"Just one last stop, then we're finally there!"

"You still haven't told us where we're going yet, Dad."

"That's because it's a surprise, Itsuki."

"After all, surprises make birthdays!"

"You too, Mum?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be on board with surprising one of you?"

"Because you do it every year?"

"That's even more reason to do it!"

They both laugh in sync in the front of the car.

"Still, can't we get there any faster? It's way too cramped in the back here."

In the back of the car, there was three of us. Me, my little brother and my older sister, although, despite being older, she was still the smallest of us all. Both were asleep, as we'd been in the car for nearly half a day now.

"Hey, no matter who we are, we still abide by the laws, you know."

"You can say that all you want when you don't have two shoulders pushing against you constantly, Dad."

"We're only 20 minutes away, so put up with it for that long."

"Aah, fine..."

I sigh and lean back as far as I can, though it seemed to make it more uncomfortable for me, so I returned to my original position of hunching forwards.

As I do so, I hear a faint whisper in my ear.
"--h, mythi-- one, heed ou-- all."

I quickly turn to the side of where I heard it from, but there was nothing there.

My movements seemed to be noticed by Mum though, as she called it out.
"What are you doing?"

"Did you not hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The whispering. Someone was whispering in my ear."

"Hm? Itsuki... Try to get some sleep, I think you've been awake for a little too long."

"No, I'm being serious, that wasn't me hallucinat--"

"What in God's name is that?"

Dad cuts me off as he leans closer to the dashboard of the car, looking up at something.

"What is it?"

I call from the back, also attempting to lean forward to get a look.

"It looks like... A tower?"

Mum points out the obvious as a monstrously large tower extends itself from the middle of wherever we are.

"Is that the surprise?"

"No... Not at all..."

The traffic on the road seems to have come to a halt as the road seems to have been blocked off by this tower.

Some people were getting out of their cars to get a better look and to take photos and videos of it.

Curious, I pull my phone out of my pocket and start looking online, and it seems to be everywhere.

"They're popping up in America, Europe, Asia. They're everywhere..."

"Is it... A movie promotion?"

"There's no way, it literally just appeared, right in front of my eyes."

"How is that possible?"

"I-- I don't know. I don't think it is..."

Half paying attention to my parents conversations, I continue reading online.

"The Government is saying to stay well way from it, since it could be dangerous."

"Yeah, I wish we could, but there's no way of turning around when the road is this full."

I take a quick look outside the window and, sure enough, I couldn't see the end of the cars that were behind us, and the cars in front weren't moving at all.

"So... What do we do?"

My question seemed to send us into silence, before Dad broke it with an answer.

"I think we'll just have to wait."

And that's what we did, since we seemed completely out of options.

We waited. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. 20 minutes.

At some point, I made myself more comfortable, undoing my seat belt and maneuvering myself into a more comfortable position.

At around the 30 minute mark, we began hearing something, though it seemed as if I was hearing something different to my parents.

"Is that... Rumbling?"

"Are we having an earthquake?"

The car shook in sync with the rumbling, but my mind was too focused on something else.

Hyms? Why can I hear hyms?

Much like the whispering, hyms began being sung into my ears, at first, they were quiet and disjointed, but they soon became louder as they harmonized.

They became almost too loud, and I tried to stop them by covering my ears, to no avail.

It was around that point that the rumbling intensified, and people began running down the road in the opposite direction to where we were facing.

"Honey, why are they running?"

"I'm... I'm not sure. Let me, uh, let me look."

Dad opens the door and looks down the road from outside the car, before quickly jumping back inside.

"Everyone, get out the car, now!"

His shouting woke up my sister, Freya, and Archi, my brother, and they both seemed out of it.

"What's... happening?"

Freya was the first to speak, but Dad stopped any further questions.

"We need to get out of the car now! Don't get distracted!"

Seeing Dad like this seemed to cause us to panic slightly, as Archi began to struggle with the seat belt, to which I helped him with.

But just before the buckle was released, a strange sensation overcame me, as if I was floating.

I was lifted off the car seat and everything seemed to be in slow motion as I floated towards the windshield of the car.

It was already cracked as my legs hit it, and I felt the impact surge up them, but they weren't stopped and instead went straight through the windshield, causing me to fly out of the car.

Luckily, the car was only a few feet off the ground when I came out of it, but I still watched as it began spinning down the road in the air, before crashing down onto several other cars and bouncing further.

I watched this happen as I hit the ground, feeling my arm give way to the ground underneath me. I felt it snap as it was unable to withstand the pressure.

Pain hit me hard as I rolled a few more feet down the road, scraping my arms and legs.

It was hard for me to breathe as I was overwhelmed by the pain from my arm, and as I look towards it, it bends in the wrong direction.

Vomit begins to rise up my throat, but I managed to chase it away as I start to get control over my breathing.

When I do, the pain from my arms dissipates slightly, though it still hurts enough to occupy most of my thoughts.

Luckily, my legs only seemed to scrape across the ground, so aside from a few cuts, they were fine.

Taking a few more moments to breath, I manage to stand up, unbearable pain striking me across my entire body.

Every time I take a step, my body wants me to stop with searing pain jolting me every time my foot touches the ground.

But I continue going, walking towards where I saw Dad's car last.

I walk past several destroyed cars, some flipped over, some crushed.

I walk past people who could have been unconscious, or could have been dead, I didn't want to look close enough to find out.

I could hear the beeping of car alarms and the cries from people around me, some calling out names for people they couldn't see, others shouting in pain.

Smoke filled my lungs from fires that sprouted from cars, and I felt my throat burn as I walked past them.

I walk for a few more minutes before I catch a glimpse of red metal, and as I get closer my thoughts turn to the worst.

No, please, no no...

The car was flipped over and almost squished flat. It managed to fly over the side barriers of the road and land on a flat area of grass.

As I got closer, my vision began to distorted as tears began welling up in them.

Underneath the car, pooling into the grass around it, was a puddle of blood, seeping out from inside.

I could feel my legs give out from under me, and I dropped to my knees.

The pain from my arm distanced itself from my mind as I stared at the puddle of blood.

I don't know how long I was there for, but at some point, emergency services came and dragged me away from the car while helping other survivors.

When I came to my senses, I was lying down in a large tent, filled with the other survivors. Some were better off than me, most were actually, though some were in dire straits.

It was only at this point that I noticed that the hyms that I had been hearing while in the car were gone, a strange silence over taking them despite the noise from the tent.

And as I thing about the hyms, my mind turns back to the car. The car that I was in not long ago. The car that I saw flying through the air. The car I saw squished flat on the grass. The blood.

I stand up in a hurry, almost losing my balance from the sudden hit of pain from my arm, but I ignore it as I run down the tent, looking at all of the wounded.

Not you, not you, not you either.

I reach the end of the tent and burst out of it, looking around for another but to no avail.

They aren't in the wounded tent. That means they're alright, yeah? They're not hurt at all. Yeah. Yeah.

I start jogging around the emergency medical station, speeding up as I go, looking around for my family, before stumbling upon rows and rows of zipped up black bags.

Large bags that lined the grass we were on.

I knew at first glance what they were. Body bags. My chest feels heavy as I look across the rows of bags. Doubt fills my mind.

I spot a nearby helper and stumble towards them while calling out.

"Hey, hey! Can you help me, please?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, yeah I can help. Do you need a doctor?"

"No, no, can you help me find some people?"

"... Ah, I... I see. I can help you out. Do you know if they're... Alive?"

"I... I... Don't."

"... Right, um, follow me."

She turns around and starts heading towards a smaller tent that covers several tables full of paper.

"This here... Is the list of confirmed dead. It isn't complete, as there are still some not identified, not found or... Um, unidentifiable."

I quickly take the sheet off her and start scanning down it, and was unable to find my surname.

"They... They aren't on here... That means... That means they're alive, right?"

"... If you want to, there's vague reports of the site of the unidentified dead."

She turns around and starts shuffling through piles of paper before pulling out a stack and handing it to me.

I start sifting through the sheets, seeing nothing that would catch my attention, until:
'A red SUV, flipped over after traveling. Blood spilling out from inside. Found roughly 100m from medical tent. Number of dead inside is unknown. Bodies currently unretrievable.'

My heart sinks as I read the report. From the first few lines I knew exactly what it was talking about. My Dad's car.

"They're... All dead..."

Tears begin falling down my face and hitting the paper.

"They're dead... Archi, Freya... Mum, Dad..."

My mind tries to come to terms with what I just read, but struggles to, and I feel my body get heavier and heavier.

The next thing I know, I'm in a hospital, with my arm being treated alongside other victims.