It's just turned 4pm. Still another hour left to go at work, another hour of monotony. I sit here, staring at the open spreadsheet to look busy.
The text cursor blinks. On, off, on, off, on, off. Predictable in its pattern. From outside my office, the sound of my co-workers talking can be faintly heard. People mingling with each other. I sit here alone in my one-man office. Desk cluttered with paperwork and rubbish.
The room is briefly shrouded in darkness as the bulb overhead flicks off for half a second. True, there are windows leading into my office that would have normally let some light in, but I had long since covered those up with spreadsheets and "motivational posters" in a sorry attempt to avoid the rest of my workplace.
The light flicks off again, and in the moment of darkness following I hear a shout, a cry of fear. I swivel around in my chair, suddenly confused. Why is anybody shouting here of all places?
As I start to turn back around, more screams resonate towards me. I stand up and begin to walk to the door, intent on finding out what was happening to cause such a large panic. As I place my hand on the doorknob, the door swung in violently hitting me in the head and sending me reeling backwards.
Six people come running through the door, each heavily armoured in SWAT gear and wearing helmets which obscure their faces and carrying large assault rifles which they swept the room with.
The six surround me in a rough circle, each shouting commands to one another as they huddle closely.
That's when I noticed that they weren't pointing their guns at me. They weren't even looking in my direction. They all stared towards the door, with both their weapons and their eyes. Before I had a chance to grow even more confused, the person closest to me, the one directly to my right, leaned in towards me, never taking their eyes off the door, and whispered "it's coming." My heart skipped a beat and then doubled in the rate it pounded. Not because of whatever this 'it' is, but because of the fear this man's voice held. It trembled slightly as he said the words, and that's what frightened me the most. The light flicked off again, once more shrouding the room in darkness, however this time it stayed off. Stupid thing must have blown. That's when I noticed. The screaming outside, it had stopped. All of it had stopped. No noises could be heard coming from outside the room. I leaned back to the man on my right, whispering "what's coming?" For a split second, the man turned to face me, and in the silence, I heard him open his mouth ready with a response. Yet before he could do any such thing the sound of shattering glass rang through the room. A large dark arm reaching in through one of my windows and grabbing him. The man began to yell, his screams matching those of the ones from earlier, and I saw his eyes. They were wide from surprise and fear. They were the eyes of a man begging for help. Before anything could be done for him though, he was ripped back out through the window and his screaming stopped. Nothing could be seen of outside my office, there was only a mass of darkness. I felt a warmth trickle down my leg.
I was so numb from fear and shock that I hadn't even noticed I was pissing myself. I started to take steps back when more glass began to shatter, and more arms shrouded in darkness reached in, grabbing three people. Much like before, they all began to scream, fear welling up in their faces. The two who remained untouched began to fire their guns at the arms from point blank range, but the bullets simple crashed to the ground once they made contact. Two of the people were pulled out again, one hitting their head against the ceiling. A large, dark spot was able to be made out from where he collided with the roof. He stopped screaming before he even made it out of the room. The third person’s scream started to die down, although it didn't seem like they could scream even if they wanted to. The screams came out choked and whispered, as though they were struggling to get air into their lungs. That's when I heard the crack, and the pop. Their whole torso was suddenly crushed, blood gushing all over the room and splattering me in the face. His screaming ceased entirely, and the lower half of his body fell to the floor, split off from the rest of him. As his torso was pulled out, another arm reached in to grab his lower body and pull it out alongside him.
I fell down to the floor, tears welled up in my eyes as I struggled to stop myself from screaming. I couldn't grasp the situation. What was happening? Why was this happening? Why? Why? WHY?!I rocked back and forth in the foetal position, whispering this to myself. Why, why, why? This shouldn't be happening. It can't be happening. Yet even as I thought these things, another wave of arms broke in through the windows. I knew I couldn't do anything. I gave up. I felt a large hand wrap around me. I felt my body rise up into the air, my feet barely touching the ground. The felt the incredible pressure on my body, as though I'd be crushed. I felt myself being moved towards the room's window. And then, I felt nothing.