[Complete] the Mana-Wilds #1: A Cataclysmic Conjunction

Chapter 2

Oblivion

Pitch black Oblivion...

David's abeyance within this void was... underwhelming to say the least. When his world collapsed suddenly from the bright lights of Cold Iron's activated Battle Master Mech, he thought that God above had decided to finally call for his arrival unto the pearly gates for his final judgement. The Old Ranger expected the likes of Saint Peter or so handling the Reception just before so. He isn't by far the most religious of folks nor was the purest of acts for one. But he stood by his ethics of non-partisanship as the arbitrary way of how Rangers conduct themselves on missions. But instead of the golden gates of Heaven or at the very least the fiery inferno of Hell, there was...

Nothingness...

There was no feeling, no sight, no taste, not even hearing a single sound. Just a deafening and all-encompassing void.

Abject emptiness...

'Is this the Afterlife?' David wondered. His mind pondered gravely by the realization of his (lack thereof) surroundings.

Loneliness, the Great Quiet... and he is to be like this forever?

Just as his grizzled soul was about to conceive of even trying to scream. He heard a faint noise coming to his right, as if there was running water somewhere nearby. Was this a test for him? David wondered just as much as his will was revived with vigor. With what amount of strength left he could muster, David grasped himself clawing his way past this darkened void, like a sunken mariner desperately clinging to reach the surface for oxygen's sweet salvation.

With three excruciating thrusts of his fortitude, David emerged from the darkness and what greeted him was the heat of a bright sun drying upon his water drenched body.

Panic by his skin suddenly touching water; having years of roaming the Wastelands had taught him the habit that it was better to die of thirst than bathe, let alone drink from water sources contaminated by either radiation, sludge or irradiated sludge. But as he gasped for air leaving his just re-awakened body upon him crawling to the nearby shore, his nose tingled suspiciously, or more of... reversely so. Normally, irradiated and/or contaminated water have a distinct repugnancy to their scent but yet he could not mistake it. With what rare moments he had of drinking purified water that the water grave he had so unknowingly awoken from was scentless if... slightly sweet tasting. It was lo and beholden by his tired eyes, a freshwater spring.

Like a traveler who journeyed his legs unto death, David cupped a hand of the spring water onto his mouth and reveled on its refreshing nectar. Sampling three more times to slake his thirst and to confirm that this vision wasn't some elysian dying dream. But the water's cooling kisses were in fact, very much real. He filled his belly and wetted his throat with the spring water to his heart's content. When he couldn't take no more, David grasped on his reflection on the shimmering waters. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen himself in a mirror but the spring water was as crisp and crystalline to an impossibly wondrous degree. Well, wondrous when reflected upon the visage of a man of four decades worth of hardship and strife could capture. Then again, David reminisces, that refreshing quench of this spring water was revitalizing to such an extent that he could swear it added years into his life, or maybe even reversed a few back.

For the very first time in this Old Ranger's life, he felt like he could be truly at peace with himself here in this strange world or plane of existence, he finds himself wetting the soles of his feet over. Resting upon the shade of a nearby tree, David took on to observe or more leisurely described, read his picturesque surroundings. The Ranger found himself in an idyllic glade whose artful centerpiece was this rejuvenating spring. It was a calming retreat of murmuring waters that sang a lullaby of naturality to his old ears. Garlands upon garlands of flowers, twines and other sorts of shrubberies dangled and intermingled amongst the wood, the stones and soil around him. A pleasant fragrance coming from dewing grass twinkled like stars upon the gentle sunlight above. The land, if this was a real place in the vast Wastelands would have been an impossibility, only dreamed in Books of Old World's of a time when all was hopeful and bright. Something he had never seen before, but for humanity to be so paradoxically familiar with. Such an old Reads upon the ruined depositories of knowledge, called 'Libraries' way back then held a special place in his heart. Now manifested into reality before him, or perhaps as a comforting welcome that his life's struggle had just ended. The lush gardens of Eden-like remarks were a special way of looking into the world, almost childlike, almost serene enough that he just wants to... just for one moment...