The air is so cold...

The feeling of hunger tears at my stomach with its fierce claws. I can barely keep my eyes open. I don't even have the energy to breathe. My lips are cracked and parched, like a dry desert.

Death is a breath away, but I'm not afraid. It's strange, really. Throughout their lives, people fear the thought of death, trying to escape it. But in these final moments, I'm suddenly enlightened. Death no longer seems so frightening; on the contrary, it seems like a liberation. But must I die like this, so miserable, in so much pain? I still want to live. Why is this happening to me, an ordinary person? I never had a problem with anyone in my life. Everyone I knew loved me. I was always known as a kind, moral, and intelligent child in my neighborhood. I was the model person, always. So why is this happening to me?

These were the last thoughts that ran through Adam's mind. His lips were so dry that they were cracked and chapped, like soil that hadn't seen water in years. Of course, the lack of humidity in the air was also a factor. He hadn't eaten anything in days. He had tried to eat a few pieces of grass and weeds that he found on the ground, but they must have been poisonous, because they made him feel even worse. He had diarrhea and was vomiting constantly. He was now in his last moments. Death was only a breath away.

He was currently in the ruins of a building. He had entered this building to look for food. It was the only solid structure in the area. The city he was in was now a complete ruin. It was clear that something big had happened. Maybe a war, a big earthquake, or a fire, or all of them. But whatever it was that could destroy a city of this size must have been something very, very big.

He had been walking around the city for days. He had seen neither a living thing nor a person. He had not found a single gram of water to drink, except for a few pieces of bitter grass.

Starving, cold, and dehydrated, he walked with one last effort to this building at the end of the city and entered it in the hope of finding something. The building looked like a research facility. The inside was a mess. There were cables hanging from the ceiling, broken chairs, and papers scattered everywhere. He found a few broken vending machines. He immediately started looking for something to eat, but found nothing but a few rotten packaged foods inside. He left the vending machine behind and began to explore the other rooms with one last breath. He fearlessly and recklessly wandered through the rooms, going deeper and deeper into the building.

It would be more accurate to call this place a complex rather than a building. The walls seemed to get stronger as he went deeper, and there was less debris around. He came to a door. He thought it was an elevator door, but he wasn't sure because he had never seen an elevator with this kind of door. The door looked like the majestic doors of a bank vault in the movies. It had many mechanisms on it, and they all seemed to be in working order. There seemed to be something like a card reader on the door, and it was still active, which was very interesting. Because he hadn't seen a single working device around until now. But there seemed to be some electricity still coming from somewhere unknown in this door. He was very excited because it might give him the chance to meet a living person.

He had to find a way to open the door. He quickly started looking around for some kind of key, card, or anything else. After searching for a while, he saw a dead skeleton hiding under a collapsed table. The skeleton was wearing a uniform similar to what doctors wear, but it was slightly different. It also looked like a military uniform. There were some symbols on its shoulders consisting of four stripes and a star, which must have been something like its rank. He quickly started searching the skeleton's body. At this point, he didn't care about things like being afraid of dead people or skeletons. After searching for a while, he found a card in the skeleton's pocket and a colorful metal rod that he didn't know what kind of metal it was made of. He quickly took them and also took the clothes on the skeleton. After all, he didn't need them anymore. He was very cold and didn't care about things like respect for the dead. The only thing that mattered to him was himself. Being a good person wouldn't warm him up or fill his stomach. In his current state of mind, there was nothing he wouldn't do. But if the skeleton was a recently dead body, he could even treat it like food. After all, what doesn't a person do when they're face to face with death?

After taking the metal rod and the card and putting the uniform on top of his clothes, he quickly approached the door. He was actually crawling rather than walking quickly, but he didn't realize it. He approached the door and inserted the card into a slot on the door. There was a hole right next to the slot, which was obviously for the rod, which looked like a keyhole. He inserted the rod there and the door started to move slightly, making some creaking noises. Suddenly, a beam from an unknown source scanned his entire body. It said something in a language he didn't understand and slowly opened the door.

After the door opened, he stepped inside, but the door closed immediately behind him before he could even look around. The small room he found himself in had all its walls covered with mirrors from floor to ceiling. There was nothing else. Just as he was about to fall into despair again, the room suddenly started to move. He had long forgotten that this was an elevator. It began to move rapidly downwards, as if there was a huge structure underground. After a while, it stopped abruptly and the door opened slowly with a hiss, revealing a long corridor before him.

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He slowly started walking down the corridor. There were many doors on either side. Some of the rooms had glass walls and contained tubes filled with greenish-blueish liquids that a human could fit inside. All the rooms and doors were either broken or scattered. There was no sign of anything intact. After walking a bit, he saw a sturdy door ahead. He slowly approached it and inserted the card in his hand into the slot again, opening the door.

Everything inside was still intact. This room had huge tubes filled with unknown colored liquids. There were many tables around with colorful and interesting things on them. After exploring the room a bit more, he saw something resembling a control panel, covered with many buttons. He scanned it for a moment and then started pressing all the buttons. After all, what was the worst that could happen? He kept pressing the buttons until he stopped. Nothing had happened, or so he thought. A faint light started to flicker in the tubes filled with colored liquid, but Adem didn't notice it. He was too tired and distracted.

the liquid in one of the tubes started to bubble and shake slightly. As he was examining the surroundings, the tube slowly started to crack. The liquid inside broke the glass and spilled onto the floor like a flood, covering the entire surface. His feet slipped on the liquid and he fell to the ground. Just as he was about to regain his balance and stand up, something suddenly bit his arm. It bit so hard that it managed to draw blood despite all the clothes he was wearing.

The sudden pain brought him back to his senses. He looked at his arm. The thing that bit him was still attached to it, but it wasn't moving. It was lifeless, probably dead. He forced the creature's jaws open and freed his arm. He picked it up and examined it for a moment. After a while, it started to melt like a piece of ice and turned into a liquid similar in color to the colored liquids in the tubes, before disappearing. A wave of sadness washed over Adem as he watched the creature melt away, because he had been thinking of eating it. It seemed like the only source of protein he had seen in the past few days, but it had melted away from his hands.

Just as he was focused on the pain in his arm, the ground started to shake. Colored lights flashed on the ceiling and a siren or warning sound came from an unknown source. He had to get out of the room and back to the surface. As he was leaving the room, he started to stuff some of the colorful things he saw on the table into his pockets and quickly headed for the door.

He reached the corridor and the elevator. In the panic of the shaking and the lights, he hadn't realized it, but he had reached the elevator as if flying, much faster than when he first reached the room. This time he was fast, not with the speed of a dying man, but with the speed of an athlete. But he still felt like his body was about to collapse at any moment. He was oblivious to these, frantically placing the card and the metal bar back on the elevator door. The door opened and he stepped inside.

He didn't know how long it had been until the elevator door hissed open again, but as soon as it did, he quickly threw himself out and started running down the corridor. He could see the exit in the distance, but it was too late. The ground had started to collapse, and pieces were falling from the ceiling. Just as he was about to reach the door, a large piece fell from the ceiling and crushed him underneath.

Most of the facility and the first building he had entered had been destroyed, just like the other structures in the city. And he suspected that his own stupidity was the cause. He must have triggered something on the control panel that he had unknowingly pressed all the buttons on, which had started the process of destroying the entire structure.

The building he had entered was only one story high on the surface, and perhaps that was his greatest fortune. A few pieces had fallen from the ceiling, trapping him between a wall and the table just as he was about to throw himself out of that door. And all of this had brought us back to the position where the story began.

Adem was now in a pitiful state, awaiting death. He was living his last moments, but his mind was very clear. His cloudy thoughts were gone, and he was in a state of extremely clear consciousness.

He remembered everything, just as people said that their life flashes before their eyes in their last moments before they die. He wasn't afraid. He had surrendered. This was the end, wasn't it? Should he give up or keep fighting? But even if he fought, what could he do? There was a piece of concrete on top of him that he couldn't even understand how heavy it was. Death was guaranteed.

He thought about the colorful stone-like things he had taken before escaping from that room. He was so hungry now that he wondered if they were edible.

Not his entire body was under the concrete. Half of his body was outside, and one of his hands was free. He reached into his pocket with it and took out a stone. He brought it to his mouth. The stone was colorful and smelled very good. He hadn't noticed it when he first took it. He quickly took a bite of the stone. He expected a feeling that would break his teeth like a stone, but instead he was met with a soft, juicy taste. He couldn't believe it. He quickly ate the rest of the stones in his pocket.

At least he would die with a full stomach and his thirst quenched.

Just as he was thinking these things, he suddenly started to feel a warming sensation inside. At first it was a pleasant feeling, but over time the warm feeling turned into a scorching heat and pain, and it started to burn him from the inside as if it was burning all his organs. He felt as if he was burning in flames. Slowly his consciousness began to fade, his eyes closed, and after a while he passed out. It seemed that death had played a joke on him at the last moment and shown itself again.