "I don't know. But it's bad. Really bad."
He stepped inside, and she closed the door behind him. The apartment felt colder than ever, the darkness pressing in on them. Mia lit a candle, the flickering flame casting long shadows on the walls.
"The lab's running on backup power," Elliot said, sinking onto the couch. "But it won't last long. We're trying to figure out what's going on, but… it's like nothing we've ever seen before."
Mia sat beside him, pulling the blanket around both of them. "What do we do?"
Elliot hesitated, then reached for her hand. "We stay together. And we wait."
---
The city was waking up, but not in the way it usually did. People were emerging from their homes, their faces pale and drawn in the eerie light. They gathered in the streets, their voices low and anxious as they tried to make sense of what was happening. Some carried flashlights, their beams cutting through the gloom. Others held radios, hoping for a signal, for news, for anything.
Elliot and Mia joined the crowd, drawn by the sound of voices. A man stood on the hood of a car, shouting to be heard over the murmurs.
"We need to stick together!" he yelled. "If the power's out everywhere, we're on our own. We need to find supplies, secure our homes, and protect each other!"
The crowd murmured in agreement, but there was an undercurrent of fear. Elliot scanned the faces around him—strangers, neighbors, people he'd passed on the street a hundred times but never really seen. Now, they were all in this together, united by the strange, burning sky.
"We should go back to the lab," Elliot said quietly. "If anyone can figure this out, it's Dr. Patel and the others."
Mia nodded, but her grip on his hand tightened. "What if they can't?"
Elliot didn't answer. He didn't have to. They both knew the truth: if the scientists couldn't fix this, no one could.
---
As they made their way back to the lab, the sky began to change again. The shimmering gold deepened to a fiery red, the colors swirling like a storm. The air felt heavier, harder to breathe. Elliot's chest tightened with every step, and he could see the same fear in Mia's eyes.
When they reached the lab, Dr. Patel was waiting for them. Her face was pale, her hands trembling as she held a stack of papers.
"We've got something," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But you're not going to like it."
Elliot's stomach dropped. "What is it?"
Dr. Patel handed him the papers. The top sheet was covered in graphs and equations, but one line stood out in bold red ink: **"Atmospheric collapse imminent."**
Elliot stared at the words, his mind reeling. "What does that mean?"
Dr. Patel took a deep breath. "It means the sky is falling. And there's nothing we can do to stop it."