They were seated in the basement family room. The window wells boarded over. The wall screen showing two talking heads, but no one was really listening to them. The map and countdown timer behind the heads were all that mattered. Only two hours and a few minutes, the circle on the map had gotten as small as it was going to get. The red dot covered the Twin Cities entirely, the time for running had passed weeks ago. Not that there would be anyplace safe if the heads were right.

Wynter’s Aunt Hazel was flipping through her rosary as fast as her fingers and lips could move. Her maternal grandparents sat next to her, their hands clasped, and heads bowed as they prayed along.

Mother was playing with Fall on her lap, keeping him amused as the clock on the screen continued to countdown.

Barely two months ago, they had spotted it as it made a billiard shot across the system. Brushing by Jupiter then heading to loop around the Sun. Telescopes showed something almost beautiful. It looked like a pitted and scarred quartz crystal, but a crystal, some hundred and fifteen kilometers long, and about twenty across. A hexagonal pillar with pointed ends that spun slowly along its long axis. The facets reflecting the light is what they spotted first. Just three weeks later someone leaked the trajectory and the world went to hell. Nicknamed 'Teen Baan' it was the arrow aimed to kill them all.

Her eldest brother, August, was gunned down as he packed his car to flee the city. They took his life, his family, and the family car.

Summer, her younger sister, called and told them she was leaving the neighbors to walk the short distance home. Refusing to wait for an escort. No one has seen her in a week.

Sudden shots rang out. Several different guns. Close enough to startle everyone. A minute later it was quiet again. Her twin brother was out there, in the chaos. The last time they saw him, he was in gang colors and had a tattoo on his neck.

The doors upstairs had been boarded over. It had been her idea to spray the Search and Rescue markings on the front door. The plague symbol was pure genius in her opinion.

“Wynter! Why are you smiling?” Her mother’s snappish remarks drew everyone’s attention to Wynter. All eyes, well except her Aunt’s as the rosary still clacked, were focused on her. “What? Is the end of the world some kind of a joke to you?” Her Mother’s voice sharp and growing louder.

No, the joke was these old hippies that had stopped naming their kids after months and seasons and put down their joints and magic brownies and found God at the last minute as they were trying to pray away the end of the world.

Fall looked up as well and started crying. Too young still at four to understand that tomorrow would never come.

“Now do you see what you’ve done! Shh, shh, Fall dear.” He was the only one in the room Wynter didn’t hate right now, “Go to your room Wynter! Smile all you want in there!” Her Mother pointing with a quivering finger.

Wynter walked away as Fall’s wails rose to eardrum shattering levels. High school senior sent to her room like a kid.

=-=-=-=-

She sat there tossing texts out onto the social media networks. All the public forums sheer chaos. She joined a private chat,

>Wh!teW!nt3r: 97 minutes and counting

>Babygurl4771: They say it will take an hour for the shock to reach us

>Spartan30043vr: So? Why sit around and wait for the end. This is the last chance to make a big splash!

>Wh!teW!nt3r: Sealed up in a basement. Not much I can do here

>Spartan30043vr: So, break out and live a little. Or cower with the Rapture crowd

>Babygurl4771: I have a liter of vodka and a fresh bottle of sleeping pills. Well, the liter is half empty now. I won’t be here to see it

>Spartan30043vr: At least that’s doing something. Not approving mind you.

> Wh!teW!nt3r: What are you gonna do Spartan??

>Spartan30043vr: Already done. In a bunker with the wife and kids. Been here two weeks already. Stocked for 5 years

> Wh!teW!nt3r: GTG u r right. Not that it’ll d much good now. TTY-Never

>system: Wh!teW!nt3r has logged off

Wynter left her room and went to the storage area where all her father’s things were stored since his death two years ago. They had hiked into the mountains many times, but seldom for the air and scenery. Finding their backpacks, the machete, and both their hunting knives. All still fragrant with the resin from the marijuana they had stolen from the pirate plantations. Her Father had vanished on a solo trip into the mountains, the police considered him as missing, but the family knew he had likely met the pirate growers. She missed California dearly, well most things, at least her Father’s family out there had been sane. Her Mother had moved to the frozen Northlands to join her relatives, just in time to become ground zero.

Wynter pried the boards off her window. Shoved her backpack through and barely wriggled through. The scent of distant fires, rotting garbage, and spoiled meat filled her nose. There was a distant burst of automatic weapon’s fire, an all too familiar sound.

She crossed the backyard, unchained her bike, and entered the alleyway. Walking a few steps,

“Yee Ha!” followed by nearly insane laughter as a group of barely dressed teens, torn clothing fluttering behind them, dashed across the mouth of the alley. Followed seconds later by a mob of others holding bats, golf clubs, and knives. None looked her way as the pursuit vanished.

Wynter turned around to head the other way out of the alley and heard a hissing growl. She gasped and jumped back, falling as her feet entangled with the bike. Seeing a smoky grey Maine Coon cat staring at her.

“Sebastien! You scared me! Silly cat, did Missus Gundersen let you out? Silly boy.”

Wynter reached out to pet Sebastien as she had a hundred times before, only to have him bite her hand and have all four paws clawing at her arm for a second. Flinging him to the ground, she grabbed her bleeding arm. Rather than running away, Sebastien turned and leapt at her. She scrambled backwards, but still took several long scratches.

“What is wrong with you?” She hissed back at the cat as she kicked it away. The huge cat was a quarter of her own size and seemed much stronger.

Wynter turned to run and barely made two steps when she felt the needle like claws grab her calf through her jeans and she fell face first. She felt jaws on the back of her neck and rolled frantically. The cat bounced away and then before she could stand it was back and this time its jaws clamped on to her throat and its claws were shredding her tank top.

The sky lit up behind the cat. She tore the cat away and started punching it. Tennis, cheerleading, and backseat blowjobs hadn’t trained her how to punch but she tried anyway.

There was a blinding streak of light dropping from the sky. Suddenly the crystal stopped and hung in midair, but the glowing shockwave continued. Tearing apart the very ground below it, a city was reduced to dust and ashes. Including a struggling teen and her rabid feline opponent.