THE LAST ONES LEFT (An Apocalypse Story)

CH. 05 - A NIGHTMARE

ALLIA

I jolted upright, gasping for air as if I'd been pulled from icy water.

The darkness around me was suffocating, thick as if it clung to my skin. My heart pounded in my chest, each beat loud and frantic in the oppressive silence. I tried to steady my breath, but the air felt heavy, like I was breathing through a wall of sand.

No light. No sound. Only the crushing weight of the blackness pressing in on me. I didn't know where I was or how I got here, but a deep, gnawing feeling twisted in my gut. Something was wrong.

Someone was missing.

"Tobi," I whispered his name, it was barely audible, swallowed by the eerie silence around me. No response. Panic surged through me as I struggled to stand. My legs felt weighed down, heavy like lead, but I had to move. I had to find him.

The darkness seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction, and each step I took felt like wading through quicksand. 

My voice cracked as I called out again this time I was trying to be louder, "Tobi!" Still nothing. My hands shook, and I could feel the cold grip of dread coil around my spine. Then, the ground shifted beneath me.

A low rumble echoed through the air. The floor cracked, and very quickly I was staring down into a gaping chasm. The void yawned beneath me, an endless black pit stretching into nothingness. A frigid wind rose from its depths, tugging at my clothes, pulling me toward the edge.

I teetered, trying to keep my balance, when I heard it—his voice, faint and desperate. "Allia, help me!"

My head snapped around. I saw him— Tobi, standing on a platform just beyond the chasm. His form flickered in the dark, distant and fragile.

"Tobi!" I screamed, scrambling toward him. The wind howled, and the ground beneath my feet crumbled. I jumped from platform to platform, trying to close the gap, but the closer I got, the farther away he seemed.

"I'm coming!" I shouted, my voice cracking. "Hold on!"

I fought tooth and nail, but no matter how hard I pushed, the distance only grew between us. The wind shrieked louder, biting at my skin, and the darkness pressed in tighter, suffocating me.

And then, without warning, the ground beneath my feet gave way.

I tumbled into the abyss, arms flailing, grasping at the air, but there was nothing to hold on to. The cold rushed up around me, and I was falling—endlessly falling. I looked up, and there he was.

Tobi, pale and ghostly, his eyes wide with fear. His lips moved, but no sound came out. Just a faint whisper that barely reached me.

"I'm sorry."

His figure faded, swallowed by the void. The void closed in around me, until there was nothing left.

• • •

If someone had told me that was a nightmare, I wouldn't have believed them. I probably wouldn't have blinked a single eye. It felt so real, it was real even now as I wake up in a strange cold room, blinded by a bright artificial white light. The harsh glare of artificial light stabbing into my eyes.

My head felt heavy, and my body ached in ways I didn't think possible. I blinked, trying to focus, but everything was blurry, the edges of my vision swimming as if I'd just surfaced from deep water and it hurt like hell.