Crushed (Part 1)

Note: I realized this challenge was ending so I rushed to write what I could. Part 2 to come later

On the first day, I woke up not feeling quite right. For some time now, getting up each morning had been a burden, but this was different, it was a strange kind of lethargy. Every step I took required effort. I must be coming down with something, I thought.

By the time I had walked to work, I was well out of breath. But I felt somewhat better at work. I figured it was the kiddies, or the sense of purpose my job gave me. I was a swimming instructor at the local YMCA, only a few blocks away from my place. Though it would never be my friend, the water had become my therapy, ironically.

It was the birds on the second day; it's usually the birds. The streets were full of them on the way to work, common birds mostly, like pidgeons, robins, black birds, but there were a few vultures and hawks too, just standing there on the grass and pavement, refusing to fly away even as I approached them. But I was too drained to take my camera out. All I wanted to do was work and go back home, just like every other day.

On the third day, I called in sick. It took me ages just to drag myself out of bed. That day, several planes lost control and dropped out of the sky. The media attributed it to the strange weather patterns and sudden storms that were occurring in several places around the country. The worst was yet to come.

On the fourth day, I thought I had woken up with sleep paralysis. My eyes opened to the dreaded feeling of not being able to move, of sinking down into the bed. Except I was fully awake, and the feeling did not leave even as I crawled my way to the couch, using all of my strength to prop myself up and turn on the TV.

Buildings around the world has been crumbling, the tallest ones.

The Sears Tower in Chicago, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Centrepoint Tower in Sydney, they had all fallen.

Most crops had withered to the ground and died, as if they had been viciously trampled on. Cyclones, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, and other natural disasters and major weather patterns were being reported all over the globe. No airplanes or birds were flying now.

The scientist on TV looked as if he was using every bone in his body to keep himself sitting straight. His voice was even less stable.

"The Anomaly--it was detected about a week ago. Their presence has affected space-time somehow. We don't--we don't know why, but it has afffected the relative mass of Earth. Meaning--well, you're all feeling it, the strength of gravity on our planet has increased--has been increasing since they arrived--and it continues to increase.

We urge people to stay off the streets and exert themselves as little as possible. At this point, all we can do is wait for the Anomaly to leave and hope for this phenomenon to somehow terminate. I--I'm sorry, there's really nothing--"