Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

Falling

Falling.

Draycos was falling, shaken off the ladder by the force of the first explosion. He had slid down the ladder as fast as he could go and had gotten probably about eighty feet down before the first explosion hit and knocked him off with such force that he hit his head on the wall behind him and was in a daze as he fell another twenty feet before he hit the ground at the bottom of the ladder. Knocked unconscious by the impact, he drifted in and out of awareness as the ground shook violently beneath him and the sound of explosions reached his ears, sounding faint and far off.

He had no idea how long he was unconscious for, but he awoke with a start and sat up. There were piles of broken concrete all around him, and every few seconds another piece would fall from the badly cracked ceiling and hit the ground with a clack. Luckily, none of the rubble had landed on him.

Draycos then took account for the condition of his body. He was sore from the fall, and there were some nicks and scratches on his body, but he seemed to be fine, otherwise. Draycos gingerly touched the back of his head, where a huge bump had formed after getting hit hard twice. A sharp pain laced through his head. Sharply sucking in his breathe, he curled up into a ball for a moment until the pain faded away. He then stood up and took in his surroundings once more.

Doesn't look like I'll find anyone alive down here. He pulled his phone out, which was luckily unharmed, but there was no reception; there was too much concrete over his head to get a signal. He looked up violently as a sudden thought raced across is mind. But what happened to Iris?! He was directly at the bottom of the ladder shaft, so he thought he could see up the ladder. But there was hardly any light; the lights in the shaft weren't working, and he could barely make out smoke at the top of the shaft that was blocking out the sunlight.

"Iris?" he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth as he called up the ladder. "Are you there?"

There was no response. Determined to find her, Draycos grabbed one of the ladder rungs and started to slowly climb up, periodically calling Iris' name. The ladder seemed to have come loose from the wall somewhat, so if he hurried, it would probably come off completely and he'd have no way to get back to the top.

After a few minutes of climbing, Draycos finally reached the top and pulled himself out of the shaft. He caught his breath and then stood up to look at the city he had called home.

It was a complete disaster. Fires were smoldering everywhere, and there wasn't a building intact anywhere; he could see the entirety of Atlantis City sprawled out before him between the smoke.

Staring at his surrounds, Draycos took a step forward. He almost lost his footing as he stepped into something wet and foot came out from under him. Catching himself, Draycos regained his balance before lifting his foot up to examine what he stepped in. The sole of his shoe was completely red. Sweating, Draycos looked down and saw that he'd stepped in a pool of blood. And as he took a closer look around him, he could see them.

Corpses. Hundreds of thousands of now-lifeless corpses were scattered all around him, the blood from them staining the streets and rubble. Draycos collapsed to his knees and vomited. He couldn't stand the sight of blood other than his own; this was just brutal.

What the hell is going on? Draycos wondered as he wiped the vomit off his lips. Was this a terrorist attack or something? He took another look at his surrounds and vomited again, only this time there was nothing in his stomach, so only hot bile came up instead.

This is insane. Who would do something like this? He looked up and took a deep breath.

"IRIS?!?!?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "IRIS?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! SAY SOMETHING! JUST DO SOMETHING TO LET ME KNOW YOU"RE ALRIGHT!"