Chapter 3

I tried to push myself up, darkness and stars dancing in my eyes, a spike of pain ran down my spine and I had to give up.

I rested against a wall while trying to control my eyesight. The stars slowly faded, and I regained some of my sight.

I realized I had been thrown all the way down the stairs, to the basement of the care center.

I heard people talking, or rather yelling, down the hallway. Someone ran by me, then stopped and ran over to me.

"Are you okay? What the hell happened? Was it a bomb? Did we enter the war?"

It was Chioma. She looked wild, her braids had loosened, and locks of hair stuck out everywhere.

"I don't know. It didn't look like a bomb." I growled. Still in a lot of pain.

"Oh god, you look terrible."

She grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

"Auch, damn, be careful!"

She looked at me, not realizing I was in pain.

"Did u break anything?"

I moved my arms and legs. Bending my head and fingers.

"I don't think so, but my back hurts like hell."

She told me to remove my jacket and show her my back.

"You have a large bruise on your left side, just below the shoulder blade. Almost twenty centimeters across."

She put her hand on my back, adding pressure and moving it around.

"It doesn't look serious. I just think it have been bruised very badly". She removed her hand. "Wait here, ill bring you something for your pain." 

I put my hand on the wall for support. Walked to the stairway and moved up until I could look outside.

Screams could be heard everywhere. A woman crying uncontrollably at the parking space. A lifeless child in her arms. Every building within sight was a ruin. Windows and doors all burst and broken. Ceilings mostly destroyed. Some walls where still crumbling. Many trees and bushes were destroyed, and every kind of debris was scattered all over the place.

But the most enthralling thing I saw was the sky.

It was completely light blue, and in it was forming denser, darker blue light-bubbles, that was slowly descending. Everywhere I looked they were, some closer to the surface than others. There must be thousands.

"Sorry it took so long, its all dark down there, nothing works, and all the light have gone out."

It was Chioma. Holding a bag in her hands.

"Its okay Chioma. But look, something weird is going on." I pointed outwards and up into the sky.

Chioma just looked around, her jaw dropped. She realized how bad the situation really was. Then gazed upward and her pupils dilated.

"What the Fuck is that!"

I thought that was as real a reaction as any.

"It feels dangerous. But its rather beautiful, isn't it?"

A young man, maybe in the start of his twenties, approached the crying woman.

"She's dead you know. No point in crying about it." He said it, with a grin in his face.

The woman just kept sobbing.

"I guess you don't mind if I take this then?"

He grabbed her handbag, that was swung over her shoulder and pulled hard. The woman dropped her child and started screaming.

"Shut up, bitch!" The guy kicked her and pulled her handbag free. She looked around with panic in her eyes and screamed again "Help me, I need help!"

I'm not entirely sure, by the way she acted, if she needed help because she was being robbed or because her child was dead.

Noone reacted to the scene, as people were busy with their own trouble, or just starring into the sky.

So, I slowly walked towards them. I really didn't like that guy.

"Get away from her you prick!"

The guy looked at me and flicked his tongue.

"I got what I wanted anyway." He started to walk away as I got nearer.

"Can't you see what's happening around you? Can't you see it's a crisis and her child just died? Give her the bag back!" I almost shouted at him.

He turned to face me. "Fuck you, what do I care. Come any closer and ill mess you up too!"

I started to run towards him, clenching my right fist, he stumbled in shock from the sudden outburst. But just before I was able to land a hit, my back sent a jolt of pain through my body, and I fell beside him.

He looked at me, started to laugh frantically and with a huge grin, he started to step on me. Kicking me hard in the face, I managed to protect my vitals with my hands.

Suddenly the onslaught stopped, and I heard a loud bump as he fell to the ground.

Chioma on top of him, raining punches down on him.

"Stop you crazy woman!" the guy wrestled free and ran away, only looking back with murderous intent in his eyes. 

His shirt was torn. I noticed a tattoo with a black skull revealed on his chest. I had heard about them before. A band of unruly teenagers. Immigrants that never learned our culture or simply didn't care. That was some years ago. I guess some of them grew up and formed a gang.

She had observed it all from the back. Paralyzed by the absurd events that unfolded before her.

The sky was falling, a bomb or whatever it was, had destroyed everything within sight. And now this? She had dealt with scum like him before. In Nigeria when she was younger. Scumbags who either tried to rape her or steal her possessions.

She was so happy when she was finally allowed to work in Denmark. A quiet and happy little country in the north. Surrounded at all sides by ocean and only connecting to the main continent of Europe, by a small stretch of land that mostly consisted of marshes and farms.

It was relatively safe here. That's why her soul burned with anger, as she saw this guys actions, and she couldn't help herself as she stormed forward.

"Thank you Chioma. That guy was a real bastard."

She walked over to me and helped me up.

"I really hate people like that. They have no respect for others." She still looked fuming with anger.

She handed the bag to the woman, who had picked up the child again. "Thank you" was all she muttered, as she walked away while sobbing loudly.

All the nearby people were starting to move away, some even running. Some still looking at the sky, where the blue orbs had started to settle at about 100 meters from the surface.

It was surreal. Like something out of a sci fi movie. Yet it happened right now, in front of my eyes. But besides the adrenaline in my body, sharpening my senses. It didn't really affect me at all.

Chioma took my arm, "come, let's go inside, I need another look at your back."

We turned around and started walking, only to stop a second later.

The entire 1st floor had collapsed. Only the front right corner had remained intact. The ceiling, wall-pieces, and bricks in huge piles.

"We need to get them out Chioma!" I yelled. But she was already running inside.

I followed, though not as fast, and I reached the hall with the paintings and portraits.

They where all broken and there were pieces of glass everywhere. The ceiling in the left hallway had broken under the pressure of the bricks. They completely blocked the way to the cafeteria.

"CHIOMA! Come here and help!!"

It was Anette. The blond lady who had escorted me to Chioma when I arrived. She was bending over a body at the doorway, that led into the old women who had watched tv.

She was trying to get a hold under the old women's armpit, so she could carry her. It took Chioma 2 seconds to get there.

"Let me do it Anette. You have a bad leg remember… How's everyone else?" She asked while starting to drag the lady across the floor.

"They are gathering downstairs. The large chiefs office is reinforced and underground. Nothing's broken there."

Anette looked tired, her age showing on her strict face. Pearls of sweat formed on her forehead.

I started to remove the worst of the glass on the floor, so Chioma could drag the lady down to the basement, when Anette noticed me.

"You. Frey, was it? Come with me. We already gathered most of the elderly, but some may have survived in the cafeteria."

I nodded and followed her as she walked quickly down the halls. We had to walk the long way around, since the direct path to the cafeteria was blocked off. The windows along the way into what was once a garden, was all broken. The garden filled with broken walls, destroyed furniture and cloths everywhere, reaching higher than I could look. The hall was otherwise stable. Only a huge crack zigzagging all the way around.

We reached the cafeteria. The doors were blocked from the inside, only open so much that an arm could barely fit.

"Anette don't move it!"

I noticed an old man lying Infront of the door, with a coffee machine, chairs, and tables, in a mix on top of him.

Anette stepped back from trying to pry the doors open. She gasped and put her hands to cover her mouth.

"Its Emil! I've cared for him for 7 years."

She started to cry and reached her arm inside; she could barely reach his hand.

"Is he alive?" I asked, looking at her strict old face.

With tears streaming down her face, I felt protective, wanting to help.

"I'm not sure. Let me try and reach his wrist."

It took a few seconds before she edged his hand into hers. "There is a pulse, he is alive, but barely."

I had an idea, "Stay there with him, ill try to get in from the outside."

She didn't look at me, but told me to hurry up. 

I ran all the way back through the halls and outside. I stopped for a second.

The blue orbs looked larger and closer now. More firm, as if the edges were starting to materialize.

It started to creep me out. Way too surreal.

I didn't have time to deal with that now. The only thing I could do was to try and reach that old man.