The Last Remnants
By: 007
Chapter 1: Escape
Sev awoke, his vision blurry and his memory gone...He was being dragged by two figures he couldn't quite make out, as his vision got better, he could start to make out the figures, they were human, but covered from head to toe in heavy body armor, much like riot police, their helmets covered their faces so Sev could not make out who they were.
They silently drug Sev into a large room with a chair, looked like it was designed to have someone strapped into it. Sev was too weak to resist, right now he'd settle for being able to remember what the hell was going on.
The guards threw Sev into the room, he struggled to get up before two more guards showed up and strapped him to the chair. He looked around the dark room for any sign of life when a woman, looked like a high ranking soldier walked up to him
"So...Care to explain what you were doing on our side of the divide, sir?" The woman asked in an official tone.
"I don't know what you are talking about, lady." Sev responded.
The woman smacked him across the face, hard "DON'T! USE THAT TONE WITH ME!" She shouted.
Sev looked at her with anger in his eyes, breathing heavier than before. "I don't know what the fuck is going on around here. I don't even know what I'm doing here!"
The woman took a deep breath and sighed "You were found outside your camp, in OUR territory, what were you doing here?"
Sev struggled to remember what he was doing here. "I don't remember."
The woman smacked him a few more times "Really? Maybe this will refresh your memory!" She wailed on him a couple more times before getting an inch away from his face "Are you one of those rebels? WELL?"
Sev clenched his teeth, panting from the beating. "I have no idea what you are talking about!"
A few more hits actually started to jog Sev's memory, he could see a few images, images of his home, of Equestria, Canterlot, Cloudsdale...It was starting to come together.
"I...I remember..." Sev whispered to himself
The woman stopped for a second "Good. Maybe you'd like to tell me before I throw you in the prison with the rest of you rebels!"
Sev shook his head. That's when he remembered, he remembered her...His wife.
"I was looking for her..." Sev said softly
"'Her?'" The woman asked aggresively.
"My wife...And my friends..." Sev responded.
The woman's face turned even more aggressive as she began smacking Sev around again "WIFE?! YOU ARE ONE OF THEM!"
As the woman continued wailing on him, a sudden explosion blew the door open, gunshots suddenly were heard as the officer fled, the guards were mowed down by what Sev assumed were assault rifles.
A man approached him, untied his straps and checked him over "You alright? Come on! We gotta get out of here!" He got Sev up and lead him out of the room. Sev picked up one of the guards' assault rifles and followed the man, he wasn't sure where they were going, but hell, anywhere is better than here.
The two headed down hallway after hallway, the man didn't say much other than "This way! That way!" When they encountered a group of guards down one hallway, the two took cover "Hope you know how to use that thing, kid!" The man shouted as bullets flew past them.
Sev took aim and shot down one of the guards as the others fired upon them, the man covered Sev's assault as he picked off the guards one by one, they were narrowly missing Sev's head, and he had no armor, the mysterious man was covered with light body armor however, he could probably take a bullet or two without much problem.
Sev and the man cleared out the guards and continued down the hall, they made their way downstairs where even more guards awaited them.
"This way kid!" The man shouted, signaling for Sev to get into one of the vents, Sev did so and the man followed, directing him through the vents till they could see the outside, a nighttime city, they dropped out of the vent, alarms could be heard and guards scrambling about.
"We're not out of this just yet." Said the man as he led Sev over to the wall outside the building. "Stay close to me and we'll get out of here alive." Sev said nothing and nodded.
"Quiet one, eh? That's fine." The man commented as they stuck close to the wall, spotlights were searching the grounds for signs of Sev and the man. What the hell was this? Where the hell was this? Sev had no time to ask questions, they needed to get out alive.
The two snuck past guards and spotlights as they made their way through the main grounds, they came up to what looked like a manhole. The man opened the lid and signaled for Sev to go down "Get down there kid."
Sev climbed down and the man followed. Sewers...Lovely.
The two walked through the sewers, the man looked over at Sev "Stay alert kid. The guards might be looking for us down here."
"What the hell is going on around here anyway?" Sev asked
"Heh, you must have taken a serious bump to the head" The man replied.
"Something like that...You could say I'm not from around here." Sev responded.
"You much be from fuckin' Antarctica then, cause this is happening all over the world." The man responded as they approached some kind of tunnel. It looked man-made.
"Antarctica? Am I...Back on Earth?" Sev thought to himself, his memory coming back to him.
The two reached some sort of man made tunnel system and the man lowered his rifle as the two walked. "Alright, we're safe here, come on, I'll take you back to my HQ. I'm Lee by the way, what's your name?"
"Sev."
"Sev, huh? Odd name, you really must not be from around here. So. Mind telling me what made you think it was a good idea to waltz into the female city?"
Sev looked over at Lee, confused "Female city?"
"Jesus, you must be new in town. I can tell I'll have to do A LOT of explaining when we get to HQ." Lee responded with a chuckle.
The two reached some sort of underground community of people, the people looked to be in pretty bad shape. What was going on? Why were these people like this?
Lee and Sev approached a building, the Headquarters. Lee took Sev to his office and locked the door behind them, standing against the wall he crossed his arms and looked at Sev sternly "Alright kid, what's going on? Why were you waltzing into the woman's city?"
Sev shook his head "I dunno what's going on around here...I'm just looking for my wife and 5 friends."
Lee's eyebrow rose as he looked at Sev inquisitively. "Wife, eh? Ain't seen you in the underground before."
Sev looked at Lee confusedly "Underground?"
Lee shook his head "You're in the Underground, kid. This is our refuge from that psycho dictator above ground."
Sev thought to himself for a moment then looked at Lee "Look, I just wanna find my wife and friends and get out of here."
Lee chuckled "Real cowboy, huh? Well...I dunno where you think you're going but if you wanna find your wife and friends I might be able to help you."
Sev nodded "Thanks, Have you seen them? They look like this." Sev handed Lee a picture of his wife and five friends. All six of them were young women in their early twenties, same age as Sev appeared to be.
Lee looked the picture over and his jaw dropped in shock "Your wife...And friends...They're the 6?"
"The 6?" Sev responded confusedly.
"The 6 other-worlders, most just call them the 6...So that means, you're from the other world?" Lee responded
Sev nodded "Yeah, I left earth some time ago, when the portal opened."
Lee shook his head in disbelief "Only a few people entered that portal...You're the first one to come back."
Sev shrugged.
Lee regained his composure "That would explain why you don't know about what's going on around here. Earth's changed since you left, kid."
Sev looked around "I can see that."
Lee chuckled "You got a lot to learn, kid." He sighed and began pacing. "The world is...Falling apart. When we came together and decided to have one global leader, we thought we were taking one more step towards world peace...Then SHE came along...Jessica Cho. Our new leader...Psychotic bitch..."
Sev looked at Lee "What did she do?"
Lee looked over at Sev "You saw what she did...But perhaps I should explain more...When she took power she started boasting this grand scheme, that humans...Specifically women, have evolved past the need for men, we're no longer needed and we're just holding the human race back."
Sev cocked his head "You can't be serious..."
"Does it sound like I'm kidding, kid?" Lee responded.
Sev simply shook his head "That's insane!"
"You're telling me, over the years she built camps, all over the world, threw all the males in them while the females got to live in the cities. We've been struggling ever since." Lee said with a sigh.
Sev just looked at Lee in disbelief "How do they keep the population up? I mean if we aren't allwed to breed won't humans die out?"
"Cho's gotcha covered, the males are allowed to...Donate to the cause so to speak, and the women on the other side of the wall have kids...Artificially."
Sev blinked and gave a blank stare for a moment as he processed this information "That's barbaric! So...What happens when the kid is born?"
Lee chuckled "That's where it gets interesting, they have a system over there, woman gives birth to a boy, she raises him till he gets to a certain age then they throw him in the male camp, if she has a girl, she gets raised in the city."
Sev couldn't believe what he was hearing. He stared at Lee for a few seconds before responding "That's Horrible...Insane!"
"You're telling me, Kid." Lee responded while staring at his desk.
"So...What about this 'Underground?' Are you guys the rebels that woman was interrogating me about?" Sev asked curiously.
Lee nodded "Yep. We're the Underground. We're a group of rebels, both men and women who think Cho's a crazy bitch who needs to be taken down. Down here we can all live together like we used to, kids don't have to be separated from their parents and everyone can live happily...Well as happily as they can being underground."
Sev nodded in response "I see. But why would women want to live down here as opposed to living it good in the city though?"
Lee chuckled "Most women don't want their kids taken away from them, and besides it's not as amazing as you think, there are patrols, guards everywhere, it's a police state, think of old North Korea, only without the famine and sickness. A lot of women don't want to live in some police state city where if a guard is feeling twitchy and suspects they're in cahoots with us males they'll take them to that lovely facility you were locked in."
Sev put his head in his hands "Jesus...Sweet Celestia...This is crazy..."
Lee stood up and walked over to Sev "You're lucky you get to live in the other world, You need to get your wife and friends out of here...And we're gonna help you." Lee said reassuringly as he handed Sev back his photo.
"Come on kid, I'll show you around and then we'll figure out where to go next..." Lee said, patting Sev on the back and leading him out of the office. Learning of Earth's new hostile environment just made him want to get his wife and friends out of here more. But how?
Lee opened the door leading back out into the community of people.
"Welcome to the Underground, kid."
