[DISCONTINUED] Through the Aftermath

Chapter One

Chapter One - I am I, Who are You?

The empty void pulls me once again to its endless abyss. Stuck in an endless cycle, I am forbidden from ever traversing in a path other than my own. Shadows struck the lens of my empty eyes. I wonder, what am I to do?

Opening my dry mouth, a breath of life escapes from me once again. Nevertheless, I found encouragement through a false sense of accomplishment-water and food. Simple accommodation to my simple persona. Shelter? Purely subjective. The only safety I needed was my robust iron weapon that everyone calls a gun. A simple tool that I use to wade danger against my sorrowful fate.

What am I to do? Those words forever float in my shallow mind. No deeper understanding of myself. I no nothing better than I am of a species who brought the world I came to know to its concurrent state-diminished to a land of infertility and lack of hospitability.

I stood there, inside the web-locked cave I took shelter in, away from the possibilities of the acid rain coming in contact with my malnourished skin. Rough beyond compare with only the hearsays of man's texture was as smooth as my smooth-bore rifle. Unbelievable if I so do wish. Mere words of an accursed being. Beings whose fate is forever sealed in their hands. Their own hands that also sealed themselves in. A spectacle of human history's greatest tragedies. But is it our fault? Or, is this clearly the work of some extra-terrestrial, omnipotent divine being?

As I became drunk with philosophical questionnaires, the empty thoughts of having no desire drew my gun from its resting place and towards my left temple. Slowly, bit-by-bit, the trigger was seducing my finger to pull it. To pull out a large flare that I became familiar with. Pulling a somewhat large bullet towards my skull and to be buried deep. To forever pull me away from this suffering of consciousness. And to finally answer the big question; what happens next? Although, the answer to that became somewhat unexpectedly short. The trigger was pulled, the bullet ejected, and the final scene of the large flare from the rifle's mouth began to enlargen in front of my eyes. To my surprise, it wasn't directed at myself but towards a thieving butcher who silently concealed himself behind a brittle boulder.

An endless infinite regress that would constantly pester my forsaken existence...

I sat there.

The dark clouds still loomed over my head. The acid rain was showing no signs of leaving. For the short while, I attended the corpse of my attacker. Who attacked who? Upon inspecting his corpse and the ground he laid lifelessly in, I started to take considerable suspicions on the cave's true extent. My suspicions were correct. And found a small expanse of 'livable' standards. Filled with scraps of metals of various kinds and other useful junk, I tend to take notice of it's familial-like atmosphere. However, whether or not this used to be settled in is no concern of mine. The question is actually where they are now.

I did a considerable amount of time inside that suffocating space. Had there been physical evidences of sorts then it might've been already 'cleansed' by creatures that started to haunt us humans. Alone the thought once again came up my hollow thoughts. I think it's been a weeks since I encountered companionship. And so far, my victim might've been enough to be called a companion. A companion who suddenly found himself a lead object inside his deteriorating brain.

The same old emotions began swaying my mind away from the image of the lifeless corpse-or, so I wished. I can't help but imagine if there is actually something worth my while rather than surviving the impossible plague I continue to avoid. A better experience to finally kick in my long dead adrenaline. My grin was now becoming more and more discerning, hence, I once again pulled out my smooth-bore rifle, a trusty rifle that I can't possibly think I'll live without. Family? From what I heard, they are someone that's always there during the times you needed them. And so, this tool that had protected me from various situations is the best possible definition of this so-called family for me. As far as I can remember, this gun has been by my side even before I came into consciousness in this empty world. Today, this very tool would be the same gun that will take my life away.

I bid farewell to this incompassionate and horrible world I came to know as home..