A/N: Hello! I know, I know... Another story, when I have almost more than can be counted on both hands unfinished? I must be a little mad. Possibly.
Anyway... This is experimental in nature. Not as experimental as TSLOEF or TAONC, because this is intended as scifi/post-apocalyptica, as opposed to D/s smut. Hahaha... All I can say is, expect violence, expect destruction, and expect Naomily (of course).
I've never written this genre before, so there's a very good chance it might totally suck...but you can be the judge.
Right then, on with it.
Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Boo. Any and all typos are accidental.
(Naomi POV)
There weren't too many people left alive who could tell you what life was like before the invasion. All records that existed before the days when the creatures came... they had been destroyed by the tall-walking things that obliterated everything within their sight that didn't stand up against their weaponry. Most things built in the twentieth century didn't stand a chance. Too much pre-fabrication, you see. Concrete disintegrated easily, but stone... That stood a better chance. What remained after the initial attacks that occurred all over the planet was anything that had been built pre-1900. This meant, of course, that a good percentage of countries that weren't part of Europe or the Middle East were, essentially, toasted into dust. Some parts of the US remained, mostly around Washington and the older cities that were first colonised there.
Indeed, the rest of the world hadn't seen such rubble since some of the major cities in Europe at the end of the Second World War. And even they had been reduced to that state, seeing as all the modern architecture built since the Nazis and the allies went at it didn't hold up to the attacks.
No one knew what was going on, at first. The missiles that came from the sky... It all happened so quickly and so simultaneously that people thought it was a carefully constructed, massive act of terrorism. It wasn't until reports circulated around what was left of the internet that the face of a creature had appeared in Times Square, New York, with a garbled voice, screeching in an indecipherable language that wasn't translated in full until years later, that the world knew it was fucked.
No one knew where they came from. There wasn't a delegation that said "we come in peace." No... Only a massive ship that landed over a desert in America, that opened its gangway, spilling out a legion of no less than one million creatures, tall and wiry, with gangly limbs and hollow eyes. Faces looking somewhat like an old painting, twisted into shock. "The Scream", I think it was called. I've never seen it, myself, and it doesn't exist anymore, having been destroyed long ago. However, the name stuck, and Screamers they came to be known as. We didn't know their real names, and not many of us seemed to care. All that became relevant was survival, in the rubble of a past long gone to us.
To survive... You had to get out of the city. That much was apparent. What wasn't reduced to rubble was taken over by the creatures, the only stable buildings left overtaken by a substance that gave them an overgrown look, much like tree roots in abandoned ruins of temples in far off Asian countries that I had heard about in my youth. The world may have been a vast place, but like I said, anywhere that was previously populated was good and fucked over by these things. The fact that their weaponry had less of an effect against older buildings became quick knowledge to those who weren't immediately disintegrated in their path. And it wasn't just a few hundred thousand, either. More than half the world's population was destroyed within the first week of their arrival. Half of what remained slowly dwindled over the next few years, and it was only the smarter ones of us who quickly realised we had to get the hell out survived.
Long gone were the days where I went to college by day, and smoked spliff and drank while clubbing with my friends at night. All of that was a distant memory, now. The world was cold, dark and grey. We realised early on that these creatures, the Screamers, hibernated by day, and were active at night. The fact that they were nocturnal was a bonus, in some ways. The first attacks came at night, in which the majority of a lot of major capital cities were obliterated within an hour. New York. Los Angeles. Beijing. Sydney. London. Paris. Oh, beautiful Paris. I'd been there once, as a little girl. To the top of the Eiffel Tower to see the view. That particular monument had barely withstood the attacks, and only half of it remained. And the Arc De Triomphe? A huge chunk of it was missing, as though someone had taken a large axe to it.
When I say older buildings survived... The ones that did only did so marginally. You could tell they had been attacked. Superficial gouges in stone that went no further. Twisted, melted metal that refused to disintegrate completely. The White House didn't even live up to that name anymore, having become a burnt out shell, the windows having shattered after the attempted disintegration caused a rapid fire to sweep through it. But most twentieth century landmarks? Nope. The Golden Gate Bridge had been spliced in two by a massive disintegration ray, causing the cars travelling over it at the time to fall and sink into the bay below. I've heard of how people used to commit suicide by jumping off the bridge... But I doubt that was the intention of anyone driving across it that night. The Empire State Building? Rubble.
I was twenty when the attack on London happened. I'd been out drinking with my best friend. It was just like any other normal night. We'd stopped along the Thames to get some fresh air, and then... It was as though the sky had lit up. A series of massive streaks of light that came from above, and pulsed their way into the central business district, accompanied by a noise that can only be described as a low howling, mixed in with the odd shriek here and there. The two of us stood there completely shocked for a few moments, knowing that something terrible had just happened.
I looked over at her, and she was just staring at the buildings that were collapsing over the other side of the river. Her lips were moving, but I couldn't hear what she was saying, if anything. "Eff?" I asked, nervously, as I touched her shoulder. Her head snapped towards me, and it registered the fear in her expression.
"Something is very, very wrong." She muttered.
I looked back across the river at the cloud of dust that was blooming where several skyscrapers used to be. I hoped, for a single second, that no one had been working late. I say a single second, because another pulse of light came from above, and fired into the building directly opposite us, which was the Palace of Westminster. The two of us watched in horror as the building glowed, bright like the sun, hearing the windows shattering into splinters. Then, the awful groaning as the building resisted its own destruction. The pulse of light stopped, and still the building glowed, red hot, and slowly dissipating.
"We have to get out of here!" Effy blurted, tugging on my hand as I watched in shock. "NOW, Naomi!"
So, we ran. It was a good thing we did, because things began to explode all around us. The Westminster bridge across the river? Gone. The London eye? Disintegrated to dust a few minutes later. And I will never forget the sound of the bells of Big Ben chiming in agony before they were silenced forever. It was almost in a mournful way. Somehow, Effy had more of a sense of survival than I did, and led us down some stairs into the nearest tube station, following several other people who had the same idea she did. The lighting still worked, how I don't know with all the destruction going on around us.
"Everybody inside!" A sandy haired young man in a railways uniform yelled, as a few stragglers made it inside, and he slammed the gates shut, locking them tight and quickly wrapping a chain around where they met, for what good it would do. He then slid shut a large, heavy glass door, the kind that had that security glass with the wire through it., also locking it tight. The opaque form of his body barrelled down the stairs as a bright white light emanated behind him. There was that horrible groaning sound again, and we all watched the barely muted brightness of the white glowing behind him, as he shouted loudly. "EVERYONE INTO THE TUNNELS, QUICKLY! TAKE COVER!"
One by one we filed into the tunnels, and Effy and I huddled close as the sound of breaking glass reverberated through the air around us, and half molten shattered glass sprayed across the platform.
And after that... Everything went dark, and a collective scream of shock sounded as the platform was flooded in darkness.
Total pitch black. That's all I saw. I felt a hand sliding down my arm, sending a shiver of panic up my spine. My fear was somehow allayed, though, as its fingers intertwined in mine and gripped tightly. The hand was trembling as it held mine, and I gripped back, my intention to calm it, I'm not sure. The sound of scared breathing and concerned murmurs echoed around us, and suddenly a torchlight illuminated the tunnel.
"Is everyone alright?" The railway man asked, scanning the area with his torch, to general positive answers. "Seriously, is anyone hurt?"
"I think some of the glass got me. My arm hurts." Someone close to the platform piped up.
"Alright." He said. "Stay here, yeah? I won't be a minute, I'm going to the stationmaster's office to get a first aid kit."
"Hang on, where is this office of yours?" I asked.
"At the end of the platform." He replied, shining his light towards the long stretch of darkness. The light barely lit up the small neatly painted sign that read "STATIONMASTER."
"Oh, right. Need a hand?"
"If you're offering." He said, climbing up onto the platform to the best of his ability. I went to make my way through the crowd, but was stopped by the hand that held mine.
"Please...don't. I'm scared." A small, husky female voice to my right whispered.
"Eff?"
"That's not me." Effy's voice to my left said. "Go, take her with you, if she's afraid. I'll be ok."
I turned to the darkness to my right. "Will you come?"
"Uhm...o-ok." Came the timid reply. I led her to the platform where the railway man stood, shining his light on the edge of the platform so that we could see it.
"Here, take my hand." He said, holding it out to me. I took it and he helped me up onto the platform, doing the same with the girl who came with me. "Follow me."
We followed him to the office door, and he opened it, placing the torch light side up on the table by the door so the light shone on the ceiling, illuminating the room in a soft glow. He went over to a cabinet with a Red Cross symbol on it, and inserted a key into the lock. The metal door swung open to reveal some basic first aid supplies.
"What's happening?" The timid voice asked. I turned to look, now there was a little more light, and saw a short, petite woman standing next to me. She had shoulder length hair, which looked to be red in the soft light, and from what I could tell, she had brown eyes. Brown terrified eyes.
"Search me, love." The man said, in his Yorkshire accent. "All I know is, it ain't good."
"Have you...been in the station all night, Mr...uhm..." I asked.
"Cook, James Cook. And yes. About half an hour ago, the trains stopped working. Then, the radios went silent. And then... The people." He explained. "They just started flooding into the station, even though I told them the trains were out. Some of them weren't making any sense, talking about bright lights and buildings being destroyed. I just figured they were joking, or being a Friday night they'd taken some drugs or something."
I frowned, and shook my head. The redhead looked at me and squeezed my hand, which she hadn't let go of since taking hold of it again after Cook I had hoisted us onto the platform. "They weren't joking Mr Cook."
"Please, just Cook, yeah? I'm only a railway man, I'm not that important." He said. "But you... you look like you've a story to tell, Blondie."
I nodded. "My friend and I were getting some air along the Thames... Across from parliament? Some bright lights came from the sky... Whatever it was attacked the central business district. And then... It hit the Palace of Westminster."
"It?"
"I don't know what it was. It wasn't a bomb, that's for sure." I said. "The whole palace lit up like a Christmas tree, and the windows shattered. The skyscrapers, they collapsed, but... The palace... it just glowed. Then the light stopped from above, and the building just kept glowing. Then me and Effy - that's my friend - started running. We ran into the tube station and... Well, you know the rest." I looked up and watched both Cook and the redheaded girl looking at me in shock. "Uhm... I'm Naomi, by the way."
"D'you think it's terrorists?" The redhead asked.
I shrugged. "I'm not sure, sorry. All I know is what I saw, and it didn't look good."
Her hand covered her mouth, and she turned around, stifling a sob. It tugged at me, and I took her into my arms and hugged her. It seemed like the right thing to do.
"I'm sorry." She sniffled. "You must think I'm a right twat for crying."
"No, not at all. I think we're all in a bit of shock. We don't even kno-" I stopped mid sentence as we heard a deafeningly dull thud from above us, followed by several more. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. These sounds were followed by a commotion outside in the tunnel, and Cook grabbed the first aid kit and also looked in another cupboard, pulling out a three old style kerosene lanterns. He reached into his pocket and checked each lantern for fuel, lighting them one by one.
"Here, take one each. I think it's going to be along night, girls." He said, picking up one lantern, and the aid kit and leading us out of the office.
"Hey..." I said to the redhead, who had grabbed my hand again. "What's your name?"
"E-Emily."
"Ok. Good to put a name to the hand gripping mine for dear life." I said, putting a little humour in my tone.
"Sorry." She laughed nervously, making to loosen her grip.
I tightened it immediately. "Hey, I wasn't complaining, yeah? Don't worry about it, you seem to need it right now, so I don't mind."
She looked at me with amazement in her eyes, and nodded. "Thank you." She said, her voice shy.
"We stick together, yeah?" I said. "We'll be ok."
"I'm not so sure of that..." She said, quietly.
"I'll be honest, neither am I. But optimism is far better than pessimism, under the circumstances."
"You mean hope?" I nodded. She lowered her head. "I'm scared, Naomi."
I swallowed. "So am I, Emily." I said softly. "So am I."
A/N#2: Well, what do you think? A little bit too war of the worlds? (God, I hope not.)
Let me know if you want to read more of it, and I'll see what I can do. Can't promise it will be quick, though... I'm working on more of The Awakening of Naomi Campbell, so... I'm also endeavouring to re-read through some of my neglected stories so I can pick them up, because I know some of you are eager to read more of them.
Reviews welcome, as always.
Cheers,
~GN~ xo