Humans fear what their minds cannot comprehend. It's a natural emotion, born of evolution, an instinct for survival. It clouds the mind, blinds the sight, the merciful turns ruthless and the kindness into cruelty. They call you monsters as their hands pierce through your skin, as their words spill with rage and hate. In the end, could you even call them human anymore?
Prologue :
A hoard of whispers filled the large council boardroom as slowly the ministers settled in, surrounded by numerous bodyguards. Their heavy military equipment as well as the reinforced doors made it hard to see this reunion as an agreement of peace. On the other side, a small group quietly seated in their respectable spots as the guards carefully watched their every movement. The leader of the group was in the middle, the wrinkles on his face deepened as he felt the palpable tension in the filled boardroom. The meeting was about to start.
"Today we have gathered together for an accord that will stop an era of tension and conflicts that has continued since 500 years ago. It is an honor and a privilege to stand here, alongside the representatives of nations all around the world, indeed, because today will mark the beginning of a new time for our world, one of peace and harmony between anomalies and humanity.", the voice of the prime minister filled the room as the bright lights of cameras flashed continuously, his speech was fluent, showing confidence with open hand gestures, addressing to everyone at once. The anomaly leader's fist clenched as he heard their designation, "Even when we agree for peace, we're still aberrations to you.".
His brown, tired eyes stared at the multiple ministers as they watched his group with apprehension but still with a hint of arrogance, hiding their true intentions behind a wall of fake kind smiles, as the agreement papers were distributed. This signature was the last step in order to stop the suffering of his people, soon they would have no reason to fear humanity and their actions.
After a few strokes that felt too easy for all the hardships that were in the way to arrive here, the old leader stood up, quickly stroking his pale red hair, and went in the direction of the prime minister for one concluding handshake. As he took one step after another, hearing the applause of all the present members and ministers, he saw one of the many fake smiles on the minister's face, feeling the stench of hypocrisy without a single effort as he saw him waiting with his hand extended. Behind the politicians, the soldiers were holding their weapons tightly, staring at the group of anomalies with a barely hidden disgust. The anomaly leader could only feel anger at the sight of this scene, one that he always buried in the past, but always came back as a sort of plague against them, the ones who turned his life into hell.
When he reached the minister's hand, suddenly, he felt that anger reignite, followed by a rage, then a wrath and finally, a frenzy. Flames enveloped his body as he felt his consciousness drift, uncontrollably, his burning hand went for the minister. Before it could reach the minister's face, gone from a kind smile to an expression of terror, a gunshot resonated in the boardroom, followed by the splattering sound of the old leader's arm when fallen to the ground, leaving a crimson puddle. Before the frenzied leader could let out a scream of pain, countless gunshots were fired at him, his now torn body covered in a dark leaking ruby color. Yet the flames from within his body did not succumb. On the contrary, the fire spread further and grew brighter, infesting the filled room. Screams of panic and terror filled the boardroom as the ministers quickly got surrounded by the guards for protection. On the palm of the engulfed anomaly, a bright core appeared, growing larger and hotter. The prime minister fell to the ground, terrified and surrounded by a wall of flames, he could only watch as the panicked guards and politicians tried to evade the boardroom alongside the other anomalies, shoving each other as they desperately attempted to reach and break through the blocked doors. Finally, the condemned minister looked at the burning anomaly; it was still standing even when bits of its body were torn, he could only see him as a butchered monster from the fires of hell . The anomaly slowly lifted its hand, the glowing core now resembling a burning star, and the last thing the minister saw was the face of the mad anomaly, it watched him with an expression devoid of any feeling, not even anger. But for the anomaly, he could finally see the true face of the human, one filled with fear and hate.
Within an instant the bright light of the core immersed the boardroom, its energy released in one moment.
From the other towers that surrounded the council, an immense explosion could be seen, one so intense that it produced a shockwave powerful enough to make the surrounding construction shake violently. For a moment, people in the area could see something that they would later call a "Second sun", one that engulfed most of the council tower and left no survivors. The word of this tragic event would quickly spread out all around the world, causing rage among humanity and not long after, bringing a war between humanity and anomalies,the deadliest one, "The Last War".
ACT I :
Chapter 1 :
In a dark, dusty room, surrounded by dry and cracked walls, its grey floor tiles shattered, leaving space for small roots and greenery to spread out from all surfaces. Old furniture was lying in the room in disorder, suggesting that a now calmed chaos had passed. Through the cracks of a shattered door, a gust of wind flew among the air and encountered the dark strands of hair of a young man, who was sitting unconscious against one of the blooming walls. The breeze flowed through his hair, around his ears, then his eyes.
Slowly, he opened one of his dark blue eyes; but it was too dark to see anything and he took some time to adapt to the absence of light in the room. Carefully, he started to move by flexing his fingers and toes, before using his hands to sit up right. With a clearer vision, he could see the numerous pale boards, with some old smudged writings on them, hanging on the walls. Scattered all around the room, on the floor and on the desks, old papers were laying around in a chaotic manner, "A lab? How did I get here?", he asked out loud. Pushing some of the papers aside, he slowly stood up, but before he could stabilize himself, a sharp pain beneath his temples caused him to raise his hands to his head. He groaned but was able to find balance with a great deal of effort, his limbs felt heavy, standing felt like a challenge, "How long was I asleep?", he thought, still holding his fingers to his temples.
He scanned around for an exit, but his look was caught by the large machine that was in the middle of the room. As he took a step towards the damaged technology, he felt something fall out of the pocket of his dark pants. He looked down and picked up a letter from the floor, its edges were torn and it lost its white color to an old coffee one, "How did I get this?", he thought, trying to remember any trace of the past, in vain. Hoping for some clues, he opened the letter, who's paper made a cracking sound. As he looked at the content with curiosity, he felt disappointed, most of the message was completely unreadable with the ink partly erased with time. Even so, the lost man was able to read one part of the letter; the name of the recipient, in awe, he said it out loud: "Artur… Is that… my name?".
It seemed familiar, but when he tried to remember he tried to remember anything from his past, he felt his headache only get worse. Feeling that attempting to recover any memories would be pointless in his state, he put the letter back in his pocket and looked for an exit. It didn't take long for him to notice the broken door that was barely hanging to its frame. As he was about to leave from the ruined room, he took one last glance at the broken machine, a large pale cylindrical construction containing a small glass container in its core, now shattered, with its shards scattered and the content gone. This technology was the element that felt most familiar to Artur, but he wouldn't be able to explain it even if he wanted to.
After opening the fragile door with a shove, the amnesiac reached a long wrecked corridor, large debris of the wall were scattered evenly on the tiled floor. He could see the thick dust in the air through the rays of sunlights that arrived through the large cracks of the grey walls. Along with the sunlight, a fresh breeze flowed in the corridor, making Artur shiver with cold. Luckily, when he looked on the right side of the corridor, he noticed a couple of metal lockers, all labeled with different names that he didn't recognise, except one. With curiosity, he opened the locker labeled "Artur", "Well, would you look at that!". On the locker's door, a long dark blue coat was hanging, collecting dust, the rest of the locker was empty. Instinctively, he took it and wiped some of the dust off the dark leather shoulder pads as well as from the large white symbol that was on the back of the coat. For a moment, he felt mesmerized looking at it, the symbol represented a bird with its tall wings spread out, resembling a shining star.
Without hesitating, Artur put on the coat like it was his for years, covering his dark sweatshirt, feeling a familiar but inexplicable connection to it. Now protected from the cold, the lost one continued to wander around the abandoned laboratory, ducking and climbing across the various debris and broken walls in the way.
Finally, through a gaping hole in the ruined wall, Artur was able to come out of the dilapidated building and witness the outside world. He covered his eyes, who were suddenly overwhelmed by the brighter light from beyond the laboratory. After adapting to the light, it's with surprise that Artur realised that he was in a high point and when he looked at the view, he was breath taken. Before him was a large desolate city, filled with buildings that looked as neglected as the laboratory he just left. He was surprised by the lack of sunlight that shone on the city; only a few dim rays of light could be seen coming through the clouds. After a moment, Artur realised that they were not clouds, but vast columns of smoky pollution thrown from high in the sky. As he looked above him, his eyes dilated even more, supported by gargantuan pillars far in the distance, another city was above the polluted clouds. Although he could barely see through the thick layer of dark smoke, the amnesiac could still notice that countless lights shone from the city up in the sky, showing signs of life and activity. A city was buried under a new, he couldn't have imagined something like this was possible, "I need to learn more about this place".
Though breathing the polluted air was unpleasant, Artur began to descend in the direction of the city through countless stairs and rough alley ways. As he slowly reached the first buildings of the city, the lost one quickly understood that no signs of life were present in these abandoned houses.
It almost looked like an abandoned battlefield, one that was left in a hurry. Artur felt uneasy and definitely unwelcomed, constantly checking behind his shoulders to get rid of the feeling of being watched. After wandering around in a somber ambience for what felt like forever, he noticed something different, something out of place with the whole chaos he had seen around him. There was an immense tree right in the middle of a large crossroad, the size of it was even greater than the buildings next to it, it was covered with beautiful green leaves, and a warm ray of light was shining on the branches to make it completely stand out from the ruins.
At last, seeing something that grim and desolate for the first time, it brought some hope to Artur, knowing that even in a somber place like this, he could find something magnificent. He gazed at the tall branches, flowing left and right, completely hypnotised by the sentiment of peace this tall tree gave him. For some reason he didn't want to leave, he felt attracted to it, in a way that he couldn't understand. He felt like all his problems would be solved by the mere presence of this majestic tree. Feeling his mind go numb, he decided to rest against the tree, feeling the breeze on his face and smelling a soft scent of fresh grass. As his body pressed against the trunk of the tree, he lost the feeling of his members, his eyes slowly closing in a deep sleep, one that he couldn't wake up from.
Deep in his sleep, he saw a dream, one that he couldn't understand and could only observe as it played out. He heard some faint voices in the distance, they seemed in distress but he couldn't make out a single word. Images flashed through his mind, the only thing he could make out was a white haired person, watching him, "Who… are you?". Artur tried to respond but before he could say a word, he felt that he was pulled back to reality.
Artur wakes up in a cold sweat, anxious. He feels a cold object resting against his neck, a knife. A cold voice whispered to his ear: "Move and you die".
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The following in the next chapter : Fear
Thank you for reading my first ever chapter! Don't hesitate to give advice 👍