It was around five in the morning when Lara woke up from her deep sleep. There was a small stack of paper on the oak table that she ignored as she shuffled to make a fresh pot of coffee. It would have been her turn to take over the monitoring shift, but Maureen had set-up a little camp bed in there. Lara did think this was more to do with avoiding Bob’s snoring than a specific hunger for information.

Nonetheless, she was awake so may as well get out of bed and have a jump on the day. Stretching as she made her way to the kitchen, the events of yesterday weighed heavily on Lara’s shoulders. She had to get stronger, she had to get faster and she had to level up these abilities somehow. The news from London had her spooked, beings that were infinitely more powerful now walked their world. Humans were no match and our visitors intentions remained unclear.

With a tired sigh, Lara closed her eyes and practiced a few deep and paced breaths to help shut down the troubling thoughts. The polished concrete floor was cold against her bare feet as she silently padded toward the coffee pot that gleamed gently with the overhead lights dimly lit; providing a faux warmth to their secret bunker.

This morning ritual felt unusually normal and is something she had been doing for years. She scooped the coffee grounds from their pot, rich aroma’s suddenly filling the air. Fresh water into the pot, the gentle gurgles as it heated. The filter now in place, she added the grounds and slowly and with patience.

Flicking the switch the much familiar hum of her coffee maker began. Pushing her face close to her favourite contraption she let the warm and fragrant stream wash over her, breathing deeply she smiled and stayed there in a semi-meditative state. The coffee pot finally clicked.

Slowly, Lara opened her eyes, took the pot and slowly poured the hot coffee into her favourite, oversized mug. Turning, she saw Archie and Wren begin to stir, the smell of the coffee being too tempting to ignore for them. Bob wasn’t in his usual spot, probably spent the night on the monitors with Maureen mused Lara.

She took two mugs over to the table and took a third through to the office for Maureen, expecting her to be asleep in the chair as normal.

“You’ve seen the papers then?” Maureen said peering over the top of her glasses.

The stench of cigarettes hit Lara like a brick wall “Phwoar Maureen, chain smoke much?” Lara coughed.

“Sorry honey, busy night. Read the papers I left out on the table… in fact scratch that I’ll summarise - take my coffee back through would you?”

Maureen was vibrant and her energy truly buzzed. She kept pace with Lara, the click, click, click of her cane on the concrete sounding more forceful and jaunty than usual.

“What’s going on?” Lara questioned

“Everything. Everything is going on. Please take a seat dear” Maureen beckoned. “Archie, Wren, get over here. You can leave Bob, he already knows”. Maureen made absolutely zero attempt to keep her voice low and not disturb her husband Bob, it didn’t seem to matter as he continued to gently snore; a giant bear in deep hibernation.

Once everyone was settled, Maureen began. “Whilst you were asleep, our network received a huge update from Outpost #062. They self-declared they were a government outpost that had been tuned into the network for monitoring purposes. We already had our suspicions, but good to have that confirmed at the very least.”

“They spent over an hour issuing updates. Essentially they shared as much information as they could, or were allowed to at the very least. I will start with the bad news and it confirms a lot of what we already know.”

“Wales, the area of Anglesey and Bangor were taken in the event, except it is much worse that we thought, the entire North West of Wales is gone. Replaced with a mountainous landscape the stone-like creatures have human like bodies and have mobilised a huge force. It seems as if the mountain itself is a fortress-type city. Their forces have split into two directions, one seemingly heading to Snowdonia and the other is marching towards Liverpool.”

“Oh my god” gasped Archie

“The government have begun to evacuate Liverpool, but not all residents are complying. The city of Manchester is now sandwiched between Liverpool, which may soon fall and Leeds which has now been confirmed as swallowed by some kind of giant forest.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“UK forces are forming a defensive perimeter around the city of Manchester and have confirmed our national parks, the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North Pennines remain safe areas. Temporary structures and safe havens are being established here for the cities under threat. Residents of Manchester are being given the choice of staying or leaving. Those that stay have been asked to volunteer for the forces.”

“Oh, on that note. Mandatory conscription may be coming into effect, it is voluntary at the moment. All men and women of age and without disability are being asked to report into their local barracks if possible to join the effort to retake the country.” Maureen said this bit nervously, glancing between Lara, Archie and Wren as she spoke.

“Moving on to the North East of Scotland. Aberdeen, and from there a huge area covering the rest of the North East of Scotland is gone. Very unclear what has taken its place. Mixed reports and rolling dark clouds filled with thunder and lightening are allegedly protecting the area from all surveillance and attempts to enter the location by air.”

“Finally, the entire South West leg of the UK has been replaced, again with thick forest and tree’s almost as big as our skyscrapers now dominate the area. Strange creatures roam the area, some tame, but many wild and dangerous. The entire segment of country, the tip all the way through to Bournemouth and Bristol are gone.”

“That’s so many people, oh…. I… I had friends in Bournemouth. They had little kids…” Lara began to weep. Wren held onto her hand, eyes also filled with tears.

Maureen carried on “There’s also the patch of forest that you saw, Lara. Other than that, it seems to be ad-hoc tiny pockets of areas that have pulled in creatures or other beings, dotting them at random around the country.”

“No insight into the culprit and zero understanding into any science. There was a call for top scientific minds to make themselves known to officers as soon as possible. I guess because they’re creating some sort of brains trust, or maybe have room in their secret tunnels and bunkers that I’m not supposed to know about.” She said this last piece with a cheeky wink to lighten the mood.

“Now the good news. Some of the longer-range communication tools are now working. The bad part of that, is that the entire world is experiencing similar events. Back to some good news… as part of this there’s a coordinated effort, largely being led by the private sector to align on a new standard for communications. Many of our data centres remain in-tact, and functional. Teams are working hard to create a global network of satellites that may very well restore the internet. They’ve centred on a previously abandoned version of Googles ‘Loon’ project. Essentially carrying transmitters on giant hot air balloons miles and miles above us.”

“That is craaaazy” Wren, to break a silence that was beginning to settle over the group. The mood was somber and the air felt heavy.

“There is more, some insight into Ireland - allegedly it has been unscathed by events so may prove to be a safe haven for us all. Some bits and pieces on other countries and everything I’ve just told you is documented in the papers I left out on the table here. Read them if you would like; once you are done, I will file them away.”

“Okay, lots for you all to digest. I have been up all night so I am going to head back into the office for a proper sleep. If you need to come in, feel free to do so” With that, Maureen tapped her way back to her monitoring station and gently closed the door.

“Jesus…” Archie said, eyebrows raised and eyes stained with tears he had held back during the download of information.

“Yeah…” Lara replied, physically in front of him, but mentally a million miles away. Wren got to her feet “I think I need a shower”, silently she walked away. Archie took the papers from the table “Mind if I give this a read first?” He said to Lara.

“Yeah… that’s fine” Lara responded, finding herself lost amongst her thoughts “I think… I think I’ll get my head right before digging into the rest of the detail. I’m going to hit the gym, hard”

“Alright… what about Bob? Reckon he will be ok?” Archie gently enquired

“He’s a sleeping bear that man, he will wake when he’s ready, a bit of noise won’t bother him” Lara smiled looking at Bob endearingly.

Lara spent the next hour achieving a new personal best in various powerlifting moves. Not quite elite level human performance, but it was an unnatural increase of between five to ten kilograms across her Deadlift and Back Squat. Lara scribbled the results onto the wall, which Bob had smartly covered in whiteboard paint during their renovations. Over the coming days she would attempt one-rep max attempts across a Clean and Jerk, Push Press, Snatch and Bench Press movements.

Archie spent the hour pouring over Maureens write-up from the early hours. In her brief, she had missed out the various documented incursions that had taken place across the country. Some beings and creatures from the other world were beyond powerful, as documented in London, but others it seemed were weaker and could be dealt with by the military, or even scared off by civilians. It seemed that, for the most part, the creatures that had been displaced without their surrounding areas were weaker.

Reading between the lines, Archie wondered what their plan should be. They couldn’t hide forever, he definitely didn’t want to be conscripted into the military but at the same time, he had been blessed with these abilities. Sure, they’re not the best or strongest abilities but maybe I can push them into something useful… something greater he said to himself.

Taking inspiration from his own mind, Archie went to the treadmill to begin his new ritual. A five kilometre run in the morning with the aim to get a few seconds faster each time until he found himself plateauing.

The rest of their morning was spent training, reading Maureen’s notes, drinking coffee and cooking a breakfast that would eventually wake up their sleeping giant. All three of them secretly wanted Maureen to finish her Power Nap as they looked to her for a plan and to provide them with a purpose.