After what seemed like an eternity, Robert looked at the digital watch on his wrist and saw that thirty minutes had passed since he locked himself inside this room. To him the minutes had felt like hours. In that time, he had filled a backpack with food, clothes, bullets for the rifle and the handgun that he had clipped to his waist. He also tied snowshoes to the backpack and stuffed it full of climbing gear and something to sleep in and keep him warm. He was preparing for the worst. He didn’t know what would be waiting for him when he opened the door. If he could even open the door. He hoped that the wave of snow and rock that had come racing toward him hadn’t blocked him in.
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, Robert threw the backpack over his shoulders, clipped it in place and then moved to the door. Disengaging the lock, he pushed on the door and found to his relief that it opened easily.
Sunlight hit him in the face as he poked his head out. Outside, there was nothing but snow, the glare stung his eyes at first. Placing a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, he took a look around. Ahead of him were the basement stairs that lead up to the first floor of his cabin. But as for the cabin, there was nothing left. Robert stepped over the threshold of the door and left the security of the shelter behind him.
Moving over to the basement steps, he carefully climbed them, one at a time. He wasn’t sure how stable they were and didn’t want to fall through one and break a leg. Luckily, the wrist that he thought was broken earlier, was only sprained. He could still move it with only a little amount of pain. He knew it would get better over time. He had suffered worse.
At the top of the stairs, Robert stopped and looked around. The cabin that he had lived in for the past twenty one years was gone. Everything that he owned was gone. There was nothing left but broken boards and a few scattered remains. He could try to rummage through it all to salvage something, but it was pointless.
Turning his gaze towards the mountains in the distance, he stared at the thing that had suddenly changed his entire world in a matter of minutes. The tail end of it, if you could call it that, was sticking straight up into the air. The rest was hidden behind the mountains. Coal black against the pure white of the snow, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Robert watched as little black dots hovered around the top of it. He guessed that they were helicopters without putting the binoculars to his eyes.
The question that lingered in his mind now was what to do? Head east and try to get as far away from this rock as possible, or go straight for it and see what exactly it was that crashed into the ground. And then there was the silver ship he saw speed through the air and crash beyond the lake.
Deciding that there was nothing for him to the east and that it would be best to not go near the black rock, he would head towards the silver object to see if a plane had gone down. If he could help whoever had crashed, he would. Bending down to tie on his snowshoes heard a loud cracking sound, like a tree snapping in half come from the rock in the distance. He looked up quickly to see the helicopters fly away from it. Something was happening. Another loud pop came and then another. Robert threw the backpack off, grabbed the binoculars and threw them to his eyes.
The top of the rock was starting to crack. Giant fissures, hundred of feet in length, ran down the side of it. More popping sounds came and pieces of the rock began to fall away. Like a flower in bloom, the top of the rock began to open. Robert adjusted the focus, zooming in closer. Four symmetrical pieces had opened up, exposing the inside of the rock. Robert could only see a small portion of it, but there was something different. It looked to him like there was something moving in there.
An ear piercing scream shot across the landscape. Robert fell to his knees, throwing his hands to his ears. He forced himself to look up. From out of the rock came a fountain of grey specks. Thousands, millions of them shot straight up into the air. The helicopters that had hovered around the rock earlier were overtaken and Robert saw explosions in the air.
The scream slowly died, and the world was returned to silence, but the grey specks continued to pour out of the rock. Robert quickly finished tying on the snow shoes. He looked to the east, deciding if he should head that way after all. But when he looked up, all he could see was grey. The clear blue sky was covered like a blanket. What the hell is this stuff??
He stood there thinking for a moment, snow blowing gently around his feet. He knew that he should move, do something, but for the first time in what seemed like years, he didn’t know what to do. Should he just go back to his shelter and wait out whatever was happening? No, that wasn’t an option. He only had about two weeks rations left. Besides, whatever was in the air could be there for a long time, perhaps forever. Will the sun be blocked out?? He didn’t think so. Already he saw the grey specks falling out of the sky leaving patches of blue sky behind. But what was it that was falling from the sky?? Damn. He put the binoculars to his eyes again, but couldn’t make out what was up there. All he could see were little…things.