Ward Park, 630 N Kingsbury St, 5.26 AM

I looked back at Veronica and Tara, who remained awfully quiet in the backseat. Well, not for long, to be exact. Tara quickly began whimpering, panicking as she looked down at the bottom of her shirt. It slowly turned into a deep hue of red, absorbing the blood that was rapidly evacuating out of Veronica.

I immediately suspected that the impact of the car collision with the alien had painfully torn her wound back open, the sutures having come off. "What are we supposed to do now?" Tara cried, giving me a desperate look as she begged for me to give a suggestion on how to resolve our damned situation.

"That rescue chopper should be already at the tower. We gotta get there there as quickly as we can. We'll probably to get much more effecive medical treatment for Veronica there," I reckoned, although for the state that she was in, it was going to be impossible to drive her all the way there and spend another minute in an elevator to reach the roof. She would bleed to death by then if we were to do that.

"Shouldn't I stitch the wound back up first?" Tara inquired just as I was about to slam my foot on the accelerator. "Any sudden movements of the car would speed up the bleeding. That's not going to do her much good."

I sighed, considering the consequences of leaving the wound alone while I drove. As I thought about it closely, I realised that the girl was right. It wouldn't make a different to drive more quickly if we had a dead Veronica by the time we would arrive at Yael Tower.

Hence, I signalled to Tara to go on with what she had to do to help Veronica. She grabbed up the medical kit, pulling it open as she grabbed the items she needed for the procedure, which seemed simple when she did it. I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing, as I already knew how to suture a wound myself.

Back in Valour's training programme, we had much preparation for situations like this. Of course, it wasn't set in an alien invasion or anything of that sort. Regardless, it still was related to the skills that we had to use for in any medical emergency, such as stitching up punctures, gashes or cuts.

Instead, I prepared to start the car back up. I had turned the engine off earlier on to prevent any overheating after the accident. I immediately shut the vehicle off when I noticed smoke being emitted from the hood, giving it some time to cool off. By the time that Tara began stitching Veronica's reopened wound, the hood no longer let out smoke.

"You're not planning to start driving now, right?" Tara verified with me, stopping the suturing procedure as she looked up at me. "I'm going to need the car to be stable for me to go on."

"Of course not. I'm just trying to restart the car engine," I said, laughing nervously as I punched the engine button multiple times. The car sputtered throughout my futile attempts to get the car back up to its previous state.

I could tell that Tara was pretty much distracted and even irritated by the constant noises of the car failing to start up. Despite this, she didn't make any comment, leading me to assume that it would be fine if I kept trying. Even so, however, my efforts all in vain. I eventually stopped when I realised that there was no more point in trying.

"I'm going to go check on the hood of the car," I informed Tara, leaving Veronica in her hands. I pushed my car door open not long after she acknowledged me, stepping out of the vehicle to get some fresh air, tainted with the smoky smell coming from the engine. The atmosphere didn't feel quite too different, owing to the fact that the car already had two smashed windows that allowed air to circulate through it.

Obviously, my primary reason for leaving at all remained to be to check on the engine. I circled around the vehicle, before reaching down onto the edge of the hood. I gripped onto it tightly, my hands instantly feeling the heat the hood radiated even before my fingers had touched the metal.

Instinctively, I raised the car hood as quickly as I could, letting go once it got to the point that it automatically bopped up. I blew the warm summer air onto my fingers, hoping that it would do at least something to relieve my scorched skin, although it didn't do much. This was aggravated by the scalding smoke that arose from inside the boot, soot covering my face as I retreated.

I waved my hand around in the air just before my face, dispersing the choking smoke. I coughed heavily, my dust-filled saliva spluttering onto my hand as I covered my mouth. I turned away as Tara got out of the car, stumbling out clumsily as she began coughing too. "I'm pretty sure this shit ain't gonna work anymore," I stated, clearing my throat as I shook my head. "We're ditching the car. Let's get Veronica out."

Thus, I pulled the rear door closer to Veronica open, holding tightly below her arms as I dragged her out. Tara assisted me in doing so, holding her paralysed legs as we carried her away from the beached car. We moved her to the sidewalk, placing her down steadily as she tried to balance herself with only her arms. She let out a tired sigh as slouched against the walls of the building behind her.

"Come on, Veronica. We need to keep going if we want to get rescued," Tara attempted to motivate her as she shook Veronica's shoulders gently. However, Veronica simply pushed her away in response, albeit without much force. She curled up like a ball on the ground as she made an exhausted and painful groan.

"I don't think we should push her. Let's just give her a lil' bit of time to rest for now," I suggested, intervening as I tried to keep Tara's hands back for the time being. "She's in a lotta pain. I think we should administer more morphine."

"Oh, hell nah. No more of that miserable shit," Veronica refused, shaking her head profusely. "I'll rather endure more pain then go on with that drug."

"Are you sure you can still keep going on without any painkillers?" I asked, concerned.

"Let's be honest, Larry. It would have been another ten more minutes of a drive to the rescue site, and we were barely on time. Now that we've wasted a couple of minutes assessing the car and choosing to ditch it, we're left with practically a few minutes to reach on time, by walking," Veronica said with much brutal honesty.

"Larry can definitely arrange a later rescue timing, right?" Tara added, turning to me, her eyes twitching with much anxiety. She waited for my response, but I didn't quite answer her. "R-right, Larry?" she repeated once again.

Unfortunately for her, I shook my head reluctantly to break the bad news to them. I sighed, before beginning, "Look. Valour informed me about this... calamity that these alien things have in store for us. Its are going to be cataclysmic for the city."

"Speak English, please?" Tara requested with much confusion.

I looked up, searching for the massive alien mothership that dominated the sky and seemed to tear it up. And there above the Sears Tower hovered the still behemoth, having moved from its previous position somewhere else.

"You see that giant alien spacecraft there? Right above that skyscraper," I asked, pointing up at the sky.

"Yeah... what about it, though?" Tara questioned further.

"Those aliens... they are planning to shoot down an extremely powerful energy beam down on the power. It's like a... nuke... but made of electricity..." I revealed, trailing off.

Tara puffed out a large amount of air, seemingly in disbelief as she turned away. She placed her arms over her head, before turning back to face me. "W-w-when are they planning to use it?" she queried, stuttering uncomfortably.

I paused for a moment, gathering my thoughts as I looked down, lowering my forehead onto my palm. I exhaled, before answering without looking back up. "Around five to 10 minutes from now."

I lifted my head back up, noticing Veronica grimacing as she remained still against the wall. She seemed to have accepted the harsh reality to some extent, although this wasn't even close to being the case for Tara. The kid looked like she was high on drugs, letting out short bursts of nervous laughter, before eventually breaking out into a complete cackle that made me feel uneasy.

She slapped her hand onto her chest as she failed to control her laughter. She spun around multiple times, before finally stopping in an abrupt manner as she stepped on a strewn can that happened to be a street, mercilessly crushing it. "Screw Chicago!" she shrieked as her laughing began again, albeit slowly morphing into a desperate cry.

I walked over to her as she gradually collapsed into a sitting position on the ground. I squatted in front of her, trying my best to comfort her as I patted her shoulder lightly. "I am... so, so sorry that you and your family came to visit the city at this time. No one else knew about this other than Valour, and even so, we just found out recently."

"My poor grandma... she's going to be all alone at home. She... she won't be able to take it if she finds out that my entire family died in this... stupid alien takeover..." she remarked as she sobbed, pretty much ignoring anything I had just said.

"Hey," I attempted to snap her back to reality. "I'm gonna be real honest with you. Worrying ain't gonna do shit about our situation. And frankly speaking, nothing else will. The best we can do right now is to have some good thoughts and just make the best of our last moments. Is that okay?"

Tara didn't quite respond, but at least she stopped sobbing. It was a good step towards calming her down so that we wouldn't have to... go... in such a painful state. "Come on, let's talk about something else. Well... what do y'all do in... what's that place again? Hong Kong?" I switched the topic to try to engage her in the conversation.

"Singapore," she corrected. "What we do there? Well, definitely not going around shooting people with our non-existent guns," she mocked, mildly insulting me and the place I called home. "But what do we there really? I don't know... I'm just your basic teen that goes out with friends and has fun. I'm guessing it's the same here."

"Hell, yeah." I chuckled. "And it's not just teenagers, kid. I do that too. I do that a lot with Enrique, my good friend. Well... I used to." Tara's subtle smile faded as she definitely sensed the change of mood. "He died a week ago. Jennifer, Veronica, him and I were tryna escape from Jennifer's apartment, but the aliens got to him."

"Wow... I'm sorry about that..." Tara sympathised with me as she exhaled sorrowfully.

"Hah. Ricky," Veronica giggled deliriously in the background, clearly unable to sense the tense atmosphere. She also seemed like she was high, although it was probably because she was losing blood quickly and feeling lightheaded.

I moved over to her to check on her. She was turning pale, although she remained conscious for the time being. "Hey, how are you feeling?" I checked in with her, touching her forehead to see if she was turning cold.

"Hella good!" she exclaimed loudly, shocking me as I took a step back. At that rate, she was going to make me death with all her shouting. "Oh, look," she said as her eyes turned away from us. She lifted her finger up to point at a playground in front of us, across the street. "It's the playground that Jennifer and I first met at when we were young," she mentioned randomly.

I glanced over to the playground as well. However, I quickly shifted my eyes away after noticing many unsightly bodies lying there, including those of children. I didn't wish to think about dead children just moments before I myself were about to end up dead. "Ah, Jen... if only she didn't leave like that. I owe her a proper apology," I sighed regretfully as I went back to talking about Jennifer.

"Well, let's hear it," a familiar voice sounded in the distance. I turned quickly, noticing a woman walking down the dim street at the corner of the junction near us. "Just kidding," the voice spoke again as it was revealed to be that of Jennifer.

"Jen, you're back?" I questioned, completely not expecting her to return as it was understandable for her to remain mad for more than five minutes over me withholding life-changing information from them.

She sighed as she approached me. "Look. Although I don't condone your choice of keeping your knowledge of this incoming attack from us, I can't fault you forever. We don't have forever. You and Ricky saved us from that doomed restaurant when the attack began. We would have burned up to ashes if you guys didn't drag us out before the building exploded. So, now, before anymore explosions happen, let's get you guys out of here and to rescue," she said, making quite a re-entry speech.

"Well... here's the thing," I stated, clenching my teeth. "There's no time for us to get rescued. That thing there," I said, pointing to the alien mothership once again, "is going to blast this whole city to bits in the next minute or so. We will either be crushed by falling debris, fried from the electric shock if we touch any metal, or burnt by the intense heat."

Jennifer clasped her hands together, letting out a sigh as she began to think about how we could make some attempt to survive at the very least. "Since you said that thing will electrocute us, I think it's a safe bet not to touch the car," she brainstormed.

"Touch the car? Who would do that when there's a nuke?" Veronica chuckled in the background sarcastically, snorting afterwards.

"And as for the falling debris, as long as we don't hide in or behind any buildings from the direction of the blast, we should be unaffected," she added, ignoring Veronica's mindless remarks. "For the heat, though... do you have anything that can cover us up since we can't hide in the buildings?" she inquired.

"Sure, I do," I responded cheerily. "I've always got a couple of fire blankets in the trunk of my car. Let's use that to shield us from the heat."

"I'll get them now," Veronica agreed as she ran over to my wrecked car.

However, just as we were preparing ourselves for the beam to strike down on the city, Tara interrupted us, breathing loudly and anxiously as she stared at the mothership. Before long, she began pointing at it to direct our attention to it. And as I stared at it, I noticed that the centre of the base of the ship—where the voltaic beam was seemingly going to be released from—was vibrating subtly. However, it only got more violent and vigorous as a short amount of time went by.

Thus, I rushed to gather everyone together to prepare for the calamity that was about to be disastrous to an unimaginable extent. "They are going to blast the beam in any second now!" I warned everyone before gesturing to Tara to help move Veronica away from the building she was leaning on and closer to the street.

Tara got down on the ground and sat beside Veronica, tucking her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them as she braced for the explosion. Veronica slinged her left arm around the frightened kid, her right arm grounded on the rough sidewalk for stability. As I watched Jennifer drag fire blankets out from the hood of my car, I gathered to close to the girls on the ground, my hands up to catch the blankets that I signalled to her to toss.

However, just as I caught her attention, a blinding flash that outshone the sun stopped us. Not long after, thunder clapped deafeningly, paralysing two of my vital senses for a brief moment. Struggling to open my eyes, I only caught a quick glimpse of the cataclysmic explosion in the distance, the buildings around it toppling and crumbling to bits towards us like dominoes.

In the moment after, I felt a few sets of cloth cover me completely. Stunned, it took me a moment to realise that they were the fire blankets that Jennifer was holding seconds ago. Despite the multiple thick layers of the blankets completely sealing the girls and I in our own insulated dome, I could still feel the intense radiation from the voltaic beam. It was almost as if I was getting a sunburn.

The girls and I attempted to ground the sheets completely, resisting the relentless shockwave from the explosion and the wave of air and debris being pushed towards us by collapsing buildings. Nonetheless, the pressure was too great for us to handle, and at some point, the blankets pried open slightly, allowing the scorching air outside to enter. As the shockwave passed, the blankets swiftly fell back down to the ground, however.

After much nervous and anxious waiting, we finally decided it was time to examine our surroundings. I pulled the edge of one of the blankets up slightly, still feeling the hot air lingering around. However, it was no longer as brutal, its intensity now reduced to around that of an average heat wave.

As we got out of the blankets, we scanned our surroundings. I quickly realised that everything had become unrecognisable in just mere seconds. The area where the Sears Tower was supposed to stand at was now a column of smoke, somewhat blocked by more layers of smoke closer to us. It was nearly impossible to see anything just further than a mile, thanks to the floating debris in the air.

However, none of this destruction truly mattered when we noticed something. As I checked on the girls, I realised that there were only two of them—Veronica and Tara. "Where's Jennifer?" I questioned out loud, quickly forgetting that the fire blankets that were magically thrown onto us were in the hands of Jennifer previously. There was only one explanation for this:

She threw the blankets on us but not on herself.

My theory turned out to be correct, as I found a severely burnt Jennifer lying on the ground, her head twisted to the side. However, she was still moving slightly, proving to be alive despite the explosion that she had weathered without any protection.

As Tara noticed this, she covered her mouth with her hand tightly to stifle a gasp, while Veronica knelt back down on the ground to observe her friend's condition, with disbelief obvious in her eyes. Jennifer's face and skin was completely disfigured, making her almost unrecognisable, similar to that of the cityscape.

"Jen! You're alive!" Veronica sobbed as she touched her friend's scarred face.

"I... am..." Jennifer mouthed, her speech almost incoherent.

"W-why didn't you try to save yourself?" I asked, surprised but also guilty for taking her selflessness so easily.

However, Jennifer didn't respond. Her eyes just seemed to stare blankly at the ruins directly ahead and the collapsed structures beyond them. I didn't know what to do about her critical condition, and I could tell that the others were deeply concerned as well. At the rate that rescue were to come—if there was going to be any in the first place, she was frankly not going to make it. Nevertheless, Veronica still wanted to assess her best friend's condition.

"Jen, a-are you there?" she asked, looking straight into her friend's eyes, which were not returning the gaze. "Can you see anything? W-what do you see?"

Finally, after a few seconds, she decided to respond. However, no one expected those words to be last of hers, paired with a grin that meant farewell.

"I... see the... playground where we first... met."