Burn After Reading

Prologue

Apocalypse, War, Doomsday. Something everyone feared and spoke apprehensively about, but never expected to happen. It was a foreign concept after all, not many in the current generations were well versed about actually living in real war conditions – where supplies were limited to rations and the shadow of imminent death lingered over their heads every single day. It was only through books and web articles that people were informed of the catastrophic effects of the most destructive events caused by mankind, and millions and millions of deaths can't be understood completely just by reading a number off a page, it was incomprehensible. It was understandable when people first heard of the news that the capital of what used to be the United States of America was destroyed by a hydrogen bomb, chaos ensued.

The world was thrown into a dark pit of fear and anarchy, crime rates shot up and the 'United States' broke up, becoming a landmass of independent countries, ruled by either a government of people or a continuously changing leadership, each leader being killed and their land being taken over by their predecessor. It was a never-ending cycle of insanity and people ended up fleeing their homes before they would have been forced into what was basically serfdom.

It wasn't only North America that was hit, major cities and capitals of all the biggest countries in the world were also targets for destruction, all over a period of a month. No one credible stepped forward to claim responsibility for these attacks, though a few terrorist groups made the attempt and were pushed aside due to the fact that they didn't have the sheer firepower to pull off such widespread and destructive attacks. Russia was blamed in the beginning, as the first few strikes corresponded with the fire power that the Tsar Bomba had during its testing during the Cold War. Though when Old Moscow was bombed the accusations were dropped, no one would willingly destroy the most important city in their country, even when trying to redirect attention.

At this point, there was no economy, no definite person who had the most power at any one time. The world had become a battlefield for survival; fertile, radiation-free land and pure water were fought over with fervour. The population was falling rapidly, either through natural calamity such as the increase of natural disasters or through the indirect effects of the destruction of the known world. Starvation, radiation poisoning, mass killing and suicide were but only a few things that caused the devastation of the world's numbers. When numbers of the world population were able to be measured again, decades later, they were at around the 500 million range.

The world was reduced to a mere seven percent of its original 7.5 billion population.

It took two decades, but people started gathering together after the worst fallouts eased off and eventually began to recover from what was named The Great Nuclear Destruction of 2019. Small communities grew into larger ones gradually, the loneliness of the Grey Years were hard on the social species that humans were. Old technologies were gathered and the few people who specialised in technology and the sciences got to work with trying to replicate and improve on such devices that could help them survive in the radioactive atmosphere that was quickly spreading throughout the world.

They found no such luck, though these researchers kept searching and looking for what seemed to be a miracle.

Five years later, they had a breakthrough.

An object of unknown origin had fallen to the earth outside the settlement in Old China, close to the mixed settlement of Yuanzihua. Chinese and European scientists gathered this object into their labs and working together over a period of a year, managed to create what was essentially a near unlimited power source. This power was kept a very tight secret, no one knew outside the scientists themselves and the leader of the settlement.

However, this leader – whose name has been stricken from the history records – tried to seize this discovery in the name of 'humanity' when it was just for his greedy and selfish intentions. This leader was caught however, and he was executed. A new leader was then chosen, this one who was more respectable and fitting for the role of leader than the one who came before him. The man was genial and well educated, he had endless charisma and seemed to rise though the political ranks like a helium balloon into the sky. This should have been the warning that the man should be stopped.

The people were blind though, all they saw was the outermost facet of this new – and admittedly beautiful – leader. Their minds swayed by honeyed words, strong promises and visions of greatness. A utopia even, where there was no risk of dying of radiation poisoning, death by starvation or contaminated water. Few thought it was too good to be true, but their voices were drowned out by the masses, those who wanted to believe that they could go back to what it was before.

The leader was therefore elected and put into the highest position of power. All was well, the settlement prospered like the Leader promised. New technology was discovered and developed and the settlement changed to a city named Sunchaek – the name chosen by the leader who was Korean by birth. There was peace and protection from the outside world, in the form of walls surrounding the now massive city. Leader was revered as a godly being, sent down from the heavens to save them all from the end of the world.

It was then, 47 years on from The Great Nuclear Destruction of 2019, 20 years after the new leader was put into power that it all changed.

A new threat revealed itself. No one knew how they came about, only that they were a risk. It was unknown the full extent of the abilities they possessed, as no two were the same. Scientists theorised and theorised but found nothing that could rationalise the origin of these entities. It was finalised to be the lingering effects of the radiation that caused it.

The leader saw these people as a threat to the peace, so anyone who exerted the symptoms of being one of these 'creatures' were persecuted and executed, the people thought nothing of it. After all, their leader was never wrong, everything he said or did was in the best interest for the people of Sunchaek.

They were called the Hen'i.

I was one of them.

November 20th 2066

Chanyeol sighed as he walked through the desolate streets of Pogye District, his dark tinted goggles protecting his eyes from the harsh wind and his head wrapped up in a Radiation Scarf to protect his face and head. His hands were stuffed into his pockets and he scuffed his feet along the concrete path, kicking a little stone away in his boredom.

He looked up to see a military patrol headed his way and sneered, moving until he was walking on the edge of the road and out of their way as they marched past, guns held in hand. Only when they had turned the corner Chanyeol let himself relax and walk on the path normally again, his footsteps quickening. He wanted to get home.

Ten minutes later, Chanyeol was closing the door to his house, activating the anti-radiation protection and letting out a relieved sigh when he unravelled the thick scarf from his head, lifting off his goggles and hanging them up on his hook, his compact respirator mask following them, in between Yura's and Seyoon's. Chanyeol ran his hand through his vibrant red hair and sighed as his hand came away a little damp, he needed a shower; God forsaken heat. He shook off his coat and hung it up alongside his scarf, goggles and mask, pulling at the fabric of his thin shirt in an attempt to get some cool air on his skin.

Kicking off his shoes and pushing them to the side, Chanyeol walked through the second protection door and paused, feeling the familiar rush of air as the purifiers cleansed all the lingering radiation from his body. Walking through the hallway until he reached the reception room, Chanyeol's smile dropped into a neutral expression as he was met by his mother and father, their unhappy expressions giving him a small warning of what may be coming.

Standing here while watching his mother walk forward slowly, he was once again reminded of how different he was from his family members. Where his mother and father had darkly tanned skin and dark brown hair, Chanyeol was comparatively white as a sheet of paper, his bright red hair that fell into his face all the time marked him different. He was slim and tall, with lanky limbs that got in the way, mother was short and stout – father wasn't much taller, but he had a slimmer body than his mother.

He didn't even know who he got his features from – it certainly wasn't his parents. Most of the time he didn't even feel like he was related to these people, they didn't act like his parents and-

Oh.

There was a sharp sting on his cheek and his head snapped to the side, the noise of a hand hitting skin echoing throughout the room.

"Park Chanyeol, how dare you step into this house so nonchalantly after what you have done?!"