WebNovelAzaleigh33.33%

Chapter One

The cool steel pressed firmly against my chin. Unlike what many would expect, my hands were not shaking, and my mind was calm. Tears streamed down my cheek not in fear, but from release, like the weight the world had finally been taken off my shoulders. I pulled the trigger slowly, savoring my last breath. Then the world went silent and black.

Only for a second. Silence was quickly replaced with an ear-piercing echo from the bullet. Pain sheared through my body, but the world stayed black. My hand could no longer feel the weight of the gun. In fact, my body could not feel anything besides pain. Nothing seemed to move when willed. Was this death? Pain overtook me, and I lost consciousness.

Thoughts were a little hard to string together but gradually became easier between each wave of consciousness. Pain as well slowly subsided, but still was overwhelming. After a few cycles of unconsciousness, I became growingly aware of noise. Car alarms, barking dogs, explosions, confused voices. Maybe this was hell.

My eyesight returned about the same time as the sense of touch. I found myself still alone in my room, laying awkwardly on the floor. The gun had fallen near my hand, still warm. There was a bullet shell on the other side of the room. Blood and brain bits were splattered everywhere. I had not missed. Staring at my hand, I moved it with ease, as if my brain matter was not on the ceiling.

Standing, I walked over to the window to investigate the noises. The sun was merely halfway up the horizon, signaling it was early morning, as if merely minutes had passed. But the outside world was not a peaceful sight. I lived in multiple stories up and usually was greeted with a busy highway along with other high-rises. Instead, wrecked cars littered the highway and smoke filled the sky. Multiple buildings were on fire, including one that had the remains of an airplane sticking out of one of the sides. It looked close to collapsing. The voices were unrelenting, many of the starting to panic. Yet, my view showed no signs of humans. Birds, cats, dogs, but no humans.

Panicking, I reached for my phone and stared at the time and date. Double, triple checking it. It was the same day. Only an hour had passed. Nothing was making any sense. I unlocked my phone and tried to pull up the news. No wifi connection. I tried to use data but had the same results. I dialed 911, but no avail. The phone fell from my hands, the air suddenly to heavy to breathe. The voices boomed in my head, as I crumbled to the ground, crying. What the hell is going on. Was this some twisted punishment for those who commit suicide? Were the gods making fun of me for not believing in them?

"You are not dead." This voice was different than the others, calm and sweet as honey. I looked up, franticly looking around for the owner of the voice. No one was there. I must be hallucinating. Hallucinating while being dead. "Nature was just rebalancing itself."

"Who are you? Where are you? What is going on?" I tried to shout, but the words came out shaky and quiet between gasps. I was still hyperventilating and crying.

"I believe you humans call me Gaia. I exist beyond what your senses can perceive and am responsible for watching over nature. Humans have traversed too far from the path of nature that they are no longer under my domain. Time complained that humans were disrupting her domain by diverging the flow of what is to be. Death acted, taking most humans into her realm. I am to keep the bodies, in exchange, for the removal of that much energy and elements would disrupt many cycles."

"Then where are the bodies? Where is everyone? How am I alive?" nothing is making sense. Why am I listening to a hallucination?

"Death has not given them back yet..." Gaia's voice trailed off. "I am unsure of how they will return without their parts that are deemed not part of my domain. As for you being alive, that is Death's domain, I merely watch over the balance of nature. What Death does is a mystery to me. However, I know you are still of the natural world. Therefore, you are for sure alive."

None of this was reassuring. "What about the voices?" I whispered, half not wanting to bring attention to them. They were relentless, making it hard to think.

Gaia was silent for a few seconds before answering. "It seems you are connected to Death's realm. Do not worry, they will go quiet with time. What you would call a soul does not usually last long there." Smoke began to fill my nostrils, something was burning. "Now unless you want to experience that pain again, I suggest you get out of this building. People will be gathering outside the city." Before I could respond, it felt like she left. It was a weird intuition that did not rely on any senses. I stood and began quickly gathering a few supplies, unsure of what else to do. I planned to die today, not experience an apocalypse.

Pausing in front of my mirror, I looked at my face. There were no signs of being shot, minus dried blood. Feeling the back of my head, there was no wounds. Just a small bald patch, the size of the bullet. But even that had small pokey hairs beginning to sprout. Proof that I really did shoot myself. Long horizontal scars on my thighs, however, were still there, taunting me. The weight of depression returned, existing became draining again. I may have miraculously escaped death, but mental illnesses still raged on.

I longed to take a shower and wash the dried blood off my hair and body but had no idea how long until the fire overtook all means of escape. The last thing I wanted was to experience being burned alive, to experience the pain of not dying again. I stuffed some clothes and supplies into a duffle bag. Picking up the gun off the ground, I turned back on the safety and gently placed it in the side pocket of the duffle bag with the rest of my ammo and rushed down the stairs. Heavy smoke and ash came from the third floor, causing my lungs to burn. I pulled my shirt over my nose, but it did little. At least there were no flames in the stairway yet.

Outside was not much better. Fires were running rampant from the crashes and whatever people were during before vanishing in thin air. Animals were running wild, pets freaked out. The strange part, I could feel their thoughts and emotions. It was not thoughts like human tongue, like the voices, but instead more abstract. Yet their panicking only made things worse. I felt like I was losing my mind, which quite frankly I probably was. I kept walking, keeping an eye out for any other humans or anything to prove I was stuck in a hallucination. Honestly, I preferred this to be a hallucination. I was not strong physically or mentally, I would not survive an apocalypse. I barely technically did not survive the modern world. Plenty of other people deserved to survive, people with talents or even the will to live. This was a sick joke of faith.

I walked on. And on. And on. No one was around. The outskirts of town were miles away, which by car was easily reachable. On foot, it was grueling, torturous hours of walking with nothing but the sounds of destruction and voices I quickly began to loath. I personally did not own a car and I was not a gifted driver. Many of the roads were unpassable via automobile due to wrecks, and no bikes were found, so the only option was foot. Pets seemed to find my presence comforting; many dogs with leashes hanging from their neck began to follow me. Cats were less confrontational at first, only starring or stalking from a distance. But even them slowly began mixing in with the dogs and followed. I was not quite for sure where I was heading besides the out of town, since that location was still very vague. My only hope was to run into someone else. Gaia made it seem like I was not the only human still alive, but it felt like hopeful thinking. How many people were there left? Did they know how to survive? Was humanity doomed to extinction?

When the sun was high in the sky, my stomach began to rumble. It seemed I still had the ability to get hungry. I pulled out a granola bar from my duffle bag and my daily medication and continued walking. Having something in my stomach and a rebalancing of brain chemicals helped me think clearly. Sure, I had a few weeks' worth of antidepressants, but I would eventually run out. At the rate buildings were burning, it did not seem like salvaging medications as needed was much of an option. Plus, they expired, meaning there was a time limit until more needed to be made. I sighed, fully aware that soon I would be unable to have any medication and would go through withdrawals. Withdrawals were painful, granted less painful then a bullet through the head, and risked causing symptoms like worsened suicidal thoughts, psychotic tendencies, and seizures. Things they did not talk about in Hollywood. Food, shelter, clothing, diseases, wild animals, all things that are taken for granted it in modern times, would now be daily challenges of survival. I made sure to savor every bite of granola.

Buildings began to become sparse and the voices decreased in multitude. My legs numb from exercising more than I had in years. If I had known I would be in an apocalypse I would have not been such a couch potato. Hindsight was such a bitch. The dogs began barking as two people zoomed pass me on bikes. "Wait!" I screamed, so excited to see another human after nearly an entire day. They slammed on their breaks and turned back around. It was a boy and a girl, both probably still in high school. They were both muscular, athletes most likely, with white blonde curly hair and baby blue eyes. Siblings.

"Do you know what is going on?" the girl asked, her face frantic for answers. Tears stained her cheeks. Her brother, stared intensely, eyes already dull from lose of hope.

"Not exactly," I shook my head, unsure how to explain what I had heard. "Something about nature rebalancing." My own words sounded crazy to me, still not believing that this was really happening. But seeing other humans made it seem more real. Less like a hallucination. "Do you guys know anything?"

This time the guy spoke up. "No. My gut is leading the way right now, but that is about it. It feels like if I follow it, it will take us to others. Seems to be working, let us to you. You are welcome to follow us." In normal situations, following strangers because one has a gut feeling would be outrageous. However, nothing about today was normal and his talk of gut feelings was something I could not ignore. I suddenly could survive a bullet, hear voices, and could understand animals, a guy stellar intuition in comparison was more believable. Sides what else am I to do? I nodded and started walking as they began to bike. "By the way, I'm Brett Wyatt, this is my twin sister Brandie."

"I'm Azaleigh, Azaleigh Moore."