The Catastrophe

Chapter 1: The Catastrophe

Kaito's voice cracked, panic clawing at his chest. "What...is this place? Where are we? Is this still Earth?"

Sato, the thrill seeker, gave a small smile as he exclaims under pressure

" Is this ...hell?"

Maria clings to lisa, trembling, her voice barely above a small whisper"Lisa... I'm scared"

Kurou stood there, as always, his face expressionless, though the tension in the air seems to also have pressed on him too.

The Earth semmed to scream as the air was getting torn away from its atmosphere, leaving a stifling, suffocating emptiness in the sky. Soon a flash of blinding light slices through everything, almost as if the earth of was traversing the empty space. And then, an astroid-no, a planet approaches earth double it's size, it hits the earth's surface shockwaves travelling through the depths of the universe. But, the outcome was something unexpected,

time seemed to have stopped for a small moment, instead of what meant to be a massive explosion, the planet seemed to have dissolved into small translucent particles that went through anything it touched descending it's way to the earth's core.

As time snapped back in place, the survivors awoke to an eerie stillness, the bodies of those who were unable to make it lay scattered, dead. The air also felt to be a bit thick and unnatural.

Kurou broke the silence first, his voice low but steady."It must be the lack of atmosphere...the air...it was sucked out."

Kaito's breath caught in his throat"But we're still alive...How?"

Maria clung to Lisa's side stuttering while saying"We should've died too..."

"We were able to hold our breath till the last second and there are also some other who did too... But"looks at the person behind him lying dead."Most weren't... They suffocated"

"What about the astroid?that should have killed all of us! How did it just vanish?"kaito demanded with fear creeping into his tone.

Kurou's voice hardened and his brows furrowed as he replied"that astroid-no, that planet vanished right before our eyes...""A planet?"Lisa asks.

"it was supposed to fall down and kill all of us, it didn't."

Sato replies unhinged,slightly excited "It felt to me like time stoppped ... I mean how else is a planet that big not gonna hit us after literally touching the Earth's surface? "

"I felt like time stopped for several seconds too, as the planet touched the surface,it felt like I was the only one conscious, when i look at others every single people were frozen to one place, not even screaming..." Maria said while clenching her fists and looking down with uncertainty and horror.

"If time really did stop, how was something this large even destroyed?... No wait... This is not possible!"kurou says as his eyes widen, completely froze to one place as realisation dawns."what is not possible... kurou?"Lisa asked as her voice trembled.

"Look... up."kurou's voice cracks a bit, his voice raw and urgent.

They all turn their gazes towards the sky-its colour drained of itself, pitch black almost felt like it was suffocating the stars. But the sun, eerily bright and untouched still hung in the sky.

Then it happened.

A blinding laser shot from behind the sun, tearing away the dark sky, the earth trembled as the laser struck, sending shockwaves of heat and destruction that tore the earth's surface right to its core, forming a deep ravine formed by jagged craters and rivers of molten lava surrounding the ravine, the earth groaned as the ray of light disappeared and fades away to nothingness. The sky turns back to normal.

Kurou's voice heavy with dread"Something's probably controlling that beam of light... And that is what maybe destroyed that planet"

After the incident calmed down, the remaining survivors stood there in pure silence and dread, the ground still continued to hum the aftershocks of the incident as they thought to themselves

"What now?"

The air was thick with the heavy weight of unspoken questions. What could they even do now? Is there anything left in this world? No answers came, only the terrible realization that they were standing on the precipice of something far worse. Silence filled the air as no one said a single word - as deep down, they all knew that it will never be the same again...