Chapter 0: Prologue of a new world

Adam Hope's point of view :

—The world was such a beautiful place, you could lie under a tree looking at the sky without worries, go on a family picnic, hang out with friends at school... –I said with an increasingly dull tone– How did things end up like this? –I said with my voice breaking as tears flowed from my eyes, the blood left my body and my life began to flash in front of my eyes– Ahh, if I close my eyes I can still see my parents, so happy and smiling. If it weren't for all the love they gave me as a child I would surely have taken my life by now.

As a child I was a very curious child, I would sit on my mother's lap and watch her type on the computer while she did her nanotechnology research. He also awkwardly imitated my father during his morning exercise routine. I was only 5 years old, so I didn't really understand what I was seeing or doing, but seeing that I was so passionate about doing what they gave me a big natural science book and a small inflatable boxing bag. I was so happy...

If I close my eyes, and for just a moment I think about them, I am able to see them clearly. My mother with her beautiful long white hair down to her hips, her typical citrus-scented overalls, the straw hat she wore every time we went out somewhere, and her piercing red eyes that made me stay still like a statue when she did something. mischief.

My father with his brown hair and brown eyes, his beard that made him look like a big, affectionate bear, his gray pants and brown shirt that made my mother's eyes roll because of his lack of fashion sense, and his indispensable chain necklace. black ones from which hung a small amethyst, which he said would one day be inherited by me.

I miss them so much... If it weren't for human greed I would never have lost them.

When I was 6 years old, a large asteroid appeared out of nowhere heading towards Earth, and since there was not much room for maneuver, several governments decided to launch nuclear missiles at the asteroid to deflect it or at least fragment it. But what happened was unexpected, the asteroid retained the nuclear explosions in small balls of energy until it absorbed them and then exploded into hundreds of thousands of fragments that fell around the world with great force since the atmosphere could not disintegrate them during their fall. That month humanity would witness a technological boom, the "energilite.

The asteroid was made of a crystal with rare properties. It contained vast amounts of energy, enough to power a city for decades with a crystal the size of a fist. But such an amount of energy could also be used to level entire cities with just a pinch of it.

At first weapons were developed slowly and preemptively. With the goal of "keeping all countries at bay" as well as nuclear bombs. But just as humanity is known for its greed, it is also known for starting wars over stupid things.

When he was 7 years old, it was discovered that the United States had been stealing energilite from Russia through some spies and infiltrators in its mining bases, and China was secretly exploiting some energilite mines that the United Kingdom had not yet discovered on its territory. When this came to light and he did not want to let go of what was not his or forgive what had happened, a war broke out, one like never before. All the weapons technologies that had been secretly being developed came to light from one moment to the next. Plasma weapons, force fields, autonomous killer robots armed with everything imaginable, energite bombs. It was the worst possible situation.

At first my parents were not worried, we were in the opposite hemisphere to that of the war. But when it comes to war and politics, anything can happen.

My country, which obtained one of the largest reserves of energilite and had obtained a technological and economic boom that altered the entire surrounding region, was attacked without quarter with several energilite bombs in some of its most important cities. One of them being the one we were in. At that time the force field was kept activated at all times as a precaution, but the force of the bomb was beyond imagination. I remember looking at the sky through the window of my house when out of nowhere a small steel ball began to fall towards the center of the dome, and upon making contact all I could see was an effervescent blue glow that instantly blinded me. Next I heard an explosion so loud that it seemed like a thousand lightning bolts had struck right next to my ears. By the time I realized it, I was blinded and my ears were bleeding as I writhed on the floor of my room, hearing an intense beeping sound at all times. The moment I regained my sight the only thing I wanted was to lose it again. My house no longer had a roof, several buildings had collapsed, trees were burning, there were charred birds all over the ground, dead people lying on the ground, traffic accidents everywhere and at all times, crying from both adults and children. . I could see how the fragments of the force field faded into nothingness, allowing several metal balls the size of a vehicle to pass through. When they reached the ground, they assembled until they took the form of spider robots full of weapons that began to hunt down all the survivors. .

I should have traumas from that day, but what happened a few months later completely overshadowed it.

After my father kept us safe and hidden in the rubble of an old apartment building we had a quiet life to a certain extent. My mother educated me in everything she would need to survive, she taught me what was edible and what was not, how to treat wounds and she never stopped teaching me the subjects I should be learning at that moment if I were still going to school. And my father would go out every day looking for supplies and he would write on a piece of paper what the area looked like and what parts were safe and which weren't, he also taught me self-defense. Despite all this we still had dinner together every night, it was a time when the state of our house didn't matter, the war or the world didn't matter, just us. But happiness cannot be eternal, the world is quite cruel and does not seem to like that.

One day some soldiers with a hunting dog passed near our shelter. My father went to unlock the spike pit trap. It was different from the normal ones that are covered with leaves, it was a door with a frame that covered the hole, and when you locked it you could walk on it without fear of falling. As for my mother, she dragged me to a small hiding place in the rubble and told me that there was no way in the world I could get out or make any noise, then she overturned the table and hid behind it while my father came back and left. It was positioned on one side of the entrance. He could see everything from the hiding place; my mother with a kitchen knife in her hands and my father with a hunting knife in his left hand.

My father had taught me a lot about self-defense, he trusted my ability to help, but I didn't want to upset my mother any further, so I decided to follow what she had told me. By the time what seemed like hours had passed, but was probably no more than a couple of minutes, I could hear the dog coming running towards our direction with one of the soldiers in tow. My parents became even more tense and in the background we heard the squeals of a dog and the surprised cry of a man, then a series of curses. The trap had worked perfectly, there was only one soldier left, I was relieved for my parents that they would not have to face two armed soldiers. But the relief did not last long, the surviving soldier approached the door very cautiously and directed a blow towards where my father was, who took a step back, barely evading the blow and then launched a kick towards the soldier. For a moment I thought that would be it, but the soldier grabbed my father by the leg, tripped him to the ground and quickly pulled out his gun and shot him in the chest... It was a plasma weapon, it went through the chest of my father without resisting, leaving a hole the size of a fist in his chest. Blood soon gushed from his mouth and his wound. For a moment I almost screamed in agony, but my mother jumped on his back and began to stab him savagely, and he threw himself hard against the wall to stun her. Because of his uniform, his wounds were very superficial. And as soon as the soldier touched his back and saw the blood on his hand, he kicked my mother towards the table, making her roll until it covered my view. He looked at her angrily as she played on the floor, but then he began to smile macabrely and began to undress her. He could hear her screams behind the table, see the torn clothes being thrown aside, feel the helplessness. When I began to struggle with the debris that covered the hiding place to go help my mother, I could see how my father's necklace was rolling on the ground towards me, and when I looked towards where his body should be, he was not there. Then I heard a snap and saw my father activating one of the grenades that the soldier had on his belt. The soldier looked at him with terror, he looked at my mother with sad eyes and then at me, and he dedicated his last words to me –Live– And everyone was surrounded by a blue light that left no trace of its existence, only a small well. of charred earth.

At that moment I couldn't feel anything, or rather, I felt so many things together that I couldn't process them. I was angry, sad, unhappy, desperate, I felt alone, as if a part of my being had been torn away... I was dying, tears and crying were not enough to vent me, but I had to make do with that.

Since then there have hardly been any soldiers around here. I always wonder what if they had never found us? What if I hadn't listened to my mother and helped them? But after a few seconds I push those thoughts away from me, because the only thing they do is make me depressed. But the absence of soldiers was not the only one, food was also beginning to become scarce, so for the next 11 years I was wandering around the city, searching through the rubble and hunting the animals that were beginning to take over the place.

He never frequented the same place, since it could be dangerous, but there was one who no matter what would go at least once a month. It was the old drunken tree in the park, it was the largest tree in the place, and despite having been largely burned, it sometimes bloomed. It was the place we frequented most as a family, and the place where I carved my parents' names. Richard Hope, Teresa Hope... dad, mom... wherever they are, I hope they are together, so at least they will be happy.

I didn't consider myself a very smart person, maybe slightly above average, I wasn't very strong or a good hunter either, at first I spent nights without eating because the deer ran away and I hadn't found anything in the rubble. But if I was proud of anything, it was my instinct, I knew when something was stalking me or if a survivor I rarely encountered had good or bad intentions. But as they say "Confidence is good, but control is better" I became confident and thought that nothing bad could happen if I went to the dangerous areas as long as I was attentive to my instinct. That was the worst mistake of my life.

I was entering the danger zone, heading towards an old supermarket, when I began to feel restless, so I began to look everywhere while staying the course, but after a few seconds that restlessness transformed into lethality, forcing I involuntarily caused my body to roll to the side, only to see a small smoking crater in the place I was standing just moments before. Looking ahead I could see how a diffuse and translucent silhouette began to take shape and color. It was an EXECUTOR, one of the killing machines that had wiped out hundreds of people during the attack on the force field. Those things were equipped with all kinds of weapons and an AI capable of predicting the target's movements based on what it had previously learned.

At the time I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision, but now I believe it, despite how things ended... I knew I was finished, seeing one of those things meant nothing other than death, the fear was took over my head, I felt the world become slower and I began to reflect: Why was this happening to me? Why was my family taken from me? Why was my home taken from me? Why was I the one who had to run away? The one who had to die... Why not them? It was at that moment that fear turned into rage and hatred. If death was going to embrace me, why didn't I crush it in the process? So I decided to run towards the machine, confusing it since no one in their right mind would do that, but it still had time to take out its machine guns. He was imposing, and when he started shooting I rolled until I reached his paws. These things were made to prioritize their operational integrity, so I wouldn't shoot myself there, but being under a 20-40 ton machine with 6 mechanical legs capable of crushing me like a can wasn't much safer either. In fact, as soon as he stopped shooting at me he started trying to crush me. Stomp on one side, kick on the other, spin in circles to go faster. If it weren't for the fact that I could sense the danger coming, it would surely have killed me at that moment, but since I couldn't afford the machine to learn my movement pattern, I jumped on one of its legs when it was lifting it and propelled myself up to its head. at which point he began to move quickly in all directions, trying to get me off of him, but I found myself clinging with all my strength to a small ledge. As soon as he realized that he couldn't get rid of me that way, he deployed two small plasma pistols, which began to fire at me in bursts so I decided to let go and let myself fall, evading much of the blast, but when I tried to hit Two plasma balls collided with each other and bounced off, destroying part of the machine's fuselage and blowing off my right arm from the elbow onwards. For a moment I almost fainted, I felt like a burning sensation was eating away at my non-existent arm, it was as if I were submerging it in a pot of boiling water, but the anger prevented the pain from eating away at me and I began to tear out all the cables that were now there. exposed, making the machine go crazy and shaking and throwing me into the air now that I didn't have a good grip. When I turned around in the air to face the machine, I could see it deploy a large railgun and begin to overload until it finally exploded as a large jet of particles shot through my leg, bubbling my blood and flesh until it exploded, taking everything from my left knee down.

Ahh, and here I am now –I sighed– Bleeding to death after fighting to the death with a killing machine. Who knew I would win? Or is this more of a tie? Haha, it doesn't matter, nothing matters anymore –I said exhausted while holding my father's necklace with the little strength I had left– I won't be able to follow his last will... I hope he's not angry with me when we meet again... –But while my vision became blurry a feeling took over me. I didn't want to die, I wanted to live. It was no longer because of my father's will, I wanted to feel attached to life again by my own will – I'm not going to die here! I refuse! –I screamed at the top of my lungs as I coughed up blood –I just have to stop the bleeding, it's not that difficult –I said as I slowly crawled to the place where the machine exploded –I will use your death to keep my life! How about that? ?! –I said, staggering and almost on the verge of fainting, to then press both wounds on the charred and almost melted earth to cauterize them, but not only that, closing wounds of this size would only cause the blood to press the cauterization, reopening the wound until to bleed out, so I kept the wounds even longer, until the flesh melted and turned into a mass of flesh that would not let the blood pass through - I'll take care of the necrosis later... - I said, fainting on the side of the crater –

—A compatible catalyst has been found, proceeding to transport it to the relevant location. Mistake. Insufficient mana. Searching nearby locations. Location list completed. Proceeding to transport the catalyst. Mistake. The catalyst is in critical condition and does not have a magical core. Healing the catalyst and transporting it to a distant location is not feasible. The choice will be to perform a metamorphosis ritual on the catalyst and transport it to the closest possible location. Calculated. Transporting the catalyst 12,742,001 meters from the relevant location. Performing metamorphosis ritual. Entering hibernation mode

—When I realized it, the sky had changed. The stars were different, the Moon was different, or rather, the moons...

Author's message:

Hello, this is the first time that I have decided to publish something seriously (Although this is still a hobby for me)

As you can see, I'm not a writer, I'm just a guy who gets bored easily and starts imagining stories in his head to avoid getting bored, so why not write them and publish them so that I'm not the only one who gets rid of the boredom? ?

This work is made entirely by me, although I have consulted with an AI the meaning of certain words to know which would fit best, or data that I do not know such as the diameter of the Earth.

Without further ado, I hope to post this weekly.

Best regards, Don_Miseria.