"The explosions were almost simultaneous. (…) It was awful. There was just blood. It was like the apocalypse."

- Samir Derrouich on the terror attacks in Brussels.

xxXXxx

Jack boarded the bus. He hated public transport, it was smelly and gross and too hot, but father had banned him from using his car. He had never said to Jack that he was banned; Jack simply went into his garage to find the wheels had been clamped. That was it. No verbal warning or anything. But that was Jack's dad; secretive, passive aggressive and mean spirited.

"I must have inherited all my evil from him," thought the teen. Such a thought gave him no pleasure. Evil seemed less cool when it was so...mundane.

Still, Jack had been determined to go into the city centre that day. There was a carnival on, and considering that nothing of interest had happened for months, he was very excited. The bus was full of people, so much so that he had to stand. He sighed melodramatically to himself over his plight and tried to ignore the pervading stench of body odour and too much perfume.

City Centre wasn't much better. The city was absolutely bustling with huge crowds of people, especially teenagers. Normally the Carnival was a bit of a boring affair which maybe a few families or tourists drifted over to. This year was huge. The music of the carnival was too loud, though the bright colours strewn across the lampposts and city signs were pretty cool. The people of his city had really gone to town this year, no doubt due to boredom and the city council trying to raise the disgruntled spirits of its citizens. All around him he could hear shrieking whistles and the ever annoying buzz of the vuvuzela.

Jack went into one of the more popular shopping malls only to see Ashley walking and laughing with a bunch of guys from the football team. They were all grinning at her, and one had his arm wrapped around her waist.

"That must be her boyfriend," he decided. Jack had always wanted to get in with the likes of Chase and Wuya, but being trapped in his small town of little consequence, there was no chance of such ambitious friendships now. Maybe he needed to try being friends with the popular kids again? After all, he knew Ashley now, so what was the harm of trying? He just needed to be cool...

"ASHLEY!" he screamed, his voice breaking partway through, whilst waving his arms around and running towards her; she looked at him with wide eyes and paled. "Hey Ashley how's it going?" He breathed upon reaching her

The gaggle of teens stared at him in disgust but he ignored them and carried on, "how have you been Ashley? So shopping eh? Are you going to see the carnival as well? It starts in about ten minutes, wanna go down now?"

"Jack," Ashley finally was able to speak.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing? Why are you talking to me?" She looked at her friends and grinned maliciously before facing him again, "let me guess, you think that because we just so happened to get involved with those monks that we're friends?" She and her friends burst out laughing and walked away.

Jack scowled, "if you had teamed up with me you totally would have won more Wu!" he screamed. She turned back just to give him the finger before continuing her strut away from him. Her boyfriend wrapped his beefy arm tighter around her waist.

"Pfft, like I even care," he muttered out loud, not caring that it earned him a few odd looks from people passing by, "I'll get her back someday...then she'll be sorry..."

Out of mall, on the busy streets of the city centre Jack stood all alone in a busy crowd watching the spectacle of various costumes and floats passing him. He didn't feel very happy. Ashley and her stupid friends had ruined it for him. Jack wasn't a deep thinker. He didn't muse on his situation very often and he never reflected on his own behaviour to work out why he was so alone. But every now and then, such as the moment he stood watching all the happiness, he did have a moment of clarity.

He was all alone in the world.

His family were as distant to him as his school colleagues. He was all alone and his deepest fear was that he would forever be alone. Jack forced his way into people's consciousness. He made people know and remember him. But now Wuya and Chase were gone, as were all the monks. His cousin had disappeared and she was the only family member that interacted with him in a normal manner. He was all alone. And honestly, he couldn't see his situation changing. Would he die alone, stuck in this tiny little town? Would anyone remember him?

"I bet the monks and the Heylin have forgotten me already," he whispered, dread clinging to him.

A few people around him began to complain about the floor. It was shaking. He frowned and pulled himself out of his thoughts. There did seem to be a vibration in the earth, almost as if a large explosion had happened far off and they were receiving the aftershocks. Water dripped onto his head. It was beginning to rain softly. He looked up into the sky just in time to see a fighter jet zoom past. He squinted. It hadn't looked like any that belonged to their country...

Suddenly a sharp military aircraft loomed over them, though most people were too focused on the parade to even notice. Jack frowned. He couldn't tell if it was a fighter or a standard bomber, but it definitely didn't look like one of theirs. He strained his eyes, trying to work out what country it came from when it suddenly dropped something above one of the tall shopping malls.

Time slowed down.

Jack felt the blood drain from his face and could hear the blood pumping in his ears.

He was aware that the people in the crowded streets around him were going about their lives as normal, not recognising the aircraft, or noticing it had dropped something.

In slow motion he pointed towards where the item was falling and opened his mouth to shout...something.

Time came back to its normal pace as he heard a single scream before-

BOOM!

The explosion temporarily robbed Jack of all his senses as he was flung backwards and to the ground. People were falling on top of and over him.

For a moment he just lay there, he couldn't hear or see anything. All was black but there was a strange ringing in his ears and his brain was in agony.

Slowly, sound began to make itself clear and watery images began to appear just before he felt people beginning to run on top of him their heavy body weight causing more agony to his body.

Desperately he clamoured to his feet, knowing he would be crushed by thousands of panicked carnival fans who were now beginning to run. He was in the crowd now, running. Around him was the stench of bodies and the heat they cast off. He could now hear that people were screaming and running in all directions. Huge chunks of concrete were being thrown to the ground, crushing people. Car alarms were screaming and there was the burning of tires as people tried to drive away from the destruction but only managed to crash into falling buildings after running over some fellow countrymen.

Fires had started, Jack could hear the crackling flames and thick smoke was preventing his vision, prickling his eyes and making them weep. A furious heat began to burn his body but he was unable to scream because his teeth were clenched firmly together.

Jack couldn't even comprehend what was happening; his body was on automatic; all he knew was that he had to survive. It was instinct.

BOOM!

Another explosion, further away this time and increased screaming.

The ground shook heavily, throwing Jack to the ground once more. This time he got up before anyone could begin to run over him, even as he ran he could feel bodies underneath him, they were soft and warm. He could also feel the soft sticky splashing of blood. He gagged. No doubt people were being crushed to death under his feet.

The crowd were running towards an underpass, but Jack regained his thoughts long enough to begin pulling away from the human tide; going into the underpass would be a huge error. "No!" his brain, now in caveman-survival mode, began to shout, "No!" He pulled away from the crowd, pushing against the stream as he turned back and began to drag himself through the people. He didn't want to go into the underpass.

Sure enough huge cracks began to appear in the road and the ground began to cave in. He could hear people screaming below, above the underpass a car and several people fell down with the tarmac road into the subway. The was the sounds of horrified screams and the crowd who had been fighting against him now began to move his way.

He needed to get away from them.

Now at the edge of the crowd, he was able to dash out of the main road and into a small alleyway.

Gasping, he finally stopped running and slunk to the ground, shaking all over. He realised that he was covered in dirt and blood, his skin felt like it was burning and his hair was singed. Through the intense adrenaline rush he could feel his body was in agony. He heard more planes flying quickly overhead, shooting through the skies like deadly metal eagles. He shuddered and began to crawl on the ground soft whimpers inadvertently coming from him.

"I can't stay by the buildings," he thought, "because they might crash and fall, but I'm in danger if I go out into the open spaces with the crowds."

He let out a high-pitched scream and covered his ears as the loud sound of a machine gun ploughing into the panicked crowds. He could hear the wrecked bodies of people falling to the ground. That meant that whoever was bombing them was now also on the ground and they were shooting people.

He lay on the floor in the shadows and continued to whimper quietly. He sounded like an injured puppy and desperately wanted to stop but found he couldn't. This could not be real. It could not be real. This sort of thing didn't happen in his country! It happened in places like the Middle East and poor African states, not here, not where the rich and normal and comfortable were! And who would do this to them, and why? What had his country done to deserve this?

There was another explosion, so close that it yet again temporarily robbed Jack of his hearing and littered him with debris. He could feel his skin burning up again. Coughing, he forced himself to sit up and he began to creep back through the alley way to crawl into a dumpster. It was hot and smelly, the heat of the explosions warming up the metal dumpster and making the conditions in there unbearable. But it was the dumpster or death, so Jack stayed put, flinching every time he heard and felt an explosion, or the rat-a-tat of machine gunfire. Bricks and mortar from the crumbling buildings rained down on the dumpster, but even as it rocked from side to side from the force of the projectiles, the hard metal shell protected him.

The sounds of people screaming began to fade. He occasionally heard people running past outside his dumpster, but no one looked inside. Time became an unknowable force; it could have been minutes or hours. He would also never be sure if he was awake and alert the whole time or if he had passed out in intervals.

As it became more silent, he began to hear the rain, now pouring heavily, beating against the metal lid.

"How long has it been raining?" He wondered, "maybe the rain has helped put out the fires. I'm not too hot anymore."

But his skin was still burning.

When it was quiet enough, and Jack felt brave enough to move, he opened the lid and peeked out of the dumpster. The sky was pregnant with angry dark rain clouds. The city was glowing red and amber from the fires which had not abated even with the rain. He could smell something burning. It was a horrible scent and made him want to gag. Without ever having smelt it before, he instinctively knew what it was.

People, other human beings, were burning out there.

Gingerly he climbed out and began to walk. Part of him wanted to go back into the dumpster and hide, but he wanted to get home already, he wanted the nightmare to be over. His legs were screaming in pain, his body still shuddering from shock and the after effects of fading adrenaline, but he persevered.

Into the main street, the fires reflected in the puddles of acidic rain water merged with blood.

The land stunk.

He could see shadows of people shuffling around like zombies, like him they were keeping to themselves in the shadows.

He looked up into the sky but he couldn't see anything.

He wondered if it had just been an attack or if the country was being taken over by enemy forces. Had his country even been in a war with another? He certainly hadn't noticed if they were.

Painfully he began walking, uncertain if he was going in the right direction. Nothing was familiar anymore as it had all been blown apart, but he just wanted to keep moving. He doubted there would be a rescue from his family. His muscles were stuff and sore and as his skin was screaming with burns, the cold of the rain seeped into his bones.