A young boy and his family had been waiting in line with their little wagon for what seemed like days now but were only hours.
His sister had long since fallen into boredom, forlornly kicking at the air while they stood still.
The mother fussed over the little girl, telling her, "Now come on now Clarisse, we'll just be waiting a while longer and then we'll be able to do something fun."
Clarisse stubbornly shook her head, "You said that a while ago," she whined, kicking her legs out, leaving shallow scuffs in the road."
Her brother looked over and saw what was happening, immediately after he walked up to them and ruffled Clarisse's hair.
"Hey! Stop that!" Clarisse whined as she tried to shake off her brother's hands.
"You know what's going Clarisse, now be silent and we'll be out shortly."
"But I don't wanna wait. I wanna go see Uncle Simons and Aunt Tabitha now!"
"All good things require a little patience, you know that right? Think about the lessons Pastor Joseph taught us. We'll just wait a little bit now and enjoy our lives once we get out okay?"
Clarisse's frown slowly faded away as she conversed with her brother, her boredom being sapped away.
"We'll have our own little shop again. Father's partners are also looking to reestablish, and if things go well everything goes well, then our lives won't have changed much compared to here."
"Really? What's it like outside the walls?"
"How am I supposed to know? Have you ever seen me go outside?"
"But you tell me stories of the wilderness all the time though? You can't tell me they're fake!"
"Oh, those stories? I just ask the guards and soldiers about what they've experienced when they go out. They're really quite thrilling those men. As a matter of fact! When I grow up I wanna be a bold hero, one that makes it so that none of these dragons ever mess with us ever again!"
"Really? Isn't that really dangerous though outside? All sorts of beasts and all that?"
"Yea but's what's living without danger? I want to make our lives better. I want to conquer the frontier!" he boasted.
"With a single wave of my sword I'll conquer the la-", he was halfway into his sentence before an ear-piercing screech pierced the skies.
Some of the weaker-minded among the line screamed in fright, instinctively knowing what it was. These folks were also dragged off by the guards watching over them.
"Mama? Are they gunna come for us already?" Clarisse nervously asked.
At this point, the father finally made his presence known, "Now settle down Clarisse, everything's going to be okay. We're going to make it out of this. Now just calm down."
Clarisse stood deathly still, nervously glancing up towards the skies in apprehension.
All of a sudden the sky was bathed in dense, choking smoke.
"Run!" shouted some random people.
The instant one person gave out a cry to flee, the line started to pick up the pace and people began to jostle one another in a panic to get out of the death trap they called a road.
Clarisse began to bawl out in fear and her mother rushed to get her to compose herself, "Shh, shh. Remember you have to be good. Don't make too much noise and we'll be fine. Remember we're going to make it out of this."
Just alongside them, a house crumbled down, its foundation having succumbed to the ever-hungry flames.
All around, everything was being set alight.
Constantly the great dragons up above dived down to breathe their great fury upon the land.
Throughout the entire bastion, one could hear the screams of the damned.
Some burn up in the flames, others pinned underneath falling debris. At times even the rush of the crowds in the scramble to save their own lives led to some sorry folk getting trampled.
Charred bodies littered the streets, and all-around was bathed in frightening shade of red. From the blood to the fire, devastation rained.
The archers on the ramparts desperately fired, launching a flurry of arrows that continuously failed to bring down the beasts.
When they managed to strike the vulnerable wings to render them unable to fly, their great bodies would drop unceremoniously as if plucked out the sky.
From there they would give out a great bellow and crash into the buildings below. Then with great struggle, their massive bodies would be unleashed to terrorize the citizens.
All around Clarisse and her family things were alight. A family standing not too far in front of them had been swept down upon before being scooped up the jaws of one of the dragons.
Their screams were but a drop in the great cacophony of sound, but the visceral sight of flesh being torn to pieces and the dragon viscerally shaking its head to completely ravage the bodies
All of a sudden yet another of the dragons, this one a burgundy red, swooped down and picked up their father's cart in its great claws before smashing down the row.
Everyone around scattered, many pushing for the exit while others strove to seek shelter.
However everywhere around was burning, where was there shelter?
If there was shelter, it had long since been ravaged.
Casper, Clarisse's brother was dragged along by his father while his mother latched onto Clarisse the family taking off to try to make their way outside the walls.
The walls that everyone had once looked to as a symbol of safety and security, was now a prison. One of their own creation.
Wildly Casper could feel himself getting jostled around by the crowd and his tight grip on his father's hand was almost forcibly broken a couple of times.
But they darted and ducked through the crowds, bobbing and weaving through fallen debris.
The smog and dust were choking and Casper's still developing lungs began to seize up and his vision started to blur.
The strength to continue running was fleeting, his father took notice of this and knelt down to carry him over his shoulder before proceeding onwards.
The streets that he had grown up in, Richard's house, the bakery, the market, all the familiar sights that Casper had grown up around were burning down.
And what was left remaining?
Naught but despair.
His father was still running despite his haggard breathing. His face was grim but determined; the eyes struggling to blink the soot out of them.
Looking over his father's shoulder, Clarrise and his mother were still frantically trailing them just as they passed the church.
Only a bit more longer of shoving through the crowds and they would be out.
But then disaster struck and just as hope shined through the thick clouds of smoke a deep rumbling came from the building next to them.
Looking up, Casper saw the church steeple and the great bell crack all over and start to descend.
These cracks spread like a wildfire, going all the way down, leading to the building tipping over.
"Father!" Casper yelled, "The church! It's-," he coughed from a sudden intake of smoke, "collapsing!"
Hearing this, his father burst forward in speed adopting a runner's sprint in their mad rush to escape, and thankfully enough they managed to cross this hurdle.
However, upon turning around all they could see was the fallen church and buried bodies, a dust cloud lingering amongst the air.
"Father?" Casper asked tentatively, "Where's mother and sis?"
His father didn't respond, a dark shadow passing over his face. His dirty, soot mask was tainted by a line of liquid dripping from his eyes.
"Father? What's going on?" Casper asked. "They're alright, right? They've gotta be!"
His father didn't respond, standing there motionlessly as hell invaded reality all around them.
Then, without saying anything, his father dipped his head and picked up Casper once again, placing him over his shoulder before sprinting to the gate once more.
"Father? Father? What's going on? We can't just leave them? Father!"
A shattered church, an invasion by hell. Surely only a cruel god would let this happen.
What sort of god could let their subjects struggle in such misery. Surely only a dead god right?
Right?
And so Casper kicked and screamed, only to get drowned out in the void of noise. An unfeeling void, as his father's firm grip, took him past the gate.
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