Andre doesn't remember anything about his biological parents. He only knew that they had died along with billions of others during the first years of the cataclysm.

His first memories were of the old rundown orphanage which housed him along with several dozen more starving orphans. Their faces were gaunt from the lack of food. It wasn't rare for one of the kids to just fall down one day never to get back up. It wasn't due to the neglect of the adults; they didn't have any food either. It was the brutal reality of the famine that plagued humanity during the first decade of the cataclysm.

Even at a young age, Andre was already exhibiting signs of his latent magical abilities. He was a head taller than his nutritionally stunted peers even when they ate the same meager meals.

He was still emaciated but there was a sturdiness to his build that the others had long lost or never got the opportunity to have in the first place.

This obvious show of health was not always to his benefit. Many times the caretakers have asked him to forgo his meals in favor of feeding the more feeble. He always obliged, giving away his tiny morsel of food to others.

Yet nothing seemed to change the feeble eventually died his sacrifice only prolonging their suffering.

As the months and years rolled by things within the orphanage and the greater settlement that contained it only got worse. Week after week the food available was slowly decreasing. The only thing that kept the orphanage from collapsing was that the number of people within had similarly decreased.

At this point, it wasn't only the kids that were succumbing to the famine some of the adults had also passed having opted to forgo food in favor of others just like Andre had done. But unlike him, they weren't blessed with superhuman endurance.

Just as it seemed like things couldn't get any worse the world proves itself infinitely cruel. What awaited the few that survived was not salvation but the withering.

The arrival of the whithering curse upon the Earth caused the most rapid decline in human population in history. In less than two years the world's population was halved and humanity entered its darkest days.

The number of children in the orphanage went from a little more than a dozen to five…four….three…two…

In the end, Andre knelt beside the bed clutching the shaking hand of Miss Annabeth, the last surviving caretaker as the withering took her away too.

He left the empty orphanage that day, closing its doors for the last time. The streets of the once great survivor settlement were a picture of the end. The corpses of the dead were piled high on the streets, their loved ones far too weakened by the withering to bury them. Soon they would all succumb to it. A settlement that had survived the brunt of the cataclysm fell not in a blaze of glory but with a silent whimper. Felled by a foe they couldn't begin to comprehend.

Andre felt it deep within his bones. Even with his superhuman constitution, it was beginning to take him. The endless waves will eventually erode even the strongest of stones and he was no exception.

He fled the fallen settlement like all those who still could. Deciding that facing the monstrous beasts was better than waiting for death.

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Out in the wilderness, his latent abilities started to shine. He survived on eating grass and drinking water that would have killed any other who took a sip.

The beasts learned to fear him as he tore apart those who mistook him for an easy meal. And before long he had gained a reputation among those that still survived. They had tried to invite him to their own settlements multiple times but he avoided them. He had enough of watching others wither away.

He continued on surviving out in the wild until one day the withering had finally come for him too. He was curled up beneath a dead tree. His body felt like it was made of lead; he could feel his muscles shaking, unable to exert any strength just like Miss Annabeth on her deathbed.

Just as he prepared to accept his fate. He heard the voices of two men approaching.

"You sure the kids out here Theo?"

"Positive the kid was seen here with signs of late-stage withering so he couldn't have gotten far."

Their footsteps got closer and closer before stopping.

"Look over there, isn't that him?"

The man named Theo spoke while pointing to Andre's curled-up form.

"Week that's him alright not like you'll find any other kid here."

The two men approached him and began to bend down to grab him. Mustering the last of his strength Andre clenched his fist and swung at the closest stranger. The man panicked and jumped away just in time causing his punch to miss. The wild swings momentum continued until it hit the tree Andre was resting under causing an explosion of splintered wood.

"What the fuck the kid just tried to murk me." The man named Theo screamed in fright while backing away.

"Hahahaha! That's what you get for dropping your guard." The other man sneered at his companion.

The man brought out a thick sack from a bag slung on his back and threw it over Andre trying to push him inside.

“Theo quit you crying and help me out here the kid weighs like his made of cement.”

The two men struggled for a while to get Andre into the sack before carrying him.

“We need to get him to base ASAP. If he dies on us the doc will tan our hides.” one of the men said but Andre struggled to discern their voices as darkness took him.

Andre went in and out of consciousness during the long trip to wherever they were taking him. At one point he felt the small prick of a needle that bent against his skin. He heard the man named Theo swear while trying to inject him with something.

“Theo just sit you dumbass down. The kid is so deep into the withering hes probably seeing the light right now so fuck off with the sedatives you might actually kill him.”

Andre felt another light prick as Theo tried once more to sedate him which was followed by a loud smack as the two men started fighting. His consciousness faded once again.

He awoke to blinding light. Was this the light at the end the adults spoke of? He thought to himself. As his eyes adjusted to the glare began to see that he sitting in a pure white room illuminated by powerful lights pointing at him from the ceiling. In the corner of the room was a woman dressed in a pristine white lab coat. Her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail which swung from side to side as her head shifted while reading papers on the metal table in front of her.

Andre tried to move but he couldn't as dozens of belts creaked in their fasteners holding him in place. The noise had drawn the woman's attention from what she was doing. She turned scrutinizing him with her blue eyes before giving him a bright smile.

“High sweetie good morning!" She greeted him upon realizing he was awake.

"Welcome to your new home I'm Doctor Kasimira you can call me Auntie Kasi for short I'm sure you will love it here.” The witch grinned from ear to ear showing far too much enthusiasm for someone speaking to a recently kidnapped and currently restrained child.