Red City

Where am I? What's going on? Those usually are the first two questions asked when waking up from a one night stand. Usually waking to a naked girl with the hollow beer bottles filling the random room I was in.

This time however, something was different. The air, usually dirty and unbreathable felt refreshing entering my lungs. For once in all 34 years of life, I felt clean, almost pure. My body was relaxed as I slowly started to sit up. I hadn't opened my eyes, in fear that this pleasurable feeling would leave.

I felt around with my hands. I became some what alarmed when I realized I wasn't in a bed. I also figured I was outside since my skin tingled from the heat of the sun.

"Where did I end up this time?" I spoke aloud with a grin on my face. I slowly opened my eyes and instantly regretted my decision.

I was in a square room with one faint light bulb in the center of it. The room was tattered and torn apart. Confusion entered my mind as my eyes frantically searched the room for answers. The feeling of purity left my body and was replaced with fear. The fear of the unknown.

I had so many questions that desperately needed answers. Where was I? What happened to the sun? How did I get here?

"What the hell is going on!?" I yelled out loud. I slowly rose to my feet, only to fall back down. My head throbbed and my body was aching all over forcing me to be seated.

Instead of trying to stand again, I looked around the room without the movement of my body. Emptiness was the only thing my eyes could see. I realized I needed to stand to continue my search for answers.

I started to get back on my feet again, using the wall as leverage. This isn't a hangover, I've felt those the past 6 years and this was not one of them. As I got to my feet I saw a silhouette of a door across the room. I forced my feet forward, hoping to discover the answers I longed for.

As I approached closer, tripping on my own feet, I could clearly see it was a door. I continued onward through my grogginess toward my new discovery.

When I reached the door, I found there was red writing on the door that read; RED CITY. I asked myself the same question as before; where am I? Red City is not a place i've ever been. i need answers and I need them now. I grabbed the small handle and whipped open the door.

What greeted me next chilled me to the bone. It was just what the door had said, a red city. The buildings went higher then my eyes could see into the clouds that, where also red just like the massive buildings.

At the bottom of these twisted towers was something far more disturbing. people walking about, with puffs of smoke leaving what seemed to be there mouths. Some had needles in they're arms and others just didn't have arms. Some had torn clothes and others didn't even have clothes. The only thing they all had in common was they were red. Dark red, light red, many different shades. My eyes searched the whole street and when I turned to my left, I saw a little girl huddled in a small ball, crying in her arms. I walked to her and simply asked;

"Little girl? Where are we? Where are your parents?"

She instantly stopped crying and slowly raised her head. I jumped back in horror at the sight of her disfigured face. She was covered with scars and even missing pieces of her face. Her eyes where blank and lifeless containing no pupil. Her skin also red. Wordlessly, she climbed to her feet and walked in the line of all the others. As I got to my own feet I realized the others had blank eyes and were also scarred head to toe.

I tried looking the way the figures were coming from, only seeing more lines of the lifeless figures limping awkwardly in the same direction. When I looked at the way the figures were shambling to, I saw a small building that unlike the other buildings, was white and had small colorful windows. The building had a erie glow around it, standing out more then the different shades of red. With no other options, I forced my weak body forward in the long line of the other figures.