Dawn of Revelation

Chapter One: Like father Like son

New Victoria, New Democratic Republic of North America, Earth/October 13 2998//

      "What the hell are you looking at kid," the supersoldier grunts irritably. I instinctively flinch and look away, as if he hadn't already noticed me staring at him. I look for his nametag, scanning his chest plate to find the jackpot. It reads: T. BRIMSTONE.
      "Sorry sir," I mutter softly, dropping my gaze. "Thanks for saving my ass back there. What the fuck was that thing, anyhow?"
       "Prowler, they're savage beasts that have been deployed in the masses to hunt down the rest of the civilian stragglers," he says casually. "And no I saved both of our asses, that thing was hunting me for days now. It took Harrison, but I wounded it and it wanted revenge. Thanks to you drawing it out, I was able to send him back to hell." Commander Brimstone looks at me with wonder and confusion about his eyes.
       "What the hell are you even doing out here," he asks. "The last evacuation of this sector was three months ago, and we were thorough with making sure that no civilian was left behind." I pause and think; I must choose my next words carefully. How can I possibly explain that I crossed over from a Twilight Dimension of the future? The oracles sent me here saying that I would find my destiny as a hero. I was meant to be a warrior.
       "I'm an enlistee, sir." I stutter. Shit, I sure hope that'll work. "My base was attacked. I'm the last one alive, everyone else has been KIA'd."
       "Shit son," he says sympathetically. "That's a rough first go for a rookie. I'm truly sorry, kid. I've lost some really good buddies out here too. C'mon good buddy, let's get you back to HQ."
       A bone chilling screeching howl pierces the air, the echoes bounce off the surrounding high-rises, making it seem like the sounds came from all around us. I start to panic, but Trevor remains totally calm and collected.
   "Well," He stoops over and grabs a small microchip, sticks it into the back of his head, and presses a button behind his ear. Out of thin air, armor plates slide into place around his head and chin. And then a polarized visor slides down from his forehead. With a hiss of air compression and a breath of vapor, he continues, "time to make like jackrabbits and get the fuck outta dodge. His teammates heard the gunshot."
        Before we can even start moving, we are cast in the shadow of something huge in the sky. The air is filled with a strong tingle of static electricity, and a loud distorted hum vibrates in my ribcage. I look up to behold the underbelly of a colossal starship. Something instinctive in my head says that this is the enemy. But it's so strange and physically impossible, that I'm sure this is clearly not human in origin.
      "Well slap my ass and call me Sally," Trevor whispers. "Its the Anunnaki Emperor's flagship."
    Out of the skies, a smaller ship enters a hovering position a couple dozen meters above the streets behind us. Doors open on either side of the alien hovercraft, and two hulking giants leap out onto the ground. The magnetic metal street beneath our feet trembles under the impact of the two alien colossi. Trevor turns around and sees the two likely aggressors and visibly shits himself like I am, as his eyes widen and his face goes ghostly white. The pair of towering aliens throw down their arms, splaying their tusked mandibles as they bellow out furiously. Well.... that's not a good sign...
    "FUCK," Trevor exclaims in panic. "They deployed the titans, we need to fucken get out of here, lickety split!" Without saying another word, Trevor grabs me by the forearm and drags me along as his feet pound the metal ground in a full on hustle.
     Looking over my shoulder, my stomach ties in knots watching the Titans cover the distance with terrifyingly remarkable speed. They flip cars out of the streets, which smash into the adjacent surrounding buildings, tossing them aside as if the vehicles were merely cardboard. One of the pair starts to run on all fours, rapidly gaining on us. The ground trembles violently with each heavy step it takes.
       "Uhhh, Trevor," I squeak in terror, literally pissing my pants, and maybe crying a little.  "They're getting a little too close. One's already half a block away from us. I think now is the time to find a place to hide, eh?" He glances over his shoulder and starts to really haul ass.
        "Fuck me," he grunts. "No shit kid! I'm currently working on that!" I watch with a sense of impending doom as the closest titan gets within stone throwing distance between us. I can actually smell its rancid breath from here, and the combination of insurmountable fear and disgust is so overwhelming that it actually nauseates me.
       Just as the titans are about to be able to reach us, Trevor yanks me into a downward ramp that leads to what looks like an underground parkade- only with heavily reinforced metal vault doors. In a rush of adrenaline he tosses me as deep into the mouth of the vault entrance, throwing me into the hard metal doors in the process, knocking the breath out of me. I watch, stunned as Trevor fires at the approaching beasts before saying fuck it and throwing a grenade in between their legs.
       "Grenade out, danger close," he says almost robotically. "Get down and watch out for shrapnel!" I curl up into a ball and cover my head and ears. Even though I'm clamping my hands over my ears, the audible *thwump* of the grenades detonating makes my ears ring. As the smoke starts to settle, I notice that the two alien abominations are still standing, albeit stunned and concussed.
       Trevor turns around and rushes past me, and starts to interact with the security access pad built into the doorway. He swears and punches the control panel angrily. He turns back around and walks past me once more, unlimbering his SCT-550 shotgun.
       "Stand back kiddo," he says. "Looks like we're going to B&E the old fashioned way." I take a few healthy steps back as he cocks, raises and aims the shotgun at the security access panel. "Open fuckin sesame!"
      I turn away as he pumps a single shell into the hardware, sending sparks showering all over the place. The once greenlit screen flickers red before ultimately going dark. There's an audible clanking from within the surrounding walls. He then goes up to the doors, finds the seam in between the two interlocking doors, and pries them apart with his own two hands. I stare in utter disbelief; each of those doors have to at least weigh a few tons. Trevor then looks back at me and smiles proudly.
       "What," he chuckles to himself. "I just ate my vegetables growing up, that's all. Easy-peasy Lemon squeezy."
      I raise my eyebrows speechlessly, forcing myself to accept that I just watched this man one-up Hercules without even breaking a sweat. Trevor waves for me to take the lead, and so reluctantly, I do.
     The doors are open just enough for him and I to squeeze through the gap, therefore it's dark as night and thus scary as hell. Trevor tosses one more grenade towards the dazed and barely injured titans. He then forces the doors back into place, welding them shut, plunging us into total darkness. He lets out a relaxed sigh.
       "I sure hope that you aren't scared of confined spaces or the dark kiddo," Trevor says in a nonchalantly chipper tone. "Cuz if so, welcome to your worst fucking nightmare: Hell." Somehow this gets to me, but before I can even say anything, he activates a pair of floodlights on each side of his helmet, temporarily blinding me, but otherwise illuminating the area. "Relax, junior, I'm just kidding! There, thats more like it!" He laughs.
      As my vision returns, I realize that the lights are not what I wanted. I look around, seeing nothing but death and carnage all around me. Dozens of  corpses lay scattered in different levels decay and different degrees of fucked up. Most of them are still recognizable- some likely having once been scientific researchers, judging by their bloodstained white lab jackets and key fobs and the rest are armed and wearing prison security uniforms; while others are indistinguishable as they seem to have been literally ripped apart limb from limb, and thus mangled beyond recognition. Where the hell are we? Most importantly, what happened here and who- or what- did this to these hapless people?
       I look back over at the doors from which we came and face the reality of our situation. We're about to go find out one way or another.