[Intro] [Gothic Rock — dark guitar riff, drums build from silence] [Verse 1] Woke up to a sound I didn't recognize The sirens were already screaming at the sky The window shook, the lights went out My wife was calling out my name across the dark Something happened at the plant tonight I heard it on the radio — they're saying leave the light Get out, get out, get out right now No time to ask the questions, we don't need to know how [Pre-Chorus] The kids are in the hallway The dog is at the door We're leaving with whatever We can carry — nothing more [Chorus] Meltdown The sky is turning wrong Meltdown We've known it all along Something broke beneath us That we built too close to the edge Meltdown And not everyone gets out [Verse 2] We passed the Hendersons still standing in their yard Old man couldn't walk and she refused to go without him I told her take my car She shook her head The road was thick with headlights going one way Nobody spoke, nobody looked back My daughter held my hand so tight Like she already understood [Pre-Chorus] The plant is five miles back now The sky above it glows The workers kept it contained enough For us to go [Chorus] Meltdown The sky is turning wrong Meltdown We've known it all along Something broke beneath us That we built too close to the edge Meltdown And not everyone gets out [Bridge — slower, heavy with grief] I think about the men who stayed inside Who bought us forty minutes with their lives Who sealed the doors and said get everyone out And chose to be the reason some of us survived And I think about the ones who had the guns Who thought that they were saving something Who lit the match and didn't understand What burns when something like that starts to burn [Final Chorus — full Gothic Rock intensity] Meltdown The sky is turning wrong Meltdown And we drove all night long Something broke beneath us That we built too close to the edge Meltdown And not everyone got out Not the Hendersons Not the ones who stayed Not the ones who thought They were saving the world today [Outro — guitar fades to a single sustained note] The sky behind us glowed until the dawn We didn't look back We couldn't ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Gothic Rock catastrophe told in real time — a family waking to sirens and fleeing a nuclear meltdown triggered by a militia attack on a power plant. The narrator doesn't know what happened, only that they have to go. Along the way: a neighbour who won't leave her husband behind, workers inside who bought everyone forty minutes with their lives, and the terrible irony of the attackers who thought they were saving something. Not everyone gets out. Dark, cinematic and heavy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2026 Ande Records Lyrics by Ande All rights reserved. https://ande-records.se/
