The Past - April 2028
Beep!
Daniel sat in the car, bored out of his mind. He wondered when he might be able to get back homeas he was starting to feel really hungry. He wondered to himself:
'What on Earth could be causing so much traffic. I've been stuck in the same position for the past 30 minutes.'
Daniel continued fidgeting with the steering wheel as he waited. His annoyance grew with every passing second. He wondered if he should just take his phone to check out what was going on, but he didn't want to be distracted once the cars started moving again, so he decided against it. It was at a time like this that he wished that he got his car deck checked out, then at least he could just turn on the radio.
Bwoom.
Daniel felt the ground shake violently and could only groan:
'Not again.'
Daniel noticed that these tremors seemed to be getting more and more energetic over time. Daniel thought for a few moments about the strangeness of the tremors' sudden occurence. As far as he knew, Jacksonville hadn't had any earthquakes of this degree for a very long time. If he remembered correctly, it was 100 years ago or something like that; and as far as he knew, the tremors were so weak that only a few chapel bells had rung across the city. Nothing overly serious, unlike the current situation. Daniel figured that if these earthquakes persisted in their increased ferocity, he might just have to get out of the car and walk his way off of the bridge.
As another few minutes passed a particularly violent earthquake struck and Daniel finally decided that the situation warranted he do something and so he opened his car door, ready to start making his way off the bridge before things escalated. As he made sure that he had taken his wallet, phone and pocket knife, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly looked up as he saw a lustrous object sailing through the air. Daniel squinted as he struggled to make out what this object could possibly be. He could only tell that this object was getting closer and closer. As it did, he could more clearly hear it ripping through the air.
Daniel still couldn't tell what the object was but he could tell that it would land some 40 or 50 metres ahead of him. Daniel quickly decided to get behind his car. He then heard it:
Kaboom!
An explosion of dust and debris erupted as the the object landed. Daniel's car was peppered by debris and engulfed in a haze of dust only a few seconds later. Daniel waited a few seconds before sneaking a glance around his car.
Daniel looked out, carefully observing as the dust settled. The devastation slowly revealed itself to him, with heavily damaged cars now visible only a few short metres ahead of his own. Daniel could only count himself lucky as he slowly got up.
Daniel stayed close to the ground and surveyed more of his surroundings. The street had cracks and fractures that extended from the epicenter of the impact. He could hear the cries of people around him. He could hear the anguish of loss coming from the direction of the epicenter as well. Daniel offered a moment of silence before turning to make his way off of the highway bridge. Daniel felt a but guilty for not doing more to help, but he preferred to keep himself safe first before helping others, and right now he wasn't safe on this bridge.
As he went, Daniel wondered what could possibly be happening. Had it been an attack by a foreign nation? But surely the various military installations around the city would have done something. He then whipped his phone out to get some information, only to find that there was no signal. Daniel just shook his head and kept going. He would get his answers once he got off this bridge.
He travelled until he reached the end of the bridge. He was now tailing a group of other people who had been stuck in traffic earlier. Daniel had contemplated joining the group but decided against it, thinking:
'If there really is an attack, then the attackers would surely target large groups first, right?'
He had noticed that many parts of the city seemed to also have been attacked as evidenced by the various plumes of smoke, the destruction and the many sounds of emergency vehicles. Daniel weaved his way from car to car, keeping himself hidden as he followed.
They walked and walked until they came across a group of police and military personel making their way through the streets. The group had now grown considerably, now having at least a hundred people amognst its ranks. Daniel stopped behind a car to observe the interaction between the two groups. He would wait and see how things would play out first before he revealed himself.
A woman who appeared to be a sergeant, armed with what appeared to be an AR-15, emerged from amongst the personel and proceeded to yell out.
" Could I please have your attention! We know that the current situation has been utterly stressful and that many of you are worried and scared! We will do everything in our power to help you, but first we're going to need you all to organise yourselves into nice orderly lines! You will all first be questioned, then these nice soldiers will process you for evacuation."
As Daniel listened on, he got himself ready to join the group. He figured that whereever they would be evacuated to would be far safer than staying here. He could also see that some off the personel were leading some other people into massive black vehicles.
Before he could step out, he felt a searing pain coming from his right shoulder and then flipped over onto the tarmac. His mouth had been covered by a mettalic object. Daniel tried to fight off whatever was holding him down, but failed to move his right arm. he quickly lookd to his right, hoping to remove whatever was in the way of his dominant arm, only to find that his arm was...not there?
Daniel froze in shock as a pool of crimson liquid now formed where his arm once was. His focus on his arm was then interrupted by a sword being jammed straight into the ground, where his arm should've been. He looked up to see a figure completely covered in armour from head to toe, with green eyes visible through two slits and blonde hair that flowed ou the back of the helmet. The woman in the armour then spoke:
"Answer my questions and you might see the end of this day."