Chapter I

Chapter 1 of The Unwritten, Untitled, and Unknown

[CHAPTER I]

Tonight was the same as any other night. A dark, starless abyss of black all across the sky. It was a major epidemic, covering the entire city in darkness. As luck would have it, there was still light coming from the buildings around me. I lay down on the ground looking up at the fearful, yet helpful sky. Even though this darkness covered the sky that was spread out to all of the horizons, there was something that was different about this particular sky.

It wasn't fully shrouded by darkness. In one part of the sky, there was (somehow) this enormous analog clock that was just stuck up there and would never change position. It showed a blood red color 24/7. There was one part of the clock that had extra detail on it. I figured out that it stood for 0:00 and directed to north. That realization has kept me alive for the last thirteen years.

Thirteen years. It has been that long already? I must have been one lucky b*****d to have lived this long under these conditions - and I was; without the luck that I had, I would have probably been dead during the first year. I definitely would not have been able to survive all of this hell on earth. 

I have lived off of these thirteen years from water and an almost completely plant based diet, only with the occasional meat once or twice a month. We were limited to only this because it was all that we either had or could get. Sometimes when I go out hunting and gathering, I see what were called "bags" containing labels and releasing these disgusting odors into the air. I can't believe people from thirteen years ago ate s**t like this! They must have looked a lot different from what we look like now. From what I heard from older people who witnessed the dreaded Hell Event, they called people whose physical body appearance was fat "obese". It seemed that they also did a lot less work than what we do. We work and run for our lives, and they sit and do nothing. We eat plants, they eat "hamburgers" and "fried food". Many of those people died that way too.

Lying on the ground, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs from mere meters away. I looked over to my right to see the door that led to a staircase into the building I was on top of open up. Arriving from the inside, the black sheep in terms of appearance and one of the only people I knew from when this craziness called hell on earth began. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jonas! He's single by the way.

He comes up to me in a worried manner, but I can easily tell that this is only a joke.

"You do know that it's dangerous to be out here at this time alone right?" Jonas said with, as I said before, a worried look on his face.

"I'll be fine" I said in response. "They only hunt at dusk. What, did you suddenly go blind? Or are you just refusing to look up? Do you have an idea of what time it is?"

Jonas takes a quick glance up and answers with "XXI-45".

"Good. For a second there I thought I lost you."

"Are you joking with me?"

"You're the one who attempted and failed to joke around. Next time, you should give it some thought."

Jonas sighs with regret while I go back to looking up at the sky. Jonas is someone who, though is superior to me in age by about two years, is always the type to be worried about everyone else. It may just be his mother, who recently fell sick with a disease that we can't figure out what it is. He is also the black sheep in terms of physical appearance. He is the only blond haired person around here, but other than that, there is nothing off about him. We've also grown a good relationship due to the fact that we both have missing family members from thirteen years ago.

Looking to the west of us, I took notice of the broken down machinery that has been resting on the same metal beams for the past years. It's just sad. We have been stuck on this deserted island of a city for over thirteen years and yet all this time, no one has took a stand to fix this hell hole up. Well, then again it would be hard to fix this place up. As I said, this IS a hell hole. Something has been causing all of our electronics to not work. The other reason is that there have been gangs that have taken over some areas and think that the own the place, killing any trespassers. So we are in quite a screwed position.

"Will this misery ever stop?" I muttered to myself. "Can't our lives, or even the lives of everyone else here go back to the way it was?"

"Not in our lifetimes." Jonas said. He must have heard me to say that. He was also saying it in a depressed way. It was like we were given a death sentence that was inevitable.

As he was starting to walk away to end our conversation, I was given a brief reminder of what happened thirteen years ago. Something to tell Jonas about as soon as I had the chance. It was to late to tell him now, for he was already going down the stairs when it came to my mind. I turned my attention to the clock above me. It was at XXI-49. I needed to get some sleep or else I would have to go about tomorrow feeling like s**t first thing in the morning. I start to stand up and when I'm just about to start walking to the stairs, something rather strange starts happening in my mind.

Voices, words, pictures, visions; they all just simply flash straight across my head like a hummingbird. It was so much information at such a rapid speed in such a short time that my head nearly explodes into fire. After just seconds, it suddenly stops and I fall to the floor and everything goes dark. When I woke up, I was still on the roof. Though it felt like I was out forever, I was only out for a few minutes. I had no idea of what just happened. I was put in such a state of shock that I thought that I was actually going to die in a similar manner as... Well, like all of the victims from thirteen years ago. Before I collapsed, I thought that I heard the final words that I ever heard from my mother before she died as one of those victims.

She said to never be afraid of death, but to expect it at all times. If death tries to drag you into hell, then grab death by the hand and throw him or her in; but if it takes you by the hand in a peaceful manner, then you must accept your fate. Therefore, death is with you at all times. "You will be the one who will end this chaos once and for all my-"

The "You will be the one who will end this chaos once and for all" part I don't fully understand at all. Is this chaos she spoke of the threat I'm in today, or is it something larger and more important to bear? Also, how come I have no memory of what she said after "my-"? Child, son, what? Am I not who I really think I am?

It was getting late, so I decided to go back inside and get some sleep before sunrise. When that time comes, the same daily routine continues. Is there something interesting up ahead in the road? Who knows. I went to sleep and let the current day pass into the next.

This life I have lived for over thirteen years. It is full of poverty, hunger, murder, survival, despair; the list goes on and on. Life will never be fully in one's favor, but for everyone down here, Lady Luck seems to see us as bugs: so innocent, yet feared even in small numbers. Hardly anything goes in our favor and it has caused many people to fall from their permanent state of life. It's sad and difficult to admit, but throughout anything that I have seen and have been through, everything that I say in this next statement is all truth: our life sucks.

Author's Note

The time is written differently in this story based on setting. In this setting, the hours are written in roman numerals while the minutes are in arabic. Also, it is written in a 24-hour clock style.