Days of Darkness: Awakening

Epilogue: The Departure

THREE YEARS LATER IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE AND TIME...

The skies over Chicago gradually dimmed over the daytime sky. Strong winds howled through the tall buildings downtown. It was a quiet morning not unlike usual. Soldiers were scattered about at every intersection patrolling the streets. The few citizens that remained hid away in whatever abandoned storefront or dark corner that they could find.

The city had been placed under martial law over the last three years by its ruthless leader. The people that were left in this wasteland of a city weren't free to live the way that they wanted to and had no control over their own lives. There was no contact with the outside world because there wasn't a world to contact. Chicago was the last remaining metropolis of the world.

On this particular day, constant earthquakes rocked the city. No one knew what to think of the situation. But meanwhile, in one of the city's skyscrapers...

"Sir," the scientist said. "Everything is almost set to go. Just a few more adjustments and we'll be ready for transport."

In a dark room, a young woman was laying on an operating table. Her open scalp revealed a tiny microchip resting on her exposed brain. Waiting in the shadows, a tall figure stood in the corner watching over the procedure.

"Are you sure that this will work the way that I want it to?" he inquired. "I don't want there to be any mistakes. There's no room for error."

"Yes, my Lord," the scientist answered nervously. "Once she arrives, after about forty-eight hours, the programming will kick in and she'll be active."

"Good," the leader said as he exited the room.

He walked down the hallway to the elevator and stood motionless as he gazed out the window overlooking the city. He reveled in the destruction and chaos. And at the same time, he appreciated the silence that his rule brought over the city.

Once the elevator arrived, he got on it and rode it to the top floor. As he got off, his wife greeted him right away.

"My beloved, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. It's almost time. She will depart within the next two hours. My men are making the final preparations now."

"Are you sure that this is what you want to do?" she asked.

He took her hand and led her to their dinner table. As he sat her down, he slowly kissed her hand and then sat across from her.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life," the leader assured her, "except the day that I decided to make you my bride."

She sighed. "I don't want to lose her. We never had a chance to have a daughter, and our son is gone..."

In a rage, he threw the cup next to him across the room. "Our son made his choice! Now, where is he? Huh? Where is he?! He's dead now. His mistakes, his greed, his... so-called moral compass and sudden change of heart... - all of it was his undoing."

"Undoing?" she interrupted. "You had our son killed! Your anger is what pushed him away. Your anger is what drove him to the one who is now our master. We don't live free anymore. And now you've made the world share in this mess. Take responsibility for your hand in his fate!"

Enraged, he rose from the table, stormed over to his wife, and furiously hit her with the back of his hand knocking her to the floor.

"Don't you dare speak to me in that manner!" He then turned over the dinner table violently. "If it wasn't for our son, we wouldn't be where we are now! He set this in motion the moment he left us. And now, I'm going to do what he would've never thought to do and there isn't any stopping it. You have the audacity to speak to me about responsibility?! Where were you, his mother, when he was..."

"Don't you dare put this on me!" she rebutted. "You wanted him gone the second you found out what he was." She stood up and wiped the blood from her mouth. "And now look at you. You're the same as him. And now you want to avenge him? Start by killing yourself because it was your orders, your will, and your soldiers that did the job. His blood is on your hands!"

He took a long pause. "That's true. His blood is on my hands. But the ones who turned him, they'll pay their price as well. Nothing else matters; Not this world, any of the people in it, or even what Lord Draco has to say. I don't care anymore."

With that, he stormed out of their suite and went back downstairs to the lab where they were holding the young woman.

Meanwhile, the leader's wife took the time to clean up the mess that her husband had made. After doing that she stood at the window staring out into the empty city streets. She questioned if supporting his quest for vengeance was the right thing to do. Who else would needlessly suffer because of the tirades of a madman? As she looked to the sky, she said to herself, "What should I do? Could this be the fall of our world? Is this how it ends?"

Soon after, the leader arrived at the laboratory in an extremely bad mood.

"Is she ready?!" he demanded.

His workers cowered in fear of displeasing him. The lead scientist spoke: "Not quite, sir. There's a problem with the interface. The fault in the chip could potentially be exposed."

His temper grew hotter by the second. Infuriated, he slammed his fist on the table next to him. "Never mind the interface. Can she make the trip and be intact as she is? That's all I need to know right now."

Nervously, the scientist answered, "Yes, my lord. She can make the trip. But there's an eighty-five percent chance that you may lose your control over her. Do you want to take that kind of risk, sir?"

"It doesn't matter. Nothing matters anymore. Prep her for the transport."

Right away, the scientist began stitching up the woman's scalp. Once that was finished, he and his assistants placed her in a wheelchair and pushed her out of the room while she was still unconscious. As they made their way down the hall towards the elevator, another earthquake shook the city. As the leader tried to catch his balance, he grabbed onto the woman's arm.

"It's cold," he said. "Why is she so cold? It's warm in here."

"It's her abilities, sir. They're beginning to manifest."

A large smile hit the leader's face. "Ah, this is even better than I planned. It's her awakening. The quakes... Is this her, too?"

"We don't know," the scientist replied. "I suppose it's possible. It isn't like we haven't seen one person possess multiple abilities."

"Interesting..."

Once the quake subsided, they all got on the elevator and rode it down to the basement. Immediately, they went to the transport machine where the engineer was preparing the machine.

"My lord," the engineer started. "Final preparations are set. She'll arrive exactly in this spot on the other Earth. There are soldiers already there marching around the city. But once she arrives, she's on her own. Her programming will take hold soon after."

"Good. Send her through."

With that, the assistants to the scientist lifted the woman and pushed her through the open wormhole. The leader stood watching with a smile on his face as his plan was now set in motion and no one was there to stop him. And just as he exited the room laughing to himself, the engineer closed the wormhole and shut down the machine all while hearing the leader walk down the corridor with a maniacal laugh knowing the carnage that he just unleashed.