“Good morning San Francisco! Today is Sunday, August 22nd, 2021. Next up is a throwback to 2016 with Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez!” As the song played my friends and I all sang along remembering the song from our 18th year. We drove down the highway with the windows down, singing and having fun. We were on our way to go hiking by the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a trail called Slackers Hill that we hadn’t been to before. We arrived to the parking lot, grabbed our water bottles, cameras and our backpacks and started walking.
“This is harder than it looked!” Sophie said in between her panting.
“We’re almost there.” I laughed. About 20 minutes later we made it to the top, and it was well worth it. The view was fantastic. We could see the bridge, and beyond that we could see the city. We found a spot to sit and began to eat the snacks we had brought with us. We sat up there for hours, taking in the view, and talking.
“Do you hear that?” Zoe interrupted as I was telling a story. We all stopped talking and we heard it, a bunch of planes. We looked around in the sky, and suddenly from behind us flew 4 planes, all in formation that looked to be military.
“What’s the event?” I asked, knowing they only usually fly by if there’s a special event happening.
“I didn’t know of anything.” Zoe said, as confused as I was. As they neared the city they broke formation all going to different places. That’s when it happened, the first bomb was dropped.
“Oh my God.” We all three said in unison. The second plane dropped its bombs. Then the third. The fourth was nowhere to be seen. We looked down at the chaos below us. There were screams we could hear from across the bay. We could see raging fires, and people began running across the bridge, some being accidentally pushed into the water because there were too many people flooding across. The cars eventually had to stop and get out so they didn’t run over people.
I heard the fourth plane coming closer, and it occurred to me. They were going to bomb the bridge. Seconds later I could see the plane emerging from the smoke and flames that had engulfed the entire city. It flew across the bridge, and dropped a bomb. It exploded on impact, sending people flying into the water. More people began falling into the water as the bridge began collapsing from the middle. It looked like a scene from a movie, where the bridge fell like dominoes.
We all looked at each other, all of our faces displaying different emotions. Sophie was crying, Zoe looked like she was about to throw up. I just felt empty. We began to hike down the hill, and as we were nearing the bottom, we heard yet another plane. It let loose another bomb, and we all jumped behind a rock. I hit my head as I fell, and the world went dark around me.
I awoke, slowly sitting up, every fiber of my being throbbing in pain. I slowly turned around and screamed when I saw a figure. He was wearing a gas mask and a dark hazmat suit, and he was clutching a daisy.
Through the mask I heard him say, “Welcome to our living nightmare.” As I passed out again.