The world around the running family was pitch black. Alexander felt his eyes trying to adjust but saw no benefit reveal itself. The skies above were cloudy, obscuring the full moon and plunging the streets into a darkness that could not be pierced. They had left the lights of the camp behind them, just as they had left the sounds of the fighting.

That was all they used to guide them. The screams of terrified women and children, the clash of weapons, and the howls of beasts unknown. All they knew was that they had to run in the opposite direction. They had to get as far away from the slaughter as possible even if that lead them into new dangers.

Nicholas found their trail easily enough. He could hear the panicked voices communicating and attempting to stay together in the dark. The bat’s large ears flapped as he ran behind the group, keeping his distance but steadily gaining on them. Though he didn’t recognize them immediately, as soon as Alexander whispered something to his mother the slim creature knew who he had been following.

He didn’t much care that he had found his apprentice and his family, all that mattered was that he wouldn’t be alone. His feet softly padded against the dirt road, silent but he knew that wouldn’t stop the creatures behind him. They would just follow his scent. The scent of his fear, which seemed so palpable in the air around him.

His thrall jogged beside him, easily keeping the pace he had set. The man was an older one, with a thick greying beard that ran down into the middle of his chest. He had been a loyal servant to Nicholas, something that his master would never return. The grimy clothes that covered his body, coupled with the unkempt state of his hair signalled that Nicholas didn’t take very good care of his servant. He fed him yes, but that seemed to be the extent of it.

The man was tough, all sinew with barely an ounce of fat. His skin was taut and leathery and seemed to only scrunch up as he moved. His empty eyes sat in sunken eye sockets, barely perceiving the world around him. Of the entities in the streets that night perhaps only this man stayed calm. All the other thralls had been thrown into the jaws of the beasts as soon as they had appeared. They had died to protect their masters, and allow for the battle thralls to be awoken. They had died, dumb and without thought, cut open and eaten before their brains even registered the pain.

Alexander and his family stumbled from an alleyway into an empty street, pausing for only a moment to catch their breath. Doctor Pisk shakily pushed at his glasses, one hand seemingly glued to them as they had moved. Diana took steady deep breaths, her body burning with the strain that she had put it through. Macy still lay wrapped up against her mother’s back, but the frantic cries had died into a whimper as even she read the atmosphere. They had bought themselves some time, and they used that now to regain some spent energy. They didn’t dare talk, saving their breaths and only sharing glances to communicate.

Before too long Nicholas met up with them, his eyes glinting in the faint light. He hadn’t meant to get this close, or even reveal his presence but as soon as he and his thrall stepped from the darkened alcove Alexander’s eyes had zoomed straight towards them. Nicholas was just as frightened as the group he was following. He was just as frantic to get away.

Alexander was hyper aware. His panicked state had already given him plenty of false alarms. Any sign of movement, any noise or sight that even seemed remotely out of place was cause for alarm. Every step he had taken into the night made his heart rate race all the more within his chest. He felt as though his senses were on fire, his eyes waving wildly about as he drank in everything he could. Nicholas could see the way the panicked boy was acting, he could see Alexander beginning to launch himself towards the glistening eyes in the dark.

“It’s me!” Nicholas chirped he voice barely above a whisper, trying to stop the boy before he attacked.

Alexander paused, his fists raised. He had heard the gentle footsteps of the pair behind him as they had entered the wide open street. Without his own families movements echoing about on the walls around him he was sure he would have heard it earlier. His fear addled mind tried to place the voice, only for a snarl to pass his lips as he caught another glimpse of the golden eyes.

Nicholas laughed at the sudden change in his pupil, his teeth glinting as his smile lit up the night. An ear splitting shriek suddenly filled the air ruining the reunion. Both Diana and her husband recognized the noise, their eyes lighting up in terror as they turned. Practiced movements took over the pair as their bodies twitched into action. Diana suddenly flipped the parcel on her back onto her chest, hunkering down and curling around the precious bundle now in her arms as she scrambled for cover. Doctor Pisk stepped towards his son with his arms out stretched as he fought to clasp at his child, fingers working their way into fabric.

A rippling sensation tore through the street, sending rubble tumbling about as the world seemed to shake uncontrollably. A moment later a wall of noise and light hit the assembled figures causing each of them to stumble. Alexander was tossed to the ground, ripped from his father’s grasp suddenly, the pair scattered and slammed against the ground. Diana was the only one to hold steady, low and shuddering as her body took the brunt of the force. Alexander felt his shoulder slam into the ground, his legs tumbling behind him as he was sent careening into a low stone wall. His eyes were drawn to the direction of his former home as they tried to focus once more. The spiralling flames that ran upwards to the sky howled in their fury, lighting the world in a grand display of power. Green sparks tinged with a radiating energy ran along the ground from the centre of the impact. He caught a glimpse of Nicholas’s tumbling body farther down the street, the skinny bat taking the impact far worse than the boy observing him. The creature fell still in a crumbling pile of rubble, one clawed hand bent at a strange angle sticking out from bundled fabric.

The world was silent for a moment, as though the explosion had frozen everything in time. Slowly, moment by moment it awoke. Cries filled the air, as frightened howling echoed about concrete walls. Alexander’s eyes widened as he saw the falling figures. Human, bat, and wolf. Whatever the fire hadn’t consumed had been shot upwards. Now as his fought to catch his breath, those still living bodies came crashing downwards.

“Those fucking idiots!” Diana screamed, her face bloodshot as she began to stand. Her face was filled with fury, her eyes blazing as she peered into the spiralling flames above their head. A trail of blood began to seep down one side of her face, causing her to shoot out a pink spittle as she shrieked. Who she was spitting her rage at was not apparent, though her eyes never left the pillar of flame.

Alexander struggled to stand, his one arm pressed against the ground. Everything in his vision swam, the shockwave had seemingly shook everything within his head loose. He laughed strangely as fatigue seemingly consumed his body. He tried shoving himself to his feet, only for his eyes to blank out causing him to lose any gained progress. A strong arm gripped him suddenly, tugging the boy to his feet.

When Doctor Pisk saw the unfocused look in his son’s eyes he growled, yanking the boy harshly upwards once again. The right side of the man’s face had been brutally scraped clean. What was left of the skin lay in tatters. His right eye was ringed with shards of glass, the remnants of the glasses that had once clung to his face. Raw red flesh lay exposed and glistening in the moonlight as he shouldered his son. He took the weight without complaint, forcing himself to bring himself towards his wife.

If Alexander had seen the look in his father’s eyes he would have been proud. The hate within them singed everything he gazed upon. One blue pool now streaked with red lines as the damage to his face leaked ever deeper into his frame. Doctor’s Pisk’s eyes mirrored his wife’s words, the two of them staring at the flame with equal distaste. They had seen such weapons before. They had been there when the first ones had fallen. They were still there when the millionth slammed into the earth. That any of them had survived the end came as an unpleasant surprise.

That anyone would still use them made their hearts fill with burning spite. Both sets of teeth grit together as the pair stared at the flames. Any who had survived this long knew just what scars the weapons left behind. They had long learned what the tiny green sparks that now wormed their way into the earth meant. Those sparks would return as green mist months later, poisoning the land for miles around the initial devastation. Those sparks were the reason mutants existed, and they were why the world struggled to move on. They twisted all organic frames they came in contact with. Leaving nothing but pain in their wake.

It was only when the first bloody bodies began to slam into the ground surrounding them that they began to move once again. Bloody mulch slapped against unforgiving stone walls, lifeless bodies and the still living treated in the same manner. One wolf-like frame hit the ground with limbs grasping at the stone as it fought to regain control, only for its efforts to be rewarded by another of its kind slamming into it. Both bodies spiralled out of control into a crumbling wall, concrete tumbling about their intertwined broken figures a moment later.

Not every person that hit the ground died on impact. The world surrounding the limping family was suddenly filled with begging cries, mangled faces peering at them from tangled piles. One by one they were joined by others walking from the site of the blast, all conflict forgotten with the poisonous reminder still leaking into the air behind them.

First to join them was a limping figure, carrying a broken body. Nicholas spat and wriggled in the grasp that held him, trying to free himself, but the shattered bones in his limbs prevented him from having much of an effect. The loyal figure of the thrall that now limped under his weight carried his master despite the protests. His own shattered calf was ignored, the thrall pushing all that away for the sake of the figure in his arms.

A limping figure passed by Alexander’s right, a twisted fur lined frame with a large rod of metal sticking out of its chest. It whined like a wounded dog, its eyes meeting the family before continuing to move down the street. Every wolfish body it found it shook, trying to find any signs of life, trying to find the remnants of its pack. Diana and the Doctor decided to ignore the figure almost instantly, and it chose to do the same towards them. Its worried noises joined the screeching protests behind them as the ragtag group moved blindly away from the flames.

Alexander made threatening movements towards the beast when his addled mind realized its existence, but his father kept a firm grip on the woozy boy. Adrenaline was the only thing fueling the man now, and even then the pain pulsating through him was almost too much to bear. It took all his strength to continue onwards, dragging the half conscious frame of his child behind him.

Everything had been put on standstill when the weapon had been fired. Somewhere miles away a crew was cleaning up, putting away ammunition and taking down the large artillery piece. A single round had been fired, but that had been enough. The stockpile beside the crew was placed onto the back of a truck, practiced hands clearing everything away in the span of a few minutes.

By the time the stumbling survivors found their way to the site, all they found was an empty clearing. Tire tracks had been swept clean, and all evidence that any weapon had been here was wiped out. The clearing had been a good spot to fire the weapon, just as it was a good place to rest. Weary bodies began to stumble into the clearing, wounds apparent on all that crept from the gloom. Alexander and his family were the first, their wounds minor compared to the horrors that would find their way into the clearing in the coming hours.

Everybody collapsed upon finding the space, tired and dying bodies simply falling limp. Wolf lay beside human which lay beside bat. All hostilities forgotten as pain wracked every inch of their bodies. The fight had been burned from them, their homes and their leaders lay dead and empty behind them. No attempts at organization were made, as tired individuals simply slept where they fell.

Diana tried her best to tend to her small family before she too succumbed, setting them up in a small space barely sheltered from the weather. Thin blankets were set out, gauze was wrapped about bleeding faces as Alexander slipped from consciousness the final time that night.

He left the world a chaotic mess. Flame still danced in the sky, sparks still played with and devastated those who survived. When he awoke it would be to a world he barely recognized, but one that his parents had lived through a dozen times. The world left after one of the bombs fell.