''death is upon us''

The air crackled with a strange, metallic tang, a grim counterpoint to the screams echoing from the shattered school building. A rough hand, calloused and cold, seized my shoulder. "Kid, look at me!" I blinked, disoriented, dust and ash stinging my eyes. "Me?" My voice was a hoarse whisper. "Damn right, you. Can you walk? Use your hands? Do you know first aid?" The man's eyes, bloodshot and frantic, bored into mine. "Yes, yes, but why—?" "Then get your ass over there and help those kids. We're bleeding dry." He thrust a crumpled med kit into my hands, the contents spilling out in a chaotic jumble.

[What in God's name is happening? This can't be real.] [These children… they're barely breathing. Their eyes… empty.]

"Hey, are you alright?" I knelt beside a boy, no older than ten, his face streaked with dirt and tears. He nodded weakly; his eyes wide with a terror that seemed too vast for his small frame. "Yes… but my parents—" His voice trailed off, lost in the cacophony of distant explosions and agonized cries. [Their screams still echo, a symphony of horror.] "That's a nasty gash." I pointed to a deep laceration on his arm. "The aliens… they shot at us at school." His voice trembled; a child's innocence shattered. I began to clean the wound, my hands shaking.

"Move! Move!" A man, his face a mask of raw desperation, pushed a gurney past, his movements frantic. A small girl lay on it, her abdomen torn open, viscera exposed, her breath shallow and ragged. She gasped, a faint, gurgling sound. *[Unbelievable. How can she still be alive?] *

"You! Please, someone help my daughter!" He stumbled towards me, his voice cracking, his eyes pleading. "I… I can't, sir." I looked away, the weight of my helplessness crushing me. He slumped, tears streaming down his face, leaving clean streaks in the grime. "She's all I have."

I turned. The remaining children huddled together, their eyes fixed on the girl's broken form, a silent tableau of horror. "Rose?" A small voice, barely a whisper, cut through the silence. The man looked up, recognition dawning, his face contorted in a silent scream. "Jonathan?" "Mr. Alex… is that Rose?" He could only nod, his grief a physical weight, crushing him. Jonathan began to weep, his small body shaking with sobs, and soon, the others joined him, their cries a heartbreaking chorus.

I covered Rose with a tattered blanket, a futile attempt to shield them from the reality of death. "Quiet now. It's alright." "No! We're all going to die!" A girl, her face pale and drawn, screamed, her voice shrills with terror. "No one's dying here. Deep breaths, everyone." I tried to project an authority I didn't feel.

I glanced back. Alex cradled his daughter's lifeless hand, his fingers tracing the delicate lines of her palm. *[How could this happen? What kind of monster does this?] * A thunderous boom shook the room, a shockwave that rattled our bones. The world exploded in a hail of debris, a chaotic storm of shattered glass and twisted metal. My ribs cracked against the wall, a searing pain that stole my breath, a high-pitched whine filling my ears, a symphony of destruction. Blood trickled from them, warm and sticky. Children screamed, some cut down instantly, others impaled by twisted metal, their bodies grotesque parodies of life.

Crawling, I reached the center of the room, my vision blurred, my limbs heavy. An alien, its form a grotesque parody of humanity, its skin a sickly black, its eyes cold and Mostrous, held Jonathan aloft. Its grip was inhuman, its strength terrifying. His eyes met mine, pleading, a silent cry for help. "Help me…" I reached out, my fingers outstretched, but the alien's grip tightened, its movements swift and brutal. With a sickening tear, a sound that echoed the rending of flesh, it ripped Jonathan in two. His screams, a chorus of agony, echoed in the room, a sound that would haunt my nightmares. His ruined body fell to the floor, his head placed upon a spike of metal, a gruesome trophy. "Noooooo!"

The alien's gaze fell on me, its eyes gleaming with cold intelligence. A blast of energy, searing and white-hot, seared my foot, the limb vanishing in a spray of blood and bone. I screamed, a raw, animalistic sound, as pain ripped through me. It hauled me up, its grip like iron, its alien tongue spitting harsh syllables, sounds that were guttural and alien. A ship descended, a dark, ominous shape against the ravaged sky, and I was tossed inside, landing amongst the dead and dying, a heap of broken bodies.

We were dumped into a cavernous hold, a vast, echoing space filled with the stench of death and decay. Two aliens, their movements mechanical, their faces devoid of emotion, began sorting us like refuse, their hands moving with cold efficiency. One, its grin a rictus of cruelty, its teeth sharp and pointed, lifted me, its eyes gleaming with predatory intent. My leg throbbed, a constant, agonizing pulse, blood pooling beneath me, staining the metal floor. He threw me onto a cold metal table, the impact jarring my broken ribs. My vision blurred, darkness creeping in, a comforting oblivion. I slipped away, unaware of the horrors to come, as they began their work, their instruments gleaming in the dim light.

I awoke, suspended in the air by strange restraints, my body aching, my head throbbing. Below, in a pit of shadows, creatures with gnashing teeth and glowing eyes tore at the discarded corpses, their snarls and growls a chilling symphony of hunger. An alien, its form elongated and spindly, its eyes gleaming with predatory intent, approached, its movements fluid and silent, its gaze fixed on me.