Chapter One: A Warm Reception

Bright light fills my vision, obscuring the world around me.  Flames consume everything in existence, scorching the very air in my lungs as I desperately try to breathe.  I struggle to my feet, gasping at the environment I have awoken to, ears pounding as the building roars its fiery anguish.  I can barely see through the smoke induced tears and the incredibly bright light, but I stumble over some of the ceiling, now a pile of rubble on the floor, and trip into a hallway.  I can hear the agonized screaming of someone else who had chosen this building as their shelter, but I have no time to save them.  My survival is all that matters.

As I blindly hurtle down the hallway towards what I hope are the stairs leading to the exit a crack resounds in the air and I flinch backwards just in time to avoid being crushed by the two floors above me crashing down.  A massive cloud of smoke, dust, and grime explodes into the air with the impact, and the fire from the floors above reaches downwards towards this new territory, the air ripe for their heated conquest.

Behind me the flames continue their pursuit, unsatisfied with just the building as its prey.  My clothes are already charring under the intense heat and the dry air is ripping through my lungs.  I probably have maybe 2 more minutes before I collapse from the heat or smoke.  The inferno rampages ever closer to me, and I have only one option left to me.  Covering my face with my hands I fling myself over the recently fallen ceiling and through the fire, falling down the stairs and landing hard on my right shoulder.  I can feel the embers on my clothes, but I have no time to worry about them.  Gasping for air, I have a fit of dry heaves, losing precious seconds as my body continues the fatal countdown to my demise.  I struggle to my knees and start crawling towards what I hope is an exit.

The moments drag on and the embers are growing hotter with every passing second, but I don't have the time to look to see if they have starting consuming my clothes, I have precious few seconds to get to safety outside of the building.  Blinded by my surroundings my hands suddenly don't fall on anything and I lose my balance, my world tilting as I fall 2 stories onto the hard dirt ground below me, where I black out.

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I come to in darkness, only tiny specks of light in the sky visible.  Searing pain courses through my veins, every breathe is agonizing, my skin is tormenting me, my shoulder feels like hell and my eyes ache.  It’s the best I've felt in weeks.

I'm not sure why I got here.  I don't even know how I got here.  I don't remember anything except for the past few weeks that I've spent in this hell hole.  As best I can tell everyone is just trying to either kill everyone else or simply survive.  I've been wearing these clothes ever since I got here but at this point they are just a hindrance, burnt and stiff as they are they'll only hinder my movement.  Not like I could move much anyways.  I grimace as I rotate my shoulder, setting fire to the nerves all over my body.  I spit out some of the phlegm in my throat and instantly regret it, realizing how dehydrated I am.  I roll over and regret that too.  My mind races as I try and figure out where I can find some water.  The last place I got some was a 4 hour walk away… before I had been lit on fire.  I probably couldn't make the trip now.

All that matters though is I survived.  Who knows how many others had taken shelter in that building, but they certainly didn't all make it out alive.  But I had done it.  I had succeeded in holding onto my life.  And that alone was a miracle in this tormented land.  I don't know what happened here, but everywhere I've gone has just been littered with ruins and partially intact buildings.  My shelter last night was only half complete before the fire, now it was just a smoldering wreckage with only one or two walls standing.

Yes, this is the best I've felt for a long time.  I managed to survive despite the odds.  I overcame the impossible and am now on top, having proven that I am better than those others around me.  Its small, but it’s the only thing I have to be proud of.  I am brought back to reality when I try to take a deep breath and my nerves explode.

I shake myself, though that itself is another torture.  It doesn't matter what caused the fire, for all that I know someone set it deliberately to kill those of us inside.  But if that were the case they would have had to have supplies nearby… and that means that there might be water.  I slowly start taking off my clothes, but they crumble wherever I touch them anyways, rendering me naked in just a few moments.  I don't know why, but I feel like I should be ashamed of myself.  I cast the feeling aside and stand up, fighting the urge to scream as my tormented body protests the movement.  I suppose it doesn't matter which direction I travel now, so long as it isn't the one I came from.  Having no clue I pick a direction and begin to limp along, sticking to the shadows as best as I could.  I laugh at myself when I realize that everything is in the shadows at this time of night, but stay close to cover anyways.  Some people have devices that enable them to see and target others in the dark.

Perhaps my biggest frustration with this place is just how unfair everything is.  As best as I can tell most people aren't given anything to fend for themselves and are just thrown into this world completely defenseless where there are others who have incredible resources at their disposal.  I've seen someone with strange binoculars and some sort of long ranged gun mow down half a dozen other people who thought they were safe under cover of darkness.  Whoever the gunner was laughed with every shot and it had taken everything I had not to panic and run as fast as I could.  Then there are others who have incredible outfits of armor, incredibly fast guns, all sorts of survival gear, I've even seen someone driving an armored vehicle.  I don't even have a backpack or a knife to defend myself.

So far its been all I could do to steal supplies from any places who's owners were out and about.  I've been here for approximately 3 weeks, and I've only eaten about 15 of those days, and never twice on the same day.

I freeze as I hear footsteps somewhere ahead of me.  And these are very heavy footsteps.  Probably not someone I want to chat with.  I wait until I can't hear them, and then I count to one thousand.  The moments are agonizing, but I've seen others die from waiting too short of a time only to be shot the instant they leave cover.  Eventually I finish the countdown and continue along, changing direction so I don't meet up with the owner of those footsteps.

So far all I've done in this world is watch.  I've seen dozens upon dozens of people be slaughtered by others, and I can't understand why.  I've viewed from a distance how people operate in this world.  People who I've seen work with each other for more than a week will backstab the others without a moment's hesitation whenever the opportunity presents itself, food and water are incredibly scarce, weapons are the only tool for communication, and might makes right.  I've never seen a group larger than 5, and that group of 5 only lasted a day before two of the members killed the other three.

What frightens me most though isn't this world itself but what could have made this possible.  How is it that I ended up here?  Why is it that I don't remember anything before 3 weeks ago?  Why is it that everyone insists on killing each other?  So many questions, and yet no answers.  I shake myself, reminding myself to remain alert.  If I don't pay attention, I might end up dead.

"Hey there"

In an instant I jump to the left over a pile of rocks and begin sprinting for a few seconds before I collapse.  My body's betrayal is perfectly timed, and I realize that my end is drawing near.  The speaker is stepping towards me and I close my eyes, regretting that I didn't find out more about this world.

"Here"

The sound of something dropping next to my head is audible as the speaker comes closer and stops somewhere near me and makes some shifting noises as they sigh.  I wait several seconds, but nothing happens.

"If you don't drink that you'll die"

I wonder who the stranger is talking to, and then realize they must be talking to me.  I slowly lift my head and turn my eyes towards this unusual individual.  I am surprised to find a girl who looks like she might be my age leaning against a pile of rocks with one knee up, eyeing me curiously.  She nods towards the container she tossed next to me.  Miraculously it is filled with what looks to be water.  I immediately open it and begin pouring as much as I can into my mouth before she gets up in surprise.

"Hey, you can't drink that much, you'll throw it all up"

Her words fall upon deaf ears as I continue to turn the bottle up more and more as I cram as much of the precious liquid into my throat.  She rushes over and starts grappling with me for the container and though I desperately fight her with every ounce of my strength I am but a babe in comparison to her and she pries it from my weak fingers.  I desperately watch as she seals the container with the liquid that would have saved me and she puts it into a pack on her back.  I realize that she was only toying with my life and lie back down, closing my eyes and determined not to open them again until she killed me.

"If you lie down you're just going to drown on your own vomit.  Give it a couple minutes and most of that liquid is going to come rushing back out of you.  Shouldn't have wasted all that water, you're too dehydrated to hold all of that"

She pauses as she makes some rustling sounds and then apparently throws another item next to me.

"Here, eat this.  SLOWLY.  You don't want to throw this up as well.  Maybe it'll help hold down the water so you don't waste as much"

I keep my eyes firmly closed and she sighs with impatience.

"Are you really going to be that stubborn?  Fine.  I'll force you to eat it then."

Some crackling noises follow and I realize she is actually planning on forcing open my jaw and making me eat it.  I open my eyes just as she is leaning over me and I attempt to snatch it from her hands.  I'm so weak however that I pretty much just brush against it before my hand falls limp across my chest.  She chuckles at me.

"Are you going to eat it now, or do I have to make you"

I pause before I nod at her, and this time I slowly reach towards it and curl my fingers around the item in her hand.  Looking at it I see it is actually some sort of bar that I'd eaten in the past.  Not wanting to drop it I slowly pull it towards my mouth and take a bite from it.

"Remember, don't eat too fast.  As best I can tell you're starved and dehydrated, so your body can't handle much food or drink quite yet"

I heed her words and stop after another couple of bites.  I lie where I am, completely drained of energy.

"I'm amazed that you've managed to survive all this time on your own.  As best I can tell you don't have a credit to your name do you?"

She pauses waiting expectantly.  I stay silent, not knowing what to say.

"Are you a mute?  You haven't said a thing this whole time.  Well I suppose you might have lost your voice from that fire"

A sudden burst of energy and I sit up looking at her intently before I suddenly fall over again, nauseous from the sudden movement.

"whoa there, don't get too excited.  If you move too much you'll probably spit up everything that you've eaten just now"

I nod as I feel green with sickness, resolving not to move anymore.  I struggle to say something, but its everything I can just to keep the contents of my stomach where they are.

"I was watching the building where you were taking shelter and I saw someone set something up and left.  A minute after, right when I was about to go check it out the building suddenly exploded and lit on fire.  It looked like it was quite the blaze too, quite a miracle that you managed to survive.  You were the only one I saw leave it, though I know at least 4 others, maybe more, were in there as well.  A couple others came by to try and salvage anything that might have been in there, but you didn't have anything so they passed you right over"

"Why"

I gasped out, my throat gagging at the effort.

"Its not like everyone is trying to kill everyone else.  Besides, killing you wouldn't get anyone anything, everyone can tell just by looking at you that you aren't even worth 2 credits"

No, that’s not what I was asking.  Why did someone blow up the building, why does everyone need to scavenge, why were you watching over my building in the first place, why were you planning on checking out what that person had planted on the building.  But of course I couldn't say any of it.

"I'm glad that you're able to talk at least, though I imagine it must hurt like hell.  Listen, this position isn't very safe and I have a hole nearby where we'll be secure.  It'll be light soon, so we have to hurry.  I'm going to carry you there, and I know its going to hurt but you have to do your best not to make any noise alright?"

I nod, accepting my fate.  Its not like I could resist her if I wanted to, and at least this way I wouldn't be left out in the open where someone could take this precious food I had so recently acquired.  She picks me up effortlessly and throws me over her shoulder, her right hand already out and carrying a knife that she held at the ready.  I wheeze at the sudden influx of pain, spitting up some of the water and the food I'd just eaten, and then pass out, unable to take the strain that my body was going through.