A New Beginning

Visions swam around him as he tried to follow a familiar figure. Everything felt slow... or it might be him who's walking slowly, chasing after a person he could barely remember, yet drawn to...

The sky was blue with tiny clouds interspersed here and there. The scenery was colorful, enchanting, happy...

At a glance, it looks like a woman, with long flowing hair and blue dress. She looked like she was jogging away from him, but she never got too far just as he never got any closer to the lady-like figure...

"Do you wish to see her again?"

That voice! The cold, unfeeling tone sent shivers down his neck. He looked back to see who said it, but in an instant, the dreamscape turned sour. No longer was it full of beautiful flowers on a pasture, instead a scorched wasteland stretched as far as he could see. Where was the woman? What happened to this place?! He turned back, planning to catch up with the woman and kept her safe when another voice boomed in his head...

"Do you stand with us?"

And the oncoming response terrified him, for he swore that the second voice was his.

"I do. I've made my choice."

-X-X-X-X-X-

"I do. I've made my choice."

Damn it old man, Rei thought. Greiz had been asking her over and over if she'd rather continue the mission than going back to Minegarde, or head straight to Dundorma to report their findings. Apparently, the pack of Jaggis they spotted earlier were dragged into a turf war with a Rathian, and despite reassurances from Greiz that they could still locate the possible spot of the Sixth Awakening from a safer place, Rei adamantly refused. They were getting closer, she'd convinced herself.

"Alright, that's your call, girlie." Greiz sighed in defeat, "But if something decides to make a meal out of us, the blame's on you."

Rei shook her head. "I know, I know, old man. Darn, you really aren't the best kind of person for a traveling companion, you know that?"

His silence pretty much sealed the deal for her.

And so they trekked across the ruined city. Rei took some time to note the features of the area, wanting to know whether the place originated from her time or from a civilization which existed between her era and the age of the hunters.

"Does the place look familiar to you?" The question stirred Rei from her silent gaze.

The young woman shook her head in disagreement. "I don't think so, my elderly friend. In my era, technology developed so much that we could harness and create electricity by ourselves to power our everyday tools. Here, the story's different."

"Really?" Greiz was skeptical, but otherwise attentive.

Rei nodded. She climbed up a broken pillar on the ground and looked around the premises. "I'm not the best scientist among my kin, but even I can tell that, no matter what kind of people once lived here, they appeared to just reach a level where they could develop electric light bulbs and early forms of the tools the Old One taught your kind nowadays, and sadly nothing more beyond that. What they had here wasn't as sophisticated as my technology levels but progressive enough. As to what happened, I can't say. No signs of a war or conflict, and no signs of monster attack as well. It's as if the poor folks just pack their things up and leave."

"So, long story short, this place isn't from your time, and its abandoned state didn't come from a wyvern or elder dragon attack. Is that correct?"

"Yes." Rei nodded for the second time as he rejoined Greiz and continue walking. From time to time, she glanced around the area, more interested in its details than worrying for an unexpected monster ambush.

For starters, she found that the city, or whatever was left of it, had its roads made of gravel, not asphalt like her civilization's roads but not simple dirt paths common for the people of this age either. The buildings were most likely to be standard bricks and woods, although from a distance they looked like concrete-based. Maybe that's the reason why only small monsters made their nests here, plenty of enclosed spaces to crawl into, and dense foliage covering as a bonus. Certain markings on the ground indicated the potential existence of historical monuments, parks, and places of gathering, but Rei was unsure of the idea after she found no evidence of memorial signs or the like. Seeing the lack of vehicles on the city's roads indicated the lack of technological development, but Rei decided to dismiss her theory based on the fact that unsavory travelers and black market peddlers tend to steal any and all abandoned vehicles, including its scraps for unknown uses. And the last but not least, this "Berlin" city was definitely not the Berlin Rei used to know, as the city was nowhere near Germany, though she knew not whether Germany still existed or not, and was shaped like a crescent moon. It was very probable that a new culture evolved after the fall of the Old World and constructed a city after discovering the original Berlin. However, because the world and its geography had changed so much ever since four thousand years ago, Rei couldn't produce a proper deduction. The hilly landscape of the region helped her and Greiz, much to her amazement of the man's surveillance skill, to navigate the perilous way through the ruins, with occasional backtracking should they spotted a danger up ahead.

Two hours of walking and they still hadn't found their destination, partly due to the increasingly thick vegetation and the sun slowly setting, reducing the amount of light the two needed to keep them from going astray.

"Alright, my girl. I'm going to say it out loud." Greiz exhaled in impatience, frustrated that they were not getting any closer to the destination, "You and your aimless wandering has pretty much done nothing but wasting my time, which should have been used for more productive activities. And because of you, we'll be... ah, hold on there! Am I seeing it right?"

"What? What did you see?!"

"Up there, look!" The old hunter pointed out at a circular building which sat alone on a small clearing. That building, whatever it was, seemed too modern, too futuristic for a civilization that came some one hundred years prior to the First Awakening. The outside tiles were all broken, leaving a miserable husk of a place that could possibly be thriving and glamorous in the past. All of the windows were shattered, so did the wooden doors on the left which faced an empty field. The doors on the right side in contrast were metallic and intact, or so the two humans saw. Could it be the place they had been looking all this time? There was only one way to find out.

"Come on, big guy. This way!" said Rei, stepping down carefully from where she stood.

"Watch your surroundings, girl. You know what lives here, right?"

"I've noticed. Now let's go! I know you want to return home as soon as we're done here!"

Greiz huffed again for the twelfth time that day as he cursed his 'babysitting' job over the lady. But in all fairness, Rei was correct about one thing; the old man really wanted to go home and drown himself in his daily work once they finished the task at hand.

And so, once again, they trekked across the rubbles, this time with a clear endpoint and a promise of quick return trip.

-X-X-X-X-X-

"Mr. Ryder, your presence is requested in the main lobby."

"Thank you, Jennifer."

It was another day in the research facility, the gloomy and dull days that followed shortly after the infamous and feared World War 3 began almost nine years ago in 2015. The only reason why Adam didn't get fired like so many other scientists and agents of the facility was that his papers and field job was deemed 'very satisfying' by his bosses.

Adam Ryder, 30 years old, was an isolationist since the day his wife died in childbirth, along with the long-awaited daughter. He stopped caring about people in general and even more so when the war dragged on over the years. So it was no wonder that, when his coworkers were fired one by one, or even being taken and never spoken of again, Adam was shocked to see himself coming to work one day and found his laboratory and office section entirely devoid of people.

As Adam descended the staircase rather than using the lift, he noticed how... lifeless the workplace was. The amount of employees working in this place was reduced by two third, and the remaining personnel was emotionless, seemingly falling into despair and acceptance that their lives now depended on the usefulness the managers could find in them.

Five minutes and three flights of staircases later, Adam found himself being expected by a man in neat and expensive business suit, his hair was short and professional-looking.

"You were late by fifteen seconds." The man said coldly.

"Pardon me, Mr. Smith. I was..."

"Peeping out on other's rooms?" the man cut him before he could finish his stuttering. Adam tried to present a calm and serious face, but the boss, Smith, felt the stress and fear inside the suddenly perturbed man.

"It doesn't matter. Come" The boss ordered. Adam hurriedly obeyed the order, not wanting to make himself look stupid than he already was. The other man, Smith, led him into the allegedly restricted section of the building, a place where low and middle level employees like Adam cannot enter without authorization from the most important of directors of his workplace. They turned left, then right, then into a long featureless hallway until they came across an elevator. Along the way, almost no one but a group of lowly janitors were present, and they immediately stumbled away at the sight of their formidable leader.

"Tell me, Adam. How do you like our new predicament?" Smith asked as they approached the elevator.

"Let's not mince words, sir. Things are turning for the worst since nobody managed to find a peaceful solution to the war." Adam disinterestedly answered. The elevator hadn't come yet. "The world is left in clouds of bioweapons and nuclear, and the entire planet's ecosystems are subjected to brutal mutations, one after another."

Smith produced a cigarette from his suit and lit it up. "Yes, it is unfortunate to see our beloved Earth contaminated by biological weaponry and monsters. Haven't you heard the news lately?"

"What news, sir?"

"People are claiming that animals are transforming into monsters, so they said. Some outrageous claims stated that lizards everywhere are growing wings like... dragons, is that what the folklores name them?"

"What nonsense. These people could be hoax makers for all we know."

"Your guess is as good as mine, Ryder."

To be honest, Adam was anxious about the whole thing. Something was wrong, he told himself over and over, standing there expectantly for an elevator which seemed to enjoy making Adam suffering in the silence that ensued.

It would arrive soon, he was sure of it. Very soon now, the wait would end. He would be spoken to. He would be given his usual task and leave the laboratory like usual. It's almost there, Adam whispered in his mind. It was almost...

-X-X-X-X-X-

"There!"

A metal door was pushed aside by force, with an audible screech. "Dammit, girl, will you slow down a bit?!" a moment later, Greiz successfully squeezed his way between the fallen rocks and twigs blocking the path beyond.

"Hurry up! If we stay here any longer, we might as well be walking home in the dark." Rei insisted before nimbly skipping around a bush of creepy-looking plants.

"Do you even know what are we supposed to find here? Assuming we can even identify it?" Good point, old man, Rei pondered thoughtfully. Looking back, she saw Greiz becoming gradually hindered by the obstacles in the crumbling building. Lifting her gaze from the ground, Rei could make out the details of the places they were now in. She couldn't determine the original function of the construction, but she deduced the likelihood of the compound being reconstructed from a previously existing building. The outer side of it was circular and gave an impression of being either meek or spacious. It interior spoke otherwise; sets of stairs, platforms, and branching hallways were everywhere in it, as well as marks where trophies and receptionist desks might be located, supposing if the makers of the structure actually bothered to make those in the first place. Where the two of them were going, though, was a suspiciously visible staircase leading down into the compound's basement. "Look, don't ask me, but I am positive beyond a doubt that our endpoint lies at the end of these stairs." Greiz nodded in approval, "Good. Hopefully you're not lying so I don't have to spank you later." he grumbled, prompting a wry smile from Rei's part.

Choosing to wait for the troubled old hunter, Rei spent a few minutes to create a pair of torches so both could see better down there. It was a somehow useful skill; Rei never liked to go out after sundown, but there were undeniably times where she had to do urgent tasks, for both herself and for others.

Good thing, too, for Greiz's incessant complaining sounded as if he was enjoying it! Holding her breath was, in Rei's opinion, much worse than thinking up reasons why taking the old man in this mission was a terrible decision.

Some ten minutes later, the two were already gambling with their fate by descending, if not tiptoeing extremely quietly, the first flight of the dark and foreboding staircases. Who knows what hid in the dilapidated location. Rei hoped that, no matter what would happen, the mission would yield something of value, together with enough information to piece together the story behind the sophisticated building.

"By the way, I've wanted to ask you something."

"Ask away, old man."

"What object did you give me earlier today?"

Greiz produced the object of question from his spare pocket. "It's a pendant, a form of middle-class jewelry from my time. It's mostly for females... although there were some models for men to have." Rei's eyes trailed over the shiny little item as it dangled in Greiz's hand. He pocketed it back, wanting to hear more about it should they ever made it back out. Similarly, Rei felt sheepish talking about feminine accessories, especially one that she discovered lying in a decaying site which purportedly came into being centuries after her time.

The second flight of staircase was cleared, and their hearts were steadily pounding, expecting dangers or traps at every minute.

Little did they realize that something down there would change the world as they knew it.

-X-X-X-X-X-

Author's note :

Inspiration for this chapter came from The Evil Within DLC, Fallout saga, and certain references from TV Tropes website. Don't be shy to review it if you have something to say.

Monster Hunter belongs to Capcom.