Whole New World
Chapter 3
Struggle

The smell of dirty air filled Dano’s nostrils as he took his first breath outside the hospital. Even after twenty years cities still smell like shit. Dano took in his surroundings slowly, adjusting to the landscape around him. Just like he saw from the room he had awoken in the buildings and streets were in a state of decay. The sound of a slow breeze moving its way through the ruined city was the only noise that entered Dano’s ears, and it made him feel uneasy and alone.

Dano turned around and looked at the hospital behind him, and for some reason the building lacked the decay of the world around him. All of the windows were intact, and except for the scars of combat from long ago the building was okay. Dano’s curiosity peaked, but he threw the thought into the ‘think about it later’ folder in his brain.

Dano turned forward once again and began to scan the world, but nothing struck his interest. Only when his gaze reached a parking garage to his immediate right did Dano have the urge to explore.

The four story parking garage looked like any other, except for the fact that there was a ten foot tall fence topped with concertina wire surrounding it, and the entrance had walls of sand bags around it. The toll booth that sat in between two entrance roads looked like it was transformed into a bunker, with sand bags replacing the plexiglas windows.

Dano was a smart kid. He could put two and two together in almost any subject, but he excelled in two focuses. The first was electrical, because of his father’s guidance. The other was history, but not the history that most people learned in high school. Dano considered that ‘political history’. The history Dano loved was military history. Ever since he was young all he wanted to be was a soldier. His parents dismissed it at first, but when Dano started contacting recruiters at sixteen his father realized Dano was for real. To make sure he got a college degree, Dano’s father had made a deal with his son. Go to college and then enlist. Out of concern and love for his father Dano agreed.

Dano’s love for the military lead to a somewhat freaky knowledge of weapons, tactics and strategies used from the classical era to the present. He read books on generals like Napoleon and Patton, and watched the Military Channel religiously. He also played first person shooters like Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield, as well as real time strategy games like Age of Empires, Dawn of War and the Total War series. Kids would usually make fun of Dano’s knowledge and video game habits, but he didn’t care. When he played those games he seemed to drift into a deep mental focus, as if the moves he made were actually being carried out on a real battlefield.

With his knowledge spouting facts in the back of his head Dano recognized the defensive position instantly. The garrison must have been tasked with defending the hospital, and the open fourth floor was perfect for suppressing or sniper fire. Plus the small entrance made it impossible for any force to move in without taking massive casualties.

Dano cautiously moved away from the entrance of the hospital and across a small patch of grass to the entrance road of the fortified parking garage. It didn’t take him long to cross the open area that stretched about twenty five yards, but it felt like an eternity to Dano. His senses were heightened, and every bit of movement, from the rustling of stray papers in the breeze to particles of floating dust, was documented in his head.

When he made it to the entrance he took cover in front of the toll booth turned bunker, pressing his back onto the sandbagged window that dominated most of the booth, making sure he wasn’t exposed to the gun port. Dano quieted his breath and listened, but the only thing he heard was the wind.

Dano felt really hot for some reason, his brow was drenched with sweat and he was breathing a little hard. He has only walked over here, so he shouldn’t have been so sweaty. Dano realized with a mental face palm that he was wearing a sweatshirt in June. Dano removed the extra layer, using the sleeves as a belt he secured the sweat shirt around his waist. The cool breeze moved over Dano’s lanky body, and evaporated the thin layer of sweat over his exposed skin.

Feeling about twenty percent cooler Dano began to move into the parking garage. His knees were bent in an athletic stance as he walked, eyes darting around. After a few feet the entrance opened into the parking garage proper. It was wide open, asphalt floored and eerily quiet. Dano didn’t see any cars, but actually olive drab canvas tents. One long tent to his left spanned the entire wall and reached up to the ceiling. A pair of smaller and shorter tents took up the right wall, with a gap in-between that lead to the stair well. The smaller tent farthest from Dano actually blocked the route cars would take to reach the higher levels.

Dano decided to check out the big tent first, and moved slowly through the dim light of the garage to a pair of thin wooden doors. They were attached to a frame that was secured to the ground by cinderblocks. The building was definitely temporary.

Dano walked through the door, and made sure it closed without a sound. He scanned the large interior to see dozens of five foot long wooden tables with matching benches. At first Dano believed that it was a mess hall, but there wasn’t any serving area. Dano thought about it, and realized that it must actually be a briefing room. His suspicions were confirmed by the sight of a small stage that rested against the far left wall of the tent. After quickly scanning the rest of the briefing room Dano decided to leave, noticing that the only thing in the tent was the stage and the tables.

Dano moved with less caution across the emptiness of the garage to the tent to the left of the stair well, the one that blocked the ascending road. This one had a single door that matched the double doors of the mess hall. Dano opened the entrance and peered inside. To the right, against the wall, was a row of three metal beds that protruded outward, all of them had white sheets like the hospital. On the left wall rested metallic racks of what appeared to be medical supplies. Dano moved into, what he believed to be, the infirmary and scanned the shelves. Gauze, disinfectant, plastic gloves, and many more items covered the racks. Dano turned and left the tent without grabbing anything, remembering to come back when he had a pack.

Dano crossed the small hallway between the two smaller tents and entered the last unexplored tent. Inside was a desk, a cheap grey metal one. Behind that on the wall was a board covered in papers and maps. Dano quickly deduced this was the C.O.s room.

Dano entered and looked around. There wasn’t anything on the rest of the walls and the tent seemed pretty bare, except for some short filling cabinets to the immediate right of the door. Dano moved behind the desk and opened the top right drawer and found something that made his heart jump for joy. Lying inside was a revolver in its holster. Dano grabbed the gun and pulled it out while it was still sheathed. The actual holster was attached to leather straps that resembled a back pack. Dano pulled the straps over his shoulders and tightened them. The revolver faced behind him, and rested on the left side of his rib cage. Dano pulled off the securing strap and pulled the gun out.

The revolver had a wooden handle, a stainless finish, and a long barrel. After fiddling with the weapon Dano finally got the cylinder to slide out to the left. The revolver had all six of its rounds. Dano squinted to read the indents on the back of the bullets. He eyes widened when he saw the number forty four stamped on the heel of the cartridge. Dano was now in possession of a .44 Magnum handgun. He flicked his wrist and the cylinder smoothly slid back into its place with a satisfying click. A thought dawned on Dano, and he smiled as he extended his arm, aimed the revolver at the bottom of one of the tents corners, squinted his eyes and spoke with a raspy voice.

“I know what you’re thinking punk. You’re thinking ‘did he fire six shots or only five’. Now to tell you the truth I’ve forgotten myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, it can blow you head clean off. You got to ask yourself one question, ‘do I feel lucky?’ Well do you, punk?” Dano burst into a huge fit of laughter. He just recited the most famous Dirty Harry line while holding an actual .44 Magnum.

After a few minutes Dano finally got control of himself. It felt good to laugh, but he still needed to finish exploring the parking garage. Dano searched the other three drawers of the desk, and found around two hundred .44 magnum rounds in a relatively small plastic box. The rest of the desk contained forms and papers, and weren’t of real use to Dano. He slipped the rounds into his pocket and left the command tent.

Dano checked his watch as he walked towards the stair well to the right of the command tents door. It read ’12:05 pm’. Dano was relieved that he still had several hours of light left as he ascended the stairs. He popped his head through an open doorway that lead to the second story, and found sixteen tents the same size as the infirmary and command tent. They were spread out in a cross formation with two walkways that met in the middle. Dano assumed that this floor was the residential area, and decided to keep going up to the other floors.

The third floor was empty, as well as the fourth. Dano returned to the second floor, and stepped out of the stair well. Not knowing where to start he entered the tent to his left. Inside rested six metallic cots with green military bedding. Some of the beds were made, while others were a mess. The six cots jutted out of the walls, three to Dano’s left, three to his right creating a hallway down the center of the tent. Dano noticed that under each of the cots was a green colored chest. Moving to the first cot to his right he kneeled and pulled the chest out, opened it and examined the contents.

He found a pair of matching combat uniforms with grey and brown camouflage, socks, underwear, undershirts, some letters, pens, paper and assorted personal knick-knacks. He moved to another chest, and found the same. He was on the sixth and last chest in the room, underneath the farthest left bunk, when he found something worth taking.

Dano pulled out a knife that he estimated to be around eight inches long. It was heavier than he expected as he looked over the dark leather sheath to try and find any identification. Without finding anything he turned his attention to the handle. Attached to the grip were some brass knuckles. Dano put his hand around the handle, sliding his fingers into the brass knuckles. They fit him perfectly, without any gap between his fingers and the metal. Dano pulled the blade from its sheath and examined it. It was reflective and sharp. The previous owner had taken good care of the weapon. Dano twirled the blade in the air, when a group of indentations caught his eye. Stamped on the base of the blade was a serial number with another number below it. Dano muttered the number out loud, “1917”, he figured that was when the knife was made. It explained the weight. The blade, handle and brass knuckles weren’t some light synthetic metal, but actual steel.

Dano was about to put the blade back in its sheath when he heard a growl to his left. Dano quickly stood, squared his shoulders and bent his knees in an athletic stance. In front of him in the door was a dog with its yellow teeth bared and a deep growl emanating from its throat. Not a god damn sound in the place, and you can’t hear a stupid dog sneak up on you? Dano’s brain reprimanded itself.

The dog had a brown dirty coat, and he looked starved. His ribs were clearly showing, as well as his hip bones. Several furless scars covered his body, and made the feral beast seem even more terrifying.

Dano couldn’t recognize the breed in front of him, probably because it was a mutt. Dano’s mind flashed to his gun as the dog slowly entered the tent. He dismissed the thought, the weapon was too powerful to use without training in close combat. Dano had to rely on his knife.

To Dano’s horror two more dogs entered the tent. The first of the reinforcements was about the same size as the first and sported a very dirty white coat, and the last dog was much larger and black. Dano could recognize that the black dog was the pack leader as if he had neon lights around him. He steeled his nerves as the three dogs fanned out as best they could in the small tent, creating a semicircle around Dano, who had his back to the wall. The brown one moved to Dano’s left, the black one in the center and the white one to his right.

Adrenalin pumped through Dano’s veins, and his senses heightened. He could hear the slight differences of pitch from each of the dog’s growl. He could smell the difference between each beast , and their breaths. Dano could feel the cool brass knuckles on his fingers, and each small indentation of the leather bound handle in his right hand. His eyes began to tunnel vision, and Dano had to shift his eyes to see each of the dogs.

The stand-off went on for an eternity, before the dog on Dano’s left leapt at him. Dano reacted later than he wanted, dropping his left shoulder just before the dog’s jaws could clamp down and managed a week punch to the dog’s ribs with his brass knuckles. The dog was nocked aside onto a bed just as the white dog to Dano’s right pounced. Dano was ready this time and swung the blade in a downward arc, catching the leaping dog between the shoulder and neck. The blade slid through flesh and bone as the power of Dano’s swing and the momentum of the dog pushed the blade deeper. The white dog yelped and crashed into the canvas wall behind Dano, no longer breathing. The pack leader decided to get into the fight at the same time the brown dog righted itself and counterattacked. Dano reacted to the brown dog first, in a fluid motion from his last strike stabbed the lunging dog in the throat. The brown dog slid all the way to the base of the blade, its blood spilling all over Dano’s hand. He tilted the blade and the dog slid off the knife, and Dano tried to square himself to fend off the pack leader, but he was too slow. The black dog had already closed on Dano and sank its teeth into his right thigh. Dano screamed in pain and rage as the pack leaders jaw continued to tighten, blood dripping out of its maw. Dano wound up and punched the top of the black dogs head. The brass knuckled did their job and the dog’s skull split, but its jaws still clamped onto Dano’s leg. The dog began to tug, ripping Dano’s flesh as he punched again, the force of his fist driving grey matter and blood out of the cracks in the dog’s skull. After the second blow the dog’s jaw slackened, and the pack leader slumped.

Dano felt the adrenalin leave his blood, and the pain in his leg increase. He fell to his knees. Dano tried to stand, but the pain from the bite was too overwhelming. His mind was racing, it screamed at him to get treatment. Dano was tired, but he had to agree with his survival instincts. Dano cleaned the blade with the coat of the pack leader, slipped it into its sheath and thrust it into his pocket with his magnum rounds. About three inches of the blade and the handle jutted out of the bulging pocket. Dano tried to stand up again, and this time pushed through the pain.

Once standing Dano shuffled out of the tent and toward the steps. The stairs were difficult, but he managed to push through without collapsing. Once on the ground floor Dano made a b-line for the medical tent. He forced the door open and limped inside. His boot made a squishing sound as it began to fill with blood. Dano grabbed as much gauze, sterile swabs and rubbing alcohol as he could carry then turned and left the infirmary.

Dano limped out of the parking garage and towards the hospital. It was difficult to hold on to his supplies, and he occasionally had to stop and shift them around so they wouldn’t fall. He walked across the open area between the hospital and the parking garage, and through the open doors of the hospital. Dano tried his best to close them behind him, but was only able to get them about a foot apart from each other. As he shuffled through the bright hallways Dano mind barked at him that time was running out, and he started pushing himself to get to safety. After a long few minutes he found the room he had slept in the previous night, and let himself in. Dano closed the door behind him, turned the lock and shuffled to the bed. The room was filled with the afternoon sunlight, making it quite easy to see around the area.

Dano sat down on the bed, and tried to not get blood on the sheets. He pried his boots off, then removed his pants and the sweat-shirt from around his waist. All three pieces of clothing had blood on them from the bite, and a tiny piece of Dano wondered how he was supposed to get it out.

Once his pants were off Dano inspected the wound. The bite wasn’t deep and the blood that came out wasn’t a dark shade of red, but the bite spanned from the inside of his thigh, around the leg, to the outside. Dano gritted his teeth in preparation and poured some rubbing alcohol over the wound. The pain was excruciating, and Dano nearly passed out as the alcohol killed all of the bacteria in the wound. Sure he had disinfected the bite Dano packed sterile swaps around the wound, then wrapped the bite tightly with the gauze.

Dano’s leg throbbed and the pain was intense, but he felt a little pride in his handy work. He inspected the sheets to see if any blood got on it, but thankfully it was clean. Dano pulled himself into bed and sighed. The sun was still up, and would be for several more hours. First day out and I get bit by a feral dog. Dano closed his eyes and laid in bed. He couldn’t do anything for at least a little while so his wound could heal. Dano sighed again and tried to get some sleep.

The sun set and the moon rose, but Dano wasn’t asleep. The pain in his leg kept him awake, and every twitch sent a new spike of pain into his skull. He laid in bed for what felt like eternity, before passing out from the sheer exhaustion of the fight.

Dano was kneeling in a dark abyss. There was no floor or walls or ceiling, just blackness. Dano was slumped, his back curved, staring at his knees. He was the spitting image of a man who had given it his all, but failed in the end. The pain in his leg was barely felt, like it was just a memory, a phantom pain.

Dano stayed slumped for what felt like days until he felt a presence. Dano looked up to see the two women again, both wearing the same regal cloaks and facial expressions. Dano opened his mouth to speak, but the one in white raised a hand to stop him. She spoke with a warm, calm, soothing voice. One that reminded Dano of his mother when he was young and hurt.

“You have passed your first test Daniel.”

The other woman spoke, her voice just as soothing, but cool and formal.

“But it is the first of many.”

Dano stared at the two woman, not really understanding what they were saying. The one in white continued.

“Your journey will be long and difficult, but you must see it through.”

The one in dark blue spoke again.

“Many lives depend on your success, and time cannot be wasted.”

Dano’s expression was one of confusion as the words swirled in his brain. The two woman spoke in unison.

“Only you can stop the coming darkness Daniel Masset. You must not fail.”

The two woman put an hand on Dano’s head and a bright light emanated from their fingers. Dano felt something move through him, a calming force that pushed away his doubt, a healing wave of confidence and love. After a few seconds the light had subsided, and Dano looked up to see that the women were gone. The blackness enveloped him, and Dano slipped even deeper into sleep.

Dano awoke to light pouring onto his face. He blinked a few times before sitting up with a little pain and soreness in his right leg. Dano looked at his watch. It read ‘June 18 2032, 10:43am’. Dano stared at the watch for a few minutes. He had been asleep for two weeks. Why does this keep happening to me?

there you go people
new chapter
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kthanxbai