Oblivion Fall: 00

As things are now.

Present Day.

 

Mark walked slowly through the ruined building, surveying his surroundings as the snow crunched beneath his feet. His breath exited his mouth in an icy cloud as he exhaled into the air, the cold biting at his throat. He was utterly alone in the pale gloom of the twilight, a ghost in the howling dark. He moved with a slow grace, taking measured steps as his eyes scanned the terrain before him; it was almost instinctual at this point, the result of years of fighting to stay alive. Once he would have worn insulating body armour, but he’d long since given his away to someone who needed it more. That had been one of the last times he had seen anyone he’d not known from before the Cataclysm. That was years ago now, these days his long coat sufficed for protection and insulation. It was heavy, but he could move well enough in it to get things done.

 

It had been the case in the past that endless sheets of rain pounded down on this region, pouring from the skies to drown the frigid peaks of this city in unending torrents. Now, that rain came down as dense snow carpeting the earth in a thick layer of white. It was a frozen wasteland, unfit for human inhabitancy but nevertheless, it was home. Mark had always hated the place; sometimes, he wasn’t sure if it was worse now, or as it had been. He trudged through the snow, the chill sinking through his boots to bring his progress to a crawl.

 

It was dark, even with the blinding beam of his torch cutting through the night before him it was a struggle to be certain of where he was headed. He walked in the shadows of the skeletons of towering spires and skyscrapers which had once clawed at the heavens. Their remains were strewn about, porcelain white and the translucent blue transparisteel. It had all come down in great shards when the aftershocks rocked the hill, rolling through the heavily inset reinforcements uncaring in their violence.

 

But even if those remnants of the city’s past glory had not been there, there still would have been little light that penetrated the thick cloud cover to reach the ground and illuminate his path. Frosty white mist circled on high, frigid and thick, unyielding in their patrols around the mountain fortress.

 

Aphelion, the great city on the hill. The title still held relevancy even with its lights dark and its superstructure encased in an unending cloak of ice and snow. Even now it towered over its surroundings, a glacial fortress that cast a frigid shadow over the region at its foot. Time had not been kind to the ruins; even metal and plastic suffered from such harsh exposure to the elements, the abandoned buildings carried a weathered appearance unfitting for their age.

 

None of this however, was stopping Mark from walking at the ground level, gloved hands shoved into his pockets as he searched for any promise of respite from the biting wind. The ground was uneven beneath his feet but the teeth covering the soles of his boots bit firmly into the ice. The wind whistled through the gaps between the blades of metal which reached upwards into the sky, but Mark was listening for something a little different. He would know that he had found what he was looking for when the howling gale fell silent.

 

Eventually, some minutes later, he found what he was looking for. He trod forward entering what appeared to have been a bedroom, grateful to be out of the wind. He took a few steps forwards before stopping to look around. The interior was tattered from disuse, a dusty derelict of civilizations past. A shattered bedframe lay against one wall, a bare wooden desk against another, flanked by a tall bookshelf.

 

As the beam of his torch moved slowly over the contents of the shelf, his attention was drawn to a lone book which lay abandoned on the middle level. Curious, he moved to take a closer look. Bound print was a relic of the past, long antiquated by the advent of datapads and other portable electronic storage devices.

 

The cover was unmarked and despite the cold and damp, the binding was undamaged. Picking it up, he sat down on the desk, flipping it open. Most of the pages were blank, besides a few entries at the beginning which detailed the writer’s experiences. As he flipped to the end though, he noticed one last entry, scrawled down in messy handwriting.

 

I walked alone amidst the silence,

As shadows crawled across the world,

And though the sun still shone above,

Naught but cold swept past my form.

 

And as I walked ‘mongst city ruins,

The clouds released their frosted flowers,

To spiral down, their fates determined,

To loneliness below.

 

The dark of night was fast approaching,

As I strode down narrow path,

Though none but shadows walked beside me,

I heard the whispered voice of death.

 

The path I climbed to hill above,

Till city was but a speck,

And sat beside the crumbled gravestones,

That I had known since world’s end.

 

To think that of all those I knew,

I alone was left here waiting,

Sole survivor, last one standing,

When winter brought its icy death.

 

And though I know that none shall ever,

See or hear what I record,

I sit here writing ‘midst the silence,

In hopes that I am not alone.

 

It had been a long time since he’d seen anything of the sort; nowadays, literature like this was uncommon since nothing of its kind had been produced in the city since its fall. Though he had never really been much of an academic it was still intrigued him that something like this had survived, it wasn’t often that one stumbled upon relics like this. He looked up as a shadow slid across the room, the grey gloom above darkening with heavy cloud cover, the unmistakable sign of a brewing storm. He turned to leave as snowflakes began to drift down through the ruined ceiling, heading out into the snowy streets, flashlight in hand. Pausing at the doorway he turned back to take the book with him. Perhaps he would find a use for it someday; you never knew when a couple scraps of paper might be of use.  He pocketed the small bundle and with one last glance at the decrepit building he turned around and stepped outside into the blistering cold.

 

The gloom that greeted him was consistent with the weather patterns that had plagued the city since its fall; thick cloud cover prevented all but a few sparse beams of sunlight from punching through to the ground below. Rubble and ruins poked through the snow everywhere around him but in spite of that Mark couldn’t consider himself anything but fortunate. The central part of Aphelion had been lucky enough to have been shielded from most of the damage done to the rest of it. He picked up his pace as the snow drifted around him in frosty columns, blotting out the sun as though to hasten the growing twilight.

 

The streets here were covered in a thick layer of ice, and Mark had to step carefully in order to avoid falling. His torch was the only source of light in the growing darkness, a lone beam piercing through the shadows. He was alone. But he knew that out there in darkness there were eyes following him, watching and waiting, shadowy predators, born from the aftermath of the Cataclysm. He walked on, ignoring the eyes that followed him. They were not of particular note to him, now a normal part of life; he had grown used to them just as he had his isolation. As long as they kept their distance he had nothing to be concerned about. After an hour of trudging through the cold, he arrived at the doorway of a nondescript building and slipped inside.

 

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“Get over here Claire!” Elsewhere in the ice-locked city, Claire was interrupted from her sleep by Valerie’s voice. She let out a sigh before opening her eyes, knowing that once she woke she would have no rest for quite some time.

 

She pulled herself up from the pile of sheets upon which she’d been resting, moving from the sleeping chamber to the common room. It was by far the most spacious area of the building, functioning as the kitchen, storage area and weapons locker. Claire found Valerie standing by the storage area, casually awaiting her in her usual outfit of black leather and jeans. The twins, Ed and Sam, sat by the weapons locker where Will was teaching them how to assemble, disassemble, and use a revolver. Claire raised an eyebrow at the other teenager, who seemed to be having little success in keeping the attentions of the two who instead kept trying to get up and walk away.

 

Val strode forwards to meet her as she approached, a look of concern on her face. At 30 years old, Valerie was tall and strong and carried her well-built frame with confidence and grace. She had been an enforcement officer before the Cataclysm and her years in the force were still reflected on in her build and attitude. Because of this the role of leadership naturally fell to her.

 

She was by far the eldest amongst them, Claire herself, the next oldest was eight years younger. Val was an old city kid by birth, she had known it in its prime before the Cataclysm, and she had been the one who had picked out their little hide away. The old building they were living in was located somewhere close to the center of the ruined city, Valerie had said that its name used to be Aphelion, but Claire could care less what the city’s name was, all she was concerned with was staying alive.

 

Circumstance had brought them all together, necessity and companionship bound them tight; though they were all unrelated they functioned effectively as a unit. In the past there had been others, Kevin, an analyst who had worked with Val; and Elaine, Claire’s older sister. Both of them had disappeared, gone missing while foraging for supplies on two separate occasions. It had been almost two years now since Elaine had gone, and still their loss weighed heavily on the minds of those remaining.

 

Claire couldn’t remember the faces of her parents, she hadn’t known them really, they’d died during the events of the war even before the Cataclysm. Elaine had tried her best to be her guardian in their place, but it had been hard for her to take care of her sister. In the past she’d often been absent working, but after the city fell she’d been with Claire through thick and thin up until she had disappeared.

 

Their isolation would seem to make them small and vulnerable given the state of the city, but they weren’t quite as helpless as they seemed. Besides the twins they were all well versed in the handling of firearms and weapons, and had done well enough to keep everyone alive so far. It had been a rough time growing up under such conditions, the past two years tougher still for Claire. She clung on though, just doing her best to stay alive with what her sister had taught her.

 

“I need you to go out for a supply run Claire. Find whatever you can, but prioritize water, we won’t last two days on what we have left.” Valerie gestured towards the storage area. Claire could see that their food and water stores were looking rather abysmal, and there was almost no firewood remaining. Most of the lights which studded the ceiling were damaged beyond repair, the electrical cables cut and their power sources dormant.  A pair of antique kerosene lanterns hung from a hook on the ceiling, but they’d long since run out of fuel so they relied almost solely on the fire crackling in the center of the room for light and warmth.

 

“I’m always the one going out there, why don’t you get Will to do it for once?” Claire couldn’t recall the last time she hadn’t been the one to go out when they needed something.

 

“He’s busy.” Val said pointedly, nodding her head at the other teenager who had become noticeably more serious in his attempts to get the twins to cooperate. She frowned as she saw Claire’s raised eyebrow, to the side Will was grinning sheepishly as the two eight year olds gave up on the guns, a spectacularly unsafe act which prompted a scowl to form across Val’s face.

 

“Right.” Claire’s sarcasm was evident for all to hear.

 

Will was a year younger than Claire, standing thin and weedy, head topped with pale brown hair that seemed to be the colour of cardboard. At times Claire wasn’t sure if he even belonged in this frozen wasteland. He lived life with a nonchalant attitude seemingly unconcerned with the dangers they faced as they went about their day to day routines. Still, despite the impression he gave off Claire knew that it was just his own way of dealing with the stress. Behind the carefree visage there was a survivor, just as determined as she was to cling on to life.

 

Claire scowled, turning away to hide the irritated look painting itself across her face. “He’s only a year younger! And he’s inexperienced because you only ever send me out. Why don’t you send him out instead, and I’ll handle the twins. Not as though they’re really doing anything anyway.” she glared pointedly at the three boys who were fooling around, Will’s efforts to control the two having been unsuccessful. In the distance Claire heard Will exclaim “Ouch!” as Ed smacked him in the cheek with his gun.

 

“Come on boys, for crying out loud, stop fooling around!” Valerie snapped, an outburst which the three boys made a point to ignore much to her chagrin. She turned back to Claire, an exasperated look on her face. “Look, there’s too much at stake here to risk anything, we’ve only got a week’s worth of water left. You’re the best I’ve got for the job, with the most experience staying alive out there.”

 

Valarie had a point, while Will had usually been assigned to duties within their house, Claire had always been brought outside to explore and help out. Her sister had made sure that Claire knew how to stay alive even if she were on her own. Still, it irked her that at times it seemed as though Will was able to get away with doing nothing.

 

“Besides, your sister taught you about the best ways to find supplies and where you can find them, didn’t she? None of us have that advantage.”

 

“Yeah, and she died for her troubles, didn’t she. Went out on a foraging trip just like this, and vanished without a trace.” Claire growled. Her eyes flashed angrily despite her best efforts to hide her piercing grey gaze beneath her raven bangs.

 

“Look, let’s not get overly sensitive here…” Val was biting her lip, she knew she’d trod where she shouldn’t have.

 

Claire was aware that she’d probably pay for her snappy tone later, but in the heat of the moment she didn’t care. “Then don’t bring up my sister d****t! I may be ‘most suited’ for getting this job done, but I might not always be here. One day I might just disappear as well. Will should get out there and gain this sort of experience, just look at him! Does it really look like he’s ready to venture out there if we needed him to?” Though both Claire and Will shared similar thin builds, Claire’s time outside had led to her putting some muscle onto her wiry frame, while Will remained the same skinny teen that he’d always been.

 

Her remarks did nothing more than to cause Val to fold her arms over her chest, not exactly what she’d intended. “Then would you prefer to take Will with you?”

 

“No, he’ll scare any sort of game away, he’s a total klutz and you know it! And why is it ok for both me and Will to go, but not just Will alone?!”

 

“Just you, or both of you. Look, I’m even giving you a choice now.” Ignoring her question and brushing her off, typical dictatorial behaviour from Valerie. Inwardly, Claire was scowling, this time without showing it on her face.

 

“Fine, I’ll go on my own then.”

 

“Good, then there’s no need for such talk about disappearing. I’m asking you to go out and try to find us some supplies, it’s not like it’s a suicide mission. You’ve made supply runs like this a hundred times before.”

 

There was no fighting once Val got like this, by now Claire had consigned herself to her fate. “Whatever Val…fine, I’ll do it. But it’ll take me some time; I’ll have to travel quite a distance so I could be gone awhile.” Claire was reluctant to go out into the cold and ice, but they were quite low on food and water, and she really was the best choice to go out on her own to get them. “I’d say that it’ll take me somewhere in the area of a week.”

 

“…Why so long? It’s never taken you that long in the past. I mean sure, last time you went out, you took a couple days to get back here, but over a week?!”

 

“I already told you, the supplies in the area have started to dwindle. It’s getting harder to find the supplies we need, and I’ve been forced to travel further out. With this little left to gather in the area, I’m thinking of looking elsewhere.”

 

Val raised an eyebrow, “And where would that be exactly?”

 

Claire brushed her off, “It’s not important, just a little farther than the usual old shopping districts and whatnot, you don’t have to worry about it.”

 

“…Fine, hurry back as quickly as you can though. I don’t like the idea of you staying out there by yourself for so long.”

 

Claire walked over to the weapons locker, pulling out her armour and weapons, and began packing supplies and equipment for the foraging trip into her bag. “I can take care of myself Valerie, like you said; I’ve done this a hundred times before.” She strapped on her body armour, pulled on her winter gear and walked towards the doorway. As she was about to leave, she paused at the doorway as she heard Valerie’s voice one last time.

 

“Be careful and come back to us in one piece, alright?” Her voice softened a little, and Claire saw a little of the concern which Val was feeling finally enter her eyes though she was sure she was trying to hide it. Valerie always had tried to play the tough cop.

 

Claire pulled her goggles down over her eyes and pulled up her hood, “Yeah, I got it. The others will never know I left.” Then she vanished into the backdrop of the snowbound city, her grey-white coat blending in with the rest of the ruins.

 

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