Mini Musings II

The Fall Out City

The Fall Out City is my first-round entry for the Science Fiction Smackdown #8. I utilized pictures three, six, and four in that order. I hope you enjoy the unique story of Delyah, the Thânots and the Aasim. I think it leaves room for questions and possibly even later stories. But really, I hope you just enjoy it. Happy reading--

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The Fall Out City

By SP Parish

(c) 2014

Delyah gripped Swen's hand harder, snuggling in against the cold and the crowds making their exit, adding her other hand to his elbow for extra security and warmth. Usually, she delighted in the music and artistic offerings of the Curran Center, but today it had done nothing to assuage her fraying nerves.

She had woken this morning with an unexplained weight in her core. Swen, as always, was good to her, loving her through her quiet, morose times when she was so deep in her thoughts that she forgot to be happy. "There's a concert this afternoon," he said, laying a soft kiss on her forehead as he cleared the breakfast dishes away, Delyah curled up with a light blanket in her chair, staring off above the coffee warming her hands. "Let's get out of here."

Pushing aside the compilations piling up in her mind, Delyah smiled, "I'm excited to go."

They were pushing alongside the crowds amidst the cheerful chatter of the crowd leaving alongside of them. Delyah's anxiety returned as they traversed the crowd, the unusually chilly wind off the bay whipping at her scarf and hair, blowing golden strands into her face. Delyah nudged them away against Swen's shoulder as she took comfort in the familiar smells of the city that tickled her nose.

The sea was the first, the most pungent. The harsh saltiness that teetered on the edge of unpleasant overrode the smells of the city: trash, people, cars, and restaurants.

Delyah took another deep breath, steadying her nerves against all the people brushing against her when, suddenly, a red flag shot up in her mind as her nose identified something that did not belong.

Her hair stood on end. There was something different in the air, something off.

Something wrong.

Swen tilted his head skyward, his tanned skin contrasting sharply with the surprisingly blue winter sky. His black brows cringed in confusion over his large, round eyes Deyah adored so much. "Do you smell that?" He asked, sniffing curiously at the air once more, "It smells like," sniff, "...smoke."

At that moment, from what seemed like the far off in places measured in blocks and cab fares, a terrible scream ripped through the air. It bounced from building to building until finally reaching their ears, assaulting them with a cacophony of echoing sound.

The crowd froze as a giant entity as the initial scream was joined by a chorus of cries. They were followed by what sounded like giant, muffled gunshots.

As if on cue, the air above the not so distant skyscrapers in the distance was filled with thick, grey smoke that made quick work of ruining the picturesque perfection of the cobalt blue sky.

Swen's grip on Delyah tightened as she arched her neck above the crowds in attempt to see, "Swen," she started, the familiar pit of dread hollowing out in the center of her core once more, "Swen, what is it?"

"I don't know, Delyah, it looks like..." he started, only to be cut off by a booming rumble that sounded as if boulders were falling ahead. The crowd froze as they watched the forty-eight stories of the California Center bend, then crumble.

That was the moment the world erupted.

It was chaos in its most tangible form.

Screaming shouting, crying out as the masses rushed for their cars, their homes, back into the Center-anywhere but the dust and danger of the falling building filling their view. "Oh shit," Swen said as he began pulling Delyah towards the trains. "Come on," he said. But Delyah dug in her heels, eyes glued straight ahead.