Rene Wilder is a Mailman. Everyone else that's politically correct will say he's a Letter Carrier.

Rene walked the ice and snow covered street quickly. Ice was forming over his navy blue balaclava face mask as he slowly blew another breath through the mask.

The temperature at ten in the morning was minus twenty-five with a windchill twelve degrees Celsius lower.

Rene had recently celebrated his forty-second birthday and his tenth as a letter Carrier. He was in good shape for a man his age who engaged in strenuous exercise five days a week. The temperature was taking its toll. It had been hovering around minus twenty for close to a month with no relief in sight. They called it a polar vortex. 'Welcome to the twenty-first century, everyone. Global warming my ass.' he hurried along at a brisk but steady pace. The faster he went the more heat he generated. The trick was to maintain a steady pace until he delivered the entire route over a five hour period.

"Thank God two Bertona is over and done with. Who the hell decided that putting the mailbox on the second floor was a good idea." After delivering over fifty pounds of mail to the thirty-eight unit condos Rene was ready for an easier pace.

He walked quickly to the next street. On the left side of the street a wall. On the right side, there was a large dog park. Rene could see a couple of squirrels scrounging for food. They knew when the dogs would come to chase away.

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A flash of light in the sky blinded him for a few seconds before he recovered. "What the Hell was that!" He yelled while he tried to clear his vision. He stumbled about for a minute until he hit a snowbank and fell to his knees.

He stopped struggling. He was somewhat safe off the road. He slowly recovered his vision. "What's going on?" The squirrels were the only ones who heard and they didn't care. 

He felt better a lot quicker than he thought he would. A burst of energy went through every cell in his body. "Whoa, I feel like I just chugged a case of energy drinks. I better get out of this snowbank." He walked further into the park. Car horns could be heard in the distance. ''I guess I'm not the only one who saw that flash." Looking around he didn't see any evidence of an attack or an explosion to explain where the flash came from.

The squirrels were the first to recover. They dashed deeper into the park to get to the safety of the nearest tree. "You guys have the right idea. I better get to safety myself." 

After a minute another flash went off. This time he felt the energy surge go through his body again, but without going blind this time. He saw the squirrels in the trees zip around faster than any animal had a right to be. He walked slowly toward the trees. His steps in the snow-covered field were easy. They took less energy than normal. The squirrels stopped running and jumped out of the tree and charged in his direction. 

Rene grabbed the pepper spray out of his mailbag and pointed the nozzle at the rabid squirrels.

The world exploded as a meteor type object crashed between Rene and the squirrels. Rene and the squirrels were blown in separate directions as the fragments from the meteor embedded in Rene and the squirrels.

The rest of the fragments were strewn all over the park. The hot shards sank through the snow and melted away and mixed with the hot steaming water.

Inside Rene and the squirrels, a message popped up. If Rene was still conscious he would have seen the message...

[Xerys System has evolved. Xerys System is active...]