After the Demise

Chapter 4

After we exited the room, the guard shut the door behind us. We were in a long hallway, stretching on forever to our left and right.

"This way," commanded the woman, heading to the right. The guard stayed behind at the door for what reason I don't know. We kept walking for what felt like an eternity, occasionally the hall diverting into different directions and a few other doors, but we continued forward. Eventually we reached the end of the hallway, which had a huge metal door.

"All right, we are about to go into the main facility, make sure you don't get killed," she stated. Just before she put in a code for the door, I spoke up.

"Hey um, how would I killed in here?"

"Simple, if your not paying attention, you'll get killed," she replied. She then turned and started to put the code in again.

"Could you at least tell me your name?" I asked.

"Kirsten," she said, she didn't move, didn't even look at me, just continued to put in the code. Finally, with a click and the hiss of steam, the door unlocked. She opened the door to reveal the same huge room I was in before, only now it was lit up, and busy.

The room was like a giant training facility, people where in different things, hand-to-hand combat, fighting with swords, stealth tactics, archery, you name it. There where probably even more going on throughout this place.

"Whoa...." was all I could say.

"Indeed," said Kirsten, "Follow me." She started walking fast over to left and I had to run to catch up to her.

"How is this place dangerous?" I asked, "Everything seems pretty well under-control."

"You always have to be ready for anything," she said. "Some one may fire an arrow wrong, something might explode, or anything really. But your not here to train, not yet anyway." We then headed to a house of sorts. It was well fortified, with guards on all sides. Kirsten walked to what appeared to be the only entrance the structure. It was a lot like the door we had encountered before, it appeared to be more worn than the other. Two guards where there, blocking the door. They moved aside when Kirsten came through, but blocked me.

"Hey! I was trying to get through," I said, giving them stern looks.

"Is he allowed Kirsten?" one guard asked.

"Yes," she replied. The guards then moved aside and I continued walking, reaching Kirsten at the door. After she put a code in, a similar hiss of steam and clicks rang through the air, followed by her opening the door. It was dark inside, but Kirsten walked in anyways, and I soon followed. The guard closed the door and everything went dark. Then a few lights slowly turned on revealing that the structure had only one room, with a table in the middle surrounded by a few chairs. Kirsten sat in one and motioned that I do the same.

"Now we need you to do us a favor," she said. "If your going to join our group, we are going to need some information about you."

"What kind of information?" I asked.

"Just general info about you," she replied. "How old are you?"

"Hold on, before I tell you this stuff, I want you to answer a question for me." I asked.

Kirsten looked at me, puzzled. Then she shrugged her shoulders,"Okay, what is it?"

"What happened? I mean like, when I woke up, that city was gone, only rubble, and that man captured me and put me in a cage and your "Sand Man" was crazy. And you know what the worst part is? I don't remember anything before I woke up, I don't know the city, nor my family. I didn't even remember my name! It was written on the capsule I was in. And explain this group of yours, I don't even know what your name means."

"First off that is more than one question," replied Kirsten. "But you deserve to know what happened.".

"Finally," I said.

"The capsule you where in is called a Time Lock, it was used to help people who where impatient to reach certain dates in time. It could also be used as a health care system, waiting either for the body or the area outside to be safe. Although they weren't used much, mainly do to their high costs and the various reports of amnesia. Most of them where only temporary, but there where cases of permanent damage to the brain. It essentially puts you in a coma until the set date."

"Okay, so that explains the memory loss," I said. "But what about the crumbling city?"

"That is the remains of the once great city of Katharos. It means pure in Greek. It was a symbol for hope amongst the countries of the world, calling for peace and unity. As fate would have it though, it was destroyed when massive object raining from the sky, destroying the nuclear facility, causing an atomic blast. You used to be able to see the ocean easily from Katharos, but the blast pushed the shore line further away."

"Okay two things, what do you mean by a massive object and how did it push the shore line away from the city?" I asked.

"Well, nobody is entirely sure what the object was, it appeared out of nowhere, and wasn't man-made. Could've been a meteorite for all we know. All we know that there was a missile that headed above the city, exploded, then the object came hurtling down. The shore line was pushed by a bunch of land that rocket from the impact into the air and slammed into the ocean, the crater is a few miles south of the city."

"So what happened afterward?" I asked.

"The United States was furious as usual, they figured some country had deliberately done this to them, then similar disasters happened in different countries as well. Soon, every main power county in the world became a suspect, and eventually nuclear weapons were let loose. No one is sure who fired the first bomb, all records of air travel where destroyed on that day."

"So, WWIII happened?" I asked.

"Actually, quite the opposite. Because of the bombs the world wasn't stable for fighting, everyone went underground to survive. It can't even be called a war. Because of this, people started giving it a name, The Demise."

"Why The Demise?" I questioned.

"Because back then, people thought the world was over, either that humanity would forever be in the underground of the world or eventually die out."

"That's depressing," I said.

"It is," replied Kirsten. "Once the surface became habitable, our group formed, A Fi Liber De Cusca."

"What does that me-" suddenly a loud boom rang in the room. I covered my ears and looked around, Kirsten was just looking at me.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"No I-" I was cut off again, this time buy a sound worse than before. Screams. But not just any screams, screams of pure terror, the kind you hear that when you are at your worst, when fear is the only thing that exists. I crumpled to the floor, covering my ears to make it stop. Kirsten came to me, tried to shake me out of it but it wouldn't stop. Then the guards from before busted through the door, but before they could try to help, everything went bright, so bright I had to close my eyes then everything stopped. It was pure black and I didn't do a thing. I started to loose consciousness, and before I knew it I was out.