“What the hell was that?” asked Harry in a hurried tone.

Everyone was still reeling from the exotic experience provided by the strange sight but were slowly starting to gather themselves together.

“I don’t know,” said Alex “but we should probably get going.”

Shaking their heads as if waking up from a daze, the group slowly got into the truck. Harry and Michelle in the front seats, while Alex, Claire, and Sarah took the backseats. As soon as everyone was inside, Harry fired up the engine and slowly took off from the driveway of the collapsed apartment building. As soon as they were on the road, Harry tried turning on the radio, but nothing except white noise greeted them in response.

Harry took a look at the three backseat passengers through the mirror before asking “So, I assume everyone went through the same stuff until that weird slab of stone smashed into the city? The weird feeling of dread, the blackout, the crimson sky?”

“Yeah, the whole package” calmly responded Sarah while looking out the window.

An awkward and sombre silence settled over the group afterwards. After another five minutes of driving Harry once again addressed the group.

“So, I heard about what you’ve all gone through, and you have my condolences, but we need to decide on our future course of action. From where we stand, we’ve got three options: the city precinct, the city hospital, and the military base on the outskirts. The precinct is the closest, but they might be overwhelmed with people because of that. The next one is the hospital where Michelle and I work at-

“Ah, so they’re doctors.” thought Alex “That’s why they reacted the way they did earlier.”

- though it might also be overcrowded considering the number of injuries resulting from the quake. The military base is probably the safest option, but we don’t know if they are even allowed to let us in. Who knows, they might have gone into lockdown right away after what happened.”

Letting what Harry said sink in for a while, it was once again Sarah that broke the silence.

“Why not simply go to the nearest destination, and we can decide what to do from there. If it’s overcrowded, we can leave for the next one and so on. Who knows, this way we might even meet someone who knows what the hell happened.”

“Sounds good, but,” thought Alex “What about the obelisk? I don’t know about you guys, but from the moment it’s started pulsating it feels as though something is calling to me from that direction.”

“Me too.” quietly interjected Claire “It’s hard to describe the feeling. It feels like when I remember my grandmother's home. It exudes this feeling of safety, warmth, and welcomeness.”

“It does feel like Nana’s home,” confirmed Sarah.

“The old treehouse I built with my father.” said Harry “It’s the same feeling for me. Safety, warmth, cosiness.”

“For me, it’s the small cabin my family used to own up in the mountains” whispered Michelle.

Immediately after, Claire started sobbing quietly. “It felt like my home, mine, and Colin’s home, what it was supposed to be at least.”

“So, it seems we’ve all felt that. Should we head towards the obelisk?” asked Alex “Granted, it could all be an elaborate ruse to get us to approach the obelisk.”

Harry coughed a little in hopes of grabbing attention to what he was about to say next.

“I say we do what Sarah proposed earlier, and go to the precinct. If it’s overcrowded or unavailable for any other reason, we move on towards the city hospital. As it stands, the precinct is right in the central city area, and from the looks of it, a short walk away from where the obelisk fell. Is everyone on-board onboard with this?” asked Harry with a weird grin on his face.

“Ugh, it seems that not even the end of times can stop your puns, eh Harry?” said Michelle while sighing.

I looked around at the others. It seems Harry’s joke did quite the job of uplifting our spirits, however little.

The next twenty minutes of driving was uneventful, considering all that transpired hours before. The road was awfully quiet. The pavement itself was almost intact, when, by all accounts, it should have shattered as if made of glass from the impact. The same could be said about all the buildings they’ve passed since then, now that Alex had a moment to pay attention. He looked out the window to the obelisk. Since entering the inner area of the city, the weird feeling of wanting to approach the obelisk was amping up into a strong compulsion. He was wondering whether it was the same for the others. Just as he was about to ask the others, Harry broke the silence.

“We’re about to arrive at the precinct; it’s right across that corner,” said Harry while pointing at an innocuous street corner.

Unfortunately, as soon as the truck made the turn, what appeared before Alex’s eyes was the precinct, on fire.

“Holy fu-“ Sarah couldn’t get the whole sentence out as a roaring sound was heard from their left.

As soon as Alex turned to look at what was the source of the roar, the world shifted. Something T-boned into the truck, causing it to fall over. Panic took over everyone’s mind. As Alex and the rest were trying to get out of the capsized truck, the backside window facing Alex was shattered by a gigantic dog head.

With eyes, the size of tennis balls, and fangs the size of kitchen knives, the dog was rearing its ugly head in trying to maim whoever was closest to it. In this case, it was trying to maim Alex.

The only thing that was stopping it was the size of its head, too big to fit through the car window entirely.

“Alex! Behind you there’s a bag! Inside is a crowbar!” screamed Harry while frantically trying to unfasten his seatbelt, which seemed stuck.

Feeling with his hand behind his back, Alex seemed to grab something that felt like a bag, tugged at it, and brought it in front of himself. Reaching inside, he realized it was an instrument bag, full of nails, a small hammer, a couple of different screwdrivers and a standard crowbar. Alex immediately grabbed the crowbar and started hammering at the beast's snout. After a good three hits in, he finally chipped one of the beast's fangs which made it retreat away from the truck with a maddening howl.

“It’s gone for now! We need to get out of the car, and fast!” half screamed half cried out Alex.

The first to free herself was Michelle. She opened the front door of the passenger seat and lifted herself onto the side of the truck. Immediately after, Harry cut the seatbelt with a bowie knife he had on him and did the same. Next was Alex. After Michelle got down onto the road, Harry opened the backseat door allowing Alex to get out. Quickly after both of them lifted Claire and Sarah out.

“What the hell was that?” hissed Sarah. “Why is the precinct on fire, why are there no people nearby, why the fuck is this happening?”

Alex could recognize the starting signs of a panic attack on sight at this point. But so could Michelle and Harry due to their profession.

Michelle gently put her hand on Sarah’s shoulder. “We need to calm down; panic is not going to help anyone right now.”

“Yeah,” Harry chimed in “just take a deep breath and count to ten.”

Alex looked at Claire, who it seems was holding it together quite admirably, or perhaps she was feeling numb after all she had to go through today.

“What do we do now? The precinct is on fire, this is the heart of the city, and there is no one nearby. Quite unlikely considering it was a Friday night before this all went down. Something must have happened to them.”

“My money is on that oversized mutt from before. It probably happened to everyone around here,” replied Harry with a grim face.

“No,” said Alex. “ there would be…carcasses if it killed so many people. Even then, the average number of people in this area on a Friday night numbers in the thousands. No way it could do that alone.”

Just as the words left his mouth, the same blood-curdling roar was heard again, this time accompanied by two more. Harry handed the bowie knife to Michelle, took out an axe from a duffel bag while Alex gripped the crowbar until the knuckles of his hands were white with bone.

A moment later, the group was surrounded by three beasts—a pack, one of which was the one from earlier, with the chipped fang.

“Get back!” screamed Alex to Claire and Sarah, the only ones lacking something to defend themselves with.

Alex, Michelle, and Harry turned to face the beasts in a triangular formation with their back facing inward, where Sarah and Claire were on alert.

An instant later, the beast with the chipped fang lounged at Alex before anyone could react. With the full weight behind its sprint, it didn’t take a lot of effort to knock him down. The beast’s maw came awfully close to Alex’s face for his liking; the only thing stopping it further was the crowbar in his hands. He heard Harry scream something, as well as Claire’s cry of distress, but was otherwise too busy to make out what they were saying. The beast’s maw, full of sharp teeth, was starting to inch in on his face, a clear sign his hands were giving out under the total weight of the creature above him.

Thinking this was it for him, he tried to turn his head towards the others, tell them to run away, that he would distract them while they ran away. The reality of the situation was that the simple act of turning his head to look at the others sapped almost all his strength.

In a moment of distraction, one hand gave out, and with it, the distance between the beast’s snout and Alex’s body was closed in an instant. Searing pain filled his shoulder as the creature was tearing flesh from bone. Feeling all strength leaving his body, he was about to give up when a voice resounded from across the street.

“SUNDER!” screamed a man’s voice.

As soon as the word flew out the man’s mouth, azure light flashed over the beast, decapitating it. The head rolled over to Alex’s side while the torso collapsed unto him. Hot blood started gushing out of the dead beast’s neck onto him. Struggling to get out from under the corpse, he heard another voice, this time a woman’s.

“SEAR!” said the unknown woman, and suddenly the air became suffused with the smell of burned flesh.

With another effort from his own battered body, Alex finally pushed the corpse off of himself and stood up. What greeted him was the sight of Harry, Michelle, Sarah, and Claire looking horrified at the charred corpses of what once was the other two giant dogs, while the mysterious duo was walking towards them.

After another woefully long five seconds, the duo reached the group with a confident smile on their face.

“Are you all fine?” asked the man in a brusque manner.

Looking dazed at the nonchalant attitude of the newcomer, the group remained silent for another couple of seconds.

“Ugh, yeah, I think so,” mumbled Harry hurriedly.

“I’m so happy we got here in time to help.” cheerfully chimed the man’s companion. ”My name is Amber, and this here is Jake,” she said, nudging the man ever so slightly.

Alex took another look at the duo. Jake was slightly taller than himself, which put him at over 180cm. With hair the colour of chestnut and a perpetual frown on his face combined with the one-handed sword sheathed at his waist, he made for an imposing sight. On the other hand, Amber was the textbook definition of her name, with both hair and eyes the colour of amber, along with a dashing smile. While observing the new arrivals, Alex failed to notice Harry applying some sort of gauze to his shoulder to stem the bleeding.

“Good thing we were nearby, these mobs are too hard to deal for newbies like you,” said Amber.

“Amber, we’ve talked about this already. This is not a game!” Jake gruntled in Amber’s direction, then addressed the group.

“Look, I can already see the confusion forming on all your faces, but I can’t give you answers I don’t understand myself. The only thing I can tell you is to go to the obelisk. You’ll understand everything, or as much as they tell you, anyway.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘to go to the obelisk’? Alex is injured, we’re all in tatters as it is. We should wait for something, anything to arrive here for help. The police, the military, something.” Half screamed, half cried Claire at the duo.

“Look, lady, as far as we know, no police or military is coming to your aid right now or in the near future. We are the something you were waiting for, and we did our job of helping you seeing as you’re still breathing.” huffed the man. “Besides, everyone that was in the central part of the city when that thing fell is there right now. They also have doctors there. Not the usual kind either.”

“What do we do if we get attacked again on the way to the obelisk?” calmly asked Michelle after assessing the situation.

“You won’t. First of all, it’s within a five-minute walk distance. Secondly, the things that attacked you were the last in this vicinity, as we were hunting them down when we heard your screams. I can guarantee that the path from here to the obelisk is going to be clean.”

“What was that azure ligh-“ was about to ask Alex when Jake abruptly interrupted him.

“As I said, I can’t explain this stuff to you. I am not sure I can help with that. One thing I’ll say for certain is that all the answers you’re looking for are there.” said Jake while pointing at the massive obelisk.

“We have to go now. The geezer will have our heads if we don’t hunt more of these things down.” Amber said while taking out an ornate pocket knife and cutting off the ears of the dead beasts.

Turning back to the group she said “I’m so sorry we are leaving you all alone at a time like this, but we have to go, and as Jake said, you’ll be safe from here to the obelisk. And once there, everything is going to be fine for you lot.”

With that said, the duo took off in a sprint.

“We should also get going,” said Harry. “Alex needs help, and the sooner he gets it, the better. That guy, Jake, said they have doctors there, and I’m inclined to believe him.”

“I don’t know if we can trust them, they were weird,” said Michelle while fidgeting with her fingers.

“I’m going,” quietly said Alex “I understand if you’re all reluctant, but I’m going, even alone.”

“Me too,” said Claire “I need answers, and he said I’d get them there.”

“I’m with Claire on this one.” joined in Sarah.

Michelle sighed in silence. “It seems you’re all of the same mind. Let’s go then, not like I’m staying here alone at any rate.”