The Fall

Chapter 1 - Pilot

       Fifteen years. Fifteen whole years I have spent hidden away from the outside world. Frightened of what might be lurking in the shadows beyond the cold stone walls. At the same time terrified of what might become of me here, within the walls. "Not like them, please not like them", I would whisper to myself at night. Trying to sleep and escape the fear that the night brought. Abandoned and alone, no one to talk to but the cold wet puddles seeping through the ceiling. The only other presence beyond myself, within these walls, were "Them". There is almost no way to describe the grotesque beings that had once been the caretakers of the children present in this building. But that was long ago. Before the war, world war three.

Nothing could have prepared the world for the war, and it all happened in a single day. Food and supplies had run out worldwide. Not knowing what else to do china invaded Iceland for the last oil reserves. The U.S. helped defend Iceland using the last of the Mark IV power armor. As a last resort to stop the U.S,China launched their nuclear warheads. In retaliation the U.S. launched theirs, causing a world wide nuclear war. The only known survivors were people that could afford fallout shelters with the ability to withstand multiple nuclear blasts. But some survivors went unnoticed, hidden away from the world. Some rural areas went almost unscathed by nuclear blast other than the strange things that came from large amounts of radiation poisoning. This radiation altered some humans into almost unrecognizable forms and just killed others. But the ones lucky enough to survive, or unlucky enough, would have to live fearing an encounter with the altered ones.

The only thing that his parents had left him before they went off to war was his name, Issac. This boy was scared out of his mind. Like any other child in his position would, he grew up afraid of the outside world. Now he was fifteen. The nuclear war was close to being over and he needed to face his fears, find a way out of the wretched place that was his home. He packed his bag with supplies that would last him a few days in the wasteland; Some canned food, a couple bottles of water, a baseball bat, and a picture of his parents. He glanced over at the door. Boarded up long ago by the caretakers, the only thing keeping "them" out. as quietly as he could he started dismantling the boards keeping the door shut. Suddenly realizing his mistake a large crash ripped through the air, as the door shuttered under the force of one of "Them" throwing their body against the door.

Due to Issac's quick thinking he was able to fashion a rope out of his bed sheets and toss it out the cracked window. Quickly tying the makeshift rope to his bed frame he slid down, looking up as he went, and saw debris flying out of the window. As he looked around at the outside world for the first time in ten whole years he couldn't believe what he saw. Everything was gone, even the orphanage was torn up by the blasts. But lucky enough it looked like his room went off unscathed. Everything else wasn't as lucky. It looked as if, well a nuclear bomb went off.

Even cars were overturned, all the windows smashed. A few cars had tried to make it out of the town before the blast, but to no avail. There were a pile of cars next to the exit gate. "Oh my god" he whispered to himself. Suddenly realizing just how many bodies there were scattered across the town. The bodies had partially decomposed because of the large amounts of radiation and it made him sick. To start on his journey, and to partly get away from the horror show that was this town, he started walking down the street toward the exit. Suddenly he noticed movement and flattened himself against a wall. Peeking around the corner he couldn't believe what he saw, people! He rushed out into the open toward them yelling "Hey! Can you help me? Help!" Only to be greeted with yelling and guns. They spoke in a tongue that was unrecognizable to him. All he could understand was them motioning to the ground and screaming. So as quickly as he could he got flat on the stomach. They picked him up by his arms and zip tied his wrists together behind his back as they searched his bag. Issac noticed that their faces were covered up completely in rags and their eyes covered by dark sunglasses. They all had rifles slung over their shoulders and pistols in their hands.

Eventually he was blindfolded, shoved into a vehicle in some kind and driven off. All that he remembered is passing out after a sharp prick on his neck and waking up in a courtyard. It looked as if this was a labor camp of some kind. His bag and bat had been confiscated but he had managed to stow the picture of his parents in his pocket, dazed and confused he asked the nearest person "Hey, where am I?", all he got was a scowl as he shook his head and walked away. Looking around now he could see the giant hole in the ground and all of the people going in and out of it with supplies. After standing and looking around for a while a guard came up to him and shoved a rusty pickaxe and a head lamp in his hands. Due to the lack of physical work he had done throughout his life carrying the pickaxe was a challenge. After seeing him struggling, the guard took the pickaxe and handed him a shovel then pointed down the hole. Realizing what he wanted him to do he thought of running but then realizing the gun in his hand and the other guards positioned around the courtyard. Immediately regretting the thought he did as the guard told and walked towards the gaping hole in the earth. As he looked down Issac realized just how far down it went.

Looking around he noticed the platforms that the other workers were using to scale the massive gorge. Following in their lead he traveled with them along the precariously small twisting ramp till they suddenly stopped about a mile down. Again he followed the others lead as they dug into the black earth on the side of this seemingly endless pit. A good two hours of digging had passed until the men stopped and stood back in awe at what they had uncovered. Glistening from the glare of their lights still partially buried by the black earth was the head of a Mark IV power armor suit. A hulking mass of metal, weighing about 300 pounds, to reduce the strain on the wearer it must have multiple pistons and shock absorbers positioned on the joints of the suit. Used in the wars by the United Stated to defend Iceland from the invading Chinese in 1998 this was one of the most powerful and coveted things in the wasteland. Confused, poor Issac had no idea what was going on. Because of how long he had spent boarded up in the orphanage living off of its emergency food supply he had been oblivious to anything happening in the outside world. Immediately one of the workers bolted and ran up the ramps as fast as he could to quickly notify the guards of what they had found. But what he didn't know is that while they were working it had rained rotting some boards and making them extremely slippery. In his rush to notify the officials the boards underneath his feet splintered and snapped as he fell to his death down the seemingly endless pit. The others, with the sudden realization that they were now trapped, panicked.

     Issac realized that if someone didn't step in soon fights might start to break out, so he stepped into the middle of the group putting his arms out and saying, "Wait, this could be our chance. Think about it, we have power armor, shovels, pickaxes, and are shut off from the surface. We could escape!" The workers murmured with each other for a bit and then shook their heads in agreement. The workers began to dig out the power armor, after a short thirty minutes they had it up and running off of power from their helmets. Issac then stepped inside, was handed a pickaxe, and started to dig. They dug well through the night and before anyone could even notice that they were missing they were long gone. With the power armors help they could dig at least two feet through solid stone about every five seconds. So as they dug through the day they had almost reached the surface. After another thirty minutes they had finally breached the surface.