An unforgiving frigid air blasted through the barren lands riddled with deep craters leading into deeper areas of the earth, left behind from a war that raged through the area some time ago.
Remnants of life scattered throughout the area, dilapidated buildings and broken streets leading into formed creeks that went through them, carrying radiated water that washed away the broken reminders of a city that once stood.
The wasteland, harsh, the radiation from the nuclear bombs permitted in areas, forever uninhabitable by man.
What remains now, factions warring for dwindling supplies, mutated creatures that wandered the wastelands, survivors caught in between, all trying to survive the irradiated world.
The crumbling ruins that once was a city, it had a name a long time ago, but it's lost to the annals of time, now it's only known as the Ruins. Few buildings survived the nuclear war, those that did, picked clean like carcasses.
Uneven terrain proved dangerous to unskillful scavengers and mutated creatures alike and it's a must for scavengers going anywhere keeping a Geiger counter on them at all time, for hotspots.
Even the safest areas of the Ruins proved dangerous.
An untouched area north of the Ruins, past what once housed people who made laws and judgement, looked like it hadn't saw the ravages of the nuclear bombs, but there's something unearthly.
Enough that even the mutated creatures wouldn't go near it, they howl and screech, fleeing the moment they get too close, afraid of some unseen force.
There's stories of a group of scavengers that went north of the Ruins and never came back, people in their camp thought they died in some other means, but there's speculation of some unseen nefarious creature lurking in the area.
Nobody's certain, but since then, rumors spread of the unusual area, and warnings going out to camps, barring scavengers from going anywhere near it.
A story ended up passing around different camps where someone claimed they saw the forbidden area from afar, across the raging river, and they said there's a pristine staircase in the center of the area, looking like it'd come out of a palace.
Thirteen redwood steps, gold railings, and a red decorative rug that draped over the steps to the bottom, it looked truly bizarre. More that when the person who regaled this story tried to see where the staircase went, his mind became fuzzy, and he passed out.
When he woke up, his group found him, and when he looked back, the staircase's gone.
His group said that he mumbled to himself constantly while he recovered, "Count them... count them..."
He didn't know the significance of it, but since then, nobody went out that way to verify his story. A warning went out that if anyone sees this mythical staircase, never look at it, never attempt to go up it.
In the central area of the Ruins, there's ghost stories of moving balls of light that appear and disappear at any point, and if anyone touched them, things happen to them.
One story said a man died from burning up, after the ball of light touched his face.
Second story said a ball of light shot through a camp one night, causing everyone's ears to pop, as it zoomed through, disappearing as quickly as it appeared.
Stories of the strange balls of light continued throughout, but no one's sure if they existed or just ghost stories people told around the burning woodpile.
A favorite among children's 'The Shadow People.'
There's a belief that the cruelest of individuals, who passed away never see the pearly gates or the burning inferno, they've been cursed to remain on the irradiated world as shadows that move among the ruins.
Though they're cursed to roam the ruins of the world, they prove dangerous to the living, as it's said that a shadow's able to attach itself to any person it's able, and there's stories of this resulting in the afflicted person suffering vivid nightmares of the shadow as they once lived.
Every night, the dreams become worse, to the point that the afflicted person's unsure if they've finally woken up, or entered another dream, and this goes on until they finally snap and run out into the unknown, sleep derived for far too long.
There's stories about shadows recognizing someone and the results differ between them.
One story said a cruel overseer's shadow found the man that killed him as a desperate act, as the overseer starved him, and the shadow forced him to relieve the final hour in his dreams.
Few stories discuss ways to rid the shadows from a person once they've become attached, since one can't interact with their own shadows, that it seems as though once a shadow finds someone, they're presumably doomed.
The telling sign that a shadow attached to someone's by simply pointing a light at them and looking behind.
If the shadow isn't the person's and doesn't move as they do, then that's a cursed shadow, and it won't leave until the person's dead.
No one knows what becomes of the shadows after they've driven their victims to madness, the purpose of it, or if they even existed to begin with, but it's said that once they've killed their victims, they simply move on.
Only ghost stories, some say.
The biggest story children talk about's the "Shadow Man" a distinct shadow that only appears to certain individuals, likened to the Devil that became one of the countless victims of the nuclear bombs, having returned in some fashion.
It's said that the Shadow Man's identified as a separate shadow, rather taking the place of a person's shadow, and uniquely capable of talking to the person he appears before, often in faint whispers, without them having to dream.
Afflicted individuals having the Shadow Man appear before them's said to feel phantom hands moving them around the ruins, as if an unseen force's leading them somewhere, a cold chill that only follows them, and the feeling someone breathing down their necks, though there's nobody behind.
What happens to these individuals varies depending on who's asked, with some saying that the Shadow Man's intent of appearing to individuals as means of rejuvenating into his true form, possessing them.
Others claimed the Shadow Man sought to bring afflicted people to Hell, but the nuclear bombs destroyed it and the devils that inhabited Hell, now he's in search for new devils to take their places, kidnapping individuals he appears before.
As with most stories, nobody knows if they're true or not, but nobody wanted to know the answers, afraid of having more things to worry about in the crumbling world.
Near the what used to be an old subway system, is a cordoned off area littered with abandoned blockades that piled high, and a crumbling staircase leading into the darkened subway station.
Below, areas of caved ceilings dotted the former subway station, with darkness on either sides of the tunnels, and no trains operating.
In a section of the abandoned subway station, there's a subtle breeze that picked up, bringing with it old crumbled newspapers, and something appearing.
Blue, four corners, with frosted white windows at the top, a sign on the side of the single door.
The door opens inward and a man with wild hair poked his head cautiously through the opened the door, surveying the area he's in before turning his head, talking to someone behind.
Stepping through the doorway with his large hands shoved into his stitched coat, his icy blue eyes darted between every corner of the subway station before he turned his head, calling for someone.
He moved to the side as another person stepped through the doorway, tugging on her navy heavy coat, as her chestnut eyes glanced around the area, they appeared in.
"Where did Al take us?" Lila asks Theodore as he glances around the dilapidated subway station while watching his steps as there's deep holes within the laminated floor in areas.
Theodore glances around until he came across a subway map on the wall, broken, with glass missing from the enclosure, and the water damages ruining the exposed map.
Barely, he's able to read anything on the map, before concluding that they're somewhere in a subway station.
"Okay, now what?" Lila gestures as she watched Theodore survey the area, trying to gain an understanding, before he said that he's not sure.
He gestured for Lila and she followed him, after locking the TARDIS, returning the key to him, as he placed it around his neck, for safe keeping, before heading off on their latest adventure.
There wasn't any messages, nodes going off, any reason why they're here, and Al's unable to help much, since he just knew to take them where they landed.
Never an easy one, but that's expected.
"Well, come along, Lee, we've much to do," Theodore wearily sighs as he begins walking with Lila closely behind as they navigated through the abandoned subway station.
The staircase leading up to the surface's collapsed with rubble blocking their way from going up the staircase, leaving their only option going down into the tunnel.
"Ah, Theo, have you not watched or experienced a horror movie?" Lila showed concerns about them going down into the tunnel.
They don't know if the tunnel hadn't collapsed in areas, much less know where they're going from here.
As the aloof giant pondered, he said that the TARDIS brought them here for a reason, it wouldn't bring them in an area that they can't navigate around, so in theory, if they can't go up, they must go down.
"And they were never seen or heard from again," Lila muttered under her breath as she followed Theodore towards the edge of the subway station leading down to the tracks.
He jumped to the bottom first, once he's sure it's safe, he called up to Lila who held reservations of jumping down to the train tracks.
In his infinite ways, Theodore coerced her, and she's forced to plunge into the darkness below, caught in the arms of the aloof giant.
Once her feet contacted the solid ground below, Lila's greeted by darkness, alleviated by Theodore's Sonic Screwdriver, illuminating areas with a blue light as they began walking up from the subway station.
Behind, the tunnel's collapsed, the only way forward's up, and they walked carefully over the train tracks as they're enshrouded by a demeaning silence.
Enough horror movies taught Lila, nothing ever good comes of going through an abandoned subway tunnel, but here she is, walking closely with Theodore guiding them with his Sonic Screwdriver that he carefully modified once more.
Through trial and error, Theodore made the appropriate modifications, and it paid off, that it wouldn't fizzle out at the worst time. More, it looks like his father's with a few changes, namely he wrapped the handle with a textured leather grip, so he'd easily hold it during intense situations.
It's nice having a reliable Sonic Screwdriver again.
In the uncomfortable silence as they walked through the subway tunnel, that grew higher in height, accommodating the trains that once passed through, and they're able to see the architecture designs of the subway tunnel.
Mosaic tiles, grey and white, in an arch pattern as they went over the tunnel walls and ceiling, with black metal arches every kilometer or so, there's old adverts on the walls, destroyed by time.
While walking, Theodore noticed the blue light from his Sonic Screwdriver slowly wavering.
"I just fixed you!" Theodore looked at the Sonic Screwdriver in his hand as he sees it wavering.
Digging around her pocket, Lila produced her own torch and turned it on, illuminating the area for them in a soft light.
"Always expect the expected," she summed much to the annoyed Theodore as he released his grip on the button on the Sonic Screwdriver, turning it off.