The bright white of the YouTube homepage contrasted the darkness of my room. I felt my eyes worsen the longer I scrolled through thousands of thumbnails. What else could I do? All that my eyes needed was relief from everything. That's when it appeared in the recommended videos section. My gaze fixated on the face of the reporter in the thumbnail as I read through the title: "Fazia's Worldwide Quake leaves humanity in shock." It's almost as if it happened yesterday, except that the video was uploaded over 2 years ago. My eyes slowly blinked as they navigated my hands to close the tab.

The wallpaper of my friends on my birthday of that year shone a myriad of colors into my room. If today really was the day, I don't want to lose them. The peaceful silence was broken by my grandfather clock, ringing out the Westminster Chime followed by 6 short bongs. I picked up my phone and stared at Angel's contact photo. Her bright blue fur stood out in the picture much more than my tan-ish fur on the dark forest background. Reluctantly, I tapped on the "Call" button and sat there listening to the phone dialing.

"Markus? What are you doing awake?"

"Oh, well I uhm..." I couldn't muster anything to say before she took the words out of my mouth: "It's about today, right?"

I bowed my head down and said yes. She sighed on the other side and reassured me that everything was fine. We talked on the phone for a little while longer before she went to sleep. I tossed my phone onto my bed and shut off my computer as I started to get ready to go out.

The warm-ish weather of the westward Sahara winds brought small sand particles into the city and gave it its marvelous orange morning skies. As I looked up, I noticed something I had never seen before. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but from the ground it seemed as if there was a purple streak floating through the air. Thinking I was hallucinating, I grabbed my phone and pointed it at the sky. Needless to say, there it was on the screen. I snapped a photo of it before I got in the car and drove over to the observatory.

*     *     *

It was an eerie feeling knowing that I was alone. On my way here, I called Patricia so that she could come and help me out with looking at this thing. As I sat in my comfy security room chair, she walked into the room and motioned me to come with her. I got up and followed her to the observation deck. We observed the sky until 8 am, gazing at the purple stream. As we continued our discussion, I heard the faint alarms of the security room.

On my way there, alarms around the entire facility began blaring warning sounds all over the place. I slid into the security room with Patricia not far behind. The room was flashing red as the monitors yelled those familiar words: "ATTENTION! CLASS D THREAT INBOUND! AFFECTED PROVINCES: FAZIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY, WEST AND EAST NEW LONDON, LIGMAR, AND FAZMURY. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!"

Memories began flooding back into my head as Patricia came in. She stood next to me and read what the monitor was telling us.

"Knowing that that meteor is visible to us now, I don't think this is a false alarm like last time," she exclaimed.

We looked at each other and knew we were thinking the same thing: "Send out the warning." The sounds of our quick footsteps echoed throughout the building as we ran to the emergency room across the halls.

As we slammed on the lights, years-old dust flew into our faces and attempted to blind us. Patricia ran over to the computer and began to set up the broadcast. I jumped in front of the provincial map of the nation, rapidly pressing the buttons that correspond to the surrounding provinces. I slammed the larger button next to the map and sent the list over to the computer, automatically formatting it for TV, Radio, and mobile devices.

In less than a minute, we were 100% ready to send it out. We looked at each other, nodded our heads, and then pushed send together. Almost instantly, the radio and TV in the room switched on and blared the emergency alert siren. Our phones also began vibrating and displayed the message.

We shared a quick hug of celebration before running out and grabbing our stuff. We had time before the estimated impact, but I'm afraid that not everyone in the affected area can evacuate in 5 hours. As I ran outside I heard the city's warning sirens screeching across the city with their gut-wrenching alternating wail. I hopped in my car and quickly drove off.

While I drove home I called as many of my friends as possible, telling them that they need to leave right now if they don't want to be trapped in traffic. Once I made it, I had to pack my bags at lightning speed while simultaneously booking a plane. Trust me, it's so very difficult to. After everything was said and done, I rang up Jay:

"JAY! JAY! I need you to meet me at Southend airport in 4 and a half hours from now!"

"Wait what? Why?"

"Fazia is about to meet its maker, and we need to evacuate now! Switch on the news, you'll see!" I heard Jay switch on BBC, reporting the warnings that I had sent out just half an hour ago. He reacted just how I expected him to, and so he agreed to meet me.

I rushed over to the airport and boarded the last minute flight out of the country. Luckily for me, this was the last flight from this airport. I didn't want to see my friends die, but there's nothing that I could do...

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