I came down the 5-stair walkway that came off stage left. My small group of “VIP's” (as they called themselves. I just called them my friends) were there to meet me. The guys, Jeremy (We call him Jem, it started as a joke, but it ended up just being easier) and Kyle patted me on the back with a typical “Great job, man,” And the girls, Sophie, Alex and Gracie, were jumping up and down excessively. Sophie was my fiancé, she ran to me and hugged me.

“Did you see the crowd? They were singing and dancing and having a great time and LOVING YOU!”

“So you guys liked the show?” I asked, smiling.

They all replied with a simultaneous “Yes!” that seemed eerily rehearsed.

“Ok then! Let's go get something to eat, I'm starving,”

The mood was light, everyone was laughing. I had just played my first big concert at a festival just a mile out of town. At dinner, Jem proposed a toast to me, and everyone drank. It was fun. A time of celebration.

Jem was in the middle of telling an amusing story from work, (something about a joke he had played on his army buddies) when the lights went out. Sophie instinctively grabbed my arm. A loud bang echoed from the front of the restaurant. After that, silence resonated within our souls. Not only could i not see due to the lack of lights in the building, but there were no lights in the streets either. Everything was absolutely black.

Then I saw light. Light coming from the barrels of several assault rifles that had just entered through the broken door. I heard people scream. A light was turned on that I assumed to be attached to one of these guns, then all the guns turned on their flashlights. We could see their faces. We could see the faces of the people being felled by the cold steel. The people carrying the guns didn't seem to make a sound, all we saw were lights aimed at people just before they died, screaming. Begging.

One of the lights started to turn towards us. “Shit, Run!” Kyle screamed. We all sprinted up towards the emergency exit, leaving our coats and bags behind us. I grabbed Sophie's hand as we ran as fast as we possibly could along the side of the restaurant. Thankfully these monsters hadn't extinguished the moon, and we could still see only a little where we were going. I looked to the highway, and saw that more lights patrolled that way. To my right, there were even more. The only way to go was forward.

The night was not silent. Gunshots and screams pierced the air. Explosions from gas tanks and otherwise dotted the horizon. Bullets flew past us as the lights tried to extinguish us, as they had the lights of the city.

Sophie suddenly got heavier and I felt her fall to the ground. Shit, Sophie, why now? Why did you have to trip now? I stopped and fumbled to help her up. A light shown on her, It illuminated the blood stains on her blouse. She had been shot. She mumbled something to me.

“What?” I said, desperate, crying, “What'd you say, baby?”

“I love you, Al, I love you so much, which is why you have to go. You have to RUN!” The light hit her once more and her face fell to the asphalt.

“I love you too, baby, I love you too,” I sobbed

“Al! We have to go!” I heard Gracie shouting, “Leave her! They'll hit you!” I did exactly that and I ran away from Sophie's dead body. Lights were aiming at me, I could feel their blinding heat, I could almost sense the bullets nipping at my heals. We all hid in a department store. There were no lights in there. It seemed safe. We ran all the way to the back, away from any windows. We sat down in a circle. I was crying uncontrollably, Alex kept going on about how this was a bad dream and she'd wake up anytime soon. I think we all hoped that in some way or another.

Gracie put her arm around me, “Don't worry, Al, we're gonna make it out of this.”

“I know we are, Grace, I know I am, because I'm going to kill these bastards for what they did to Sophie. I just wish I knew why. Why are they here? Who are they?”

“I can answer that,” Jem said quietly. He pulled a 9mm from his waistline. We all sat, dumbfounded.

“Why didn't you use that earlier?” I screamed, “Why didn't you save my sophie?!”

“Because friendly fire isn't tolerated in the United States Military”

“What? This is the military out there shooting at us? What the hell, Jem?” Alex spit out, shaking with anger.

“We're starting over,” Jem explained, “This country's too complicated and impossible to run, we need a blank slate.”

“So you're just...killing everyone?” Gracie said, shocked, barely whispering.

“Correct,” Jem said calmly, “You're no exception,” And he put a bullet through her forehead.

We all stood up suddenly, not knowing what to do or say. Alex opened her mouth and received a bullet in it. Kyle prepared to throw a punch, but was hit in the shoulder with a bullet. Kyle was 7'0'' and weighed 250 pounds, so it would take more than that. Jem knew, and fired seven more times into his body. Finally, Kyle fell to the ground.

Jem pointed the gun at me. He pulled the trigger. Nothing but an empty click resonated from the guns empty chambers.

“Dammit,” I heard Jem say before a punched him in the nose. He went down on his knees. I kicked him in the stomach and he went to the floor. Repeatedly I rammed my foot into his face until I was sure I didn't want to look down.

I started walking towards the front of the store. Seeing the chaos outside. Seeing where the lights fell and where peopled died. I heard the familiar roar of a jet plane flying over the center of the city, which was a considerable distance from where I stood.

Three of the lights in the parking lot in front of the store turned towards me and started firing. I didn't care. I stood with my arms wide. The windows on the front of the store shattered and broke.

The night was dark save for those killing lights.

But there was one more killing light that was about to unleash itself.

The killer light had been encased in a small tubular metal shell that was stored on the plane flying past the city limits. Now it was falling, only a few feet from the ground.

When it hit, the light grew out of the small metal shell and engulfed the city.

I saw it coming for me, I smiled as the lights turned around, finally illuminated, I could see the wielders of the lights. Men in suits, Men who, under those suits, were scared and knew they were about to die.

The light engulfed them and, moments later, me.