Johan Picklesworth

by BadAtEnglish

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Alternate Universe
Length: 16834

An amazing story of magic, adventure and mystery.

A fantasy novel about how young men and woman are tossed out of their regular lives into the future in which everything is different. Humans are in hiding. There are monsters and creatures whose existence they cannot explain and they need to find out what happened and if possible get back home. However, along the way, they discover that things are not as simple as they seem and they are a part of something much much bigger.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-14 00:04:06 UTC

Ch 1 - 14

Prologue



The field was wrought with the bodies of fallen warriors. The grass glistened red the color of blood under the crimson sun. Standing in the middle of the field stood a man and woman. The man was muscular, black, bald, and tall, the woman was elegant and white, with flowing black hair and green eyes. They wore gowns similar to the Greeks of that era, however, the gowns were embroidered with Chinese characters.

“Idrissa…”, boomed the man in a deep masculine voice.

“Yes, Aoife…”, replied the woman, in a dazed voice full of despair. “This cannot happen again, things are far too out of balance… if this happens again, I fear we will not be able to contain it”, Idrissa said slowly.

“What do you propose we do?”, Aoife said.

They stared at each other not exchanging words, Aoife’s eyes widened.

“Wait, Aoife, before you say anything… Lyall died this time… this cannot happen again… “, spoke Idrissa in a voice void of emotion.

“Yes but… “, gasped Aoife.

“No…it is our duty to keep things under control… I can’t let things get out of hand. We had enough trouble this time and we barely made it … Lyall died… ”, replied Idrissa.

“… You are such an idiot, what are you thinking?”, responded Aoife in a loud shocked voice.

The sun disappeared beyond the horizon. Idrissa had arranged the corpses of some of the fallen in a circle around a bon fire she had summoned with a fire spell. The corpses were all lying on their backs with their heads pointing towards the fire, while their feet pointed away.

Aoife’s was circling outside the perimeter of the bodies surrounding the fire dragging a stick behind him chanting.

Idrissa proceeded to sing a story in an erie voice while making weird jesters and poses with her body.

Haja lala Komi Kaka lala tarusona. Sleeping God your guardians call… we need for another saAVVvviIIiiooOoORrRRrr… over the time our power grew weak, and we found the dimensions did change us.

The fourth defied the laws and tried to take control of this land’s chillllldreeennNNN…

They rose up tall and fought with their all, but they were too WEEEAAAKKkkK. We broke the rules and intervened, to save your children’s land. We stood tall and engaged in a brawl, and one of us did fall, and now the outlook is bleak…

We call you up to intervene, and will pay the price with an adequate sacrifice, so please help us to …

A glow began in the circle that Aoife had drawn around the bonfire. The corpses of the bodies suddenly started to burn. The flames on the bodies quickly grew and connected to the bon fire at the center of the circle.

Idrissa gasped as the very matter around them seemed to warp.

Aoife quickly drew a star in the air and the bodies in the battle field outside the circle surrounding them disintegrated and the dust rushed towards the bon fire and seemed to stop the environment from morphing.

Idrissa collapsed breathing quickly and her body began to age rapidly.

Seeing this, Aoife began to dance and run around the circle quickly while striking strange poses every once in a while. A strange lightening bolt with a mirror like glow jumped out of Idrissa and hit Aoife. This stopped Idrissa from aging.

Aoife he started to bellow in a musical voice and continued the song Idrissa had been singing.

seal the fourth and save this world so that we can sleEEEEpppp. Coraleu Tata Lavu Eien la Zo Feenee. Jaka lin Kake Tata Nene Walawala veenee.

Once again the atmosphere began to warp, however, this time with all the bodies burnt up, Aoife’s flesh began to rot. Suddenly a vortex opened and in the distance a shrill scream was heard. The ground began to rumble, and thunder boomed in the distance.

Idrissa spoke in a weak voice, “Aoife… did we do it? Did we get the message through to the creator?”.

Aoife fell back first into the ground and the grass he fell on appeared to shrivel up and die. “I think we did…” responded Aoife.

“I cannot see anymore Aoife… What was the cost of this spell?” gasped Idrissa.

Aoife’s leg started to make a sickening sounded as it decomposed right in front of his eyes.

“We were lucky Idrissa... It seems as if our souls are still intact. Normally the cost of talking to the creator cost the castors their life… and then some more… but this time, I compensated by routing the remaining life-force in the battle field corpses when I saw you wouldn’t be able to finish your spell without dying. Furthermore, in order to ensure we survived I channeled this dimension’s mana into the seal. So most spells can no longer be used in this dimension as long as the seal remains on the fourth. It was costly, however it was for the best… for now, we and this Universe will survive…”

Idrissa started to sob quietly. “Aoife… are we going to have to live the rest of our existence as cripples? Can we survive without mana? are we going to die?”.

Aoife garnered the strength to prop his head to the side to examine Idrissa. The once beautiful maiden Idrissa, was anything but beautiful. Her skin had crumpled up into a rough leathery texture and begun sagging… her once perfectly proportionate and evenly colored skin was littered with wrinkles and unevenly colored. The hair had taken on a coarser less thick appearance. However, the most striking thing about her was that her eyes had lost their lively green color and had turned completely white.

Aoife made a strange gester with his finger. “Don’t worry Idrissa, one day… we will walk again, however, for now let us rest… I predicted this might happen and prepared a special spell for it.”

Aoife then proceeded to hum, and big gust of wind came out of nowhere and smashed into Idrissa making her evaporate into the air. Once Aoife finished his humming, his hand fell off, and his nose started to eat away at itself. Painfully and slowly Aoife lift up his head and slammed it into the earth. A loud thud resonated from Aoife’s head hitting the ground and his body turned into soil and was sucked into down into the earth.

The lush green ground that had been covered in grass where he had been lying turned into sand and the sand spread out consuming the area for miles transforming the once lush green battle zone into a desert…

The inhabitants of the world many years in the future came to call this land the Sahara desert. The story of this epic battle was forgotten and never recorded… for no one was left alive to tell it and the world moved on as if nothing had happened.

Chapter 0



Johan sat in a brightly lit classroom behind his desk amidst other students staring at a large green chalk board. A tall, skinny, black haired, balding Croatian physics teacher energetically drew out a series of equations on the board as the student’s diligently copied down what he wrote.

Johan doodled pictures of race cars in his notebook and perked up his ears as he heard students behind him giggling and whispering. Johan perked up his ears and glanced back at them in hopes of overhearing an entertaining conversation. He adjusted his black glasses that had begun to slip down his nose.

Suddenly, a meter stick crashed down on the table in front of him, snapping.

“Johan Flint!”

Johan sat up right startled and looked up to see his physics teacher, Mr Bellas staring down at him.

“You’ve been diligently taking down notes I see!”, boomed Bellas.

“Y-y-yes Sir!”, responded Johan hesitantly.

The student’s in his classroom snickered around him.

“If you are going to draw during my class”, said Bellas. “At least draw something interesting … like my beautiful physique!”

He took a pose arching his back, sticking out his pelvis and flexing his biceps showing a impressively developed bicep bulging beneath his black shirt. The class burst out laughing as the bell rang. Johan smiled and said, “Maybe next time Sir.”

Johan hurriedly put his books in his bag and the teacher relaxed his pose looked around and yelled, “Remember, read chapter 11 on non-linear kinetics and do all the questions at the end of it, that is your homework for today!”

Johan slung his bag over his shoulder and walked to the door.

“Hey Johan!”, a scraggly looking blond haired teenager walked up beside Johan. “Bellas is a joker isn’t he?”

“Hey Berry”, said Johan. “People around here love him. I hear big Bill challenged him to an arm wrestle and was lost. It’s crazy, Bill is like double his size.”

“Yeah”, said Berry. “No one has beaten him yet for the last ten years he has taught here. He used to arm wrestle in competitions apparently. How many of those meter sticks do you think he has broken. He breaks one whenever he wants to get someone’s attention …”

“Probably in the thousands.”, said Johan. “You know, I can beat him at an arm wrestle if I wanted to … I got a fool proof training strategy. It will allow me to beat any champ in the world.”

“Oh yeah?”, said Berry. “Bull droppings! How?”

“Special training techniques man.”, said Johan smilling. “Eat right, work out, and train. Eventually, Bellas will be too old to have a decent arm wrestle against us youngins. With father time in my corner, I cannot loose.”

Berry laughed, looked around and said, “We should go to English class now.”

“You go ahead. I am going to grab a bite to eat from the cafeteria”, said Johan. “I’m starving.”

“Gosh .. I hate that class”, said Berry. “I think teaching English class got to Buchiemnicka’s head. Her head ain’t right … she’ll piss on you for no reason.”

Johan laughed and said, “Common man, she is just a regular old lady. What is the worst thing she can do?”

Berry shrugged and said, “She controls your grades man. Anyways, I am off to class, I’ll see you there. I am not gonna give her a reason to target me.”

“Alright”, said Johan as he bumped fists with Berry and then walked aways down the hall leaving Berry behind.

Johan weaved past a flurry of students making their way to different destinations through locker lined halls. He walked through doors that led to a flight of stairs and large open room which had groups of students talking to each other with elaborate gesters periodically laughing. He got to another set of doors to which led to the cafeteria. There was a line up of students buying various meals and items.

Johan walked to the line pulling out spare change from his pocket and heard students whispering in the line ahead of him.

“… that kid Johan is an creep Dave.”, said a red headed girl to a brown skinny boy with glasses.

“Really?”, said Dave. “Weird maybe … possibly gay. However, since he doesn’t care about you, why do you trash talk him so much Kira?”

“Totally gay”, said Kira. “… and I think he likes me.”

“It is weird though ….”, said the Dave. “he likes Violet, so how does that work?”

Johan cleared his throat loudly. Dave and Kira looked back surprised.

“I am not gay”, said Johan with a frown. “not that anything is wrong with it … and I don’t have a thing for you, Dave or Violet. The only person I am in love with at the moment is myself.”

Dave and Kira stared back at Johan silently. Then Kira turned to Dave and said, “I am suddenly not hungry anymore. I am going to class, I’ll talk to you later.”

Kira walked in a hurry out of the classroom.

Dave turned to Johan and said, “Ignore her man. She just talks a lot of shit, she is bat shit crazy.”

“I know”, said Johan. “I don’t care what people say about me, however, I do care if people start believing it.”

“Yeah man.”, said Dave. “I totally know where you are coming from.”

“No you don’t.”, said Johan. “I don’t even like you. You talk about me almost as much as her. It is like you are in love with me or something. I’m not deaf man.”

Dave frowned and said, “I don’t think I am hungry anymore … I am going to go ....”

Johan nodded as Dave left the line walking away, the cafeteria lady looked at him and said, “What do you want to buy?”

“A sloppy joe sandwich.”, said Johan.

The lunch lady hurriedly put the sandwich together, wrapped it and handed it to him. Johan handed her the money and started to walk back to class as he chewed on his sandwich.

Johan finished the last bit of his sandwich as he walked up to the room his English class was being held in. The halls had cleared and the teacher’s high pitch voice could be heard from behind the doors. A poster over the window on the door preventing him from seeing inside the class.

“Damnit!”, said Johan leaning against the locker next to the door. “I am late!”

A short black student with glasses and a brown bag slung over his shoulder walked past Johan to the door. He paused before opening the door, let out a sigh, looked at Johan and said, “She is gonna give it to us, isn’t she?”

“She’ll probably center us out for like five minutes, call us idiots, and then make us take our seats”, said Johan.

“We’ll, no point in waiting”, said the black kid opening the door.

Johan gathered his courage and walked into the classroom behind behind him.

The door slammed shut behind Johan as the black kid hurriedly took a seat. Johan was about to take a seat next to him when the Buchiemnicka stopped mid sentence, stared at Johan with a crazy look in her eyes and yelled, “JOHAN FLINT, HOW DARE YOU BE LATE TO MY CLASS!”

Johan froze surprised staring back at her. An akward silence took over the class as everyone in the room stared at him. The black kid next to Johan had already found a seat and was sitting in it and a few students in the room giggled. He saw Berry sitting at a table on the other side of the room with an I told you so expression on his face.

“AND WHAT DO YOU FIND SO FUNNY ABOUT JOHAN BEING LATE!?”, boomed the teacher staring at the group of students.

They immediately fell silent.

“Sorry Miss B”, said Johan. “We were late because-“

“WE!? WHO ARE WE!?”, yelled Buchiemnicka in her high pitch voice. “THE ONLY ONE THAT HAD THE ODACITY TO BE LATE TO CLASS WAS YOU!”

The black kid looked at Johan with pleading, fearful eyes.

Johan sucked in his breath, nodded at him and said, “I am sorry. I’ve never been late before … this wont happen again.”

“HOW MANY TIMES WILL YOU IDIOTS DISRESPECT ME!?”, yelled Buchiemnicka. “HOW MANY! YOU GET BARELY SATISFACTORY GRADES IN MY CLASS AND YOU WRITE HORRIBLE ESSAYS! THE WAY YOU ARE, YOU WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING! YOU ARE AN IDIOT!”

Johan looked at her annoyed and said, “Look Miss B, I really am sorry. However, I think you are a bit out of line. I know for a fact, I’ll grow up to be someone more successful than you, thats for sure. I will be agreat man.”

“YOU WORTHLESS LAZY BUM! YOU COME IN LATE AND THEN GET MOUTHY WITH ME!?”, yelled Buchiemnicka . “IF YOU CAN’T DO SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS BE ON TIME, DON’T COME AT ALL! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! RESPECT!”

“Miss B”, said Johan feeling everyone’s eyes on him. “I am sorry, it won’t happen again. Can you over look things this time?”

“GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”, yelled Buchiemnicka. “TAKE THIS AS A LESSON!”

Johan reluctantly got up from his seat and heard the black kid next to him whisper, “Thanks man. I owe you one.”

Johan sighed and walked to the door with his books leaving the classroom closing the door behind him. As the door shut he heard the Buchiemnicka yell, “LET THAT IDIOT’S BEHAVIOR BE A LESSON TO ALL OF YOU!”

“Wentch”, muttered Johan under his breath.

Johan went through the halls and walked to the school library and went in. In the corner, he saw a two of students whispering to each other at a table. Johan went and sat next to them.

A scraggly looking black haired teenager with glasses on looked at Johan and said, “Yo Johan, what are you doin here? Don’t you have class now?”

A chubby blond teenager next to him said, “Larry is right Johan. You got class now. Don’t cha?”

“Hey Larry, hey Chuck. I got kicked out of class by Buchiemnicka for being late”, said Johan. “She has something up her butt.”

“Really?”, said Larry. “What did she say?”

“Said I had to get out. Called me a worthless idiot. That I’d amount to nothing. Told the world I was getting bad grades. All in front of the class.”, said Johan.

“Really?”, said Larry. “She is unstable. It is a result of those drugs we think she took in her youth. Right Chuck?”

Chuck laughed and said, “She might be a druggy nut job, but that doesn’t mean she is wrong.”

“What do you mean?”, said Johan.

“I doubt anyone at this school will do anything amazing with their lives”, said Chuck. “We are a bunch of plainos. We are going to finish school, maybe go to college, get a job, do our jobs and if we are lucky, have a stable family. Just like everyone else. No one from St Augustine Secondary School will ever do anything world changing. No one in this town, let alone school will ever did anything impressive.”

Johan frowned and said, “Speak for yourself ya bums, I am going to be a great person.”

“Oh yeah!?”, said Chuck. “Doing what?”

“I don’t know yet”, said Johan with a glaze in his eyes. “I’ll be … a Hero! or perhaps a great inventor… a famous writer … or the first to travel to a new world and explore it! Perhaps, a great leader … like the president! I will bring about a revolution in our country! Or maybe all of humanity!”

Chuck and Larry laughed. Chuck then said, “You dream big bud, just like a lot of people. And like like the rest you’ll grow into a useless adult.”

“Whatever man”, said Johan standing up. “You guys won’t become anything because you accepted you wouldn’t. I’ll change the world for the better and become a great man and then you will all be thankful for me. Then you’ll eat those words. For now I am going to complain to the office about Buchiemnicka.”

“Dude, you’re nuts!”, said Chuck. “You don’t want to get on her bad side. She’ll make your time here a living hell.”

“Ya bums”, said Johan as he walked away from the table and left the library. “You are too afraid to stand up for yourselves and be who you want to be. You just talk and tell others who try that they are no good. People like me make the world move forward.”

“Johan always talks as if he is some kind of big shot eh?”, said Larry.

“He is probably gonna get expelled”, said Chuck. “Then I will tell him I told you so.”

“You loosers! I can still hear you!”, said Johan as he walked out of the library.

Chapter 1 - 2000 AD … The Bar



Light laughter flowed through the old bar like music. People chattered endlessly over worn mahogany tables. The atmosphere was joyous and friendly.

“Hey Joe, wanna hear a joke?” asked large fat friendly looking man in a raspy boyous voice as he took a sip of his beer.

“What the ‘ell! Sure. Tell me H‘enry” the bartender Joe, a large burly man, boomed in good spirit.

“What’d ya call a cow with no legs?” Henry asked. “GROUND BEEF!” he exclaimed laughing loudly and giving Joe no time to react.

Hearing his laughter echo clearly off the walls of the bar, Henry noticed that Joe was not laughing with him as he had expected. Rather, Joe was staring wide eyed at the bar door. The room had filled with a muffling silence and his laughter died in his throat.

A cloaked stranger loomed at the doorway casting a long eerie shadow. His mere presence seemed to radiate malevolence. The stranger strolled gracefully towards the stool beside Henry. His footsteps echoed through the room. Henry gave an involuntary shudder as the stranger sat beside him.

“C-can I g-et ya som’tin mate?”, the bartender stammered. The bar’s occupants waited for an answer in dreary anticipation.

“Juice. Orange Juice”, the stranger said in a deep melodious voice.

Laughter broke out through out the bar and its atmosphere returned to its former condition.

“So, what’s your name champ? And what is a gruff lookin fellow like you doin, ordering a ladies drink like orange juice” inquired Joe, with a light hardy grin, as he handed the stranger his orange juice.

The stranger sipped his orange juice slowly and then answered, “Athyne” ignoring the later question.

“Never heard dat name bef-”, Joe said before being beckoned by another costumer.

“So ur name is Athyne eh?” asked Henry enthusiastically, as Joe left to attend to another one of his customers.

“My names Henry, nice to meet ya” Henry added as he held out his hand in polite greeting.

Athyne shook his head lightly as he reached for his orange juice once more, “I’d rather not”

“Pardon me?” replied Henry looking rather stunned. “Why don’t ya wanna shake hands with me?”

Seconds passed, Athyne didn’t answer

“Well answer me, that’s the least you could do after being so rude” Henry whispered in an irritated undertone.

“Shut up” Athyne said with a smirk which quickly disappeared.

“Shut Up eh? What’re ya gonna do ta stop me?”

Athyne looked up at Henry a gave him a hard stare. Henry countered by giving Athyne a dirty angry look. Fumes from the alcohol he had been consuming appeared to emit from his breath.

“I’ll tell you- a story”, Athyne muttered darkly.

Henry stared back with a blank stare confused.

Then Athyne began.

Once upon a time there was a dumbass that liked to wear girl’s underwear …

He picked a fight with a badass that was better than him …

And that badass beat him to death in an alleyway, ate his ugly face so that the world wouldn’t be cursed with the idiots presence or his ugly ass anymore.

Henry said nothing, as he stared at Athyne’s shadowed, barley visible face. His past argument was forgotten.

“ ’enry?” Joe questioned uncertainly, as he returned from his previous customer.

“What the fu…” stammered Henry turning red as he faltered for a second, then continued more steadily. “… where the hell did that come from you psycho!?”

Athyne’s lips lifted upwards into a malicious smirk.

“Where’d you come up with such a stupid made up fairy tal-?” continued Henry suddenly regaining his previous composure.

“Henry. Don’t start anything. Why are you so angry?” Joe said nervously.

“Piss Off!” Henry said loudly, he turned to Athyne and hissed. “What the hell’s wrong with you?! Coming into a bar and ordering orange juice. Talking shit to people you barely even know. Are you mental? Are you retarded!? And what kind of story is that, it’s so stupid! A threat!? Were you threatening me punk!?”

“A story is what it is… who ever said I ment anything by it?”, Athyne said laughing softly.

“ ‘enry… I think you’ve had a good to many beers” Joe intervened.

“Thanks for the drink.” Athyne said lightly as he rose gulping down his orange juice in one shot. He said nothing more as he walked towards the exit.

“Oi!” Henry yelled “Where the hell do you think your going?” He then proceeded to throw his empty beer bottle at him. It hit Athyne right on the back of his head.

Athyne stopped abruptly glancing over his shoulder briefly and said, “That wasn’t nice… ” then he continued walking.

Henry looked angrily at the door that Athyne had left through. Henry growled, “That stupid idiot, how dare he?! Who the hell does he think he is—“

His thoughts were interrupted as Joe said hotly “Henry! Why’d you do that? Did he insult you?”

“Err-“ said Henry surprised.

“Why were you so rude?”, said Joe without waiting for him to reply.

“Because h-“, stammered Henry.

“I will not tolerate such behavior in my bar! You just drove a costumer out!”, Joe said without breaking his rhythm.

“Wha-“

“GET OUT!!” Joe bellowed. All eyes in the bar turned.

“Bu-“

“NOW!!”

Henry got up angrily, and left.  The eyes in the bar followed him out.

Henry stomped down the street away from the bar angrily. He walked after Athyne who was barely visible in the distance.

“What the hell, I thought that Joe knew me better than that. Then he takes the side of some asshole stranger!!! I’ll get that Athyne guy… I’ll teach that bum some manners.”, muttered Henry, as he stormed down the street and into an alleyway he thought he saw Athyne turn into. Henry felt as if he could smell Athyne.

The alley was dark from the shadow the buildings cast upon it. Garbage littered the floor, and the walls were old and worn. Nothing stirred.

Henry walked on until he reached the end of the alleyway. Dead end.

And then everything went black. A soft voice whispered from the darkness, coated with hatred, and malevolence.

“Gotcha…”, whispered the voice.

But Henry could hear nothing for he was dead.

Chapter 2 – Black Haired Girl



“Well I will talk to Miss Buchiemnicka.”, said a grey haired man with glasses leaning back on his seat. He sat in a small room behind an office desk. On the other side of the desk sat Johan.

“Thank you Mr Principle”, said Johan. “It was my first time being late to that class, and I feel kicking me out of class for a situation I couldn’t control is detrimental to my learning experience.”

“Please understand that while Miss Buchiemnicka may have come off wrong”, answered the principle calmly. “She does have your best long term interests in mind. She takes her job seriously. She has been teaching with us for over ten years.”

“Thanks”, said Johan.

“Is there anything else you would like to discuss?”, asked the Principle.

“No.”, said Johan.

“Alright”, said the Priniciple. “If that is all, I suggest you take the rest of this period off. If I know Buchiemnicka, she’ll make a scene if she is in one of those moods. I’ll talk to her first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Alright.”, said Johan.

The principle reached over his desk and shook Johan’s hand said, “Take care Johan and rememeber to study hard. It will open doors and make the rest of your life a whole lot easier. Please close the door behind you.”

Johan nodded and left the principle’s office. Outside the room he saw a young girl with curly black hair sitting with a cold pad over her eye. A woman’s yells came from a closed office next to the principle’s room. The receptionist quietly typed away on her computer. Johan closed the door behind him and asked the girl, “What happened to you?”

“Some crazy kids were going around punching random people in the face. Apparently, it’s a tradition called ninering. They used to do it to fresh men in the 80s, and it is making a come back. I am not even in Grade 9, I just transferred schools.” said the girl.

“This school is nuts”, said Johan. “You’ll get used to it. If they are not spreading rumors, they are starting trouble. You have to stand your ground. Hitting a girl? That is just plain wrong. This non-sense still happens and it is 2014. Ridiculous.”

“It seems like my old school.”, answered the girl. “I thought all high schools were like this.”

“If they had done something like that in front of me.”, said Johan balling up his hand into a fist. “I’d show them a thing or two. Thugs like that have to be thought a lesson.”

The girl let out a laugh and then groaned, then she said, “Don’t make me laugh, it hurts too much … I haven’t gotten used to being punched in the face yet. Luckily, I didn’t get bruised. I got work tonight.”

“Don’t worry”, said Johan rolling up his sleeve. “if I see them around, I’ll make sure they don’t get away.”

The office receptionist looked up from her computer and said, “Don’t you have somewhere you have to be at the moment? This isn’t a social lounge, get moving.”

“I’ll see you around”, said Johan.

The girl smiled at Johan and saluted him off with her hand as he walked out of the office.

Johan walked to the library and saw that Chuck and Larry were not at the table he had seen them at. He walked up to the librarian who was sitting behind a counter table and asked, “Did you see the two guys that were sitting at that table over there? Do you know where they went?”

The grey haired librarian looked up at Johan through her thick framed glassed from a book she was reading and said in an annoyed voice, “So many people pass through this library. Do you truly expect me to remember all of them?”

Johan frowned and backed away from her and said, “Geeze, I was only asking a question.”

“and my answer was no.”, hissed the librarian.

“Then I guess I’ll go and wait outside my next class …”, said Johan raising an eyebrow. ”What the heck is with everybody today? Everyone is being wack.”

“You do that”, said the librarian looking back down at her book.

Johan walked to his next class and saw people inside being lectured through the door’s window. A blond haired student sat next to the door and looked up and said, “Hey Johan. How’s it going?”

“Hey Daniel. How’s it going?”

“Not bad, I heard what happened to you in Buchiemnicka’s class.”

“Really!? How?”

“I overheard Kira and Luke talking about it. They have this class also right?”

“Jesus … how did they hear about that? It only happened like forty minutes ago.”

“I dunno. They like to gossip.”

“Whatever, I talked to the principle about it.”

“Really? It’s about time someone complained about her. She is on her high horse. She thinks she can treat people like crap and get away with it.”

“Eh, whatever. What goes around comes around.”

The end of class bell began to ring.

Daniel got up and said, “It seems kinda early for bell. We still had like ten minutes till this period ended.”

A teacher came out of the room and said, “Fire alarm guys. Proceed to the exit in an organized way.”

Johan shrugged and said, “They should really make the bells for a fire and class end sound different.”

“They funnel the money they save into the teachers salaries in order to motivate them to teach us better.”, said Daniel with a smirk.

“Clearly, it is not working. At least in Mrs B’s case. Either way, I guess that is all for today. I doubt they’ll resume class with it being so close to last period. I am heading home.”

Daniel nodded at Johan and said, “Later Johan.”

Chapter 2 - 2000 AD… Johan



The afternoon air smelt cool, light, and damp. The sky was full of large grey clouds that allowed only a few rays of light through. It was a typical afternoon weekday, teenagers wandered the streets aimlessly, children played, men lingered, and women laughed.

Johan walked up the steps to his house’s front door. As he reached for the knob he froze. He heard an angered string of crude curses, a strangled sob, a crash, and then nothing.

Johan instincts told him to turn around and leave. He ignored them and turned the knob and pushed open the door. His father lay on the floor… motionless, brown hair matted with sweat against his forehead, eyes wide open, glazed and lifeless. A growing pool of dark crimson blood inched its way in every direction.

His mother stood looking down with a shocked expression on her face, her eyes stunned, and curly brown hair cast a shadow on her face. Johan stared unable to comprehend what he was seeing. His mother’s gaze locked with his.

Johan suddenly felt unnaturally queasy, he redirected his gaze to his father.

“I... wha-“, gasped Johan.

His mind went carefully blank. Minutes seemed to go by in an instant. A deafening buzz in Johan’s head muffled out all sound and the world seemed to grey. Time seemed to stop.

Johan abruptly snapped out of his trance when his mother toppled to the floor. Shocked he turned and walked to her fallen body. He bent down to examine her, and realized with shock that her throat was slashed and blood was pouring out of it. Johan tried to use his hands to stop her blood from leaving her.

Looking up at the doorway he saw an armed police officer standing stiffly at the door way. The officer made a gesture with his gun glancing behind him. The officer then yelled something at him while pointing a gun at him. Then officer began talking but Johan could not make out the words. His head swam with shock and for a second he felt like he would faint. Johan looked down at his blood covered hands grasping at his mother’s neck trying to stop the bleeding.

He shuddered.

His mother started to convulse.

He felt fear rack his body.

Johan glanced at the officer and saw him yelled words into a walkie talkie.

An old lady walked up behind the officer, and an expression of shock appeared on her face. Her finger rose and she screamed, “MURDERER!!!!!!!!”

She grabbed the gun from the officer and fired a shot at Johan, missing his face by inches and hitting the wall behind him. The officer stared at her in shock.

Johan’s body reacted on its own and he made a run for the back door. A police officer kicked the door open just as Johan approached it, and he pushed the surprised police officer out of his way. The officer stumbled backwards.

Another officer came into sight from around the corner of the house, she stood yelling urgently into her phone. Johan pushed her out of the way and kept running. He didn’t look back.

Rain showered down drenching Johan, it suited his mood and also helped dampen it. Night had fallen making the cold that the storm brought colder. The rain continued to pour like an everlasting stream, it seemed like it would never stop.

“Dead... my parents... they're dead, those police officers... they probably thought I killed them... their blood… it's all over me…”, muttered Johan as he shivered. “It feels so unreal …”

His memories of the recent events were in shambles. Running… wandering aimlessly…

His surroundings were unfamiliar. Shady buildings that cast an unusual shadow loomed over the streets. The streets were empty except for an old homeless man sitting on a street corner rocking back and forth.

Johan felt hunger gnaw at his belly.

“You know where I can get some food? For free? I don’t have money.” Johan questioned the homeless man from across the street.

Without saying as much as a word the old man pointed a crooked finger towards a broken down looking building. There was a large dusty sign hanging next to the door, the words read “soup kitchen”. Johan looked back across the street to thank the man.

However, he had disappeared.

Dismissing the old man Johan made his way across the street towards the kitchen entrance.

Hoonnkk!

Johan instinctively lunged forwards dodging a speeding car by inches. He hit the sidewalk hard, landing on his shoulder. Slowly he got up, his arms and shoulders stinging painfully. He then made his way slowly to the kitchen entrance.

He hesitated for only a moment before he pushed open the door and stepped in.

“Hello? Anyone there? Hello?” His voice echoed through whole kitchen. When no one answered he decided to look around.

His stomach rumbled loudly and sighed exhausted.

The day had taken a lot more out of him than he had realized. He leaned against the closed door and took in the dimly lit room with high walls of peeling brown paint, the small hall full of old rangy sleeping bags that had been left cold for a long time, and the stale smell of moldy bread. In search of the kitchen he looked to his right and saw two rooms with both of their doors left slightly ajar.

Cautiously, Johan made his way to the closest door, pushed it open, and saw a small shabby desk in an empty room. He turned around and headed into the next room. There he found what he was looking for.

It was a small worn down kitchen. However, there was no food to be seen. Johan sighed heavily. That old man had said food could be found here, but the kitchen was empty, not even a crumb was on it’s baren tables. He turned to leave and yelped as he felt something brush his leg.

What he saw surprised him. A puppy no bigger than a microwave stood wagging his tail, while his tongue lolled crazily. It’s fur was a deep metallic gold and it’s eyes glowed silver. The puppies eyes appeared as if they would swallow him whole, but then it blinked and they were brown. Johan wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him.

“Hey little guy. How’d you get here?” Johan asked the puppy as he offered it a hand to smell.

The puppy whimpered softly and cuddled Johan’s hand lightly. It then jumped up suddenly snatching Johan’s glasses off of his face and began to run.

“Hey!”, yelled Johan surprised trying to grab it back.

Johan jumped after the dog instinctively. The door to the kitchen Johan entered through had been left slightly open and the puppy squeezed through the door exiting the room with his glasses in it’s mouth.

“Now where are you gonna go?”, yelled Johan. “Gimme back my glasses you rascally pup!”

Johan froze as he realized that the door to the food shelter had been left wide open. A breeze hit Johan as he saw the puppy run out it.

“Damit!”, yelled Johan as he raced after it.

Chapter 3 - 2000 AD… Thugs



The setting sun was peaked through the rain clouds as the puppy leaped down the long narrow street with Johan chasing after it. They had been running for several minutes when the puppy finally stopped with Johan’s glasses in it’s mouth and calmly turned into an alleyway on the side of the street.

“Hey!” Johan yelled. “Stop and gimme my glasses or I’ll eat you for supper!”

He stopped at the alley entrance when he noticed that the puppy and couldn’t see the puppy. What he did see was three grown men surrounding a familiar looking girl. She stood backed up against the alley wall, she had a panicked expression on her face and her black curly hair was wet against her face.

All four faces turned to Johan.

“Take care of him Dave” one of the thugs said with slight disinterest as he tightened his hold on the girl. Dave stepped forwards and drew a knife from his jacket pocket. The steel blade glinted dully under the little light in the alley.

“Oh”, Johan said as he backed away. “Crap”.

Dave lunged forward missing Johan by inches as Johan stepped back out of the reach of Dave’s lunge. The two remaining thugs and girl stood staring at Johan as if in a trance.

Dave yelled out, “God damnit! I’m a clutz.”

“The idiot missed”, said one of the men. “I’ve never seen an attack that telegraphed before.”

The girl was the first one to snap out of it, she knocked the man’s hands off of her and started running towards Johan.

“Oh son of a –“, said one of the men slapping his head. Johan spun and followed her lead and began running away from the three men.

“Grab her Dave!”

Johan looked back over his shoulder and saw the girl push Dave and send him stumbling back. He had a surprised expression on his face.

The men started running after them.

The girl screamed out, “HELP!”

“Shut up!”, yelled one of the men. “No one is out this late at night!”

Johan saw out of the corner of his eye that the girl that had been surrounded before was running next to him. Furthermore, it sounded like the men that were chasing him were tiring. He didn’t look back to find out. Turning the corner, Johan continued to run and the girl turned the corner after him.

As they turned a curve Johan saw a large dumpster, looking back he saw that the men chasing him were at least 30 seconds away. He twisted and thrust himself into it, surprisingly the girl did the same thing landing behind him. He closed the lid quietly on top of them and held it closed being careful not to make a sound.

They waited quietly as they heard the splash of puddles grow louder towards them. The footsteps came to a stop near the bin. “Where the heck did those kids run off to?”

“I think they went right said one voice.”

“You guys go that way, I'll go the opposite way.”, gasped a voice. “Hurry! Don't let them get away.”

The smell made Johan want to gag, but he kept quiet as he heard the patter of their feet running in opposite directions. Johan peeked out of the dumpster and saw them running down the alley until they disappeared in the darkness.

Johan and the girl climbed out and then he whispered, “Let's double back and get away from this place.”

The girl nodded at him and they broke into a jog.

“I think we lost them”, gasped Johan.

The rain had slowed. Gasping for breath, Johan and the girl sat wet on the floor of a dank alleyway. Somehow they had escaped the thugs.

“ thanks for helping—“, panted the girl.

“I didn’t help.”, replied Johan.

“Yeah, you did… my name is Jade”

“We met in the office at school didn’t we!?”, said Johan squinting and seeing the girl’s face more clearly. “You go to St Augustine?”

“Oh Yeah! I almost didn’t recognize you without your glasses. I never got your name before?”

“… Johan.”

“What brought you down here at this time of night?”

“It's complicated, a stupid puppy mugged me.”, answered Johan frowning.

“A puppy!? You're kidding right? I guess we are both having a bad day.“

“Well … they say bad things happen for a reason. I personally think, God sometimes has a bastard streak.”

Jade laughed and said, “I think it is the devil that does this stuff! Your shirt is a mess, you must have had a good dinner.”

Johan as shifted his gaze towards the floor.

“Why were those guys after you?” asked Johan changing the subject.

“I guess girl’s shouldn’t be out alone in this city at night.” Jade said. “Do you have a cell phone? I want to call the police.”

“No. I should really get one.”

“I am going to go and find a phone and call the police. Want to come?”

Johan let out a sigh and said, “There is somewhere I have to be. I need time to clear my mind and I don’t want to deal with the police right now.”

“Alright”, said Jade. “This is where we split up. Just be careful.”

“You too”, said Johan. “Kinda weird that we are so calm after such a crazy experience.”

“Nerves of steal”, said Jade as she got up and started to walk away. “We got the makings of heroes!”

“Heroes that need to invest in buying cell phones”, said Johan.

Chapter 4 - 2014 AD… The Bar II



Joe watched Henry storm out of the bar.

Ron, one of Joe’s regulars got up from one of the tables and approached the bar counter as Joe cleaned off one of the glasses.

“Hey Joe, what’s the ruckus?”

Joe put an elbow on the table, relaxed and gazed at the door Joe left through.

“Well, you know Henry and how he gets when he is worked up. I knew I’d have to put an end to it before he started to smash things like last time. He is my friend, but, I can’t afford to fix the bar because of his tantrums.”

“Ahhh right… however, that fellow seemed a bit eerie. What was that about? He was a tellin Henry to ‘shut up’ out of the blue? And Henry didn’t do anything…”

“I dunno … you know how people are… some people just got a knick on their shoulder. Everything that guy did seemed awkward. He ordered orange juice. Odd ‘specially, when there is a gas station across the street that sells it for less. Then he telling a story that is really a threat? Either way, It is over now. We will probably never see that odd ball again.”

Ron shifted his position on his seat and turned around. His red hair fell and covered one of his eyes.

“Henry was probably already worked up from his lady friend giving him a hard time again… he means well. He is just a bit hot headed…”, said Ron.

“Hot headed AND he tells shitty jokes …”, muttered Joe.

Jade walked on the street carefully making sure that no one was following her. She saw a building with it’s lights on, and decided it would be a good place to stay and make a call in order to get a ride home. Above the door to the building was a sign that said, “Joe’s Pub”.

Jade walked into the pub and saw that it was flourishing with life. She saw a red headed man sitting at the bar table talking to the bartender. She confidently walked up to the counter she felt eyes on the back of her head.

When she got to the counter, the bartender looked up and then quickly glared at the red head and gave him a smirk.

Jade opened her mouth to speak but was cut off.

“Hey beautiful… we don’t often get girls as pretty as you coming down here. How about I get you a drink? My name is Ron, by the way.”, the red haired man said.

Jade froze and looked at him, in her mind images of the thugs quickly flashed through her mind, however, she forced herself to relax.

“Sure… how about a hot chocolate, and a phone call?”, Jade said quickly glancing at the bartender.

“Sorry princess, we don’t have any hot chocolate in stock. Is everything alright? your hair seems to say that you’ve had a wild night. Out partying much?”, the bartender replied.

Jade looked up at the large burly man that was the bartender. She wondered if she should tell him about the guys that had come after her.

“Ahhh… you know, I …”, Jade muttered.

A heavy arm was swing down on her shoulder startling her. She tensed up surprised.

“Johan?”, said Jade hesitantly.

“Is that your friend? I’ll get you the phone, hold on a moment.”, the bartender said turning.

“That’s alright bud, this here is my girl. We will be leaving now.”

Jade’s eyes widened in fear. She knew the voice very well. It was belonged to one of the guys that had jumped her on the street.

Chapter 5 - 2000 AD… The Alley



Johan walked along the alley way aimlessly.

“Those cops probably think I killed my parents”, murmured Johan.

Silence haunted the night and the clouds blocked the light from the moon making the dark even darker. For countless minutes, Johan walked in complete darkness. Anxiety hit him, and the silence amplified the uneasiness in him. It clawed at his throat and made it hard for him to breath.

“WHY is everything going wrong today!?”, muttered Johan.

“Everything happens for a reason”, whispered a barely audible voice as a breeze pushed hit him.

Johan spun squinting and saw no one around him.

“Probably my imagination”, muttered Johan wearly.

The moon’s light broke through the clouds making the night more visible. Johan found himself in a foggy three-way alley intersection. He stopped short. A sense of dread and horror fill him as the fog cleared and he saw a raggedy man, beating a bloody corpse with his fists viciously. Again. And again. And again. His eyes were wild and unfocused.

A flash of blinding light filled his vision and out of it appeared a woman in a white ancient Greek gown. Her long flowing blond hair settled gently on her shoulders. Her blue eyes twinkled as she looked Johan’s way. He stared back in daze. She smiled at him softly then looked at the ragged man she stood behind while she put her hand gently his shoulder. The man turned blankly and looked at the woman. He smiled. Then he laughed. His laugh was one of a mad man.

This did not faze the woman instead she smiled back with a beautifully blinding smile. The woman then spoke, “Help get me was I desire…” Her voice was soft and musical.

The man paled, his expression twisted, and then he crumpled to the floor.

The woman stepped back abruptly. A cloud passed over the moon, causing the alley to go completely dark and Johan heard a gruesome scream. The clouds cleared and the moon light broke through the clouds.

He saw the blond haired woman on her knees covering a gaping bloody hole in her stomach, with a pained, despairing expression on her face.

“W-hat!?… but you promised!”, the woman gasped in pain.

Behind where the woman had been standing, stood a creature. It looked like a muscular human except that it wore no clothes and was void of any sex. It’s face was contorted into an overjoyed smile and it's pale hairless skin radiated in the night. Its eyes glowed a pleasant blue and its golden hair reflected the moonlight. It looked proud and beautiful, yet its mere presence was chilling.

The creature then bent down and caressed the woman’s hair. She cried out in pain, collapsed on her side and became still.

An air blast emitted from the beast and hit Johan. He felt overwhelming feelings of rage, hatred and violence. He gnashed his teeth and tightened the muscles all over his body.

“So much was lost.”, whispered a voice in the wind.

Slowly the creature turned it's cold gaze and towards Johan. It's glare made Johan’s heart slow and his breath stop. He felt a searing pain wrack his body and fought to stand.

“Run”, a voice whispered in the wind.

Johan didn’t know if it was his subconscious or a person. However, he didn’t question it, he took off running. The pain multiplied in strength threatening to cripple him. Stumbling through the alleyway, Johan saw Jade in a ball on the floor, she was shaking and pale. He gave her only one glance before he collapsed with a grunt.

He struggled to open his eyes and found himself staring into the warm brown eyes of the puppy from earlier.

“It’s you… you’re the dog from before” he muttered painfully, “You—“. He felt himself getting lost in the dog’s eyes, they changed from brown to liquid silver in an instant. His eyes blurred and dark clouds crept into his vision, followed by complete darkness.

Chapter 6 - 2000 AD… Thugs II



“I think we lost them and Moe… they got too far ahead.”, Dave gasped looking at his friend Leo. “some kids got the stamina of marathon runners these days. Has TV and videos games done nothing to them? Crap!”

“What are we gonna do? What if she tells someone?” stammered Leo.

“Take it easy, the cops are not going to believe the girl, I’ve done this before, and I have friends that have done it.”, replied Dave.

“Mannnn! We should have never done something like this, now we are gonna go to jail… my life is gonna be over and my lawyer license will be revoked… Jesus Christ MAN!”

“Calm the hell down, she never saw you before, we are not from around here. We can leave and everything will be alright. You remember Guido? That kid that became a doctor fellow that used to hang out with us when we were younger, he did it too.”, said Dave.

“BUT that kid… he saw us. He can also point us out man, we are gonna be convicted! Or they’ll find our DNA”

“Look dude, we will probably never see them again. We aren't even from around here and we don't have a record. What the hell have you been reading. Don’t worry about this stuff… let’s wait at the car. We can pass her off as a crazy if push comes to shove. As for DNA and identification, since we don’t got a record, what are they gonna compare us against? We did nothing. Unless one of us snitches, the worst they can do is question us.”

Dave grabbed Leo’s shoulder and began pulling him in the direction they had come from.

“Dude, I ain't no snitch, but what if we slipped up”, said Leo as he walked beside Dave.

“Listen man. Don’t get philosophical on me. Come on. It isn’t a big deal. People mess around like that all the time. Just let it go and move on. You’re only in trouble if you tell anyone. Soliders don't go to hell for killing and neither will we. I doubt any greater being has double standards. Nowhere in any religious books does it say what we did was bad.”

“I guess ma –“

Leo stopped speaking as he brushed away his feelings of guilt.

“Haha, you are right D, whatever, I don’t know what I was afraid of. Maybe, we should just plan it out better next time.”

“Awwww yeah! Either way, I guess for tonight we can go harass Tira and Aditha.”, laughed Dave.

“Naw man, I think I’ll pass for today. I am not that into them. I just want to go home. Stressful day.”

“Dude… are you going gay on me?”, sneered Dave.

“Naw man, I am just tired AND I got standards. So give it a rest bro. Let’s get Moe and leave.”, muttered Leo.

Chapter 7 - Camp & Beasts – The Future



Everyone was laughing around a camp fire inside the remains of what used to be a room. The smoke escaped through the many holes in the roof and broken windows. There were 30 people in their group and they had set camp. It was the perfect camp site. A sooth clouded the night sky, hiding the moon from view.

A blond haired woman sitting with a group of people near the fire said. “Joey was probably the one that ate all the left over chilli bread…”

Tony sat in a corner of the room away from everyone with a black cloak wrapped around him in order to keep himself warm. He glared warily at her.

“Tony honey, can you bring me some wood for the fire?”, the blond squeaked in an attempt to make her voice sound like a little girl.

“Why don’t you get it yourself Leslie.”, grumbled Tony.

Lesle gave off a childish hurt squeal in surprise.

It was clear that Tony didn’t like her.

“Now buddy, that isn’t any way to talk to a girl. If you act like that, no wonder no one likes you”, a deep loud voice thundered. “You know, five thousand years ago before the second coming. The days when electricity that made warming places as simple as pushing a button. They had a movement to be decent to girls and treat them as equals. You’re setting our civility back over 5000 years you nitwit.”

Tony looked up and saw an muscular south Indian man with facial stubble looming over him.

“Really? So then why don’t you get the wood for her Shishir?”, Tony said giving Shishir a hard stare.

To Tony’s disgust, Shishir had gone up to Lesle and was comforting her. Lesle had begun playing the damsel in distress while moving in closer to him. “I’m okay, I am a strong girl … I am fine.”

“What idiots”, Tony muttered to himself.

A large black man sat down next to Tony and said, “Tell me about it bud. But what can we do? We are stuck here. We got nothing else, if we go off on our own, some wild animal may kill us... or worse ...”

“What do you mean Worse Bill?”, said Tony.

“I have heard people talk of large black animals that can take out thirty men. They eat people alive.”

“You mean lucimen right?”, said Tony raising his eyebrow.

“Yes. Crazy rabid animals that look like humans.”

“They are probably a type of ape.”

“I hear they can't be killed. They are invincible. Something magical about them. It is rare a person survives encounters with them.”

“A type of ape to be avoided.”, said Tony. “Don't think too much about it, there are a lot of dangerous things out there and none of it is magical.”

Bill fell silent for a moment and Tony stared ahead as Shishir threw wood in the fire. He then yelled at Tony, “You should get lost. Lazy asses that don't contribute are not welcome around here.”

People around the camp stopped and stared at Tony and Shishir curiously.

“Yeah!”, yelled Leslie joining in and crossing her arms.

Tony frowned.

Bill yelled back, “Tony does his fair share. He has been gathering wood for the last month!”

“Leave it”, said Tony sinking back against the wall. “I don't intend on sticking around with these people much longer.”

“Really?”, said Bill raising an eyebrow. “You think you'll be better off alone?”

“No, I heard of a place that was free of danger. A place free of constant attacks, a place you didn’t have to live in fear.”

“Really? And how do you intend on finding it?”

He pulled out of his pocket a old crinkled map and then put it back in his pocket.

“I found this map from a peddler ten years ago. Five years ago I found the same map in another city. I think this is telling me how to get there.”

Bills eyes widened in awe as he stared at the map. Then he said, “But how do you know it is for real?”

“I am willing to give it a shot. It will be heaven compared to living in this run down place.”

A stench filled the air, followed by a low pitch growl.

“Shit!”, muttered Tony feeling all his senses sharpen.

“Guys, lucimen! they found us!”, yelled a voice.

Everyone in the group sprung into action scrambling to draw their weapons. Bill stood up and scrambled towards the camp fire grabbing a bat that was lying on the floor near there. Tony drew a sword that he had on the floor next to him and held his breath waiting silently.

Two large black creatures burst through the wall two meters to Tony’s right rushing straight towards the group near the fire. They were three times the height of humans and immensely strong and quick. Their black smooth muscular backs glistened from the light of the camp fire.

The groups clashed against the lucimen letting out a barbaric battle cry. A few soldiers had begun throwing javelins at the lucimen. The beasts easily flicked the first few away from them and with the flick of it's clawed hand, one of the luciman caught a javelin out of the air and threw it at the group and pierced 3 men at once. Bill was one of them. Five people in the group made an attempt to run, however, the other lucimen quickly caught up and slaughtered them.

Tony realized that this battle would not end well and instead of running took his cloak and draped it over him in order to hide himself. He then sat in the corner with his sword hidden under his cloak. He heard the screams of the people in his camp and the sickening crunch of their bodies as they were torn apart.

“OH GOD!”, yelled a man. “THEY ARE INVINCIBLE! MY SWORD BOUNCED OFF THEIR SKIN! RUN FOR YOUR LIV- GAHHHHHHH!!!!”

The man's screams and battle sounds ended abruptly. It was replaced by Lesle’s terrified voice muttering, “Oh god… oh god…”

An eerie voice boomed, “Hey Leo, we got a female in this group! WOOOHEEE!”.

“Haha, so now we got some tender meat … eh little D? What a great day this has turned out to be!”

Tony stopped breathing surprised.

“Animals that can speak!?”, muttered Tony under this breath.

Tony proceeded to slowly move his cloak in order to peek out from under it and see what was happening while keeping his voice quiet. What he saw made his stomach squirm…

Scattered all around the camp were the mutilated bodies of the people that had stood, run or fought. It seemed as if most were dead. The few that were still alive were moaning in pain and bleeding to death. A luciman that was three times the size of Lesle was holding her down to the ground it was making faces at her and drooling on her face as if it was trying to mock her expression of terror. It looked eerily humanoid, but it was clear that it was anything but.

One of the beasts picked up a survivors with one hand and began to tear off chunks of it’s flesh with it’s lion like teeth. The survivors it bit into instantaneously dried up and turned into smoke which the creature inhaled.

“Don’t worry honey, we are gonna take good care of you. Ha ha ha ha ha …”, said a luciman. “We love girls cause they don't turn to smoke when I eat em. Oh how I miss chewing on meat.”

Five hours had passed since Tony had been crouching down in the corner, concealed by his cloak.

He tried to calm himself and listen for Lesle, her screams had become a semi-constant sob. He was too afraid to move or make a sound. He peaked out of his clothing once again and saw that one of the beasts had Lesle’s on it’s lap and one of her arms was mutilated with deep teeth marks from the beast chewing on it without biting it off.

Momentarily, Tony foresaw his inevitable demise.

A scream broke out. A woman’s voice… an unfamiliar woman’s voice.

“Oh God Greg! Baby No!”, screamed Leslie. “Please he is my husband! Let him be!”

Tony peaked out from under his cloak and saw Greg, Lesle’s husband being held up by his leg. His turban fell on the ground and some of his clothing was ripped off, Tony realized that Greg was really a woman. She had been hiding it and pretending to be Lesle’s husband.

“This ain't your husband you dirty little liar! Hahaha! Dave! We are lucky today, we got two woman from this group! Hahahhaha! What a catch.”

“Hey Leo…”, responded the beast called Dave.

“What Dave?”

“Lemme have a go at her first, you can have this one. That one looks more chewy.”

“Uhhh… no… I found her, you can have her after. I'll leave some for you.”, said Leo.

The bigger beast got up and dropped Lesle. She fell to the floor as if she were dead and didn’t move, drool was coming out of her mouth and she was quietly sobbing. The lucimen started to push each other grabbing at Greg. Suddenly, Lesle sprung to her feet got up and started to sprint towards Tony. With Greg’s screaming and the lucimen fighting, they failed to notice her running away.

To Tony’s horror, Lesle came running in his direction.

As Lesle approached him at full speed, Tony dropped his sword and his cloak and hopped through the crumbled down wall where the lucimen had broken through. Lesle jumped through it simultaneously.

She gave him a surprised look, however, kept she running.

Tony heard one of the beasts scream to the other, “The other girl got away!”

Three seconds later Tony saw the beast jump over the fence behind him out of the corner of his eye. He pushed himself to run faster. Lesle frantically pushed Tony towards the luciman as she ran frantically ahead of him.

“AHhhhHhhh!”, yelled Tony as he tumbled.

The beast quickly pounced on him and grabbed Tony’s leg and picked him off the floor while continuing to run after Lesle. Tony flailed like a rag doll as he was dragged across the ground.

BOOOM!

The building Leslie and Tony ran from exploded sending chunks of the building that he was in previously flying. Shards of rocks and dust flew through the air slicing across his face. A large rock flew out of nowhere and smashed the luciman that was carrying him on the back of it’s head.

The beasts threw Tony towards Leslie as it fell to it’s knees due to the impact of the rock that hit it.

Time slowed down for Tony as he flew through the air.

“This is it... I am going to die.”, whispered Tony as he exhaled.

He braced himself.

Time slowed down for Tony as he felt the air electrify. Two men stepped out of the smoke from the explosion from the side of a building and started firing a machine gun at the lucimen. Tony felt his vision became unnaturally sharp as his lower back slam into Lesle’s head. While he spun in the air due to the impact he saw the bullets bounce and crumple off of the luciman’s head. The other luciman jumped out and with one hand tore the two men in half.

As Tony bounced off Lesle he saw something roll out of the hand of one of the men who were valiantly killed. Tony found himself falling through the ground. He had fallen through a large crumbling hole in the ground which opened to the main sewer in the area. A meter into the hole, Tony hit and bounced off of the sewer wall, Tony used his hands and legs to push off the wall. It altered his trajectory and sent him flying towards a still flowing sewage stream.

SPLASH!

The sewage stream had broke Tony’s fall.

The smell and taste of the sewage made Tony want to gag, but, he held his breath and began swimming downstream away from the lucimen.

BANG!

The roof of the sewer around where he had fallen in came crashing down behind Tony.

”Grenades”, gasped Tony between strokes.

Tony held his breath, dived in the remnants of dirty sewage water and kept on swimming as fast as he could.

In the distance Tony heard a roar. This made him swim even harder.

Chapter 8 - Science Fiction



Johan woke up with a blinding light in his eyes. He was on a bed. He closed one eye and placed one hand over the other in an attempt to allow his eyes to adjust. Through his fingers could see the outline of an old man standing over him. Johan felt an object pressed against his chest.

“Hello, beautifulz, how are you today?”, asked the old man in a cheery German voice.

“Ummm… what?”, Johan muttered. Johan’s eyes adjusted to the light in the room, and his vision cleared. The old doctor wore a brown suit with a white doctor’s coat over it. He had a white overgrown beard, long wavy white hair, and a wrinkly but friendly looking face. On the wall there were pictures with diagrams of different disease conditions and a certificate that said, ‘Dr Huffington  Alexander received a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School on August 27, 2012’, next to it was a Computer Engineering Degree from MIT and a Genetics and Biochemistry Degree from Oxford hung on his wall.

“Are you a doctor?”, asked Johan groggily.

“Why yez”, answered the man. “You may call me Dr Alexander.”

The old man was holding what looked like a fancy stethoscope to Johan’s chest. Johan sat up quickly and used his hand to push the stethoscope away from him.

“What is going on?”, mumbled Johan.

Johan felt as if he had been hit by a truck.

“Wellz, I found you lying unconzcious in zee outside of dis cityz. You arez very lucky, I am surprized that you were not killed by a luciman, animalz or bandits”, replied the old man.

Johan answered, “Killed? What are you talking about, are you kidding me?”

“Eh?”, replied the old man with a confused expression. “Poorz boy, you must've been hit hardzy on da head.”

Johan looked at the old doctor confused and recalled the events from before he woke up.

Johan saw flashes of a monster, his dead parents and the thugs.

“I hope that is the case.”, muttered Johan.

Johan looked at his hands covered with scars and looked on the floor next to him, and saw his clothes in a pile stained brown with dirt and blood. He looked at his body and saw he was wearing a grey one piece outfit.

“No”, muttered Johan. “Something definitely happened. We need to call the police! I saw a man being murdered.”, stammered Johan.

“Police!? Out there? Whatz are you talking about child? Out there everyone knows there is no law. Where have you been poor child.”, said the old man. “Youz are delusional.”

“I-”, stammered Johan not knowing how to explain what he had seen.

“My namez is Alexander, Dr Alexander by the wayz.”, said the old German man holding out his hand. “Oldest manz in this cityz. Whatz do you call yourz zelf?”

“Johan”, said Johan shaking Dr Alexandre’s hand. “Born and raised in Toronto.”

The old man’s raised an eyebrow.

“Torontoz you strange child? I haven’t met a personz that used that word for a very longz time. Were you not listening to me justz now?”

Johan felt confused and said, “Where am I? Do you have a cellphone!?”

“Cellphone?”

“Common it's the 22nd century! There is a dangerous man on the loose”.

Dr Alexandre raised an eyebrow and said, “Hmmm ... Youz are in a very specialz placez, but not where I suspect you thinkz you are.”

Alexander pulled a stool out from under his doctor desk and said, “Take a seatz. I have interesting thingz to tell you.”

Johan got up from the bed slowly and felt his entire body aching. He walked over to the stool and sat on it.

“So wherez do you thinkz you are?”, asked Dr Alexander.

“A doctor's office in Toronto?”

“Noz, you are not. How about when do you think you arez?”

“2014?”

“No”, said the Doctor narrowing his eyes. “It is ze year 7021 you crazy child.”

“What!? I don't think it is time for joking. Where am I?”

“Noz. No joke”, said the doctor.

Johan didn't no how to respond and stared at the doctor confused. An awkward silence filled the room.

“Your voice tells me youz are being totally honest. You are either mad, or you are a veryz interesting personz.”, said Alexander.

Alexander tapped on the wall and an object that looked like a pen fell into his hand. Quickly, Alexander grabbed Johan’s arm and pressed the pen on him.

“ZEEEeeEEEeee”, the machine made a quick sound.

Johan felt his body start to shake and felt pain spread all over his body.

Johan jerked back surprised and said, “What the!?-”

“Don’t worry, I just gave youz some immunizations. You’ll get tired, you will sleep, however, once you wake up, you will feelz like a new man.”

Johan felt his muscles loosen and sleep overcome him. He started to topple over and felt a strong hand catch him before he gave in to sleep.

Johan awoke sweating profusely with a funny feeling in his head. His thoughts and memories were clear and his body felt clean and energized. He was in a pitch dark room and could see nothing. He was lying on a pulsating soft and strangely comfortable mattress. Johan tried to roll to his left and found that he rolled into a wall. He sat up and stretched and his hands were met with a warm pulsating roof. He realized that he was in a container. He laid back down waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Except they did not.

“Hello!? Is anyone there?”, whispered Johan.

“WOULD YOU LIKE TO sleep some more?”, stated a soothing soft female voice.

Johan paused in surprise.

“Ummm… no?”, Johan hesitantly answered. “Who are you?”

Zeeee….

Johan heard a buzz. Then suddenly the container was illuminated with a soft blue light that didn't strain his eyes. He found himself sitting on a white sofa with a young girl next to him. She had shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes and wore a blue jumper with grey slacks. The sofa was the only object he saw in the room.

“Is this a dream?”, asked Johan. “I could have sworn that I was just lying down on a matress.”

“This is not a dream. This is a simulation. Dr Alexander asked me to do this for you when you woke up.”, said the girl.

“Whoa”, said Johan with a nervous laugh as he touched the sofa. “Someone must've have medicated me with something strong because I am hallucinating HARD.”

He recalled what Dr Alexander injecting him while telling him he was in the 7021.

“When you wake up, you will be clear of any doubts of this being a dream.”, replied the female. “In order to prevent you from getting in trouble. I am obliged to tell you three main rules of this place.

You are free to do anything you want, as long as you do not hurt others.

You are obliged to perform your daily work duties and courses. Otherwise, you will be sent to Billies and banned from the city.

You are forbidden from leaving the city for any place other than Billies. If you do without permission, you will be forbidden from returning.

this is all for now, if you have any questions, ask, and I will answer any questions you have. You can call me ‘comfortgirl’ or 'computer'. If you use common sense in your activities, you will enjoy your stay here. I will correct you if you break any of the rules unknowingly.”

In the back of Johan’s mind, he saw the blue light fade, and he was back on the mattress. While still quiet, the roof of the container was no longer there.

Chapter 10 - Garden Of Eden



Tony laid on his back staring up at the blood red sun in the sky and the black sooth clouds that periodically passed over it. He had just crawled out of the sewer. It was mid-day. His body hurt all over due to his dance with death night before. He was pretty sure he'd broken a rib or two. The world looked more beautiful and colorful than Tony remembered. He let out a relieved sigh. He relishing the feeling of being a survivor. In the distance he heard the scuttling of animals. He struggled to his feet grunting and holding his side and began to examine his surroundings. To his right, there was the sewer he had climbed out of. Most of the buildings in his field of vision were in rubble, save two. One was a shack about half a mile from him and the other a building that he could see in the distance 5 miles away. There were weeds and shrubs growing everywhere and small animals skittered around.

“Where the hell am I?”, muttered Tony

Brrrrrrrr!

A low pitch rumble  filled the air and began getting louder.

Tony grabbed the sides of the open sewer and drop into it ignoring the pain. The sewer was dark and offered adequate cover. A rat brush against his shoe and he kicked it away. It squeaked in pain. The sound lf the rumble stopped near him and he heard the crunching of gravel and two men whispering. He remained silent.

“So then”, said a man with a smooth voice. “you think that Bob’s witch story is real?”

“Bob isn’t the type to make stuff up”, replied a man with a rougher voice.

“Listen, I knew Bob growing up. Believe me, I heard him say misinformed things before. People often misinterpret what they se-”

“You're right.”, said the rougher man cutting the other off. He paused a moment and then said, ”do you hear breathing? Like a big animal?”

Tony heard the men’s footsteps come to a halt.

“I think it is coming from the caved in road over there. The sewer.”

Tony muffled his breathing as he heard the footsteps coming towards him.

“Toole, stay back in case… I am going to take a look.”, said the smooth voice.

Brrrrrrrr…

The sound that Tony had heard initially before the men arrived started up again.

“Giblow! The scooter! someone is driving away in it!”, yelled the man with a harsh deep voice.

Tony heard the men that had been approaching the sewer break into a run. Tony waited till their footsteps were almost inaudible and then peaked his head out of the sewer and looked around. He saw the men running towards the building that was 10 minutes away, they were running after a small black car.

He let out a sigh of relief and grunted, “I need to rest.”

Tony walked towards the shack with the circle painted on it and saw an opening that must have at one point been a door. He was careful to walk as silently as possible. He entered the building and looked around. It was a single room with no windows and furniture.

“Empty and perfectly preserved.”, muttered Tony.

Tony stopped walking half step. He looked at the door he entered through and it was gone. Looking around, he found the walls had become covered with a glowing moss. His eyes adjusted to the darkness and he realized that he was surrounded by trees. A lot of trees. A glowing moss covered walls as they evaporated into the air and in front of him there appeared a clearing and at it's center there was a pond. The area was illuminated by moon light, and the moon hung high in the sky. Tony looked at the ground and found that he was standing on soft grass. A sense of artificial calm overtook Tony. He knew it wasn’t natural, he was never totally calm.

“Hello”, a soft female voice spoke from behind Tony’s shoulder.

Tony spun around and saw a stunning woman with black hair and green eyes that standing behind him with a relieved smile on her face. She was wearing a strange white greek gown.

“Who are you?”, asked Tony.

“Hello”, the woman replied.

“Did I pass out?”, asked Tony.

“No.”, answered the female.

Tony stared hard into her eyes as she stared back at him. Her eyes glowed green.

“Where am I?”, asked Tony.

“Well, think of it as a world within a world. I am not quite sure what it is myself, however, my brother sent me here and this is where I have been for quite some time.”, replied the woman.

Tony stared at the woman silently.

“So who are you?”, asked Tony.

The woman smiled at Tony and said, “Idrissa. My name  Idrissa”

Chapter 12 - Re-intro



Johan pulled himself out of the container that he had been lying in and stood on the ground. Once his head was out of the container he was hit by the sounds of a busy city. The container had filtered out all noise. He was in what looked like a high tech subway station. It’s walls were white and flawless and there were egg shaped containers that periodically flew by on tracks, the containers would hop over or swerve around other containers that were in their way. There was a steady chatter of people talking.

Johan looked around and saw interesting looking people walking around. There were black people, white people, people with tails, cat ears, moving tattoos on their skin and people that looked like robots.

“Hello”, said a familiar female voice from behind Johan

Johan spun around to see the source of the voice. To his surprise he saw a familiar face. The girl’s eyes open in surprise.

“YOU!”, both Johan and the girl said simultaneously.

“Jade!?”, said Johan.

“YES! You're Johan right?”, responded the girl. “From 5000 years ago like me?”

Johan nodded and said, “Five thous- I believe so.”

“I was called today morning by the computer and asked to show you around. I thought it was funny, because I never did this before.”, stuttered Jade still stunned.

“5000 years! Do you know what happened?”, said Johan. “How did we get here?”

Johan realized that her features had matured since he last saw her. She was a little taller and her face was more defined. She was wearing a black pants and a tight shirt.

“Remember the guys chasing me? One of the guys that was chasing us somehow caught up with me. I screamed and the people at the bar caught wind that something was wrong and proceeded to grab him and hold him down, but he crazy and began to outright brawl with them. I took the opportunity to get out of there.

So I ran off. I ran into an alley way, but as I ran, I suddenly passed out, and when I woke up, I was here… How about you?”, said Jade.

“I was wrong to have left you alone.”, said Johan. “I should have known better”

“Well, you aren't responsible for me, we hardly know each other. I got away. What did you see?”, said Jade.

“I saw a murder and then a creature and blond woman materialized out of thin air. I didn’t stay for long, I ran. Then I saw you on the floor, when I saw you I collapsed out of pain and I think I saw a puppy before passing out. Then I woke up here.”, said Johan. “You didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Did you?”

“No”, said Jade raising her eyebrow.

A red light emitted from the floor Jade was standing on and a voice boomed through the air. “Jade Gigalo, you are being docked 30 credits today for being tardy in your duties.”

A large hologram of Jade’s face and -30 under it appeared near the roof of the middle of the station for everyone to see. Johan felt eyes on the back of his head and saw that a lot of the people in the hall had stopped walking and were staring. He looked at Jade and saw she had turned beat red.

“Let’s go…”, said Jade quickly breaking into a jog away from Johan. ”they’ll dock me my pay for today if we waste more time..”

Johan followed Jade into a glass elevator in the middle of room. It had glass walls and a roof. Once inside, the wall of the elevator changed from clear to white and the opening they walked through materialized into a wall. The elevator began to vibrate.

“This is what replaced the elevators and most public transportation.”, said Jade. “It is like an elevator that takes you places rather than apartment floors.”

“Cool”, said Johan. “So what is with those strange looking people I saw walking around? Are they aliens?”

“No.”, said Jade. “Some were genetically engineered and others had modifications after they were born.”

The elevator stopped vibrating and the walls of the elevator disappeared. Johan found himself in a long alley with walls made of bushes on which grew fruits and vegetables. Johan looked down and saw he was standing on a purple pad. Johan looked at Jade and said, “What now?”.

A flash of light blinded Johan temporarily. When Johan’s sight returned he saw Jade holding two buckets.

“Here, catch this and do what I do. Clear the opposite side from me. Pick the fruit and put it in the basket.”, said Jade.

Jade threw one of the baskets she held to Johan and he caught it clumsily. Johan saw Jade start picking fruits and vegetables from the bushes. Johan followed her lead. On the bushes, he saw apples, oranges, bananas, onions, and fruits he had never seen before growing on the same bush. Looking up he saw Jade had cleared 5 meters of the plant.

“Hurry up!”, yelled Jade. “We get paid by the amount of fruits we pick! If we don’t get enough we wont be able to afford lunch! 200 fruits is one credit, and we need five credits for lunch! At Least!”

Johan picked a fruit off of the bush and put it in the basket and muttered to himself, “Want to tell me what is going on first?”

“We can talk at lunch time, for now work!”, yelled Jade.

“It is going to be a long day”, said Johan.

Johan sat at small table across from Jade in a restaurant booth. The seat in the restaurant booth extended around the table and had a gap for one person to exit the booth at a time. The table was white and smooth. The back of the seat was large enough to hide anyone inside the booth from the view of those who walked by their booth. There was a tray with food and a drink in front of them. The hum of people talking filled the air.

Johan’s muscles felt sore from lugging around the basket full of fruits.

“I gotta train some more”, said Johan. “That should have been easy.”

“For my first week, I fell behind in most of the tasks the computer assigned me. But after you get used to doing the work, everything gets easier”, replied Jade.

“So you didn’t have enough money to eat every day for a week!?”, exclaimed Johan.

“No. Around here, even if you don’t have enough money, they give you a single meal a day. But the meal’s portion isn’t close to the size of a meal and it tastes like barf. You don’t ever want to try it.”, said Jade.

“At least everyone gets fed. It is better than starving to death.”, said Johan.

In the background Johan overheard a group people start to argue loudly.

A woman yelled out, “SOMETIMES I THINK YOU LOVE READING ABOUT LUCIMEN MORE THAN ME! YOU LUCIOPHILE!”

She then started crying loudly.

Jade let out a laugh and Johan grinned.

“LUCIOPHILE”,  said Jade giggling. “that’s a new one. You are a terrible person for laughing. Keep up the good work.”

Johan asked, “What is a luciman anyways?”

“Oh!”, said Jade surprised. “No one told you about them?”

“No.”

“Well, from what I understood, no one really knows. Based on who you talk to, people say different things about them. However, one thing is consistent, they are incredibly strong and difficult to hurt. Monster apes.”, said Jade.

“Sounds like the plot for a horror movie.”, said Johan. “Is that the only major thing that happened in all the time we traveled through?”

“Well”, said Jade. “When the lucimen originally appeared most of the world was left in ruins. They called that the first coming. It happened again decades later and they called it the second coming. They went on a rampage as an organized group, and then disappeared. So basically there were two wars that humanity lost.

There were improvement the sciences and technology. Surveillance systems, weapons, space travel, genetic engineering, artificial Intelligence and so much more developed”, said Jade.

Jade leaned back on her chair and gave Johan time to digest everything she said.

“I heard Inconcessus, is what Toronto was renamed to when lucimen appeared there.”, said Jade. “Sorta like a city of them. They are organized like us, although, they don't have technology from what I understood.”

“Really!?”, said Johan. “That is amazing. Can we communicate with them?”

“No”, said Jade. “No one does. They are aggressive and dangerous and only get along with each other. Anyone who has tried has never returned or been found alive.”

Johan put a spoon of his food in his mouth and chewed in silence. Then he said, “It feels like yesterday when we were back in school living ordinary lives.”

“I remember that”, laughed Jade. “Television, smart phones, cars, computers … I've been here so long. It is nice to see someone from my time.”

“Have you done anything interesting since you came here?”, asked Johan.

“Well there is nothing I thought to do”, said Jade. “Do you have plans already?”

“I want to be great”, said Johan. “a leader, and I think the first thing I will do is bring order to the world. I'll bring an end to all the fighting.”

Jade laughed and said, “You don't even know how this place works and you already have plans!?”

“You better believe it”, smirked Johan. “I'll be the greatest leader in all of history!”

Jade broke the silence and said, “When I first came here, I tried to find a way to go back in time and see my family. Time travel is impossible they say. They can freeze you, speed up time, they even managed to travel faster than the speed of light in the right conditions. But, they never managed to figure out time travel. Thus, we are stuck.”

A group of people in the restaurant broke into a laugh.

“Although a lot of things have changed, people are still the same,aren't they?”, asked Johan.

“For the most part, yeah”, said Jade. “They may know more. However, they look the same, outcast people for random ridiculous reasons, and still argue over ridiculous things. They are real judgemental.“

“But you were a weird one, even in our time. Weren't you?”

Jade grinned and said, “Nice one, crappy joke though.”

After a pause Jade said, “You know Johan. I just want to go back and see my friends and family … I miss them so much.”

Johan saw Jade wipe a tear out of her eye.

“I'll figure something out”, said Johan. “For now, enjoy the good things about this place. Like we should go exploring and see the world outside this city.”

“It would be hard to get back”, said Jade. “This place is hidden. ”

Johan replied, “How?”

“They said it was in a worm hole. I don’t know much more than that. People aren't allowed to leave.”, replied Jade.

“Damn, I don't want to stay stuck like an animal in a cage. I want to see things”, said Johan. “Do you know anyone that got out?”

“No, most people can’t. In order to gain that privilege, you have to have connections. As in guardian connections.”, replied Jade.

“What is a guardian?”, asked Johan.

“A group of people that are like the government. They are well educated, tested and super smart.”, replied Jade.

“What if they are hiding something from us, and the outside world is fine? What if we are not in the future?”, said Johan.

Jade sighed and said, “I don't know Johan. Either way, we better get back to work. Lunch break is over.”

Chapter 14 - Survivors



Phalanx stood tall wearing his armor with his chest sticking out, his muscular hand held a spear and his sword hung from the right side of his belt. To Phalanx’s back was the opening to a cave. The moon shone an eerie red overhead. He scanned the area in front of him looking for movements or sounds that were out of the ordinary.

Although, the night seemed like any other, Phalanx knew better than to let his guard down. He had been put in charge of guarding one of the entrances to a cave system that led to the city he called home. Everyone that lived in the city knew better than to let their guard down, for they had all suffered hardships, faced trials and had their character forged through battles and experiences. The city was a hidden safe haven. A rarity in a world where lucimen, bandits, and gangs roamed stealing, murdering, and harassing those that were unguarded and vulnerable.

“Brother, your shift for today is over. Go and rest and I will continue today.”, said a deep rumbly voice from behind Phalanx.

Phalanx turned around to see a large man towering over him. Phalanx smiled and embraced him. “Ian, it has been a while! Where have you been? What brings you here?.”, asked Phalanx.

“I volunteer for this duty once in a while, I find it keeps me grounded and helps clear my mind.”, said Ian.

Phalanx reminisced back to his childhood.

Ian’s father Lance had been saved him when he had been sold by his parents to a local bandits as a slave child. Lance’s clan had overthrown the bandits and taken him into the group and raised him.

Phalanx felt indebted to them. He reminisced about the horrible conditions he had been forced to face. The lack of food and the beatings.

Phalanx gave Ian the spear he held and said, “You forgot your spear. You can use mine.”

Ian grunted, “Thanks bud.”

Phlanax waved to Ian and walked into the cave in order to return to the city.

“GrrRRrRrRrRrrrrr…”, hissed a deep malicious voice.

Phalanx stopped on the spot and spun drawing his sword ready to fight the source of the sound. A teenager crouched on the ground, with his tongue hanging out and a snarl on his face.

“Hey Toole… how are things?”, said Phalanx relaxing with a smile.

Toole, jumped back and brushed himself off. “Whoa! Easy there! already ready to attack!? either way things for me lately are a bit crappy… me and Giblow were outside today looking for metals and parts we could sell, then some guy pops out of nowhere and steals our scooter! Jason the garage owner gave us a hard time about since we borrowed it from him. It got all the way up to the elder. Now, we got cleaning duties as punishment for the next month and we are under house arrest.”, said Toole.

“Whoa, I think you got lucky? You know how rare and expensive scooters are.”, said Phalanx.

“Well, you know how rare it is to see large living creatures. Right?”, said Toole. “We heard something breathing from the sewers … and it sounded BIG.”

Phalanx raised an eyebrow and said, “ .. and you were going to check it out!?”

“It sounded small and it was during the day.”, said Toole shifting his gaze to the floor.

Phalanx looked at Toole lost for words and said, “You just said it was big! You are making excuses! Does anyone else know about this?!”

“Naw.”, said Toole squinting his eyebrows and tightening his lips. “They will over react. But I know you can keep a secret. Rgiht?”

“You’re crazy..”, said Phalanx.

“Either way, I came here because the elder wanted to see you.”, said Toole ignoring Phalanx’s comment.

Phalanx tensed up in surprise.

“The elder!?”, said Phalanx.

“Yeah, I found it funny since you are a part of the guards… I have no idea why he’d want to see you.”, said Toole.

Phalanx heard a scuttle of footsteps and looked up and to see a familiar man running towards him with a flash light.

Toole let out a squeal and jumped in the air towards another man bumping chests with him and yelled, “FRIENDS AND MEN FOR LIFE! CHE AHHHH!”

“Hey Giblow”, said Phalanx looking at the ground. He felt weird whenever he Giblow and Toole greet each other like that. They did it often. Giblow gave Phalanx a thumbs up and wink.

“They sent me to tell you guys to hurry up. They want you to come quickly, I think it is something important.”, said Giblow.

Phalanx and Toole gave each other a curious look and began to walk through the cave tunnels in the direction of city. They maneuvered their way through the labyrinth of cave tunnels into the brightly lit city. They continued to push their way through crowds of people. The steady chatter of singing filled the streets.

On both sides of them, multi-floor buildings had been carved out of the mountains interior. Rows of glowing blue and orange orbs lined the sides and roof of the cave casting a dim blue glow over everything in sight.

On the sides of the street, small street shops sold various goods. Large steel support pillars stood out periodically in the middle of the street extending from the ground to the roof of the mountains interiors.

“You know”, said Phalanx raising his voice to be heard over the crowd, ”I have always found it amazing, how you can’t hear any of the noise in the city above ground”.

Toole and Giblow looked back at Phalanx slowing their pace.

“Well”, said Toole, “They painted the inside of the caves with a sound absorbing paint, it absorbs and muffles the sound. My Mum told me.”

“Hahaha”, laughed Giblow shaking his head, “That is a bunch of jibberish, I read at the library that the people that the founded this place designed it to contain a large explosion. It was a test area for weapons. They wanted to keep the experiments in here a secret from the outside world so they built it strong and sound proof.”

“and they used sound proof paint to do it.”, responded Toole, giving Giblow a challenging look.

Phalanx raised an eyebrow and looked at Toole and then Giblow raising his chest in pride. Giblow smirking and said, “No such thing. Your mom is talking shit.”

Toole looked at Giblow and said, “You’re just trying to be an asshole.”

Giblow retorted and said, “Naw. Just pointing out your stupid comments that have no basis in reality.”

Toole stopped in the middle of the street turning red with an expression of anger on his face.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter”, said Phalanx quickly, putting a hand on Toole’s shoulder forcing him to walk again.

Toole relaxed and said, “ … yeah, I guess all this science stuff isn’t important to us …”

“Sorta like Bob’s witch story eh?”, sneered Giblow.

Phalanx raised his eyebrow and looked at Toole and then Giblow as they glanced at each other annoyed. He then said, “Common guys, don’t fight.”.

“Well, I heard a rumor from Bob, and I tried to explain to him that Bob isn’t the type to make stuff up.”, said Giblow. “Toole thinks it is nonsense.”

Phalanx muttered, “Bob is too stupid to lie … he got fired from guard duty because of it… couldn’t keep the plans for a sting op quiet.”

“See what I mean Toole?”, said Giblow.

“Whatever.”, said Toole cutting the conversation short. “We are here..”

As people cleared out of their way, a 30 meters wide pillar became visible. It stood in the middle of the street. Into it was carved a doorway with stairs that led down into a hole in the ground. A large chubby man, stepped out of the crowd and grabbed Phalanx by his arm startling him. He had a large nose and beady intelligent brown eyes, he wore a blue shirt and dress pants. “Hello. You are the Phalanx, correct?”, said the man. “Come with me to see the elder. Toole, Giblow …go to Jason’s garage, he has more work for you.”

The chubby man then proceeded to walk into the pillar and walk down the stairs. Phalanx followed and threw a glance back at Toole and Giblow. They had disappeared into the crowd.