BOOMMM!!!
The sound did not simply echo; it tore through the sky like metal ripping open the heavens, shattering glass for miles and sending tremors through the bones of every living soul beneath it.
"Someone help us! Please, somebody, help us!"
"OH GOD, THEY'RE COMING BACK!"
"It's falling again! Run away! Don't look back, just run!"
The people's screams flooded the city streets as thousands ran without direction, clutching children, dragging the elderly, abandoning houses.
Because...
Behind them marched the machines.
Hundreds of them.
Each towering at least two floors high, forged from dark alloy plates layered like armoured scales, their surfaces etched with glowing blue circuitry that pulsed in synchronised rhythm. Hydraulic pistons flexed at their joints, releasing clouds of steam that hissed into the air like beasts exhaling fury.
Cracknnk... cracnnkk...
