Lost in the World: Book One

Awakening

                             "One who always sleeps, can never live"

                                                             (Image)

                                                          03.01.2056

            Though I may have been trapped here for some time, I have managed to stay sane through drawings. I drew how I felt, when I felt it. Now however, I am growing restless, and am tempted to peer into the outer world, even though I know it could only bring dread and resentment upon my mind. Yet I still have a sliver of hope in my heart and so I decided to view the mounted screen. I turned it on and waited for the bulbs to warm themselves. Finally an image began to fade into place. I was astonished at what I saw.

Stuck there in the middle of the screen was a blueberry bush. With plump fruit hanging on the branches, and not having tasted fresh food in ages, my mouth began to salivate. However, what amazed me more was what happened afterwards. A small rodent type creature ran up to the bush and grasped a berry, and almost as quickly as it grabbed it, was thrown into the air, as if the branch had moved. Then the plant rose from the dirt and out came another creature. Which managed to catch the rodent in its jaws and swallowed it whole. It then proceeded to shrink back down into the floor where it originally sprouted.

Amazed at what I had seen, my jaw hung open, and I began to pack my bags before my brain had even registered what was going on.

"If there are creatures, then there could be people too." I reasoned,

"No, people died off ages ago, if you hadn't been warned, you would have too. You know that." My brain countered.

Feeling cornered, I thought long and hard, and eventually came up with a response, "And yet, if I had been warned, then shouldn't others know too, or else how could they possibly inform me?"

After those words, my mind stopped arguing, stopped combatting the will of my body, and I continued packing.

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I was almost done packing, I checked my list hundreds of times, and I still felt I needed to check one last time. I was in the process of walking to the heavy vault door, when I remembered the one thing I hid from myself for the sole reason that the pain was too much to bear. Yet at the same time, I could never rid myself of the treasure.

I ran upstairs and I grasped the cold gold of the pocket watch, and lifted the cover. Hidden in the top, an image was revealed as light illuminated the paper. My son's, head was first to be revealed. His short cropped hair, dark brown, yet it seemed to glow. Next was my wife. Her angelic face still looked incredible, even on the weathered paper. Her long hair kept in that ponytail she wore so often. Staring at the image, a single tear, as lonely as I am now, rolled down my cheek and past my lip. It then fell through the air and landed on the paper, leaving a drop sized mark on the image.

"If only I had moved faster, then maybe Anaira and Lothar would still be at my side and not just in my heart." I told myself, with a painful knot in my throat.

Nonetheless, I wiped my face, took a deep breath and stuffed the golden watch in my tattered jean pocket. I walked back to the steel vault door, and held the icy handle, and took one last breath. The door creaked as I pulled the heavy door open. Then I took my first step outside in a full decade.