I gasped for air. My flesh was burning and felt abnormal. I chocked and coughed as my blank mind struggled to remember.

The room I found myself in was dark, wet and stifling. The air was barely breathable. It came back in painful flashes that barely made any sense as I was agonizingly trying to remember how to breathe normally. This place... I stepped into this sarcophagus so long ago. Never really expecting to wake up, not really caring if I didn't. But why... this oppressive, lingering feeling of apathy? Of apathy, disgust and death. I fell out of the pod onto the wet surface, hitting my head.

-Aaah. What the Hell.

I tried to vomit, but nothing would come out. I was parched and starving I realized. I leaned against the wall. Trying to hold onto my sanity. Trying to calm myself. Gasping for air.

I closed my eyes, but there was no respite. Flashes. More and more flashes. Cities wasted. There was a war. We were dying in droves. It was a pure genocide on all fronts. Armageddon. They were butchered all around me. And then I was killing them myself. I was ending everything as everything ended around me. Slowly and for a long time I was forced to remember bits of everything. Painful memories of my life before. It was all madness. Tears flowed over my cheeks though my body was parched for that liquid of life.

''I shouldn't be alive. I'm still here only because of the damn gift.'' I thought.

-''God dammit all!'' I screamed in the darkness.

The world ended. I've seen it, I went through it. Through everything. I experienced all the worst shit I could have possibly seen. Betrayal, man against man, man against man made horrors and more. I have gazed into ugliest facets a war could have.

''They played God, and paved the road to Hell.''

''Yet I am here. I am alive still. But what is there left for me?''

''Why should I even try to live anymore? I went through it all, through the whole cycle.''

''They... are all dead. My family. My comrades. Everything.''

''And my crimes do not need redemption nor retribution for everyone is dead, and my conscience doesn't care anymore.''

''What is there left for me to even try?''

''This was supposed to be my tomb, perhaps I should make it... perhaps...''

Joshua's voice suddenly echoed in my mind as if present with me.

-What's the point? For many of us the road is a difficult one, but the path is always there for us to follow, no matter how many times we may fall.

-''I think I have fallen as much as I could where I currently am.'' I responded to the empty air, I was the only one in the room.

-You know that not to be true. The light of your brilliant mind alone cannot remove all darkness. Think on it and look in your heart.

-When the walls come tumbling down, when you lose everything you have. It is inevitable that you will be besieged by such dark thoughts before the light and goodness of you can make way again.

-I am not a believer Joshua, you know I never was.

-Right, you're not so certain. Fair enough, we all go through periods of darkness. Of course, in a world filled with misery and uncertainty, it is a great comfort to know that in the end there is light in the darkness. In such times we can turn to the Lord, but it's good to have friends.

-You were a good neighbour to us when you spared us the early hand of doom, and left us the liberty to choose how to spend our End Times.

-You gained my friendship that day, and I shall forever be by your side as a guiding hand until the true end of all comes.

-''Oh Joshua.'' I lamented.

-Rise. Do not let this accursed tomb be your end. Grasp the chance that you have been given and rise! Leave this accursed place and find the light of the sky again!

-The light will shine your doubts away, and from there, you may decide your life further.

-... Thank you, my friend.

I could withstand the thirst nor my own pathetic wallowing no more. I picked myself up and I sighed. I focused, forcing my body to analyse and give me a status directly into my mind. I could feel the control and the state of every bodily part of myself. The gift flowing within my blood offered me much. It offered me life from this dying sarcophagus. It offered much more. But it could also tell me the state of my body should I need to be sure of my own health.

I could will the information be relayed to my brain directly. Similar to how a surge of pain would alert a normal human of bodily harm or sickness, it would be a packet of status information of my health and condition that I could summon at will while dulling down the pain. The knowledge would instantly be there more as a sense than information being relayed like a text. It was as if natural.

The immense hall that I was in was almost completely dark. My superior vision could barely distinguish the outlines of all the present shapes. Everything was dead here. No illumination or ventilation. Only small, weak red lights radiating from the few panels and servers barely alive. The power was nearly out and soon this would become a real tomb deserving of the device's name. I glanced upon some panels and realised this Clarketech wonder of a machine was long malfunctioning.

''I truly... should have been dead.'' The darker part of my mind thought.

My hope was my personal cache stash right opposite of my pod. There I could find all my former belongings intact in the still airtight locker. Unfortunately nothing electronic was still working.

There was no charge left even in the crystal batteries. They were supposed to hold a charge unused for at least five hundred years.

''Just how much time had passed?'' I wondered with concern. But I really must have thought about coming back alive in a less than a functional facility, or the chance of it. As I found a pair of sealed flares that I remembered packing away. It sparkled bright white as I popped one open.

Still, everything else that didn't require a battery was probably functional. Well... maybe the guns needed a bit of loving care and some oiling. The old reliable M40A1 sniper rifle was there along my next gen Heckler & Koch HK45. They looked as new as they could be as I pulled them out of the special preservative grease. Well, besides the scratches and dents they received on my tours through the long war. Lord almighty knows the M40A1 saved my life when that wolfish beast caught the barrel between its teeth and not my throat... hmm, wild times.

My clothes were there along with my grey winter jacket. For the life of me I could not stand the thirst anymore. It prompted me to hurry further even though I still felt like death. My awakening was rushed. Normally there would have been medical personnel to oversee me and give me special medication after such a long sleep. Yet now I could only depend on my own gift and constitution to tough through it.

I opened with great difficulty the door out of the preservation chamber before exiting that thick structural cube. Nothing greeted me. All was dark and damp. With all the machines and computers nonfunctional. Everything seamed derelict and worn out.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

There were four more sarcophagi besides my own. Despite knowing that my life was still a precarious matter to sustain I nevertheless searched every one of them. Extending precious energy in doing so though my own reason was unclear. Simply, I had to know. I just had to know if I was truly the only one left.

But in each of them I found silent machinery. Their power long spent. The few insignificant red lights warning lone gone caretakers of their failure. Their charges long perished. Great men and scientists that would never again wake. I was alone.

The lack of air was suffocating. I needed to get out of there before I'd lose my consciousness. This was once a large and highly secret research facility. It was specially designed to be self-sufficient in order to be cut off from the rest of the world and to maintain its secrecy. I had arrived here just as the Final End was starting. These were once bright halls with hi-tech equipment and with backup over backup measures. Yet it was all decayed. Musty and hellishly dark.

''Those bloody idiots.'' I thought.

I realised as I remembered more. They might have never even been touched by the Great Ending. But they had unlocked the secret of the gateway, and upon their foolishness they had activated it. For the briefest of seconds all Hell broke loose as it was anything, but it's intended use to what had followed next. A sea of darkness poured out, and it seemed to have ruptured reality itself.

Only God knew what Eldritch abominations were unleashed that day in the few seconds that the portal was active before it collapsed on itself. But the damage was already done. The explosion completely ruptured both the containment room and the Impossible Hexahedron. The gate itself was torn out of the secrecy of the mountain around it. Or rather better said the mountain was torn from around the gate itself. Then bare to spew its venom into the sky and the icy earth.

Now I was surrounded by a complete decrepitness as I slowly made my way through the facility. By some miracle there were still some lights working here and there, but still they were rare. Checking every corner I made my way forwards with my trusty HK45. Ever so slowly, my ears ever straining for the slightest sound. Nothing was stirring. Yet here and there I found traces of blood splatters. And then damage that would have had to be caused by someone with supernatural strength.

It couldn't have been the bestial abominations that we warred with, nor was anyone granted with the gift in this facility. It must have been something else... And by some lack of luck I found my path towards the outside blocked by a cave in, not the least surprised considering the fortune in my past life. The walls just gave way. Though nearby I could notice in the dark another caved in hallway, except this one had a crashed ventilation shaft nearby. It would be my only way to try to circumnavigate this mess, I hoped.

I tied my meagre backpack to my leg in order to fit inside the vent and not part with it. The noise I made as I crawled through the ventilation was absolutely ungodly. If there was any danger still lurking in this damn accursed place then I was sure that I would have roused it. And what better place to meet it than in the vents with no way of easy movement.

Huh, suddenly then and there I remembered a certain scene from the first Alien movie.

''Blast my life.'' I had thought then.

Soon I was to be lightly surprised where others would have been somewhat disturbed. Since after what I have seen in my past life nothing could unsettle me that easily anymore. Blood markings. ''TOWARDS SALVATION'', I wondered if the author meant for his or my salvation. And further up I've found written further: ''Between light and dark there is an entire world. That world is necessarily ours.''

I could only guess at the cryptic message and for a moment I could only think of the duality of good and evil, and the grey between it. Besides the blood, many splitting vent ducts were also blocked either by security grating or having entirely collapsed. This place wouldn't last more than a century at this rate.

As I was beginning to believe that I was going more or less in the direction of the map I had memorized so long ago, the vent began to go downwards. And from there, ending in a strange darkness. No, there was a semblance of the faintest light from one crack. I deduced correctly that this was the opposite side of the hallway. I smashed my way through the rubble and into the dim lit corridor.

''Just two more sectors to go through'' I thought. ''Then I can see what is left of this world.''

But as it was customary of my luck, someone, or rather some ''thing'' did hear me. As I heard it bellow in a deep, guttural voice more closely resembling that of a beast monster but with something insidiously more sinister in it.

-WHO'S THERE?

I crouched on one knee, my heart racing for the inevitable. My HK45 raised swiftly in my hands aiming in the dimply lit hallway. I could hear movement. Somebody tried to open a door. Then again that bone chilling growl. That was the first time I have ever heard such a thing and I damn say I experienced many horrors so far in my life, man made and not.

Suddenly, with a tremendous force a door was pummelled open in one strike! Its metal pieces flew apart outward, then something came out, but I still couldn't see it! There was only one light in the corridor and it, whatever it was, emerged from a room much further down the hallway.

I could only wish that it was not anything like the beasts that I fought in my past, or it could have been over then and there! It would have smelled me with its keen nose. And it would have made an incredible powerful leap that would have pounced me dead! Maybe without me even being able to shoot at it in time.

Yet Lady Fate or God himself decided it would give me some slack this time. If slack is what you could call a lesser nightmarish abomination that won't kill you quite so quickly.

But there it came. It looked grotesque. Its body was naked and looked sickly, yet one could tell it was once still human. It's normal once human skin now had patches of ill looking dark, brown and red. And it had an umbilical cord connected back into itself. Great enlarged eyes, dark as the void. It was carrying a bloodied crowbar, and it was coming in my direction on a semi-alert step. It looked ill yet I was not deceived. That thing smashed a metal door apart in pieces like it was made of cardboard. As it came in the single prime light of the hallway I was already aiming. My aim proved true, and I fired shot after shot into it's upper torso, and it's head! Half of it being blown to mush straight back into the darkness that it came from. It fell limp and seemingly dead.

''It couldn't come back. It shouldn't.'' I told myself. Yet I knew abominations had many tricks, either of evolution or of just sheer evil will. I planted another bullet into it's remaining half of it's head, and it remained limp. I passed by it quickly. I made a loud ruckus unloading nearly a full mag into this thing and I knew too well the damn noise would have roused everything in this place if it wasn't already. I walked at a brisk pace now, time was of the essence. And soon I was to be proven myself right as I thought I heard a great inhuman growl coming from seemingly many hallways away. I had to hurry and find it. And sure enough my memory proved on point.

''Shelter Exit C'' a flickering green light sign read. This was it, the quickest exit out of there. All the others might as well have been on the other side of Hell to try and get to.

I rushed, and I found myself on an actual modestly lit looking corridor. I ran. I ran past all the doors besides me hoping no foul creature would bar my damn way. At the end was a large vault like door. I prayed it's metal wheel was not rusted shut, and I put on it all the force that the life of me could muster! It gave in, ever so begrudgingly. But as I started to feel better about myself at the end of the opposite hallway the lights started to shut off one after another. Those damn things, or Lord knows who, had control over the lighting system!

I hurried, pulling the lever ever around as if my life depended on it. No! As if eternal damnation in the bowels of the most evil darkness awaited if I failed! ''Clank'' rang out then I pulled, growling with pain as I did. The door gave in more and more for the first time in who knew how many centuries or more of neglect.

I quickly slipped in. Hitting my head and banging my sniper rifle in my rush before I pulled the metal door back shut. Just in time to have heard a loud bang as if a tremendous iron fist banged onto the door from the other side! Yet this was a reinforced blast door. Nothing short or a thermite charge or a tactical nuclear bomb would break it. I quickly surveyed my new surroundings. It was suddenly more utilitarian and bare bones. A great grated vent was on the floor in the room's centre, still working. And chains were dangling gently in its breeze. A few red emergency lights were still working by their own accord, basking the large room in an eerie dull red glow.

All else was silent. I explored my new environment. There were remnants of living people here yet very old, ancient I could say. The few books remaining were all rotten or turning to dust upon my touch.

''How long has it been truly? Am I that ancient by now?'' I thought to myself.

The maintenance personnel that survived whatever calamity afflicted this research station I could not find out more about them. Yet glimpses of it I could still be seen.

They had the foresight, or... no. Rather, they were bored to tears and losing their minds in the last days that they started writing on the wall. Either by scratches or by bodily means.

''This is the end'', ''they opened it and brought damnation'', ''God have mercy on us all and on Mankind'', ''Borgov Valady chief en-''.

Glimpses... these glimpses were all that I would get. There was nothing here for me. And the dehydration I was feeling was almost chocking at that point now that I was away from immediate mortal danger. It would be a quick way to the auxiliary exit. Yet I passed by something that would catch my eye for no reason. A large machine burner. Or actually, it was an incinerator. So rudimentary but not out of place. I don't know what compelled me, but I looked inside. And there was only a pile of ashes, undisturbed until now. I felt weary seeing this.

''One small pile with enough recognisable debris to know that the ashes were of a man. But who could it have been?'' I wondered for a moment.

Melancholy was gripping me. But I could not linger here, even if safe enough. I needed to get out. I needed to see the light of day, if just once more. Then... then I could think everything over. I marched up a long flight of spiral stairs until I reached another sturdy metal door. The wheel on this one gave in more easily. Ancient vaseline could still be seen, thickly applied on all its mechanisms. Possibly the last doing of the last survivor here. I opened it, peaking curiously at the darkness in front of me before I went further on, closing the door behind me.

''It must be so close.''

I was down to my last flare. It's bright phosphorous light as impressive as it was seamed feeble and barely able to keep the darkness away. I sensed something, or maybe I felt it. My senses were acute to the peak of what the human body could offer. Yet I could not explain that strange sensation. It was simply darkness and there was no one there.

But I still felt I was followed, my instincts were flaring. But whatever it was, if there ever was, it didn't act. Perhaps it was a bout of paranoia, and maybe I would have preferred to believe that... yet I didn't. Soon I felt a chilling cold becoming more present the further I went, and there finally I saw it.

A ladder. A ladder to my doom? To disappointment? To damnation? Only one way I could tell. I climbed, and I started rolling the wheel of the hatch above me.

Blinding white light greeted me.