'Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! HOLY CRAP!' ran like a mantra through Greg's head as he sat huddled against some empty, basement wall. His eyes were clenched shut, teeth grit together, hands clamped over his hears, and he was humming a high pitched, nervous sound as he tried his damndest to tune out the screams and the rumbling and the "bzzt!" sound coming from... actually, he'd rather not go there. Not right now. He suppressed his own urge to scream everytime one managed to sneak through his filters. He didn't want to think about what was happening, about the people out there, running for their lives, but the nagging thought that Grissom, Brass, and Nick were still out there...it didn't help him forget. For all he knew, they were running past him while he hid here like a wuss. A coward.

'You're not fit to be a CSI...A real CSI would be out there doing something!' and Greg shoved that thought down, muttering to himself, "Now's not the time for your stupid insecurities, Greggo...! Nothing you can do..." And yes, talking to one's self was not a great sign of mental health, but there was a giant thing stampeding through the crowd and turning people into-

'STOP! Just...stop right there. Let's not think about that. Bad images popping up.' and his hands clenched into fists while he ground his teeth tighter together, still trying to stop his own scream from erupting. Praying to God-and if he existed Greg thought it'd be absolutely spiffy if he came down to prove it-that everyone was alright. Although...statistically, they're probably dead.

'Statistically you should be dead too, so shut up!'

"Okayokayokay..." he rapdily murmured, "Breathe...just breathe. Everything will be fine. The army will send out some...anti...whatever-the-hell-that-thing-is-weapon, or fighter jet, or missile, or WHATEVER! Point is, we'll all be fine. Everyone will be fine, and I'll get to get to go back to spending half of my day with dead people, and finding out how they died. Everything will be...'rock on'."

"Hello...?" The CSI jumped and grabbed his gun, pointing it at a woman with only one thought in mind.

'Something's here! Something's here! Something's here!' And then he noticed the little ten year old boy huddled behind the mom, his tiny head fearfully peering at him from behind her long legs. It was around then that Greg realized just what he was aiming at. Quickly putting his gun back into the holster, he stumbled through a sloppy apology, not bothering to meet her eyes. The woman offered him a weak smile, quickly ushering her son down the rest of the basement stairs as a particulary loud and desperate screech penetrated the walls. The three of them sat in silence, none of them sure what to say. Finally, the little boy broke the silence.

"Mommy, what's going on? I wanna' go home! I don't like it here!" the woman quickly shushed her boy, warily glancing up at Greg to make sure he wasn't annoyed or anything. End of the world be damned, for all she knew he was a homicidal maniac with anger management issues. But Greg just continued to stare at the ground, his face blank.

"Honey, Mommy needs you to be quiet, alright? Everything's fine, but for right now, we're going to be here, ok?" the boy looked over to Greg.

"What about him?" he cocked his head to the side, innocent green eyes taking the CSI in, "Is he alright, mommy? He looks sick..." she opened her mouth to try and shush her son, but she was cut off when Greg started chuckling. He shook his head, a small smile on his face as he idly ran his finger over the concrete floor.

"That's the first time I've ever unintentionally scared a kid. Sorry about that..." he paused, before grimly asked, "How bad is it out there? I managed to escape here pretty early." She shook her head, looking as lost as him.

"It's pretty bad...we shouldn't stay here too long." Greg looked up in alarm.

"What? Why?"

"There's another one out there! It...it came from the city."

"The city? Like...Las Vegas? That city?" she nodded, "No way!" he shook his head in rapid denial, "No fuckin' way!" he paused, before he haltingly asked, "Did...did you actually see it?"

"Yeah...we were running away from that...that thing, when I saw thunder...it was hitting the city."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! It was just like the thunderstorm here, hitting the same spot over and over! We kept on running though, I mean...it's a big city! It's like...nothing this bad could happen there! Like...whatever that thing is would just stop at Vegas..." Greg nodded, understanding her thoughts perfectly, "but...another thing came out! Just...just...just minutes after that thunderstorm ended!"

"Minutes! The other one took like...two hours before it showed up, and even then, it wasn't instaneous! It waited a while after the first leg appeared, and then it all came out! Why did this one show up so fast?"

"Maybe...maybe because...because the other one already started."

"Started what?"

"I dunno'...a massacre, an extermination...an invasion...?"

"Huh...invasion..." he raised a brow, contemplating the possibilty. It was just easier to think about the most ridiculous one, "This does seem like every alien movie I've ever seen...just with robots."

"And lightening that activates them."

"And kills us all with rays of light."

"Yeah..." an awkward silence filled the room for a few more minutes, "We should get out of here."

"The first one passed already, right? All the screaming...that's just people running, right? I'm not feeling the rumbling or the...that sound it makes! And the 'bzzt' noise is gone too."

"Yeah, the first one passed, but the one from Vegas...it was headed our way. So when everyone was runnning towards the city...we saw it, and turned around. It's probably almost here. This building could still be destroyed, you know."

"Then why did you hide here?"

"It made sense at the time. We needed a rest, we found an empty house. But-"

"Did you see any cops?" he blurted, and damn it, he couldn't resist asking. He needed to know, "I mean, when you were running, either to Vegas or away from Vegas. Did you see any cops running too?" Her eyes narrowed, grabbing her son closer to her, much to the little boy's confusion.

"Cops? Why?" her voice got colder, "Are you in trouble with the law?"

"What? No! Oh god-No! No! No! NO! No..." the CSI rapidly denied, "It's just...I'm...uhh..." he fumbled through his pockets, before he finally found what he was looking for. He took out his badge and showed it to her, "CSI..." he hesitated, "Greg Sanders. You?"

"Sandra...and this is Matt," she gestured to her son.

"You're...you're sure we should leave? Because...this place survived-" he was cut off by the sound.

"M-Mommy..." She hugged him tight, whispering assurances in his ear. Greg clenched his eyes shut again, wishing with every fiber of his being that at least Nick was there with him. There was no way he was going to be able to get through this without him. No way! Seconds after the sound, the familiar "bzzt!" sounds followed by desperate screams and pleas for help. Sandra quickly covered her son's ears, murmuring a prayer into his hair, while Greg just clenched his eyes shut, trying to ignore the whole thing.

'This isn't happening! This isn't happening! Oh god, this isn't happening! Not again!'

But it was. And just like the first time, there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it...

Not too long ago...

Greg frantically ran for his life. To the right of a him a blurry rainbow colored beam shot out, and went through the woman beside him, causing her to scream and burst into ash. He quickly ducked into an alley, wildly looking for an escape route, for any sign of a familiar face: Grissom, Brass...Nick, hell he'd be happy if he found a random cop from the crime scene! At least then he knew Grissom and Brass stood at least a chance of being alive, assuming they made it to the crime scene before... before... before everything just went to hell. He stayed hidden in the shadows, staring at the machine with wide eyes, not entirely sure he hadn't just...snapped.

Really, the only warning he got before everything blew up was...a sound. No...not a sound, but the sound. Greg had been minding his own business, trying to swallow every feeling of dread and every urge to get the hell out of there by the thought, 'Tommorrow it'll all be over, and you're one stepping closer to becoming a full fledged CSI!' Except...now he had serious doubts about the lab even being around tommorrow. But he didn't have a clue that all of...this would happen, so he just went and did his job. After he had taken a few pictures, he heard the sound. It was like a foghorn...just a thousand times louder. His first thought was, 'fish boat!' and then he remembered 'there's no ocean around!' but before he could figure out what it was, the ground shook again, and another leg shot out from the concrete. Seconds later another followed, until the three legs were spread out in a rough triangle, each coming out of the same place...and then the shaking got rougher...

...And the rest of the thing appeared. Like a giant squid from one of those corny sea movies, it rose out of the ground almost majestically. The foghorn was heard again, and the giant, robotic eye surveyed the people as it came out of the ground, it's red pupil getting bigger and smaller as it adjusted to the light. When it was fully erect, it towered over every building in the small town, looking down on all of the people.

No one moved.

The humans and the machine stood in a small stalemate, until little tentacles appeared out of the bottom of the thing's metal head. Seconds later, the tentacles shot energy beams at the crowd. The people it hit barely had time to scream before they burst into ash. Another beam was released and took out a house, and another beam was shot. And another...and another...and another...

And everyone was fleeing to get the hell out of dodge, Greg included, but the machine took no mercies. Nothing was safe. He had to ignore and pretend the ash appearing appearing on his clothes, on his hands, in his hair, on his face wasn't from that little kid who had been running in front of him, or that lady beside him, or that guy that tried to pass him. And finally, he panicked, because he knew there was no way he was going to outrun that giant thing! So that's when he ducked into the alley, looking for anyone he knew, looking for a place to hide. And he found it. He just sprint to the other side of the street, pushing and shoving people out of his way, and forced himself into the house. He didn't care if he was breaking in. He didn't care if anyone was home. He only cared if the house had a basement.

And it did.

And he hated himself for not being braver and going back out there to look for Grissom, Brass, and Nick! For not being herioc and trying to find his car so he could get to the crime lab and warn the others, as if they couldn't see that giant monster headed toward them. But still...any help was...helpful, right?

It didn't matter, because all he was doing was hiding there like a snivelling little-

Sandra and Matt screamed with a horrible, devestating edge lining their voices, forcing Greg out of his thoughts. A beam shot out through the house, tearing the ceiling away from over their heads, and forcing what was left of the house to cave in. Greg, in an instinctive and pitiful attempt to protect himself, tried to shield his head from the falling debris with his arms.

Their screams were the last thing he heard.

A/N: Oh wow...I am an observant one, aren't I? I just discovered the magic that is...that ruler line thing. WOW...so um...from now on, everytime that ruler line thingy shows up, it means scene change. Cool? Cool.
Ok...I experimented with this chapter a bit, so tell me if it's confusing, alright? Constructive is Really, really, really encouraged for this chapter. Reviews are nice too. :P Ciao!