One moment, the city of New Chicago was enjoying a bright, sunny day, with a view far as the eye could see. The next, after a brilliant flash, the view was obscured by a white wall that stretched into the sky, with its top obscured by the clouds.

People in the city quickly noticed something was wrong, as all outside communication stopped in the same moment. The Internet and cell phones immediately failed. Some local wireline phones worked, for a time, but those too failed after being overloaded by panicked calls. Power in the city became unstable, as few plants operated anywhere near city limits, and then electricity went offline as the few plants became overloaded and shut down to avoid catastrophe.

With all the modern conveniences offline, people started to wander the streets and ask what was going on. A few reports had come in from near the wall: It was strangely smooth, white as snow, and cool to the touch. The wall formed a perfect circle, perhaps twenty miles across. Some people noticed a slight incline near the walls themselves, but most were in the perfectly flat areas near the center, terrain flat as they’d ever known.

Slowly, people noticed a strange noise coming from the distance. There was sizzling sound, then a bubbling that became more intense. The noise was loud enough to carry across the entire city and, as it ecohed off the walls, it was impossible to tell where it was coming from. The bubbling became louder until, with a thunderous crack that caused windows to rattle, the sounds gradually subsided and left the city uncomfortably quiet.

Some people speculated it was some sort of government weapons test. Others claimed the end was near and began praying to gods they hadn’t acknowledged in years. None expected what came next: two massive, off-white, pyramid-shaped objects filled with a dark brown material. They plummeted from the sky, from some unseen height, and crashed upon the city carelessly. Each side of these structures took up a large part of the metropolis; very few still had a clear view of the sky above them. The clouds had been pushed away by these … things, which carried a strangely spicy aroma, and allowed a few keen-eyed observers to realize those white walls did end eventually, some forty miles overhead. Light was still pouring in, but they couldn’t tell from where; despite the brightness, the sun couldn’t be seen.

What they did see next was the last thing they’d observe at all: A boiling-hot waterfall that crashed upon the city with a meteor’s force. It moved around slowly, washing away everything and everyone. Most were crushed instantly by the sheer pressure that liquid carried; a few unlucky souls suffered until their bodies were overwhelmed by the heat. Within a matter of seconds, the planet’s fourth-largest city and ten million residents were completely obliterated in this strange, alien landscape.

Shira hummed to hirself as shi prepared a cup of chai tea on an unusually chilly afternoon. Shi tossed in two pyramid-shaped teabags and savored the aroma for a moment before adding in freshly-boiled water from hir kettle. After removing the tea bags a few minutes later, Shira noticed the water was unusually cloudy. Must have been some tea dust, shi assumed, as shi finished making hir tea and savored every sip, blissfully unaware that a city had been in hir mug just a few minutes earlier.