I worked at a regular office, some minor accounting firm for a large corporation, nothing remarkable. It was good pay and was in walking distance, so I wasn't complaining. After a long night of watching TV and drinking, I woke up to some explosions off in the distance around 2 A.M. I knew something bad was happening somewhere in the city; it seemed every possible siren was blaring. I had an awful feeling deep in my stomach. I remember dressing furiously and running out to the hall. I could hear dozens of people out on the street screaming in terror, some in pain. Gunshots rang out from everywhere. The very world seemed to be moving back and forth. I peeked out a hallway window, just enough to see outside. Hundreds of thousands of glowing orbs were moving across the sky in all directions. A steady flow seemed to be streaming upwards out of a circular red aurora. The aurora seemed to be floating around a specific location off in the distance.
I got down on my hands and knees and started crawling towards the staircase of the apartment building. I could smell the death and smoke emanating from the street below. All hell was breaking loose out there. The explosions were climaxing, there was no pause between each one. I was completely alone and utterly terrified. After getting down the stairs I paused before opening the emergency door to the alleyway. I stood up to see if it was clear through the small rectangle window. I could hear a man crying on the other side of the door, but he must have been just below my line of sight. I reached carefully for the door handle but instead I hit the floor headfirst. I dazed in and out of consciousness, staring at the muzzle-flashes shining through that small window up onto the ceiling.
When I woke up it was still dark outside, but it felt like more than a day had passed. The world was much quieter, except for the same distant explosions, only these sounded much farther away. The ceiling was hit by some sort of vehicle, most likely a helicopter. The beam struck me directly but was stuck on the wall before it could crush me. I crawled out of the rubble with little problem, but my very mind felt numb. A small pool of blood formed where my head lay, but after feeling around I could confirm the blood loss stopped during my rest. I crawled out into the alleyway through a large hole left by the crash. My brain started to race, part of it telling me to be careful, part of it telling me to find help as soon as possible, and another part telling me to sit down and give up.
The alleyway was caked in blood. The sky was dark red, the same color of that aurora. I seemed to be near the center of it. It expanded steadily outwards, in a slow but visible pace. Most of the blood had dried, yet there were still some fresh spots. I saw a few familiar faces in the corpses slumped against the dumpster. It seemed the entire apartment block had died in that alleyway. The smell was overpowering, the sight was numbing, and the silence around me was deafening. I peeked cautiously out into the street. Pools of blood filled craters in pavement, some with organs floating in them. Chunks of meat, bodies barely recognizable as human, all strewn about. I stood in silence looking at the pure carnage. The street was completely ruined; rubble from buildings and cars blocked both ends. Looking up, the only streetlamp standing had a dead body hanging upside down from it. I saw a single manhole in between some wreckage, the upper half of a corpse with a crowbar in hand lying next to it.
Almost by instinct I took it and started prying. I could hear some movement somewhere in front of me. I knew I would not see a friendly face. I pried harder. The footsteps intensified; there was more than one. I could hear inhuman gurgles behind an overturned city bus, steadily moving towards me, yet the manhole refused to budge. Then they came out. One at first, then a pair behind it, then a crowd, all moving in my direction. The first one spotted me and hissed, its red eyes locked onto me. Then crowbar broke in half. Adrenaline surged through me and I sprinted with more power than I ever knew I had. I vaulted over an overturned Humvee, past piles of dead soldiers, those creatures stacked near their machine gun nests. I heard an unearthly "bull" sounding roar out in the darkness to my right in a dark alleyway. I didn't slow to see what made it. I ran towards my office. Nothing made sense anymore, the office seemed to be the only safe place. I passed the bloodied elevators and went to the stairs. I charged upwards until I couldn't move my legs anymore, when those stopped I crawled.
I slid into an old janitor's closet next to the staircase. I pushed a few crates in front of the door and sat down. I then passed out from exhaustion. When I woke up it was daytime. After composing myself I went outside and looked out the glass window into the abyss that was once my home city. Entire skyscrapers were toppled like dominoes. Massive clouds of smoke rose from huge pits where neighborhoods used to be. The few buildings that weren't on fire were ruined or completely destroyed. I could see the company headquarters about two miles away. That steady stream of orbs were still coming out of its center. What looked like millions of humanoid beings surged outwards from the building, slowly filling the surrounding streets. A few dozen large creatures stood out from the crowd, steadily marching outwards. A helicopter lifted off a nearby office roof only to suddenly be attacked by the orbs, swarming around it like bees. I turned my back as it crashed into another building. This world would never be the same.
I found a dead guard with a pistol and a few clips on him. I went back into the closet, where this story draws to a close. I have my gun trained on that door. The noises of those creatures are emanating from down the staircase; I won't last very long, but I am sure to take a few down before I go. It's funny; these three letters just repeat themselves in my head, over and over again. They were on our coffee mugs, our lap-tops, our pens. These three letters caused all of this. I took part in it. The crate in front of the door displays these three prominently.
U A C