Horns blared throughout the clogged city roads as cars made the bee-line for work.

“Come on!” Paul nudged Kate’s shoulder. 

“I keep having the same conversation with you every day. Get ready by eight forty-five!” Kate snapped. “But no! You cannot ever leave before nine, can you? And then we end up stuck in the traffic. Every! Day!” 

“Look at the bright side, we get to spend some time together now!” Paul offered, but quickly shut-up when he saw Kate’s stare boring down his skull. 

“Just,” Kate shook her head, “just drive.”

Paul gave one last glance and with a sigh turned to face the road. The car trotted behind a school bus, for another inch before he had to hit the brakes again. 

“This is frustrating,” he agreed silently. Not daring to give Kate any more ammo.

Suddenly, the car rocked from side to side violently for a second, before stopping

“Earthquake?” both Paul and Kate said looking at each other. 

Paul quickly peered out through the car’s window and saw everyone looking around it confusion. 

“Must have been a minor earthquake. It’s passed”

“Ya, thank god” Kate replied with a long sigh, as she fiddled with the controls of the car’s air conditioner. “Why does this not work? Did you turn the ignition off?” 

Paul turned the ignition of the car, but the car did not start. He put the gear on neutral and tried again, but all he got was a screeching engine.

“Paul, I know you will say this is not the time, but I have told you time and again. Get the car to the garage!” Kate said opening the door to the car.

“Got it! Got it!” Paul grunted absent-mindedly as he opened his side of the door. “I had almost salvaged the situation there with the earthquake, you damned car,” he mumbled. 

With his gaze at the ground, he walked out of the car, rehearsing the explanation he would have to give to the cars behind him. 

“What’s happening?” he said aloud. There was none of the typical horn-blaring you would expect on a busy commute day. As he looked around, he could see everyone streaming out of their cars, seemingly confused. 

‘Did everyone’s car just die?’ he looked around bewildered ‘There is something weird here’. 

He felt his heartbeat quicken. The ceaseless whirling of machines that he did not even realise existed, had suddenly stopped, leaving in its wake an uncanny silence.

“Kate-” he started.

“Pa-Paul! Look up.” Kate’s shaky voice called out.

"Honey, is there supposed to be a solar eclipse today?" a woman shrieked as the traffic around them ground to a halt.

Paul looked up, slack-jawed. The clear sky was rapidly turning pitch dark, like ink in clear water.

“Kate, get back inside the car! I have a bad feeling about this.” 

He bolted back inside his car with Kate in tow. 

“What’s going on!” Kate looked out at the pitch dark outside. She knocked over the cup as she reached out in the darkness trying to find Paul in the darkness. 

“Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be alright, don’t worry,” Paul assured her. 

He held Kate in his arms and sat in the darkness.

“Listen carefully!” a voice boomed out of nowhere. It was not a deafening blare, but it resonated clearly in everyone’s ears as the clamouring, distressed screams mellowed out.

“Can you hear that?” Paul asked looking to where Kate would be sitting in the dark.

“Umm,” she voiced.

"For millenniums, I protected you from the ugly Universe. But the peace as you know it is about to come to an end and being passive is no longer an option. " The voice echoed again.

"A year from now, Earth will be invaded by alien colonizers. They will wreck war, enslave and exploit every drop of resource on this planet before they leave this world to rot.”

Shudders went down through Paul’s spine. It felt as if the being behind the voice was speaking directly to him, tugging on his heart, calling it to action. 

“The machines you built and rely on will be of little help. But I will bestow upon those worthy, to become stronger than them. I will grace you with the ability to wield the forces of nature itself! ”

‘This has to be a bad dream. This is unreal,’ Paul could not believe what was unfolding before his very eyes. Some voice in the sky was telling him that there would be an alien war and was promising to make him stronger than weapons! He could not process the ramification of it all!

The voice continued, “There will be challenges you will face. Face them bravely and you will be the hero who saves humanity from the Alterverse invaders. 

For those worthy, I will bestow you with the ability to sense your true strength, and the ability to receive my dicta.

However, if you decide to live a lackadaisical life, the only thing awaiting you will be death, destruction, and misery.

But strength comes at a price. There will be sacrifices!"

Just like that the world turned silent again. The engulfing darkness disappeared and restored back to the cloudless sunny morning. Just as it had begun, it ended in the next second. 

Paul relaxed his grip suddenly as he realised how hard he had been holding Kate’s hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-” he apologised.

“That did happen, right? It wasn’t a dream?” Kate whispered looking out the window of the car. Everything looked so normal again, that it was hard to believe it wasn’t all just a dream.

“Yeah, it did,” Paul said, trying to process it all. 

“What are you talking about,” Kate replied, turning around. She put on a smile even though her hand was clearly shaking, “It’s not real! It must have been some prank for some TV show.” 

Paul gave a sad smile and a wide grin. “I hope that’s all it was.”

Suddenly, he felt a hot pain in his chest. He quickly reached out to pressed along the centre of his ribs, “I think I have heart-burn or something”.

 “You too?” he heard Kate reply.

He looked across to see her face contorted in discomfort as well. 

A screen appeared before his eyes.

  

 

[Welcome.]

[The God of Creation has bestowed the gift of Evolution System upon you. Please, stand-by as your body is being prepared for your new environment…] 

 

‘This cannot be a coincidence’, he realised. 

Paul could feel the searing heat spread from his chest to his abdomen as its intensity increased. He could hear an avalanche of groans and screams start from outside as well. He could hear a cacophony of wailing children and soon the anguishing cries adults followed. 

“Paul I am sorry, I don’t want to die angry,” Kate cried as tears flowed down her cheeks. 

“We will make it. We will make it!” he replied between groans. Tears formed by his eyes.

The searing heat soon engulfed every cell of their bodies in an endless pain as the entire world seemingly filled up with screams, before everything quieted down to a ghastly silence. 

One after the other, everyone fell unconscious with just a glimpse of the new world right before. 

 

 [Your body cannot sustain the energy change...]

 

 More than a billion people around the world saw that message before they lost their consciousness and everyone that received that never woke up again. 

 Everyone else that survived received another message.

 

*Ding

[Congratulation!]

[Synchronization of your body with the new environment is complete.]

 

After nearly an hour, the survivors came back to their senses one after the other, their bodies back to normal. But few had the stomach to celebrate, as bodies of their friends and family piled around them.  

At the back of an old sedan, two laid holding each other, while one opened their eyes, the other’s remained closed forever.