It has already been an hour since I stepped back into the truck, and I couldn't feel any more self-conscious. There were about a dozen in the vehicle, and I was sitting on the front bench, which meant I couldn't peek through the slit anymore.
Next to me is an old lady who looks like she's barely keeping up with the new reality that's upon us. I ponder how she'll survive. But then again, she is not so different from the rest of us.
Finally, after almost 2 hours, the truck stopped, and DOME soldiers came to escort us out.
I stepped outside, but the feeling wasn't the same as the first time. As I stepped on the ridged soil, a breeze hit my scrawny legs. I can't believe I'm still in my house clothes.
The soldiers led the herd of people somewhere.
Where?
Hopefully, a warm place, I pray.
It was a camp, a big one at that. A small child bumped into me, looking agitated and appalled. I guess it's a normal reaction to what's happening. On one side, I saw people cheering as they saw their loved ones. The people on the other side were sobbing in agony.
Nobody in the middle of it all-.
Why am I so calm?
…
"Well, whatever, it's no use to dwell on it '' I say.
Why did I say that?
As I was walking along the camp, I saw a line of people waiting outside a tent.
"This must be where we should register'' I turn my back to see a group of young adults.
Register?
Classic. Of course, we have to register to survive-
Before I know it, I find myself in front of a DOME soldier.
''Your name and age, please''.
''Daniel Park and I'm 26.''
The soldier looks up to me, his gaze scornful and judging.
''Will that be all?''
He looks up to me, sharply.
'' You may go now.''
Weird, maybe they really don't care about who's entering the camp.
As I turn to leave, a thought pops into my head.
'' What happened? Why is there an apocalypse?.
The soldier just looks at me, confused and in disbelief.
''❒︎♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎''.
what?
I suddenly feel a hissing sound vibrating through my earlobes.
''E-excuse me, could you repeat that I didn't understand you''.
The soldier looks at me, perplexed.
Was it just me?
As I walk outside, the metallic air hits my face. The scent was humid, something we never really experienced back inside the DOME. We really had no experience with the outside world. I remembered back when I would go to the auditorium at my school. The principal forced us to watch videos of the outside world. But now that I'm actually outside…
I feel anesthetized.
My feet dragged against the floor as I walked out of the tent. People were starting to shout and push around because it took a long time. I turned left towards the wind. It's not like I have anywhere specific to go to.
I walk by multiple things: corpses, children, small inns, and people moving in the old ruins of buildings that once stood at our feet. But instantly, like a lightning bolt, a small child bumps into me. The little boy didn't look older than 10. He had raggedy hair and could be considered underweight. He clenches my pants, smearing all his snot onto them.
I ick…
I subtly moved my leg to latch him off, but to my disdain, the moment he looked at me with his puffy eyes and drooling nose, I stopped.
He looked at me, and I looked at him.
And I looked at him, and he looked at me.
Without a word, I continued my walk through the camp…The kid with me.
I decided to pass by a food supplier.
I'd probably get my mind straight with a full stomach.
I sat the kid down and myself, the bread was as hard as steel, and the cheese was barely edible.
''How off-putting,'' I say, while playing with the bread crumbs lying on the old wooden table.
People talk
Pass by
Gossip
Eat
Unfortunately, I don't have the energy or will to be amused or sad.
I suddenly feel a light, tender tap on my shoulder. I abruptly turn to see a familiar face.
'' Daniel it's really you!''.It's Niles. An old coworker
'' Niles? W-what a surprise. What's that supposed to mean?
Niles frowns
'' I totally thought you'd die back there! But I guess fate has a crazy way of working, eh?'' So your kid ?'' he says, smiling. But all I could see was judgment behind his gaze.
'' No, just some random kid that's following me.''
He looks at the little boy and smiles brightly, kneading his elbow. He then turns to me nod and walks away.
…
Some weird people out there.
I move around the stiff crowd of people. Some rescue trunks were still moving in and out of the camp, bringing more people in. At this point, the camp would be overcrowded, but it's not like it mattered. I grasped the little child's hand, and it followed closely.
''I need to find his family quickly'', I tell myself.
To my surprise, having a kid with me made people pity me more, thinking I was a ''single father'' or widowed. Which was pretty amusing considering the fact that I never even had my first kiss before.
An old lady who was put in charge of a small, run-down apartment ruin let us get a room for the night. I think myself lucky to at least have a roof over my head, considering the fact that most people slept on the rusted hard soil, looking at the stars.
"Today was probably the most unreal day ever'' I think to myself, looking over my shoulder to the small child lying on a skanky rug.
My stomach growls in consequence of eating that mutation of a cheese.
I walked slowly outside the ruin, making my way to a faraway bush. As I release myself from the excruciating day, my eyes glide up to the stars. The air was cleaner and more open, not like the domes that were compacted and pushed in together.
I zip myself back up and walk back to the little "inn", but out of nowhere, a man bumps into me straight on.
I stumble back a bit from the impact. My head barely went up, and he was nowhere to be seen.
I let out a sigh of annoyance.
Nothing is more annoying than rude people, especially in a full-blown apocalypse.
I make my way back to a small corner. Seeing the kid still sleeping safe and sound made me tense up less. I sat down and lay on the rocky floor.
" Tomorrow I'm definitely going to get to the bottom of the whole apocalypse shenanigans".
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Road to freesia
The last thing I remember was my parents telling me to survive no matter what happened…These words were their last, the last that I ever heard from them. I'm lost and alone in this ruined city, nothing but the foul stench of rotten corpses filled the air as I walked across the ruined land. No sounds or movements were noticeable; it was all silent. Nobody survived the disaster, right? What should I do…What can I do? That question stayed in my head for a long time.
- Extraction complete.