The man opened his eyes and smiled at what he saw. His wife lay peacefully in the bed next to him, getting up as to not wake her he quietly walked down to the bathroom to start a shower. Promptly after he turned on the water he heard a tapping behind him, craning his head to locate the source of the noise he saw his spouse leaning in the doorway.
"It's Tommy's birthday today," she reminded him, quietly. "And you promised to take the boys to the zoo."
"Don't worry," he responded with a chuckle, "I couldn't forget it if I tried." He walked over to her and gave her a kiss.
"Mmm!" she sounded suddenly, pulling away. "I should get breakfast started before the boys wake up," she explained apologetically. "We'll make this birthday perfect." with that she strode down towards the kitchen. Leaving the man alone in the bathroom.
The man walked into the kitchen to see his wife serving up a breakfast of french toast and sausage to his two sons.
"Dad!" Thomas, his eldest son, called out, "we were just talking about who would win in a fight, godzilla or a shark."
"It's a moot point," his younger brother said into his glass. looking up from the orange juice he said with more confidence, "There's no way a giant lizard like godzilla could exist and no one would know about it."
The man's face clouded over, images of an omnicidal lizard mutilating guards and lab-techs filled his mind. Quickly the moment passed and he assured his son. "Of course not, If something like godzilla was real we would know."
"See?" the younger boy looked to his brother.
"Fine." He replied, "but if he were real who'd you think would win dad?"
"Godzilla," the father said, grabbing a slice of toast, a couple sausages and a glass of milk. "Definitely godzilla."
"Ha!" Thomas exclaimed. "See Henry, I told you it would be godzilla."
"Yeah yeah," Henry said as his gaze returned to his food.
"Ooh." Thomas said after a few moments of silence, "can I open presents?"
"Thomas." chimed in the mother, "remember what we agreed on yesterday?
"No presents 'til after the zoo." he recited disappointingly.
"Do we have to go to the zoo?" Henry inquired, "I think the planetarium is cooler anyways."
"It's your brothers birthday Henry," stated the father matter of factly, "He gets to decide where we go today. On your birthday we can go to the planetarium if you want."
"I don't see what's cool there anyways," Thomas said between bites, "it's just a bunch of spheres going in circles."
"It's more than that," Henry said looking for a way to describe his feelings, coming up short. "I can't explain it but it's a bunch more than that."
"Hey," The mother interjected diplomatically, clearing away the dishes "Why don't you two get ready, and we can get in the car." With breakfast gone the two boys ran off into the entryway to get ready to go.
The father stood in the entryway as his boys began to tie up their shoes. Henry, having finished first, sat by the window staring outside to pass the time. Out of the blue he spoke.
"A storm is brewing."
At the time what Henry said seemed to be an offhand comment, merely an observation of heavy cloud cover. In retrospect however, these words were an ominous foreshadowing, a hint at the impending catastrophe to come.
In the moment however, the statement seemed innocent enough and his father replied" Why don't you two get in the car. Your mom and I will grab the umbrellas."
"Sure dad." Thomas said, finishing up his laces. "C'mon Henry, let's go." Henry allowed himself to be dragged along by his brother, leaving the couple alone in the entryway.
As soon as the boys were out of earshot, the woman turned to her husband, a look of concern on her face. "You may think we don't notice, all the times you space out in the middle of a conversation." She said, "but we do. You've been doing this for the past month, what's wrong?"
The man shrugged evasively before finally replying. "I don't really know, I guess it's just work is being hard on me. That's all."
"The work you're not allowed to talk about," she said, crossing her arms. "You know I want to help you, but I can't if you don't tell me what's wrong."
The man stuttered for a while before Thomas shouted from the street. "Dad! Henry is pushing."
The man's brow furrowed, "Can you get that?" he asked pleadingly, "get them settled in and I'll grab the umbrella. And after the boys are asleep tonight I'll tell you anything you want to know."
She thought about it for a minute before another call rang out from the curb. "Okay," she agreed, "but you promise that you'll make the time?"
"My hand to God, Claudine," he said raising his hand dramatically. Satisfied she hurried off to calm down the boys who were escalating their confrontation in the back seat, The man walked down to the broom closet, pulling the umbrellas off their shelf. deftly he shut the closet, pulling away towards the front door, and stepping through. Claudine waved through the car from the passenger seat, the man waved back, pivoting smartly he began to close the door.
Exactly in sync with the door closing was the explosion. The man stood in disbelief for a moment before turning slowly.
"No." he whispered, staring at the scene before him.
"No." he repeated, louder this time, he started to stagger towards the wreck.
"No!" he shouted into the strengthening wind as the charred chassis of the car burned on the curb. collapsing to his knees on the sidewalk he began to cry. There was not enough left to even call corpses, only chunks of flesh scattered among the debris.
It took less than a minute for a curious neighbor to investigate the bang, with a few screams the whole block was gathered and the rain began to lightly fall. In five minutes the first responders arrived, they corralled the people behind a line of tape, ignoring the sobbing man soaked by the downpour. At seven minutes the wind picked up even further, only this time it was not the storm. Too late the police noticed the camouflaged helicopter, by then the five men had already rappelled to the ground. The muffled bursts of assault rifles filled the air, intermixed with pops from pistols.
After the last of the gunfire had died away one of the uniformed men grabbed the weeping man by the shoulder. "Sir, we need to go. We need to go now sir… Sir?"
"Allow me," came another voice. It's owner was different from the others, he did not carry the same rifles as them, or wear the same kevlar and helmets. He placed his antique Luger into one of the many folds of his trench coat and offered his hand to the kneeling man. "Come on Halsey, it's time to come home." Dejectedly Halsey's tear stained eyes met those of the trench coated man. looking down to the extended limb briefly he grasped the offered hand. In a few minutes there was no trace of the strange men, only a slew of corpses, a burning car, Halsey's tears … And the rain.
