My war, my life, my plea

As the world came undone

It was a cold cloudy day, windy too, a regular day on the autumn of the SouthernQuadrant, I had kissed Sasha goodbye and hopped on the usual train. 

Today I was supposed to go over the assignments of my team and present them ourweekly report, this hadn't been a particularly special week, it was also the rare day in which weall would be present at the above ground office, as underground dwellers, we were barely abovethe unfortunate laborers responsible for the inspection, harvest, storage and emergency repairs,lost in my thoughts I made sure to remind myself, most of them were not citizens despite beingdirectly responsible for the vast majority of food produced locally within our city.

The Hydroponic Complex was exactly as I remembered, an unfriendly atmosphere, frowned faces, hurriedsteps, I made sure to greet the cute receptionist, a petite young woman barely 21 years of age,I knew her very well, for I was the person who got her this job after all, she always called meby my first name, Ryan, despite the fact I was one of the few people in the building with asurname.   

Instinctively I headed over for the locker rooms, Earth was currently very unfriendlytowards any and all forms of life, even underneath the dome of purified air there was alwaysthe possibility that one of us would bring strange agents to the garden, because of this we wererequired to undergo an extensive triple phase decontamination process, I was always resentfulof the whole thing, it was particularly humiliating for my indirect subordinates, who had todress down to their underclothing and spend an hour cramped in the same room, while we, thecitizens, had two chambers for ourselves.  

Steering my course to our assigned meeting room, after making sure to pay my ownoffice a visit, I greeted my team and we went through this week's report, the meeting wentthrough the morning and after a quick but nutritious homemade meal Sasha gave me I went tomy next meeting, this one even more unpleasant, the board had scheduled this meeting to talkabout the increasing requests for grain shipments from the other quadrants, this was nothingnew as we went through this a few months ago, the total grain exports of Central Antarcticamore than doubled in a year, while our production had barely increased at all, although"exports" isn't the best word to describe it, as we are had no control over how we sell ourproducts, because the food market is controlled by State.

After a long day of word, exhausted, I walked aimlessly around the shelves, well, it wasto be expected since I forgot to type down the groceries list in my communicator, without it Ihad to scour my memories for the conversation Sasha and I had in the morning before I left forwork, what did she ask for again? I was sure she had mentioned something synthetic, maybe meat? Food prices were going up in a starling pace, even as a well-respected manager andsomeone deemed a productive member of society, I was no longer able to afford real meet.  

With two full bags of groceries I hopped on another train, this one somewhat cramped,the market I chose to go to was situated in a region of the city closer to the walls than to itscenter, consequently prices were lower, and transportation was problematic and unsafe.

I allowed myself to doze off, despite the potentially dangerous situation I was in, Iwasn't going to tell Sasha I went for this specific market, she would be mad I put myself in thistype of neighborhood, tomorrow was Saturday and despite my intentions to pamper her a littleI was unwilling to spend too much money, the kids were supposed to bring some news todayas well, Lucas was going to read to us his school report for before the winter break and Annawas going to bring her insufferable, annoying, and ugly, boyfriend over, I never met the guybut I already disliked him. 

A loud metal over metal screech jolted me awake from my reveries. 

The train had stopped. 

Everywhere I looked I saw confused eyes darting to all over the car. 

Assuming the worst, I checked my communicator, there had been no warning from thegovernment, we waited in nervous silence for a few minutes, one or two, I couldn't be sure,until we all got the signals at the same time, not one signal, but two. 

The train shacked, lights flickered, and a woman close to the windows on the right sideof the car screamed in undisguised panic, followed by those around her. 

Someone pulled the emergency lever and people started running out of the car throughthe side opposite to the disturbance spotted by the other passengers, I was slower than most, asI carried those bags of groceries, every train track suspended over the city had an emergencyexit there you could go down a ladder to the ground floor, we kept a hurried pace over thedescent and eventually the train was far enough so we could see what happened. 

A Gate, having manifested itself almost directly underneath one of the pillars thatsupported the structure in which the train tracks were, the destruction of the pillar was the causefor the shaking of the car.

As we went further down into the ground level, we got a better view of it and cameunder its influence, thankfully, nothing had come out of it yet. It can only be described as adark, eerie rift in the world, light itself seemed to be pushed from the air around it, panic washedover me, and I threw away everything I was carrying, I was already one of the last people toreach the ground level, my habit of always walking behind my friends was to blame, I told myself, immediately afterwards we were buffeted by a uncharacteristic mild wind, not the usualcold shill we are accustomed to in this part of the world, we watched stunned, shocked andindignant as the first being walked out of it, there was no Awakened in sight.