Agonizing, unbearable pain. Aching bones, the feeling of being crushed alive. A thousand needles constantly being pinched inside your head, over and over again. Hot, burning blood, colouring your world completely red. How did this happen?

White noise filled his head, while he was still trying to keep his mind focused. He tried lifting his body, but slowly realized that his lower part had been crushed by rubble. His consciousness was barely there, which was why he couldn’t feel the pain. It was some kind of luck.

As he slowly looked around him, he started to recognize familiar faces, some of which were nearly unrecognizable.

Crushed under a pillar lay one of his colleagues, his ginger beard not being the only thing that was coloured in a tone of red. He was still breathing, but not awake. The first explosion had been near him, probably knocking him through the glass of the building next to him. Shards were still around him, but also sticking out of various regions of his body.

The pain was probably unimaginable.

Not far to the left of his first colleague lay another one. Tall, but skinny, with brown hair, which was darker than usual, due to the amount of blood that was still leaking from his head. He could see him twitch and try to lift himself up, but the huge glass shards inside his legs were probably keeping him from doing that. But he was still alive.

The white noise was slowly fading away, only for him to hear the agonized pants of a familiar voice to his far left.

The woman laying there was trying her best to just breath and not lose consciousness. Part of her body had been burned severely when the first bomb detonated next to them. She had been one of the many people who weren’t able to hide behind a pillar or a wall. Now she was probably the only one who had survived this ordeal – at least now. Her glasses were gone, probably part of all the shards and sharp pieces laying all around them. Her brown hair was now short, as part of it had been burned with the first detonation.

His own sight started to become blurry again. His crushed body started to overwhelm him with pain, coming from every muscle and every bone he had – and there was also the hot blood that was still flowing out of his injury on his head, covering half his face. Breathing became harder, shorter, more uncoordinated. He wanted to scream and cry, but his voice was gone. All he could do was to endure the pain, slowly losing consciousness.

Amidst the rubble and the bodies, he could see one person stand upright, hurt like everyone else, but so different.

The person turned around, returning his gaze.

A cracked smile and a crushed soul were the last things he saw. Then darkness came and put him to sleep.

The ordeal had begun.