The air was beginning to fill with lots of dust.
Those thin particles were polluting his lungs and caused Dan to first sneeze and after cough intermittently while he progressed further down.
Little by little, the ground slowly decreased shaking and, as sudden as it had started, the quake stopped.
After all those stairs, Dan at last spotted the rear entrance way.
He also noticed, terrified, coming from lateral door, an ominous trail of blood that went across the entrance way. Like if somebody had been dragged from inside to the back of the building. He hesitated and stayed still for some moments, waiting, deciding.
Without half-measures, he drew the gun he was carrying, crossed the door and went to the back.
Now he was outside. Still raining. A surprising sight. At the rear there was this sort of park, with bushes, a relatively large garden comprised of grass with blooming flowers, a bench here and there; a cobbled street covered all the ground that wasn't planted and went all around the park. The red trail continued, imprinted on the cobblestones.
Dan walked along, basically following its direction, when a nasty and cruel 'crack' sound echoed throughout the park.
Dan stopped in his tracks and pointed the gun forward. Nothing. He was hoping for it not being another giant flash of light. He would never imagine that something like that could ever be possible. Something that could shine like the Sun and dazzle so all of a sudden.
Protection against such thing would be...The safest would be to go out to the open, where the chances of escape would be better. The layer of blood overlapped into the grass and eventually just disappeared. Beyond the park there was a illuminated lot where a few old-looking cars were stationary. Dan proceeded to exit the park.
Finally, Dan found the source of that echo, that had served as an inkling. Then, at the end of the wide avenue in where he found himself, he could hear someone moaning faintly. The sound came behind a wrecked banger. Under a lamp-pole, Dan stopped, furiously. The voice was definitely familiar. Deep breathing, he advanced slowly but resolute towards the groanings.
There he found Gip, in a bloody mess, one of his legs missing and his right forearm torn away as well...... Dan just kept staring helplessly, petrified in shock.
In a restrictive effort, he began mumbling dire words:
- ... Stop... this... It's...
Dan kneeled at the same instance clumsily and tried to support him, protecting him from the rain:
- Gip... Save your breath. You gonna be OK. You hear me?
Gip continued, faintly:
- The.... The.... fif... pire..... fifth emp..... sister.....
- What? What you're saying? Fifth symphony? Beethoven? What about....
-.... I saw.... him! A..... man....Secret......
With this the man ceased breathing.
- Gip.....GIP..... HANG ON!! PLEASE!!!.... - pleaded Dan desperately, trying to make him respond, at the same time stirring the man. It was to no avail. Gip would never react again.
All of Dan's efforts to not cry were for naught. So much horror seen in so little time. It was as if the whole world he knew was being sucked and disintegrated by something holding the power of destiny. Dan burst into a fit. It was a matter of time before he'd been taken out.
No. As long as he could, he'd resist. If he had to go down, he'd go fighting. Gip's last disclosed words came to mind. Gip had somehow discovered something. An important matter. There was a secret. If he could figure it out....Not only for him, but for all who had perished.
At that moment an ice-cold shiver went up his spine. He had felt that something was not right.
He.... was not alone there. He turned his head and behind him, in the back lighting he could see two inhuman, grotesque shapes, drawing near him. They had legs like the ones of the mythological centaurs. Their arms, there were two pairs of them, were insect-like; in the hands there were four fingers, and in the upper pair of arms the fingers ended in about 7 inch (18 cm) claws.
