Tolly stood in quiet repose, staring at her terminal. The street was more silent than it had ever been. The merchant tents and marquees were now trampled in with crushed pavement with almost no sign of them ever existing. Tolly looked at the time on her terminal; four-fifteen.

  Connor seemed so far away from her, so unreachable. For a moment, she thought of going to find him, heading to his house to make sure he was safe. Tolly never let herself feel it before, but she knew that she loved him. She wasn't ready to let him go. Gods, she wasn't prepared to let anyone go, not Groen, not Dixon, not Marcus, not Phillipe.

  She tapped the icon of Connor's face again, not sure what to expect. The call rang once, then disconnected. It was obvious that he had ended the call. Maybe that was enough, knowing that he was still there on the other end. At least she knew he hadn't done anything stupid. At least not yet. Torn, Tolly knew that she had to make it to the airfield. If those monsters were still anywhere nearby, she didn't want to wait around to find out.

  It wasn't until near dawn that she made it to the edge of the airfield. The marshland had long ago been paved over to make way for the massive port complex and central distribution hub. The complex, which had at its peak a mere two days ago when welcoming the arrival of intersolar visitors in numbers not seen since the world's founding, had now been beaten backwards in time. The various hangers and docking ports broken into shambles, the passenger trolleys flipped and strewn across the runways. The thick composite pavement, subjected to the most upheaval, had been torn and cracked to reveal the long-dormant marshland beneath. It was amazing to Tolly. No matter how far she walked out of the city, destruction seemed to have beat her there.

  Squeezing past a section of chain-link fence, Tolly headed into the airfield on the north end, not wanting to use the northwest passenger entrance. She hoped that she wouldn't run into any more of those things. Tolly crept in, keeping herself low to the ground. She darted between large piles of rubble and overturned trolleys, careful not to step into the marsh waters that had begun to reclaim their original home.

  Out over the eastern sea, Tolly could see nothing but a clear sky lit by the rising sun. The usual smokey clouds were absent, steering clear of the continent far to the south out on the horizon. The craft that had plagued the air were gone, and Tolly could finally see what her mother had loved about this beach.

  Her mother and father would often take her and Blane when they were young to the very beach in Mercao, so named Airfield Beach, in front of which she now stood. They had been a happy family unit once before mother passed. Tolly could remember running down the beach slope towards the retreating water, just to run back up whenever a wave would come.

  Sometimes she would put on a life jacket and wade out to the drop-off at the edge of the shallows and just float there, letting the jetty push her in and out again. She would watch her family on the shore, making sure to stay clear of the surfers. Blane would sit disgruntled in the sand, hiding under two umbrellas, complaining about the heat. Blane would readjust the umbrellas throughout the day, tracking the path of sunlight as it passed overhead.

  Quite the opposite of Blane, mother would always drink in the sun, tanning throughout the day and into the early evening. Tolly swore that by summer’s end, her mother was doubly as dark as the year before, which was surprising for a woman of almost ebony complexion. Her father played the part of the gopher, fetching lunch and then dinner, making sure the kids had enough sunblock, cleaning up the beach when he couldn't find anything else to busy himself with. He was a little stir crazy that way.

  Tolly supposed that's the reason he left when their mother had passed. With the kids grown, and no partner to devote themselves to, he left to pursue a life of terrestrial farming on one of the human colonies on a Vasser world not far outside of the Federation.

  Now, looking out at the empty sand with no beachgoers or surfers in sight, the beach just seemed like another abandoned patch of dirt. She had been so caught up looking out at the waves that she had neglected to see the damage that had been dealt to the airfield complex. Looking around, not a single shuttle in eyeshot was even mistakenly operational. Many had gouges taken out of their hulls while some lay flattened by sections of the complex.

  “Tolly?” She heard a voice come from behind her.

  “Blane!” she yelled, even before turning.

  Blane hadn't wasted time at home changing into proper clothes as she was still dressed for her date with Soren. Her evergreen cocktail dress looked marvellous in the sunlight, despite her tears. A tight braid ran down her back, fraying where it had become loosened.

  Tolly ran with tears in her eyes over to Blane. Blane embraced her, lifting her up off the ground in a tight sisterly hug. It even reminded her of Groen's bearhugs.

  “I'm so sorry, Tolly. I'm so sorry,” Blane said, muffled by Tolly's mane. A phrase that she repeated over and over for what seemed like minutes.

  “Blane,” Tolly said, pushing back on the embrace. “Where's Soren?”

  Blane faced her, looking her in the eyes. It was clear to Tolly that Blane was just as frightened, just as lost as her. She knew the answer without her having to say it.

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  “He's not coming,” Tolly said, making the thought tangible.

  “I haven't heard from him, not a word since he left to check in with his command,” said Blane.

  “What do we do then?” Tolly asked.

  “I was just about to– well, I have been waiting for so long that I didn't think you'd meet me. I had thought I would make for the north pass through the mountains, try my luck in the desert.”

  “It's a much better plan than I have.”

  “Yeah, and what might that be?” Blane asked.

  “Not ending up like those monsters or whatever they are, gods help me.”

  “So you've seen them too? Good. Means I'm not losing my mind after all.” Blane said sardonically.

  “Unless I've caught whatever you have. How on green, old earth could these things even be real? It's not like new species just sprout up overnight,” Tolly said.

  “You tell me. You're the medic, or was it the captain?”

  “That's Medic Captain to you, miss,” she smirked. “And to be honest, I'm not sure these are human, at least not anymore.”

  “Human? You definitely haven't seen them. There's no way those things could ever be human.” Blane said with obvious disgust.

  “Not anymore, no. Sure they're eyes and nose are hidden. They do share some skeletal similarities, however. I mean, except for those arms.”

  “And the dogs? You know, the four-legged ones that run like loop trains. And then there are the giants,” said Blane.

  “Well, you've got me there,” Tolly admitted.

  The two of them had gone on rambling for so long that they hadn't realised they were still holding each other close. Tolly stepped back as Blane released her grip.

  “Come on then,” Blane said, “we've got a lot of streets to cover. With any luck, we’ll make the Northlands by noon.”

  It wasn't until half-past seven that Tolly finally knew that wasn't going to happen.

  It began with a walk through the streets. Streets, Tolly supposed, that they had been down together more than a hundred times together. Streets they walked down to go to market. Streets they took when heading out to the farmlands to the east when Tolly was not yet in school and Blane had been working her second job couriering sample produce from the outer farms to potential buyers in the city markets. It had been so long since the two of them had just walked together as sisters.

  She could see the thinly veiled worry on Blane's face. The way she constantly turned to look around, something that ever since the monster horde had rolled past, she admitted to being too. The two of them were on edge, keeping a fast walking pace, alert for even the slightest movement from around a corner or out from a shadow.

  It was at that moment when they had given in to fear just a little too far, focusing so keenly on what might be lurking in a store window or behind close shades that they forgot to look up.

  Turning a corner onto Market Street, a loud snap, almost as if a lightning bolt had struck the ground in front of them, gave way to a shadow from above. A mammoth hunk of debris, which happened to be the top half of what used to be the Mercao Courthouse steeple, blocked out the sunlight as it fell toward them. Before either Tolly or Blane could react, the building came down in several large pieces around them with a howl.

  After the dust had begun to settle, Tolly was surprised to still be breathing. She checked; both legs still attached and working. Same for her arms. Remembering her training, she tried her neck, moving it only slightly to test for fracture or nerve damage. Other than some minor whiplash, her neck seemed to be fine too. She looked around, noticing she lay flat on her back, staring at the cavern that had formed a metre from her face.

  “Blane!” she called.

  “I’m here,” Blane said, her voice sounding soft and distant, muffled by the surrounding concrete.

  “Where are you? Are you hurt?” Tolly asked, wriggling around to get a better look at her surroundings.

  There was light in the cavern and a way out towards her feet. Soldier-crawling, she squeezed through the tiny exit hole. She came out into a section that was fenced in by several fallen Romanesque pillars.

  “Blane!” Tolly called out again.

  “Troll–” Blane coughed, “Trolley, I'm over here.”

  Tolly rounded a pillar to find her sister floating upright several inches off of the ground. She was pinned between two capsule-sized chunks of building. Her dress tattered by the rubble was ebbing briskly in the hot noon wind. She looked like an ebony goddess despite the way her left arm folded back in on itself.

  Tolly rushed to her, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Oh gods, Blane!”

  “How does it look?” Blane asked with a sweet calm.

  "What hurts," asked Tolly.

  "Nothing," said Blane, "I think I'm fine."

  Tolly was at a loss for words. Her sister was stuck, and Tolly already knew that there was nothing she could do. The rubble had likely crushed her spine, making it the only thing that was keeping her alive. Removing the debris from around her, or her from it, would likely end her life quicker. There was a small rivulet of blood trickling from somewhere behind her running down her exposed right leg. Drips of blood left from her toe tips and down to the pool that was forming below.

  “Blane–” Tolly started, “Blane, it doesn't look good.”

  “Figures,” she said, “well, at least I had one last dance.”

  Tolly took Blane's working right hand and squeezed.

  “Soren took me out dancing, did you know?”

  She had a wide smile on her face.

  “We went for dinner, then dancing, then a walk through the–” she coughed, a spot of blood trickling out onto her chin, “–through the market.”

  “That sounds nice,” Tolly said, trying to comfort her.

  Ignoring her own tears, Tolly ripped off a portion of her blouse. She wiped the blood from Blane's chin.

  “Do you like Soren?” Tolly asked, trying to keep Blane's mind on something else.

  “Soren’s a true gentleman. A girl could really go far with a man like that. He really knows what I like.”

  “When did you two meet?” she asked, somewhat surprised it had taken this to finally come up.

  “Four– no. Five days ago. His ship just sailed into town, and he into my heart. You will tell him that won't you?”

  “I promise.”

  Remembering the wine in her pack, Tolly knelt to retrieve it, pushing aside the medkit; a lot of good that would do now.

  “Sis, look. I've brought your wine,” she said, raising the bottle towards her sister.

  She said, taking down a large gulp. “As awful as I remember,” Blane said. At least her taste in wines was still intact.

  “Where is Soren anyways? He was supposed to pick me up for our date hours ago,” Blane said.

  It was with that last comment that Tolly realised that she had lost a lot of blood.

  “He's coming; he’ll be here soon.”

  “Oh, perfect. Tell him I'm just finishing up in the cafe, and I'll be right out to meet him.”

  “I will, Blane. I will.”

  And with that, Blane's eyes began to grow cold. Her head slumped, still maintaining her last striking smile.

  Tolly began sobbing just as an explosion erupted overhead. A shuttle, trailing a swath of black smoke hurtled by, crash-landing somewhere north of her.