The Awakening pt 1

He woke up, he looked at his surroundings, he stood up, he saw a room with what looked like ancient technology. He took the first steps out of his stasis pod but tripped. He got up and slowly tried to re familiarize himself with the art of standing up and taking steps and when he did, he began to wonder where he was and why he was there; for some strange reason it seemed familiar but, he couldn’t remember why and how.

 As he slowly walked towards the exit, he placed his hand on the ancient yet technologically advanced scanner which immediately recognized his hand print, and then, the metal covered stone door slowly slid open. He found himself in another room with a pair of worn brown shoes, khaki pants, and a discolored white shirt alongside a mirror waiting for him. When he looked at himself in the mirror while he put on the pair of clothes, he looked at his own reflection in shock as if he saw another person looking at him. The reflection showed a boy who looked like he was 12 years old: black hair, green eyes, tan skin, and a thin yet muscular build. Realizing it only to be himself, the boy then tried to remember his name and who he was; nothing. He tried and tried all he could but still nothing; it was almost as if he had become a blank slate. Undeterred, the boy trudged along through the changing room exit and found a dark and narrow corridor laying ahead of him. 
       
As he walked in, the lights in the room lit up one by one all the way to another ancient yet technologically advanced touch ID door. The lights looked like a mixture between torch and lightbulb and gave off a blue and mysterious glow which gave the corridor a wondrous yet ominous feel. The boy calmly proceeded through the corridor until a strange drawing caught his attention. The drawing depicted what looked like childishly drawn people and they all seemed to have heart shaped symbols of different colors on their chests. Some had light blue hearts, others had green, and one even had a red colored heart symbol. He then saw two figures at the center; the boy couldn’t completely make out what they were due to the fact that a brownish-reddish hand smear covered them. However, he could feel something very familiar about the drawing and the people in it but alas, his failed memory kept him from recalling them. Nonetheless, he continued to walk through the rest of the corridor until he found the exit: a stone door with a red glow on its sides. As he approached it, a robotic orb with an orange glow came out from a compartment in the door itself and scanned the boy. A robotic female voice then said  “identification confirmed, access granted” while the red glow turned blue and the door began to slide open. 
       
The boy then walked through the exit and into the bright sunlight to find himself in a deep forest. As he looked back, he gazed upon a brown metal dome with overgrowth on top, and he began to feel something very sad and painful about what he saw but yet again, his amnesia would not let him piece together what had happened. Regardless, The Rumbling in the boy’s stomach compelled him to find food. This was not an easy task as there weren’t many edible plants in sight and he often scared the animals away, as well as lacking any hunting materials. 
     The first two days and nights after that, the boy spent the day searching and went to sleep hungry. Throughout that time however, the boy was able to sharpen a wooden spear for himself and weave a basket of leaves and twigs much to his own surprise, since he didn’t remember having that skill yet it seemed familiar to him. He then hunted some of the nearby deers and squirrels and put their meat on the woven basket. After finally satisfying his hunger, the boy later went to have a good night’s rest.
   
On that night, the boy began to have a very strange dream; in that dream he heard disembodied voices laughing, and talking. Afterwards, faces began to appear and not just any faces, but ones that looked like the people in the wall drawing he saw earlier. He Began to see flashes of himself smiling with and being next to some of those people. After that, a heart shape, white in color appeared and began to exert a blinding light which then transitioned into screaming, people running, houses and ground on fire, and a vision of a black heart shape summoning shadow energy to seemingly hold something back. After the sequence, the boy woke up with a jolt.
   
He realised as he looked around, it was already well into sunrise. The boy got up, and continued on his trek through the forest. As he was continuing his journey, he found a clearing ahead. Seeing a light at the end of the woods, he made a mad dash for it grateful to finally be out. At the clearing, he saw himself standing at the edge of a cliff and below him, he saw green and lush grasslands that stretched as far as the eye can see, a mountain range staring in the distance, and most shocking of all, the ruins of a town right next to the cliff’s downhill path. Curious to examine the sight, the boy decided to do some exploration there but little did he know that he would soon be in grave danger as in the distance, a mysterious figure watched him closely.
    
When the boy arrived, he saw ruined stone houses, damaged and decaying bandwagons, the ruins of a stable, and a cracked, broken fountain. Seeing all this, a feeling of great unease began to swell inside of the boy. He knew something terrible must’ve happened there but he couldn’t piece together what it was. He looked around at the ruins of the houses; broken and charred furniture as well as damaged staircases and floors, the fountain; a broken statue of a raven and a dove, and the stable; perhaps the darkest finding of all. The boy saw skeletal remains both human and horse in many different conditions: some skeletons were intact while others, having an arm, leg, and even head ripped off or crushed to bits. Seeing this imagery began to trigger images of screaming, fire on ground and structures, death, and even a flash of the black heart shape holding a mysterious force back just like in the dream.
   
The flashes caused the boy to scream and run in terror but, he was stopped when he heard the sound of rustling. He bore his wooden spear and quietly paced around, spear upfront to guard himself of the potential danger. He then saw a figure move quickly around the area. He then saw it again but it was too quick for his eyes to catch. Still keeping his guard up, he rotates his body and spear in every direction. Suddenly, a foul creature jumps in front of him. The monster had skin that looked and had a similar texture to human skin, stood upright while also capable of walking on all fours, sharp claws, a long tail with a sharp needle-like end, spikes on its back, a thin layer of hair on the top of its head, a swirl-like symbol where its face should’ve been, and a mouth with many rows of sharp teeth.
   
Letting out a horrifying screech, the creature bounded forwards with slashing motions attempting to sink its claws on the boy’s flesh. The boy then moved out the way of its slashes and went for the side to impale the monstrosity. However, the creature caught sight of this and used its sharp tail to block the attack. It then yanked the wooden spear using its appendage of a tail and snapped it in half. Knocked to the floor by the force of the counter-attack, and carrying no other means of self-defense, the boy was left with no choice but to go on the evasive dodging the creature’s sharp claws, and pointy movable tail which constantly tried to stab him. But the creature then grabbed the boy by his shirt and threw him straight into the remains of a house. A flash came back; it was a woman’s voice saying “Don’t ever forget who you are; don’t ever let them break you; and don’t ever give up, Alexander.” “Alexander!” the boy exclaimed, “My name is Alexander!”.
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   The monster then rushed to Alexander’s location to deliver the final blow when Alexander then got up, grabbed its tail, and snapped it off as it went for the stab. The creature letting out a blood piercing shriek of pain, decided to go for the slash attacks with its claws only to miss again and again hitting the stone wall of the ruined house. Such a forceful impact ended up damaging the razor sharp claws it held. Seeing this, Alexander got the monster to repeatedly hit the stone ruins by leading it to the outside walls of the broken houses and then dodging its attacks so it landed on the stonewalls instead of him. The process rinsed and repeated until Alexander led the creature to the fountain where there, its claws were finally all broken. Right when that happened, Alexander jumped from the top of the fountain with the severed tail of the creature in hand and impaled it through the forehead. Letting out one last scream of pain, the evil monstrosity died. After the gruelling and adrenaline-inducing fight, Alexander set off on foot away from the ruined town. He realized that there was still a lot that he did not know about himself, the strange visions, and what exactly happened to the world while he was in stasis inside the bunker. The only way he can find out he figured, is if he sets off into the sunset and explores the unknown beyond him.    ​

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Alejandro

(He/Him)
Alejandro writes articles to help those who are hurting and give others stories they can relate to and find comfort in.
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