Into Oblivion

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Hope opened her eyes, an action she never thought she would do again, and was immediately blinded by a huge searing light, burning into her eyes.

“Jesus Christ!” She painfully screamed.

Her screams must have alarmed somebody, as she could hear a sudden commotion to her left.  With her eyes still only letting her see a golden blaze she turned her head and saw a figure, presumably male, but silhouetted by the light in her eyes. She jumped when his voice said,

"I wouldn’t mention Jesus around here, people get a little... angry, maybe violent even. If you have any belief in God left, I'd drop it now. After what happened to the world God should be completely out of the question."

“What no, I...” She trailed off, unsure at how to respond to this shaded figure. “Where am I? And who are you?” She finally managed.

“You’re in Oceanus, it ain’t much to look at, and it’s a dump, but its home and you’re safe here. As for who I am? My name is Castor and I saved your life out there.” He replied, somewhat proudly.

“Yeah, thanks for that.” Hope replied, still confused. Her vision was starting to come back to her now. She gazed around her and took in her surroundings. The room was blandly decorated, the furniture was shaky and mouldy, the walls were made from mesh, the floor had holes in it; leading to falls of about 50 meters. Contrary to what Castor had said, this wasn’t a home as Hope remembered it, this was a shelter; this was a cage. She was laid on a bed with several brown marks on it; she didn’t even want to think of what they were. She swung herself to the bed’s side and shakily got to her feet, she used a nearby stack of books to steady herself. Castor held out his hand and smiled; Hope returned the smile and took his hand. Together they made their way through the main room, it was no more impressive when you were in the centre of it, no matter how you looked at it, it was still the same broken cage. Castor apparently wanted to show Hope the outside, because he was now leading her down flight after flight stairs until they hit the muddy ground. Castor wasn’t lying, Oceanus was a dump. There were people begging in the dirt for food just to get them through the day, the factories were choking the air with smog and made breathing a task within itself, and the worst part was the ocean itself. Hope remembered going to the beach before the catastrophe, she had loved it; the ocean was sprawled in front of her. It was the first time she had felt that there was an entire world out there to explore, the first time she had wanted to get out of the city and find her own way. And now there was another ocean in front of her, and all it reminded her of was that the world was dead, and there was nothing out there to see anymore.

“Come on” Castor suddenly said “I’ve got to get back to the shop; we’ll pick you up some medicine while we’re there.”

Hope agreed, her lungs were starting to burn. Together they turned and walked down the boggy streets of Oceanus. Hope turned her head and gave the sea one last fleeting look, and sighed.