Carlos wasn’t really sure what was happening anymore. I’ve really lost the plot here. All I know is America’s dead and humanity is doomed. That’s it. He took solace in the fact that quite literally no one around him seemed to know what was happening either. The strikes failed, and the military around him quickly forgot he needed guarding as they fled their posts, desperately trying to find ways to contact friends, family, loved ones in the cities the giant girl had attacked. Few of them even knew where she had actually gone, since so much infrastructure was damaged that the internet was nearly non-functional.

Carlos would have slipped away in the chaos, but he instead found himself in the company of the president, her entourage of MPs and secret service staying by her side. Traveling by armored car into Vegas, the physicist tried, for the fourth time, to ascertain why she had drafted him, “Ma’am, please, just let me be on my way. My sister’s in Cleveland and I need -”

“She’s dead, Doctor. Most likely everyone near the Great Lakes is dead. And you can’t be sure of anything. There’s been earthquakes everywhere,” The president was the one exception to the chaotic attitude of everyone else. Somehow, she reacted like this was a scenario she actively drilled on before. “No, now I need anyone with a brain and who can talk. You’re probably the best qualified I got right now.”

“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment, ma’am. But, what are we going to do? Your nukes didn’t work.”

President Farris shot a glare at him, “I know. We’re at the mercy of the girl. We can’t get anywhere else but Vegas for now. So what you and I will do is get downtown and start organizing. Fire, medics, supplies, shelter. I just need a smart, confident looking male to bark my orders at other people so they actually do their jobs and help people. That’s all you and I can do right now.”

Carlos tactically shut his mouth for the rest of the trip, as they eventually pulled up at a large hospital in the heart of the city. The scene was already a mess, riots from panicked people had led to an influx of patients already. Farris pointed at the ED entrance, “I’m setting up a forward command post here. Go to the Emergency Department. Get all the staff you can, get me a list of what they need, and keep them moving. MOVE!” Carlos was shoved out of the car and he sprinted into the room. Identifying himself, he was brought back immediately, as Farris had apparently told them ahead of time he was arriving. The ward was cramped, filled with blood, broken people, and trash strewn on the floor. A nurse approached him, “Hernandez, right? I’m Julia, I’m the nurse shift manager,” She was rock steady, acting like this was a typical Friday graveyard shift for her. Carlos found his own panic subside by her presence, “Good to meet you. Can you brief me on your status?” Julia glanced at the room, “We’ve had about sixty people in so far. Mostly minor stuff, lacerations and burns, a few gunshot wounds. But I’ve got some folks buried in rubble in a few buildings on their way. The quakes have gotten worse, so that’ll make things more crowded.” Despite his misgivings, Carlos tried to do his job as the president’s mouthpiece, “Alright. Let’s go over what stuff you’ll need for that and I’ll relay to the president. She’ll get you anything you need. Now, the president also wants to know about personnel concerns…”

Carlos and Julia kept at this all night, with Carlos relaying information and requests to the president and back again. He helped to manage assignments of doctors and nurses to ensure the ever-worsening backlog of patients could be chipped away at. Julia stayed cool the whole time, intervening personally when the rushes got too bad. Carlos admitted, things seemed to be going alright--

THUD

THUD

THUD

FUCK. FUCK. She’s here.

Carlos rushed outside where the president was coordinating and immediately hurled in fear as he saw the alien. His initial sighting of the woman in New Mexico could not prepare him for the real thing. The videos he saw before the internet went out didn’t capture how truly, incomprehensibly massive she was. He could make out the tops of her toes, coated in a thin layer of dust and debris. Carlos stood, frozen in fear as he awaited the inevitable. This is it. It’s over. But she didn’t crush the city. Instead she just stood there, with an expression of… glee? Carlos tried to parse her intentions, but she beat him to the punch. He heard her voice, though her mouth did not move. “HUMANS. YOU MAY BE SPARED. PUT ON A GOOD SHOW OR I SQUISH YOU” Her voice was loud, commanding, yet oddly pleasant. He remembered a nice barista he saw when he was a postdoc had a similar voice. His thoughts seemed more controlled than the president’s, who had finally broke from seeing the woman who devastated her country. “BITCH. We’ll kill you for this!”

Carlos shouted out, “Wait! Do what she says! Please!”

The president was shaking in place, “What does that even MEAN!? A show? Wh-what -”

“It’s Vegas! Get the casino owners and the city utilities and have them turn on every billboard, lightshow, casino sign, whatever! Do that fountain decoration! Fireworks! Just entertain her!”

The president kept shaking, but slowly processed his order. Nodding through her convulsions, she motioned towards Carlos, “Do it. Use all the power we have! Turn the lights on!”

The wait was agonizing, as engineers and technicians tried desperately to divert power to the wasteful excess of the lights and decorations of the Vegas Strip, under the eye of the giant blonde, who grew more and more visibly impatient. Each second lost brought them further to death, but finally the signal was given. Vegas erupted in light, fireworks shooting out from every which way. The casinos of the strip blasting color into the sky, even with all the visitors cowering inside of them, terrified. The next moments were tense, as the entire city waited for her reaction. Finally they received it, “GOOD. YOU ARE ALL COMING WITH ME.”

The ground shook. Not like an earthquake, though, there was a twisting motion that predominated. Carlos realized what was happening from her mental assault, “Everyone get inside, NOW!” He sprinted into the hospital and reach the inside just as the entire city flew upwards, the ground it sat upon coming with it. He looked back to see some people were too late. President Farris, running desperately, found herself thrown about by the sudden movement upward, and she flew to the right, out of sight forever. Who will save us now? Carlos couldn’t think about that as the motion threw him and the others in the hospital around, too. He crouched under the front desk in the lobby, hearing the sickening crunch of bodies smacking into walls, poles, and doors. Finally, the movements stopped, and Carlos looked up. Entering into the ED ward again, he asked a nurse for Julia. She’ll know what to do. God, I hope she knows. But the nurse just shook her head, and pointed down the hallway. Julia lay there, head covered in blood, eyes cold and lifeless.

Carlos walked outside, not caring if anymore movements kill him, and realized he could now see the woman’s face. She had placed the city in what looked like a giant petri dish. Her brown eyes, the diameter of a battleship, stared with wonder at the lightshow, uncaring of the plight of the people running it. Carlos just sat on the road, resigning himself to the random, pointless death he surely would face.