RIM OF THE WORLD

• [3] It Has A Dog

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It's empty. Abandoned.
"Hello?" I yell out as loud as I can. No response.

"They must've evacuated after they got the message." Alex put together.

"They left us..." Dariush trailed off.

"Not all of them." Gabriel points to a man who is sleeping on a bench.

"It's heavy metal Conrad!" Dariush yells before we run over to him. He doesn't move as we shove and yell to try and wake him up.

"Is he dead?" I whisper to no one in particular.
Gabriel puts his fingers to Conrad's neck pulse.
"He's breathing. He must've slept through the evacuation."

"What kind of asshole sleeps through an evacuation?" Dariush strains the last few words. I look around and see his canteen painted white and says 'MILK'. "Wake him up!"

I groan and unclip the lid to take a whiff. I gag and pull it away from my nose. "That's definitely not milk." I cough and take a glug. Yep. Not milk. Zhenzhen opens her hand for me to pass the bottle. She then sculls the rest of it and chucks the now empty bottle away.

"That's uh.. I don't think... that.. was.. milk?" Dariush says.

"Moving on, lets just go and see if any landline phones work. Or computers. Or anything."
We walk to the welcoming hut where we got our dorm keys and camp numbers. Gabriel runs to the phone in the wall and tries to listen to see if anything is beeping.

"The lines dead." He sighs a discouraged noise. Alex flips the light switch and nothing happens.

"That's cause' the powers out. Do you know what an EMP is?" He says, walking closer towards us.

"Uh Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. That's that music white people dance to." Dariush says.

"That's EDM!, dumbass." I scoff.

"EMP stands for electro magnetic pulse. A nuclear explosion in the upper atmosphere can cause one. And it knocks out most electronics over a really big area." Alex explains. I help Zhenzhen stash a bag full of useful resources but also keep my ears out for information.

"What does that mean?"

"It means nothing works. Not cars, phones, computers. Nothing." I say.

"Well, you guys have food and a roof over your head. You could do a lot worse than just staying here and waiting this out." Gabriel pitches in.

"Wait, waiting what out?"

BOOM

Another explosion answers Dariush's question. A few curses left all our mouths and we (stupidly) ran outside the welcoming area to see what the noise did.
Planes flew in the horizon and we came to a stop.
"Those are F-22 Raptor air superiority fighters." Alex said in awe.

"What the hell are those ships they're fighting?" Gabriel asked, our eyes glued to the scene in the distance.

"...I've never seen anything like them." Alex responded in a soft whisper.
The engines grew louder and the planes we're suddenly infront of us. Screaming, we ran as fast as we could to anywhere but the shooting was now all around us.
An explosion to the left of us made us swerve to the right, but another explosion occurred and we were sent hurling back, airborne.
I take a sharp breath in and groan. I'm winded.
"You guys okay?" I croak out. From my experience with boxing, I know what to do to relieve the wind. The responses were groans and curses. I dusted myself off and held my hand out for Gabriel. After I hauled him up, we all backed in a circle.
"What's going on?!" Someone shouted, I didn't know who. The gunshot zaps and aircraft noises blocked out any other noises. Planes flew above us fast as a bullet. I spun around, my gaze following them. But they landed on an aircraft heading straight for us.
"Guys?" I whimper.