2 The Ruined World

Rendell woke up with his whole body feeling sore. "Ugh!"

He felt a stinging sensation on his right shoulder and it was then that it registered to him that he was still alive.

"I-I'm still alive?"

He looked around and found himself surrounded by large rubbles and the broken remains of the building where his apartment unit was located. As far as his eyes could see, there wasn't anything that was left intact. Everything was in ruins and covered in ashes.

"What happened here?" He lifted his battered body to sit upright while observing his surroundings.

He had locked himself in isolation for over a month since he started having thoughts of taking his own life so he didn't know what was happening to the outside world. The only thing he could remember was that there was a heavy thunderstorm before he lost consciousness.

"Wait! I remember that it rained last night. How come there are no traces of rain?" He bent over and touched the ground. It felt warm in his hand.

While he was ruminating about the situation, he suddenly heard his stomach growling. "So hungry…" He muttered while rubbing his stomach.

He tried to stand up, but he felt weak all of a sudden. A wave of dizziness overcame him and he fell to his knees. He grabbed his head and rubbed his temples. "I must have lost too much blood." He muttered while looking at the empty sleeve on his right shoulder.

Rendell gently pressed on the wound and was surprised to discover that it had already closed up. 'My arm was severed last night after the building collapsed so how did the wound close up to this extent in just one night?'

There was a big scab on the wound, but it had already healed to a certain degree. An injury like this would have taken a week to heal to this extent, so he wondered how it healed up so quickly.

"Wait. Don't tell me… I was unconscious for a long time?" Realization dawned on him.

"That explains why there are no traces of rain in the area."

Rendell grabbed the rubble and used it to support himself to stand up. He then walked aimlessly while trying to find a way out of the ruins.

"I should have died that night. How did I survive after losing my arm?" He had so many questions, but no one could give him the answers.

After a long time of walking, he found himself in the middle of the road. There were collapsed buildings around him as well as destroyed vehicles. "Just what in the world happened?"

He continued walking.

Seeing the ruined world made him forget that he had tried to commit suicide.

Suddenly, he saw a person sitting inside a badly damaged vehicle. He quickened his steps.

He wanted to find out what happened and this curiosity made him temporarily abandon any suicidal thoughts.

"Hey! Sir, are you alright?" Rendell shouted as he looked over at the man inside the vehicle.

The person showed no signs of movement so he walked to the driver's side to see if the man was still alive. When he got closer, he saw that a sharp metal had penetrated the man's chest.

Rendell tapped on the man's shoulder. "Sir. Sir." He called out.

Still, the man remained unresponsive. He touched the man's neck and tried to feel his pulse.

Rendell sighed and shook his head lightly. "He's dead."

Just as he was about to leave, something caught his eye.

It was a large backpack firmly held by the seatbelt on the passenger's seat of the car.

Thinking that there might be food inside, he quickly went to the passenger side and grabbed the backpack. "I hope you rest in peace." He said to the dead person before he unzipped the bag.

When the contents of the bag were revealed, his eyes lit up.

There were canned goods, biscuits, packets of processed food, a dozen bottles of mineral water, a medicine kit, and other miscellaneous items. There was also a fire axe tied to the bag. He guessed that this person must have planned to leave with all these items, but he unfortunately died from an accident.

Based on the damage on the front part of the car, it looked like something big hit it. There were also large rubbles around. "Looks like his car got hit by the large rubbles. Poor guy…" He sighed and shook his head before turning his gaze back to the backpack.

Rendell ignored the fire axe.

He grabbed one bottle of mineral water and took large gulps. He then grabbed a packet of biscuits and ripped it open before stuffing the biscuits into his mouth.

After eating everything, he licked the crumbs on his lips and let out a satisfied sound. He then emptied the bottle of mineral water that he had drunk earlier.

He wanted to eat another packet, but he realized that resources might be scarce since the city was in ruins. After some internal struggle, he reluctantly pulled his hand away from the packets of food.

While he was zipping the bag, he suddenly heard a loud, high-pitched squeak in the distance. The sound was nothing similar to any animals he had encountered. If there was something that could best describe it, it was like the dying sound of a pig.

Initially, he wanted to leave the fire axe, but that strange sound made him change his mind.

The backpack was quite heavy and with his wounded body, he could barely carry it around. Not to mention that he only had one arm now. "I want to die, but at least not by starvation or at the mouth of a wild animal..."

While he was finding shelter, he felt that the ground was vibrating. "What's going on?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

Suddenly, something huge caught his eye.

To his horror, he saw a creature staring at him from the distance. He couldn't accurately determine its size, but the vehicle beside it looked tiny in comparison.

The creature looked like an oversized version of a rat. It has a pointed snout, large rounded ears, and a hairless tail. Its body was covered in light brown and black hair.

At this moment, the giant, oversized rat suddenly bolted towards him, scaring him out of his wits.

Without hesitation, he abandoned the backpack. He then untied the fire axe and fled into a ruined building.

He hid in a narrow corner while holding the fire axe tightly in his hand. 'What the hell was that?!' He screamed in his heart.

He looked nervously at the entrance of the building as beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks.