The beginning of the end of the world struck with no warning.

The calm and quiet February night was just like any other. It was winter, and the frigid cold of southeast Michigan was difficult to escape. Jade Callian lay sleeping, bundled under multiple layers of warm blankets in her small apartment. She was tall for a woman, with angular features framed by shoulder length blonde hair and an athletic build. A gymnastics leotard lay in a heap at the foot of the bed, carelessly tossed aside. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the well organized and orderly room.

The tranquil night was broken by a sudden, violent shaking. The 23 year old college student began to wake as the rattling of her bed intensified, punctuated by the sounds of her various possessions clattering to the floor. A heavy sleeper by nature, her first instinct was to roll over and go back to sleep. Then a book dropped off an overhead shelf and landed heavily on her chest.

"Ow!" Jade groaned, rolling onto her side and sitting up, pushing the book off of her. Another tremor rocked her bed, and she belatedly came alert. What was happening? An earthquake? That wasn't normal for the Detroit area, but it certainly felt like one. Either way, she had to get somewhere safe before she was hit by something heavier than a book.

"Ally?!" She called to her roommate, standing up and staggering across the heaving floor towards the bathroom door.

"Jade!" Ally's muffled voice came through the wall beside her. "What's happening?!"

"I think it's an Earthquake!" She shouted back. "Get under something!"

She reached the bathroom doorway and slid into the threshold, bracing herself against the frame. Jade wasn't experienced with earthquakes, but she remembered reading somewhere that one of the sturdiest parts of a building were the doorways. Fervently hoping that was true and not some imaginary figment her half asleep mind had dreamed up, the college student ducked her head beneath her arms, doing her best not to panic. The shaking intensified further, and a loud crash emanated from the bedroom as the mirror fell. It cracked as it hit the floor, scattering shards of glass everywhere.

"Jade!" Ally's frightened voice came from the next room. "This is bad!"

"It'll be ok!" She shouted back. "Almost over!"

It had to be, right? As far as she knew, earthquakes weren't protracted events. Something wasn't right. Jade's heart raced as the world continued to lurch. What was going on? This was far more intense than anything Michigan should be experiencing. Could it be some sort of industrial accident? An explosion? That made even less sense.

"Just a normal earthquake." She reassured herself, breathing deep. There was nothing to do but wait it out.

A blue glow began to shine in through the window. It started soft but quickly grew in intensity, like a giant spotlight had powered on right outside her bedroom. The bathroom was situated opposite the window, so the light was fixed directly on her. After only a few moments it was blindingly bright and painful to look at. Jade had to shield her eyes and turn away, the blazing light leaving spots in her vision. Sparks flew from a light fixture above her, and there was another crack, this time from the window.

"Not a normal earthquake." She muttered, starting to panic. "Definitely not a normal earthquake!"

Ally shouted something, but it was lost to the cacophonous racket of the heaving building. It felt as though the entire world was trying to shake itself apart. Jade was about to shout something back when a tremendous BANG shook the world accompanied by a blinding flash of light, as if a lightning bolt had struck right outside her room. She jerked in surprise, banging her head painfully against the doorframe. Then, as suddenly as it had all started, the violent tremors abruptly ceased. The blue light winked out, plunging her room into utter darkness. Everything fell still and quiet. No, not just quiet, but silent.

"Ally…?" Jade said after a few moments, tentatively raising her head from the protection of her arms. There was no response. A few sparks sputtered from one of the overhead lights, illuminating a chaotic scene. Her mirror lay shattered on the floor, shards of glass strewn about the room. Practically every book had fallen off the shelves, accompanied by all the photos and other personal possessions she'd just finished arranging the week before. Typical. She was going to have to start all over again.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

At least she'd gotten her rental insurance all sorted prior to moving in. Actually, thinking on that, Ally hadn't. That was probably going to suck, but she was hoping that the damage looked worse than it was.

"Ally!" Jade called again. Still no response. She was starting to get a little worried. Had her friend been hurt? Time to check on her. She flipped the bathroom light switch, but nothing happened. The power was out, but that wasn't surprising after the violence of the quake. Still, Jade was barefoot, and she wasn't about to blindly walk through the minefield of glass between her and the bedroom door. It'd be better to get her phone first, and use that for light.

The path to the bed took her away from the shattered mirror, but Jade was careful anyway. She emerged from the bathroom doorway with short, shuffling steps, feeling the ground in front of her carefully before moving forward. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't avoid nicking her foot on an errant shard of glass. Jade grimaced in pain as her foot stung, but it wasn't bad. She was used to far worse. After a few more careful steps, she reached the bedside table. Miraculously, her phone was where she'd left it, right on top of the book she'd been reading before falling asleep the previous night.

Finally, a bit of luck.

She clicked the screen on. The clock read 4:07am, which was earlier than she'd thought it was. Then she noticed her signal strength bar, which currently read 'searching'. After a few moments the display settled on 'No Service'. Frowning, Jade swiped open her phone and navigated to the data tab, double checking her connection. There was nothing, not even an emergency signal. A ominous feeling began prickling at the back of her neck. What was going on?

So much for that luck. She thought bitterly. Had it been this bad everywhere else? Power to the apartment building was one thing, but she'd never experienced a disaster that knocked out the entire cell network. Weren't modern phones able to make emergency calls using satellites these days? How could that have been affected? Something really was wrong.

Jade clicked the flashlight on, bathing the room in a harsh white glow. She swallowed, her mouth dry, feeling a growing sense of unease she couldn't quite place. Then it hit her. Shouldn't there be sirens? Some sort of emergency response? Surely first responders would be out in force after a natural disaster like this. But there was nothing, nothing but an oppressive silence. How was that possible? She lived in a city filled with people, next to a busy street. It was never this quiet. Dread began to replace the unease, but Jade pushed it back.

Everything is fine, you're just shaken up. Which is perfectly normal.

The first order of business was to check on Ally, everything else could wait. Jade threw on a t-shirt over her undergarments, grabbed a pair of tennis shoes from under her bed and pulled them on, then strode purposefully to the hallway door.

"Ally, are you-?" Jade began as she opened the door. The words died on her lips. In front of her was not the connecting hallway that led to her and Ally's shared living space and her friend's room. Instead, her bedroom door had opened into a dark stone passageway, one lit by a line of torches that rested in wall sconces. The impossible hallway extended a good 100 feet before bending out of sight in the distance. Jade blinked, shaking her head and looking again. The passageway was still there.

Where was her apartment? Hell, where was her apartment building? Let alone the street it had been sitting on. Was this a dream? She immediately checked her phone. It was now 4:10am. She turned off the screen, then checked it again. The clock still read 4:10am. Jade had gone through a brief period in her teenage years where she had been obsessed with learning to lucid dream. It had taken too much effort to keep up for long, but one trick she'd learned was that paying attention to numbers, especially clocks, was an easy reality check. In dreams, the mind rarely kept those consistent. In short, this probably wasn't a dream.

But does that mean it's real? Jade thought, her heart rate was starting to pick up again. What alternatives are there?

The air in this new place was warm and comfortable, nothing at all like the frigid weather they'd been getting in Ann Arbor for the past few weeks.

"Ok…" She said to herself, slowly. "I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this…"

Maybe she'd sleepwalked somewhere?

Underground? With my entire bedroom? She discounted that idea immediately.

Baseless conjecture wasn't helping. Jade was about to take a step forward into the hallway when something truly bizarre happened. There was a grinding noise, like stone shifting against stone. Then, right in front of her, a wooden signpost rose straight from the floor of the passageway. It seemed to be melded right into the ground itself, with no recess or slot that it could have emerged from. Jade gaped at it, both at its sudden appearance, and at what was written upon the sign.

* You are not safe here. Follow the golden arrows to the closest Sanctuary. Leave immediately. Go nowhere else.

A small line of additional text lay beneath that bolded message, as if it had been hastily added at the last moment.

* They are coming for you.