• The silence in the shelter was deafening. I breathed in air that was thick and heavy with the smell of smoke. The insistent blaring of the sirens had finally quieted. This could only mean one thing: The bombing was over...for now. For now, we could all retreat back into our homes. We could all pretend we were safe. We were safe. For now.
    They called it the A-War. The biggest war in history. Most people said that the 'A' stood for Apocalypse, but that wasn't true. It actually stood for Alias. The Alias War got its name from an intruder who waltzed into the government, without suspicion, and tore the U.S. down from the inside-out. The invader was under an alias causing him to be unidentified even to now. It was an incredibly dark time for everyone.
    It was especially dark for the families. Our sense of security, our invulnerability was shot. We felt cheated and lied to. It was 2021, and the war had been going on for seven years. For seven years, men, women, and children huddled in shelters fearing for their lives and the lives of those they loved.
    Even other countries engaged in the conflict. Some of them became our allies and began to help us build ourselves back up again. Others took it as a weakness, and they attacked. We were unprepared and unprotected. In another World War, apparently, it was our time for ruin.
    I sat in the corner of a tiny apartment. My knees clutched to my chest. I was still shaken from the bombing. They were occurring more and more these days. The initial silence from the shock of the explosions was wearing off. Children were crying. People were hurt. Worse than that, people were dead. The screams of "Nukes are next!" down below on the streets scared me more. Just the thought would mean complete destruction. The end of the world. Only one thought ran through my mind: When will this end? Because no matter how long it was before another bombing, no matter how safe we thought we were, it was only for now.