Apocalyptus

Apocalyptus

by GEIST von PA, Mar 23, 2009, 12:36:17 PM
Literature / Prose / Fiction / Science Fiction
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I awake to darkness, complete black.
I may be alive but my body aches all over.
Stiffness, charlie-horse in my legs..."Ugh".

I don't know how long I have been out but it must have been a while if my body feels like this.
It doesn't help, now that I realized it, that I am laying on my shoulders with my ass in the air and my ankles next to my ears.

I strain, arching my back and lifting my legs.
The muscles burn like fire as I press against whatever it is I am trapped inside, Nothing moves.

I sigh, the sound echoes in the small space with a low dull tone.
I relax my body once again and this time I end up sliding down the wall onto my side, my body falling in to a fetal position as I clutch my
knees to my chest.
Something moist, wet, and sticky seeps through my pants.
I don't care, I am to shaken and sore to give a damn about what it might be.

I lay here for a bit, listening and contemplating about what had happened.
Then I smell it, out of nowhere, as if my senses have suddenly returned.
I release my hand from around my legs and slide it across the wet gritty surface on which I am laying.
My hand comes across something, it makes a small rustle and then the sound of paper and tin slightly falling out of place.
I feel the surface with my finger tips, it would otherwise be smooth if my fingers and hand weren't covered with something sticky.

The smell is that of rancid food.
Garbage, What I am feeling is garbage bags, what is seeping in to my pants is sewage from leaky bags.

I groan heavily, the sound echoes.

My brain is pounding as if it is trying to escape it's prison of bone.
I start to lose Consciousness once again.

------

"Activate the subdermal-neuro-analyzer!"

------

I came too to a soft tan glow all around me.
There was a nice cozy warm feeling pulsing through my body.
The room might have been small but I did not feel crampt.

The room was a cube, Symmetrical.
It felt familiar, It felt... Secure.

This room had no windows, no doors.
It was quite strange in that it breathed in and out as if it had a life all its own.

Weightlessness.

It was as if I was laying on a cloud, like being in a hammock suspended between two trees.
It was only then that I realized that I really was suspended, nothing keeping me in an equilibrium but the space around my body.
I wanted to freak out but something inside me, or perhaps inside the room, told me that all was good about where I was.

The pains I had before were completely gone and I felt as if I had been rejuvenated.

There was no sounds but I could tell I wasn't alone in these strange surroundings.
I reached out and grabbed the membrane wall, it ripped apart as if it was made of rice paper,
Beneath was another membrane wall.
There was a small gap between my womb rooms and the next, I managed to squeeze through, and like that of being on oily goatskin, began
to make my way through and in between these egg sack type rooms.
I instinctively knew where I was going and I somehow knew that inside these other viscous filled bags there were also humans like myself.
I came to the end and with a thud as i was dropped ten feet on to my back.

The soft tan glow was now replaced with a soft bright-red sky.
I looked up at what I had come out of.
It was a 2 story tall cube with smaller cubes stacked next-to and stacked-on top of one another.
The only difference was that the entire outside, the sides that were expose to the natural world,
were completely gray in color yet still semi-translucent.

I stood there in wonder as to what this was used for, I somehow got the answer immediately after asking myself the question.
Completely naked I slowly turned to inspect the rest of my surroundings.

The buildings, brick walk ways, and cobble stone streets were in complete ruin and reflected the amber sky, giving everything an eerie feel.
Turning completely around I instantaneously felt a sting in my back followed by a sharp pain on the right side of my head proceeding by darkness.

----

"Vitals are erratic!"

-----

The landscape always the same,
Earth, buildings and debris reflecting that of the faded-amber sky.
It was the kind of light that, even though the opacity resembled that of looking through hazy quarts, burned into your brain.

Schoolyards with no swings, broken see-saws, even the chain link fence looked like it had at one point melted and began to slump over itself.
The brick work of the school building was mostly intact, the one major noticeable point was that the roof was completely missing.

I walked on.

There was a nice field with soft rolling hills and from what I could tell, after squinting my eyes, there was a small house, a rancher perhaps.

I don't know why but I felt that there was someone still alive inside that home.
I can't explain why I get these feelings, it is as if I had done all of this before and have figured out the best routes to take.

so with small determination and large amount of caution I started out across the hard, dry, desert earth.

I thought it be best to knock.
People didn't usually kill people that knock, and the killers don't usually knock.
I should know..
I have watches the killers, barbarians they are.

The door opened and standing before me was a short woman with a tattered dress.
She pulled me inside slamming the door behind us.

I knew what she was going to say before she said it.

"What the hell are you doing out there?"
She left me and went to a cabinet in the kitchen.

The house was immaculate.
It was the only place in my short travel where everything wasn't falling apart, everything was in perfect order not to mention in perfect condition.

Still standing at the door the young tattered-dress-dirty-faced woman returned.
Taking my hand in hers turning it palm up and slapping pills into it and telling me to take them.
She turned and started walking towards the kitchen again.
Before I could ask myself what they were for she graciously said. "They are Potassium-iodine."

Potassium-iodine shielded the thyroid gland from radiation.
"They are a little old so I gave you double the dose"

I downed the pills hard because I had a dry mouth and nothing to wash them down with.
.

.

The room began to fade into darkness.

-----

"We're losing him!"

-----

After a few days rest it was time to move on.
I had made my way to a place I used to visit every Sunday when I was a child.
It was still standing and completely intact, as if it was miraculously saved.

I opened the glass doors, glass still in perfect shape.
I swing them with some force, noticing that the weight of the doors had not changed from my younger years.
Making my way in to auditorium.. Stopping in 'awe'. The pews, the alter, the entire room, all perfect.
There were a few people scattered around in the pews, praying.
I Turned around and started making my way down the hall to my uncles office.
There were a few familiar faces standing in the hallway talking amongst themselves, as I approached they took notice and greeted my with kind words
and concernment about how I was, where I have been, what I have seen, and where I was going.

They had come here, to this building, to seek refuge.
Most of them had brought their R.V.s and were living in them out in the parking lot, very tightly packed together.

----

I got to my uncles office, no one inside.
I searched his file cabinet, then his desk, nothing useful.

There might have been refuge here with friends but something told me that I can not stay.
I made my way back down the hall and towards the side entrance, rushing.

As I stepped through the final set of doors into the small courtyard there was a brilliant white flash.
I fell half backwards.
I spun around quickly and managed to catch myself before hitting the ground.
Hunched over I scurried back inside the building where I then was able to straighten up only to see frantic people running up and down the hall.
A girl had come running towards me, perhaps around 14 years of age she was, grabbed my left arm and began to pull me somewhere.
We huddled in a corner. I tucked myself around her trying to protect her.

The white light penetrated everything.
It made me go blind and for an instant I felt as if I had phase shifted.
When I came to again I noticed that the girl was gone and I was holding empty space.

Slowly standing up and turning I took extreme notice to my feelings.
The Church was dead quiet, It was now empty, no human life remained.

Slinging the backpack over my left shoulder and going into a sprint I exited the building, back into the blinding red landscape.

-----

"He's stabilizing."

-----

There was darkness all around, black as sackcloth.
There was a voice, an inner voice.

--

Survival.

Survival is what life was all about.

Why was survival so important when life around was so hard?

What did survival mean to those that looked around only to see death and destruction among them?

Why did they want to survive in such a hard environment, among cannibals, or on a plain that could no longer support life?

Was it hope, that someday, somehow, things might change for the better?

Hopes and dreams can only last so long before they begin to fade away, like looks with old age.

My survival was not just to live, but a second chance, a second chance to help those who have hope, to help those that want change.
My purpose was to give others hope, to give them dreams, to make them strong, to make them want to change their lives and every life they touch.
Survival is not about what we can take but what we can give.

-----

"How are you feeling?"
"You overdosed and we almost lost you a couple of times."

-----

I had survived.. In some form.. One way or another.. I survived.
I was as alive as alive could be, maybe even more so.
My journey only beginning after the end of another.