All around as far as Marion could see, swarms of humans walking in tandem, appearing as if out of thin air.
'What in god's name'
And that was just half the surprise, looking around he saw the creatures, the same pristine flawless creature of white he had seen before, only now, there were hundreds, walking in between the people,
Mindlessly walking forward, each with a unique anatomy, some having insect limbs, some having tentacles, some looking awfully similar to a human, yet all seemingly attracting Marion's eye in a way that was magnetic.
Marching forward, yet never once did a single one of them touch a human, never once did they stop, never once did they stumble, in that moment Marion really wondered if these were actual live creatures or robots of some kind, yet for some reason he was as sure as possible that these were living creatures, whatever the word living meant in this scenario.
Marion stood frozen, a silent stunned admirer to what appeared to be the end of the world as he knew it, people under some kind of spell heading to a monolith of white all the while white giants walked in their midst, a picture out of hell, or heaven maybe?
'are these angels?'
For a second Marion thought about the possibility, what if these were the messengers of god that came down to take them to heaven? shouldn't he change his mind? he would be missing out on eternal heaven wouldn't he?
'What the hell am i thinking about, since when am i even religious? these things are playing with my mind, but how can i be sure they aren't really angels?'
Marion stood stupefied, in a moral dilemma, his mind racing, a part of him wanted to go with the flow, the easier choice, definitely, if he didn't wouldn't he be missing out? would these creatures not attack him if they saw him standing still? what to do what to do...
Then, one of the creatures came close to Marion, its gigantic leg the shape of a pole landing next to Marion directly,
Marion looked at it, not in fear, but with curiosity, the more he looked the more he wanted to look.
Its white splendor was flawless, like a work of art, but when seen from such close proximity, one could see details so intricate and beautiful they seemed unreal,
Glyphs of some sort, symbols, were carved in every inch of the creatures body, yet so shallow they were almost imperceptible to the eye,
The creature moved along not even glancing or taking notice of the anomaly by its foot,
Marion understood then, he wasn't going to be bothered, for one simple reason, he wasn't worth the time, even the millisecond these creatures would have to spend to subdue him would be wasted on him, these things were of a higher order,
Marion's mind stopped, his fear calmed, his confusion faded, shame, shame was the only feeling left,
Not because he was inferior to these beings, or because he wasn't worth the effort, shame at himself for thinking they would spare him a single iota of energy,
Marion looked around, and saw the hundreds, the thousands, god knows how many people marching towards the monlith,
'where are they gonna take all these people, this is basically everyone in the city'
And then the first of the humans reached the monolith, and dissapeared into thin air,
Like a mirage vanishing, they haven't been there in the first place, that's what it looked like to Marion, he questioned his sanity repeatedly during these last few minutes, Had he really seen these people? was this all an illusion of some sort? had he really left whatever trap he was under? why him?
The questions returned, but the longer he observed the easier it was to make sure he wasn't seeing wrong, the people were vanishing,
'How...'
People didn't just vanish,
he stood there and watched, and watched, on and on, as the people and the creatures headed to the monolith, and dissapeared one after the other,
For hours, Marion observed, coming up with theories and conclusions that he couldn't prove.
'are these aliens? some kind of insects? plants? are these some kind of creatures the government sent to capture all of us? lizard people?'
'am i dreaming?'
Hours passed and little changed, people flocked forward, Marion couldn't begin to estimate how many people he saw, from children, to elderly people that could barely walk, to people that appeared to be barely clothed or completely nude, it didn't matter, even priests were seen walking equally entranced.
More time passed, and the swarm began to thin, Marion could finally see the trail end of it,
It was already night at this point and Marion had been standing for what could have only been hours,
Having long made his decision,
'there's no way i'm going anywhere near that thing, just the fact that i want to go near it is enough to tell me i shouldn't go near it, plus if i was able to slip through there must be others, i'm probably not the only one, there must be oithers'
Marion stood silently as the last of the invaders and the natives dissapeared into nothingness in the middle of the fountain,
Then the monolith vibrated one last time, and dissapeared into nothingness, leaving nothing behind,
It was magical in a sense, Marion stood wondering if he had imagined all of what had transpired, it could all have been a hallucination, there was no evidence of a possible incursion left after all,
It was the perfect operation, as perfect as you would expect from beings such as these,
'angels' Marion started calling them by now, the only fitting name he thought to give these majestic creatures that stripped the earth of all its citizens.
'it must be all of earth right?'
Marion had no way to know for sure, or he did have one
He took out his phone for the first time since all of this started, trying to turn it on, but for some reason, it wasn't turning on at all,
'interesting'
'what do i do know?'
'i guess i look for other people' just then Marion heard a familiar noise, his stomach churning 'oh yeah, i should eat thankfully i have a whole city worth of supplies at my disposal'
Marion started walking towards the nearest store he knew of,
he was strangely calm at this point maybe because ha had had enough time to digest what had happened or because of the exact opposite and the fact he couldn't begin to understand what was going on,
Arriving at the convenience store, Marion entered and looked around, there really wasn't anyone, the lights were turned off all electronics seemed to have stopped for some reason,
He picked out random snacks and sat down on the floor,
'damn this is scary, it would've been easier to just go with them, but hey i managed to look at them at the very least, god they were beautiful, those angels, like pieces of art truly'
Marion stared with a blank expression at the ceiling for a while,
'The ships they came on! Are they still here?'