Chaos. The alarm had been risen less than an hour ago, and the city was in a rush to escape the danger. Streets were jammed with traffic beyond the worst rush hour, and the pavements chock with people desperately trying to get themselves and their possessions out. The noise and screaming was deafening.

Lovino clutched tightly to Feliciano with one hand, and his grandpa with the other. His school backpack, now full of clothes, food and the few items precious to Lovino, was strapped firmly over his shoulders. A single thought ran through his mind - get out before it was too late.

He tried to quell the panic rising in his heart and the claustrophobia beginning to grip his brain. People - hundreds of them - ran past, packed tighter than sardines and yet still managing to move at an impossibly hurried pace.

Romulus Vargas, being stronger than most despite being nearly sixty, was able to make headway through the confusion by sheer force. But it was still slow going, and Lovino could only see him and their progress by the occasional gap he forged. Terror was suspended in the air like a blanket, suffocating and choking.

The threat hung over everyone's heads, and most didn't even know what had caused it.

Romulus flicked his head back briefly towards his grandsons. "You two alright?" Lovino was barely able to hear his voice, but nodded in response. There was a breathless 'Ve' from behind them as Feliciano registered the question.

There was a sudden, sharp bang, perhaps a few streets away, perhaps a car backfiring, but it sent the surrounding people into impossible panic. They surged in all directions, the noise level and force exponentially rising. Lovino found himself bludgeoned by bodies, threatening to pull him away. With a burst of adrenaline, he stood his ground and focused only on following his grandpa.

"Fratello!" Feliciano's voice called desperately behind him. Lovino's head snapped back urgently, just in time to see his brother's auburn hair disappear into a group heading in the other direction. His eyes widened in panic, and he tightened his grip on his brother's hand, but it was futile. Feliciano's slim fingers slid out of his own. Lovino snatched back at them, but found only air. His brother was nowhere to be seen.

"Grandpa!" he yelled above the din. "Feliciano's gone! We have to go back, damn it!"

His grandfather stopped suddenly and looked back, determination replaced only by worry and fear. It was the first time Lovino had seen his grandpa that way, and it scared him worse than any deadly fate. Romulus's brown eyes twitched as he realised time was against them, and he was given an impossible choice. People flowed past in both directions around the pair, but they seemed background now, like they didn't even exist.

"Lovino." He placed both hands heavily on his grandson's shoulders and spoke urgently. "Get out. At all costs, get out. Don't look back, don't focus on us, don't follow me. Just get yourself out. If everything goes wrong and we can't find you, head for the capital. I'll meet you there, I promise. Remember, don't follow me. Get out." He paused and looked at Lovino with a heartbreaking expression. "I love you, Lovino." He briefly kissed his grandson on the forehead and charged back into the crowd.

"Grandpa!" Lovino yelled desperately, his heart twisting in knots. But Romulus was gone, swallowed by the mob. His final words echoed in Lovino's head, the only thought that wasn't torn in confusion. He sprinted forward, an explosion of punches and profanity desperately searching for an escape route.

After what seemed like forever, Lovino was out. The buildings and crowds were behind him, the latter tumultuously running up the motorway out of the city. The grass around it had long since been turned to mud beneath hundreds of feet.

Driven only by the little adrenaline left in his system, he pulled himself up a small hillock about a mile from the city edge and turned back. His legs felt about to collapse and his breath came as a panicked rasp.

Smoke rose between some of the buildings, and the chaos was evident even from a distance. The shouting and panic was still audible, but more as a background noise, like interference.

Where were Feliciano and Grandpa? Lovino spun around again and hurriedly scanned the escaping crowd. Nothing. No auburn-haired happy-go-lucky little brother. No tough ageless Romulus. Just a faceless horde.

But they'd still have got out, right? There was still time. Lovino didn't have a watch, and he didn't know how long he stared and the crowd for, targeting and dismissing every face.

A soft whistling noise broke off his concentration and Lovino turned back to the city behind. A white fluffy trail was cutting swiftly across the sky, headed by a thin grey tip. Dread clutched at Lovino's chest, and his breathing cut off.

Time seemed to slow almost to nothing as the grey cylinder descended into the middle of the buildings, still leaving the white smoky trail behind it. For a moment, the world halted. Even the wind and shouting had died. Utter stillness.

Then the skyline lit up in a blaze of crimson and orange fire.

Strong towers and feeble lean-tos alike were annihilated instantly as the fire rippled outwards in its unstoppable slow-motion silence. Light and shadow flickered in its wake, a terrible, heart-rending devastation. Smoke billowed into the sky in thick grey waves.

Lovino stared at the destruction, unable to comprehend, unable to breathe. The world spun. Tears sprang to his eyes. Feliciano and Grandpa made it out, right? They had to have...they had to have.

He'd gone numb. His vision was blurred with tears and shock. He couldn't think.

Then the shockwave and noise of the explosion battered into him, slamming him to the ground, ramming his ears, his head, his heart. He sensed the tears on his face evaporate in the intense heat, and felt with a dull painful certainty that his family was dead, just before the blackness swept in and took him.