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  Alysia watched it happen in horror, thanking the heavens that a large chunk had only fallen next to her and not on top of her. She brought her hands up to her face to scream, then removed the beach from her mind and limped up the hill that led towards the front of the school.

  She didn’t know how much time had passed as she walked, but when she found her car she was alone. Did they all run to the beach? she asked herself. It wouldn’t make any sense that out of the thousands of students at the school, none of them would venture to the front. She got inside of her car and started it up, half-expecting that it wouldn’t start, but the engine turned over, and it lifted ever so slightly off the ground.

  “Ren, take me home. I want to go home,” she said to the vehicle and then reached down to see how bad her ankle was. It felt swollen and she knew that she had made it worse by walking on it. The car’s dash lit up with pretty neon blue lights and the GPS hovered over the steering wheel. She maneuvered the car through the parking lot and then started down Barrier Avenue.

  Alysia saw bodies strewn about, the evidence of an attack on the city itself. She looked around, trying to figure out the source of the attack.

  The houses of the subdivision she drove through belonged to the University and only students lived there. Stella Leibowitz, who used to be Alysia’s classmate in high school, stayed in one of them. So when the car slid past her tiny house, Alysia looked for her and saw that the doors were open and the windows broken.

  Since Stella’s car was missing, she hoped she had made it out alive. As she tried to figure out what had caused the mass exodus of the neighborhood, a large, lizard-like creature ran out from behind one of the houses.

  The lizard smashed into her car, causing it to float up into the air and crash down on top of a roof. The impact and fall caused Alysia to black out and when she recovered, she could hear the chorus of sirens for the first time. Everything was dark as she rubbed her eyes and stood up next to her wrecked car.

  She saw helicopters on the horizon, and squad cars and soldiers were off in the distance, trying in vain to fight back against the chaos. On the street below the house, the lizard was walking around. He seemed determined to get at her if she made the mistake of coming down from the rooftop.

  Is that a dinosaur? she asked herself as she looked around, wondering if anyone else was alive to give her a hand.

  There was no one around and the police and the military were not in the neighborhood. She seemed to be alone and with a swollen ankle and a new pain in her side, she didn’t know how she would deal with her lizard friend.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked the creature, and it turned its head as if to get a better look at her through its eye. She asked it again and this time it screamed at her, a blood-curdling roar that made her flinch and slide back closer to her car.

  “I wish I had a gun,” she mumbled, then got to her feet to look in the trunk for a weapon of some sort to chase the creature away. She had thought that it was a dinosaur but the scream it made sounded mechanical. It looked like a tiny Tyrannosaurus Rex, but it had no arms, and its skin consisted of black scales. Can I even hurt it? She wondered, but resumed her efforts to find a weapon to get the creature to leave her alone.

  After some perusing through her now messy trunk, Alysia managed to find a lengthy pipe for refueling her hover-tank. She found a sharp knife that was in the toolbox that her father had given her on her 18th birthday. She used electric tape to attach the knife to the pole, and made it into a crude spear. She stood up and tested it against the car to see if it could withstand a firm thrust. It held true, giving her confidence that it would do the job. She lodged it by the twisted door of her car and then gathered her thoughts as the creature continued to pace.

  Alysia went back into her car to see if she could find her phone. When she found it, she called her mother, praying that there would be an answer and she could let her know that she was okay. After the phone rang a few times, someone answered and the voice on the other end was a whisper.

  “CeeCee?” her mother asked, as if she were trying not to let anyone hear her.

  “Mom, are you okay?” she replied, too excited to contain herself. “Mom, where are you guys? Is everything okay?”

  She could hear some shuffling around in the background and then her father’s voice came on to the call. “Baby girl, you all right?”

  “Yeah Dad, I’m okay. Everything is crazy. Do you know what’s going on?” she asked, afraid to go into detail just in case her parents weren’t aware of the monsters.

  “You mean the demons?”

  “Dad, demons, really?”

  “Yes, demons, baby girl. Horns, wings, straight out of Dungeons and Dragons. Where are you? Did you get hurt? The whole country is under attack by all sorts of supernatural creatures, and me and your mom are in the basement.”

  “I’m surprised to hear that you’re hiding, Dad. This sounds like a dream come true for you. All of that warrior code stuff that you’ve been obsessed with. I pretty much expected you to be on the streets with sword and armor on, saving us all.”

  Her father laughed and she could tell from the slight pause after she spoke that he either had done something, or was thinking about it.

  “Everything within me makes me want to do what you expect me to do, CeeCee, but your mom can’t be left alone. One of those things came in here and, well, she got hurt.”

  “Oh no, Dad! Is she okay?”

  “Yeah, she’ll live,” he said and he laughed again as Alysia heard her mother mock his laughter, annoyed at him for being so light-hearted in the hour of panic.

  “The school got destroyed,” Alysia said, switching back to serious matters.

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “I’m in the University condo area, Pleasant Palms, but I had a wreck and some sort of armless dinosaur has me trapped on a rooftop.”

  “Can you fight?”

  “James!” Alysia’s mother yelled at him, annoyed that he would ask her that question.

  But Alysia understood the question. Her father was a fighter and had raised her to be a fighter like himself. She could wait for him to come for her, but he needed to know that if anything were to happen she could defend herself and stay safe, regardless.

  “I made a spear, Dad, a good one… but I twisted up my ankle and I have a pain in my side.”

  “CeeCee, do you need me to come for you?” he asked, and her mother exploded into even more objections.

  “The basement may not be safe, Dad. I think you guys should try to get out of the village. I’ll be okay; I’m your daughter, remember? Just keep me updated on where you are and I’ll find you.”

  “That’s my girl,” she heard him say and then he hung up.

  It was funny to Alysia that their discussion had centered on survival and not on the absurdity of the situation. There were demons, dinosaurs and giants popping up in the world. Those creatures had always been the substance of fantasy books, movies, and games, yet here they were in real life.

  The hour was late and the grumbling in her stomach reminded Alysia that she had not eaten all day. The creature was waging a war of attrition with her, and she was losing due to the pain and hunger that wracked her body. She thought about going to the edge of the roof, hoisting her weapon, and letting it fly into the neck of the creature.

  In her mind’s eye, she saw it strike home and the creature wretch and shudder before falling to the ground—dead. Would it be that simple? She got up and held the spear, balancing it on her palm as if that would tell her whether it would be effective. Next, she grabbed some of the loose rubble that was next to her and threw it at the creature, but that only seemed to annoy it.

  Defeated and frustrated, Alysia went back to the car and sat down. She wished that she had paid attention when her dad had tried to teach her how to service the hover-lift, but it was all so boring. Martial arts was a different thing, however, and she was confident in her ability to fight.

  Should she go
down and face the creature—sprained ankle and all—or should she wait until morning? The urge to get home to her parents was getting the better of her, and she again measured the spear to determine what she wanted to do with it. I could use it as a bo-staff, she thought. The pipe was the right height and weight for her to do that.

  Night came and as Alysia worked up the nerve to jump down from the roof and face her stalker, a police car flew slowly down the street. The creature perked up when he heard the sirens and smashed into it as it drove by. The impact caused the car to careen out of control before crashing into another house.

  Before she could think better of it, Alysia ran to the side of the roof and jumped. When she landed, it felt as if a bolt of hot, painful electricity shot up her leg and she screamed. She clasped her hands over her mouth as soon as she realized her mistake but she had already given away her location.

  The creature, who had been tearing into the wounded police officer, turned when Alysia screamed, and remembered that she was its original prey. Why settle on one body to eat when you could have two, it probably thought, and rushed to the area of the sound. When it rounded the corner to the back of the house, it did not see the wounded girl like it expected. It put its nose to the ground to track her scent but that was where it made its first mistake.

  Alysia jumped from behind the house and brought the pipe down on the creature’s neck with all of her strength. It screamed and recoiled, but she drew the spear back and thrust it towards its eye, striking home. She kept at it, striking and poking any area she saw vulnerable, and before long, it was still—though her heart was beating out of her chest.

  As the adrenaline settled, the pain came back and Alysia fell and held her leg, which was now too sore for her to move. She heard a rustling as she did this and before she could react, another creature, similar to the first, came charging at her. She reached for the spear to protect herself, but she was too slow. She closed her eyes tight but a gunshot brought them open as she saw the police officer standing over the other creature. Her attacker fell, dead from the bullet, and Alysia counted her blessings.

  “Are you okay?” the officer asked, and Alysia turned quickly to look at her.

  It was the same officer that the creature had attacked, and though she stood in place with her gun drawn, Alysia could see that she was bleeding from her side.

  “I’m okay,” Alysia replied and then forced herself to stand and limp over to her spear.

  “Whoa, stay where you are, girl. Identify yourself.”

  “Alysia Knight,” she said, and then froze. How ironic would it be that after surviving the attack of two creatures, I end up shot by the police? she thought.

  “Do you live here, Alysia?” the officer asked.

  “No, but I go to Ellen Lok. Look, I sprained my ankle pretty badly and I need that pipe to help me walk. Can you please point the gun somewhere else?”

  “Do you have some ID?” the cop asked, determined to stick to procedure despite the world going to hell.

  “Yes, here,” Alysia said as she took out her wallet and held it up for the police officer.

  When the woman came over to take it from her, Alysia noticed her injury. The creature had bitten her badly, and the blood stained her light blue shirt to the point where it looked as if she had been dipped into purple ink.

  “Okay, Alysia. Sorry about that. Let me help you up.”

  “Help yourself, you look like you’re about to bleed to death. Are you okay?”

  “Officer McLeay…Tracy, just call me Tracy.”

  “Tracy, thank you for saving my life, but we need to get you some help,” Alysia said as she retrieved her spear and limped over to the officer.

  “Car’s busted and no one’s picking up on the radio, Alysia.”

  “CeeCee. My friends call me CeeCee.”

  “CeeCee. I like that,” Tracy said, sounding tired and out of breath.

  “My friend, Stella, lives here, but she’s gone—just like everyone else. Is it breaking and entering if the world is gone to hell and you desperately need supplies?” Alysia asked, smiling at the notion of asking a cop’s permission to break into a friend’s house.

  “Desperate times breed desperate measures,” Tracy said, and Alysia was happy to hear it.

  The two women walked over to the back of the house and jimmied open the lock. When they got inside, the place was still in order, but it looked as if someone had left in a hurry. Alysia helped Tracy to the bed and removed her top, then went to the bathroom to look for medical supplies. When she came back and saw the officer laying their topless, she thought she looked like a John William Waterhouse painting.

  “Found a box full of Band-Aids and medicine,” Alysia said, and Tracy nodded with a smile.

  “I feel so tired,” she said as Alysia began to clean out her wound. “Are you a premed major?” she asked.

  “Marketing actually, but my mom is a pediatrician. She’s shown me how to treat minor cuts and injuries.”

  “So how do I look, doc?” Tracy joked, and Alysia thought she looked good despite the situation.

  “It could have been worse, considering that thing was gnawing at you for so long. The bites aren’t deep and you have some bruising from the accident, but I think meds and a night’s rest will make you better by tomorrow morning.”

  “Thank you, CeeCee,” she said meekly, and Alysia nodded with a smile and handed her some pain pills.

  Once she was finished helping Tracy, she went into the kitchen and dumped ice into a grocery bag. She secured it with a twisty-tie and then went back into the room. She sat on the chair next to Tracy and removed her shoes, and then elevated her leg onto the TV stand and placed the ice on her throbbing ankle.

  “Wow, that looks bad,” Tracy said when she saw the swelling.

  “Yeah, I know, and it’s not like I’ve been trying to stay off of it, either,” Alysia replied. She turned on the television and there was an emergency broadcast telling people to stay inside their homes. “I don’t know if that’s good advice considering what I saw at the school.”

  “What did you see?” Tracy asked, propping herself up on an elbow, trying in vain to get more comfortable.

  “I saw giants.”

  “Giants! What sort of giants?”

  “Oh, the kind that can step on this house and crush us both. Pick us up and bite our heads off; use a whole lake as a bathtub. You know … giants,” Alysia replied, as if the question was absurd.

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on; dinosaurs, flying dragons, and now giants? Is this a really messed up dream or what?”

  “I don’t think it’s a dream, but I have no explanation for any of it. I just know that today went from me having a chance to meet a celebrity, to me sitting here, nursing a leg after escaping death. All I know is that the sooner it ends, the better. I keep wondering if when I close my eyes and fall asleep, I’ll wake up with everything back to normal.” She thought then on her friend and a slight panic washed over her. “Everyone at the school ran to the beach. I wonder if they are doing okay. I left my friend Lisa … I can’t even—”

  “Don’t blame yourself for things that you have no control over, Alysia. It’s during these tough times that we really get to see what we’re made of, you know? A monster attacked you, and you made a spear and killed it. That says a lot about you; most people would have stayed down and died.”

  “Thank you,” Alysia said, and Tracy gave her a wink. It was odd seeing the older police officer, lying on her friend’s bed below posters of different bands and movie stars. As Alysia thought on the whereabouts of Lisa, the throbbing pain distracted her. She looked over at Tracy, who had fallen asleep, so she turned the volume on the television down and closed her eyes.

  2

  The sun was up, Alysia was sweating, and the plastic bag full of water – formerly ice – sat precariously on her swollen, brown ankle. She noticed that Tracy was up with her gun drawn, and she looked madder than a gorilla with a back itch.r />
  “What is that noise?” Alysia asked, and Tracy motioned for her to be quiet.

  She stood up and tested her weight on the sore ankle but it felt no better than it did the day before. The earthquake – or whatever it was – stopped, but the sound of gunshots resumed the symphony of fear that had woken her up. Tracy slipped to the side of the bedroom window and peered out before looking back at Alysia as if she had seen a ghost.

  “Y-you said that you saw giants, right, CeeCee?”

  “Yes … a few of them fighting ships off the coast. Wait—that sound! Is it—?”

  Before she could finish her question, an area of the house exploded with rubble as the arm of a giant crashed into it. The sun poured down on them now as they sat on the ground, exposed, and unaware of how they had managed to fall so fast.

  “Alysia … RUN!” Tracy managed, and Alysia scrambled to her feet and pushed through the busted up wall to gain the streets. She felt as if she had a spike in her ankle, the pain being so immense and raw, but as she looked back to see if Tracy was behind her, she saw helicopters hovering above the fallen giant.

  Tracy caught up to her and lifted her off the ground. The officer was a muscular woman, but with the injury, it was amazing that she could do this. She threw Alysia over her shoulder and raced down the road towards the woods. “There is a trail here,” she said between breaths, and Alysia tapped her rapidly on the back to put her down.

  “We won’t make it if you’re carrying me. Look, we’re out of harm’s way. I can walk with you to the trail.”

  “You mean limp,” Tracy joked.

  “Not funny, but what do you expect to find there?”

  “The giants are coming from the East, like you said. They came from the water, probably wading in from overseas. We can use the trail to get to Salter County. I’ve run it many times back when I was training for my 5K races. It opens up to a main road and if we’re lucky, we can hitch a ride.”

  “Okay girl, lead the way. I’ll try to keep up, but you don’t need to carry me.”