And all the world is torn asunder

Story by night_fox1 on SoFurry

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#1 of And all the world is torn asunder

So yeah, first story of a short series I'm writing. At first, this was going to be a stand alone short story, but it kind of got bigger the more I thought about it.

Please rate...


This is the Emergency Broadcasting System. All residence of the towns of Lakeview, Riverspeak, Godstone, High Turnum, and Carter are to proceed immediately to the town of Lincoln for evacuation. Take only one bag for each member of your household, and do not deviate from marked routs. Be aware of your surroundings at all times, and do not impede military vehicles. Convoys, and airlifts leave every fifteen minutes. This is the Emergency Broadcasting System...

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Molly pressed her fist down on her car horn as if by some chance the harder she pressed down the faster traffic would go. But every car on the highway was at a complete standstill even though all lanes were open for west bound travel. It was nothing, but a chorus of honking cars, choking exhaust, and shouting drivers. "Fuck it all," she hissed, gritting her teeth. Daniel sat in the passenger seat tuning to different stations on the radio while Jamie leaned halfway out the back window, recording the droves of tanks rumbling down the median, and the helicopters that thundered overhead. They were outside of Riverspeak in the flat farmland that separated the town from Lincoln. Angrily, Molly ran her fingers through her hair, clinching the golden, and red highlighted locks in her fists. The red fox had a problem with stress. "Is there any news," she asked Daniel tensely. "It's all emergency broadcast stuff," the coyote said, flipping to the same female computer voice on every station. "Turn it to the university station," Jamie said, the silver fox still leaning out the window. Daniel quickly switched it over to the AM frequency, and struggled to hear over the static, and the sound of traffic. "...The roads the military have marked are the only secure roads out of Riverspeak," the male voice said shakily. "We have multiple reports coming into the news room of soldiers engaging enemy forces in the wooded areas around the town as well as in Lakeview, and Carter. Students are urged to stay on marked roads or to go to the shelters the army has set up at the recreation center, and at Pierce Hall." "Enemy forces," Molly said. "What the hell do they mean by that?" "Chinese, maybe," Daniel said. "Or North Korea." "No, man," Jamie said. "Russia. Only the Russians would have the balls to pull this off." No one knew what was happening. All the major news networks went black all at once, and dead air crackled on all the syndicated radio stations. Rumors circulated through the dorms at Riverspeak University, and ran wild when the first F-22's screamed overhead, and the emergency sirens began to blare. "If anyone has seen anything," the male voice continued over the radio, "please call into the station. We'd really like to know what's going on so we can pass it on to our listeners." A soldier passed by the car, a wolf, observing the standstill traffic, and speaking into his radio. "Excuse me," Molly said, poking her head out the window. "Do you know what's happening?" "Everything's fine ma'am," he answered plainly. "No need to worry." "Well, do you know when traffic will be moving?" "Like I said ma'am, everything is fine," the wolf replied as several squadrons of warplanes roared overhead. "We'll get you moving in no time." With that, the wolf continued down the road, speaking back into his radio. "He was helpful," Jamie said. Intensely aggravated, Molly shoved one of her CD's into the car's player, and turned the volume up. Pounding metal screamed over the speakers, and Daniel could immediately see Molly beginning to relax as she banged her head to the music. Angry death metal always seemed to calm her down, especially before exams when she'd blare it long into the night while she studied, much to everyone's dismay. The humid summer heat combined with the exhaust of hundreds of running cars made the standstill utterly intolerable. Fed up with the heat, people got out of their cars to catch the breeze as it wafted lazily by. Some people turned their cars off all together, and sat on top of their vehicles, smoking cigarettes, or guzzling down bottles of water. The soldiers that walked down the lines of cars didn't try to stop them, probably knowing they'd be stuck there for a while. More tanks drove down the median, quickly followed by droves of mobile artillery, and mobile SAM's. "All the tanks are headed towards Riverspeak," Jamie shouted over the music. "Do you think whatever's attacking us is at the university?" Molly shrugged. "If they are, it gives me an excuse to go back home for the summer. Summer classes, hah! What was I thinking?" The phone in Daniel's pants rang its shrill tone, and the coyote quickly fished it out of his pocket. It was his brother, Aaron. "Hello," Daniel said as he turned the music down, and rolled up the window to buffer the sounds of outside. "Daniel," his brother said. "Daniel have you seen it? They're in the sky. So many of them." "Seen them," Daniel asked. "Seen what? What's in the sky? Aaron, where's mom, and dad? Are they close? Are you okay?" "She's so beautiful," Aaron said, trailing off. "Whose beautiful? Aaron, just tell me--" The phone clicked off as the bars on his phone dropped to nothing. Daniel let out a long, exacerbated sigh, flinging his phone carelessly onto the dashboard. His brother was on a daily regiment of psychiatric medicine. He had been all his life. Many times he had seen his brother fall into a state of manic delirium when his meds weren't refilled on time. But, this was different. His voice sounded more dreamlike then delirious. But it made him worry even more. Daniel tried redialing his brother, but his phone was still out of service. "Do you have any bars on your phone, Molly," Daniel asked. "No," Molly said. "Funny, I had full bars a second ago." "What about you Jamie?" "No, not at all." There was a sudden knock on Daniel's window. A middle aged fox stood tensely outside the door. "Yes," Daniel said, rolling down the window. "Hey," the fox started. "I was on the phone with my son, but my phone lost service. Can I use one of yours?" "We don't have service either," Daniel said. "You don't have service too," a female panther said, overhearing them. Then suddenly, Daniel heard it, a deep rumble that made his teeth reverberate, and made his bones rattle. The traffic fell silent. The horns stopped blowing, and the people stopped talking. Everyone directed their attention to the horizon, letting out frightened gasps, and pointing shakily in the sky behind them. Daniel opened his door, and stood outside, his eyes growing wide upon seeing it. There, in the sky was a giant black mass hovering across the skyline, just above Riverspeak. It looked like a giant sea urchin with dozens of stiffly moving spikes that swayed about as it let out its pulsing rumble. It was the color of night, darker even, like they were staring into an endless black void. It made chills run down their spines. Everyone was silently transfixed on the sight before them. Molly's words caught in her throat as she got out too, and all that Jamie could do was hold his phone up to it, capturing the unearthly thing on video. Even the footsteps of the soldiers running around them seemed oddly muted. Then great beams of blue light flew down from the thing, bathing Riverspeak in a flood of white fire, shaking the ground, and filling the air with the smell of harsh chemicals. Some people let out screams as they watched their town incinerate, but for the most part everyone stayed silently in awe of it, too petrified to do anything else. The loud piercing sounds of rockets brought Daniel back to reality. Deafening tank blasts pounded his ears numb, and the sonic booms of low flying planes nearly knocked him off his feet. Everywhere there was fire, and noise. Frantic, terrified people jumped back into their cars, or ran away on foot. Daniel, Molly, and Jamie immediately got back into their vehicle, Jamie still recording every second of it. Molly threw her car into reverse, hitting the abandoned car behind them as she tried to get over into the other lane, and out into the open field. People jumped climbed over the hood of the car, desperate to get away. Molly slammed her foot on the gas as she crossed the lane next to her, but as she did another car plowed into the side of them, causing Daniel to smack his head against the dash. The coyote's claws dug into the seat as the other car laid on the gas, making them skid sideway into another car. The windshield cracked, and shattered, spraying sharp glass onto Molly, and Daniel. With a deep, rage filled growl, Molly floored it once again, breaking free of the two cars, and out into the field. The two were covered in blood. Thick pieces of glass stuck out of Molly's arm, the red of the blood blending in with her dark red fur. Daniel went to touch the place where his head had hit the dash, but winced painfully as his fingers brushed a large gash on his forehead. Soldiers with shoulder mounted rockets fired their weapons from the cover of barns, and from the porches of farm houses while tanks continued to fire round after round into the sky. Molly gritted her teeth hard as she drove through the knee high corn, sheer adrenaline fueled determination burning in her eyes, dodging tanks and soldiers as they made their way out of the field and onto a poorly defined dirt road. Daniel looked into the rear view mirror just in time to see the black vessel fire a white glowing sphere into the air. It climbed high, smoking and flaring as it went, until it became nothing more than a dot in the vast blue sky. It hovered there for a few minutes until it exploded, bathing everything in pure, searing light. Jamie let out a short, agonized scream as he dropped his phone, and clutched his face, quivering hunched over in the back seat. He had looked directly into the light. "Jamie," Daniel shouted. "Are you okay?" Then he saw the blood dripping from Jamie's eyes, and at that moment Daniel knew he was blind. "Hang in there," the coyote managed to say. He tried to say something else, something more comforting, but he was too overwhelmed by the sight of his high school friend bleeding from his ruined eyes. As the light faded into a dim afterglow, Daniel ducked his head outside. A black cloud had begun to form where the white ball had exploded. It was small at first, but it grew larger, and larger, billowing up like an angry black storm. The coyote watched as the cloud enveloped the sky, swallowing up the sun, and stretching in all directions. The land became as dark as a starless night, and fear overtook them.