I was part of a small group trying to survive on a base similar to Hadleys Hope, except it was deep in the jungle on earth. It was getting dark and a lot of people had died already. Place was turning into a ghost town. I and two others made it to this one building, trying to get the power back on until the air evac could get there. The place was far too damaged, and we decided to leave. One guy couldn't take the idea of going back out in the open, so he curled up in a corner under some computers. I told him he'd die if he stayed, but he was scared to the point of being threatening, so I had to leave him.
Small neomorphs were setting traps for people. I tried to stop one guy from falling for it, but he wandered into the light and was taken. We finally made it to the evacuation sight as the wind was starting to pick up. Once we were a few miles away, we opened the door of the chopper and watched the place burn.
After spending a few months back at home, I was sent to an unknown metropolitan area with about 6 other people to some kind of hostile activity. I was with some other guy by the truck getting my gear on, when a few of the others wandered up and said two of us had been taken, and that the threat was some kind of paranormal entity. When asked if any of us could remember how we made it back to the truck, none of of us could. We never found our missing teammates, and we were put through the wringer by whatever that thing was that we were hunting. Three of us survived.
Back at the truck, we were exhausted and visibly upset. I was taking my gear off when I noticed some lights off in the distance. I walked away from the vehicle and asked what it was. The other guy I was with said it was some large scale reenactment that had just come to an end. After a moment it had us all transfixed. We made our way across some fields and found a large highway down below us. It was brand new, but was sealed off and silent. It had large walls on each side that obscured our vision. We jumped down and walked along it for miles into a large valley. Eventually, we rounded the last corner and saw what the deal was.
As morning came on, we walked through destruction. Large machines were busy pulling down the broken facades of buildings. The sound of it was immense. Thousands of workers were walking all over the place cleaning things up. I stumbled around the next corner and there they were. Two perfect replicas of the twin towers, still standing, and still burning. We just stared for awhile. I saw some guys taking a break in a restaurant that had been blasted apart, and we joined them. The foreman was a cool dude. He wasn't happy about it, but work was work.
I sat on a piece of concrete rubble and drank some water. I tried to open a can of peaches but just spilled them everywhere. I tried it again, with the same result. I couldn't help but laugh. We listened to the sounds of work and fire for awhile. Eventually, I asked him, "so are they coming down?" He shook his head and said, "No. People want to see this sh*t but it's not cost effective to destroy them every time, so they're modular. Empty on the inside, and lighter, but we can snap em' together by floors of ten or twenty. Unpack em and stack em. The pyro guys do their thing and...Instant history".
"Seems kinda sick" I said. He nodded. "So your packin up and headin' out?". He'd nodded again. "Well, you guys will be at it for awhile", I said as I kicked the can of peaches away. "Good luck to ya. Thanks for the h20." I shook his hand and we walked out of the restaurant with the missing front, and stared at the towers one last time. The smoke had been turned off and the holes were wide open. We watched for a few more seconds and then turned and walked back out of the valley. We walked into a field several miles away, called for a chopper and popped smoke. As we took off, I stared in wonder at the small portion of the city that was replicated in the middle of that beautiful valley. And flew away towards something else.
