• "Jason!" David's muffled voice yelled, "Jason, wake up!"

    Slowly, Jason opened his eyes and a killer headache began to pound from within the depths of his skull. He winced and groaned as the full extent of the shockwave's damage to his body became apparent. "You okay?" David asked, helping him to his feet.

    "Feel like I've been run over by a semi, but otherwise I'm just peachy." Jason replied. Then his vision started to clear and, seeing the chaotic scene that surrounded them, he whispered, "Oh my..."

    The area around the meteor's landing site was like something out of a war movie. Fires blazed out of control from wrecked cars and ruptured gas lines, car alarms whined in a screeching chorus, and those bloodied pedestrians still alive were stumbling about, unsure of what to do. The school itself was partially unharmed, while the rest of it was reduced to rubble and licked by orange and yellow flames. "The school..." Jason said, a horrifying realization growing in his mind, "Amanda was still in there when the thing hit!"

    "Come on." David said, "We've got to find her."

    The two of them then broke into a sprint and headed towards the school's ruins, praying that she was somehow alive. They reached the main entrance and pulled open the double doors, immediately being assaulted by the intense heat from nearby flames and the suffocating black clouds of smoke. As he and David made their way through the destroyed halls, Jason saw the burnt bodies of those people who failed to make it out in time and the scent of their charred flesh filled his nose. "Amanda!" he called out as they drew near to where his girlfriend's locker used to be, "Amanda, where are you?"

    "Over here!" came the answer through a cluster of coughs.

    Jason and David rushed over to where Amanda's soot-covered form was slowly picking itself up off of the floor. They took her arms and gently helped her the rest of the way, careful not to rush should she have broken anything. "You alright?" Jason asked, his hand placed on her dirt-streaked cheek.

    She smiled weakly, "Yeah, I'm okay. The explosion just barely missed me."

    "Let's get out of here." David said, eyeing the advancing flames, "I for one care not to become Kentucky Fried Chicken today."

    Normally, Jason would have laughed at that joke. However, seeing as doing that would undoubtedly lead to inhaling more smoke that he needed to, he refrained from doing so. They retreated back down the hall from where they came, occasionally avoiding the random chunks of building material that fell from the structure. Once they exited the school, their lungs filled with clean air, causing them to hack and cough. Jason guided Amanda down to the curb where they sat while David called 911 with his cell phone. "I thought I'd lost you." Jason said, holding her tightly in a hug.

    "You almost did." Amanda replied, "I love you."

    "I love you, too." Jason returned quietly.

    David swore and flipped his cell phone shut. "Can't get through." he informed, "All the phone lines are jammed."

    "Well, I'm sure someone called emergency services." Jason said. He glanced over his shoulder, "What the heck was that anyway?"

    David shrugged and briefly followed his friend's gaze, "Not sure, but if I had to make a guess, I'd say that it was a meteor or something."

    "I think you're right." Jason agreed. His eyes drifted towards an electronic store located across the street, the television sets in the window airing the local news station while a small crowd of people looked on. He got up and trotted over to the other sidewalk, followed closely by David and Amanda. Once he had elbowed his way through the throng to the point where he could see what was on the screens, Jason felt his mouth drop slightly in astonishment. Unfortunately, there wasn't any audio, but the news ticker at the bottom of the screens was all the information he needed. It read: Meteor shower impacts world. Thousands injured, thousands more feared dead. The images shown were nothing short of horrific, consisting of entire city blocks completely leveled as well as the Statue of Liberty, which had been decapitated by one of the projectiles as it passed. Jason then turned from the scenes and made his way back to his friends. "We've been hit by a meteor shower." he told them, "But it's not just here, it's the whole world."

    "Wouldn't they end up burning in the atmosphere?" Amanda questioned.

    Jason shrugged, "You'd think so."

    Just then, the growl of heavy machinery and the thump-thump of helicopter blades echoed from down the street. Seconds later, a convoy of military jeeps and tanks turned the corner and drove slowly up the street, coming to a halt directly beside the meteor's landing crater. "Well," David said, "I guess we can rule out 'just a meteor shower'."