Aftermath

James's world was shattered, literally. The gravity fluctuation had left him with broken bones, a twisted wreck of a car, and a missing wife. Frank, his son, was safe in his arms, but the fate of Marie remained unknown.Frank clung to him, shaken and traumatized.

As James lay amidst the wreckage, he couldn't move, his body screaming in agony. He was trapped, unable to search for Marie. All he could do was hold Frank tight and pray for help to arrive.

The minutes ticked by like hours, but finally, the sound of sirens grew louder. James's heart raced as ambulances and firefighter cars arrived on the scene. He cried out for help, his voice hoarse from screaming for Marie.

As paramedics rushed towards him, James begged them to find his wife. "Please, you have to find her! She's out there somewhere! She's got honey-blonde hair, wavy, and bright blue eyes...please!"

He was powerless to search for Marie, unable to move, unable to hope. Time stagnated, each minute dragging like an eternity.

The paramedics nodded sympathetically, but their expressions were somber. "The search parties will do their best, sir. But we need to get you and your son to safety first."

With gentle care, they lifted James into the ambulance, Frank clinging to his hand. As they sped away from the devastation, James's mind reeled with thoughts of Marie.

Was she alive? Was she hurt? He turned to the other injured survivors, his eyes scanning their faces.

"Please, did you see her?" he asked, his voice cracking. "A woman, late twenties, honey-blonde hair? My wife, Marie?"

The survivors shook their heads, their faces somber. The paramedic tending to him spoke her voice soft and reassuring, "They will find her, sir. If she's still alive, they will surely find her."

James's eyes scanned the chaos outside, his heart sinking with each passing moment. Where was Marie? Would he ever see her again?

The ambulance doors closed, enveloping him in the sterile scent of medical equipment. The siren's wail faded, replaced by the beeping of machines and the murmurs of the injured.

James's grip on Frank's hand tightened, his eyes fixed on the boy's tear-stained face. They were alone now, left to face the unknown without Marie. The darkness closed in, a suffocating shroud of uncertainty.

The paramedic informed James that he had to be sedated.As the anesthesia seeped into his veins, James's eyelids grew heavy, his pain and worries slowly succumbing to the allure of sleep.

The beeping of machines and the murmur of voices receded into the background, replaced by a sense of numbness and disconnection that enveloped him like a shroud.

He felt himself floating in a void, his mind and body suspended in a state of temporary reprieve, as if the medication had severed his ties to the world. His thoughts grew foggy and disjointed, like wisps of cloud drifting across a summer sky.

Marie's face hovered in his mind, her bright blue eyes and honey-blonde hair fading in and out of focus like a photograph developing in a darkroom. He tried to reach out to her, but his arms felt heavy and unresponsive, as if weighed down by anchors.

The last thing James remembered was the sound of Frank's voice, his son's small hand clinging to his own like a lifeline. "Daddy...Daddy..." The words echoed in his mind like a whispered promise, a reminder of the love that bound them together.

And then, nothing. Only the darkness, and the faint hum of machines in the distance, a steady heartbeat that seemed to pulse through the void.

James's world had been reduced to this: a solitary, floating existence, suspended between life and death, where the only sound was the steady thrum of machines and the only light was the faint glow of hope.

James's eyelids fluttered open, the haze of anesthesia slowly lifting. The hospital room came into focus, and his gaze locked onto the TV mounted on the wall. Frank was nowhere to be seen, but the news anchor's somber expression and the chaotic footage behind him made James's heart race.

"An unprecedented global catastrophe...unknown forces disrupt Earth's fields...gravitational and electromagnetic, chaos everywhere..."

The newscaster's words tumbled out in a dire cadence, each phrase painting a more ominous picture. Satellites plummeted to Earth, internet connections went dark, and power grids failed.

Transportation systems grounded to a halt as aircrafts, ships, and trains lost their way. Weather patterns went haywire, unleashing severe storms and temperature fluctuations.

As James struggled to process the magnitude of the disaster, the camera cut to footage of cities in ruins. Skyscrapers crumbled, their steel beams twisting like paper clips.

Buildings disintegrated, leaving behind trails of debris and destruction. The once-familiar cityscape was now a desolate, surreal wasteland.

The sounds of devastation filled the air: crumbling concrete, shattering glass, and twisting metal. Streets were littered with remnants of what once was, as people stumbled through the wreckage, their faces etched with shock and disbelief.

The relentless pulling force of the gravity fluctuation left no building standing, no structure intact. Cities were consumed by an invisible void.

The global crisis escalated further with the mysterious disappearance of many.How could a million people vanish without a trace.

James's mind reeled, his thoughts racing back to Marie. Where was she? Was she safe? The uncertainty was suffocating.

He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain shot through his body, forcing him back onto the bed.A nurse rushed in, concern etched on her face, "Mr. James, please, you need to rest. Your son is safe,we just sent him to get something to eat."

She paused for a second before adding,"He refused to leave your side for hours,worried that you would also vanish.Sir, you need recover for your son,he desperately needs you."

James's grip on the bed rail tightened feeling guilty for pain his son was going through. He then looked up and asked,

"His mother...Marie...have you guys found her?"

The nurse's expression was sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Mr. James. We've had no reports of her yet. But we'll keep searching."

James's heart sank, but he refused to give up hope. He had to find Marie, no matter what it took.

Amidst the chaos and destruction, he clung to the thought of his wife,the mother of his child,the love of his life as it took everything in him not to breakdown crying.