" Please take me to Alex now " Mira pleaded still struggling to process what her eyes were seeing
" Sure, come with me, " the lieutenant replied, moving forward and heading towards the next floor.
Mira followed the lady soldier closely and as they walked,she began to observe the facility.
The high security facility loomed imposingly,a monolith of steel and concrete that stood guard over the hundreds of refugees huddled inside,its cold sterile interior was punctuated by the fluorescent lights illuminating every corner of the vast space,their harsh glare reflecting off the polish floors highlighting every terrified face and desperate expression.
'This facility had obviously cost billions '
The whole place was giving off some FBI movie stuff, especially with the numerous soldiers who didn't seem to finish.
As they moved towards the other partition of the place, Mira's eyes suddenly darted towards the doors and once again her mouth hung open,the massive iron doors lined the perimeter of the facility,their intimidating size and impenetrable security which seemed to evoke a sense of claustrophobia and fear,' now that was some huge ass door!!!!
They soon reached a heavy, blast-proof door, emblazoned with a series of digital locks and a stern-looking insignia. Ria punched in a complex code, waited for the series of clicks and hisses, and then pushed the door open. The sudden burst of light from inside made Mira flinch.
The command center was a hive of activity, a stark contrast to the quiet corridors. Walls of monitors displayed swirling tactical maps, blurry satellite images, and complex data streams. Uniformed personnel moved with urgent purpose, their faces grim under the glow of the screens. And there, at the central holographic table, surrounded by his officers sat Alex, the youngest General of all times.
Mira stood by the door looking timid as she stared at the military personnels who had suddenly stopped their work and turned to look at her, they all except one soul had noticed her
When Mira finally stepped into the Command Center, the air felt several degrees colder.
Before Alex could realize she was there, she had seen the General that the world feared. He was standing over a tactical map, the blue light of the holograms casting sharp, jagged shadows across his face. He looked dangerously handsome—a lethal combination of high-born elegance and battlefield grit. His dark hair was swept back, though a few stray locks fell over a brow furrowed in a permanent, stoic scowl. His jaw was set so tightly it looked carved from granite, and his uniform—jet black and crisp despite the chaos—clung to his broad, powerful frame in a way that commanded absolute submission.
The aura he projected was suffocating. The soldiers around him moved like ghosts, barely breathing, their eyes downcast as if looking at him too long might draw his iron-cold ire. He was a pillar of unyielding stone, a man who had clearly signed the death warrants of thousands without a flicker of hesitation in his silver-grey eyes. He was the storm before the typhoon, a predator in a room full of prey.
Ria moved towards him offering her salute before whispering something into his ears and the transformation that followed afterwards was jarring as he swiftly turned around.
Upon seeing her, the "General" evaporated. The cold, suffocating pressure that had filled the room simply vanished, replaced by a raw, staggering vulnerability. His eyes, which had been scanning the monitors with the precision of a hawk, softened instantly as they landed on her. The terrifying mask of command broke, leaving behind only Alex—the man who had held her in the sunlight of a world that no longer existed.
The shift in the room was so absolute it was deafening. The soldiers, who had been frozen in Alex's orbit, now exchanged panicked, confused glances. Their commander—the man who had executed a scorched-earth retreat only hours prior—was looking at a woman as if she were the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth.
Alex didn't take his eyes off Mira, but his voice returned, though the "General's" edge was gone.
"Everyone out," he commanded. "Five minutes. Clear the floor. Now."
The room moved in a blur. Boots clicked on the metal floor as technicians and guards scrambled for the exits, eager to escape the confusing intimacy of the scene. As the heavy blast doors hissed shut, sealing them in the humming silence of the Command Center, the General disappeared entirely.
Alex lunged forward, catching Mira before she could reach him
"Mira. Mira, you're awake, does your head still hurts, huh are you in pain anywhere," he blurted out in one go, his hands—scarred and smelling of ozone—cupping her face with a tenderness that would have been unrecognizable to his men. He was no longer a pillar of stone; he was a man who looked like he had been starving for the sight of her.
Mira collapsed against his chest, her fingers clutching the stiff, tactical fabric of his uniform. The dam finally broke.
"Alex, what is this?" she sobbed into his shoulder, her voice muffled by the heavy Kevlar. "The people outside... the bunker... there are thousands of them. They're bleeding, Alex. They're so quiet. Why is it so quiet?"
"Shhh, I've got you," he whispered, burying his face in her hair, rocking her slightly. He was doting, his voice a low, soothing honey, desperate to provide a sanctuary that the world outside could no longer offer. "You're safe love I'm here . You don't have to be scared."
"Tell me what's happening Alex, what's going on, where are we and why are we here" she gasped, pulling back just enough to look into his silver-grey eyes, searching for the man she used to drink coffee with on Sunday mornings. "Why are we in a lockdown facility? Why is the city dark?"
Alex's expression fractured. He led her to a chair, kneeling in front of her so he was lower than she was—a posture of total submission. He took her shaking hands in his.
"I don't know how to say this Mira but I'll try to make it fast and simple" he declared. " Twenty-one hours ago, the grid went down," he began, his voice steady but hollow. "It wasn't a coup. It wasn't a war with any neighbor we know. We were attacked, Mira. By something... not from here, strange looking creatures we've never seen before"
Mira let out a sharp, hysterical puff of a laugh. "Extra-terrestrials? Alex, that's... that's a movie. That's not real."
"I wish it wasn't," he said grimly. He stood up, his movements stiff, and tapped a sequence into the primary console. "The city is in total lockdown because there is nowhere else to go. We believe... we believe these people in the facility are the only survivors left in the sector."
"No," Mira whispered, shaking her head. "No, that's impossible. What are you saying Alex"
Alex didn't have the time to convince his fiance
"Look at the monitors, Mira."
He played the first clip. It was grainy, captured from a thermal street HUD. Something large—angular and moving with a terrifying, rhythmic twitch—tore through a line of armored vehicles as if they were made of tin foil. The second clip was worse: a high-altitude drone shot of the city center. Great plumes of violet smoke rose from craters where skyscrapers used to be, and swarms of dark, spindly shapes moved through the streets like ink dropping into water.
Then, he pulled up the stills. High-resolution photos of the creatures. They weren't the little green men of fiction; they were nightmares of chitin and light, beautiful and horrific in their lethal design.
Mira's breath hitched. She stared at the screen, at the wreckage of the world she had lived in only yesterday. The reality of the "ghosts" in the hallway, the blood on the floors, and the iron-cold mask Alex had been wearing finally clicked into place.
She didn't scream. She simply leaned back, her face losing all color, and broke. The weight of a dead world settled over her, as she began to process it all