Darkness enveloped the sky that domed over Alpha City. Night had come, but the town never seemed to sleep. Streetlights and business signs were only a handful of the lights that kept blazing throughout the night until morning when the sun equalized them all. Tonight was no different than any other night as Rosalina lie awake in her bed writing in her journal. Though she was only eighteen, journals filled with thoughts covered her shelves. As a young girl, her grandmother had given Rosalina her journals from her entire life to which Rosalina never thought she could quantifiably match. The old paperbound books filled her closet and were a perfect read for a rainy day.

            Unfortunately, she was about to experience the strangest and most terrifying “rainy day” she had ever experienced.

            Another member of the family couldn’t rest and lie awake next to his wife, Caroline on the other end of their condo. Felix had much less to do and was content just looking up to the ceiling, which was not a very exciting surface to gaze upon. He often was woken up in the night by discomfort in his right leg, or rather, lack there-of. The children of Alpha City had always been taught to never leave the walls of their beloved city for any reason for there were dangerous things out there. Of course, all the children wanted to do the moment that was said was venture outside the walls. Most never tried though, so most never knew that once you passed through the walls, there was an invisible forcefield that kept you in. Felix knew this fact because he and his sister Rosalina had investigated it all those years ago. This forcefield encompassed the perimeter of the city, but there was one place it couldn’t be. Weekly, a truck carrying supplies entered through the city gate to deliver and then left quickly after. Felix and Rosalina saw this as their chance and snuck through the gate while the truck came in one day.

            They thought the warnings they had heard were just a way to keep the people from leaving the city. Curious children will do anything that defies what they were told. So they left through the opening and got to see what none of Alpha City had seen before – the outside world. And it was just as dangerous as they had been told. They saw the road that the supply trucks drove on, something that was abnormal because the surface was nothing like the surfaces they walked on daily. They followed the rocky path until they reached a fork in the road. There were no signs that indicated what lie in either direction. As they stood there and pondered what to do they heard a sound. At the time, they didn’t really have a good word for it because they had never heard the sound before.

            It was a growl. And that growl originated in a bear, an animal that neither of them had ever seen before. They ran from the vicious creature but were no match for its speed. Felix sacrificed himself to save his sister and lost his leg in the process. Rosalina had to drag him back to Alpha City where they were greatly reprimanded for leaving the city. Felix became an example of what would happen if anyone else ever tried to leave. No one seemed interested enough to leave before, so now they definitely wouldn’t.

            Felix and Rosalina had never been like everyone else. They wanted to know what was out there. The journals that their grandmother had given to Rosalina were enticing and exciting. They portrayed a world before Alpha City. They spoke of a time before the Upgrades that everyone wanted and had.

            But their parents told them it was all fiction, all made-up. Clara’s mother had been obsessed with these false worlds, they would claim. But Rosalina never believed that. She thoroughly believed that this world did exist years ago. And she wished she had been there. She hated this world. She hated how possession-obsessed people were. Everyone had to be better than everyone else. You could never be rich enough, pretty enough, smart enough, or perfect enough.

            That’s where the Upgrades came in to play. Nobody was born great enough (or at least that’s what they were taught) and so something had to be done. That something was Equinox’s greatest invention – Upgrades. They were anything and everything that made someone better than they were originally, whether that was muscle implants, intelligence chips, or new limbs for someone who was born without. Felix, of course, had the option to have a new leg implanted, but he refused. He preferred a prosthesis and was made fun of for it constantly. He and Rosalina were the only ones in Alpha City without Upgrades. Even Caroline had an intelligence chip to make her a better guitar player.

            So long story short, Felix couldn’t sleep and Rosalina didn’t want to. They were both awake on this very momentous night, a night that neither of them would ever forget. This night would be what Rosalina coined “The Drop”.

~

            The world buzzed as if surrounded by an unnecessarily large swarm of bees. Everything shook like an earthquake, which all the buildings in Alpha City had been braced against. The buildings would not hold up to this event because it was not the earth that was causing the motion.

            The clock by Rosalina’s bed began to rattle until it walked itself off the nightstand and onto the floor with a clatter. She quickly put down her pen and paper and jumped off her bed. The floor beneath her feet seemed to be rumbling and groaning. The room felt as if it was trying to tear itself apart.

            She heard a terrible crunching destruction followed by a piercing scream from down the hall. She threw open the door and ran towards the chaos to find the entire floor shaking and crumbling. The scream came from her brother’s room so that’s where she started her search. The door to his room was broken off the hinge and dangling for its life. She pushed it aside to find horror. The roof was torn off as if a great hand reached down and ripped it off. Fringed edges protruded all around the perimeter of the room and Felix and Caroline were gone along with their bed and most everything else in the room.

            There was too much commotion going on for Rosalina to even have a tear in her eye. She immediately turned and ran for her parent’s room, hoping that the same fate hadn’t befallen them. Unfortunately her hopes were dashed. Her parents room looked the same. It was as if a huge vacuum was sucking everything up into the sky. The whole building and everything in it seemed to be floating.

Rosalina didn’t know how to save herself. The whole building seemed to be going down without a fight. The only thing she could do was run to her room which would soon be torn apart too and hide in the closet with her mattress, pillows, and blankets wrapped around her for safety.

~

            Felix was watching the whole world grow smaller and smaller as he was pulled into the sky by an unknown force. He had lost sight of his wife for she was pulled up faster than him, but he could see countless other people from the city all suffering the same fate. The sound was deafening he almost covered his ears – metal tearing apart, people screaming for their lives, the buzzing grower closer as he rose.

            He broke through the clouds in the black night sky and kept rising. The air was growing frigid for not only was it November but the altitude was thinning the air and dropping the temperature. Then suddenly the darkness changed. It wasn’t the sky anymore. It was more like the lights suddenly being turned out in a long corridor. Then he hit the ground.

            He lay there a second trying to catch his bearings and figure out how he was on this flat surface so high in the sky with red emergency lights, but he wasn’t there long before he heard the screams. These weren’t people being drawn into the air screams; these were people being ripped apart screams. His adrenaline kicked in and he ran towards the screams. Of course, his run was more of a hobble with his fake leg, but he made his way there as quickly as he could manage.

            There was a line of people being grabbed by robots that tore them apart and threw them out of a dark hole to somewhere. They were crying and begging for their lives and the robots heartlessly ripped arms from torsos or cut heads in half. Blood was sprayed everywhere and the smell was horrid. Everyone was trying to run away but they seemed to be pushed forward into the arms of those killing machines.

            What are they doing? Why are they killing us? Felix frantically tried to understand the situation. He processed all the incoming information in his head. Each person is different. They are not  killing everyone in the same way. He felt himself pushed and drawn forward, closer to his demise. Robots should be programmed to kill them all the same. There must be something making them change each time. Then he saw it. He felt it through his false leg. That is what is drawing me in! It is the Upgrades. It is the metal in the Upgrades. They are ripping out whatever Upgrades they have. He quickly reached down and unlatched his prosthetic leg and threw it ahead. He instantly felt free of what was making everyone else move forward. He hopped out of the line and it was like he became invisible to all the destruction. People were too panicked to even notice him.

            I have to find Caroline before it is too late. He searched the line of people but couldn’t find her. This cannot be the entire city. There must be others elsewhere. He hopped through the line backwards hoping she wasn’t far because he was pretty sure he couldn’t hop on one leg for long. The corridor was flickering with red light and echoed with his loud hops as the screaming dissipated behind him. But up ahead he could hear another round of killings so he hurried on his one leg in hopes of finding his wife.

            People and machines began to come into view and Felix got as close as he could to the robots to try to save Caroline if she was there. “Felix!” pierced his ears as he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. He looked up just in time to see the tears in her eyes as a metal claw latched onto her head and ripped out her intelligence chip along with most of her skull and brain and threw her out the hole. Without a second thought, he hurled himself out the hole too.

~

            Rosalina was still wrapped in her makeshift protection, but was now at a more 45-degree angle to her original upright position. The building had crashed back to the earth into several other buildings which had dominoed themselves into a long line of chaos. The shaking and quaking had ceased for now, so she felt as if she could step out to observe the destruction.

            The window in her bedroom was shattered, which perplexed her since they were supposedly indestructible. She ran her hand along the broken glass and inhaled in shock at the scene outside.

            Everything was in shambles: buildings were toppled, lights were shattered, things were missing, and the worse part was the silence. It was as if she had gone deaf. She snapped her fingers to make sure sound still worked and it echoed throughout the ruin.

            She had no words for what she was looking at. If they’re throwing the bodies out one by one this doesn’t work which ruins the Felix diving after Caroline, but I want one big drop, so will have to change how that works I guess. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Without a second thought, she stepped out through her window and onto the side of the building. It was laid over just enough that she could walk down the edge to the ground below. She tread carefully, using windowsills as hand holds until she reached the bottom. Even the pathways were ripped up so there was no smooth ground to walk upon.

            Dirt was showing through the foundation of the city, proving that underneath it all, this city wasn’t so perfect. Rosalina plunged her hands into the pockets of her jacket and began to walk along the path. The usual looming buildings seemed weak now as they lay worthless. She kicked a broken light and listened to the cracking resonate throughout the empty desolation. That’s when she realized that there were no lights but yet she could see. She craned her neck skyward and smiled. Her grandmother’s journals had spoken of natural light sources from the night sky, but until today she didn’t think they were real. “Stars,” she murmured aloud.

            Then one blotted out. Then another. She never mentioned that happening, she pondered. Then she realized what was happening. She dove out of the way just in time to see a body come crashing to the ground with a disgusting splatter onto the hard ground. Rosalina gagged and covered her mouth from the horrid sight. She could hardly breathe from the shock. Where did- she couldn’t even fathom how this had come to be.

            Sploosh. She spun around to see another body flattened into nothing but clothing and blood. Looking up, she saw a solid sky of not only humans, but also parts of buildings, vehicles, everything that should’ve been down with her. She threw herself beneath a fallen chunk of concrete and braced herself for impact.

            The sounds were the most awful she had ever heard. Human bodies were decimated when they touched the ground, their bones turned to powder by the sheer force of gravity. Rosalina covered her ears with her hands, trying to block out the noise but it was deafening. The larger objects shook the ground when they hit, making her jump a little every time as she hoped none of them would crush her.

            The rain seemed to go on forever. When it had finally ended, Rosalina was still clutching her head, curled into a ball, and rocking back and forth. She was too afraid to open her eyes and see the new horrors that had unfolded. She peeked, one eye at a time, and began sobbing the instant everything came into focus. Her tears saturated the sleeves of her coat as she cried for her city and the fact that she was the only one left.

~

            Wind whipped through his long curly hair as he reached out to his wife. She had seconds left before she bled out through her head wound and her dying eyes were seeking Felix’s face. He extended his hand and caught hold of her arm, which was slick with her warm blood. He pulled her close and curled his arms around her in a hug. She had no strength to caress him back but she did have one last breath to whisper, “I love you” in his ear before she shut her eyes and became limp forever. One singular tear fell down his cheek before the instant they plummeted into the sea.

            Now Felix had never seen the sea. He didn’t even know what it was or that its name was “sea”. He only knew that he had never been taught to swim or had ever been in such a large body of water. He managed to surface with a gasp of air and a frantic look on his face. Caroline was gone, sinking to the bottom of the sea without a proper memorial for her loss. But Felix had other pressing matters on his hands, like how to get to land.

            The night was upon him, yet there was some soft light that was reflecting off the water and showing him the shore. He quickly steered that direction by flailing his arms forward to back, kicking his singular leg, and hoping that he had the strength to make it back without drowning.

            He collapsed onto the sand, choking for breath that stung his throat with its chill.  Pushing himself up, the little molecules of stone stuck to his wet skin, clinging to him as he was clinging to his sanity. He thrust a fist into the sand with anger. What did we do wrong to deserve this? Why did I have to lose everyone? Is it even worth going back into the city? He looked around him. I do not even know where the city is at this point. He wouldn’t let himself be defeated this way though. Looking back out into the sea, he could still see Caroline. He wouldn’t remember her in that mangled form, but how she was in life – happy, beautiful, gentle. I will fight for her.

With a piece of metal piping that lay partially imbedded in the soil, he managed to crutch his way off the beach, navigating around the many objects and deceased humans that were scattered there. He dared not look down for fear of recognizing a face: his parents, his friends, or his sister. He wouldn’t stand there and mourn for them. He couldn’t. He had to press on.

Once he reached the normal ground again, crutching was less difficult, but still so exhausting that he had to stop and rest every few minutes. The strange balls of light in the sky were managing to light his path enough that he could finally make out crumbling walls in the distance. That must be Alpha. He trudged on, promising to sleep whenever he made it back there.

~

            Rosalina had finally collected herself enough to come out from under her shelter and investigate the fallen city. The smell of rotting bodies was already making her cringe. The cold was not preserving them well when they were stretched so thin. My family is in there somewhere, she thought. How did this even happen? I think there needs to be vehicles in the city. At least public transportation like trolleys to something.

            A nearly flattened trolley stood not far from her hiding spot, all windows broken, and laying on its corner that was crushed in. She ran her hand along the metal edge. It was so cold, dead, just like everything else in the city. After so much sound during the drop, she couldn’t believe it had settled back into this silence. She was more surprised when she heard metal strike metal in the distance. It was followed by a muffled thud. They echoed toward her, funneled along the main street of the city where she stood.

            Metal. Thud. Metal. Thud. Each had nearly a minute between. And they were getting closer. Rosalina had to remind herself to breathe. What is this is what caused all of this to happen? What if it has come for me?

            All she could do was stand her ground. I have survived this much. What else can they do to me except kill me? She watched the distance, waiting for whatever it was to come into eyesight.

            “Hello? Is anyone out there?” She could just make out the male voice. Tears immediately filled her eyes as she took off in a dead sprint.

            “Felix!” She screamed as her feet thundered against the road. She narrowly avoided running into all the things piled in her path, but she didn’t care. All she could see was that limping person growing on the horizon.

            “Rosalina?” His voice was shocked. He didn’t actually expect a reply to his shouted question. He tried to pick up his pace, but the ground was so uneven. He looked around and finally caught a glimpse of his little sister running towards him. The distraction was for a moment too long and he caught his pipe on the edge of a crack, unbalancing him and sending him to the ground. Falling wasn’t new to him and he easily rolled a bit to protect his arms from the sharp shards of everything all around him.

            Rosalina practically jumped on top of him with joy and tears as she wrapped herself around him in a huge hug. She didn’t care that he hated hugs. In this moment, she couldn’t have been happier to see him. She felt him wrap his arms around her back and she didn’t even remember that the world had fallen to ruin. She had her older brother right there with her and he was just as happy to see her.

~

            After their greeting, they just sat together huddled against the cold. Neither of them had spoken a word since they had been sitting there. There was so much and so little to say. They both just took in their surroundings.

            “We should find shelter for the night,” Felix stated, finally breaking the silence.

            “I managed my way out of our living space, but I doubt you could scale the side of the building to get back in.” Rosalina shrugged. “We will have to find something easy to get into.”

            She helped him get up to his foot and handed him the pipe. He leaned against her as they made their way to the nearest building and crawled into the first floor living space. Everything was trashed but there was a mattress and some blankets, so they made a makeshift bed and huddled close for warmth.

            “I am glad you lived.” He spoke sincerely. He wasn’t one for being deep or emotional, but Rosalina knew he meant it.

            “I am glad you lived, too.”