Jaiden slowly opened his eyes, the glare of the bright afternoon sun momentarily blinding him. He sat up but was suddenly overwhelmed with dizziness, and after a few moments, the feeling passed. "It worked! You're alive!" a voice said in front of him. Jaiden looked up and saw a very weird…machine thing; a robot maybe? Jaiden rubbed his forehead, only to finding his hand meeting a helmet. He looked around and saw the devastation around him: He was on a highway, that much he was certain of, filled with cars, or remains of cars, all rusted with age; but many others were destroyed, like the group of vehicles around him. An image flashed through his mind: a brilliant flash of purple energy, a burning sensation, screams, and then it was suddenly gone. What the hell was that? "What happened here? Where am I? What are you?" He asked the machine while standing, and suddenly noticing that he is no longer wearing his shirt and pants, "And what the hell am I wearing?"
The machine looked at him, "We don't have a lot of time, but to answer your question of what I am: I'm a Ghost, well now I'm your Ghost. You're also wearing armor." Jaiden was now even more confused, "Why am I wearing armor?" The Ghost was about to answer when they both heard a multitude of roars echoing onto the highway. "That." The Ghost replied. "You've been dead a long time, so you're going to see a lot of things you won't understand." "Dead!? Then how did-"Another vision flashed through his mind; no not a vision, a memory: He, Marissa, and Emily on a family vacation, the roadblock of vehicles, strange ships in the sky, the purple pulse of energy flying towards them, his skin melting, then blackness. Jaiden quickly pulled of his helmet and vomited. My family is dead!? Why am I alive!? He started breathing heavily and panic started rising in his chest. He heard the roars echo around them again but didn't notice, "Guardian, we don't have much more time. We have to leave and head for the Wall", even the Ghost was beginning to panic now. "Guardian!" Jaiden was going deeper into shock, at least he was when he suddenly felt something collide with his helmet; hard. Jaiden let out an 'oomph' and grabbed his head and looked over at the Ghost, "C-can you bring my family back?" Desperation laced his voice and was obviously holding back tears. "I'm sorry," the Ghost replied, but I can only bring back those who were given the Traveler's Light. Now please, we have to go before you get killed again." Jaiden laughed bitterly to himself, 'What if I don't care about dying again?'
Regardless, he pulled himself up and started moving when a blue pulse whizzed by his ass, right where his head just was, feeling his hair, all of it, stand on end. "SHIT!" he yelled while jumping forward. The Ghost moved further ahead, "We need to go this way, quickly!" Jaiden started sprinting towards the Ghost, and right when he got near him, the Ghost disappeared. "Wait, where did you go!?" Then he heard the Ghost's voice in his helmet, "Don't worry, I'm still with you. Just keep running towards the Wall, and get inside." Jaiden was not the most athletic person in his family, his wife could attest to that when she took him jogging and he couldn't keep up, but now he was running like he had done it all his life. Admittedly, whatever the reason for this new found athleticism, was now proving very beneficial now as he was running like his ass was on fire; which it very well could have been from that near miss. Shots continued flying by him as he got nearer to the wall, and he finally spotted a doorway in the side of the wall. He very nearly made it inside when whatever was shooting at him finally found its mark and he face planted right into the dirt when his right leg buckled. A wave of pain shot up through his leg, leaving Jaiden gasping for breath. "Just a few more feet, you can do this" the Ghost encouraged. Jaiden pushed himself to his feet and limped over to the doorway before hurling himself inside and slamming the door shut. It was darker in here but there were still a few lights on to allow him to see, thankfully, as he had a staircase to go up. Jaiden checked his leg; there was a large scorch along the back of his leg and it was still throbbing. What am I going to do? Jaiden mused; I don't even know how to fight. The Ghost spoke up, "Well, that was the easy part. Now for the hard part; I hope you're ready for this." Jaiden could only bang his head on the wall in frustration.
