Chapter 0: Prologue

We were running, our backpacks hitting our shoulders as we dodged dead cars and falling chunks of debris set free from the buildings around us. Navigating around the benches, decorative trees and other obstacles on the eerie street, desperately putting one foot after the other. We couldn't stay home after the last news. It was an ancient loudspeaker, announcing the coming impact of a meteor roughly 35m in diameter in our city. The croaking, screeching loudspeaker was the only way now to reach the masses.

We were instructed to head to the nearest subway station, as it would be deep enough to shield us from most of the impact, but the city around us would be destroyed. So, we ran.

The showers now were almost like meteorological phenomena, raining bright white stones like bullets. We couldn't rest however, and we had to keep going, as the bombardment of these small, pebble sized meteors was the precursor for the massive one heading our way.

"How far is the station?" my father asked. He was tall and skinny, just like me, with dark eyes and gray hair, from constantly working two jobs to support us.

"It's not far now, a few hundred meters." I panted. I was out of shape, but after the apocalypse started, I had to get in a bit of exercise if I wanted to survive. My endurance was still horrendous though.

Running in the shadows of the few remaining buildings intact, we continued our journey in the skeleton of the city I grew up in. We had a few days' worth of food and necessities in our packs, but we were running low. Honestly, things were bad. No electricity, no water, no internet or phones, we could only hope there were other people down there that could help us. The crackling, rusted voice of the announcer came again.

"Estimated impact in ten minutes. I repeat, impact in ten minutes. Find shelter immediately. I repeat…" There were still a few places that had primitive technology that could be used, and a simple coil with a magnet in speakers wasn't too complex. Anything with a microchip in it, however, was destroyed as soon as the first meteors came down a few months ago. Things only went downhill from there.

Finally, we reached the subway entrance. It too was covered in large chunks of concrete and has almost completely collapsed under its own weight. We saw a gap between two concrete panels that fell down and squeezed through. We slid down the broken escalators. The subways were indeed down deep underground, but not so much that it wouldn't be impossible to destroy. I was beginning to get worried.

Soon we reached the bottom, and saw a few people, maybe a hundred with frightened, dirty faces looking at us. We just collapsed from the exhaustion of having to run all this way, and half sat down, half fell onto the concrete floor.

A man hurried over to us and asked how bad the surface was. We talked briefly, he explained that they had a small amount of food they were willing to share. We told him what we knew, as well as the most recent news, that a big one was coming.

The echoes of the impacts of small meteors were still audible even this deep. It reminded me of rain pattering on the window, but in a much more terrifying, this could kill you any second kind of way. We only had a few minutes until the impact.

The problem with these meteorites was that they didn't vaporize or disintegrate in the atmosphere and came all the way down to the surface. From the few I've seen, it was made of a glassy, white marble looking material, that after hours down at the surface, sublimated into the air, leaving nothing behind. These were not normal meteorites.

In the relative safety of the subway, I started thinking if this was really the end. I didn't know where to run. My father did all he could to keep me safe, and we worked as a team. But soon, the city will be reduced to rubble, the forests set ablaze, and then what? Where do we go, what do we do?

A large explosion shook the subway, and some dust fell from the ceiling. The sonic boom penetrated my bones and shook up all my organs. It was like it was right above me. I looked at my dad, and I could see the terror in his eyes as well. He quickly gathered his composure and forced a confident look on his face. I'm not a kid anymore, so he won't fool me. But in this situation, I was still the kid, and he the parent who had to protect me, and I was still thankful he tried.

"It'll be okay, Eli. We'll figure something out." He whispered to me. He was like that, trying to calm me down even in this situation, where he was just as terrified or more than anyone else. He began glowing with a soft blue light. My eyes widened. What is happening? I wanted to tell him, or ask him something, anything but then…

Another explosion shook the whole station. This was much bigger than the one before. It was right above us. In a terrifying, bone chilling crunch, the ceiling caved in, and thousands of tons of dirt, concrete and debris spilled out, as if a dam was broken. My father next to me also exploded. Not in a dirty, smokey way, but in a brilliant, blue glow that was hard to look at. He was looking at me, arms extended, as he was trying to protect me from the falling debris with his body.

But he didn't protect me with his body. Instead, I was encased in ice, a massive glacier made from brilliantly shining, beautiful blue ice. It started spreading, enveloping me in its cold, but comforting grip, protecting me from the falling chunks of the ceiling. It grew a few meters thick, and I felt my body cool down rapidly. I couldn't turn my head, as it was locked in place by the several tons of ice surrounding me, but I saw my father's apologetic eyes clearly. I wanted to scream. What was going on? Why did he look so happy?

He sent me a reassuring smile before the rubble came down on him and buried his thin body completely. Tears formed in my eyes, that immediately froze and stuck to my eyeballs. I wanted to scream, and tried, but the air in my lungs had no place to go. I forcefully blinked twice, but it required effort. I could feel myself gradually getting colder and colder. As my consciousness was fading, I felt a last wave of despair, and the tiniest bit of hope. Maybe he got lucky. Maybe, somehow, he...

Another explosion shook the ruined station, and then I saw it: the soft, oily glimmer of a boulder made of white marble. It poked through the destroyed ceiling, just above my head. As it lost its momentum, having to get all those tons of rubble and soil out of the way, it came down slowly, and with a soft clunk, it stopped at the top of my glacier. I felt my consciousness slip away into the cold embrace of the ice, and I blinked my last tear out of my almost completely frozen eyes and closed them for the last time.

A/N: Content warning: There are some heavy elements and scenes in this novel, the fights can get fairly intense. This story contains: Graphic bodily harm, self-harm, self-mutilation, intense pain, graphic violence, including scenes of dismemberment and intense gore. Reader discretion is advised. Please note!