Two weeks ago, Winton Train Station in West Queensland:
A small girl walked through the ticket gate, holding her parents' hands as the three of them made their way onto the boarding platform.
"What animal are you excited to see?" The girl's father asked as he smiled down at her.
"The monkey!" The girl exclaimed, jumping forward while imitating the sounds of a great ape.
Her parents chuckled, their hands holding the little girl up and into the air.
The train station was bustling with hundreds of citizens, all on their own journey as the blazing outback sun stared down through the glass ceiling.
Orange sand covered the outside of the station, broken up by the occasional gas station or parking lot.
"Eleven O' five train to Sydney, arriving now." A female voice spoke over the intercom with a calm tone.
"It's here!" The girl exclaimed, jumping up and down.
From the family's right, they saw a bullet train speed into the station, screeching to a halt in front of them.
"Please watch your step as you exit the train." The intercom spoke. "Wait for the signal to turn green before boarding the train."
The family watched as the carriage doors hissed open, revealing a strange sight.
"That's weird." The mother chuckled. "It's a Saturday, I thought it would've been packed."
The train was void of passengers on the inside, a stark contrast to the bustling crowds surrounding it.
"Please watch your step as you board the train." The intercom said as the lights above the bullet train's doors changed from yellow to green.
The family hopped over the black and yellow stripes at the edge of the boarding platform and stepped onto the carriage.
"Let's see…" The father took his mobile phone out of his pocket, pulling his family's tickets up on his phone. "F3 through F5. Just need to check in now."
The parents looked around for an assistant, their brows furrowing as they found no one but the dozens of fellow passengers boarding the train.
"This is… Odd." The mother muttered as she looked to her husband for support, who nodded in agreement.
"F is over there!" The small girl let go of her father's hand to point to the row labeled "Row F".
"We'll just sit down. They'll get to us eventually." The father smiled and put a hand on the back of his wife's head in an attempt to reassure her.
The mother smiled, trying to shake away her unease to no avail.
She looked around the train as her and her family sat down in their seats, peeking out the window she sat next to before making sure her daughter was seated between her and her husband.
The carriage was now packed with onboarding citizens, the family unable to spot a single open seat once the car's passengers had found their places.
The father noticed his wife staring out the window, reaching over their daughter to grab his wife's hand.
"Honey, it'll be fine." The father smiled. "Two hours and we'll see some monkeys!"
The father made monkey noises as he tickled his daughter with his free hand, the small girl bursting into a fit of laughter as she jumped in her seat.
The mother smiled, grabbing both her daughter and her husband's hands.
"I love you two." The mother smiled.
The husband smiled. "Love you too."
"Love you lots!" The daughter exclaimed.
The intercom began to speak. "Eleven O' Five train to Sydney is now-"
BOOM
An explosion rippled through the front of the train, followed by another one, and another, and another.
In just a couple of moments, the train was in pieces, the smell of smoke and blood filling the air as the civilians around the train ran for their lives, at least, the ones that survived the initial explosion.
Inside the train, or what was left of it, there were no survivors. Body parts covered the burnt metallic scrap scattered across the station.
The bodies that were still intact were covered with piercing shrapnel, lifeless in their seats as crimson red poured from their wounds.
Screams filled the air.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Children screamed for their parents while limping through the cloud of debris.
"Help! Someone!" Others screamed, pinned underneath fragments of the broken train.
The civilians who were still able to run quickly came to a horrifying realization.
The exits were blocked.
They pounded at the immovable barriers propped up against the doors, screaming for someone, anyone to let them out before the next explosion.
In the middle of the chaos, three figures strolled into the middle of the trainwreck.
They all wore gasmasks, rugged and dusty.
In the middle, a man danced nonsensically, stepping over and onto the lifeless bodies littered across the wreckage.
His bald head was covered in tattoos, the same as the rest of his body, from the tip of his head to the bottom of his feet.
His mask was colored red, that crimson tone that resembles dried blood.
He fixed the megaphone slung around his chest, making sure it didn't come loose while he danced.
"Axel, Are you sure the death toll is above fifty? It has to be above fifty." One of the figures following the man with the red mask stated.
She wore a blue gas mask, her dark blue hair bouncing with each walk as it formed a cloud of loose curls.
"They're fucking fragmentations. I'd be surprised if it was below sixty." The other figure behind the red-masked man, Axel, said.
She wore a green gas mask, framed by short, dark green hair styled into spikes.
"Hana, Fifty bucks it's above sixty." The red mask turned towards his companions and held a hand out.
"Deal. Fifty it's under." The woman with the blue mask, Hana, shook his hand. "Now give me my megaphone, Ken."
The man with the red mask, Ken, gave Hana the megaphone strapped to his chest.
Hana slapped the device a few times as the megaphone began to screech, the crowd going silent in fear of another explosion.
"Glad you sub-humans enjoyed the show." Hana spoke through the megaphone. "Now, I want to put you through a hypothetical."
The crowd cried for help before the woman continued.
"Imagine that there's this guy who claims to be God, and billions of people who believe him…" Hana strolled side to side, stepping over the occasional body part as she spoke. "Now, imagine that this guy was lying, but you know the true God, because you've spoken to him."
Ken and Axel listened intently.
"Now, what if I told you that it wasn't hypothetical?! Your so-called God is a lie! I've spoken to the true God!" Hana raised her voice into a scream. "You all will bend to the will of the true God, enforced through us, the Covenant of the Third Day! And the first order of God, is to condemn the followers of this false God!"
The crowd cried and screamed in confused pain.
"The Forces are en route." Ken spoke. "Time to go."
"Should I set off the others?" Axel's hand began to glow green as she prepared to close it into a fist.
"No, we need witnesses to spread the word." Hana grabbed onto the shoulders of her two companions. "Now, hold on."
Hana's hands began to glow blue, quickly spreading throughout her entire body before covering Axel and Ken as well.
Whoosh
In a flash of blue light, the three were gone, wind and dust rushing to fill the space they left empty.
A news station in Sydney, one hour later:
"The three and their organization they call the Covenant of the Third Day are thought to be somehow connected to the rebel movement in the State of Asia." A news reporter stated as she straightened the stack of papers in her hand.
"Yep, that's right, 4440." The other news reporter spoke, turning to the camera. "Please, pay close attention to any suspicious figures the next time you're in a crowded area. The universal emergency number for the Correctional Forces is 555."
"And, whatever you do, do not fall for their persuasions." Reporter 4440 stated. "At the end of the day, they are dangerous dissenters that deserve nothing less than a life rotting in one of this great nation's maximum security prisons."
Both of the reporters nodded as the camera zoomed out, showing the logo for the United Nations News Association.