Dark Ages: Restoring Hope

The New World

After our world went dark, people were scared and grieving, and their fear and hurt turned into anger.

He swung through various trees, his face feeling the inoffensive blades of winds. He had a smile on his face, landing on top of a branch as he carefully watched his daughter try to hide from him. She had gotten better, way better than what he had expected. Rachel, his beautiful ten year old daughter, had just stopped to look around, seemingly looking for him. He could only silently chuckle, shaking his head left and right as he saw her swing away. She may have gotten better, but she still needed much to learn.

There were wars fought over borders, resources, ideologies... It was chaos.

He also swung away, his mind going back to what had happened after their world lost any source of electricity. No machine worked, his failure to think of an alternative solution cost them way too much. He quickly shook his head again, his wife's words still resonating with him. It was the only thing that kept him stable, remembering the self destruction he went through for a couple of weeks before Jean stopped him from making anything that he might have regretted. It was a weight that he would carry forever, just as the ones that he still held from his previous failures.

Between the initial earthquakes, the loss of power and the wars, billions of lives were lost.

He stood as far as possible, his eyes still trained on his daughter. He could see that she was enjoying swinging through the wilderness, a freedom that he and Jean had not allowed her back in the city they, alongside others, had created. She still needed control, especially when she would disappear for hours. It made them strictly worried for her and Peter was worse because of what he still remembers from the Dark Day, the day they lost everything.

But then, cutting through all that fear, rage and chaos, came voices of calm... And a message started to spread.

He could vividly remember the message, one that had been told to him by his wife when he let go of the tendency he had at the moment to overwork himself. His wife, Jean Parker, had been his lifeline during those moments. The sole person that he had allowed himself to speak to for weeks. The one person that not only understood him, but had taken her time to help him through everything. He deeply loves his wife, the one person that, alongside their daughter, made him enjoy life once more.

'It doesn't have to be like this, Peter. Imagine something beyond this... There is always another way, and we can find it together'

He swung, his body nearing the position of his daughter. They had spent hours in the wilderness already, hours to tired out the energetic little body that belonged to his daughter. Rachel was also someone that made those days worth living, especially when she missed him. She would always hug him, not letting go of him even when it was time to eat. He chuckled, off-handedly commenting to his wife that their daughter looked like a koala one day. In which Rachel reacted with a sharp embarrassed squeak that made them both laugh. Fond memories that would be engraved in his mind until his death. Unfortunately for him, those memories couldn't erase the negative ones that still had a space in his mind.

Who says a post-apocalyptic world has to be a bad place? Forget your barren wastelands, your fashion dominated by leather and skulls and the all-too-common problem of roving cannibals. After the fall of our civilization... something better came.

"Wooo!" He sighed, noticing that Rachel couldn't even control her excitement any longer. It was the sole reason as to why he was slowly but surely getting closer to her. He had noticed that she was on the verge of exploiting in excitement, which normally was not a problem. But with the increase of villains and problems being created by those that seek to still create chaos, they had to contain such excitement to the inner wall of their newly formed cities.