The End Of Nothing And The Beginning Of It All

Chapter One: Hope

I awoke to a piercing, loud bang. My ears painful with the sounds of sharp ringing. The smell of smoke clouds my lungs before initiating an involuntary cough. What had happened here? Was I in the afterlife? I waited until the ringing became slightly less deafening before attempting to sit up against a broken, chalky brick wall nearby. My exposed skin peering through my ripped t-shirt felt ice cold against the brick but more numbingly I noticed the pain coming from my leg. I looked down to see a large bloody cut out of my shin. However luckily it was no longer actively bleeding. How long had I been unconscious for? As the smoke cleared I looked around, people were running frantically and screaming. I hear the sound of helicopters flying over me. I am finding it hard to recall any information on events that happened before I awoke. I must have hit my head hard, luckily I still remember my name. It is Hope. Ironic I know. Anything else is a blur, I'm not even sure where I live. Anyway whoever I am and wherever I am, all I know is that I need to get somewhere safe. I rip part of my khaki Green t-shirt off in order to cover up my leg wound. Thankfully I only have a few other scratches and bruises, nothing serious. I would say I now have about 90% of my hearing back and pretty much all of the smoke has cleared. I am not sure how long I had been sitting here for though, I had no gauge of time, it all felt blurry. I stand up off the ground, my feet slipping on top of the rubble that lays across the road. The helicopters overhead have now vanished after their frantic inundation and there is an eerie silence in the air as most of the people have now also gone. It seems to be just me standing in the middle of the road in a quiet cul-de-sac, with menacing grey skies hovering over my head. The wind scattering litter across the road and slamming front doors which have been left open in a hurry to escape. What do I do now? I can't get far until my leg is clean and healed more. The sky becomes darker, I ponder whether it's due to the increasingly stormy weather or weather the daytime is drawing to a close. I assess it's probably both. I move towards a random house. The garden is well kept with bright blue flowers lining the front lawn with blue windows to match. It doesn't look like anyone is in but I politely knock on the door nevertheless. As expected there is no answer so I enter shutting the door gently behind me.