All Alone

Imagine that one day you awoke from an apparently deep sleep. You feel extremely rested but your head is pounding so hard you can barely see or even think. Then you look around and realize that you’re outside in some forest. You can’t remember anything but… this one lonely thought… a name… Del… Del is your name. So you get up from the grass to look around and all you see is forest. Suddenly your eye stops on something tall and broken, yet very straight. This mysterious pillar pierces the sky and looks amazing. You decide to get a closer look, but as you get closer you begin to realize there are more of these strange pillars. They are covered in moss and look like they haven’t been touched in decades. But then you notice the first pillar you saw has holes all over it with some kind of vaguely reflective material covering the holes and a slightly larger hole at the bottom. You then recognize all of the other pillars have similar holes as well. You decide to go investigate the holes in the pillars and you notice the hole at the bottom is an entrance to the inside of the pillar. You go inside and the first thing you do is look up and you see the ceiling closer to the ground than you expected. You are confused because the pillar looks so much taller on the outside than it is on the inside. You then notice a series of blocks connected to the ground but these blocks are arranged so that they are higher up every block. They lead up toward a wall then stop, but if you go up them and look to your right, you’ll recognize that there are more of them continuing up until they meet another wall. You decide out of curiosity to go up the strange blocks until you come in another room that is higher up in the strange pillar. It has many weird items all over the place and more of that translucent material on one of the walls. You go up to the clear material and touch it, you then realize that it is hard and cold and you can see the outside world through it, but you are higher up than when you first entered the pillar. You are so confused that your already pounding head feels as though it is going to burst from the inside. It hurts so badly that you run outside in pain, fear, and confusion. You then feel this sudden pain in your stomach, it feels empty and you want to fill it. So you run to find something to fill it with and you see something moving on its own. At first it scares you so much, that you forget you’re in extreme pain, but then that single thought comes up except, it is accompanied by another. The first says, “food”, the second says, “kill”. You suddenly feel the need to consume this animal to fill your emptiness. So you grab a heavy, thin, and cold piece of pillar and hit it until it no longer moves or makes noises. You look at the big, black, and soft thing you killed and you feel empathy for the being. However, your hunger reminds you why you ended the life of the poor defenseless being and you begin to put the animal in your mouth and swallow it, the creature tastes disgusting but it satisfies and fills the empty feeling in your stomach. After that horrible experience you run back into the forest and you find a pit full with blue liquid. The thoughts return, “Water… Drink…” So you jump in the pit and you are overcome by the liquid and suddenly become colder than you’ve ever been. So you jump out to get warm again and to think of how to, “Drink” You then (After hours of thinking) decide that you will fold your hands as to make a platform for the water and curve them so that the water doesn’t spill out. You then lift the platform you’ve made from your hands to your mouth and dump the water in. After a while of drinking you feel satisfied and your intense discomfort inside your head ceases. It is getting darker outside as the ball of blinding sinks down below where you can see it. In fact it is getting hard to see anything. The thoughts then return, “Find… Shelter…” They haven’t steered you wrong yet so you decide to listen and find “Shelter”. So you search the dark forests and you hear a bone-chilling howl. The thoughts return this time much louder and disturbed, “RUN!” You ask no questions and run as fast as you can push yourself to. And it just so turns out that the source of the ominous howl is not alone and they chase you as you run. Out of sheer fear, you begin to run faster so that the white creatures do not catch you. You really wish you had that piece of heavy pillar right about now. Then you see one of the creatures running ahead of you but it doesn’t really matter much to you because he is up on a cliff. Then the faster beast leaps down off of the cliff and lands in front of you. You realize you are surrounded as all the feral hairy creatures begin to close in on you slowly you think to yourself out loud, “If only I wasn’t all alone…” and at that moment the loudest bang you ever heard cracked and one of the four-legged creatures fell, no longer making noises or moving. You look behind you where the bang came from and you see another creature like you it is standing on only two legs, wears a removable hide, and uses its hands. However, the “Person”’ is different from you having an overall thinner body, longer head-fur, and it yelled in a much higher-pitched voice than yours. She yells at you saying, “Come here, get back!” Thanks to your thoughts you understood, obeyed, and ran toward her as she let off another boom from her boomstick killing another wolf. After shooting the second one the rest ran off. She turned around and said, “Hello. The name’s Heather. What’s yours?” You return the question saying, “Del…” She then said, “Good to meet you, Del. Welcome to New Boston... or, at least what’s left of it.” She invites you inside her shelter and says in her strange voice, “Wher’ya from?” you answer, “I… don’t remember… I don’t know if I ever knew to begin with. I can’t even understand how I am communicating with you…” She stares at you, looking confused then says, “So how’d you make it here in the first place?” You look at the pillars, which were apparently called skyscrapers or towers. “Hello?” She snaps, “You there fella?” You answer, “I don’t know. I just woke up in the forest a little ways from here with an extreme headache. I saw those strange towers and came to investigate.” “Interesting, The same happened to me except I awoke stuck in the dirt. I then pulled myself out and wandered to the towers just as you did. But this was back when other people still lived here. They tried to kill me thinking I was an intruder in their territory, but their leader called off the guards. I guess I was his older sister… At least that was what he said. However, I didn’t recall any family or past whatsoever, but I decided that he had saved me from certain death and I wasn’t going to take the chance that he would just let me go. So I waited in the city with the group for a while until I realized what they were doing… They would send search parties every night to look for survivors and when they occasionally did find some, they would murder them, steal their supplies and leave their bodies to rot in the cold forest. I found these reasons unjust, so I snuck out of the city, came into the forest and built this hut on my own. After that I started searching for survivors and when I found them I rounded them up and brought them back here… and I created an armed force against my brother. At first I showed them the weak spots of the camp so that we could steal guns and ammo. Then the day came when we all gathered and charged against the marauders. All of my people died but one of them placed a homemade bomb inside the camp on our last expedition inside their base... I was the only one left of the battle so… here I am.” A silence passes, “Enough about me. Let’s get you some different clothes there friend, ‘cause rags sure ain’t gonna’ do it.” She gives you clothes from some sort of strange place in one of the skyscrapers. As you walk home, your migraine returns worse than before. You fall to the ground and blood begins to emerge from your mouth. However, this time, rather than a few thoughts, there are images of you with people you can’t recall in the city. A home, friends, happiness… However, the images flash faster than you can comprehend and you barely get any information from it. You decide to forget about it, drink some water and move on. But what of the images of you with people you’ve never seen before? At least, you’re pretty sure you haven’t seen them before… You go on in this life intensely working for your survival. Until one day came where the truth was revealed…