The light came first.
It burst through the windows, So bright that it washed everything white.
Students instinctively covered their eyes, some shouting, others frozen in their places.
The artificial white flash swallowed the whole cafeteria.
A second later, the heat followed...
It was just a wall of heat so sudden that it felt like standing too close to a massive furnace.
The air began to sting, and everyone's skin felt like it was being poked by a thousand needles.
People gasped, choking, as if the world had turned into an oven.
And then....
after a heartbeat....
the sound arrived.
BOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!
The shockwave slammed into the university.
Windows shattered into millions of tiny blades that shredded everything.
The shards thrusted into the students' bodies with terrifying force.
Some pieces pierced deep into their heads, necks, and eyes, killing them before they could even realize what was happening.
doors were ripped off their hinges, and weak walls collapsed instantly.
Students who were laughing just a second ago were thrown across the room like ragdolls, their bodies hitting the walls with sickening thuds.
Chairs and tables flying like toys.
Teachers in the hallways were crushed under falling beams,
Outside, the university had already started to fall apart.
The sky was filled with burning streaks, dozens of them, cutting through the air and getting closer with every second. One of them had already hit the far side of the campus.
A massive meteorite punched through the roof of the faculty office wing.
The building folded like a book.
Professors who were grading papers or sipping coffee were buried instantly under tons of reinforced concrete and twisted steel.
In the library next door, students who were quietly studying didn't even have time to look up before the ceiling flattened them into the floorboards.
Offices crumbled, computers and papers scattering into the firestorm.
Students in nearby corridors screamed as the ground shook again. Pieces of the ceiling started falling, lights started flicker before everything going out.
Dusts started to fill the air quickly, making it hard to see and hard to breathe.
In the hallway, people were running without direction.
Some were trying to help others, pulling them up from the ground, while others pushed past without even looking. Fear had already taken over.
Near the staircase, a group of students tried to scramble down together, but another tremor slammed into the building.
Outside the main block, the courtyard was in chaos.
Students who had made it out stood staring at the sky, too shocked to move. The burning objects were getting bigger now, their speed terrifying.
Then another one came.
This time toward the hostel area.
The light flashed again, brighter than before, and for a second everything disappeared into white.
Then came the impact..
The hostel building shook violently as a part of it collapsed inward.
Walls cracked, windows bursted, and one side of the structure gave way under the force.
Inside, rooms were destroyed in seconds, furniture crushed, and students who had been inside were trapped under the fallen structure.
Back inside the academic block, the situation kept getting worse.
The heat was rising.
The air felt thick and filled with dust and the smell of something burning.
Some students had stopped running, either too exhausted or too overwhelmed to move anymore.
Few sat against the wall, staring blankly,
A few were crying.
and other few were calling out names.
But the impact didn't Stop There..
More streaks continued to fall from the sky, each one bringing another flash, another wave of heat, another crushing boom that shook what was left of the university.
Buildings were cracking and a part of the campus were already gone.
Fire had started spreading in some areas and smokes kept rising everywhere.
The sky above glowed orange and red, meteors still raining down.
Ashford University, once proud and alive, was now a ruin. Buildings broken, teachers buried, students dying, hostels torn apart, and offices burning.
What was once a normal day, filled with noise and life, had turned into something unrecognizable.
And it was still happening. No sign of slowing down...
At the same time the entire world was turning into a graveyard of fire.
-----------------------------------
Inside one of the dark hallways, everything was a mess. The floor was ripped open with deep cracks, the lights overhead were flickering and buzzing, and broken concrete was piled everywhere.
From beneath a slab of debris, a hand suddenly shot out.
It was Rix's hand.
Yes!!
Rix was alive!!
But he wasn't okay.
Rix had been unconscious this whole time, buried under the rubble of the ceiling.
Dust clung to his skin, blood streaked across his arm, and his fingers trembled as they clawed at the broken floor. Slowly, painfully, he pulled himself free.
He was back, but his mind was still lost in the dark.
He had no idea the world outside had already turned into a graveyard.
The only thing Rix remembered was the screaming.
He had been sprinting through the hallway, his lungs burning as hell as he cursed at the top of his lungs.
Then, it suddenly happened...
A meteorite slammed directly into the hallway entrance about 100 meters ahead of him.
Even at that distance, the shockwave was a monster.
The moment it struck, light flashed first, blinding for a second. Then came the heat, rushing through the air.
And right after that...
the shockwave hit.
It hit him like a physical punch to the chest, launching his body several meters backward through the air. He smashed into a wall with a dull thud. The wall cracked under the force, breaking apart, and the debris collapsed over him.
His body was still pumping with 100% adrenaline, but it didn't matter. He was still just a human. His fragile bones and organs couldn't handle that kind of raw pressure and vibration.
His vision had gone blank almost instantly.
He lost consciousness. just for a few seconds though.
Rix's head was bleeding badly, blood pouring down like a fountain. Blinding one eye and soaking into his collar.
"AHHHH!!! SHIIITTT!!!" he cursed, clutching his head, rolling across the cracked floor in pain. His voice echoed through the broken hallway.
His body still shaking from the impact.
For a few seconds, he couldn't even tell what was up or down.
His legs shook, and his vision was blurry, and blood oozed from his nose.
But somehow… he forced himself to move.
Slowly, with unsteady arms, he pushed himself up. His legs trembled as he tried to stand, His muscles screamed, and the debris shifted as he pushed himself up.
He stood there for a long time, swaying back and forth, just trying to keep the world from spinning.
As he got his balance, the hallway wasn't quiet anymore.
He could hear the constant, heavy THUDD... THUDD... THUDD of the fireballs slamming into the ground outside.
It sounded like the earth was being punched over and over.
Rix didn't waste time. He knew another strike could come at any moment. Before that happened, he had to move.
He needed to get somewhere safe.
But where?
He had no answer. His mind was completely blank and his body was broken. Like an aimless man, he dragged himself forward, step by step, forcing his fragile body to keep going.
He was much slower now.
The rush of adrenaline was fading, leaving him weak and shaking.
Slowly... very slowly... he limped toward the entrance area.
Somehow, after what felt like forever, he reached the entrance area.
But when he finally reached it, he saw the path was completely blocked. Huge chunks of the wall and ceiling had piled up,
He didn't give up. Using his bare hands, he began to move the rubble.
It was a grueling work. His fingernails tore, and his muscles burned, but he cleared the pieces one by one.
Slowly, he managed to wiggle a few large stones out of the way, creating a small hole, just big enough for his body to squeeze through.
He grunted in pain as he shoved his shoulder into the gap, the sharp edges of the stone scraping against his skin. With one last, desperate push, he forced himself through to the other side.
The view in front of him was something that he couldn't even describe. The campus he knew once was gone.
In its place was a world of thick smoke and fire, under a dark, bruised sky that was stained a deep, angry orange.