Elranna woke with a start as the ceiling caved in on top of her. “What the –?” she quickly cut off, her lungs filling with dust and forcing her to cough. All around her, the building continued to crumble, the window of her third-floor bedroom had shattered, letting in the crisp fall air.

Attempting to cover her nose with a sheet, Elranna realized her arm was caught underneath a large piece of rubble. While it didn’t immediately hurt, she quickly realized that she was trapped. Beginning to panic, Elranna attempted to lever herself out of the bed – and out from beneath the rubble – swinging her feet out of the bed. To her immense relief, her arm came out from beneath the plaster and tiles without much effort and she was free.

Liberated, Elranna took a moment to gather her bearings and look around. Her small studio apartment looked as if it had gone through a massive earthquake, although she hadn’t felt anything in her sleep. Knives hanging above the stove had fallen from the magnetic strip they’d been hanging on, the floor lamp by her bedside table lay on its side, the bulb having shattered. Her phone lay facedown next to the nightstand.

All around, pieces of the ceiling had caved in, opening her up to the night sky. Debris littered the floor and the door to the stairwell was knocked askew. Uncertain, Elranna clambered out of the bed, picked up her phone and scrambled to the window through the rubble. Gingerly avoiding pieces of broken glass, she looked outside into the street. The row of brownstones in front of her window looked about the same as she imagined hers did - the usually orderly line of three-story buildings looked like they had just gone through a massive earthquake.

Several of the building roofs looked to have been entirely caved in, while the rest just had pieces missing. Various windows were shattered, and some of the formerly beautiful brick facades had fallen outwards onto the sidewalk and cars out front, leaving a bare skeleton of a building frame remaining. Inside some of those buildings, Elranna saw people in various states of panic, trying to free themselves, get dressed, or rush outside.

Numerous cars parallel parked on the street had fallen victim to falling bricks, shingles, and fallen trees, resulting in a cacophony of blaring alarms. Amidst this, Elranna could hear the shouting of people all around her and the piercing screams of children unceremoniously awoken in the middle of the night.

Taking a breath, Elranna turned away from the window and made to get dressed. Sorting through the rubble to find some warm clothes in her dresser, which was miraculously unobstructed by debris, she quickly made herself ready to go outside. She put on some fleece-lined jeans, changed out of her bra for a more supportive one, and found a sweater. She finished her outfit with some warm wool socks and comfortable sneakers.

Ready, Elranna made her way out of her apartment, shifting the remains of her door to let her get out onto the landing. Outside, she made her way down the stairs, hesitating in front of her second-floor neighbor’s door and trying to decide what to do.

Just as she was about to knock, she heard some muffled noises of pain coming from inside.

“Hello?” she called out, her voice initially quiet. After a moment, she steeled her nerves and called out more loudly, “Hello? Mark? Are you all right?”

Not hearing a reply, Elranna raised her hand to knock on the door. To her surprise, the door fell inwards as soon as she touched it, its frame having been shattered by the same earthquake that had destroyed her apartment. Peering inside, she saw a similar studio apartment to her own, likewise devastated by the earthquake.

“Hello?” she tried again, trying to project despite her nerves.

She heard a grunt of pain behind the collapsed IKEA dividing cabinet which had been separating the living area from the “bedroom”. Dishware, clothes, and various other odds and ends had slid out of the cabinet onto the bed on the other side, almost completely obscuring the figure still laying on the bed.

“Help!” she heard a quiet voice, tinged with pain.

Rushing over to the cabinet, Elranna found Mark’s figure almost completely covered by the fallen structure, his right side completely pinned to the bed.

“Mark! Are you alright? Let me help.”

Mark attempted to nod but was barely able to move his head, pinned as it was.

Putting her hands underneath the cabinet, Elranna set her feet.

“Okay, I’m going to pull this thing up, while you try and push and slide out, okay?”

Not waiting for a reply, Elranna started pulling upwards with all her might, the cabinet resisting but eventually rising enough to let Mark slide out between their combined effort.

“Thanks!” Mark breathed out as soon as he was free. “What the hell is going on? I woke up with this thing falling on top of me.”

Looking around, Mark seemed to realize for the first time that the damage wasn’t limited to the cabinet, his eyes pausing briefly on the fallen door before moving on to the rest of the apartment.

“It looks like some sort of earthquake, but this is NYC, we don’t get earthquakes?”

Mark stated, the words coming out sounding more like a question towards the end.

“I don’t know, my ceiling fell. I managed to get out but…” Elranna trailed off before proceeding. “Let’s get out of here, not sure it’s safe in here.”

Mark nodded and moved to leave before pausing and looking down. “Ah, hold on, let me get dressed.” He seemed suddenly embarrassed by his state of dress, or rather undress, as he apparently slept in only his boxers.

“Sure, I’ll go check on Beth downstairs while you get ready.” Elranna nodded, deciding to check on their last neighbor to make sure she was alright too.

Making her way down the last flight of stairs to the first floor landing, Elranna knocked on the door to apartment one, loudly.

“Beth! Are you alright?”

Not hearing a response, Elranna tried the door to see if it was open—or broken, like Mark’s. Unfortunately, the door stood fast, seemingly undamaged by the earthquake. Deciding to wait for Mark, Elranna fished the phone out of her pocket to see if there was any news. To her surprise, her phone showed that it didn’t have reception right now.

Scrolling through her notifications, Elranna saw that she’d gotten a connection request from one of her new co-workers, another developer who’d joined the team last week, and a few random news notifications before the network went out. Not giving up yet, Elranna pulled up her mom’s phone number and tried to give her a call only to be greeted with a “No Network Coverage” notification.

Frustrated, Elranna put her phone away and looked up the stairs hearing Mark, now fully dressed, making his way down the stairs.

“What’s going on, is Beth okay?” he asked, looking between Elranna and the closed door.

“Can’t get in, do you have a key?” Elranna countered, explaining the situation.

“No, I haven’t really talked to her much. Although I think she might be on vacation?” Mark replied, looking a bit concerned but shrugging.

“Maybe we can look in through the window? Some of the neighbors might have a key too, or something.” Elranna suggested.

“Sure, let’s go try that.” Mark quickly agreed and they made their way out of the house.

Outside looked much the same as it did from her window, Elranna noted. A few people were already gathered outside of their houses in the middle of the street, but the area was still mostly deserted—though you could still hear the cacophony of sound coming from people and cars disturbed by the happenings.

Making her way quickly to Beth’s window, Elranna levered herself upwards to look inside. Beth had the only two-bedroom apartment in the building, luxurious compared with Elranna and Mark’s own studios. Otherwise, the apartment looked very similar to her home, complete with a mostly shattered window which she’d had to avoid cutting her hands on.

Not seeing Beth inside, Elranna tried to call out again, “Beth! Are you alright? Looks like there was an earthquake or something.”

Pausing, she tried to listen for any sounds coming from inside the apartment, but was unable to make anything out behind the blaring alarms.

“Anything?” Mark called out from below.

“No, I’m going to try to climb in through the window, looks like it’s broken.” Elranna called down.

Carefully sweeping shards of glass off the sill and onto the ground below, to some mild cursing from Mark as he was showered with bits of glass, Elranna cleared out some still-hanging pieces of glass and made her way into the apartment. Inside was dark, though lit from the ambient light coming in through the window.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Hello?” Elranna tried once more as she made her way around the toppled furniture, carefully looking around to make sure that she didn’t miss anything. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, besides the now expected destruction, Elranna made her way throughout the rest of the apartment, checking each room to make sure that Beth wasn’t trapped and unable to call out. Not finding anyone, Elranna made her way to the front door and back out of the building to rejoin Mark.

Outside, Mark had made his way to the middle of the street to join a few of their other neighbors, trying to sort out what was happening.

“She’s not there.” Elranna confirmed as she walked over to them. “You must be right and she’s out of town or something.”

“Who?” Interjected one of the people Mark was standing with, a large, dark-skinned man, built like an NFL defensive lineman just past his prime, whom she’d seen around before but had never been introduced to.

“Beth, our downstairs neighbor. I was checking to make sure that she wasn’t hurt or trapped or something.” Elranna replied. “I’m Elranna.” She introduced herself.

“Marques, live over there. Know anything about what’s going on?” Marques nodded vaguely across the street before pausing to look at her questioningly.

“No, can you call the cops? My phone’s not working.” she replied.

Marques, Mark, and the duo of middle-aged women who hadn’t spoken up yet all checked their phones, only to shake their heads. “No service.”, the shorter of the two women replied.

Everyone else just shook their heads, not speaking.

While they were preoccupied, more people had started making their way over to the group in various states of dress and distress.

“We need help! Jacki’s trapped in her apartment - her door’s blocked and she’s on the third floor.” One of the newcomers called out to the group.

“Sundeep’s hurt pretty badly, is anyone a doctor?” another newcomer, an elderly woman cried out.

Joining the cacophony, another piercing noise joined the ruckus as everyone’s phones simultaneously emitted a loud, siren-like beeping that they’d mostly heard for amber alerts and the like.

Looking down at her phone, Elranna saw the following words displayed on her phone:

“DANGER. STAY INSIDE. FOREIGN INVASION IN PROGRESS. STAND BY FOR ASSISTANCE BY ARMED FORCES.”

“Inside? We can’t go inside right now!” a few people shouted, while others resumed their calls for assistance.

“Quiet please!” Marques finally called out in a loud, booming voice, briefly even drowning out the blaring alarms and silencing the crowd. “Let’s get organized and help people.”

“Elranna, Mark, can you go help Jacki? I’ll go help Sundeep. Everyone else - please start helping everyone make their way out of their buildings. Let’s get everyone out here and we can figure out where to take cover, these buildings aren’t safe.” Marques briskly called out commands, organizing some semblance of order to get people moving.

Feeling grateful for having something to do even as her mind whirled at the words, “Invasion in progress”, Elranna walked over to the person who’d called out about getting help for Jacki. The man in question was a slightly overweight man in his thirties standing at around 5’7” by her estimate, just a bit taller than her own 5’5” who looked grateful at the assistance.

“Hi,” he said hesitantly. “I’m David, live on the second floor floor of 202. Jacki’s my upstairs neighbor, I heard her calling out for help as I was leaving my apartment. I tried to get her door open, but it’s wedged pretty tight.”

Opening her mouth to speak, Elranna was forced to stop as she heard a loud crack behind her, followed by the sound of wood skidding on asphalt. Spinning around, Elranna saw a door sliding along the pavement, seemingly having been catapulted away from the doorframe. Looking at the originating building, she saw a girl in her late teens staring in bewilderment at her hands standing just inside the entryway.

Shouts of panic swept the gathering again, nerves frayed between the quake and the warning message.

“Hey kid, are you alright?” Marques called out to the girl amidst the din.

“I…I think so.” The girl mumbled, barely audible across the street. “I don’t know what’s going on, I just pushed open the door and…” She trailed off, looking fearfully at the door which had finally settled next to the car across the street.

Staring at her hard for a moment, Marques looked like he was about to continue but shook his head and just said, “Okay, come join the group - I need to go help Suri’s husband.” With that, he turned his back and continued moving quickly in the opposite direction alongside the elderly woman, Suri, who’d come looking for help.

Curious, but knowing that Jacki might be in trouble, Elranna turned back to David and gestured for him to lead on.

For a moment, the man looked like he was going to refuse and instead go talk to the teenager, but seemed to decide against it, turning back to guide her and Mark towards his building. Once inside, the trio made their way up the stairs to the third floor landing. As expected, they found a locked door waiting for them and a frantic-sounding female voice called out to them, “David? Is that you? Can you get me out?”

“I brought back a few more people, we’re going to try and force the door open from this side.” David replied before looking questioningly at Mark and Elranna.

“Sure, let’s see if we can get this open.” Elranna responded to his unspoken question, pushing on the door and trying to find a way to wedge it open.

Not seeing any immediate success, Elranna paused to think for a moment before asking, “David, do you have a screwdriver in your apartment? We might be able to take the door off the hinges and just take it out.”

“Yea! I think so, let me go check.”

Happy to have something to do, David quickly descended to his apartment and Elranna heard him clearing away various rubble while looking for something.

“So…invasion.”

Mark began, speaking the words Elranna had been trying to avoid thinking about.

“Yea, I don’t know what to think of that. What invasion? What’s going on? This can’t have been a bomb, things would be even more messed up.”

“Are you guys talking about the message we got?” Elranna heard the woman, Jacki’s, voice from the other side of the door. “What’s going on?”

“We don’t know.” Mark replied, with a glance at Elranna. “We just got the same notification when we were outside. Then David came to ask us to help get you out. We haven’t seen or heard anything else, we’re all just trying to get out of the buildings before they collapse.”

Noone spoke for a moment, unsure of what else to say. Finally, they heard David make his way up the stairs with a toolkit.

Taking the initiative, Elranna took the kit from him, fished out a screwdriver, and after some fumbling around with finding the right head, managed to remove the screws keeping the door in place.

“You know, this seems like a bad security feature to have these on the outside of the door…” Mark commented, trying to add some levity to the situation.

“Eh, it’s New York apartments, what do you expect? I have a friend who went a week without a building's front door once, after it got stolen.” Elranna replied, and the other two chuckled in agreement.

Finally, they were able to lift the door off the hinges and get the doorway cleared enough for Jacki to get out to them. Jacki, it turned out, was a tall, blonde, blue-eyed woman in her late twenties with noticeably damp hair. She was dressed in a very practical outfit of jeans and some sort of windbreaker jacket.

“Thank you, thank you so much!” She exclaimed, visibly relieved.

“No problem,” Elranna replied, “we’re just glad we could help. Are you alright? Did you get hurt or in the earthquake or whatever it was?”

Jacki shook her head. “I’m fine, just a little shaken up. I was in the shower when it happened. I didn’t feel an earthquake, but all of a sudden my bathroom mirror shattered. Then when I got dressed and tried to see what’s going on…my door was stuck.”

“Okay, let’s go back outside. I want to see if anyone knows anything about the invasion, and also see that girl.” Elranna said, looking at the others.

“What girl?” Jacki asked as the group made their way down the stairs.

“Some girl just threw a door across the street as we were coming to get you.” Mark muttered, his tone implying a joke.

Getting back outside, the group found that the center of the street was now even more crowded, with a large cluster of people surrounding Marques and the teenage girl from before. Suri, the elderly woman who had led Marques away earlier, was sitting by herself on a sidewalk bench, staring blankly into the middle distance.

By now, the various car alarms had thankfully either shut themselves off, or been somehow manually shut off, so the street had settled down immensely with only the chatter of distressed people and still-crying children disturbing the air.

“Okay, let’s keep combing the houses!” Elranna heard Marques’ loud voice. “We need to finish clearing out the block and then make our way to Borough Hall. I don’t know what this ‘Invasion’ is, but we can’t stay outside forever.”

Elranna and her group made their way through the throng to try and rejoin Marques.

“Hey, how else can we help?” Elranna asked, catching Marques’ attention as he finished directing another impromptu search and rescue party.

“Elranna, right? You must be Jacki, glad you’re safe, I’m Marques.”

“Great to meet you!”

Jacki replied, sounding less distressed than many of the others now that she’d been freed from her imprisonment.

“Could you go check out the rest of the neighborhood? We need somewhere to stay, can’t just stick around here forever, invasion or no.”

“Sure, hopefully Google Maps still works, I’m pretty terrible at finding places without it.” Elranna confirmed the request.

“Maybe some of the warehouses in—” Mark cut off as everyone’s heads turned up at the same time, the distinctive sound of the sonic barrier being broken coming from overhead.

Looking up, Elranna saw what looked like a black airplane quickly make its way across the sky in the–now dawn—light, moving very quickly.

“That plane was flying a bit close to the city to be going that fast, no? I thought we had some sort of laws after 9/11.” someone in the crowd commented.

“That…wasn’t a plane.” Someone else spoke up. “It looked like a rectangle. And it didn’t have wings.”

“What are you talking about? It was too high up to see anything.” Someone else replied skeptically.

“No, I…” the other person trailed off, clearly uncertain of what else to say.

“Plane or UFO, we still need to get everyone to safety.” Marques re-focused everyone on the task at hand. “Let us know what you find.” He added, nodding to Elranna and her group.

“Okay, I guess let’s split up and go look for help?” Elranna asked her group. “I’ll go try and find borough hall, Mark, you were going to Red Hook, everyone else…pick a direction I guess? Maybe the police station?”

Hearing agreement, Elranna looked around the gathering, now over fifty people, before nodding and setting out down the street.