There were absolutely no trees going further, no bushes, no fern or even the tiniest patch of grass. There were mechanical parts scattered through the land, skeletal remains, oil puddles, and, most horrendously of all, abandoned android husks. There were a few scattered here and there. The sky, well from the little that I can see, it was still a dim blue but it is dominated by large, dark puffs of smoke. Other than that I couldn't say that there isn't- oh wait spoke too soon.
There are a few weird things moving in the distance, there's a boar-like creature with two heads as it twitches like ten times per minute. There were humongous bats with scorpion tails and snakeheads, they were much more closer than the boars. "What happened here? And what are those?" I found myself asking as I looked at more and more creatures from afar, they were deformed, some of them were even fighting each other, which was the most gruesome thing I've ever seen in my life.
"Looks pretty apocalyptic isn't it?" The woman in front of us chuckled, by Hayden's stunned face, I'm pretty sure he's also not aware that the outside world has gotten this bad. " Stories say that centuries ago, There was a dating app that people were being all crazy about. They spent so much money on the app that the person who made it grew rich. One day...it was nothing but a senseless rumor... just hearsay. But then it happened...Areas where there were...Less fortunate people...were bombed, Cities were secluded and for years the whole world went into hiding, the aftermath of the nuclear explosion still rampant." She paused as we passed by a humanoid-like creature, arms around himself with hands melded into his body.
"One day, as if on its own, everything was finally fine, there were cities that were clear of the effects of the explosion. Safe from within a dome-like force field, it was like there was nothing wrong. But eventually, people left the confines of the dome, which is when the truth greeted them, the nuclear effects didn't fade over time, it was neglected and soon enough it became worse. The people who left the dome died immediately and morphed into those. The same went with the living creatures that were outside the dome," She grimaced as we passed by another humanoid creature.
"Are those still the same humans from back then? They must be, right? I mean it seems that the nuclear effects aren't as active anymore." Hayden said, looking a bit panicked like he was turning into one of the creatures around us.
"Yeah, the nuclear waste in the air wasn't cleared like until half a century ago, but there are still pockets of nuclear waste in some parts that would really turn you, like that.."
"So they don't...die?" It was my brother who asked this time around, his arm around me held me closer to him than ever before, it was a bit uncomfortable to walk like that.
"Unless you kill them they won't." There was a creature that was a bit close to our path, she lowered her voice to barely a whisper and stopped talking entirely when we were close. The three of us followed and I couldn't help openly staring at the creature when we passed. It was a humanoid looking one this time around too, there were boils on their skin, eyelids perpetually closed and barely 10 strands of hair left on his scalp. Half of his mouth was melted off, showing his gums and teeth. It made soft gurgling noises as we passed.
"They're blind but they react to sound when in close proximity to them. We try to kill as little of them as we can because, apparently, their blood is so laced with toxins that if we kill them their carcass will just poison the earth even further." She walked further and further I wondered if we were ever going to reach the place-
"Whoah..." Anthony gaped at the humongous crater in the middle of a barren wasteland, from afar we can see something scaly poking out from it.
"One of the craters where the bomb landed, it's much deeper before," She barely gave the crater a glance as we continued on walking and walking, my back was slowly getting tired because my brother is bigger and way heavier than me. "We're almost there." She said as we came upon a fissure, it spanned so long we can't see the end of it and so wide we can't reach the other side unless there's some sort of bridge. I looked over the ledge and sure enough, it seemed like it was a 1500 foot drop from where we were. "Here we head left a little bit."
And with that, we strayed away from the path and willingly followed this lady, that could be leading us to our deaths for all we know. We followed her for god knows how long until we reached the end of the fissure where there's this big solid metal gate with two men stationed below. "Okay, and here we jump," Without giving us any warning, she jumped and I just gave her my best wishes, may whatever God bless her soul.
"Okay so much for that, any other ideas?" I looked away from the ledge, I don't want to see her guts splatter the moment she lands.
"No, wait- look." Hayden point and I looked back, and sure enough, she was standing safely down there, looking back up at us, waiting.
"Ok sure, let's go." Hayden jumped down next and this time, I watched as he passed a certain barrier field and it slowed his fall like a feather as he safely landed on the ground next to the woman. Anthony looked at me, waiting for what I'll do next. If there really is no other way but to do this, then to hell with it.
"Yeah, okay just jump, sure, it's not so bad. It's just like a half a kilometer drop? no biggie." I took another look off the ledge and gulped, vision going bleary as the grounds seem much closer one second but then too far another.
"Ash, calm down, I'm here with you," He looked back at me.
"Easy for you to say, you're already injured," He didn't reply to that and I took a deep breath and we jumped off the ledge, together. We were falling so rapidly that I was scared the field would've turned off or something and we would fall and die our inevitable deaths but then there was a tingling sensation that rippled through my body as our descent began to slow down. We then landed comfortably right next to the other two who were waiting patiently for us.
"So this is it, The Corleone base for the exiled, " The woman walked towards the gates, we followed closely behind her, further behind us. Like miles away within the fissure, I can hear monstrous growls and hisses along with snapping and heavy thuds. I didn't wish to stay any longer than I have to so I silently wished for her to hurry up and get us inside. "Ace, I brought them."
"Alright, Oi! Open up we got the ones from Ooglia."
"No, no, we're from Dispacia," Hayden Corrected. The other man looked extremely surprised at this.
"Oh, so you're-"
"Shut yer trap, Devlin, It ain't our place to say," The other guard, the one who mistaken us from Ooglia, stepped before his friend can finish what they were going to say. "Open up!" He called out once again, as the large silver gates didn't move an inch, but a smaller pair of double doors opened up in front of us. The guards didn't say anything else after that. The small double doors gave a small view of what was waiting inside, but it still amazed me when I got to fully see it as I walked through the doors.
The whole place was like a cave village utopia of sorts. It was huge, there metal ramps leading onto upper floors, there were huge holes where we can see up to the ceiling, which is around 1500 feet tall. Natural stalagmites and stalactites dropped from the ceiling and protruded from the floor. There were stone pillars to hold up the ceiling, metal flooring for the upper floors. The cave went in deeper so there were more further down. The houses were made of stone and wood, merchants sat by the side, their goods splayed over a thin cloth. The lights were inside metal boxes, wiring stuck to the floor or to the walls. I can see a few androids roaming around, some looking like roughed up convicts, very different from how they were coded to be like.
"Mr. Carleone's waiting, please, this way," The woman lead us further down the cave, passing by naturally formed stalagmites and stalactites, Weird but beautiful moths lighting up dark places as we passed.
"Can Anthony get patched up, please? He's a bit roughed up," I asked her, she called over an android, this one looking much less roughed up but still looks a bit too rebellious for an android. "Fetch me some band-aids for our guests, will you?" The android rolled her eyes as she walked away, assumingly to get some bandages.
"How do you provide electricity in this place?" Hayden asked, approaching one of the lightboxes on the wall, following the cord with his eyes until it disappeared upwards. He lightly touched the dirt wall, dusting his fingers as he did so.
"Hydropower, Lower down, there's tons of rushing water, and we've been using that from the start."
"Are those my nephews?!"
"Sir, Ken."
Comments (2)
See all