It started with silence.....

Sounds odd to say but for me it was quiet, too quiet for what I just saw. Huddled in the back room expecting my demise by fire and destruction, to then hear and see absolutely nothing. Standing up I made my way out of the back room looking for something, anything to acknowledge what I saw was real and not a psychological break down. But it all seemed all too normal, nothing knocked over or broken, the lights were working and the slow drip of the leaking tap in the break room continued without disturbance.

Though as I drew closer to the doors I noticed the sound before I saw what had transpired, people were screaming and crying out in pain, cars were flipped over and through store windows. When I made it outside the sound was deafening, alarms were going off and people were running everywhere, you could hear sirens in the distance and chaos surrounding me.

Looking back towards the direction of my house I could see the owner of the convenience store Mr Harrison trying to pull things out of the way around the car lodged in his store front. Looking extremely frantic I ran up to him seeing what he needed help with,

"Mr Harrison what's wrong?"

"My daughter was inside when the car hit, I can't find her and she isn't responding I need to get in there, ISOBEL...... ISOBEL CAN YOU HEAR ME??!?".

Looking at the situation I could see a small gap down the side of the car that I could maybe squeeze into, but he had no chance with his 120kg plus weight.

"I should be able to get in there, there's a small gap I think I can get through, help me pull these last few things out of the way and I can get into the shop",

There were a few more bits of rubble in the way and we managed to pull them out widening the gap slightly so I could squeeze through. Barely making it through I just got past the car and into the shop proper and it was a mess, well that word didn't do it justice. Nothing was in it's original place, Mr Harrison was a neat freak and he had everything exactly where it should go, which had gone completely out the proverbial window with a car added into the mix. Looking around the mess I tried to see his daughter somewhere, anywhere.

"ISOBEL CAN YOU HEAR ME? MAKE A SOUND!!"

Straining my ears I couldn't hear anything and made my way around trying to spot any sign of a little 8 year old anywhere is the shop. I continued calling out,

"ISOBEL...... ISOBEL....". Just trying to get any response possible.

Nearing on the 15th minute in the shop I finally heard a whimper near the front of the car at the entrance, running over to it I spotted a white flowered sun dress poking out beneath a couple magazine racks proped up on the car bonnet. With ice running through my veins and all of the worst case scenarios running through my mind I yanked the racks away from the car to assess the situation; to come upon the last thing I would have expected given the position I found her in. The racks had been covering her body which didn't show any visible signs of injury, that was until I carefully turned her over making sure to support her head incase her neck had been injured. Turning her over shower a rather nasty contusion on the side of her head which was slowly dripping blood, opening her eyelids I tried to see if there was any reaction to the light and not seeing anything I looked for any other response.

"Isobel can you hear me? If you can squeeze my hand", holding her hand waiting for a response. Not getting anything I started to get worried and freaked out not knowing what to do, I didn't have my phone on me, I had dropped it somewhere in my mad sprint for the back room at the shop and the front counter had been demolished in the convenience store.

"DAVID WHATS GOING ON? HAVE YOU FOUND MY LITTLE GIRL YET?!??"

Hearing Mr Harrison's call I remembered someone else was nearby, I yelled out to him,

"MR HARRISON I FOUND ISOBEL, BUT SHE'S NOT RESPONDING, SHE HAS A NASTY GASH ON THE SIDE OF HER HEAD, CAN YOU GET AN AMBULANCE? I DON'T HAVE MY PHONE"

"MY PHONE ISN'T RESPONDING, IT'S TURNED OFF AND I CANT GET IT WORKING,

I'LL SEE IF I CAN FIND SOMEONE TO HELP, TRY TO STOP THE BLEEDING".

Looking around I spotted a heap of piles towels that had been knocked over from the accident and ran to grab one to hold against Isobel's head. It slowly started absorbing the blood and it soon changed as the deep red overtook the bright white of the towel. I tried to think back to what i had read years ago.....'was deep red or bright red the worse colour to see for blood? I know one of them meant an artery was punctured' but I couldn't remember which one and it made me extremely anxious. Just where had Mr Harrison gone? It seemed like it was taking ages and I didn't know how much longer Isobel had. At least the bleeding had slowed down and nearly stopped but God there was alot of blood, sitting there and praying to whoever could hear me I just hoped they wouldn't be too far away......... Just as that crossed my mind I could hear someone calling out,

"David.......David can you hear me? Are you there?"

"Yes, yes I can hear you",

"Good to hear David, my name is Sam, I'm a paramedic, can you tell me how Isobel is?"

"She is still and hasn't responded to any verbal or physical stimulation, has a contusion on the right side of the head which is oozing blood. She has gone slightly pale and has not moved."

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"Ok that is good to hear, can you see any swelling around the site of the cut?",

"No there's no swelling but the bleeding still hasn't stopped."

"That's ok, it happens, oozing is normal and it can happen for awhile. We can treat that easily the important one was the swelling. Here's what we are going to do, we are going to break through the car windows and get Isobel carried through so we can treat her.

In the meantime I'll pass this gauze and some sterile pads through. I want you to wipe the area around the cut, staying clear of the cut itself as there might be some debris lodged in it and keep the pressure on the cut with the gauze. Can you do that?"

"....yeah I think I can manage that, I'll clear the area so when you get through we have enough space to move".

"No worries, thanks for that David keep up the good work your doing well, when I get to the windscreen I'll tap on it and I want you to cover Isobel and yourself so you don't get any glass on the both of you ok?"

"Sure thing".

A few minutes later I looked up to some tapping and saw the paramedic knocking on the windscreen, covering ourselves with one of the spare towels I soon hear and felt the glass shatter and fly towards us. Sam made his way through and brought with him a neck brace and stretcher to put Isobel on, after assessing the situation he approached me,

"Hey David?"

"Yeah Sam right?"

"That's right, good job helping out so far, I need to know if you moved Isobel at all before I got here?"

"Yes I had to turn her over to see if she had any injuries and why she wasn't responding to me, but I made sure to support her head as I read that it was important incase of any neck injuries."

"That's good to hear, I'll take it from here if you can give me a hand getting her on the stretcher when I'm ready and through the car, her dad is on the other side to help on that end."

"Yeah sure thing, I just want to make sure that she is fine, whatever I can do to help just let me know".

After putting the brace around her neck and moving her onto the stretcher we managed to get Isobel through the car without any issues. Sam had a gurney set up on the other side and he and Mr Harrison moved Isobel onto it. After making my way through he ran up to me wrapping me in a hug profusely thanking me in tears.

"Thankyou thankyou thankyou, thank you so much David, I don't know what I would have done. No one was coming to help and I thought I was going to lose my daughter."

"Mr Harrison I was able to help and I would hate myself if I had walked away."

Feeling a bit awkward about a 50-60 year old man hugging and crying on me, and really just wanting the whole thing to be over. I talk to my friends about having a social battery and it is honestly tapped out at like........ Wait..... what is the time.

"Hey Mr Harrison what's the time? My watch isn't working for some reason."

"Oh it's just getting around to 7 o'clock in a minute or so."

Jeez it felt like that whole thing took hours and hours but it hasn't even been one, Mr Harrison thanked me one last time and ran over to his daughter and followed her as they wheeled her down the street. Not looking where they went I turned around and made my way back towards home, looking around I noticed that most of if not all the accidents around me had been take care of and had some medical staff or residents helping out. Feeling utterly drained I made my way back home to crash and die on my couch and sleep for the rest of the day, I think the owners would understand me not turning up to work, I mean hey they probably have completely forgotten about the shop anyway with all the shit thats happened.

I turned the corner making my way back home and the destruction continued in front of me, but the thing I loved about the area is how we all help each other and made the best of bad situations. Unlocking the door I nearly got bowled over by a big mop of hair that launched itself at me.

"Daaavvvvviiiiiddddddd, where have you been I was so worried about you."

"Sarah? What are you doing here?" Utterly perplexed as no one was here when I left this morning.

"Oh I was in the area as we had dinner planned for tonight and I know you loved the pasta from that Italian place down the road and thought hey why not surprise him as he is too stingy with his own money and before that I was down here with Mary for coffee and she was telling me how she thought her boyfriend was cheating on her as he didn't message her back for like 2 minutes and I was like omg he is totally sleeping with his next door neighbour and you are way too good for him cause she is like a total catch who any guy would be lucky to have....."

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah SARAH!!"

"Yeah? what is it David?"

"Can we try not to get distracted, why were you at my house before 7am?"

"Oh that's right hehehe sorry got distracted, well as I was saying I was down this way for........ Stuff and then everything went absolutely crazy and red and all like end of the world kind of stuff. I just had to come and see if you were ok as you live here all by yourself and it was very VERY scary, but anyway how come you weren't at home did you see what happened?"

"Oh thanks, haven't had the best morning, thought I was going to die by giant flaming rock and had to help out old Mr Harrison down at the corner store. He had a car go through his shop and I helped to get his daughter out who got hit by said car."

"Omg you have had a totally crazy morning and it's only 7, I think out of both of us your the one who needs some coffee. But do you know what's happened? First we had falling space rocks which ended up disappearing and now nothing is working."

"I mean the lights are still working and the other appliances are still functioning..."

"Oh you know what I mean, my phone and your computer just don't respond, like there's just nothing at all. They don't respond to the power buttons or being plugged in, just....nothing"

"Hmm that's odd, I mean I didn't have my phone as I lost it during the initial meteor shower. but that is weird as surely if some of the electronics weren't working then they all wouldn't."

"Well we need to figure this out, my phone is my life, my world what would I do if I can't talk to everyone and see what is trending. Even an hour is too long and everything can change David, EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE!!!"

"Hey hey calm down Sarah it's going to be ok, we can work it out we will..."

Scratch scratch scratch

"What on earth is that?"

Making our way to the back door where the noise is coming from we looked out and there was nothing, and we heard it again this time looking down we spotted the neighbours cat scratching at the door. I always hated the damn thing, it jumped out and quite frankly got way to much enjoyment out of scaring anyone it could. Finally looking up and noticing us

"meow", scratch scratch scratch.

"Oh man don't ruin my door you little shit", yanking the door open it darted past out legs and dove under my couch disappearing from sight. Sarah and I looked at each other,

"What on earth..."

I mean I disliked that cat something fierce but I had never seen it act that way before. Nothing scared that thing, I mean nothing at all we had all tried to no avail it ended up in a bit of a competition between the neighbours to see who could scare the cat first. But this was just getting odd, looking around there was this eeriness with everything, like things had changed yet it hadn't become apparent yet. There was a feeling in the air of.........danger? I have no idea how that came to mind it just seemed to fit the environment. I moved outside to see if I could pin point what had changed and yet despite how hard I looked i just couldn't find anything different. Putting it to the back of my mind I made my way back to the house and as I made me way to the door I stopped and stared. Looking at the edge to the door was a vine, just a small one but one that as I watched it was slowly making its way up the door frame, its base getting thicker as it made its way up the frame. Looking up to get Sarah's notice I saw she wasn't at the back door anymore.

"Ummm David, you might want to come and see this."

Making my way through the house I got to the front door and there was Sarah outside staring at the front of my house. I made my way towards her,

"Yeah Sarah what's up?"

"Well umm... turn around and check that out" pointing at my house.

Spinning around i found even more of those green vines making their way up the sides of the building, I mean they spread higher and higher virtually covering the entire first floor.

"What the hell is going on here? There was one out the back but this is even worse."

Staring at the scene we just watched amazed as the vines moved further up the building turning it a shade of green that probably wouldn't have been my first choice in house colour. Getting our fill of the scene we looked around and noticed we weren't the only ones, every other house on the street was the same, covered in green with moving wriggling vines covering every square inch of the buildings.

And then it began, with an ear splitting noise every house was ripped from the ground being thrust into the air rising higher and higher until about 30 metres where they stopped. The vines quickly thickening and joining together until they formed one enormous trunk under each building. The vines continued above the houses forming a convoy which quickly spread till the tops were covered in leaves, and branches sprouted out of the sides of the buildings intertwining with each other forming vast interconnected aerial walkways.

"Holy shit"