Roderick looked up at us as we walked towards him. He stood up, his eyes filled with tears.

“Ariah, I told you to wait in the car with Eamon…” He started then looked behind me to see Eamon following me.

“I am with Eamon.” I smiled.

Shocked, Roderick strode up to Eamon and looked him up and down before embracing him in a large bear hug.

Reese snapped her head up, turning to look at us too.

“Did you say Eamon?” Reese sniffed, trying to hide her tears. She leapt to her feet and jumped into the hug with Eamon and Roderick.

“How?!” She asked as she stepped back and looked at him.

“How indeed!” Roderick said and patted Eamon on his back. “It’s great to see you upright.”

“Thanks.” Eamon said sheepishly. “The way you’re all acting, you’d think I died or something.”

With that, all the emotion I had been holding in launched forth and tears came cascading out of my eyes, rolling like waterfalls down my cheeks.

“You did die, I saw you. I had to give you mouth to mouth and everything.” I said between gulps of air as I tried to calm myself.

“You had your mouth on my mouth?”

“I don’t think that’s the part you should be worried about.” Roderick smiled and playfully punched Eamon on the upper arm.

“I guess not. Dying is probably more important right?!” Eamon laughed and rubbed the spot on his arm. “Wait, I died?!”

“You were badly burnt and really not in great shape. Somehow I brought you back to life and healed you with my hands.” I said holding my hands up to show the others.

“With your hands? How did you manage to do that?” Roderick asked, with an eyebrow raised. “I guess we did see you flying and shooting flames from your fingertips, so anything is possible.”

“Flying?” Eamon said and laughed. “Ariah was flying and shooting flames from her hands? Sounds like one of your comic book superheroes doesn’t it?”

“You know what, it does!” I exclaimed as I thought about all the heroes that I loved reading about in my favourite comic adventures. “Maybe I should read some more to see what I need to do with these powers or how to control them.”

“Probably not the best time for reading.” Roderick said as he looked up at the sky. “We should get going.”

He looked at Reese gently and she nodded sadly in agreement.

“Look, before we go, you all need to tell me what’s been happening!” Eamon said in frustration. “I’m gauging bits here and there, but there’s been no solid explanation yet.”

“Sorry Eamon, okay, so we think an alien monster or monsters have attacked our town.” I started, taking a deep unsteady breath in as I recalled the events of the morning. “We were at school and a bright pink light, like a laser beam, seemed to disintegrate anyone who came in contact with it.”

“It also seemed to affect organic materials like wood but curiously, also steel but not concrete.” Roderick added. “It has affected our phones too. The only function working is the torch.”

“Why? How?” Eamon asked, confused.

“We don’t know why the monster is here or why I now have these superpowers.” I explained. “There was a stranger there, at school, who could fly as well and he held off the monster while we escaped. I’m pretty sure he gifted me with my newfound abilities.”

Eamon looked at me wide eyed.

“It all sounds so unreal, but looking at the sky above us, it also makes it easier to believe.” He said as he pointed up.

We all looked to where he was gesturing. The sky above us had changed to thick dark crimson clouds that swirled with intensity like a whirlpool.

Eamon looked back at me again, waiting for me to continue. I nodded and held up my hands again.

“My hands started glowing while I was sitting in the car and I felt all this energy coming out of them. It was transferred to you, starting your heart.” I rushed, tumbling over my words as I tried to explain everything quickly and concisely.

“If only we could have got here sooner, you might have been able to save my parents too.” Reese said and started to cry again. I held back my own tears and went over and hugged her.

“I'm so sorry Reese.” I said hoarsely, my own throat tight with emotion. “I wish we could’ve saved them too, I wish we could’ve saved everyone.”

Reese and I leaned into each other’s shoulders as we stood on the lawn, feeling devastated.

She pulled back and then looked down at the piles of dust at our feet.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do without them.” She said, her voice cracking.

“We’ve got each other.” Roderick said softly, approaching. “We are a family now.”

Roderick embraced her and she turned, sobbing into his chest as he held her tightly.

Eamon walked away from the group and motioned for me to come to him. I left Roderick and Reese in their embrace, following Eamon to stand underneath one of the large damaged trees in the corner of the yard. He leant in and whispered in my ear, watching the others while he did so.

“I don’t understand what’s happening. Why is Reese crying and where are her parents?” Eamon whispered.

“When the light rays hit people, they disintegrate. The piles of dust are Reese’s parents.” I answered sadly.

Eamon looked shocked.

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“So what happened to Sakura, Dylan and the gang? Where is everyone?” Eamon asked with a worried look across his face.

I felt numb as I thought about the others.

“I’m sorry, Eamon. They’re all gone.” I said, as I avoided his gaze. “Georgie was disintegrated in front of us. It was horrific.”

HIs look turned to one of horror as the news sunk in.

“Oh god.” Eamon said, turning ashen. “My parents, my brother and my sister! I’ve gotta get to my house to check to see if they’re there.”

“I think the best thing for us to do is to stick together." I said, motioning to the others. “Our plan is to get up into the forest and hide in the caves near the lake. We can go to your house on the way there, but we need to go to our house first to pick up some supplies.”

Eamon nodded silently.

“You need to prepare yourself though Eamon.” I said softly. “Your brother and sister would have been at school today too.”

“Yes they were! They would’ve been at the high school, they caught the bus today. I took my car. I should've taken them with me.” Eamon stuttered.

“The attack happened during our first class of the day, so they would have already been in their classrooms. You wouldn’t have been near them anyway.” I added gently, trying to make Eamon feel better.

His eyes started to water as he listened to what I told him.

“There’s nothing that you could’ve done, you nearly died yourself.” I said and put my hand on his arm to comfort him. “We can see if your parents are home, your brother and sister could have made it there if they survived the first attack.”

Nodding mutely, Eamon turned to wipe the tears away from his cheeks.

A sound like loud scraping, interrupted us and we all stopped talking, becoming hyper alert. I scanned our surroundings trying to figure out the source. The sound was coming from the end of the garden, near the patio area which was surrounded by little shrubs and plants. They lay haphazardly in broken pots, looking like they had been knocked over with the quake tremors. There was a large pizza oven set to the back of the patio with a table and multiple chairs in front of it which had also been knocked over. But the concrete pizza oven still remained standing, apart from the wall of bricks that had once surrounded it were now laying in piles in front of it. The door to the cupboard underneath it, where the firewood was kept for the oven, was also blocked by bricks.

Roderick motioned for us to stay back and he slowly walked in its direction. Kneeling down next to it, he listened carefully, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

“I can hear voices!” He called to us and quickly began picking up then throwing bricks aside, trying to clear the door to the oven. Reese ran over and began to help. The door started to move as if something was pushing it from the inside. Eamon and I hurried over and started removing bricks too.

We got the door free quickly and we all stared at it in anticipation. Roderick took a deep breath and patted the handle with his hand. When he was satisfied that it was safe to touch, he gave it a mighty tug, pulling it open.

He moved back as Reese‘s parents crawled out from behind it, covered in dust. They stood up and looked at us, surprised.

“Mom! Dad!” Reese cried as she launched herself into their arms. ChiChi came running over and danced and leapt at their feet in excitement. Her parents both threw their arms around Reese in a hug, pulling her to them. With her eyes welling with tears, her mum nuzzled her cheek into the top of Reese’s head. Reese’s Dad coughed from the dust but held onto Reese and his wife tightly.

“I’m so happy you’re alive!” Reese cried.

“Reese! We’re so happy that you’re alive too!” Reese’s Mom, Patricia said, her voice shaking. “We were so scared that something had happened to you.”

They took a step back and Reese looked at them.

“How did you manage to survive?” Reese asked, looking them over to make sure that they were okay.

“We were in the house when the pink light rays started to fill the sky.” Reese’s father Keith said, his face still covered in ash and dust. “We were looking out the front windows and saw it disintegrate some passersby on the street! It was like watching a horror movie where we didn't really understand what was going on.”

“We kept away from the windows and hid in the corner of the room.” Patricia said, looking back at the house as she did so. “Then when the earthquake started, ChiChi ran out and we couldn’t find her.”

“And then we heard screaming from our backyard.” Keith continued as tears began to roll down his cheeks. “Our neighbours Eric and Sara Slatterly had come across to see if we were okay but they got caught in the rays.”

“Ah, so that’s who that is." Roderick said, pointing at the two dust piles on the grass across from them.

Patricia nodded sadly.

“We went out to see if they were okay but the rays started up again and we got caught outside, then realised that we couldn’t get back to the house quick enough.” Patricia said softly.

“So we jumped into the pizza oven cupboard to hide but there were more tremors and the chimney fell in front of the door trapping us in there.” Keith finished.

“You were lucky that happened.” Reese explained. “The concrete would’ve protected you from the heat and the light.”

“We were lucky.” Keith said as he looked sideways at Patricia and hugged her to him. “We were also lucky that you all found us. Do you know what’s causing this?”

“We think so.” Roderick said, looking in the direction of school then back at Reese’s parents. “There was a monster at school, an otherworldly being. It was the one producing the light rays.”

“It must have been pretty powerful to send light all the way from school to here?” Keith pondered. “There could be more of them.”

“There might be more?” Reese asked, trembling.

Eamon looked at me. I gulped, I’d forgotten all about the beast we’d seen from the car.

“We saw a giant cat-like creature coming towards us when we were in the car out the front of the house.” Eamon said, pointing back towards the road.

“Why didn’t you mention it sooner?” Roderick said, looking at me with a frown. “We need to get out of here, now!”

“It ran past us, it looked like it was going somewhere else because it didn’t seem to pay us any attention when we went into the house to escape it.” I explained, trying to calm him down.

“I don’t wanna take any chances.” Roderick replied, motioning to everyone to move. “Come on, let's go and get back in the car. We need to get to our house to see if Mom’s there and get to safety up in the hills.”

“I’ll drive our car, then we can fit more people and supplies in if we need along the way.” Keith said. “Our car is in the garage and hopefully still intact.”

“I don’t think we should split up.” Roderick frowned again. “We should all stay together.”

Reese put her hand on his arm.

“I think Dad‘s idea is a good one, then we could fit your Mom in and Eamon’s family too. Plus lots of food and supplies, we’ll need all that kinda camping stuff too if we’re going up into the forest and we don’t know how long we’ll need to be there for.”

“It’ll be like camping under pressure.” I chimed in. “Just like when we used to go camping with Mom and Dad.”

Our parents were wonderful people and wanted us to experience life to the fullest but when it came to the outdoors and camping, they were totally out of their comfort zones. We would go away for weekend camping trips which would usually end up with us laughing at our parents' attempts to set up the tent or start a campfire. Despite their lack of outdoor skills, Mom and Dad’s enthusiasm was contagious and those weekends became more than just outdoor excursions; they were bonding experiences that strengthened our connection as a family and created memories that we'd cherish forever especially since Dad’s disappearance.

Roderick’s frown changed to that of a small smile as he remembered our camping adventures.

“Okay, you’re right but we need to move.” He said, turning to go back into the house.

Everyone nodded and we made our way up the steps onto the verandah and followed Roderick through the door into the kitchen.

Reese’s mum scooped up Chichi into her arms and held her close to her chest.

As we walked inside ChiChi started to bark and whine, scratching at Patricia’s shoulder as she held her. The air around us got icy cold and I felt myself shiver.

“What is it ChiChi? What’s wrong?” Patricia asked, her tone a mix of soothing and concerned as she cradled the little dog in her arms.

I looked up and gasped as three pairs of eyes stared back at me.

The giant cat-like creature had returned.