Its time for the first true chapter of the series! If it took a little too long to make this chapter, then I'm sorry haha. I've been very busy with work and whatnot. Anyways here you go! P.S.: Now that the story has started, it will change perspectives from 3rd to 1st, just to prevent confusion.
Chapter One: Sleeping Through
Just like any other morning, I regain my consciousness before I open my eyes. I can already tell this will be "one of those days" when I don't feel like getting out of bed for the scheduled breakfast. I'm thinking about going back to sleep and missing breakfast. What is it today, cinnamon rolls and juice? They're too sweet for this early in the morning, but my parents will try to wake me up and make me eat it. They're always "by the book", wanting me to attend every meeting, food times, and any other event. My younger brother and sister are fine with it, but I'm starting to grow a little tired of the lack of freedom in this place. I know they just want to do these things for the best, but I can't help but to get tired of it from time to time. Maybe my mom will cut me some slack since I did all that work yesterday. Plus it's Saturday, so most people just sleep in anyways and take the breakfast leftovers once they wake up, as would I. I'll just go back to sleep and eat when I wake up...
But wait. Something seems off. I'm having to take deeper breathes than normal, and I feel slightly cold. Not only that, but a red flashing light keeps seeping through my closed eyelids.
My first instinct is to open my eyes. The first thing I see from my blurry morning vision is dirty glass, and passed that a room that hasn't looked cleaned in weeks, lit up by a flashing red light rotating on the ceiling. I take in all of the details, and the memories start to flood into my brain. I vaguely remember stepping inside a sleeping capsule with the help of the authorities for some reason. Soon enough, I instantly realize the muffled sound of the emergency alarm timidly entering my ears. I tense up, my eyes shoot wide open and awake, and I start to breath harder and harder, vapor escaping my mouth. I'm not in my bed. I'm in my emergency sleeping capsule, and oxygen seems to not be ventilating through it. The screens and buttons on the inside of my capsule are blinking red, reading "WARNING: OXYGEN LEVELS CRITICAL" and "PLEASE LEAVE THE CAPSULE". I frantically dart my head around in search for the emergency release, and there it is. There's a small clamp at my feet for my foot to press down on to open my chamber. I raise my right foot as high as it can move in this small space, and stomp on the manual release. I realise I have no shoes, and I just stomped on a cold metal pedal. Pain surges through my foot, and the manual release barely budges.
"Dammit..!" Escapes my mouth, not having enough energy to speak aloud.
I raise my foot once more, this time tilting my foot upward, and drive my heel down on the clamp. Success! The clamp completely closes, and the edges of my capsule door are highlighted by the exterior light. With all of my might, I press my palms against the glass and push as hard as I can, which isn't saying much. The lack of oxygen for who knows how long has hindered my strength, as well as the speed of my thought process. The door slowly opens, and giving the fact my capsule was slightly slanted, gravity does the rest of the work and opens the door completely.
Fresh air engulfs me and my lungs as I stumble out of my chamber, on my hands and knees, onto the cold white-tiled floor. I begin to notice that I'm in a sleeping suit, which is only almost-skin-tight shorts over my underwear, which explains why I am so cold. The alarms were muffled by my chamber, but now that I'm out they are blaring and ringing my ears. After a coughing fit, along with heavy breathing, I raise my head to inspect my surroundings. I'm in a a dirty sleeping chamber room. Rows and columns of capsules neighbor mine much like how a locker room would look, and they are all closed. The floor beneath me is cracked and old, dirt collecting between the tiles and occasional chips. To my left and right is a small stretch between two rows of identical chambers, each having its own serial number on the sides. After a moment of recovery, I begin to question myself: Why hasn't anyone else awaken yet? If I am the only one awake, then I have to warn somebody about what's going on! I use my right leg to pick myself up, my legs trembling from the stress I'm putting onto them. I then proceed to examine the sleep capsule directly across from me, approaching it one shaky step at a time. Once I reach the capsule I use the glass door as supoort for my body and cup my hands against it for me to see inside. The red blinking buttons and screens on the interior dimly light up the inside, showing no one. The capsule is empty? But why? I look to the dialpad on the right side of the chamber. On the small screen it reads "EMERGENCY RELEASE" blinking red. I frantically tap the ACCEPT button right below, and the chamber immediately opens. I then grab the door and open it, almost falling in the process. To no surprise, the capsule was not occupied. I stand in disbelief at what, or rather what doesn't stand before me.
"Maybe its just this one", I say under my breath and I place my hand on my head.
I slowly turn right to confront the next capsule beside the one I checked. Just like the other one, this capsule is empty as well. What is going on? I ignore the dialpad and move on to the next one. Empty. I hastefully move on to the next one. Empty again, and so is the one after that! I anxiously begin to jog, then the jog becomes a run. My eyes skim through every glass door I pass by. One by one, I discover that each chamber is closed and empty, until I come across one that differenciates itself from the others. I stop in my tracks, almost sliding across the floor and falling on my back. I then backtrace to the special chamber. Something seems to be inside this capsule, and cupping my hands around my face doesn't help focus my vision through the glass. My only option is to activate the emergency release. My finger presses against the ACCEPT button once more before the door opens. I open the the door to reveal who was encased in glass... But dread instantly overcomes every fiber of my being when I see who what was laying there.
A long-rotted skeleton lays in eternal sleep, half of its jaw unhinged. Whoever it was has been dead for a very long time. My heart pounds in my chest and my whole body shakes with fear.
"No..." I whisper. "No. No. No!" I repeat it over and over again, and if I weren't in a state of shock, I'd most likely be balling my eyes out. I begin to whimper for every breathe I let out. My knees and ankles give way, causing me to helplessly fall to the ground. My breathing turns into hyperventilation, and I cannot control myself. That man was dead! They're all dead or missing! I have to be the only one left!
The anxiety-enducing sounds of the alarm abruptly stops and the red flashing light shuts off, returning the LED ceiling lights light the room properly. My panic attack resides, and I look up from the floor confused.
Silence.
So silent, I can hear the lights on the ceiling buzz. Moments pass while I'm frozen in my current position, but after a while I work up the courage to stand back up. What just happened? The moments of silence gives me time to calm down and think. If there was a real skeleton in that sleeping chamber, then that means our underground shelter had failed quite a long time ago. But how long? How long have I been in my chamber? And why me? I need to know the date, what year it is. If I go back to my room I can grab my phone, as well as some clothes, and hopefully I can gain some insight on what's going on. My curiosity has driven me to start moving once again. I finally make my way out of the sleeping room, and into a hallway.
Nothing can be heard but the sound of my bare feet silently slapping the porcelain floor of the long hallway. It feels sort of awkward and exposing to be walking down a public hallway half-naked. The hallways are more like half-tubes than rectangles; no legitimate edges to define walls and a ceiling. The floor however has flat, and almost looks the same as the tiled floor in the sleeping room. The only differences are that trash and rubber marks from the soles of shoes are littered here and there, giving signs that somebody has been running a little too fast in the hallways. This brings up even more questions, despite how small the details are. Who was running and why? Usually one of the higher-ups enforce a strict "no running" policy for the hallways on this end of the bunker. Could there have been an emergency before I woke up, when others were still here? I scan the hallway for more clues as I progress. Let's see here. There's rubber marks, some trash overflowing at one of the small garbage bins nearby, but most of it is crumpled up napkins and candy bar wrappers. Nothing else seems worth investigating.
My journey through the hallway ends when I enter a familiar open space in the bunker. Around the perimeter of the central room are all sorts of market kiosks, restaurants, and recreational centers, as well as benches, tables, and water fountains. In the center of the space is a large spiral staircase curling around a tall dead tree. How dead the tree looks can hardly be described, for most of the remains have already fallen to the ground, ruining the glossy design the bunker tried to portray. Upstairs is where all of the residential buildings are, so that is where I am headed. I reach the bottom of the stairs and, with curiosity, feel the surface of the dead tree. My hand almost sinks as I touch the mushy surface of the tree base, and with that a large branch falls from the top of the tree down on the ground, giving out a deep yet soft thud and making me jump out of my skin. I continue up the stairs nonetheless.
Many of the doors to the houses are wide open, and as I pass them I can see the inside, and how almost every one of them looms like it'd been hit by a tornado. Clothes, trash, and various objects are scattered everywhere in all of the houses, rotted and eroded by time. Some of the objects have even escaped to the outside onto the balcony of the second floor. There definitely was some kind of emergency going on. It looks like either someone came in to ravage and loot the bunker before leaving, or the residents themselves gathers some things and left in a hurry. It would really help if I knew why though.
Here it is, me and my family's house. Just like the others, this one's door is opened and the contents inside are a mess. I walk inside and recognise some of the things that have been left behind, despite how time has changed their looks. My brother's action figures, my sister's dinosaur costume, and a bunch of of parents' clothes everywhere. The living room has been totally trashed. The couch had sunken in, the flatscreen TV had fallen, and the bookshelf had been tipped over, leaving faded books and ripped paper everywhere. I step over some of the house's remains and take a look at all of the rooms. My brother's room: trashed. My sister's room: seemingly demolished. My parent's room: destroyed. Pillows and blankets are missing from all of the rooms, and nothing noticably important is in sight. That's enough scouting the rest of my house. I need to find my phone. My room door had been opened like the rest, so I get a glimpse of what's inside. My pillow and blankets have been removed, and some of my collectibles from my shelf are missing. Once I step inside I find that my smartphone is peeking out from under my bed, and I quickly grab it to turn it on. The screen stays unlit and unresponsive as I press my finger on the power button.
"Dammit!" I say to myself, cursing my luck. I shouldn't be surprised that it won't turn on though. Almost everything around here is old and rotten. Hopefully there are some clothes in my closet that haven't met the doom of time.
I turn to my closet and open the door. Most of my clothes have fallen from their hangers, but a select few of them seem to be fit for me to wear. A red shirt and some blue jeans should work nicely. Once I put them on, a get a good feel on how the fabric changed. its more stiff than normal clothes, like when I put my laundry in the dryer and forget to add fabric softener. There are wrinkles all over my shirt, but thats the least of my problems. After I adjust myself to the clothing, I grab my phone and put it in my pocket. Then, something interesting catches my eye on my dresser.
A folded up sheet of paper, yellowed with age, sits neatly on my dresser next to a photo of me and my family. The photo is a picture of my little sister Elisa on my shoulders, my little brother George on my dad's shoulders, and mother, who is hugging my dad. We all seem happy in this photo, but where and when we took this photo has lost me. Blinking away from the photo, I carefully take the note and unfold it. Its extremely brittle, so I take extra care. I get it completed folded, with the cost of slightly damaging and chipping the edges. It seems to be a letter made up of rushed and obscured handwriting. Through the obscurity, I recognise that its my Dad's. The first words intrigue me, and I don't hesitate to begin reading
"Sean, there i--uch time to explain. Your mother-is trying h--est to w-k- you-f-om your sle--, but the pa--ers ar--'t pe-mitt--g any--nt-r, and are maki--ather our things to evacua-- bunker. Sean it- real-y bad. There are these s--ange p--y --r-d --a--e wh- are --in- in and --l--g us and t--ur fo--Im writing this j-st in cas- if we cant reac- you, but I pray to God -e can. If we can't get -- y-u, I want you to know that the b-nker's people are e--at--g to the bunker X_-437--28 about 2--0 mi--s north. I love you s-n, I hope we will s-e each oth-r soon.
Dad
Tears form in my eyes. Dad wrote me a goodbye letter, explaining to me something about evacuating because of something, and that mother was trying to wake me up, but couldn't for some reason. The note says something about another bunker somewhere around 2000 miles away? The serial numbers' right there but I don't know what any of it means. And on top of that not all of it is readable! They may be still alive and out there! I have to find out where they are and how to get there! But... wait. Wouldn't they already be dead? Has my entire family died of old age?
At this point, an uncontrollable stream of tears violently flow down from my eyes as I become choked up, coughing and spitting everywhere. I have nothing left now. I scream out loud, cursing in disbelief. What am I to do now, search for another bunker and live without a family?
I hear something over my fit of tears, making me calm down a bit. A big boom followed by a series of things clattering outside the house. It makes me jump a little, but also stops my episode. I turn to angle my ears towards the sound to hear a better detail of what it was, but silence follows the noise. I turn back to the note, folding it back to its original state, and gently place it into my back pocket to invenstigate what is going on outside. Is it another person? Is someone else in the bunker alive just like me? I step outside my house and cautiously left and right on the second floor. Nothing. Then I sneak to peek over the balcony.
A rush of excitement floods my body as I gasp from disbelief. A group of people wearing dirty equipment, holding drills and electonics, entered the open area on the first floor, curiously looking around like tourists. Excitement transforms into confusion when I see that they all have long rounded-off ears and strange looking hair. It almost looks like octopus tentacles on thier head. Plus, the color of their eyes are unnatural colors, ranging from orange to purple. All of these people have small unfamiliar pistols on their side. Right behind the group of people are two others who look different from the rest. One man and one lady enter the room through one of the hallways, both of which have weird waterguns on their backs and uniforms. The group spreads out among the grounds, tapping on kiosks, even entering some of the restaurants. During that, the two other people approach the center of the room at the tree, speaking a bizarre language. Its not just what they say that confuses me, its how their voices sound. Its almost like they are speaking through a vintage radio or something, but that's just how they speak normally. Plus, I can't make out a single clue of where they sperate their words.
During the conversation between the two, the man with red tentacle-like hair outstretches his hand to feel the tree, just as I had have already. Once he does, the entire tree shakes, yet another branch falling down. But this time, the tree branch is right above me, falling towards my head.
The very first chapter is finally done! Ive been thinking about it, and maybe I could change perspectives between Sean and the Anthea in order to lay out a detailed story, up until Sean can understand them, anyways. What do you think? Should I go with this idea, or should I stick woth Sean's perspective to not break the immersion? Leave a comment and I'll be sure to check it! Until next time!