PROLOGUE TWO — FUTURE TENSE
Light.
Searing light.
Heat.
Intense heat.
Screams.
Piercing screams.
OPEN YOUR EYES! OPEN YOUR GODDAM EYES! OPEN THEM!
Crack them open slightly. Flames? Are those flames? What? Where’s the sound?
Got to get up. GET UP! Push up off the floor. Shredded palm fronds under my hand.
ON YOUR FEET! On my feet. On my feet. Glass crunching under my shoe.
Eyes open wider now, too much to process. Smoke. Debris. Definitely flames.
What’s that buzz? Hey! This picture’s out of focus, someone move the antennae.
Focus? FOCUS!
Clarity. Senses rush in. Sound. I think someone moved that antennae.
A cop staggers towards me, his white uniform stained black and red. He stumbles, staggers again, slumps headfirst over the traffic barrier in front of me.
His prostrate form obscures the lettering on the barrier, but I recognize the Central Government logo.
A road. I’m stood on a road. Outside a government building. Well, what’s left of a road - meaning there’s a giant hole in it. A hole with the twisted remnants of a truck, and maybe a jeep, at the bottom.
Hole. Hole. Crater. CRATER! TRUCK! OH GOD!
TOO LATE! I’m too late. I was too late.
OH GOD!
What happens now?