2498-06-25. Present day. The extinction war has been ongoing for the past 400 years. Craters and abandoned, ruined cities litter the earth's surface. The sun, once the the brightest object in the sky, now blocked by ashes. Most plant and animal species are now extinct. Deadly ash hurricanes rage across the planet's surface while volcanoes spew out ashes that mix together with the radiation in the air to form a black iridescent ash that falls to the ground, similar to snow, effectively killing any and all life that is not protected against it.

Despite all of this, the remaining countries are still blaming each other for the extinction war and refuse to work together to save the world. Because of the radioactive ash, the remaining countries are now forced to live in highly advanced domes around the world to protect their citizens. As it is impossible to sustain oneself, the only way to obtain more resources is by either attacking another country or for the government to force some of their citizens out of the dome. Most people that are forced out die but some are able to form hideouts and survive barely by savaging old ruins.

............

"Where am I?"

I was floating over a dark abyss. There was nothing around me, just pitch darkness. I couldn't even see my feet or arms. Where exactly am I suppose to be? The last thing I remember was that I was reading a book. Did I die? Wait, am I dead? Is this void suppose to be the afterlife?

"Alright... Calm down Sora, assess your situation first before you really panic. What do I know about my current situation." I said to myself.

Lets see, My name Suzuki Sora and I'm 21. I've been living my whole life in an underground hideout with other survivors. I enjoy reading books and- wait that doesn't help me now. Calm down and assess your surrounding.

I took a deep breath.

All right... I seem to be stuck in an empty void where all I can see is darkness. Also, I can't tell whether or not I'm floating or standing on solid ground.

I tried waving my hand Infront of face and saw nothing.

So... the conclusion I have come up with is that I have to be dreaming about me being in some kind of dark void. I mean its probably a dream right? I don't see any other explanation for why I would be in a void. The last thing I remember was that I was in a room reading a book. There's no way I spontaneously died. Right? I should try slapping myself awake...

I raised my hand and braced my face for a slap but before I could slap myself, a dark purple glow appeared behind me. The light was bright enough to illuminated my hand that I was about to use to slap myself with. I quickly put my hand down and realized that I was floating over an abyss.

Yeah, its pretty safe to say that I'm dreaming now. People don't just randomly gain the ability to fly.

I turned around to investigate the light source and saw a dark purple crystal hovering in the middle of the abyss.

Ok... Firstly, Why is there be a crystal here? How is that crystal glowing that brightly? And why does that crystal feel so familiar? I have never seen that crystal ever in life so why does it feel like I know what that crystal is.

"Okay... So I'm somehow floating in an abyss with a purple glowing crystal that seems strangely familiar ahead of me. Seems pretty strange even for a dream." I mumbled to myself.

Also the fact that I'm aware of all of this makes it weirder. Maybe I'm lucid dreaming...?

I tried to move towards the crystal and ended up walking on the same spot.

Ah... right, I was still floating in the middle of an abyss. Not exactly possible to walk on air now is it. Then how am I suppose to check out the crystal then?

As if responding to my question, an invisible force suddenly started to pull me towards the crystal. I watched as the invisible force slowly pulled me closer and closer to the mysterious crystal.

Well isn't this pulling force convenient.

As I was pulled closer to the crystal, I could make out more details about the crystal. The crystal was sphere shaped, with the edge of the crystal being a dark purple. The inside of the crystal however, was infinitely black, almost like the abyss I was floating above. All of which seemed all too familiar to me for some reason.

As I got closer to the crystal, the pulling force also got stronger. It was as if the crystal was pulling me towards it.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But why? Why was the crystal pulling me towards it? Why did it feel so familiar? There's so many questions and no answers.

At the rate I'm going, I'll hit the crystal in

3

2

.....................

I wake up to light shining down on my face. I sat up and found myself slumped over a table with an open book acting as my pillow. There was the faint sound of machinery humming in the background. I must’ve fallen asleep while reading it.

I sighed and looked around.

The room was lit by a single humming light bulb hanging overhead. The wooden table I had been sleeping on was worn down from age and creaked whenever it was moved. At the edges of the table were books stacked on top of each other while the book I had been reading lay open in the middle. The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves that were stacked full of books that had been salvaged from the ruined city above the hideout.

…What was that dream all about. A black crystal? An endless void? The crystal also felt strangely familiar for some reason. Anyways, how long have I been asleep... an hour? Two?

I checked my watch and saw that around five hours have passed.

WHAT?... It was rare enough that I would be able to sleep for more than three hours but with what's been happening? I would've expected something to have happened by now, I should go check up on the current situation.

I closed the book I had been sleeping on and returned it to the shelf. I switched off the lights for the room took a step out into the corridor, turned left and began walking to the command room.

Now then, I should go check if anything new has happened with the current situation. Hopefully nothing has happened and we can continue evacuating the rest of the survivors without any incident. Assuming something has happened, we're going to need roughly ten minutes for everyone to be able to evacuate into the emergency escape tunnel, but it doesn't seem like anything has happened thus far.

I soon heard arguing in the distance and realized that I was near the command room. I cleared my head and knocked on the door to the command room. The arguing stopped.

"Come in." a low, gruff male voice answered.

I opened the door and entered the room to find Zachery and three other people sitting around a table. The table was filled with papers while the walls of the room were covered with maps full of pins marking out enemy locations and potential escape routes. Tables full of machines were placed on one side of the wall. A wide assortment of sounds could be heard from the machines. Papers containing messy handwritings were scattered all over the floor.

Zachery glanced over at me and then looked back at the three other people.

Zachery was a tall guy who looked to be roughly 37 years old. He was another refugee, and basically the de facto leader of our group. He had a tough steel look, but that was to be expected considering he was one of the oldest refugees and as such, had experienced this hell longer than most of us.

"We're going have to start evacuating by tomorrow. Looking at how things are going, we're going to have to tell them about the current situation and hope that none of them panic. If all goes well, we will be able to evacuate to a safe distance within three days. The best course of action now is to inform the rest of the survivors and tell them to start preparing their items. Dismissed."

The other three people nodded and hurriedly left the room.

"Did I miss anything?" I asked.

"The situations still the same, we got two domes on opposite sides of the ruined city right above us threatening each other. Neither one of the countries have pulled the trigger yet, but it's only a matter of time before one of them starts launching the bombs." Zachery replied.

I walked over to the table filled with devices and scanned through the data. There didn't seem to be anything new, the same information as I saw five hours ago.

"Where have you been the past five hours?" he asked.

Ah... Probably shouldn't tell him I've been sleeping.

"I've been in the library... researching... stuff..." I replied slowly.

He sighed and went back to shuffling through the papers on the table.

Eh? Seems like he bought my excuse, or doesn't care.

"Well whatever, you should go pack whatever items you wanna bring when we evacuate. There might not be a hideout to return to after their skirmish."

I noticed something strange on the display for the last machine. It appeared to be some kind of encrypted message consisting of letter substitutions from one of the domes.

"Hey Zachery, you should come check this out, looks like an encrypted message of sorts."

He walked over and looked at the message over my shoulder when suddenly,

BOOM

"Was that... an explosion?" I asked. I glanced over at his face and saw that it had paled.

"It sounded like one... But they can't be fighting already. They were at a stalemate."

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than me.

Well, someone's going to going to have to break that stalemate... why not take advantage of the element of surprise while your at it.

I began checking the other devices while Zachery began decrypting the message even faster and after a while, swore under his breath.

"Sora, get to the escape tunnel. Now."

Zachery turned around and started running down the corridor. I glanced back at the semi decrypted message and realized what the rest of the message read. Even without the full message translated it was easy to guess what the rest of the message read.

[B--in -ll -ut as-a-l- at 6p-]

Begin all out assault at 6pm

I glanced down at my watch and saw that the time was 6.01 pm. Looking over at a radar nearby, I that saw five red dots had appear on the screen. Each of the rod dots were moving across the screen over the ruined city and toward one of the domes... and the hideout was in the blast radius.

I slowly walked over to the table in the middle.

I should be panicking now, but for some reason I feel calm. Was it shock? Or maybe acceptance. I mean, what else was I suppose to do in the face of certain death. There was no point in panicking.

I took a seat at the table.

I could hear alarms in the background. The world felt muted and distant now.

It doesn't matter. Even if we escape into the tunnel, we'll still be dead, either to radiation or the explosion.

I glanced down at my watch.

6:03 pm.

I closed my eyes and leaned back on the chair.

Oh yeah, my dream... I wonder if it was a warning about my death. I'll take being stuck in any abyss over this hell any-

A flash. Then darkness.