(Prologue) The Fall of Humanity

[Reccomended Song for Chapter: 'Derek's Theme' "Pain" - Lucas King]

Warning: The following content contains graphic imagery and topics that may be disturbing to viewers.

June 16th, 2024

Nine days after Humanity fell

POV: Arlo

My eyes exploded open upon regaining consciousness. Adrenaline blurred my vision as I darted my eyes side to side, trying to piece the world back together. My trembling hand raised almost unconsciously to reveal a bloodied and soot-covered appendage. I looked over to my right to see my older brother Derek unconscious. Truly, I had been doing everything in my power to tend to him, but there was nothing more I could do at this point.

Maybe he'll wake up soon

In the depths of my soul, I knew that this was only a false hope though. Derek's radiation sickness symptoms progressed far faster than mine. Even I only had a day left at best.

A few seconds passed, and my attention was immediately redirected to the sound of an explosion behind me. The force of the sound wave softly shook a few leaves in front of me. I hurriedly looked through the trees and at the city below me. The sound seemed like it was inches away, but if my eyes weren't deceiving me, the warhead had landed at least 50 kilometers away. I stared helplessly as the ball of fire grew in size and the distorted wall of air ripped its way toward me.

Blood rushed to my legs and I immediately jumped on top of Derek's body.

This is going to hurt.

I didn't even have time to turn my head before a massive shock-wave sent me flying face first into a nearby tree. The force of the impact left me breathless and the world proceeded to orbit around me as I regained my senses. A dizzying amount of cracks and crunches sounded from the trees as the forest cried out in pain. As my surroundings continued to spin, I looked up at the sky and its sickly gray hue overwhelmed my vision.

I just wanted to live a simple life. I had just been accepted into medical school a month ago.

Unfortunately, this was my celebration party.

Why did it have to come to this?

After the shock-wave subsided, the forest became dreadfully silent. White particles softly landed on my face as I stared at the dark, clouded ceiling of our planet in a mixture of disgust and awe. The nuclear winter had already set in. It was five days from the summer solstice, but…

It's cold.

I felt a pulse emerge from my gut and keeled over in response. Nothing came out, and several dry heaves followed relentlessly. The pain caused my vision to shake yet again. I looked at my soot covered body and started to notice strange red marks appearing.

It's getting worse.

I resisted the urge to think about the numerous malignant tumors being formed in my body and held my stomach tightly as a deep rumble sounded. Ironically, hunger wasn't even on my mind. If anything, I would choose water over food in a heartbeat. I slowly ran my teeth over my tongue and kept trying to convince myself that my tongue hadn't turned into a dry piece of sandpaper.

It had been two days since I left Boulder (Colorado), and every second I spent here was used on escaping the MAW troops. Guns were useless on them. They were stronger, faster, and had strange abilities that could make even the most elite of NATO's forces fall to their knees in defeat before the fight even began. I raked my nails along the side of a nearby tree.

Then why… why go this far if you could've just won easily?

As I was lost in thought, the sound of footsteps approaching put my mind on full alert. I used the large tree I had landed on as cover and huddled myself on the forest floor. I closed my eyes briefly and tried my best to control my breathing.

Curiosity soon got the best of me and I peaked one of my eyes open to see a group of armed men in black attire. I bit my lip as rage began to well up inside of me. The sickening Syndicate emblem glimmered brightly even though there was no sunlight to reflect.

"Scans show multiple survivors within a 5 mile radius. Should we spread out, Commander Maksim?"

A tall, imposing figure appeared from the rear of the formation with his arms crossed. "You guys shouldn't get too far away from me. Most civilians here are armed. This is America after all." His head swayed slightly and his eyes locked with mine.

Shit! Shit!

I shut my eyes tightly and began to grind my teeth as a deep feeling of anxiety arose. Maksim took a step forward and spoke with a grim tone, "On second thought, I think that's a good idea. You guys go on ahead." Footsteps trickled past me as the soldiers left one by one. Eventually, their footsteps descended into silence.

Please… Please.

I silently prayed to any god that would listen before opening my eyes. Directly in front of my face was the Commander Maksim with a wicked grin plastered to his face. His appearance seemed to naturally exude dread and instinctively, I jumped back. Right as he was about to run, a mysterious force threw me to the ground. It was as if gravity had just become tenfold. I struggled to breathe and clawed at my throat as an incomprehensible pressure began to build up. Maksim's right eye shone a charming yet terrifying red hue.

"Ha. Haha. Hahahaha!" Maksim burst out into laughter as he looked at me.

"What's your name, kid?"

I definitely wasn't a kid, but in front of this man, I doubted that fact myself.

"Arlo", I responded obediently as if guided by instinct.

"Oh?" Maksim smiled.

I grimaced in pain from the pressure being placed on me.

Maksim spoke grimly, "Looks like you only have a few hours left. You must have been in the city. The radiation will likely kill you before nightfall."

That's because of you all!

The rage-filled thoughts raced through my mind relentlessly.

"You must be mad." Maksim smirked.

"I'm in the Upper Echelon of the Syndicate after all." Maksim spoke with a sick beaming pride.

The pressure being placed on me was so overbearing that I couldn't even move a muscle. The worst part, though, was that Maksim was visibly straining himself to hold back.

This is it. I'm dead.

"Specifically, I was one of the four heads that organized the warheads. If you want to blame anyone, you should blame me." A sinister grin manifested itself on his face. He even looked like he was trying to force the sides of his lips not to curl up in excitement. "How's your family doing?"

An overwhelming feeling of anger grew inside me. I looked over at Derek's unconscious body desperately. However, regret soon flowed over me as Maksim's eyes followed my own to Derek's body.

I swallowed and built up enough strength to speak through the pressure, "J-just kill me."

Maksim frowned, "That would be too easy. I actually want to play a game."

Maksim's eye flickered and a bottle of water appeared in his hands. The concentration of salt was so high in the bottle that the particles could be seen whirling around. "Try to kill yourself from dehydration before the radiation takes your life."

I clenched my bloodied fist as my emotions began to tear me apart internally and break the surface of the pressure being placed on me.

"W-why!? So many people have died! " Even while dehydrated, tears miraculously fell down my face, "M-my family, my brother- I can't even feel wronged because everyone left is the same as me! Why! What could possibly be worth purging a country- no, a planet!"

Maksim spoke, "Come on, that's not true. There are 8 Crimson Cities that were spared. Don't act like it's all our fault."

New Orleans and Miami. Those were the only two I know of. Why were there so many?

Maksim pulled closer to me, "Or do you not want to admit that humans would betray their own kind to save their own skin."

Maksim was visibly holding in the urge to laugh.

I choked, "P-please stop."

Maksim smiled, "You think your lives matter? It's simple. We've been chosen, you weren't. We're strong-" Maksim stopped midsentence, lifted me up by my throat, and slammed me into the tree with what looked like a gentle motion.

Crack!

Unfortunately, the crack didn't come from the tree.

I let out a pained yelp, and brought my trembling hand to my sternum as I felt around the fractured bone in horror.

Maksim grinned, "And you're not. you're nothing."

My eyes shook as a primordial fear enveloped my mind. I was a child standing in front of a lion. There was nothing I could do.

Maksim released his grip and I fell to the ground, gasping for air. Even if I wanted to, words couldn't come out of my mouth. My throat felt like it had just been crushed by a hydraulic press.

Maksim's eye dimmed and returned to a natural shade of blue. As he began to walk away, he kicked Derek's corpse. Debris flew everywhere and a red mist enveloped where the body was.

You fucker! I swear to god I'll kill you!

Silence consumed the area after he left. I looked down greedily at the bottle of saltwater, but couldn't bring myself to even touch it as I thought of the sick game Maksim mentioned. Seconds passed, then minutes, then hours. I felt the strength of my body weaken and began to fade in and out of consciousness once again.

Miraculously, I summoned enough strength to bring myself to my feet and I began to stumble through the forest in a daze.

The gray sun had begun to fall and the surroundings began to change to a deep black. Usually, the moon or stars would illuminate the surroundings to some degree, but the heavens themselves were choked by a thick layer of debris.

The forest remained eerily quiet as I walked past animals that were incapacitated or corpses. It was hard to discern which was which at this point. I saw a nearby rabbit that looked to be struggling to breathe and collapsed next to it. My pupils flickered helplessly as I looked at the animal with blurry vision.

I couldn't help but wonder if the creature had lost his family as well.

I forced my still trembling hand to move to the rabbit and stroked its head. The rabbit's eyes struggled to move but eventually locked onto mine. As the moist eyes of the rabbit locked with mine, I couldn't help but choke up as I saw small tears forming in the rabbit's eyes.

A mysterious sense of anger welled up inside me as I began to punch the ground relentlessly. My vision had already begun to burn out, and now reality was shutting down around me. The ground received my blows softly. The attacks weren't that strong, but it was all the strength I could muster.

You think your lives matter?

I screamed and began to crawl forward as my legs began to give out. I continued my pointless assault on the earth itself.

We've been chosen. You weren't.

The Earth itself seemed to share my pain. I could almost feel the near immortal behemoth blink at me softly as its atmosphere eroded away. I raised my fist for the last time and hit the ground, but this time, it was a metallic surface I hit. The dull pain from the metal was negligible. My central nervous system had already begun to falter and collapse.

"M-metal?" I whispered.

I moved the leaves and pine straw covering the ground and a gray metallic surface appeared. A hatch that appeared to be openable was laid out in front of my eyes. Deep down, I knew that it was pointless to continue. I would be dead in minutes, but… .

We're strong and you're not.

I mustered up my strength and pulled the metal door open. It was pitch black inside but I could feel the shape of a ladder with my hands. Unable to process the situation, I crawled into the whole and dragged my lifeless legs behind me. Once I was inside, the door shut automatically and my hands slipped off the ladder.

"Gah!" I screamed in pain as the impact from the floor seemed to revitalize my pain receptors.

A voice resonated from somewhere close yet distant.

"System starting. Floor 1"

My vision broke apart into varying shades of red as a scarlet screen appeared in front of me. The contents were simple enough even for a human on the brink of death to understand.

___________________________

Mission

Difficulty: F

Objective: Survive

Reward: ???

___________________________

Immediately, lights flicked on and revealed a white room. Uncanny humanoid creatures began to appear from thin air. A bipedal creature with 4 tentacles as arms and a distorted face sprinted towards me. I slowly stood up and narrowed my eyes at the creature. A foreign killing intent rushed over me, and a dagger materialized in my hand.

Why do I want to fight? Why would I even try to live?

The images of my deceased friends and family appeared. Derek's corpse flashed into my mind. The image of his slow death and barbaric burial cemented itself with no intention of leaving. I clenched the dagger and bit my lips hard as I remembered the final words any human had ever spoken to me.

You're nothing...