Ever since that day, the world was never the same. The sky seemed to be permanently stained a bright purple color that was visible across the world. A large debris and dust cloud formed from the impact, darkening the skies of southwest Fazia and northern South America. Soil from the impact site on the coast of New East London was thrown all over the nearby provinces, burying Lorad, Olisdale, Antare, and Akruoving. Numerous search teams from over 73 countries were dispatched to the area and tried to recover as much as possible. The gigantic mounds of dirt covering thousands of square miles proved difficult to salvage anything.

Jay sat down in front of his computer and opened YouTube. He scrolled until he found a news video about Fazia. Markus walked into the room and saw Jay looking at that video.

"Good morning Jay."

"Oh, hi Markus. Check this out."

Markus bent down and looked at the screen. Jay pulled up the video and turned on the speakers.

"Brand new updates come out of Fazia today as vigorous search and rescue efforts continue. After 6 months of recovery, a list of all identified bodies have been released on the Fazia governments website. Based on reports, it's estimated that 35,340 were killed and several millions were injured from the impact. As of now, only 4 thousand bodies have been recovered, with only one thousand identified. The go-"

Markus shoved the chair aside and turned off the video. He rapidly found the list of identified bodies and searched the names of his friends.

"Are they there?"

"Sigh, only a few of them are here. The others are still missing."

Jay read the names after wrapping his arms around him. He turned more to the left and embraced a now crying Markus.

"You said they'll be fine! All of them! Now look, half of them are gone forever!" he yelled, sobbing. He shortly after fell onto the floor, with Jay still holding on, as he kept bawling his eyes out.

*     *     *

"Do you even know where the hell we're going?"

"I think so. The town should just be up here."

They drove across the river and passed a sign welcoming them to a small town named Durham. As they entered the streets, they had a strange feeling about the place. It had been entirely evacuated just days prior, fearing that the meteor would affect the area. Thomas slowed down the car to prevent crashing into the objects left on the street. The purple tint of the sky cast a dark-ish gloom on the buildings.

"Any service?" Thomas asked. Taylor shook her head and put her phone down. She leaned her head on the window and stared out at the abandoned structures.

"How many of us do you think survived?"

"Huh?"

"There were 7 of us at the start of the day. Fred, Nancy, and Marc most likely died from the strike. I haven't heard from Markus or Teresa in days and are possibly dead too. We might just be the last survivors of our friend group."

Thomas slowed the car down to a halt before getting out of the car. Taylor got out too, wondering what he was doing. Tom bent down, grabbed a large piece of concrete, and then chucked it into a nearby large window. He screamed in a fit of rage and kicked down the door.

Taylor stared at him in horror as he stared at the shattered door, heavily breathing. Tom looked over to her and calmed down. "Sorry. I just don't know how I'm gonna live with Marc gone. Everything that can go wrong is going wrong..."

"Aw, Tom, it's gonna be okay. We're still gonna make it out alive here."

As she gave him a hug, she noticed a flier in the now broken window. Curious, she walked over to it and examined it. She looked back at Tom and told him to get back in the car. When he asked why, Taylor explained that there was an airstrip a mile down that road. They hopped in and drove off.

They pulled into the airport and ran to the only hangar visible to them. Luckily for them, somebody had left their small plane in it. "So, uhh... Tom, do you know how to fly?" Taylor asked. He nodded his head side to side. Taylor, without looking, grabbed a book directly next to her and slammed it into him, "Read this, I'm sure it'll help." He took a look at the book's cover and showed it back to her, "Dummies guide to France?" She slapped the book out of his hand and looked around the bookshelf.

She finally found the correct book and gave it to him. He began reading it to learn how to fly.

*     *     *

Every day since the list was released, Markus would check for any new updates in the hope that everyone else had survived the impact. His hope began to die off as Fred was added to the website, being found almost 200 days after the impact. As he slowly began to spiral into depression, Jay and Sofia tried their best to keep his hopes up. Unfortunately, they couldn't keep it up long enough, as Mark's hope completely phased out just days before the year ended. With no hope of seeing them again, he packed up his things and drove off without Jay or Sofia knowing.

As the first moments of 2020 began, Mark stopped his car near a Belgian beach and got out. Sitting down in the sand, he stared out into the magenta horizon, hearing the sound of fireworks from the nearby town.

The sounds of the wind flowing through his fur began to overshadow the booms of the fireworks as the night moved on. All of a sudden, his phone rang.

Messages: 1 Jan. 2020 - 00:17
Patty: Hey. Where are you right now?

He saw the screen and froze. His mind began to race as he stood up. Unlocking the phone, he quickly typed a response.

Less than an hour later, Markus saw the outline of the helicopter amongst the purple sky. He began to approach it as it began to land on the sandy Belgian shore. Patricia stretched her hand out of the door and pulled Markus in. They shortly after took off toward Fazia..

"So uh, you said you'd explain?".

"Oh yeah. To put it simply, what's left of the government wants us to come back to Fazia.".

"For what reason? It's been almost a year.".

"The impact site has become stable enough for people to examine the meteor. They want the only people who were studying it prior to impact to examine it in-person.".

"Woah. That's amazing.".

After they transferred to a plane in Brussels, they landed in Wimbleton. Mark hopped out of the plane as he saw hundreds of people walking around the area donning many different national flags. He was taken aback by this level of support in the rescue efforts..

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Patricia asked, standing next to him..

"Yeah. It's an incredible sight.".

"It's good to know that the international community has our back. Who knew world peace was still possible? Heh.".

The two of them nodded and walked together to a nearby truck. The truck took them as far as it could, stopping on the border into East New London. "How come it stopped?". Markus asked. The driver motioned to the two of them to get out of the truck. He directed them to the back and showed them three ATVs. Patricia looked at the ATVs in confusion, asking, "You want us to ride these?".

"Yes. Everyone is required to use one of these to travel into the debris zone. No other vehicle can traverse it," the driver said. Patricia sighed as she got on, with Markus following suit. They were given directions to the crater and went on their way.

At last, they arrived at the crater. Markus looked over the edge of it and saw a small group of people already down there. They made their way down to the mountain of iron sitting in the center of the hole and met the people down there. They were both briefed on the situation and soon began their investigations on the rock.

*     *     *

Taylor stepped out of the abandoned hotel and basked in the lilac light. She stretched her arms out and made her way over to the hangar. Inside was Tom leaning against the landing gear of the plane, gripping the book in his right hand. Taylor walked over to the plane and banged on the aluminum fuselage. The loud metallic bangsmade him instantly spring up. "Wha-? Huh? What's going on?" he tiredly said.

"How's your learning going?"

"Oh, it's uh," he yawned, "going great~," his words were slurring. Taylor watched him as he began to fall asleep again. She picked him up and dragged him to the nearby table.

"Give me an estimate of when we're airborne," she said as she sat Tom down in the chair. Tom glanced over at the nearby calendar and began calculating. "Uhh... soon maybe? I dunno"

"Ah that's good. I wanna get out of this place, there's ash from the impact settling in the city."

"Yeah me too. Where or who would we go to though? I'm pretty sure all the others have died."

"What about Markus?"

"Pfft, God knows where! I haven't heard from him since before the disaster."

Taylor got up from her chair and walked over to a nearby computer. She turned it on and began to search the meteor database for Markus' name, to no results. Taylor turned to Tom, "We're just as off the grid as him apparently. We're listed on the database as missing but he's not even here."

"He might be listed on whitepages if he's in the US," Tom suggested. Taylor turned back to the screen and searched to find another blank page. She stared at the screen for a few seconds before making a realization: "Oh wait a minute. My parents are on vacation in France right now. We can go there!"

Taylor dialed her parents and began speaking to them in Cruxic. Tom walked over to the plane and began to climb it. He switched the plane on and began to accelerate. Taylor talked on the phone while she watched him exit the hangar. Tom made his pre-flight checks before he began to speed up on the runway. Seconds later, liftoff.

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