A New Beginning

By Austin L

Chapter 1: A New Beginning

This was just another day in the life of a Marine. Day in and day out, just doing my normal duties in the United States Marine corps. Today is a standard day check the mess-hall and have a meal with my buddies, but what I wasn't expecting this day was yet to happen. On most days I just do exercises daily, briefings, and so on, but today I was sent home earlier than I expected so, I thought, maybe it's a holiday. Boy was I wrong!

I got home and turned on the tv before walking into the kitchen to grab a beer. Just as I got my beer, a news cast alert flashed on my television, announcing that nuclear missiles have been launched from Russia. I nearly ran to phone to check on my girlfriend, but just as I picked it up a terrifying rumble shook the foundations of my house. The noise was immense, and I wasted no time in running out the door. I was frightened, so I headed straight for my military bunker, dead phone in hand.

There I stayed for the next seven years of my life. To my surprise, and despite the constant fear, the years passed quickly. I only dared leave the safety of my bunker to get food, water, and supplies. But I was prepared, so I had luxuries in my little home. It was a bunker with a TV, movies, a computer, and a radio, just in case people were out there. But it has been seven years, and I haven't had contact with a single soul.

Most days it is cold, and since my car was completely destroyed, I had to walk everywhere I went. Most the stores were destroyed right along with everything else, but some still have usable supplies in them, barely enough to keep me alive. Though, I am a marine and I know how to get food, but I still wonder how long I can hold out.

Over the next few weeks, I managed to get back into my old military base. Since I was lucky, I found food, and a truck to haul it back to my bunker in. Unfortunately, I found out quickly that I was out of gas, so I wasted the whole day searching for some. When I got the fuel tank filled up I became curious. What experiments went on in this building? There was no one to stop me from checking it out, so I searched the building and came across a weapons store room and some experimental equipment.

I wasn't sure what it was, exactly, so I started to mess around with it. Then I realized. It was a stases pod! The thing was bolted to the ground, so I began unscrewing bolts, and, over the next few days of work, I got the pod safely out of the building and hauled it back to my bunker so I could conduct some experiments of my own.

I had power generators, and the stases pod didn't take up too much power, so I hooked it up and placed in apple into the chamber. I left the apple for three days before opening the stases pod again, and, to my surprise, it looked just the same as when I put it in days ago.

A thought occurred to me then. I could place myself into the stases pod. The next day I prepared myself and my bunker for when I put myself in stases. I covered all my equipment, ciphered the gas from my truck into my generators, and set the specific time for how long I would be in stases.

I stepped into the pod and held my breath. I said my goodbyes and silently hopes that the future would be a better time than where I was now. What happened next was terrifying. The glass on the pod closed, and I felt the sensation as if static sparked through my entire body and I began to rapidly fall to sleep. That was the last thing I remembered.

It seemed as if I closed my eyes one second, and the next they were opening again. I awoke with a jolt when the door opened and fresh air gushed in, filling my lungs. I got my bearings and attempted to step out of the stases pod, but fell on the floor. My legs felt like they were made out of jelly and my vision was blurred to the point of blindness.

Other than this, my body felt unharmed. It was as if I had taken a nap. I sat up and looked around me, I gasped as I examined my surroundings. I set the pod for twenty years, didn't I?

The walls were covered in moss and the room I was sitting in had the heavy smell of dust and stagnant air. As I got my vision back more and more clearly, I examined the walls and my surroundings more closely. I felt pain in my face from when I fell on the floor. I hope I didn't break my nose.

I didn't have the strength to walk, so I crawled slowly in the dim-lit room. I tried to stand, successfully, and began to walk to the generator to kick on the rest of the power in the room. I was still very feeble, so I rested on the ground as I slowly felt my strength come back to me. I now had the power to turn on the rest of the generators, but two of them refused to reach full power, leaving the lights flickering and dull. I checked the fuel take to find it dry, so I reached my emergency fuel supplies and poured in my last ruminants of gasoline. After that the generators started up perfectly fine.

There were cobwebs all over the room, which made the environment seem even more eerie. The last I remembered of this room was a nearly spotless, organized home. Now it just looked deserted.

I sat down in my chair and wondered about what could possibly await me outside. Maybe nothing at all has changed.