The Razing: 2033

Thumps. Banging. Yelling. All the sounds screamed in the boy's ears. The earth shaking and collapsing rubble and screams. Cries of helplessness and yells of resistance.

As he raced by, the deafening sounds clashed into his eardrums and his heart pounded as if it were out of his chest. Tunnel visioned in the already blind darkness, he fled behind a concrete wall and fell into the fetal position and yet nothing could mute the horrifying sounds and trembles of the terrified earth below.

Chaos razed everything around him and he couldn't escape it. Destruction and death surrounded him and it wouldn't stop however tightly he clasped his ears shut. Metallic grinding and drilling and shredding all over him imposed with banging and shrieking and it wouldn't stop.

His eyes shot open to a group of men rushing out, followed by a thundering boom, rumbling the earth as a projectile shot out and exploded into something he couldn't see. An industrial clang tore into his ears as the group unleashed firepower in a blaze of flashes.

Then it came. A huge blade sliced several of the men in half, and the others had hardly a second to react before a shredding of bullets reduced them to piles of meat and gore. One soldier fled, screaming out for life and yet the thing trapped his upper half into its jaws and drilled and drilled and drilled until only bone was left.

The boy sat helplessly. A thump came from the half-skeletonized man dropping like a sack of trash onto the ground. He watched it turn around, coming to his direction.

Suddenly, he was snatched up into arms, tearing him away and dashing off to narrowly avoid the rushing of the thing into his direction. Metallic stomping chased behind them, rapid crackles hammering into a wall.

Only by fleeing into a building, slamming the door and rushing up to one of the floors was the boy set down, yet still protectively held in the taut and quaking grip of his mother.

"Aiden," she said heavily. "Aiden, be with me, Aiden, Aiden..."

The boy came to; a thousand-yard stare. He looked at his mother and hardly saw her in the dark. The screaming and drilling and pounding still rang in his ears, or maybe it was that they were still going on outside.

"Stay with me," she said, holding his own shaking body still.

"What about home?" Aiden couldn't speak more.

She seemed to try to think, only to stop herself.

"That's for later," she responded. "Listen to me closely. Stay close to me at all times. Do everything I tell you to do. If one of them comes close or we're attacked or anything happens, run to the nearest cover that you can find. Don't worry about me. Don't leave my side if you can help it at all. Do you understand?"

Aiden nodded, his thorax drumming, stomach tight, lip quivering. "Yeah." All he could think about was home and the destruction and the possibility of them not making it.

"We're going to run to the woods, okay? We'll have to stay deep in them for a while," his mother explained coldly. Aiden was briefly distracted by the thudding and shrilling outside. There were howling sirens, booms, thumping. It shook him to his core, feeling his heart beating through his chest, his fingers going numb, his taste buds growing sour.

"Aiden, are you listening to me?"

Her tone immediately tightened his heart. "Uh—"

"Did you hear what I said?" Before he could even answer, she repeated, "We'll have to sleep in the woods if we can even sleep at all. Don't make noise, don't complain, don't cry. Were you listening to me?"

It was hard not to cry. "I-I'm... I'm sorry... I-I understand."

"Don't stutter."

Aiden tensed up. "Yes. I understand."

"Follow me out of the window," she said, standing up and forcing him up with her. "Remember what to do?"

"Stay close at all times," Aiden replied, his legs trembling. "Cover or building if caught. Do everything you tell me. Run to woods."

She nodded. "Okay. Don't slow down. Follow me."

Aiden remained up against her as she held her arm around him and ushered them both down the hall and to a window. As she forced the window open and ripped up the insect screen, he watched her drop herself down. Still his instincts screamed to freeze, and yet he suppressed his hesitance, descending after her into the abyss of darkness ahead of them.