The Day The Sky Fell

The Arctic Circle - Area 77

Deep beneath the ice, in a surveillance room sat two rugged-looking soldiers playing poker.

The younger man with a scar on his neck who was paying attention to the monitors said. "Hey, 6!"

"What? There's no need to be so formal just call me Quinn. code numbers are only necessary when something important happens." Replied an older man who was missing a few fingers.

"Sorry, I'm still getting used to calling people their names and not their code numbers." said the younger man apologetically.

"Don't make a big deal out of it, anyway what was it."

"Well... don't you think Stoney looks like he is freaking out." Responded the younger man with his eyes glued to the monitor.

"Heh, he always does... Wait did you say, Stoney? Not Lazer or Spike?" asked the older man in disbelief.

"You know we call him Stoney cus' he's always so stonefaced and expressionless right?" He added.

The younger man didn't even look at the older one and simply pointed at the monitor without taking his eyes off it.

Taking a glance at the monitor the older man swore under his breath.

On the monitor was a skinny malnourished young boy somewhere in his teens. He was in a hospital gown and had long black hair that covered most of his face. This usually expressionless face was currently screaming in terror. and he was fighting against the restraints with everything he had.

After seeing this the older man looked worried. "He's not one of the crazy ones so something must be wrong. I'll call the surface. 46 go check on him."

"On it." said the younger man.

Once 46 left the surveillance room he passed through various chambers and airlocks. All the while heading deeper and deeper underground.

This facility was officially called area 77, not that you would find any records of it. But, to the people that worked there, it went by another name. Salem's Freezer

Despite the state of the art technology and generators, 46 was now so deep and it was now so cold that his breath misted up as he walked.

The farther down he went the bigger sense of crisis he felt and his breathing started to become laboured. he felt like there was a sandbag on his chest.

When he finally made it to where the witches were kept he discovered that by this point almost all of them were in an uproar. Banging on their cell doors and screaming in panic. Nevertheless, he pressed on as Stoney was on a slightly deeper level and he seemed to have been the first to start Freaking out.

46 was gasping for breath by the time he made it to Stoney's cell, which at this point was eerily quiet.

"Stand back Kid! I'm opening the door. No funny moves or we'll gas this chamber." Said the younger soldier. To pump himself up more than anything and then he input the code and stepped into the cell.

Right as 46 entered the room sirens sounded his walkie talky went off. "All agents this is a red alert. Goliath and Dreameater have gone berserk. Follow protocols and prepare for resistance."

He frowned. everything happening today was too weird. It just had to be connected and the easiest way to find out how was to ask the kid in this room.

Noticing the eerily quiet cell 46 looked up and saw Stoney whos was chained to a pillar with his hands behind his back and had stopped screaming. Instead, he seemed to be having a panic attack.

"If I pass out I'm finished." The boy kept muttering to himself while hyperventilating.

"Stoney! Hey, Stoney! What's happening here." Said 46 after he was finally able to get his attention.

The boy looked up and through his long messy hair which covered his face, you could see his red eyes and pupils which were darting about wildly.

"Let me out! Please I'm begging you!" Pleaded the boy.

"That depends on what you can tell me." replied 46 trying to seem reasonable. Not that he could actually let the kid out.

After hearing this Stoney looked like a drowning man who had just been handed a rope and he quickly spoke.

"I can feel something terrible coming." He spoke so quick he almost tripped over his own words.

"Goliath couldn't beat it and neither could any government there is. Winning isn't an option and neither is running. There is no hope." After speaking so much the boy's voice was raspy. clearly, he hadn't spoken in a long time.

46 looked doubtful. Wondering how to treat this vague story that seemed to spell his doom. He decided not to take it seriously but was about to report it anyway just to be on the safe side when the lights went dead.

Shortly after the lights died his walkie talkie went off again. this time it was 6, the older man.

"46 get to the surface now. Something crazy is happening. I... I think... we're Fucked"

Hearing this 46 turned to look at Stoney, now being illuminated by the weaker lights from the backup generator and still chained up and looking at him with a pleading expression.

"Please just undo my restraints. we're all going to die anyway. I just want to see the sky again before then." Begged Stoney.

46 surprised even himself when he actually did as the boy asked and went to the keypad to put in the code to release the boy's restraints. He didn't know why he was doing this, he just felt like it was the right thing to do at that moment.

With a click, the restraints around the boy's hands and feet fell off and hit the ground with a clank. He almost seemed to be about to cry in relief.

Just now realising what he had done 46 got on the walkie talkie and called 6.

"I don't know why but I just let Stoney out of his restraints. He asked to see the sky..." Said the clearly befuddled young soldier.

After a long moment of silence, there was only an abrupt reply.

"It... It doesn't matter anymore. Let them all out." said a defeated and tired voice

Hearing this 46 was aghast. "What could possibly have happened to make 6 sound like that?" he wondered. But there was no time to think so, he grabbed Stoney and was horrified to find he weighed almost nothing, before pulling him out of the cell and towards the upper levels.

As they entered the next row of cells they were hit with a wall of noise and 46 felt the pressure on his chest growing. At first, he had thought this pressure was due to the claustrophobia of getting deeper underground but clearly, that wasn't the case.

After passing each cell he would open the door and undo the restraints. he didn't quite understand why he was doing this, it just felt like instinct.

Quickly he had amassed a line of many strange looking people in hospital gowns as they all followed behind him. When one tripped he would go help them up and urge them on with encouragements or a push when necessary.

After the group of panic-stricken people in hospital gowns had attained some order he went to the back of the line where Stoney who was clearly one of the weaker ones was trying to help an old man catch up.

Seeing this the young soldier felt a twinge of guilt. Why had these poor people been imprisoned here, so far from the world? From what he could see they were all human. Was it really worth it to throw away our humanity for the results of some experiment?

46 quickly made up his mind.

"Hey! Stoney. I don't know what's happening up there but ill do my best to keep you all safe and when this is over, I'm going to try and get you guys free for real. After all, it's a soldiers' duty to protect the people."

Stoney and the old man both had complicated expressions.

"You say we're people but what's my name?" Stoney asked.

Clearly dumbfounded 46 didn't know how to reply. After thinking for a while he could only reply honestly.

"I don't know. What is your name?"

"I have no name and... There won't be anything left when this is all over." Stoney bluntly replied.

After a moment of awkward silence, 46 gave himself a self-deprecating smile and said.

"Then I'll make sure you all get to the surface as quick as possible. that's the least I can do."

With that, he scooped up the old man who was struggling to keep up with everyone else and carried him in one arm while pulling Stoney along with the other.

With Stoney and the old man no longer slowing everyone else down the group sped up and passed through the various airlocks and keypads quicker than before, eventually making their way back to the surveillance room.

Inside, Quinn looked like he had aged 10 years since 46 had last seen him.

"Quinn are alright? You look terrible." 46 asked with concern.

"Don't worry about me." the older man replied wearily. "You sure got a lot of these magic bastards didn't you," he said with surprise once he saw all the people in hospital gowns behind 46.

"Yeah, hopefully, that's all of them. Don't call them that by the way." 46 added.

Taking a look at 46, Quinn laughed "So you've become an activist in these trying times have you?"

Before 46 could respond, Quinn shouted "Right you lot. Let's get going so we can at least see how we're all going to die."

Seeing the group respond to his joke with silence Quinn could only sigh and lead them up a nearby flight of stairs.

As they neared the surface everyone's breathing became more and more laboured and that suffocating feeling increased.

After a while, the group could hear the noises of soldiers rushing about and helicopters taking off and they sped up becoming more eager to reach the surface

When the 'Magic bastards' caught sight of the exit door at the end of the long tunnel they rushed out en masse and almost caused a pile-up.

Before 46, who walked out last, could complain the words caught in his throat. After he had seen the sky it all felt pointless.

Like-wise Quinn had no funny comment and was simply starring at the sky dumbstruck.

The fireworks display that heralded apocalypse was simply beyond words.

The old man in 46's arms looked like he had just seen a god. "What an Insane amount of Lifeforce. There is truly no Hope," He whispered.

Quinn looked over and saw the old man's glowing golden eyes. "Hey! old guy. Do you know what the hell that is?" he shouted before pointing at the sky.

"A Fight." The old man simply said.

"And we are in the crossfire," Stoney added helpfully.

Quinn had a sharp intake of breath and stayed quiet.

In the sky, two cosmic leviathons fought each other. Their shadows brought eclipses as their huge bodies neared earth.

At this moment every living thing on earth could only pray they would pass by and leave them be. Even a simple push from these titans could send their planet to oblivion.

Only once these titans got closer could those pitiful earthlings begin to fathom the scale of the fight in the heavens above.

Sound cannot travel through space so this battle was transmitted in silence making it seem even more surreal.

As the creatures got closer their shapes grew clearer. One was a bitch black centipede with bat wings and was shooting out green venom while striking out with its tail like a whip. The other was a giant yellow crow who glowed so brilliantly it appeared there were two suns in the sky.

The crow opened its beak and let out a cry that was somehow heard through space as the whole planet shook in response and the sun in the centre of the solar system seemed to resonate with the sound and glowed with brilliance and expanded rapidly engulfing mercury and headed out towards venus.

As the sun expanded towards earth the temperature skyrocketed making the group glad they were in the Arctic, or else they may have been boiled. At least they got to last a little longer. As the temperature rose the Ice started to melt and the once frozen continent started to turn back into an ocean.

The crow seeming to take notice of Earth's plight flew towards Earth before stopping near the moon picking it up and flinging it at the centipede. The centipede, Enraged by this threw itself at the crow and tore off feathers and chunks of flaming flesh. the shell and blood of the centipede and feathers of the crow fell towards earth along with the shrapnel of the moon peppering the land with meteors.

A few landed near the facility which was now flooded and surrounded by water from the melted ice. 46 trapped hold of the old man and Stoney before being swept up in a shockwave and tossed away from the rest of the group and into the nearly formed sea.

Back in the sky, the crow seemed thoroughly annoyed that it had gotten hurt trying to protect the Earth and had come to the conclusion that the easiest solution was to remove Earth from the equation entirely.

Using the power of the rapidly expanding sun like a stimulant the crow flew towards Earth and created a cosmic wind by flapping its wings violently ripping earth from the sun's gravity and like a little sailboat during a storm the Earth was sent spinning out into interstellar space and away from the battle.

It was hard to imagine the speed they left the solar system at. But, after only ten minutes the rapidly rising temperature started to plummet. The lack of sun removed the only heat source the earth had and as they got deeper into interstellar space so the temperature dropped.

Back at Area 77, the melted ice had already started to freeze over again and 46, Stoney and the old man who were currently in the ocean couldn't see anything as the earth's only light source the sun had disappeared.

They could feel a rain of blood, ash and snow, fall on them as they quickly froze. much faster than the should have.

"Why is it getting so cold?" 46 asked while shivering.

"I think it's the blood of the centipede." Answered the old man. who looked close to death

Stoney looked at the soldier and had the impulse to ask his name "What's your real name?"

The young soldier looked confused but answered anyway. "Jack Frost."

"Hahaha, what a stupid name." Stoney laughed for the first time in a long time.

Before Jack who was blushing in embarrassment could reply a meteor landed nearby and sent a shockwave out flinging Jack, Stoney and the old man apart.

"See you on the other side, Jack," Stoney shouted over the harsh winds and blizzard before being submerged by a wave.

While underwater he felt the biting cold of the blood that had landed on him seep into him and saw ice start to form around him. His heartbeat slowed down and his thoughts became slurred.

Even through all of this, he could feel the once weak life force within him grow slightly.

"Must be that damned blood." Where his final thoughts before his brain and heart shut down.