Earth
The broken window yawned wide, the first rays of moonlight spilling pale across the floor where blood had dried in dark streaks. Outside, silence stretched in the streets, but inside the sounds of talking filled the room.
Laura had taken the chair opposite the shattered frame again, rifle across her knees. Alessandro sat in front of her, his own rifle propped against the wall at his side. While the twins crowded close, their usual exuberance was absent as they listened quietly to their parents’ discussion.
“You said… it’s a warzone out there.” Her voice was hoarse, low, but steady. Her eyes studied him across the dim light, sharp despite the pain and exhaustion that hollowed her face. “Tell me everything. Please.”
He exhaled slowly, running a hand across his jaw. He hadn’t wanted to drag the outside into this room, but the blood on her clothes and the twins’ wide eyes made the thought pointless. The outside was already here—and he hadn’t been, when they needed him most.
What was I thinking when I went out? he thought.
There was no point in sugar-coating the truth. “I’ll tell you,” he said, voice rough. His gaze fell to the twins, both leaning forward with wide, intent eyes. “But you two—no interruptions, eh? Let me speak first.”
Victor nodded, serious, his small hands folded tight in his lap. Albert tried to mimic the same composure, though his bandaged arm trembled faintly.
Alessandro leaned back, let his head rest against the wall, and began.
“When I left this morning, I thought it was just another sweep. I went with Mr. Rinaldi—you remember him, I’m sure. The man from across the street, always sitting on his balcony with the pipe?”
Laura’s brow creased. “Yes, I know who you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, so, I found him holding his door with one of the monster trying to get to him. I helped him kill it, then he gave me that rifle, apparently he was a soldier, and he knew my father too. Doesn’t matter, we banded together, we went street to street, killing any monster that was prowling around, we managed to get more people, a lot more.”
Alessandro rubbed at his temple, remembering the harsh edge of Rinaldi’s voice, the way neighbors had poured from their doors at his call. “And people listened. I don’t know why, but they listened. Men, women—people I thought wouldn’t dare step outside at night. They came with whatever they had. Kitchen knives, bats, pipes. A few rifles, a handful of pistols. It was like some madness had taken hold.”
Victor shifted on his seat, frowning. “That doesn’t sound like madness. They just… wanted to fight back, right? Like us, with the window.”
Alessandro gave him a faint smile, weary. “Maybe. But it was more than that. There was something in the air, something heavy, like if you didn’t stand with the others, you’d be swallowed alone. I felt it too. Even when I thought about you three waiting here… I didn’t turn back. I followed.”
Laura’s eyes flickered with something unreadable, but she said nothing.
He went on.
“We swept the alleys first. Creatures clung to the walls and roofs, waiting. But in a crowd, we were loud, and the monsters are not that bright, they attacked us despite their numerical disadvantage. I saw men torn apart when they strayed too far, and yet the rest pressed on. We shouted, we made noise to cover the fear. It felt like the streets belonged to us again for a while.”
Albert leaned forward despite himself, whispering, “Did you kill many?”
Alessandro hesitated. His mind flashed with images—black ichor spraying under his knife, the way one creature’s skull had caved when his boot pinned it against stone, the red faces of men roaring as they hacked with hatchets. He swallowed, voice softer when he answered.
“Enough. Too many to count. And yet… not enough.”
Silence pressed for a heartbeat before he continued.
“We kept sweeping until we reached the plaza. There—” His voice hitched. He drew a long breath. “There was no order anymore. After the fighting started it became a mess. But what could be expected from a militia gathered in a few hours. There were just a couple of policemen and they didn’t take charge. They just joined. It was Rinaldi who led us, he tried his best, but so many died. At least a couple of dozens, I think. Shouting, firing, stabbing, against a group of monsters that came at us like a tide, they didn’t stop even when they got a hail of bullets, I’ve never seen so many.”
Laura’s knuckles whitened on the rifle across her knees.
“It was chaos,” he whispered. “People fell. They screamed. Some never screamed at all, just vanished under the press of bodies,” His throat tightened, the image sharp. “I saw Lorenzo, the owner of the toy shop, going down beside me.”
Albert let out a small gasp. Victor’s jaw set, his eyes wet but hard.
Alessandro shook his head slowly. “And yet we didn’t break. We held. I don’t know how. Every instinct in me wanted to flee, to find a way back here. But my feet stayed planted. My arms kept swinging, my rifle kept firing. It was as if something inside me refused to move. Everyone was the same. No one ran, not even when the dead lay piled around us. It was like we were bound together by something.”
He looked at his hands, callused fingers still trembling faintly. “Why? Why did we fight like that, Laura? Why didn’t anyone turn away? We all wanted to live. I wanted to live. To come back to you. And yet I didn’t think twice about standing in all that madness. Not until now.”
The room was heavy with silence after his words. Laura stared at him, her eyes shadowed. The twins shifted, restless, unable to grasp the weight but feeling it press down on them.
Finally, Laura spoke, her voice low. “Maybe it wasn’t madness. If you didn’t stop them now, the whole district falls. Maybe everyone knew, even if they didn’t say it. Alone, in houses, we’d all be picked apart. But together… even dying together, it gave us a chance.”
“Or it was something else,” Alessandro murmured. His gaze went distant, unfocused, lost in memory. “When I fought, I didn’t feel like myself. I was fighting for the sake of fighting, all that aggression, I never felt like that, and at the time I didn’t even realize, I think the others were the same, but I got to come back to you, many died or got maimed in the fighting.
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Victor frowned. “But you came back in the end. You chose to leave.”
“Yes.” Alessandro’s eyes snapped to his son, his voice rough. “But how many didn’t? How many stayed in that bloodbath until there was nothing left of them? And they didn’t even think to run. They just… fought. Like it was the only thing they could do.”
Albert’s small voice broke the pause. “Would we… would we have to fight like that too, Dad? If they come here in so many?”
Alessandro looked at him, the boy’s bandaged arm, the smudge of ichor still crusted on his cheek. He closed his eyes briefly. “We secured the plaza and the rift. Any monster coming out from there will be dead in a second, don’t worry.”
Laura straightened in her chair, her tone firm. “Whatever happened, happened. We survived. That’s all that matters. And for the future we will have to face this together. We need to fortify the house better, after what happened. And plan a course of action, we saw that there will not be an absence of danger, so we don’t need to search for more, even with the rift in the plaza under control.”
Her words settled like iron in the room. The twins nodded, though neither looked entirely convinced. Alessandro studied her, a flicker of relief in his eyes.
“We’ll stay together.” he repeated, as though testing the word against the guilt he was feeling in his chest.
The discussion went on. They talked about how to secure the house better, the twins wanted to know more about the fighting, and boasting about their own accomplishments. In the end, the night was upon them and they went to rest, Alessandro and Laura got to take shifts during the night to not leave the house undefended, but nobody slept much. Victor woke up screaming from a nightmare one time, but ultimately the night passed without another monster attack.
The first light of morning crept through the cracks in the boarded but broken window, painting pale gold across the dusty floor. The house was hushed but not calm—Laura woke with the stiffness of unease still settled in their bones. Her bandages strained against her belly and legs. She eased herself onto one of the kitchen chairs and let out a small breath as if the act of sitting itself had been a labor. Alessandro sat at the table, rolling his shoulders, trying to chase away the aches of the previous day and what too little rest had left behind.
The twins were already awake, whispering to each other on the stairwell until their father’s voice called them down.
“Come on, you two. Time to get to work.”
Albert bounded down the steps first, hair sticking up in every direction. Victor followed with less energy but more focus, already glancing toward the windows.
“Are we really doing it now?” Albert asked. “The fixing? The planks and all that?”
“Yes,” Alessandro said firmly. “This morning we reinforce everything. We need better protection.”
Laura gave a quiet nod. “I’ll keep watch. Someone has to, while you make all that noise.”
“You should still be resting,” Alessandro said, but she waved him off with her good hand.
“I can sit with one of the boys near the front door. I’ll call out if anything comes close. That’s enough.”
Albert immediately straightened. “I call dibs!”
Victor frowned, already behind on the race out of labour. “No no, I should stay with mom. You are stronger remember? you can help dad with the planks better.”
The bickering began, quick and sharp like sparrows arguing over scraps.
“Why should you get to stay inside?”
“Because I’m better at noticing things! You never pay attention. You’d just daydream and mom would do all the work.”
“That’s not true!”
“Enough,” Alessandro cut in, though his voice wasn’t angry. He looked between them and then nodded once. “Albert comes with me. Vic, you stay with your mother. Then you switch, that way we’re balanced.”
The twins exchanged a pitiful look but said nothing more.
Outside, the air carried the damp chill of early morning, though the sun was climbing. Alessandro carried a bundle of scavenged planks while Albert lugged the saw, hammer and nails they’d gathered from the tool shed. The broken window gaped like a wound; the jagged shards of glass had been swept aside the night before, leaving only the empty frame.
“We’ll do this one first,” Alessandro said. He knelt, testing the length of a plank against the frame. “After that, we reinforce the others even if they’re not broken.”
His son crouched beside him, frowning at the wood. “Do you really think they’ll come here? More of them, I mean.”
Alessandro didn’t answer right away. His mind flashed to the plaza, the bodies sprawled in the street, the smell of black powder and blood. He drove a nail into the wood, letting the hammer’s weight answer for him.
“They’ll come everywhere eventually. It’s better if they don’t find us unprepared.”
Albert swallowed, holding the next plank in place while his father worked. “I don’t like thinking about it. But I guess… I don’t like not thinking about it either. Like if I ignore it, it’s worse somehow.”
Alessandro gave him a brief, approving glance. “That’s called being aware. It’s good. Just don’t let it stop you from moving.”
From inside came the muffled sound of Victor’s voice, asking Laura question after question. “What if they come flying? What if they come digging? Do you think they smell us? Do you think—”
Laura finally hushed him with a gentle laugh.
By the time Alessandro and Albert had finished securing the first window, sweat already glistened at their temples. They stepped back to examine their work: crude but strong, the wood nailed in overlapping rows like scales.
“Better,” Alessandro muttered.
They moved to the next window, then the next, settling into rhythm. Albert fetched nails, held boards steady, and asked questions in between blows of the hammer.
“Dad… yesterday at the plaza, why did so many people died? Maybe there was a better way, no?”
The hammer paused mid-swing. Alessandro’s grip tightened, his eyes fixed on the plank.
“Probably… I don’t know,” he said finally. “Maybe they thought there wasn’t another choice. Maybe they believed we’d win together.”
Albert tilted his head. “And did we?”
Alessandro struck the nail hard, driving it straight into the wood. “We did, but at great cost.”
Silence stretched for a moment before Alessandro stood, rubbing his brow. “Come on. One more window on this side, then we’ll check the back.”
While they worked, the sound of footsteps approached. Both of them froze, eyes darting toward the road. Alessandro lifted the hammer like a weapon until the figure came into view: a woman, middle-aged, hair tied back, walking with quick but careful steps. She carried a pistol, and a backpack.
“It’s alright,” Alessandro said quietly, though his body stayed tense.
At the corner of his vision he noticed Laura at the window, already aiming toward the stranger.
The woman raised a hand in greeting as she drew closer. “Alessandro?”
“Yes,” he answered, wary.
“I’m Anita. I was sent by Mr. Rinaldi from the plaza. He asked me to bring word.”
Albert’s eyes widened, but Alessandro gestured for him to stay behind while he stepped forward.
“What news?”
Anita’s face was lined with exhaustion, though her voice was steady. “The sweep is continuing today. Smaller groups are being organized to clear the surrounding streets, search for supplies, and bring survivors back to the square. Rinaldi wanted you to know the plaza is still holding. He said… he said you and your family should consider joining them. Safety in numbers.”
Alessandro glanced back at the house. “We’ll think on it.”
Anita’s eyes softened. “I understand. Everyone is deciding what to risk, and what to keep. I only bring the message.” She shifted her satchel. “Do you need anything? Medicine, food?”
“We’ll manage,” Alessandro said, though his voice betrayed doubt.
Albert stepped closer, unable to hold back. “Are there kids at the plaza?”
“Yes,” Anita said gently. “Some families came together. Others… the children who survived without parents, they’re being cared for. It’s not easy, but there are people watching them.”
He nodded, biting his lip. He looked at his father, then back at the woman.
Anita hesitated, then turned to Alessandro. “I wanted to thank you, many are still alive because of you, myself included. That’s why I volunteered to bring you the news.”
Alessandro felt the weight of the words press against his chest. He looked away, back toward the boards nailed across the window, and asked. “There is more right?”
The woman looked straight at him and said. “We found another portal, this one is near the river, and had a full day to spew all its monsters around. We need all the help we can find to get it under control, or we’ll get overrun soon.”
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