PART 1: Foundation
Chapter 1
A black sky and the howling wind fills the city of Braila, the decrepit architecture of ruined apartment blocks splotches on to the dreary background and connects it to the ground covered in rubble and corpses, some had chosen to simply quit living, within the dead city however there is a small group of ex-soldiers which cling on to life.
Victor held onto the seat of the Piranha APC as if his life depended of it. The roads were a disaster before but now the APC had serious issues traversing the horrid strip of asphalt dotted with holes and junk. The vehicle stopped, and the five passengers left for supplies.
Ok I should search some of the stores, they will not have fuel or ammo but they might have food and clean water (he thought to himself as he wandered the streets)
And so he did for hours he scavenged through multiple corner shops until he came across a super market, he was tempted but also scared, Covid 20 was still stalking and killing in this world and as a 29-year old he was in the age group it targeted most.
Super markets like that are always filled with something, even when there were shortages of certain items they would fill the empty shelfs with whatever else they had in larger supply. Frutti fresh instead of Pepsi or chicken wings instead of pork and so on, the small shops in comparison were kind of empty even before the collapse of the government. Also smarter scavengers realized that the threat of catching the disease was more limited in smaller shops because fewer people could realistically fit in them and the lack of items meant they would be less visited anyway.
So what should I do (he said looking down at his bag of few precious cans of unexpired food) there's no way the others managed to get any more than I did but if head in a super market there might still be corpses infested with the virus, and everyone else is younger than forty, I might just infect them.
An idea crept steadily in the back of his head, as he stood in the middle of the concrete tomb. Maybe the apartments? (he thought) Most of them were broken so why would anyone still live in there ? ( he elaborated silently in his own head) so the corpses would be buried in the piles of concrete, but covid doesn't survive for long periods of time on inorganic materials it needs a human host either living or a silent cadaver. All I need to do is to find a fridge or a freezer with food in it even if it didn't work anymore there might still be canned food in it, even cat food would be better than nothing.
And so his face hardened he gripped his assault rifle tightly (not so much for physical protection but for a psychological sense of safety) and slowly brought his feet forward, with each step his heart was beating faster and faster questioning whether his little rationalization would hold up to reality. He looked in many buildings but most floors were collapsed thus burring any scrap of food.
Eventually he came across a block from which some noise could be heard amidst the largely silent town, he thought that maybe it was some tv or radio that was still working for some reason, until he heard yelling, he gripped his rifle even more closely.
In the first few days after the collapse the civilians ignored them, but afterwards they were attacked repeatedly in the span of three months, Victor guessed that it was out of desperation, as the rioting and lack of any order shut down supply chains altogether. They were only human and any human needs a little bite to eat, yet because of circumstance Victor and his squad mates had guns and the raiders trying to steal from them didn't, Victor took a small amount of pride knowing they never resorted to mugging others at gunpoint, whatever food they still had was taken from wherever they could find and after all Victor was also human and he needed a little bite to eat as well as his friends.
More noise came from the building shaking Victor from his trail of thought, maybe he could sneak around the building? But there were many holes in the building and could be seen from the inside, he had gotten very close to it and if he suddenly sprinted away from it he would certainly be spotted. He had to approach carefully whoever was inside no matter the danger, this was the only practical thing to do, anything else would cause suspicion whenever the stranger would eventually see him.
He grabbed his gun and slowly begun to enter the concrete dead body of what others once called their home, he got closer and closer to the source of small chatter but he wasn't close enough to distinguish words yet. Finally he saw a human form obscured by the darkness in front of him, the shape went silent and started approaching HIM.
Panic and sweat nearly overwhelmed Victor until he heard the stranger speak clearly ,,Victor? Hey ! it's me Daniel''.
Relief washed over him as Daniel then turned on his flashlight revealing his green eyes, identical military equipment in the same tattered state and Daniels's and unkempt light brown hair.
Victor wanted to ask him what was he doing but before he opened his mouth, Daniel showed him the small bag of items that he managed to find across the city after they left the APC, his meaning was understood immediately and Victor asked whether he found something ,,No bodies yet but I found something interesting'' he then motioned to Victor to follow him to a white wall of what seemed to be metal ,, this whole apartment block was reserved to some very rich bastards'' he explained further that all doors across the block were either opened and the apartments looted or simply wrecked beyond their ability to scavenge for supplies except for this one ,, I was actually going back to the APC you know you're the only one left with a working phone and this door lost it's manual handle, it's just not there anymore and it should have one of those fancy Bluetooth door handles that rich people used to show off'' he then gestured to a still working light above the door ,,It still has power somehow, so your phone should work''
Victor moved his right hand to his left wrist, after the fall of the mining industry in Africa people just repaired and reused older devices with very little innovation, phones as a result were no longer handheld because after decades upon decades of reuse the batteries just broke beyond repair, so they attached larger batteries to phones and the added weight meant that they had to be mounted to your wrist to be properly used.
And so he used his ersatz pip-boy to open the door, it was a ponderous process, perhaps it was not as functional as Daniel had assumed, as they waited for the door to finally open fully Daniel began laughing ,,Do you have any idea how much food this boyar could have ? A FUCKING LOT!'' he said chuckling whilst Victor was tryng to shush him ,, Oh come on there's no one alive still here besides us, you have to learn to live a little and to enjoy life'' Both were left aghast shocked and confused as the door opened.
The old man in front of them was dead his feet dangling above the floor nearby was a chair kicked over, above his feet dangled his bloodied hands, his nails were painted red and around his damaged neck was wrapped a noose with a few loose threads. Victor remembered once reading that once the consciousness left it's mortal vessel in such situations, the body would instinctively try to save itself, thus pushing the hands to try and remove the noose but it never succeeds, the brain is already out of oxygen and the hand movements are too uncoordinated to do anything else other than rip off chunks of the neck and very slightly damage the noose.
Victor against his moral compass took a small relief knowing that older people very rarely could carry the Covid 20 virus, Dan on the other hand was completely silent, he knew what he wanted to do but they didn't even have shovels to bury him, all they could do was to cut him loose and, close his eyes and silently say a prayer. But after three months of grueling survival they had no objection to stealing from the dead, they explored the large apartment, it's pure white walls reminded them of hospitals and lack of furnishings lead Victor to suspect someone had already taken a few things from this place.
Dan finally discovered the fridge and exclaimed ,,Holy shit he has BEEF!, this guy was no boyar he was the Voievod'' he then held up a specialized refrigeration box so that Victor could see it, Victor had never seen beef ever in his life before, he was born only a few years after cows went extinct, Dan now with a huge grin on his face continued rummaging the fridge occasionally yelling about chocolate or pork or pepsi and so on. Victor however wanted to know more, who even was this guy anyway?.
He scoured the apartment looking for something like a journal of some sort until he found a box of cd-s and a cd-player underneath a bed ,,he probably wanted the bed frame to protect the cd-s'' (Victor thought to himself) He found a small tucked away in the corner of the bedroom. He went to plug in the tv and turned it on ,,How is this place still supplied with electricity?'' (Victor wondered to himself) ,,three months with no maintenance to the power grid should not allow power outlets to work'' he pushed the mystery to the back of his head and decided to set up the player in order to see at least one before they returned to the Piranha APC. He pressed play and the image of the dead old man stared back at him ,,It's so fucking eerie'' Victor thought to himself, the recording carried on as the man introduced himself: ,, I am doctor Aurel Laicu of the Matei Bals Institute, I am recording this for the sake of history, once I am finished then… I don't know'' there is a pause ,,It is the second of December 2178 and amidst the chaos I don't want the fog of time to set on this event'' another pause ,, I don't know why they started killing the doctors as well, I am baffled !'' he looks down visibly distressed ,, Once the mob moved from here i have managed to rip off of the manual door handle and used my phone to deter any attempts at opening the door until I am finished with my work !'' he looks straight in to the camera with more confidence but then he wavers and starts crying for a minute ,,I haven't managed to sleep for more than a day now they started butchering my colleagues in the night before the dawn of the first of december, by happenstance I needed to urinate at around 5.00 am, and as I was returning to my bedroom I heard the screams, DEAR GOD THE SCREAMS ! it was like a switch was turned on and through the visor of my door I could see people breaking in every apartment dragging out the inhabitants and slicing their necks, I used everything I could to barricade myself in, sheer luck caused my survival'' another pause longer than all others until now, I thought that the first thing I would see in the morning was going to be the military parade we hold every year not this, every one I knew is dead so I felt an obligation to make a record'' there was another pause but Victor stopped listening at the mention of parade, the first of december parade, every year soldiers were drawn to train for a whole month for it but it was worth it, he remembered that day so clearly he was in front of the Cotroceni palace trying to push off the mob, the barks of his CO to stand guard, he almost felt like he went back to that day.
1st December 2178
5:30 AM
Bucharest
Alarms blare through the barracks waking up the dazed and confused soldiers, Victor who was just like everyone else still tired after the last round of practice and training for the parade has difficulties getting up.
,,Come on five minutes to freshen up pick up your gear and then head to the garage A.S.A.P.'' barked the commanding officer loudly, no one wanted to get chewed for being slow, and so he headed to the bathroom to splash some water onto his face to make himself less groggy, once he had a moment to breath he looked in front of the mirror , his very dark eyes stared back at him and he raked his right hand through his raven hair to make it less frazzled after his 3 hour sleep session ,,why are we getting woken up at this hour? Are we getting sent to more pre-parade practice just before it starts?'' regardless of his and everyone else's confusion he took his equipment and left for one of his platoon's APC. His mind was gnawing at him inside of the armored beast ,, My god I get it !, we're carrying out the parade early so we could have more time to pack our things for project Neptune !'' he told the rest of his platoon mates present in the poorly lit vehicle, they all felt a small sense of relief as you could only bring a limited amount of items to the ships. Their calm was however short-lived as the APC pulled up in front of the Cotroceni Palace earning a fresh sense of confusion from it's passengers, Victor asked the driver why they were here and he merely replied that this is where he was ordered to take them. Then the voice of their commander sounded through the radio of the Piranha ,,Exit the vehicles and form up a defensive perimeter IMMEDIATELY!'' They all got out as if their seats were on fire and were further shocked to see sandbags and machinegun nests all around the Cotroceni forming a fortified noose around the Presidential Palace, their discipline however reminded them of the orders they received and complied with them. They soon joined the collection of gendarmes, SPP officers,SRI agents and whatever police units the state could still scrounge up.
And then nothing, they all stood around and just waited, so he looked up at his phone earning the attention of one SRI agents present ,,We have set up a jammer for internet services and another unit is coming with more communication device scramblers, so don't try to '' but Victor cut him off ,,Jesus Christ dude I was just checking the time !'' it was 5:55 AM ,,god what a fucking securist busy body'' he muttered to himself quietly.
Then they saw them, thousands upon thousands of small dots came upon the beautiful morning sky like small aurora borealis.
,,So are there smaller ships that are supposed to take us to the arks?, seems kind of inefficient to me!'' said Victor's commanding officer. ,,what if they are leaving us behind and everyone else already boarded'' said Daniel jokingly, this angered his CO ,,boy slap your mouth before I don't come there and slap it for you!'' he replied back on an equally joking tone. Everyone seemed to relax a bit after that including Victor, but then he turned his face back to the SRI agent that seemed to stay closely to his platoon, his face was not relaxed at all, it was almost red in a mixture of what appeared to be horror, self-disgust and shock. Who the fuck did you kill? Victor asked trying to make at least somewhat relaxed but instead he curled his mouth in to a small thin line, his almost black eyes stared at him as if he wanted to kill Victor by gazing at him and finally the sour man replied ,,SHUT THE FUCK UP AND MIND YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS'' bellowed the SRI agent at Victor prompting his commander to respond ,,Oh no no no, you fuckers YOU FUCKERS don't get to yell at my men like that'' He then moved to get closer to the agent before the aggravated man simply said ,,Just do your fucking jobs and be quiet'' before leaving.
-Sir I don't thing what you did was smart but I still appreciate it.
-It's nothing Victor, today we board the ships and that is all that matters, no more guarding the northern border against Russian strays, no more incompetent leadership because whatever our descendants make of their future will certainly be an improvement on this feckless government and no more worrying about paying bills because of specialized nuclear powered ships that will supply the rest of the fleet with more than enough power, and no more worrying about our fate. (he then smiled warmly)
For a small while there was a sense of calm. There were no yells or shouting or discussions just silence.
Then suddenly the silence was broken by a small group(4-6) of what appeared to be college students approaching the barbed wire, they started yelling ,,YOU SONS OF BITCHES YOU TRAITOS YOU BASTARDS WROTE OUR DEATH SENTENCE'' YOU KILLED OUR FUTURE WE WILL KILL YOU IN THE PRESENT !'' The CO approached them and said ,, Ok Covid has been on the decline but you are still among It's target demographic, why don't you go back to your dorms or homes and play some video games?'' He said in the calmest tone he could muster because of the yelling he still had to raise his voice a bit.
It didn't work and more people showed up ,,Ok Victor go and search for the police officers with vests labeled Dialogue on the back''
Victor wondered silently why they weren't intervening yet but he obeyed, after a few minutes of searching whilst the mob was getting bigger and bigger and the screams louder and louder he realized that the SRI agent was temporarily in charge of the present police force after one of the policeman told him so, therefore he looked for him until he finally tracked him down in one of the tents present on the front lawn of the palace, he entered it and saw the agent holding a handgun as well as multiple bottles of whisky on the ground, they were all empty.
-You aren't supposed to drink on the job.
-(the agent stirs awake in the dimly lit tent) Oh it's you, I thought you were something else.
-Enough, why are you drunk? why are you here and not outside? I thought you wanted us to do our jobs but you get to drink?
-(he smiles) You know their leaving without us right?
-Fuck off, and tell your men to deal with the mob, we can't do it alone!
-(as he was talking the agent begun staring off at seemingly nothing) you don't believe me? Fine I am done here.
-What are talking we just started !.
The agent then put the barrel of his handgun in his mouth and before Victor could react he pulled the trigger splattering the horrified soldier with bits and pieces of his brain.
He just stood there for a minute processing what had just happened before his moment was interrupted by the screams of the mob ,, oh god the screams are so loud I can hear them across the lawn and inside the tent'' he thought to himself.
He exited and the first thing he saw was a group of people that were dressed as civilians but not screaming and were climbing the stairs of the palace three of them were holding something in their hands ,,are those wooden planks? and… wait what the fuck is that guy doing with a hammer?
Victor bolted back to his commander but on the way he saw him and the rest of the platoon running away from the mob towards the palace, now it was so immense that the ground could not be seen, only an amorphous mass of people and the deafening roars of anger it emanated.
,,They have jumped over the barbed wire and climbed the exterior walls, we can't let them enter the palace! STAND YOUR GROUND, THIS IS AN ORDER!''
They formed a wall around the entrance trying in vain to push the human ocean back, Victor then informed his CO of what happened and what he saw ,,Shit their already in, Victor come with me the rest will continue to stand ground'' he bellowed trying to make himself heard.
The walls of the palace were once pristine and white but now they were painted with the blood of the honor guard, their beautiful uniforms were now rags, and their corpses lay strewn across the rooms ( a head here, two hands there, a single foot stuck in the chandelier above) and then they saw him the president, the cross was at an angle allowing the executioners to easily nail him without putting him on the ground and then having to lift him, they were already finished nailing his two feet to the cross and now two men were holding his arms close to the wooden plank so that a third man could start nailing his hands more easily.
The room was silent except for the screams of the president, naked and afraid his sunken eyes caught a glimmer of hope when he saw the soldiers, Victor and his CO looked around the room, there were multiple people here hiding in the corners and the furniture and the corpse, they weren't hiding out of fear rather they were waiting for them to make a move, and the they moved.
Away from the president they ran away in fear, the CO didn't look behind him but Victor out of his cursed curiosity did look behind and caught a glimpse of a large iron nail being forced through the president's palm, again and again the executioner hit the nail with his hammer pushing it through to the other side.
Once outside the CO ordered his men to abandon their posts and to save themselves, and the mob just let them leave allowing gaps in the sea of people in order for the soldiers to escape (not just Victor's platoon) as they were running through the blanket of people covering every centimeter of ground he saw a group of long bearded priests urging the people to calm down, the tsunami swallowed them tearing off chunks of their flesh. The last thing he remembered seeing was the president still alive and on that cross being thrown down the stairs of the palace before the ships vanished from the skies.
And then he was back, back in the dust and in the ruins of Braila, Daniel was still pulling out bits of food out of the fridge, and then he got a call on his phone it was from the Piranha's communications system ,,Hey hurry it up, the commander said we need to go back to the APC''
-Hey I just wanted to thank you for reading this far and to apologize for the first chapter taking so long I will try to write the second one faster.
-This is my first time writing something of such a scale and I have planned many more chapters.
-Also if for whatever reason I want to stop writing I will upload a chapter stating it clearly.
-If I don't upload a new chapter in a while it's NOT because I stopped writing. I just wanted to say that VERY loud and crystal clear
-And again thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading it thus far and I promise it will not be a constant grim-fest.
