When the bombs dropped. (Kiyr GM)

[Kyrie Blaze]

Anna doesn't see storm clouds! What she does see is a huge tower of black smoke that's too large to be a house fire from that far away. It seems to be in the general area of the nefarious public high school two-five-nine.

The drone of planes can be heard as well as the distant wail of sirens. Several people pour out of shops to see what they have already heard on the radio channels that still work, anxiously talking with escalating panic amongst themselves.

What Anna can't see aside from the fact some of the adults were dropping hushed b-words was that there were EMPs dropped along with them. Luckily, the blast radius doesn't quite reach the area she's in, so her phone still works, but for how long..?

[Arthur Woodson]

Anna didn't go to 259, she wasn't old enough to go there yet. And it was something she had been dreading. Everyone knew what the place was like. She couldn't even think about what she was seeing right now. At first she thought one of those kids must of burnt the place down. But then she wouldn't be hearing planes. Sirens wouldn't be going off. Something bad was happening. Her heart sank deep into her stomach.

She took off like a rocket for her house. She needed to get home. She needed to find everyone. Her hand fumbled into her pocket to get her phone as she ran. It slowed her down and she almost tripped but she didn't care. With phone in hand she frantically called home.

"Come on! Come on! Pick up!"

[Kyrie Blaze]

There's another rumble of an explosion more towards the coastline after one of the planes gets close enough! Neither of Anna's parents answer the phone--the answering machine with a recording of her mother's voice does, though!

Does she try again?!

The sounds of more planes closing in fast are easily audible!

[Arthur Woodson]

She hangs up and tries again. slipping her bag off of her shoulders to let it drop to the ground hoping she can run a little faster. She listens to the phone ring frantically. Fear overcoming her. This wasn't good. This was wrong. She didn't know what was going on.

Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!!!!

[Kyrie Blaze]

It gets worse.

People in the streets are screaming. Panicking. Running.

"Bombs!"

"Oh God, why?!"

"Take cover!"

Anna finds she can run faster! And just when she thinks the answering machine is going to kick in again, the ringing stops. For a second - as something shrieking can be heard over the screaming - she can't hear who it is.

"Anna?! Anna where ar--"

Her mother is cut off by an explosion up ahead. Her phone dies. There's a rumble and roar from the bombs, and then a blast of hot air as the rumble might just be enough to send the running girl to the cement.

[Arthur Woodson]

Her heart was pounding so hard it threatened to leap out of her rib cage. She couldn't make coherent thoughts. Everything seemed to be happening at once and impossibly slow at the same time. The time between rings lasted hours. But everyone shouting and running was like the world was on fast forward.

She heard the word "bomb" distantly but her brain didn't register it. Nor did it register the warning to take cover. Her Mother's voice brings her back to reality, an anchor in the chaos. Then there was silence from the line.

A whoosh and thud. Anna's head cracked against the pavement, her phone hitting the sidewalk and bouncing into the middle of the street. The world went blurry and threatened to go dark. Every thought she tried to have was fuzzy except for a sensation of warmness behind her head. Like a small trickle of warm water...

[Kyrie Blaze]

From her dimming vision, Anna can see some of the things that are going on.

One woman steps out onto the street, gaze rising to the sky above, and she puts her hands up in supplication. She doesn't say a word, not that she would be heard in the pandemonium breaking out all around them.

Calm in the middle of the chaos.

Someone knocks into her.

Above, against the sky that was reaching for the setting sun, an F-16 Fighting Falcon roars by, closely tailed by two others of the 194th Fighter Squadron that were housed at Fresno Air National Guard Base. Little did anyone know that the retired Captain Andrew Levesque of the Squadron, along with two other retirees that had flown with him, had made it through the base's security and commandeered three of the craft. They soared, opening fire upon the bombers, hoping to help.

To help in any way they could.

The unsung heros, however, faced innumerable odds. Barker's forces were prepared, and though they shot down a small handful of the craft, they were taken out in fiery explosions in the sky over Long Beach and Los Angeles.

As the fire lights the sky and more bombs fall, Anna loses consciousness.

[Arthur Woodson]

She let out a groan as her eyes focused in and out. Staring up at the sky, barely able to move let alone look away. Only dimly aware of everything going on around her. People running and knocking each other over. Her phone getting kicked further into the street. The woman standing in the street. It was all background noise that her brain was trying to process.

The world went black, and then returned, and black again. The roar of explosions echoed in her head, even as they felt distant. Though not too distant. Her eyes widened at the planes fighting each other in the sky.

She couldn't understand what was going on. Whether it was war, or a terrorist attack. She couldn't think, it was hard to think. She just wanted too sleep....

And without another thought the darkness overtook her and she slipped into unconsciousness.

[Kyrie Blaze]

Anna wakes up, later. Her body was rolled to the side and is cramped somewhat awkwardly against the curb. She hurts all over, and not just from the way she's been sleeping. Her head is pounding, and she still has some trouble focusing.

Normally at night, the city would be lit by many streetlights and shop lights and front porch lights. But the thing is...the city is as dark as her 'slumber' had been.

[Arthur Woodson]

She panics at first when she wakes up in the street. The pit of dread in her stomach gnawing at her. Weakly she groans and moves her hand over her body, checking for injuries or anything else amiss. She winces when she gets to the blow to the back of the head. The dried and drying blood in her hair was still sticky and she could feel her hair was matted. But the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

Slowly she picked herself up, the unfamiliar sight of the streets pitch black sent shivers down her spine. She looked for a payphone, or a business that was open. Someone with a cell phone. She dimly remembered her own cell phone dropping. She winced at the thought. God she hoped she didn't break it. But if she was out long enough for it to be night time she couldn't imagine that it was still around.

She just wanted to get home. To call her Mom and get picked up or something...

[Kyrie Blaze]

As her eyes adjust, it's clear to see that many of the buildings are not exactly...whole, any longer. And even here, there were bodies in the street. Once she gets up and looks around, she does spot her cell.

Once she reaches it, she can clearly see that even though it's scratched and banged up, it's certainly not broken! However...it doesn't turn on.

At all.

And there are no lights at all. Though she should know, once her brain clears up a little, that there is a payphone - hopefully still there - another block and a half or so up the street.

[Arthur Woodson]

The fact that her phone was still there was surprising and filled her with hope. Stumbling quickly to it she picked up the phone, turning it over in her hands. Trying not to look at the bodies laying on the ground.

They are out cold. Like I was. They have to be.

The alternative was far to horrible to think about. That she had been laying in the street with dead people. Nope, not thinking that! Can't think that! She tried to turn on the phone, growling in frustration when it didn't come on. The battery shouldn't be dead. She had charged it during choir.

She continued to stumble toward home, looking at the shops. It was like a ghost town, and the lack of lights was really starting to creep her out. Her pace quickened as much as she could stand without falling over when she remembered the pay phone!

"Oh thank God."

She sighed. Shoving her phone into her pocket she made a beeline for the payphone. Praying to God as she went that it was still working. Something had to be working!

[Kyrie Blaze]

Anna makes it without incident to the payphone!

When she picks it up..!

It's dead. No dial tone.

[Arthur Woodson]

She shrieks in frustration and slams the receiver into the phone repeatedly into the phone. Sobs bubbling up as tears started to sting her eyes before they streamed down her cheeks.

Why is this happening!?

Scared didn't even begin to describe it. No one was around, it was dark, nothing was working. And the things she remembered seeing before she passed out... No. Things had to be ok at home. Her family was worried about her, they had to be. It was probably a terrorist thing that hit the downtown area.

Dropping the receiver she began to run again. Running home as fast as she could. Her arm wiping away her tears in futility as she repeated in her head over and over that things were going to be okay. They had to be okay.

[Kyrie Blaze]

It gets worse.

Whether she notices or not, someone sobs as she nears them on the street. The sound abruptly cuts off. No cry for help. Just dead silence.

By the time the young teen makes it home, her body is screaming for her to stop. Her lungs burn. Her body protests each motion and threatens her with collapse. Most of the houses in her neighbourhood aren't really standing. Just portions of them. Though there is a lucky home or two that are in better shape. There are fires scattered here and there amongst the houses. The smoke makes her lungs cry out even more.

It gets much worse.

A portion of her home is standing. Just a single wall. The top crumbles slightly and some of the material drops to the rubble below. There seems to be a fire lit on the corner of her house where the kitchen used to be. From where she is, there is currently no sign of her parents, yet. Anna needs to get closer to be able to look properly.