313 Years Later

Part I: Hellfire

December 8th, 2414
Edgefire, Vania
8:04 a.m.
The church, unlike most of the other buildings in Edgefire, wasn't entirely makeshift metal and concrete. It was entirely wooden, like most churches are, with concrete support pillars to hold it up and in place. Bright, stained glass windows filled the church with a colorful light, shining on Anthony and Elias's face. The stained glass shined onto other faces, too. People with fancy clothes and hats, with masks and gloves and scarves that covered every inch of skin among their bodies. Behind the podium of the church, past the pews and row of heavily clothed people, was a frail and tall woman. Her hair was shaved, and she wore very little clothing compared to everyone else, wearing a waist-length robe without sleeves and dirty, sewn patches of cloth made into shorts. Her eyes were closed as her hum rang throughout the quiet church, even the noises of the rumbling cars outside not going over her humming. Anthony found it astounding, to say the least. Elias cleared his throat, and was about to say something before he was interrupted by the woman.
“Doctor Elias Hobson. What a pleasure it is to see you back in the Church of New Beginnings.” She said, her voice soft and quiet and yet it echoed throughout the entire church, followed by her eyes opening. Anthony noticed how her eyes, despite the orange light spilling out over her from the stained glass windows, glowed a light blue. Elias gave a short, uncomfortable laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck. “As much as I would love to join the church againn, you know it would get in the way of my medical work, Ophelia.” He said, and then gestured to Anthony. “Speaking of which, this young man here is-”
“I know who he is, good doctor. His name is Anthony. The warrior I have long talked about, sent from heaven above.” Ophelia said, clasping her hands behind her back as she walked down from behind the podium, her hands clasped behind her back as she slowly approached Anthony and Elias. “I have spoken of this same man many times before. In sermons. Prayers. Visions. Dreams. Nightmares.” She said, staring at Anthony, as Anthony himself avoided eye contact, physically and mentally uncomfortable in the moment. Just as Ophelia was going to say something else, Anthony spoke up.
“Um...so what exactly is this place, again?” He asked as politely as possible, still looking around and studying the building and its people.
“This is the Church of New Beginnings. We have no god, no father, and no mother. We have only each other.” She said, looking into Anthony's eyes, prompting him to look away once again. 
“I help those who have felt they have nothing left to gain, nothing left to lose, and nothing else left. The people you look at now; they have shed their previous skin and have retreated into solitude and silence. Their clothing hides the once shameful appearance they saw on themselves, and hope to one day emerge anew, as I once did. And when they decide, my job will be done and I will move on.” She said, gesturing to the people sitting in the pews, who were now simply looking down at the ground.
“Oh. Neat.” Anthony said, rubbing his bandaged head. He definitely had some sort of headache.
“Ophelia, please,” Elias said, interrupting her, “Rhys found him, and I know how highly he looks up to you...at certain times, at least, but we just need you to convince him to give it back.” Elias explained to Ophelia, who only hummed a short tune in response. She then walked towards one of the yellow tinted windows, the light flooding her face and body as she moved towards it, still softly humming. “It will not be me that retrieves his possessions. He will bring them to you, instead.” She said in her mystical tone. And just as she said it, a loud, screeching alarm blared through the town. The heavily clothed people in the church looked up and around, frightened and panicked as they ran towards the far back of the church, away from the front doors. Elias whispered something inaudible to Anthony and then took off through the church doors. Anthony quickly, though slightly behind, followed the doctor outside. In the dirt streets outside of the church, people were panicking and running about. Some retreated into buildings while others took their working, mechanical vehicles and fled the town through the front gates, their machines belching smoke from half exposed engines and sending dust everywhere. Squinting through the smoke and dust, Anthony could see more dust in the hills beyond the towns gates, and a handful of black objects coming towards the town at high speeds.
“People of Edgefire, do not panic,” a man's voice said over a loudspeaker system rigged throughout the town, “our guards will deal with the Marauder trespassers. Do not fret, my people. Chief Baker will take care of them, just like he has before.”
Elias grimaced at the nearest loudspeaker as it turned off, and cursed under his breath and gestured towards Anthony to follow him. “Quickly, back to the hospital. We’ll hide there and resolve the situation with your stuff after the attack is over. Those Marauders won’t just drive all the way back to where they came from without a few slaves and supplies.” He said as he ran back towards the hospital. This time, however, Anthony didn’t follow. He was stuck in some trance, watching as the vehicles came closer and closer to the town. He watched one unlucky vehicle that was fleeing Edgefire get noticed by the incoming Marauders, a small part of the convoy firing their weapons at the fleeing vehicle and blowing it to pieces. He then watched, horrified, as something was launched into the sky from one of the vehicles, a trail of fire following behind it. It slowly came down upon the town, and before he could snap out of his awe and run away, the thing landed on a building near him, the resulting explosion knocking Anthony on his side in the dirt. His ears rang loudly, and everything that had previously been bandaged and cleaned was now hurting once more. A piece of wood from the building scraped the side of his head, and now it was bleeding. 
So far, his life hadn’t seemed to have changed much in the way of explosions and shrapnel. 
Anthony tried to get up, but every movement now felt like a stabbing knife in his body, but he was being stabbed everywhere. He heard another explosion farther down the road, and watched, almost paralyzed, as a small family inside their small wagon/home was killed when one of the explosions hit them directly, sending debris and bits of stuff he preferred not to think about all around him. He heard screaming, distant gunfire, and after multiple attempts to not blackout,  he suddenly found that he wasn’t in Edgefire anymore. The sandy ground of Vania had been replaced with green grass and soft dirt, very few trees shadowing the ground around him. He stood up, chirping birds and cricketing crickets filling the momentary silence. He found a rifle in his hands, and he was now wearing his uniform and armor Rhys had taken, helmet and all. His armor was protected with metal plates strapped around and on his leather clothing underneath by leather straps, being lightweight and protective at the same time. His helmet covered his entire head, and the two openings for the eyes resembled goggles. But it didn’t feel like he was wearing his helmet, nor  his armor. Same with the rifle he carried.
The scene around him was gorgeous. Large, healthy trees dotted the flat landscape around him. Rocks, flower beds, and bushes did the same, adding to the beauty. A large mountain in the distance made it even prettier to him. Then an explosion rocked the ground. Then another. And another. He couldn’t see them, but they all felt so close. He blinked, and suddenly he was surrounded by an entirely different scene. The lush grass and trees had been ruined and burnt by explosions and gunfire. All around him people rushed up the small hill he had found himself on, only to be immediately gunned down, and their dead bodies rolled back down. Anthony was scared out of his mind. He ran and slid next to a rock, facing towards the other people rushing towards the hill. He didn’t know where he was, or how he got here, or why he was here. Eventually, he was suddenly grabbed from the side by a large hand, followed by yelling. 
“Corporal! What do you think you’re doing?! We need every soldier over that hill now! Get your ass up and run for it!” Anthony looked at the voice and the hand- it was the sergeant from the night he crashed. He might look younger, but he was the same. Anthony stared helplessly as he was dragged up and pushed out towards the hill, and against his will he started running. Before he could get cut down by a hail of bullets, he woke back up in the real world. He had been moved, or rather dragged behind the remains of a blown out building. More gunfire was heard as he eventually woke up. He tried to look around, bult felt his movements were restricted by bandages, wrapped completely around his face, save for a small slit for his eyes. Next to him, a few feet away, he saw Elias firing a crude pistol at the gunfire that came his way. He took cover when a hail of gunfire forced him back, breathing heavily under his blood soaked shirt. He’d been shot. Anthony stared at him, his eyes wide underneath his bandages. Groaning, he grabbed onto a piece of wood sticking out of the blown out house, using it as a support to bring himself off of the sand. Elias noticed him, and rushed over to help him up, putting Anthony's arm over his shoulder, stating something about Anthony's incredible power of getting hurt. Anthony groaned, and leaned over on Elias’s shoulder too far, causing them both to fall back to the sand. As Anthony tried once again to get up by himself, he watched two people run past the blown out house who both got shot down by two bullets from behind them. Also running past the blown out house towards the two bodies was a fairly large figure. Their metal plating armor, covered in barbed wire and rusty bars, covering the overalls and leather shirt that they wore underneath the armor. Their head was exposed, a large, green dyed mohawk sitting on their head for all to see. That could only be the appearance of a Marauder. The scourge of the Great Scorched Lands. Merciless, ruthless, terrible people that raid villages and towns just like their doing to Edgefire, killing anyone they find to bring back to whatever hole they crawled out of. They are a people without hope, without humanity, and without morals. It was the life majority of people went to after the Great Nuclear Revolution, but not all of them.
Anthony watched as Elias quickly got up from their fall, aiming his own gun at the Marauder and shot the Marauder. The bullet bounced off of a metal plate on the Marauders shoulder, who then turned around and fired a hail of bullets at Elias, who wasn’t given a moment to spare as he fell to the ground, Anthony watching as the first man he saw when he woke up from his coma die then and there. His blood scarred and painted the sand around him, while the Marauder laughed at the sight of his new kill. Anthony watched in shock as the Marauder laughed, only stopping so he could get on his knees and continue looting the bodies. Anthony was in shock, again, but only for a moment. He grabbed hold of the blown out houses wall, grabbing a piece of sharpened wood. He used it to hoist himself up, his arms and legs wobbling as he struggled to stand. Gunfire and explosions continued to fill the streets and also helped silence the sound of him snapping off the piece of wood, holding it like a knife, with the sharp end pointing down at the ground. Although his bandages slightly obscured his vision, he could tell where the Marauder was, and he slowly shuffled over. In the background, more people fired back at the Marauders raiding the town. One of the explosives fired from their vehicles hit near a shakey, makeshift hotel that then fell over from the force of the explosion, blocking most of the street. All the while, Anthony held the makeshift knife above the Marauder, his shadow now cast down onto him. Before the Marauder realized it, Anthony slammed the makeshift knife down into the man's skull, parting the mohawk right down the middle. The man uttered a groan, blood gushing down his head, through his eyes, and out of his mouth. Anthony let go of the makeshift knife as the Marauder fell over next to Elias, his dead body twitching. Anthony breathed slowly and hard, his heart racing as he looked down at the dead man, blood mixing with blood as the sand turned soft and mushy. 
“Get to the City Hall!” Someone shouted as they ran past Anthony and the bodies. 
“They’re using Scorchers!” Another yelled, followed by a trail of other people running towards the large, concrete building that was the City Hall. Confused, and still shocked, Anthony poked his head out to look out into the street, and watched as three people were set on fire by a stream of flames being spewed out at them from a single Marauder, carrying what Anthony assumed was a Scorcher. Either way, he wasted no time in arming himself with both Elias and the dead Marauders guns, carrying them both as he ran towards the City Hall, following a line of people as they, too, ran with him. Gunfire erupted from behind them, striking the sand and debris around Anthony and the others. Someone got struck down next to Anthony, screaming in pain as they fell. Anthony was going to try and save him but a shot rang next to his ear, shocking and scaring him enough to leave the man behind and continue running towards the City Hall. A rocket was shot at the church's  large door, shattering the windows and causing the archway above the door to collapse as well. He watched as soon as he was climbing the stairs to the City Hall that the church's ceiling had started to collapse, followed by it’s small belltower. He turned back towards the City Hall door, a man that was obviously some form of guard ushering him and the others inside as the bullets from the Marauders struck the concrete pillars and walls. Anthony was successful in making it through, while another was shot in the shoulder just as he entered, and was then carried the rest of the way inside by the guard. Two other guards started blocking the door with various things in both the area they had all entered and from other rooms that branched off from this main area, such as chairs, drawers, cabinets, and tables. Anthony stumbled around for a moment, taking in the events that were now taking place. Elias was dead, Edgefire was burning, and he was still in the dark about the events of the two weeks that he had been in a coma. 
“Hey! You, the medical miracle!” A voice from the large crowd of families, loners and townspeople called out. Anthony instantly recognized the voice as the mutant from earlier, Rhys. He walked up to Anthony, grabbing his shirt and shaking him angrily. “Where is Elias?!” He shouted over the crowd, but gained little attention from the surrounding people. “Where is he, you damned omen! Where is he?!” He yelled again, his hands stretching out Anthony’s shirt as he shook him and stared up at him, fury and anger in his eyes. Anthony could only stare back through his bandages, and for a moment he was unable to tell Rhys that Elias had died from a Marauder. They obviously had some form of friendship or history, one that he couldn't possibly imagine. In fact he, quite literally couldn't, because he couldn't remember. He stared back at Rhys, quietly reading his expression to find the best words to use before answering the mutant. "He's dead. Killed by a Marauder. They're both dead. I'm-" He was interrupted by Rhys shouting and pushing Anthony away. Anthony stumbled back, and watched as Rhys stomped on the ground and cried out at the floor, slowly drifting down on his knees and going from loud shouting to soft, quiet crying. Anthony couldn't help him now. He didn't know Rhys, and Rhys didn't know him. He looked to his left, and then to his right, and then back down at Rhys. He walked away, unable to do anything more than try to find a way out. He walked away, towards where Rhys had walked towards him, desperately looking for something to do, something to help, or something to help him get out of this alive. He heard fewer and fewer bursts of gunfire outside, and more explosions went off outside. One of them shook the building, and he swore he saw the wall next to the door crack. Before he could look more into the wall, however, something else caught his eye. A box, filled with different knickknacks and bullets, but those weren't what caught his attention. It was the helmet sitting on top of the box. It was a rusty, metal helmet with some form of a facemask welded onto the front for maximum protection. It would cover the entire head, and whoever wore it would look out through the goggle shaped openings for the eyes. He knelt next to the box, staring at the helmet as every other sound around him was slowly drowned out by a mysterious silence. He reached out towards the helmet, grabbing it and bringing it close to his face to examine. The welded facemask had a shark grin spray painted on the flat piece that covered the mouth, and many tally marks and other types of random decor were also spray painted on the helmets top and sides. As he examined it, the sounds from a previous time consuming him, and he passed out on the box.