“Remind me to never go to the top of the Empire State Building again.”

“Aw, come on Pam, it wasn’t that bad!” “

You’re talking to a girl who can’t even go on a Ferris wheel without feeling nauseous!”

It was a cool weekend in November and Jim and Pam were in New York celebrating their six month anniversary.

“How about I make it up to you by taking to Serendipity? We can share a big ice cream sundae.”

Pam smiled. There was never a time she regretted dating Jim. She had been much happier and was almost always smiling.

“Okay, but you better not eat it all when I go to the bathroom this time.”

Jim took Pam’s hand and they started walking down the streets of New York. He loved how she was open to do anything, whether it be visiting the Statue of Liberty or trying to play Mary had a Little Lamb on the oversized piano at FAO Schwartz.

“Let me just call Jon and tell him to meet us there.”

Jim’s brother Jonathan had moved to New York recently and they were spending a lot of time with him. This didn’t bother Pam. She loved spending time with Jim’s brother.

He was so nice to her and he was also extremely funny, just like Jim.

The wind started to pick up and it was becoming chilly. They walked into the warm ice cream parlor and took a seat. Pam reached her leg over to Jim’s under the table and kicked his foot. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Are you trying to play footsie with me?”

“Well—“ Pam was interrupted when a man burst into the shop and started yelling.

“Come outside! Look at this! This is wild! I’ve never seen anything like it! Hurry!”

Jim and Pam started to make their way outside.

They saw everybody turned and looking at the sky. Some were taking pictures while others were talking on their cell phones.

Pam looked up and saw that it was black. It looked like a dark hurricane cloud. The wind was blowing even faster now. She snuggled up closer to Jim and he wrapped an arm around her.

“That’s weird…”

“What?” “

The wind is blowing towards the storm.”

Jim was absolutely right.

“Hey guys, what are you looking at?” Jon asked while running up to Jim and Pam.

Jim pointed up to the sky and Jon turned to look at it.

“Woah.”

They watched the clouds turn in a strange way.

More people started gathering around to see what was happening. They were still staring at the sky in awe when a bright flash of lightning struck. It didn’t look normal. It almost sounded like thunder. A car alarm started to go off.

Pam jumped and Jim pulled her closer.

“It’s okay,” he reassured her. She nuzzled her head into his chest and squeezed her eyes shut. Another lightning struck. She screamed and Jim grabbed her hand motioning for Jon to follow them. They ran back into the ice cream store and the three of them sat close together in a booth. The lightening kept coming.

“That one hit right by the store!”

Pam said, and clutched onto Jim’s shirt.

“Lightning never strikes the same place twice.”

The words had just left his lips when the lightning actually did hit in the same place again, and then again. It kept coming. He could feel Pam breathing hard and saw Jon clutching onto the table in shock.

“It’s okay, Pam, it’s okay.”

All of a sudden, everything went silent. The lightening had hit in the same place 36 times, Jim had counted. Pam turned her head from his chest and looked outside.

“Is it over?” Jim slowly stood up. He let go of Pam walked to the window. He couldn’t see any damage, only smoke, but it was a few blocks away. He opened his phone and tried to turn it on. When nothing showed up on the screen, he checked his watch. It also wasn’t working. He made his way to Pam and put his hands on her shoulders.

“I’m going to go outside and see what happened. Stay here with Jon and don’t leave. I will be back soon.”

Pam nodded her head hugged him.

“Be safe.”

Jim kissed her forehead and replied, “Don’t worry. Everything’s okay.”

Jim started making his way to the smoke. As he was walking, he noticed that none of the cars were working. He saw mechanics trying to fix one near Serendipity. Everywhere Jim looked the power was out. When he got to the smoke, he saw a crowd of people standing around a big hole in the earth. Policemen were telling them to stand back. Jim knelt down and looked into the whole. It seemed to go on forever. He reached for a piece of the concrete expecting it to be scolding hot, but instead, it was freezing.
The ground started to rumble. The police started debating on what could be causing it. There was nothing down there, not a subway station or anything. Then, the ground started to crack. Everybody started walking backwards as the crack kept growing. It went all the way to a shop when a window broke and people ran out screaming. Jim stood behind a car door. The ground kept shaking and buildings began falling down. A car flew up and onto the car next to where he was hiding. He bent down deeper when a strange, robotic figure jumped out of the ground. It had three legs and had something like suction cups as its feet. It was high in the air and started to fall onto of the car where Jim hid. He stood up and ran back and the large machine robot landed on it. He went and joined a group of people when the steeple of a church came crashing down. The ground in front of him went up and then fell into the earth. Jim didn’t know if he was dreaming or not when he heard a loud, deep, moaning sound and a gigantic tripod emerged from the hole. The odd jumping robot with three legs turned out to be one of the three legs of the tripod.

He felt his stomach turning in cartwheels and he turned to run back to Pam and Jon. He had to make sure they were alright. He didn’t know if anything similar was happening near them or not. He heard a zap and saw a laser shoot out and hit the man running next to him. The man just disappeared, but his clothes remained. His mind immediatly changed to Pam and Jon. Images of them being zapped made their way into his thoughts and he shook them away.

More zaps came and abolished the frantic people. He knew it was coming from the tripod. He ran into a shop thinking it would be safer, but the lasers shot in there too and killed those taking refuge there. He ran out and hid in an alleyway to catch his breath. He couldn’t ever remember being this scared. His heart was pounding and his stomach felt tight. He watched as people lost their lives. He was determined to make it back to Pam and Jon.

He kept running, listening to the desperate screams and cries. He finally made it back to the shop. Nothing looked damaged….yet. Jim knew how lucky he was to make it before the tripods demolished the buildings and took the lives of his girlfriend and brother. He saw Pam looking in the window and when he opened the door, he pulled her into a hug.

“We are leaving this city right away.”