Phoenix Rising

Prologue:Beginning

It had been months since they had first come. No one had been expecting them, just living their short lives doing what they always did. No one suspected anything; they didn’t bother to think about what was hiding behind the huge cloudbank that had mysteriously appeared. The specialists had been baffled with the appearance of the thing, and were scrambling to find answers to the questions that the public was starting to ask, but no answers could be found that would make the populace happy enough. The huge cloudbank soon became something that was ignored, becoming a fixed scene in everyone’s minds, as is the way of people. It stopped becoming something of big importance, and slowly became routine.

It was suspected that this had been planned for, that this had been put into their calculations, that they had meant for this to happy. Like they had just meant for people to get used to what they were hiding behind before attacking swiftly and suddenly. The first thing that anybody knew before they were killed was that something big and black had emerged from the approaching bank of clouds that had been dormant for that past couple of months. When the cities that had been attacked were scavenged by other humans that only found the remains of buildings and people, but nothing to indicate what kind of weapon might have been used to create such a massive wipe out of a city. All that they could see was that the mysterious clouds were gone, leaving the sun to shine brightly down over the ruins of what was once part of a civilization.

Once the governments of many nations heard about this attack, even though the attacks had been few, they rallied together to try to find the source. They could put aside everything to fight an unknown attacker, even if they would only go back to fighting after this was all over. Specialized teams of scientists were sent out to examine the areas, along with the best of the military personnel to see if they could find anything that would be a clue as to what was going on. They also set up radars that were meant to pick up anything unusual, either in the air, on the land or sea, and even in space. For all of their efforts all they got were a few readings of a strange metal a little ways behind their round moon that orbited the earth. At once that was dismissed, it being thought of as being attracted to the gravity of the Earth and had just been pulled to the moon where it orbited with the satellite.

The scientists came back with answers, but only a few. All they could tell was that a large beam like weapon had been swept through the cities in a pattern that left the cities completely destroyed and all of the populace dead. They also came back to say that the beam wasn’t as concentrated on the cities, as much as the people. On a side note they had also noted some odd radiation that had been found almost directly in the middle of the cities, where the attacks had presumably started. There was nothing else left, except for some newspapers that had rolled down the street with a strong wind, and televisions that had been left on, blaring static to an audience that wouldn’t be able to see.

Now was a time for panic. No one knew what was going on, and as soon as the world’s population found out riots were started. People tried to get out of their cities, only to find that they didn’t know where to go and went right back in, making several huge traffic jams and wrecks. Economies started to have trouble, people pulling their money out of the banks as soon as they could, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. Weapons sales went up as people sometimes bought them in masses, caring only for their safety and the safety of their families. People started to become suspicious of every little thing that was out of place, as if expecting this unknown attacker to come out at any time and fry them to itty bitty bits.

It took months for the government to get control of the population once again, but by then more cities had been wiped out. None of the huge cities had been hit yet, but a lot of the smaller cities, the ones where the most specialists were working at, had been. The paths of destruction was almost in a circular pattern around the major metropolises, almost herding the masses of now homeless people into one big area. The governments worked on sending people out to work the land so that they would have enough food to feed everyone, but with people so scared it was hard to get them to cooperate and do anything. After a while the panic calmed down, giving the governments more time to plan their defensive actions. People started to move out of the big cities and live in rural areas to try to make a living, but there were still the masses of people living in one cramped space, making them perfect targets for anyone who wanted to make a big death count on the Earth.

Another factor that the governments weren’t dealing with was the orphans and homeless children that ran the streets of cities in gangs, and also lived out on their own in the country and away from people. They stole anything that the deemed worthwhile, making it hard for some of the people in the cities who were perfect targets for the children. Most of them had a hatred for the adults who had taken everything away from them when they had no family, for the people who had left them to die. While most adults wouldn’t agree to that, there was still an increasing number of homeless street kids who showed up on the streets every day, making some of the higher officials wonder where they were all coming from. They ranged of all ages, and made their livings at the bottoms of society, where no one would bother them unless they had just been pick-pocketed.

As is now how people make their livings, living with the fear of their city being attacked and them being dead. They lived with the fear of not knowing what was going to happen to them next, and the fear that they wouldn’t be able to do all that they wanted to with their lives before they died what was rumored to be a quick, but painful, death.