Note: This is 2020 F-K. I have just run a basic correction for this chapter. I am almost certain there are more errors, but I have cleaned up the most heinous ones. Since I began this story just 2 years ago and through various complaints sent to me, I decided to clean up the entire story a little at a time. This message will appear up to Chapter 44 based on what has been corrected.

Happy New Year to you all. I know that I am a little late for you all, but it was the best that I could do. I hope that the holiday season wasn't too much and you had something that you really enjoyed about it. I think it has been pretty enjoyable from my end.

Well, I finally bring you Chapter 43. It is the right way to start off a new year. I think with this cracking 280K words it a fantastic way of showing that. It has been hard work, but definitely worth every second of writing for all you dedicated readers. Thank you very much.

I am sure all of you are wondering how the human race ended. Some really good guesses in there, but none of them fully got it right. I was looking for something that was different from the usual suspects while also explaining how things are how they are. Hopefully I delivered on that. If not, I tried my best with what I had in mind.

I guess I should just lead into the chapter, huh?

Chapter 43: The Answers We Deserve

I peered out of the hole to see that there was sunny skies and a ton of sun to warm our bodies. I smiled after not seeing the sun for a few days. The sound of wind does get kind of irritating are so long. The pleasant weather would be nice to continue our journey for today.

I ducked back in an looked over at Tigress who was currently occupied with getting food ready. "We should definitely be able to scour the area."

The caves only had so much to offer us. We did run into other, hard elements that showed that humans did put a 'doomsday' facility here. It wasn't anything much, mostly what we found in the first tunnel and then some concrete remains of what looked like a wall. This tunnel must have been right on the boundary of the entire compound.

Tigress smiled at me as she handed me a bowl, "At least we found something while we were stuck here. Now we just have a small area to search for some human remains, we have something to look forward to."

I took the bowl, "I don't think I am exactly looking forward to this. More like, interested to see what there is."

Tigress nodded, "I understand that. I don't even know much beyond what I have seen when I am around you and from what you have explained. I do know I want to see what happened, and I am happy to be there for you when you find out."

I smiled lightly before moving over to Tigress to kiss her on the cheek, "I am happy to have you with me. I am sure I will need you the most in that moment." Rubbed my hands together, fidgeted, and scratched at my scalp. I kind of felt like I was going into a job interview that I didn't prepare for or an exam that I didn't study for. I was anxious and nervous.

Tigress grabbed both my hands and pulled me to look into her eyes, "You need to stop being so nervous. Whatever we find will not change what happened. I know you are nervous, but I am assuring you everything is going to be alright."

I looked at her with a look that said 'really'. Then I let out a small chuckle, "Yeah, my species is basically extinct. I just want to know how it happened and if it can happen again. I think I have a right to be a little on edge." I got up from my seat and began to pack up the remaining stuff left out. "Come on, we should probably get going if we have any hopes on finding something today."

Tigress looked like she wanted to add something more. Something that would hopefully feel better. The look of worry was imprinted on her face as she hesitated for a moment. However, nothing came out of her mouth as she just nodded to herself and began to clean up as well.

I think I was find with her not saying anything to ease my conscience. There was not really anything she could say. She didn't feel what I felt in this moment, she couldn't really understand. All she could do was be there when I inevitably crack under what we find.

I swung my pack over my shoulder and looked over as Tigress did the same. It looks like we are finally ready to set off to find somewhere we could enter this place from. I never expected to find anything here, so that fact that we are so close to something did put my mind at ease. The longest part of our journey for my end was finally done.

I finally got to the outdoors and took a deep breath of cool mountain air. There was not really a feeling like it, it had something about it that would relax the body. I took a glimpse around to see that a lot of the vegetation and rocks that were buried in snow. The only hint that they existed was the small bump from the ground. Everything was just white and had a feeling that was just pure about it.

Tigress walked up beside me, "There is nothing like freshly fallen snow."

I nodded, "I just wish it weren't so damn cold most of the time for it. At least the sun is keeping me somewhat warm."

Tigress began walking through the deep snow, "Alright, we should get moving. Who knows how long this could take?"

"Well we know at least where the boundary is. There has to be some other entrance into this compound. Perhaps some part of it is still about ground or another cave that could lead to it." I began to follow Tigress. It was going to take a little time in itself to get through the deep snow. It was currently up to mid-thigh level and my shoes weren't exactly that great at keeping my feet warm. At least it kept moisture out which is the best I can hope for.

Tigress responded, "I don't know what there will be. All I know is that we need to find it before sundown so that we aren't out here blindly moving through the darkness."

I added sheepishly, "You mean me because you can… well… see through the dark."

Tigress looked at me with an unimpressed look, "…You know exactly what I meant."

I only smiled as a response. She shook her head and continued to walk. I followed slowly behind I as just enjoyed the view of everything. There seemed to be a light wind blowing the snow off the peaks and gave an impression that clouds were forming over it. If I turned around, I could see far behind where a forest started to grow thicker and held more colors other than white.

I looked back forward to see Tigress looking at me expectantly. I asked, "Did you ask me something?"

Tigress just looked at me with some concern, "Are you alright? You usually are on top of our conversations. Now, you kind of seemed space out like you were earlier this morning."

I thought for a moment, "I am right now. I guess I am just trying to enjoy all this before everything becomes darker and I inevitably become sad and feel alone."

Tigress stopped in her tracks which allowed me to bump into the backpack she was carrying. She swiftly turned around, "You aren't alone. I can't say that whatever we find will change the fact you are the last of your species or that you will find comfort in what we find. I can assure you that I will still be here with you. You have our friends to depend on as well." Tigress leaned in before deeply kissing me. Her tongue brushed up against mine briefly before she pulled back, "When we find what we find, just try and remember that."

A genuine grin formed on my face. The kiss made me feel like I was on top of the world, sure, but it was what she said that meant something. I nodded, "I will, Ti. I promise I won't forget that."

Tigress smiled herself before turning around. She cleared her throat, "I was saying that we should probably trace along the mountainside to see if we can find any other cave entrance and I wanted to know what you thought of that."

"That sound like a good start. There isn't any other great indicator on where we should go so that is the best heading we have at the moment." I paused for a moment before adding, "It at least beats asking around continuously about stuff and have people look back cluelessly."

Tigress shrugged her shoulders, "Not much else we could have done. I do have to agree that we got no solid information on where to go. We did end up her somehow."

"Yeah… we did." It was kind of weird how that happened. Following the heading of 'rumors' and crazy folktales that weren't at all true did lead us through this mountain pass. I guess we just lucked out for this. Hopefully finding Tigress's parents end up being just as fruitful.

An hour or so of walking through the snow had passed. The sun was very much up in the sky. A few creeks of cold water flowed down the mountain through a stream that carved through the snow. It was surprisingly warm even with the mountain air and snow blow us keeping us cool.

Snow mounds and exposed rocks were all that stood out as we tried to find something that would resembled any kind of cave. All we found so far were a few entrances that looked like caves that were nothing more than shallow overhanging rocks. I did expect that we wouldn't be so lucking in finding a cave. It was kind of ironic. We ended up in a cave when we most desperately needed one but were not necessarily looking for it. Now that we are not in danger and are actively trying to find one, we now can't find it.

Tigress cleared off a rock of snow before setting her bag down. She began to stretch out, "We should probably take a small break. It is a little difficult walking through the snow while it also slows our walk to a crawl."

I let out a few deep breaths from the hike, "I second that break idea." I sat down and massaged my lower muscles to get blood flow through them a little. Walking through the snow wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Still, my legs and feet did get a little chilled and numb from nothing but snow touching them.

I pulled out a canteen and began to take a nice cool drink from it. I was at the pleasantly surprised that none of the water inside had frozen yet. This thing wasn't exactly a thermos, I just wrapped a bit of cloth around the metal frame to give a little more insulation.

I pulled the canteen away from my lips as I looked over to Tigress thoughtfully. She relaxed from her stretching and looked at me. She raised her brow, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

I let out a light huff with a small smile present on my face, "I was just thinking was all. You seemed to have really needed that stretch. Did you want me to take lead this time?"

Tigress shrugged, "If you want. It will allow me to get a break from pushing through the snow."

I jumped up from my spot and began to march on through the snow, "You seem to be a little better rested. Come on, I think we should wait until we eat what we have for lunch before taking a longer rest."

Tigress asked, "You seem set on finding this place quickly."

"I just don't want to have any more nightmares. I am so done with all that shit. All I want is a nice, restful sleep."

Tigress nodded, "I can't wait for that either. Even when you think I am asleep after you wake from your night terrors, I am not. I worry about you when that happens."

Pushed a little on the snow to get it to move forward, "Well, if we find this place then I am sure it will put that part of my mind to ease. All I want are just answers."

"I am sure we will find it soon." Those words had barely come out of her mouth before I felt the ground shake a little. I instantly stopped in my tracks as I hesitated to move forward. To small shaking stopped for a moment as I looked over my shoulder at Tigress. Her eyes were wide and alert, she held out her paw for me to not move, "I don't know what that was."

I looked around briefly as well to try and piece together the brief shifting. I finally felt confident that it wasn't going to continue, "Perhaps it was just-" I lost my voice when the ground gave way under me and I began to fall a short distance. It felt like I fell twenty meters or so before hitting the ground and rolling down a sloped surface. My vision was now looking up as I saw Tigress peer through the largish hole made in the surface.

Tigress was plenty worried about my condition, "Are you alright? You didn't break anything, did you?"

I did a mental check on my body parts to feel if anything was in a condition that would bring immediate concern. My legs were fine. My arms, torso, neck and head were relatively fine. I did have a little whiplash from the landing and my head was ringing. My back was also going to be soar in the morning. However, nothing was broken, and I think I was alright enough to continue. "I am alright, just going to need to take a moment to catch my breath."

Tigress promptly jumped down before the surface under her could cause her to fall. She landed with grace, like always, and walked toward me. Tigress offered her paw to me and I gladly took it. She pulled me to my feet slowly, "What were you going to say? Were you going to say that it was nothing?"

I chuckled with a level of sarcasm, "Ha-ha, very funny." I rubbed my eyes before trying to look through the darkness. However, the outside light that peered through the hole made it impossible for me to see anything. "Can you see anything? I am having a little trouble here."

Tigress was silent while I waited for a response. After looking around for a moment, she answered, "We may have found another entrance to this place. All I can say that we only have one way to go, and that is to go down."

It took me a moment to adjust to the weird lighting conditions, but I could see that the thin cave that narrowed to the point that we would have trouble squeezing through. It was beyond dark past that point, so I was going to have to guess that it goes down a way.

I looked back up to see that we had fallen through thinning rocks and the ice that was chewing away at that. I guess it kind of makes sense that we would fall through it. We were just fortunate to be at that spot when it was at such a weak point. I am sure the weight of the snow had something to do will that of that.

I turned back to look at Tigress and motioned, "Do we have anything that we can light so we can make it possible to travel?"

Tigress put her pack down as she began to pull at some loose sticks, "I guess I am glad that I kept a couple branches for torches. I knew we would need it for potential caves."

I smiled at her, "I am happier than you know." I struck at some rocks to get a spark that I used for small branches and forest debris. It was the last of what we had. While I did this, Tigress tore away some cloth and began to wrap it around the end of the stick. When the kindling finally caught fire, I quickly brought it over to the torch and successfully lighting it. "Good, we only had one shot at that."

Tigress handed me the torch which I took and as I began to lead down the caves. I struck up conversation, "I am glad to be out of the cold and back to a relatively comfortable temperature."

"Oh, I didn't notice it was cold."

I rolled my eyes at her snide comment, "Funny. It isn't like I have fur that keeps me warm all the time. Didn't we have this conversation last winter? I sometimes fucking hate the cold."

Tigress let out a small huff, "We did have this conversation. You should buck up a little and stop complaining about it." Her tone became more playful, "Besides, I am here to keep you warm when you get really cold."

"Yeah, I remember waking up with almost all my clothes off. I know that you will perform your duties fine." I looked over my shoulder and could see that her eyes were narrowed at me. A blush was present on her face, but it was hard to see through the terrible lighting.

She responded with a kick forward to my back. I stumbled forward but didn't lose balance fully. She responded with a playful growl, "It wasn't like I had any other choice in that situation. I think-"

I held up my hand with a serious look overtaking my previous expression. I was surprised that I was the first one to catch the sounds. It was the voices… they were back. I asked Tigress, "Don't tell me I am the only one to heard this. We will continue this conversation soon. I just want to make sure I am not a schizophrenic."

Tigress asked, "…I am not going to even ask what that is." She nodded, "But yes, I do hear those voices. It I remember correctly from a few scrolls I read a while ago, they are a form of demon."

My eyes widened, "Demon?! Wait, when did you read about demons?"

Tigress answered softly, "I read about demons after you were a vessel to the one a while ago." I smiled hearing that she cared so much for me back then to prepare for another encounter if and when we run into something like that again. My thoughts were interrupted when she continued, "But these ones are not like the demon using your body as a vessel. Demons are just another part of the world, there are bad ones and good ones. We often refer to the good ones as 'spirits.'"

I nodded, "Yeah, I knew about that. What can you share about these demons?"

Tigress walked by me and grabbed the torch from my hand, "These demons cannot interact with the physical world beyond the making the sounds you hear now and interacting with the minds of the living; not in a way that can affect your thinking and behavior. We cannot see them, touch them, or interact with them in any significant way. They are more like observers of the world that have been known to…" Tigress went silent for a moment before turning around to face me. Her eyes were wide with realization, "The tunnels and the visions. They were interacting with your mind to show you the way."

I took that all in slowly, "Wait, you are saying that there WERE demons in my head for that?" I mumbled to myself, "That is a comforting thought."

Tigress thought out loud, "Why did they decide to interact with you and why guide you to find remnants of your people? They seemed to not just be observers but have found a way to interact with you without substantial speech."

All through this, the voices didn't change. They just continued in the same manner as if they weren't really taking in the conversation. They just acted as a part of the environment now.

I asked, "You are saying that our interaction is unique?"

Tigress nodded, "Very unique." Her grip on the torch tightened as she walked further down the cave. "For whatever reason, they have led us here. We need to see this through and find whatever it is they want us to find here."

I nodded slowly at Tigress. I was a little in shock at this watershed development, but I didn't have time to let it all sink in. I motioned for Tigress to lead, "I guess I will follow you, then." I mumbled under my breath, "I guess the earlier conversation is going to have to wait a little longer."

The cave had widened out a bunch. We were no longer going down a narrow tunnel. Instead, we had plenty of room to move as if we were walking through something meant to hold an underground lake. It was surprising that the ground was able to sustain above us even with the immense weight that should be above it.

The whispers continued around us, but it felt like it was more like background noise. We treated it as if it were a breeze through the trees or the water against rocks as it flowed with a river. There was nothing we could do about it other than treat it as if it weren't there.

Tigress asked as she walked ahead of me, "Anything I should expect from this place? From what I have seen in your head, this stuff works as if is running off some sort of magic."

I chuckled, "It wasn't really magic to me. It all just… existed by the time I was born. As for what we should expect, I really don't know. For all I know, this place could be a ruin with no sign of what happened beyond what we found. I am just hoping it is all enough."

Tigress joined me and walked beside me. The paw that wasn't holding the torch rested softly on my shoulder, "We will find something. We didn't come this far for nothing. If there is something left to tell us what happened to your people, it will be here."

I nodded, "There is something that scares me even more."

Tigress looked at me with confusion. "What?"

"That this is not the same place that Shen found. If this isn't where he rounded up the tigers to help him, how will we find your parents? We will have no leads after this."

Tigress's ears dropped a little as a depressed expression formed on her face. She said nothing. All she did was continue to walk forward. Just then, the voices abruptly stopped. The sounds of our feet were all that remained, and it instantly caught our attention. We both stopped for a moment to see that there was nothing around us.

Tigress thought for a moment before taking a few more steps forward. Like an eerie wall of darkness that only needed a little more light, a deteriorating wall illuminated right before us. I approached in slight awe of it. "We are here."

Tigress nodded, "Not exactly what I expected."

I looked at here with confusion, "What did you expect?"

Tigress just shrugged, "I don't really know how to express it. While you were very different, this is still something that is familiar. I am not sure that we are that different from how your species was."

I looked back forward at the wall and just nodded at her, "Yeah… We weren't that different…" I just stood there for a moment before the silence was undertaken by the voices again. It just about reminded me that we had a task at hand. A task that these 'demons' were helping out with, "Come on. We should continue on. I am sure we will see more things other than a wall."

I began to walk along the wall as I looked for a way into the compound. I brushed my hand against the hard concrete, the weathered stone was very coarse to brush against. If it weren't for the unnatural geometry of the rock, I would have thought it was a natural rock in this place.

A section of the wall seemed to have fallen over for us to enter through. A ramp was made from the fallen section that I climbed up with care. I didn't wish for it to give under my weight.

I finally jumped down into the walled-off area. Tigress followed behind me and was able to illuminate the space right in front of us. The ground changed from the natural, rocky terrain to one that was more artificial. The many millennium that have passed cracked and warped the concrete but being out of the environment let it keep form in some degree. Based on what had survived so far, I was interested in what we would actually find here.

Tigress scanned the scene, "Well, this is interesting to say the least." She looked over at me, "Do you wish for me to continue leading?"

I walked up beside her, "You are probably going to have a lot of question about what we might see as well as myself. We should take this together, so we both leads."

Tigress rolled her eyes, "That isn't exactly possible…" However, she allowed me to walk beside her as we continued forward, the wall now out of sight.

It didn't take long for us to run into something that seemed to be an issue. We were both stopped by the entrance to the actual bunker. I let out a small sign, "I guess this confirms that this place was buried somehow. I just don't understand how it was buried in such a way to have this place so comfortably placed in here."

"I don't understand it either. All I can say is that it exists, and we do not have a way into this place." Tigress narrowed her eyes for a second before walking forward for a moment. Her glare deepened as she walked forward a little more to illuminate the large, metallic doors that separate us from the inside. I saw that they were worn down and beaten up from thousands of years of sitting around, but they maintained its form with little rust.

I couldn't see much of the large doors as the view as obscured by a banner. It was something I wished I never had to see again. Tigress growled, "That confirms it. He was here."

I dry swallow was all I could muster before responding, "If Shen has been here, then there has to be some sort of entrance. There is no way he got through these doors, so how did he get in…?"

We began to scan the side of the bunker entrance to look for any clue on how he got in. Tigress took one way while I took the other. The foundation was cracked, fractured, and was missing chunks, but nothing that would signify an entrance. I yelled, "You find anything?"

Tigress yelled over, "I think so. Shen seemed to have dug into the side over here."

I ran over quickly to get a look into where we would ultimately be entering from. The hole wasn't large but was definitely dug into by picks as if it were ore. Shen was definitely not going to allow large metal doors to stop him when he was searching through this human ruin.

I motioned for the torch and use it to look through the hole. Below, there was a sloped entry that lead to the metal doors. The other direction dove further into the earth. Based on the light debris that littered the sloped surface, I suspected that this place must be somewhat intact. There was only one way to make sure though.

I leaped down from the hole and landed with an echo. The air down here was stale, it felt as it is just sat in here for thousands of years until Shen disturbed it. I knew that my answers would be down here somewhere.

Tigress followed behind with her own distinct landing echo. She looked around with a cautious eye until they settled on me. I motioned for us to continued, "Come on, I am sure we will be able to find something that can tell us what happened."

We began to walk as Tigress asked, "So, did you ever experience anything like this?"

I looked at her with a confused look, "What do you mean?"

She motioned at the bland, dark walls of the descending space, "Did you ever spend time in some sort of 'bunker'? Were there any signs that your species was declining to the point it would disappear?"

I lightly joked, "A little dark of a question there, Ti, don't you think?" She adverted her gaze when she thought she asked something wrong. I grabbed onto her arm before giving it a reassuring squeeze, "I was just joking. I am actually kind of glad you asked that."

"Really? I wouldn't want to be asked that."

I looked down some of the various rooms that we came by. All they seemed to be were basic equipment closets and janitorial supplies. It would make sense to have more important items further down. I just shrugged while we did these searches, "I never experience what happened. I can't really feel bad if I don't know what happened."

Tigress added, "It is what we have to give up in order to find the truth. The comfort of not knowing, being able to put it out of our mind so easily. Before we go any further-" Tigress grabbed onto my shoulder, "Are you sure you want to continue on? We already made it this far. This is a symbol that we were able to find something. But are you willing to take on the pain that they are all gone and why they are gone?"

I nodded slowly, "You are right, we made it this far. It would be an insult to my kind to not see this through." I lightly smiled at her, "I am glad that you are worried how this will end for me. It won't be pretty, but I need to know."

Tigress let go of my shoulder and allowed me to continue on. We made our way further down the bunker. The sheer size of this place made me wonder what purpose it was built for. There was nothing to indicate that a nuclear wasteland or war had upset the above world to lead to this place. So why was it here?

We finally came across our first real hint at what had happened. Against one of the walls, the remains of a human rested. All muscle, organ, and fleshy remnants had long gone only leaving the skeleton. The skeleton was not what I expected at all. The bones were thin and fragile looking. Holes were etched into the surface of it, but not due to boring from anything. They seemed to have been there before the person died.

Tigress looked over the skeleton, "I can't really tell for sure, but they seemed to have suffered from malnutrition. They basically starved to death."

I said nothing as I just looked over the first 'human' in what seemed like a long time. I couldn't put a face on it or show the significance of seeing this. I just stared at it. I was kneeling as I stared intently at the frail remains. I finally stood up, "Come on. I am sure we will run into more along the way."

I was correct. There number of remains slowly increased the further we went. They laid on the ground, against the walls, laid in bunks, sat at desks. Whatever room we looked at and went through or whatever hallway we walked down; skeletons littered the ground. I can't see many differences in skeletons, but they seemed different from one another in one way or another. The one thing that was identical among them all, however, was how frail they all looked. None of them looked healthy at all. They all looked… starving.

The rooms seemed to become more important as we continued. 'Infirmary', 'sleeping quarters', 'maintenance'. The smells from those rooms indicated that there was still decaying flesh withing. Based on how well sealed some of those rooms were, it wasn't that surprising that they didn't break down fully yet. It took Tigress and I all our might for a few minutes to budge those doors. The smells that came after was appalling at the very least.

We got a better idea of what happened by looking at them. The first one, starvation. The next one, starvation. The third, suicide. The fourth, starvation. Assuming nothing important was in the last room, Tigress and I closed the door tight and began breathing through our noses again.

"So, a lot of the deaths seem to be from starvation."

My lips we tight, "It would seem so. The question is why. We must go deeper."

Tigress only followed me with no words said. We continued down as we finally made it to another larger entryway. The enormous steel doors seemed to have been forced open, but it wasn't that surprising based on the sign above the door. I spoke coolly, "Doomsday Bunker: Sector 3:-" I looked over to Tigress with slight irritation, "Arms Depot."

Tigress had the same look, "It seems that Shen must have entered here and escaped through a wall somewhere within. That would explain how we randomly came upon that sign."

"Don't forget why this door is forced open. It must have taken a team of gorillas to get these doors to fully open like this."

Tigress and I walked into the large room to get a full look at what arsenal was hidden here. The room was filled with degraded pieces of metal. With a sharp eye and knowledge of this technology, I was able to piece together what some of the contents of the room were. A tank over there, munitions over to the side, perhaps some personnel carriers to the side. Nothing that could be salvaged, that was for sure.

We finally came up on something that was easy to see. A long-barreled howitzer stood before us beside some equally destroyed pieces of equipment. It finally dawned on me that this is what Shen must have seen. This was what he saw that made him come up with the idea of his cannons. Against all odds, this machine of war survived the test of time to be discovered by the deranged peacock.

Tigress asked, "Should I even ask what this is?"

I shook my head, "No. This was something that should have been destroyed long ago like everything else here. I cannot imagine the destruction that could have been brought to this country had anything else survives. Shen was able to figure out how this worked, he could have brought the world to its knees if he found something else."

Tigress looked around, "I don't think anything else would have survived. Why is this the only thing?"

My eyes down casted in thought, "I don't know. Just like this place, this goes against the very laws of nature. This place should have been claimed by the earth long ago." I turned around and began to walk to where we entered, "Come on, the answers we are looking for are not in here."

"How can you be so sure?"

I looked back at Tigress, "Had there been something else like this, I have no doubt Shen would have created something that worked in a similar way. He had the time and intelligence." I mumbled to myself, "Even though he was mad."

Tigress took a second to catch up and then we left the room. I wanted to just get out of that place. The weapons of humans were just a constant reminder to how we perfected the way of killing each other. We were able to do it systematically and with a precision that would make the warlords here look on with horror. I was just looking for something to confirm that this was how we ended. An endless was that only ended with our extinction.

We finally made it down the slope enough to make it to another area. This time, Tigress read the sign, "Doomsday Bunker: Sector 2: Research Division." She looked at me, "It seems that this place has the lower numbers further down. What do you suppose Sector 1 is?"

I shrugged, "I would guess that it is some sort of headquarters or operational facility. Somewhere where they would have the leadership of this place. However,-" I took a step forward and tried pushing on the door, "This is where we want to be."

Tigress came over to my side and began to help. Though the grunts, she asked, "How do you know?"

"If anything is going to be recorded on what happened, then it is going to be down here. This is probably our only chance of finding something." With another heave, the door began to crack open. A loud groan of protest was produced the more we pulled on it. Finally, there was a large enough space for us to fit through. I was the first to enter, and déjà vu hit me like a train.

I peered down the hallway to see that it was a mirror of what I saw earlier in my dream. The torch light bounced off the surfaces in an unusual way, and it was definitely darker than when I saw it earlier. I half expected something to come out of the darkness to grab me. However, I just stood there gawking at the darkness.

Tigress came up beside me. She just looked at me with a concerned expression, but nothing came out of her. She must have found it pointless to even ask me at this point. I didn't even think about how difficult this was for her to be powerless in this situation. She could do nothing but be there.

I began to walk down the hall, the sounds of my shoes echoed down the hall. I didn't even spend time looking at either side of the hall into the doorways. They had small windows that we were able to see through. It looked like this section of the bunker had suffered cave-ins. Each room on the sides were impossible to enter through.

Then, at the end of the hall, a door was partially opened to allow us entry. It was the only room that had no structural failure. We could make it into that room. Whatever I was looking for has to be in there. It has to be…

I slid through the opening and got a look into the space. There were a few, bare corpses of who remained here. They laid about the space with some care. They seemed to be placed in a corner with organization. That means they all didn't die at the same time. Someone here must have seen it all happen.

The place looked like a mess. Other than the bodies laid about, the place looked like a mess even beyond the thousands of years of sitting around. A piece of metal was impaled into the wall, all the chairs were thrown about as if the intent was just to create chaos. Deep claw marks were drawn along every surface.

Tigress asked, "What the hell happened here?"

I shook my head, "I don't know. Whatever happened did not end well for the researchers here, that is for sure." I began to walk along the many work areas trying to find something that would be considered salvageable. All the books only had plastic covers remaining, the pages long decayed and wasted away. No video or pictures would be helpful as they were likely all unusable.

We finally entered a back room to a large hydroponic farm within. Rusted pipes above showed that water would be watered down on the sections of crops that no longer existed. I asked myself, "Why is all of this in the research area instead of a farming section. Come to think of it, this place has everything except a place designated for food."

Before I could even dwell on it further, Tigress yelled over to me, "There is another room back here. This I can't quite open the door."

"Coming." I looked back at the farm once more before heading over to Tigress. She was already pushing on the door, so I came up to her side and began to help. It creaked under our combined force and soon gave way. Dust was kicked up into the air from our sudden intrusion. Along with it were the voices once again. I knew that this place must have something.

After a few coughs and me waving my hand, I was finally able to hold the torch up to get a good view of the inside. There seemed to be nothing special about the room itself. A large desk sat in the center with a skeletal form hunched over it. It just seemed to be some kind of office.

Tigress and I began to walk into the room, and then we both saw something behind the desk. A large, clear case sat behind the desk with a deep claw marks in the surface. Inside, a few items were held inside. None of those caught my attention like the dark red journal in the center. The book was leather, and the pages still seemed to be intact. The voices stopped when my eyes locked onto the journal.

I began to analyze the case, "Interesting, this thing must act like a vacuum. That is where my answers lie. We need to get into this case somehow." I began to scratch my chin in thought.

Tigress asked, "Looks like we need some key."

I huffed, "I doubt the key has survived this long. Even if it has, the locking mechanism will never work." Then I joked, "You had firewood for some odd reason, do you have anything that could be used to open this case?"

Tigress just moved me out of the way slight as she looked at the lock. The lock itself was imbedded in the latch that held the door closed. With one, swift strike, the latch broke in two. Tigress just looked back at me with a small grin as she then peeled the door open. With as much care as possible, I picked up the book and looked at it. It almost looked like it was made yesterday. It was very well held together.

"That was surprisingly easy." I flipped open the book somewhere in the center to see an image of some dark form. I nearly dropped the book as I knew that I was looking as the image of a demon. I mentally checked over and over just to make sure that I wasn't going crazy. "This doesn't make any sense. Nothing like this existed when I lived then."

Tigress looked over my shoulder at the journal, "Perhaps you should start at the beginning. I don't think you are going to get an idea of what happened if you start there."

I let out a small breath, "Yeah, you're right. Let's see how everything went down."

I could only read the first year of the notes before I had to put the journal down. This person put great detail in what had transpired at the beginning of the end of the human race. Of all the things that could take us out, from war to disease, it was agriculture that started the downfall. All over the world, our ability to produce food started to wane for an unexplained reason along with the amount of arable land decreasing. Without any country producing large quantities of food to even support its own population, starvation became the leading killer in the world.

The shocking realization came from which the time it was dated, 2035. Had I still live there, that was well within my lifetime. My look of horror and blank eyes were enough for Tigress. She grabbed the book from me and tried to get me to snap out of my thousand-yard stare.

"You need to breath. Relax."

My voice was small, "You don't understand. I mean, how could you, I was meant to parish along with everyone, I was destined to starve and be forgotten about. What made me so special to not suffer the same fate as most humans." I thought for a moment, "I need the entire story. You cannot deny me that."

Tigress held the book tightly as she thought for a moment on what she should do. Then she folded and handed me the book once again, "Just don't let this truth destroy you. I can already see that the basic details are already hurting you deeply."

I nodded, "I know. I need to see this through." I took the journal from Tigress's grasp as I continued to read on. It wasn't surprising that the extreme famine caused governments around the world to restore order as much as they could. There was no great unification of nations in the pursuit of solving this issue. Instead, they all turned inwards and ignored one another as they all tried to save themselves alone.

Every time they attempted a solution, catastrophe struck. Genetic experimentation lead to more death and help other species. Looking toward quantum space ended in more death. The way the world is now was all because of what humans tried to do to stop the inevitable. Demons, the power of Kung Fu, even the fact that Tigress and everyone else is here now is because of what humans did.

I finally closed the book. I had enough and I didn't want to read the final notes from whoever wrote this journal. Their tone was starting to dark as they finally understood what was going to happen. Their words were becoming more unstable as if the fatigue and terror of it all was beginning to get to them.

After closing the journal, I just sat there. I was the final representative of a species that fucked up the world that ended up correcting itself after thousands of years. This entire place was just a scar that the world had yet to clean up.

Tigress seemed to have an expression of empathy as she read over my shoulder, "What now?" Her words were so detached from the fact that she read humans basically resulted in sentient 'animals'.

"I don't know… I don't know how I am supposed to feel." I looked up at her, "I just feel despair as all this. I feel… like I was a part of that."

Tigress lashed out in a soft way, "NONE of that was your fault."

I stood up from where I was seated and just looked down, "Like I said, I should have perished with everyone else. To know my family and friends had to die that way… There are no words to describe how I feel."

Tigress finally let her actions speak for her. She rushed forward and brought me into a tight hug. It wasn't one that is shared between a couple. There nothing romantic about it, it was just a hug meant to suffocate any negative feelings out of me. I had never felt anything like it. I just stood there and let the feeling sink in until two small tears fell from my eyes.

I just let her hug me until my left got tired, and then I continued to just let her continue. In that moment, I wasn't sure what my place in this world was anymore.

Well, that is it. A slow, long final breath of the human race. Nothing exciting and also not really expected. Well, it is those types of things that will end up biting us in the ass someday. No one expects what we have in abundance now to suddenly run out with any hope of recovering.

Anyways, thanks for the continued support of this story. I really enjoy writing it, but I am not sure where it would be if no one really read it. I originally started it for me, now I do it for us. I keep pushing to improve my writing and having an audience to witness it makes it all the better.

I guess I should also record how the story is doing since I haven't in a while. I thank you those who are a part of the 386 favorites, 419 follows (one short XD), and the usual and new reviews that add to the list of 385 reviews. As for the amount of views, we have just made it past 169K. Once again, thank you everyone. I would not be in this position if it weren't for all of you.

Please, feel free to follow, favorite, review, PM, continue reading, join the discord, etc. Anything and everything is enough for me to finish off this story someday. I guess that is all I really have to say other than Chap 44 is a transition between Kyle's journey to Tigress's.

Until Next Time,

Forsvaret-Komandir