Jack sighed and rolled onto his other side. He doubted he would sleep tonight. Most likely, he’d drift off for a couple of hours before sunrise. Which was fine. Years of expeditions had made him almost immune to sleep deprivation. Besides, he was off for the whole next week and would have plenty of time to catch up.


    He sat up on the sofa, grabbed the remote, and turned on the TV. He wasn’t much of a TV person—he’d never had the time or inclination for it. But now, alone in the living room of his own house, the silence felt suffocating.


    The screen flickered to life, jumping between channels as he pressed the remote. A late-night talk show on Channel 9, a cooking infomercial on ABC 7, highlights from a baseball game on ESPN, a nature documentary on PBS, and an old episode of Family Guy on Fox 32. He stopped switching channels. Maybe this was a bad idea. Nothing on TV made him want to keep watching, even for background noise.


    He was about to open YouTube to watch some podcast when the screen suddenly went black for a second, and a “Breaking News” banner filled the screen.


    “We’re interrupting this program for breaking news,” the anchor said as the camera turned to the studio. The man looked tired and annoyed, unsurprising given the late hour. “Reports of unprecedented seismic activity and unexplained phenomena are coming in from around the world.”


    The screen switched to shaky footage, a phone recording of something massive moving in the darkness.


    Jack leaned forward. The anchor’s voice continued, now layered over the clip. “In addition to seismic events, reports are emerging of sightings and even attacks by creatures described as, I quote one source, ‘monsters.’”


    The camera jostled as if the person filming was running. Jack couldn’t make out much. Then the image came into focus: the silhouette of something large, glistening briefly in the streetlights before disappearing between the trees.


    “What the hell?”


    “This and other footage are going viral on social media. The authenticity of these videos cannot be verified at the moment; however, they are too numerous to be ignored—”


    The anchor suddenly stopped, then resumed, his voice even less certain than before.


    “Ahem, we’ve just received an update. It seems the president of the United States has declared a state of national emergency. We don’t have further details, but we are—”


    As the anchor spoke, Jack’s phone erupted with a loud, jarring buzz. He grabbed it and stared at the screen.


    EMERGENCY ALERT


    NATIONAL EMERGENCY – STAY INDOORS


    This is an official message from the government.


    Remain calm.


    Prepare for evacuation.


    Further instructions will follow shortly.


    This is NOT A TEST.


    “Mom? Dad?” He heard Lisa’s voice. Jack slapped the alarm on his phone and rushed upstairs.


    Lisa stood in the doorway of her room, her phone blaring the same alarm.


    “Hey, honey, you okay?” Jack asked, striding toward her.


    “What’s going on?”


    “Let me,” Jack said, taking the phone from her hands and silencing the alarm.


    The door to their bedroom creaked open, and Susan stepped into the hallway.


    “Did you see this alert? What’s happening?”


    “I don’t know. Something’s happening around the world. They showed these creatures on TV—”


    He didn’t finish, as the house trembled violently. He felt the floor slipping away beneath his feet.


    Lisa and Susan screamed. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the trembling stopped, leaving an eerie silence behind. Jack’s ears picked up faint noises from outside—emergency sirens wailing in the distance, mingled with scattered screams.


    Then, a deafening explosion tore through the night.


    It was close—maybe too close. The walls rattled with the shockwave, and moments later, the sharp sound of glass shattering echoed from downstairs, followed by more screams outside.


    “You guys okay?” Jack asked, quickly brushing his hands over Lisa and Susan to check if either was hurt.


    “We’re fine,” Susan said, her voice shaking.


    “Okay, we’re leaving. Put on some clothes—I’ll get the car ready!” Jack shouted, running downstairs.


    “But they said they’d evacuate us!” Susan called after him.


    Jack stopped and turned to face her. She stood at the top of the stairs, her nightgown rising and falling with her uneven breaths. Fear was etched on her face. Lisa clung to her waist, as if trying to hide in the folds of her gown.


    From where he stood, they both looked so distant and vulnerable that Jack felt an overwhelming urge to run back upstairs, hold them close, and promise everything would be okay. But he didn’t have time for that.


    “We can’t stay here and wait,” he said. “They say that to prevent panic and looting. Are you sure they’ll arrive on time?”


    Susan shook her head. “No.”


    “Can you trust me on this one? One last time?”


    He wanted to say more, but there was no need. Susan nodded. Despite everything that had happened between them, she still trusted him.


    “Okay. We’ll go pack.”


    “No packing,” Jack said. “Just put on something warm.”


    She nodded again, and they both disappeared into the hallway.


    Jack turned and strode toward his study behind the kitchen, not failing to notice the shattered glass on the floor. He rushed to his Fort Knox Maverick safe in the corner of the room and dialed the combination. He opened the door and took out his Glock 19, two boxes of 9mm rounds, and a bugout bag from the safe.


    He had never thought he’d need to use the contents of the safe, but whatever was happening around the world had just come to their neighborhood, and Jack wasn’t going to sit there and wait. He knew he was taking a risk by moving his family, but he doubted their house provided enough security.


    He rushed back to the main door and peeked through the sidelight. The street was filled with people gathering around the house on the opposite side of the street, now engulfed in flames. Its front was completely destroyed, and pieces of glass, brick, and furniture were scattered across the lawn. Apparently, that was where the explosion had happened. Jack wasn’t sure if anyone lived there. The last he remembered, the house was for rent. He hoped it had been empty tonight.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Jack grabbed his jacket from the hanger, slid the pistol behind his jeans, and went outside. He marched to his car, tossed the bugout bag into the truck bed, then climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car.


    “Jack!” Susan and Lisa ran down the porch, both wearing light jackets. “We’re—”


    She didn’t finish, her words cut off as she saw the neighbors’ house.


    “Oh my God, the house!” she gasped, covering her mouth. “A family just moved in a week ago! Jack, we have to do something!”


    He walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders.


    “We can’t do anything. If anybody was inside, they’re probably dead. Now, we have to move.”


    He opened the rear door of the truck and helped Susan and Lisa climb in.


    The street was drowning in chaos. He could hear sirens wailing in the distance from every direction. People dashed down the road, some barely dressed. A helicopter roared overhead, its spotlight frantically scanning the streets as if searching for something. Jack walked around the car, got behind the wheel, and buckled up. Then he looked over his shoulder.


    “You ready?”


    “Yeah,” replied Susan. “Where are we going?”


    “The country house.”


    He put the car into drive and slowly pulled onto the street.


    “Do you think it’s safe there?”


    “I don’t know,” Jack admitted, shaking his head. “But if what they showed on TV is true, cities will be dangerous places soon.”


    “Dad, you’re freaking me out,” Lisa said. “What’s happening?”


    “There were attacks on cities around the world.”


    “Attacks? By who?”


    “I don’t know. I can’t even describe it… They look like monsters. I know it sounds crazy, but—”


    Lisa didn’t let him finish.


    “I found it! It’s already on TikTok. Check it out, Mom.”


    Jack couldn’t see what Lisa was showing Susan on her phone, but he heard the audio. Every clip was filled with the sounds of screaming, destruction, and nasty growls. None of it was pleasant.


    “Please turn it off, Lisa. I can’t look at it,” Susan said, and Lisa put the phone away.


    “I can’t believe this is happening. Is it real?”


    Jack swayed his head to the side. “Look around, Susan. Does this look like it’s not real?”


    They were driving down Western Avenue, and the street resembled a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie—burning cars, people running frantically, and helicopters flying overhead. On the side streets, Jack caught glimpses of looters ransacking local shops.


    He was so focused on his surroundings that he almost missed the police roadblock ahead. The headlights illuminated a police officer waving his arms to signal him to stop.


    Jack rolled down the window. “Officer, I need to get to I-90. What’s wrong?”


    The officer approached and pointed ahead. “This road is blocked! The bridge is damaged. If you want to hit the expressway, you’ll have to take a roundabout via—”


    The roar of fighter jets tore through the air, drowning out the rest of the officer’s words. Jack instinctively looked up, scanning the night sky, but the jets were nowhere to be seen. Still, he could swear they’d just streaked south, heading toward downtown Chicago.


    A shout from the corner redirected the officer’s attention.


    “Hey! Over there!” someone called, pointing toward a phone store across the street. A group of looters had smashed through the glass, pulling display phones and accessories out onto the street. One man, wearing a medical mask, carried a flat-screen TV through the broken window.


    The officer cursed under his breath and started toward the store.


    Jack rolled the window up, silencing the chaos outside, and turned left onto Irving Park. He gripped the wheel tighter. If they wanted to get out of town before the interstate became a grid locked nightmare, they had to make it to I-90 as soon as possible. What if Damen or Ashland are blocked, too? He chased the thought away. Don’t overthink it. The only thing he could do was keep moving. He’d find a way out.


    They barely made it a hundred feet before the deafening roar of engines erupted behind them. Jack glanced in his rearview mirror and saw headlights slicing through the chilly night air. A military convoy stormed past, heading toward the eastern part of the city. Three Humvees led the charge, with a soldier perched in the turret of the lead vehicle. Two tan MRAPs followed, along with a troop transport truck whose canvas flapped in the wind, revealing rows of grim-faced soldiers clutching rifles.


    If this wasn’t the apocalypse, Jack didn’t know what was.


    The entrance to Damen Avenue was obstructed by two vehicles that had collided head-on.


    “We’ll try this street,” Jack said, turning right onto Lincoln and then onto Wolcott Avenue.


    Susan and Lisa were sitting close to each other, holding hands. Lisa pressed her face into her mother’s shoulder, and Susan was caressing her head.


    “We’ll be fine, I promise,” Jack said and turned his eyes back to the road. Wolcott was a narrow street and looked better compared to others, but even here, he saw people frantically running around in panic or stuffing the trunks of their cars with suitcases and bags.


    An idiot in a white Civic sped away from a parking spot, almost running into their car.


    “Watch where you’re going!” Jack shouted to the driver through the window.


    The driver didn’t respond but flipped Jack off and disappeared. Jack cursed and kept driving. The streets were full of idiots, and the apocalypse only made things worse. He didn’t want to think about the chaos they’d face on the expressway once everyone in and around Chicago realized no one was coming to rescue them.


    Suddenly, something caught his attention. He slowed down, staring into the darkness ahead. Something was moving down the street.


    The first thing he saw was a car. The same car that had almost hit them a minute earlier. It was uncertainly moving in reverse, as if the driver didn’t know where to go.


    “No way,” Jack muttered, shaking his head. “What are you doing?”


    “Help!” a desperate voice shouted from outside, followed by frantic tapping on Jack’s window. The sound made him flinch. Lisa let out a short, piercing scream.


    A man stood there, his chest heaving as if he’d just sprinted for his life.


    “Please, let me in!” the man cried, pounding on the window. “Please!”


    “Dad!” Lisa called from the back seat.


    The man kept pounding, begging them to let him in.


    “Go away,” Jack said, articulating every word, hoping the man could read his lips. “Get. Away. From. My. Car!”


    “Dad!” Lisa called again, drawing Jack’s attention. He looked at her in the rearview mirror.


    “It’s going to be okay, sweetheart—”


    She didn’t let him finish. “There!” Lisa shouted, pointing at the road ahead. Jack followed her finger.


    “Shit!” he cursed. The driver of the white Civic was now barreling backward at full speed. Jack jerked the steering wheel as far left as he could and slammed the gas, clearing the Civic at the last moment. He wasn’t sure if he’d hit the man pounding on the window, but the guy was nowhere to be seen.


    And then Jack saw it. At the far end of the street, something massive was moving. The headlights couldn’t reach that far, so he couldn’t make out its shape. But the parked cars were suddenly flung into the air, one after another, as if an invisible bulldozer was plowing through them—and it was heading straight for them.


    “Jack!” Susan screamed.


    He threw the car into reverse and slammed the pedal to the floor. They sped backward, Jack glancing between the rearview mirror and the road ahead.


    Then he finally saw it—the creature. The same creature he had seen on TV.


    It stormed down the street, ramming cars, sending them flying like toys, stomping on people, slashing some in half with its sharp claws.


    He’d never seen anything like it—maybe only in the movies. Susan and Lisa screamed in the back seat as they watched it coming toward them. Jack wanted to scream, too, but he was too focused on driving. His hands gripped the wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white.


    How far can you go in reverse? he thought, checking the rearview mirror and praying they wouldn’t crash into another car.


    The creature was closing the gap with terrifying speed. It was just one leap away now. Jack could see its face—black and leathery, with flaring nostrils, sharp teeth in its maw, and red, intelligent eyes locked onto the car, as if it were the only thing that mattered.


    Suddenly, a light from above bathed the street. Jack glanced up. A helicopter hovered fifty feet above, its spotlight fixed on the creature.


    The beast slowed, disoriented by the light. Tilting slightly, the helicopter revealed an open gun door with a soldier behind a mounted machine gun, aimed directly at the creature. The gun roared to life, spitting bullets like lightning bolts.


    The beast howled as the bullets hit it. Some ricocheted off its thick, armored skin, but others struck vulnerable spots. The creature roared and thrashed wildly, trying to escape the relentless fire.


    Only there was no escape.


    The soldier kept firing until, finally, the creature collapsed onto the pavement. Its massive body hit the ground with a thud, leaving cracks in the asphalt.


    Silence fell for a moment, broken only by the hum of the helicopter’s engine.


    And then it happened.


    The creature’s body glowed, as if a volcano were erupting from within. Light radiated through the bullet holes and cracks in its skin, turning the night into day.


    Jack covered his eyes.


    The glow reached its peak—and then the creature exploded into fire, leaving nothing behind but a charred burn mark on the pavement.


    The helicopter ascended higher and disappeared into the night sky.


    Jack stared at the spot where the creature had lain just moments ago.


    “What the hell?” he muttered. His vision was still dotted with white circles from the explosion. He wasn’t sure what had just happened. Had the military detonated the creature, or had it self-destructed?


    “Did it just blow up?” Susan asked.


    “I’m not sure,” Jack replied, shifting gears back into drive. “Either way, we have to move.”


    He hit the gas. The car lurched forward as they returned to Irving. He figured they’d have to stick to wider roads where they’d have more room to maneuver if something happened.


    The chaos on the streets grew worse with every turn. It looked like a nightmare—police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks everywhere. And people. People running in all directions—some screaming, some crying, some looting, others bleeding, and too many lying motionless on the pavement.


    Jack wondered if this was how the world would be from now on. Perhaps. Things could get even worse. Much worse. And he wasn’t sure they were ready for it.


    He had the gun, but it would be useless against the creatures. Killing these monsters required more than a 9mm Glock.


    But it still gave him some comfort. Apart from monsters, there were bad people, and they’d see more of them-he was sure of that.


    The worst of times always brought the worst people to the surface.


    And he wouldn’t hesitate to use his gun to stop them.