A warm summer breeze brisked gently by as Sam hurriedly made his way through the dense flow of city dwellers. Throughout the metropolis, a deep warmth flowed through the air, carrying the ambient hustle of the city’s daily tasks.

To and fro, people occupied themselves in stands, talked to their friends and family on phones, or simply gazed ahead in reckless thought as they moved along with their lives. The constant stampede of men, women, and children never ceased on the cement plain that covered the ground in all directions as far as the eye could see.

Sam continued much as the rest, numb to the tirade of movement storming around him. Infrequently checking his phone before promptly returning it to his pocket, he primarily preoccupied the time walking by staring aimlessly at the few isles of green strewn along the path.

He loved the essential simplicity of the plants. In a world filled with constant commotion and movement, it’s fundamental purpose served a beautiful contrast.

Very little was terribly important to Sam at that point in time, and that was good for him as well. He enjoyed the simplicity. His life went routinely, and he loved it that way. His brief thoughts consumed him so much, though, that he hardly realized the disruption that appeared before him as he crashed into an obstruction to the stream.

“Hey, watch where you’re…”

Sam stopped short, seeing that the man seemed completely unaware that anything had just run into him at all. Noticing his gaze was averted elsewhere, Sam followed his eyesight up into the clouds. At a first glance, all seemed to be normal: the clouds were moving, the sun was shining, but upon further inspection, he began to squint his eyes at something that didn’t belong. Something big was blocking the sun from view. Something absolutely massive. And it was also moving.

“What the hell?”

Sam’s eyes widened, staring blankly at the monstrosity looming overhead, eclipsing the skylight across the whole city. All around him, the massive stream of men and women shared in his bewonderment, glaring breathlessly, motionless at the sheer bizarreness of the apocalyptic display before them. For what seemed minutes, not a sound in the entire city was uttered. Until it began.

With a dull blare and an encompassing woosh from above, the darkness intensified as an ominous cloud shot forth from the floating object. An intense stream of particles flowed from vents in the dark beasts lower belly; the pink gas rushing from its body as a wave of dread washed over Sam. It descended silently, growing steadily over the aghast city.

At first, the haunting calm maintained the order of the city. People remained lost in wonder at the impossible unfolding before them. Once the gas was released, though, the illusion was soon broken by its descending dread. Panic replaced wonder, and screams immediately rang out from every corner of the city as they witnessed the inconceivable.

Closer and closer it drew, as men grabbed their loved ones, rushing them to the safety of the nearby buildings. Faster and faster it fell, as women clung crying to their children, hoping to save them from the noxious poison. Darker and darker the sky became, as the last hope of escape was wiped out.

To Sam, the gas collided against the street before he could even take a step. Staring slack-jawed at the descending toxins, his mind raced through all the new data he had just received so traumatically. What was this? Who or what was doing this? Why were they doing this?

He barely recognized the mad scramble for cover in his bewildered state, and by the time the gas had made its final approach, he barely had time to cover his head before his entire vision was enveloped in a dark pinkish haze. All around him, screams and cries were rampant, as everyone desperately sought refuge from the relentless fog.

For Sam, he thought his life was over. The gas was slowly creeping over his skin, and there was no way he would be able to escape from its grasp. He was its, now.

As it crawled across his body, wherever it touched, his skin became like ice. A cold numbness ran across his spine, as his head and shoulders began to fail. His body beginning to collapse and his vision fading to black, the surrounding panic and fear was drowned out with an eerie emptiness.

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Sam shot up from his slouched position against the wall as he awoke from his dream. Breathing rapidly, he felt his arms and noticed that they were absolutely drenched in sweat. Wiping off as much as he could, he slowly inhaled in and out as he tried to calm himself down.

“Bad dream?” A voice called out from the other end of the room.

Jumping up a couple inches from the sudden interruption, Sam remembered that he wasn’t alone here. He looked up at the face of a grim twenty-ish looking woman staring at him with a bemused smile on her face.

The woman sat across from him, slouching in a similar position as him against a half destroyed brick wall. All around her, debris of various forms lay scattered from the various walls, windows, and ornations that use to occupy the top level apartment that they had taken over. Blending into the dilapidated surroundings, the woman’s filthy leather jacket with near blackened jeans from sut created what seemed to be an almost intentional camouflage.

To complement the rustic dress, her hair fell in a twisted mess down to her shoulders, slightly covering her equally dirt stained face from the long times endured before any form of proper bathing much less clothes washing could be had.

Little about her appearance seemed remarkable to Sam, though, as a similar condition adorned him. Filth and stench seemed a regular part of his and everyone else’s life; it existed everywhere and there was little refuge that could be taken from it. He was even less fortunate than her, having almost no original clothes, exclusively wearing cheap quality homespun that he made himself out of leftover curtains after his original clothes perished in a fire.

“It was nothing.” Sam muttered, turning his head out of the window that lie between them.

The woman gave out a small sigh of frustration, rubbing her eyes with her fingers.

“You don’t have to be so callous all the time, Sam. We spend almost all of our time together. We might as well talk a little bit during our guard duty, and, you know, actually get to know each other.”

Sam looked back at her for a moment, looking her in the eye before returning to the mindless expanse beyond the window. He had known Jessica for about three years, ever since they had both found the settlement and they had been placed together for guard duty. Sam never felt the need to become familiar with anyone, much less her, so his conversations with her were quite limited beyond hello and give me another drink.

“It’s fine, Jessica. We have a job to do.”

A short snort came from the other side of the room after he had finished that last sentence.

“You mean sleeping for half the day while we’re supposed to be keeping an eye out for intruders?” Jessica said with a slight smirk.

Only responding with a sigh, he gave up even trying to argue against her criticism, siding on the option of doing as little as possible. Very rarely was Jessica ever on the losing side of an argument, he observed, and the very few times that he had tried to resist her attempts at communication he had regretted it immensely. To be honest, it just didn’t seem worth it.

“Fine, yes, it was a bad dream.”

“What about?” She asked in a sing-song manner like a mother trying to prod their teenage son about a day at school.

“Fuck, you want me to draw you a picture? It was a bad dream, alright?” Sam spit out rather harshly, letting his head rest against the wall behind him again. He really hated talking.

Jessica, not seeming to get the intended hostility, though, just smiled wider.

“Easy there big boy, just a simple question. Wouldn’t want you stressing yourself out with that high level artistic talent yer’ sure to have with that preschool education.”

Moving his head from his well worn position of avoidance, Sam gave her a mildly aggravated glare that she responded to using an even fuller smile.

His expression softened a bit as he saw her face show happiness; it was a rare emotion to have flowing through one’s bones in that time. Hatred, malice, anger, frustration, suffering, pain all were much more favored. It was hard to not feel at least a bit of happiness seeing her seem so happy.

“It was about the Arrival.” Sam said more softly as he turned back to vacantly scan the empty shell of the half-demolished building across the street.

“Oh,” Jessica paused a bit, looking away from his face.

She wasn’t terribly surprised at the answer. They all dreamed about that day a lot. The loss and horror they all felt so quickly, the day the world went down the shitter and 99% of mankind was destroyed, it wasn’t exactly a unique experience for them all to experience it over and over again for the rest of their lives as they lived in the aftermath.

“You ever wonder why they came?” Jessica asked, looking back up at him.

Sam’s head rocked back and forth against the back of the wall as he shook his head, still looking outside.

“No. What’s done is done. Understanding why changes nothing.” He said, closing his eyes as he remembered the pain he had felt shortly after the event.

He awoke where he had fallen with a headache that could kill an elephant. He had rubbed his head roughly, trying to rid himself of the sharp pain persisting in his skull, when he noticed his surroundings.

All around him there was not a single living soul. All the people that had once accompanied him had vanished completely, leaving not a single trace that any person had been there besides upturned trash cans and roughly strewn trash.

Nobody ever did find out what happened. All they knew was that 99% disappeared somehow, and the rest were knocked out.

Jessica simply nodded her agreement back, slightly depressed by his dismissive remark. Resuming her own mindless meditation at a small piece of broken glass on the floor, though, her thoughts quickly returned to the oblivion of guard duty.

Both of them sat there in silence for a quite a while; neither moving from their comatose positions across from each other, neither ever moving their eyes from their objects of comfort. They waited there in stillness, until they heard something somewhere nearby.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Three times, a loud ring from a metal pipe echoed against the buildings. Immediately the two guards jumped up from their respective spots, Sam grabbing his hunting rifle from the floor and aiming it at the source of the noise across the street.

Sam moved his rifle slowly across the street, paying careful attention for anything that might be out of place. Eventually, he found what he was looking for. In an alley next to the building immediately across from them, Sam noticed two men dressed in shattered clothing huddling against the alley way wall, holding a small metal triangle up in the air.  Recognizing the sign, Sam slowly lowered his weapon.

“Our replacements are here.” Sam muttered over to Jessica, who upon hearing the news, gave out a quick sigh of gratitude and instantly began collecting the various items she had brought for the eight hour guard shift.

“Let’s get out of here quick, Sam. I need a drink.”

Sam smirked a little, thinking about the “drink” she was talking about. A harsh liquor that could hardly be considered edible, since it took nearly a year of steady drinking just to be able to get a sip down the taste and strength was so horrible. It was horrible by any standard, yet it was all they had, and they loved it.

Reaching over and grabbing his sole possession there besides his gun, his book bag, he began to head out with Jessica. She was practically running out the door by the time he even turned around, when he noticed something. A slight vibration in the floor. It was incredibly sublte, and he wasn’t sure that he had actually felt it.

Wait. There it was again, slightly more intense.

There were no more warning signs necessary for Sam, he knew right away what it was. There was only one thing it could be.

“Jessica, get back here!” He hissed at her in a bitter whisper. Jessica turned around, confused, until she saw him take out a red spray-painted metal triangle from his bag.

There were only three signals they had: silver triangle, all is clear; yellow triangle, danger near; red triangle, giantess here. Every man, woman, and child in the settlement knew that rhyme. From birth, they were taught to fear the signs. Shortly after, they were taught to fear what they meant.

Sam waved frantically out of the window, yelling and screaming at the two men on the ground, desperately trying to warn them of the incoming danger. Jessica, realizing that more than those men needed to be warned, fumbled through her pack drunk with fear, anxiously trying to find the radio.

The two men below were walking across the street, almost directly in the middle, completely oblivious of the danger approaching until Sam’s warnings reached them.

Like a wave crashing over stones, fear gripped the two men as they saw the red triangle in his hand. They had to get out there. Now. Dashing across the street, they sprinted as hard as possible to get out of direct sight.

There was only so little time when a giantess was approaching. Their strides and movements were so large, that once felt, it was a matter of seconds before they were standing on top of you. It wasn’t long before in the distance, Sam could see the faint outline of a head appear over the horizon of the street.

Fuck. It was coming right at them. Sam ducked out of the window as quick as possible, hoping that he hadn’t been seen. The giantesses had some kind of technology that tracked movement, and it was very good at finding them. Seeing Jessica fiddling with the radio, screaming into it repeatedly that a giantess was coming, Sam grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the room.

“We have to get out of here. NOW!”

The two raced into the hallway, charging as fast as possible towards the stairwell. The walls began to shake, dust flying off the walls as the giantess came closer and closer. Practically tripping, they flung themselves down the stairs, focusing only on getting out immediately.

Once on the next level, a single noise pierced through the haze of panic: someone was screaming for help. Outside the building, the giantess arrived, and she definitely saw them. Both Jessica and Sam held their breath as they listened to the horror unveiling.

“Help! Please, someone help!” The young man screamed as he fell to the ground.

The man raised his arms high above his head, pleading with the goddess above him.

“Please, don’t kill me!” He whimpered, as all around him, he became eclipsed in a uniquely shaped shadow.

Before he could even scream, a rumble shook through the ground as a mocassin was slammed into him, crushing his body into merely a splat on the pavement.

His friend, far wiser to the impending danger, watched from a nearby alley as his friend was mercilessly pounded into the street by what looked like but a girl. She twisted her feet harshly, before removing her foot with a giggle. Looking at the small splotch of red, white, and pink that decorated the dark black of the pavement, her face brightened into a full blown grin as she shuttered in excitement.

Dropping to the ground, the man’s heart exploded in panic as he witnessed the callousness of the girl. Scrambling backwards, he awkwardly tried to get up and escape from the monster that stood not ten feet from him. Before he could take ten steps, though, he met an unfortunate obstacle. Directly behind him, a trash can obstructed his path as he smashed into it, causing a loud bang to clash out.

The girl’s head spun towards the noise like a owl seeing its next prey. As she saw her new fun, her smile slowly grew greater and greater as she approached the motionless man. He could only lay in complete shock, as the harsh tree width fingers of the girl clenched around his body, scooping him up as he would an rare oyster that he had just captured. He let out one last scream as he was placed inside a small pouch on the girl’s belt.

After the final scream, the two hideaways in the building listened intently as the giantess slowly left the way she had come, being satisfied with the work she’d accomplished that day. The rumbles of her footsteps became dimmer and dimmer, until the restless silence returned.

Jessica released a large gasp, letting her body fall against the wall behind her.

“Okay, now I really need a drink.”

Sam couldn’t have agreed more.