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Astrid takes a deep breath, leans against the window, and turns her attention to the passing landscape. Oak, spruce, beech, and bushes are a single wall of green that’s occasionally broken by a yellow ray of sunlight.

She squirms in her seat. The position itself is comfortable, but as soon as the young woman places her head on the cold glass, she feels the vibrations of the vehicle. The droning in her skull quickly becomes unbearable. Astrid straightens her spine once more and nestles her head against the black fabric of the backrest. Her little brother Elijah is sitting to her left. Bright colors reflect off his eyes. With headphones jacked in, he's focused on the movie playing on his phone. Kilian is sitting at the other window. Her older brother is pressing his long legs against the back of the driver's seat, and with them, he supports a red paperback book.

Her father occupies the driver's seat. Stiff and completely focused, he has his eyes on the empty country road in front of them and his foot firmly on the accelerator, so the speedometer stays well above the speed limit at all times. His eyes jump to the dashboard, then back.

In the passenger seat, Astrid's mother slowly wraps her long brown hair around her index finger and hums along with the radio. A song is playing that Astrid doesn't know and, as she just decided, doesn't like either.

“I want to love you…” A cold, artificial voice interrupts the music. “In one kilometer, please turn left,” says the navigation system in an emotionless, feminine tone. After a short pause, the song continues.

Astrid's mother unravels her hair from her finger. “We should have stayed on the highway.”

The driver doesn't answer. He just gives the navigation system a quick look. The detour may have spared them the traffic jam, but change the arrival time calculated by the computer, it has not.

The song on the radio continues to play and Astrid tries to decide whether she wants to pull out her smartphone or annoy one of her brothers. Kilian turns a page in his book.

A short flash of light from Elijah's cell phone draws Astrid's eyes to the small device. The screen reflects some sunlight, but she can still see that two characters are fighting each other. Maybe she should pull her phone out too, but unlike her little brother, she didn’t have the foresight to download her series and the mobile network is too bad to stream.

Her mother finally stops playing with her hair and turns to the three in the backseat with a smile on her face. “I still can't believe my little girl is an adult.”

Astrid smiles. “Come on, Mom. It’s been almost two months since the last day of school.”

“What? It just feels kinda weird that my kids are finishing school one by one.” She leans back in her seat and puts her arms on the armrest.

Elijah pretends he didn’t hear what she said through the headphones, but grimaces and grinds his teeth – something his big brother, who just looked up from his book, notices.

With a smile on his face, Kilian lowers his paperback and gives Elijah a push. “You still have a long way to go til you get to enjoy the sweet taste of never going to school again.”

Elijah is pushed around in his seat but tries to ignore his brother at first. It takes a few seconds before he looks up from his cell phone. “Wait a second. Kilian, you still go to school.”

“Pff. Police academy isn’t school. I haven't had to do a real math problem in years… and I get to shoot guns,” he replies somewhat theatrically.

“I want to—” The song on the radio stops mid-sentence and for a second, there is silence. Then the beep starts. The high-pitched sound is louder than the song and pierces their ears. Astrid starts, Kilian almost drops his book and Elijah looks up from his smartphone with a blink. The shrill noise is followed by a pause and then the voice of a male moderator: “We interrupt this program. This is an emergency.” The man sounds like he's about to have a heart attack but is doing his best to keep his voice as monotonous and mechanical as that of the navigation. Another loud beep.

“Dad, what's going on?” asks Elijah, but is silenced by a, “Shhh,” from his father.

The noise ends and the moderator continues: “I repeat. This is an emergency. The following message is being transmitted at the request of the federal government. This is not a test. A nuclear attack has commenced against this country and/or one of its allies. One or more nuclear warheads may be inbound. The number of casualties and the extent and origin of the attack have not been identified. If a fallout shelter is nearby, proceed there immediately. Otherwise please do not leave your homes. Further information will be provided as soon as possible over the following frequency: 76.155/85.955 Megahertz. In the meantime, keep calm and await further instructions. This message will repeat.”

For a moment, Astrid's father takes his eyes off the road to roll them. “For Christ’s sake. I'm always up for a little comedy, but... This has to be a joke.”

The radio beeps once more and this time the driver gives his wife a brief look. “Could you…?”

Astrid's mother is already stretching her finger out for the radio's touchscreen. The push of a button makes the map disappear and pulls up a list of radio stations. The woman swipes across the screen and the square with the name and logo of the station slides to the left to be replaced by another. The moderator's voice falters as the radio tunes, then the same monotonous man continues his speech undeterred on the other channel.

They all stare at the radio.

Loud beeping and buzzing fills the car, joining the moderator’s monotonous speech. The screens of their phones all have the same popup covering their lock screens. It reads, ‘Emergency alert. A nuclear attack is imminent. Seek shelter. In case of a network blackout, tune your radio to 76.155/85.955 MHz for further instructions.’

Astrid’s chest constricts. Even though she takes a deep breath, her ribcage feels too tight to accommodate any air. She can’t take her eyes off her phone.

Elijah dismisses the alert and looks up from his screen. “Papa, what’s going on?”

There’s a slight quiver in Astrid’s father’s otherwise calm voice as he replies: “It’s probably a false alarm… Even if it isn’t, we’re not close to any major cities. If anything’s coming down, it’ll be far away. Delilah, could you switch to that frequency he mentioned? Just in case?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Astrid’s mother blinks a few times before she reaches for the radio. Every time her finger presses the digital display, the device jumps to the next station. The emergency broadcast is interrupted every time, and every time, after a short pause, it resumes on the next frequency.

Astrid wants to believe her father, but that doesn’t stop her heart from racing or her fingers from becoming slick with sweat.

Astrid’s mother says, “Got it."

The radio re-tunes one last time. Another moderator in the same monotonous voice says, “This is the emergency frequency. Please stand by.”

Kilian leans forward in his seat. “What the hell do they mean? First, it says the world is about to end, but then we’re supposed to just stand by?!”

Elijah looks confused. The only thing he knows about nuclear war is that it’s a bad thing that results in desert car chases and leather-clad bodybuilders. “What’s going to happen?”

“Everything’s gonna be fine.”

While the man turns his attention back to the road, everyone else looks back down at their smartphones. Astrid opens her messenger app. No new notifications, so she texts her best friend. ‘Did you hear? A nuclear strike.’ Just as she’s typing the next message: ‘Are you all right?’ She notices there's no tick under the first one. Not even one. A quick look at the top right corner of her cell phone screen tells her that all four bars are full. Best possible reception. She should be online, yet her phone can’t send anything.

Kilian tries to google something, but the page doesn’t open. The loading circle just rotates endlessly, even though he too should have internet access.

Elijah is the only one of the three who puts his device down and looks outside. The sun still shines, but dark, almost pitch-black clouds swallow her yellow rays. The gray mass comes out of nowhere and covers the world like a veil. Mist, barely visible, falls from above, like black ink in clear water, and with the fog, the radio starts to act up. At first, it's just a minor glitch. A faint crackling sound behind the monotonous voice of the moderator.

Astrid's mother says, “Grandma’s not answering her phone.”

Her husband reassures her: “They’re probably already in the basement and just can't hear it.”

A burst of static erupts from the radio, silencing the moderator and replacing his monotonous voice with crackling.

Astrid's father looks at the device. “What the…?”

The lights in the car slowly start glowing without being turned on, and the dashboard display glitches.

“What's wrong with the car?!” Astrid's mother shouts.

Suddenly the lights flash. The engine stutters and dies.

Everything goes dark, and the radio silent. For a split second, all is quiet.

Astrid's father hits the brakes.

The rest of them scream, as the force of the deceleration pushes them into their seatbelts. The tires screech, but Astrid's father keeps the car under control. With a shudder, it comes to a complete stop.

The pounding of her heart is the only thing Astrid can hear. Her voice is shrill, “What the hell was that?”

Her father grips the steering wheel so hard that his fingernails dig into the black leather and his knuckles turn white. His body looks stiff as a board, but his voice sounds calm and collected: “I don't know. We must have been hit by one of those impulses that nuclear weapons produce, or... or something. I don’t know.”

Astrid's mother just sounds helpless and panicked: “What do we do now?”

The man grinds his teeth, looks out the window and takes off his seat belt. “Come on. Get out. If the EMP was strong enough to disable the car, a nuke must’ve gone off somewhere nearby or above us. We have to find shelter before the radiation reaches us. The car won't protect us.” With a whirring sound, the seatbelt disappears back into the seat. The man grabs the handle, takes a deep breath and opens the door. The thick fog falls into the car like water. The dark mass glides over his body, flows into the vehicle and with it, come the voices. Soft whispers from the void, like an emotionless chorus:

“Seee hei fahhh...”

Astrid's entire body stiffens. She watches the moving, growing and whispering mass. The cloud flows over her like a breath of cold air and the darkness swirls and twirls, like arms coming in for a hug.

She does not dare breathe. Through closed lips she whispers, “What is that?”

Her father doesn't respond. His hand reaches for the door as if to close it, but then he gets out without another word.

More and more fog pours into the car and as her older brother opens his door, Astrid does the same. The dark mass pours over her legs and sends a strange tingling sensation through her. Her lungs start to burn. She’s running out of air, but fear paralyzes her chest. Instinct wins. She takes a breath.

The mist has neither taste nor scent but feels cold. Almost like breathing ice. Astrid feels it slide down her throat and fill her lungs. A shiver runs through her body.

The thought that it might be a chemical weapon comes to mind, but she doesn't dare voice it. For if it’s true, they are already dead.

As soon as Astrid gets up, the fog envelops her completely and the whispers grow louder. Her gaze glides over the edge of the forest and the road, but she can hardly make out either. Although there is no wind, the fog swirls and falls through the air as if in slow motion.

Kilian asks, “What in God's name is this stuff?” He waves his hand around as if that would somehow clear the fog. Instead, it seems to almost follow his hand. Like it's trying to cling to it.

Their father tears his eyes away from the swirling mass of darkness. He sounds confident, but everyone can hear the slight tremor behind his loud words: “I have no freaking idea, but we have to get out of here.”

Quickly, they follow the road and soon their car is swallowed by the darkness behind them.

The fog grows thicker with every step. The whispers follow them. Like the static did with the radio, they disturb their thoughts. Insignificant and yet... distracting and captivating.

Astrid is shivering from fear and the sudden cold. “We should have stayed in the car.”

The dark clouds obscure her father more and more. She sees his dark figure take a quick look back. “The car is neither radiation-proof nor airtight. Out here we have a chance... and if this stuff kills us, then at least we die quickly from a high dose instead of slowly in the car.”

Astrid's heart sags and her entire body becomes stiff. Fear paralyzes her. She doesn't want to die. Panicked, she stops and looks left and right. Nothing but fog. She holds her breath, but after a few seconds her body forces her to pull in another breath of corrupted air. Never in her life has she felt so helpless or been so scared. The fog obscures her view, but it is the disembodied voices that drown her thoughts. Astrid isn’t sure whether she’s just imagining it or already suffering from radiation poisoning, but the fog seems to be draining her strength. Her muscles feel like they’re flowing out of her skin like water.

Astrid searches for the silhouette of her father, but it has disappeared into the darkness. Her mother and brothers are gone too.

She wants to call out, “Where are you?”, but the words get stuck in her throat. Whether from the fog, or from the fear that makes her teeth chatter, her mouth fails to produce a single word. She will spend her last moments alone. Alone in this supernatural darkness.

Astrid exhales and utters a mixture of a low whimper and a barely audible scream. Her senses are so clouded that she no longer knows in which direction the others have gone. Panicked, she runs.

Too late does she realize that the soft ground beneath her feet can’t be asphalt. Before she has a chance to turn, one of her feet steps into nothing. Astrid lets out a squeaky cry and falls down the slope, her body sliding over leaves and breaking sticks on her way down. Her arms aren't fast enough to catch her fall and she slams face first into the dirt. The impact should hurt, but she feels little more than a dull thud.

“Papa?” she croaks from the ground. The word echoes through the mist.

It takes all her strength to get back on her feet. She has no idea where she is or where she’s going. There is only one thought in her mind: push on.

So, even though the air feels like gel, she continues.

The pure gray is as crushing as the deepest abyss and the voices are getting louder and louder. They suffocate her thoughts, like the crackling on the radio did with the moderator. There are only the meaningless whispers and the void.

Her mind is torn away. Suddenly Astrid is no longer herself. Fear is replaced by anger and despair, by the excitement of battle. A wounded man lies in front of her. A blade was stabbed in his stomach.

“Thanks, Novi,” he says in a foreign tongue.

She places her pale hand on the bloody stain and golden threads run like veins through her skin and into the wounded man, but the wounded man dissolves into black mist. Everything crumbles to black fog and the void consumes the world.