1. A Frozen Bird

 David stared at the cityscape from the van's window driven by his uncle. From the top of the hills, the skyscrapers and vehicles on the streets looked like little miniature. The world seemed so beautiful.

"How long we will arrive?" David asked Eugene, who was driving the van with dozens of people's orders.

"Not much longer."

David was supposed to go to school during the day like this, but he was bullied at school and blamed by his friends for the school's shocking incident of a fire in the classroom, and eventually, he was suspended for a week.

Instead of spending time alone at home, David joined his uncle in delivering goods to customers as a courier.

"Did you hear about the rumours of the world coming to an end? What do you think?" Eugene turned the van between two giant dead trees.

"That's why I'm coming with you today. If the world will end today, I wouldn't be at home alone but dead with you."

"Don't believe what people say; they're just making up stories. Scaring bad people into repentance."

David remembered the news on TV lately about storms that hit cities that were never being hit by hurricanes, people dying in unnatural circumstances, and many signs that the end of the world was approaching. Of course, it made people feel anxious.

They had arrived at a mysterious house on the edge of a hill. No one would have expected a building like this in the middle of the forest.

"Who would want to live in an isolated place like this?" asked David, stomping his feet on the ground as he jumped down the van.

"An old couple who look like..." Eugene glanced at the locked gate. "Not at home."

"So, what should we do now? Go back?"

David was impatient to enjoy the ride on the hillside to see the beautiful cityscape.

"We'll pick up Iris at her school." Eugene got into his car again.

That meant they didn't take the road they had taken to get here. David was about to protest, but Eugene told him to get back into the car first.

"Is it just me, or is it true that today is hotter than the normal day?" Eugene wiped the seed-sized sweat from his forehead.

David had even undone the top two buttons of his shirt because it was so hot.

The road was steeper and rockier, and David was worried that the car would slip and fall into the hollow on the left side. But Eugene was a good driver who had driven on break bridges before.

David thought that the air would get cooler once they passed the tree-lined road. Instead, it got hotter.

Dry leaves were falling from the trees even though it was still spring. David felt something was wrong.

There was nothing within five meters of the car. Just trees, bushes, and a hollow.

"Are you okay, Dav?" Eugene watched the anxiety on David's face.

"Something's not right." David felt goosebumps all over his body.

"What do you mean?"

David looked back. The trees were moving in the wind with abnormal force. The branches broke, and the leaves fell.

"You don't have to be afraid. It's always quiet here," Eugene explained to calm David down.

"Eugene, look!" David didn't have time to describe a group of birds frozen in the air in a strange condition. Two tree trunks had first collapsed, blocking their car in the middle of the road.

The rumble of the strong wind blew away the leaves and dust.

"Shit!" cursed Eugene as he closed the window and drove the car to the side of the road in a panic.

David held on tightly to the car seat as Eugene forcefully rammed the two tree trunks together so they could escape the storm.

David still remembered the birds frozen in mid-air. Their wings spread, their eyes opened, and they stopped like a paused video. They didn't fall.

"David, watch out!" shouted Eugene as a branch from nowhere fell on David's side window. The glass shattered.

The wind was getting stronger, and Eugene's big car was almost out of control. Luckily, the road ahead was smooth, so the car could go faster than before.

Dust blocked the view. The car was shaken several times because it accidentally hit tree branches or rocks.

The school gate was in sight. But David could not breathe a sigh of relief.

"The storm is over," Eugene said.

Something heavy and black fell from the sky right before the car.

"Stop!" David shouted before it could run over their tires.

Eugene hurriedly slammed on the brakes. Their car suddenly stops.

Silence. The storm was nowhere to be seen. A group of birds in the air was clearly visible; they were frozen, just like what David saw in the forest.

Eugene was as surprised as David was when he first saw the strangeness.

There was a sound of something falling on the roof of the car. David and Eugene screamed in panic.

Something black kept falling. Some were lying on the road grass and even thrown into the ravine.

David swallowed his saliva when he realized that the black objects falling from the sky were students wearing school uniforms.

Eugene got out of the car. He saw dozens of dead bodies of schoolchildren lying on the road.

"Eugene, don't come out!" David shouted as he pulled Eugene back into the car.

"Stay there. I'll go get Iris."

"No," shrieked David. "She's dead."

Eugene gave him an angry look. "Calm yourself, Dav."

The bodies of the students continued to fall from the sky. David wanted to see what was up there, but he didn't have enough bravery.

Eugene had just arrived at the gate when a group of teachers and students ran out of the school with hysterical faces. They were screaming in fear.

"Where's Iris? Miss Jenn, where is Iris?" Eugene snapped in panic. However, the blonde woman ignored him and ran to her car.

"Papa!" a girl shouted from behind the classroom door.

Eugene saw Iris peeking out of the window with a scared face.

"Iris, let's go home!" Eugene ran in the middle of the corridor.

Iris came out of the classroom. Her hands were bleeding. Her right leg was limping, so she couldn't run.

Iris almost grabbed Eugene's hand, but a black shadow pulled her body into the sky.

Eugene didn't have time to confirm what had just happened. Iris' body slammed into the schoolyard, with blood flowing from her head.

"IRIS!" shouted Eugene with a trembling body.

The black shadow now entered the classroom. The screams of girls could be heard from there. 

Eugene knew that if he tried to fight whatever it was, he would die right then and there. Eugene ran back to his car.

"Where's Iris?" asked David, seeing Eugene's body in a cold sweat and trembling.

"She's dead," Eugene replied in a trembling tone.

Eugene moved his car to flee the area. The bodies continued to fall. Eugene kept his car running, not caring if it ran over the bodies below.

David still couldn't believe that his cousin, who was supposed to be sitting next to him, died in a way he didn't know.

"Check your phone and call 911," Eugene ordered.

"I've been trying to call, but there's no answer," David replied.

Eugene reached for his own cell phone. He tried to call his office colleagues. There is no answer.

Eugene realized that it wasn't just on the hill. The disaster of bodies falling from the sky was happening all over the world.

"Turn on the radio, Dav!" Eugene ordered.

"The mysterious deaths that hit New York City and Los Angeles are now spreading to Arizona and Texas. Citizens are urged to stay home.

Scientists and soldiers are still looking into these mysterious mass deaths. They are connecting it to storm events in Chicago and Ohio last month. Before this event, scientists found an anomaly with the migration of birds on the shore .... birds .... anomaly." 

The radio network was down. David changed to another channel, but this is the only medium that gives him information.

The city was almost close. Eugene's office was on the edge of town, so he didn't have to go all the way through the major roads in chaos.

Bam!

Bodies fell on the car and the road. Eugene drove his car faster.

Eugene's friends were seen in front of the office; they went inside the building to protect themselves.

"Hey, don't close the door!" Eugene shouted from the car window.

A grey-haired man looked at Eugene with a worried expression. "Hurry up!" he shouted.

Eugene stopped the car in front of the corpse of a girl who had almost been run over. An electric pole collapsed in front of their car.

"Come on, Dav!"

Both of them got out of the car and ran through the street.

The buzzing wind and sirens from the city centre made the sound even more terrifying. If he didn't avoid it immediately, David almost stepped on an old man's corpse.

"Come on, hurry!" shouted a grey-haired man from inside the room who was already preparing to close the door.

David felt the skin on his neck crawl. The hairs on his neck bristled. His heart was beating wildly.

Eugene pulled David to the floor inside the building. The door closed with a bang.

People looked at David and Eugene with a sigh of relief.

The seven people sitting with resigned expressions were Eugene's coworkers. They had guns in their hands.

"What happened?" asked Eugene, getting up from the floor with a curious expression.

"I don't know, some kind of mutant attack made by scientists, I guess," explained the thin man, wiping a knife.

"Or a meteor-borne creature from another galaxy," said another.

"We'll fight the monster together with the army in the centre of the city," said the stocky man carrying two firearms.

"I'll come with you."

"Take this!" Franky, the muscular man, handed the townspeople a box they were supposed to deliver today.

Eugene opened the box. There was a gun inside.

"I'll call Isaiah." Franky left the room to call his partner on the phone.

A few moments later, Franky reappeared. "Isaiah said they're waiting for us at the winged angel statue. We should get there now."

Eugene looked at David. "Stay here, okay?"

David shook his head. "I'll go with you guys."

"You just kid. It's dangerous out there."

"I'm nineteen."

Eugene led David into a hidden room. "Any monster out there won't be able to catch you here. You'll be safe."

"I'll come with you."

"I don't want to lose you too after I lost Iris. I'll come back after doing all of this. Do you understand?!" Eugene demanded, leaving David speechless.

"He's right, kid. You're still a child."

David held back the anger rumbling in his chest.

"Take care, Dav!" said Eugene before closing the room and locking it.

The room was pitch black. David heard his breath coming in uneasy gasps.