When Empires fall

-- SCANNING

-OUTER GATE AT 0% POWER

-EMERGENCY DOSE OFANTI-STASIS IN EFFECT

     -(This simply means that anyone being woke up from deep stasis sleep gets a double dose of fluids designed to wake up the subject. This is generally avoided as subjects who had been given double doses experienced severe discomfort for a short duration after waking up.)

     Jacob's eyes shot open, his consciousness returned to him after an eternity in stasis.

He felt highly strung, yet so weak and tired, an agonising aching in his arms and legs.

     But he forced is arms to respond, as he explored his cramped cage where his eyes were able to see.

Soon, after his eyes restored sight fully, he realised he wasn't in a cage at all... but some sort of body bag, and it was cold, very cold.

      There was some sort of gel and fabric giving some slight restraint to Jacob's legs, and the black body bag proved too strong for him to just simply rip his way out...

      Suddenly, all looked hopeless for Jacob, to suddenly wake up to die in this prison.

     Then, a memory flashed back to him, which reminded him that this was a Stasis Chamber. So he began searching desperately for the emergency release pad. Usually there should've been someone to get him out of stasis but he didn't care at this point. His fist hit a rectangle shape in the wall surrounding the body bag.

He shifted his body and hit and moved random bits on the shape.

     First he felt warmer, then he felt cold.

Then the light restraint on his legs gave way, giving his legs a lot more freedom.

     Then he heard a whirring sound, and found that there was no wall to his left, so he shifted his body again and rolled out.

He was still in this body bag, but he could see slight traces of light penetrating it.

     'If I could get out of the stasis pod, then I can get out of this too.' He thought.

His hands moved around until they found a zip, which then he forced them to push the zip over to his feet.

     'Agh!'

     The new burst of light stung his eyes, as he attempted to get off the floor and onto his feet.

He found the wall and leaned onto it for a few moments until his eyes were able to withstand the brightness of the room compared to the stasis pod he was in. He took note of his surroundings. On the corner at the back to his right was the stasis pod, with the body bag laying next to it. On the left was a sink, and next to the stasis pod was some lockers. He was about to open them when he felt something unsettling in his stomach. He ran to the sink instinctively and vomited out the milky substance.

     Groaning, he sat on the metal floor until he stopped having the urge to hurl.

Only then did he realise just how hungry and thirsty he was. So he went to the lockers to find some much needed food and water. When he opened all of them, he found a flashlight and one set of spare batteries. Then he found an orange liquid inside a container. Upon further inspection, he found a note which read NEUROLOGICAL CONNECTIONS STIMULATER- Any subject awakening after deep stasis should drink this for his/her and everyone else's convenience.

     Seeing that it was the only liquid he had, he drank, it had a strange but slightly refreshing taste, with a small hint of mints.

Suddenly, he found his vision a lot clearer and his muscles sharper and stronger, and he began to be able to recall more and more memories. But he was still hungry and thirsty. He could not find anything else apart from rotted food and a few empty syringes.

     He saw the door to the room and left it, and only found pitch black.

"EMERGENCY LIGHTING ON" boomed a loud yet feminine voice.

     What was pitch black gave way to a dim red tinted light. But it was still dark in most areas as most lights had not turned on. So Jacob got his flashlight, and proceeded down a corridor.

There were doors leading to other stasis pods, but when he tried to awake someone, the loud feminine voice would say;

"Subject- deceased."

     Which was strange as stasis, in theory, could preserve a person indefinitely, so long as the stasis pod was functional.

As he proceeded to the end of the corridor, he saw a tall object with a glass screen. He then realised it was a computer.

He pressed the screen and it came alive with a blue light.

"Genesis main database accessed, welcome Jacob Sanders.

"Computer, why is everyone I find dead?"

     "After the crucible fired, there was a slight fault in the hexallion shield around this world due to rushing. As a result, many systems in the life supports were crippled. However, oxygen and Co2 filters are still active, along with several other survivors in the other facilities."

"How long in stasis was I?"

     "You were put into stasis before the crucible fired in 4665, it is currently 4733, so you have been in stasis for 78 years, 134 days, 7 hours, and 9 minutes."

Eighty-odd years...

"Why was I woken up?"

     "The main gate has been breached despite lockdown, there were biological signatures detected, for your reassurance, none of those were contaminated with a pathogen. You were the highest rank not deceased, you need to aid AI in preserving the facility."

"What about our defences?"

"Security crews died in stasis."

Jacob sighed, but remembered how hungry he was.

"Where is the nearest refreshment?"

"Level 3 wing C cafeteria is 422 meters away, AI will set up lights on the floor to mark your waypoints."

"It is also recommended you posses a firearm by searching the security office which will be marked in green."

"Are there any other tasks?"

     "The emergence of biological signatures without pathogen proves an uncontaminated world, AI requires you to manually re-establish contact with the Genesis facilities to Earth command."

"Computer, off."

     The screen's light dimmed and then disappeared with a faint buzzing sound, he also noticed a pattern of lights on the floor, which he began to follow.

     It wasn't long before Jacob found green lights on one of the doors, assuming this was the security office, he walked in.

Inside, he saw a desk with screens from cameras monitoring the the facility. When he searched the room more closely, he found ballistic pistols and a pulse rifle.

    -( Several high grade rifles were given to all major facilities as the plague crisis progressed in the galaxy.)

     He took a Zerkov .44 anti-personal flak shot Mark II, he also grabbed a few rounds of spare ammo.

He then stopped.. Approaching a computer, he said;

"Computer, where is the nearest living stasis subject?"

"Level 3, wing B, room 42"

"Thank you"

     With that, he left the room to follow the way-point to the cafeteria.

As he neared his destination, he felt slight fagitue arise from severe hunger, but if he sat down, he wasn't getting up.

Eventually he entered a large hall with Wing B cafeteria written onto one of the walls. He rushed over the serving deck and searched frantically for food. Eventually, he was lucky enough to find a store room for ingredients and basic foods.

    It seemed like a golden find, as he found preserved foods amongst the rotted, like wrapped up cheese and crackers. Not only this, but there were half gallon water bottles as well. He placed one of them in his back pack along with some cheese and crackers. Jacob sighed as he drank and ate his energy back, and just laid on the floor for a few moments.

     Eventually, Jacob got back up, and headed for any other survivors in the facility...

--FLASHBACK--

     Jacob was in his veichle with his friend Werner and another friend called Dark. (Well that was what everyone only knew was his name.)

It was the 9th March 4628, 11:00 AM.

     The slight hum of his car came to a stop as he left his veichle. In the car in front of him, there was another man who stepped out.

"Hey man, you alright?"

"Sure, do you have any idea what's the hold up?"

"Hey, I haven't the first cllue, al I know is that a couple cops say there were some big accidents and it's going to be awful slow for a wh-"

     He was silenced by a explosion a few hundered meters away.

"HOLY SHI-!"

      Werner got out of the car screaming: "What in Jesus was that!?"

     There were a lot of police hovercopters heading towards the sight of thhe explosion. To further induce panic, the people near the explosion had started running.

One of the people ran near the three of them.

     "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING STANDING THERE? IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE AN ARM OR NOT THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

     Dark got out two, and before he could mention a single words, there was a hail of screaming in the distance followed by a multitude of gunshots. There were a lot more people running now, before they could decide what to do, a random person scrambled over the car, pinned the man from the other car down, and started biting him.

     Jacob instintively slammed onto the attacked and smashed him the face. The attacker didn't even fliched, but screamed at Jacob. His face was half burnt off, with the other half consisting of blood-smeared, necrotic flesh. He then resumed biting the man until blood showed up on his neck, and then aimed for another person running.

     "GUYS, LEAVE HIM, JUST FREAKING LEG IT!"

     All three of them starting running in the direction that the rest of the crowd were, a runaway fire truck charged through the traffic, smashing a hole before crashing into a burning police car. Dark soon noticed he was being chased by the man who had just been attacked. Fortunately, he then turned a woman who was a lot closer to him, but it wasn't fortunate for that woman in the end.

     It was chaos, there were rogue veichles going everywhere and people being attacked by crazed biting maniacs from all sides. Werner saw a pistol on the belt of a cop who had been killed by being crushed by a car, which he took and a spare round. He could now hear automatic gunfire, which was suddenly stopped after a few seconds, and was replaced by screaming.

     Two of these crazed maniacs began heading for Jacobs, which Werner intervened by emptying the whole clip on them.

One of them stayed on the ground after a headshot, but the other began to crawl at a medium pace towards Jacob, despite having been shot in the Lungs, left knee, and Neck. But they were all able to outrun him.

     "Damn it guys, I've only got one mag left!"

     "Just keep running!"

"But where godamnit!?"

      Jacob did not reply, he just going, untill he found a empty police car, with the former driver sprinting towards them. Werner put himk down with a couple of shots, and Dark grabbed the keys and another gun with ammo from his belt.

     "Drive drive DRIVE DAMN IT"