Prologue -

The sun was setting as a family of two exits a superstore. “Hey mother, where are we going after this?” A child ponders.

“We’ll decide that after we’re done putting the groceries into the car.” The mother responds as they both put the last of the bags into the vehicle. Then they get into the car and it starts up. As they leave the parking lot they start to feel small vibrations but don’t take notice, the mother assumes it’s just the car going over the little depressions in the road, like always. But as they reached the motorway the vibrations got more and more intense, the mother stopped the car, followed by the many cars ahead and behind her.

“Mother, what’s going on?” The child asks as she looks around at everything.

“I think it’s an earthquake, get out of the car now.” The mother responds. The child unbuckled her seatbelt and ran towards her mother. In an instant the asphalt road in front of them cracked, the child and her mother shrieked and stumbled back; watching as the crack began to separate, taking cars into the unknown ground beneath. The family got to their feet and started running away from the crack, now hole, as it started expanding faster and faster. Suddenly the severe vibrations stopped, as well as the expansion of the hole.

The mother walked over to the hole and looked inside the hole that unearthed itself, inside she saw a big structure, two vast curved rods with sharp ends; as well as the dozen or so cars that were stuck inside. Upon closer inspection she saw something start to happen to the structure, small purple and blue dots dancing around the middle of it, as if something was beginning to appear. She knew it was nothing good, so she started to walk back towards her daughter with her eyes towards the hole. She saw glimpses of the purple and blue particles, now more bountiful. Then the ground shook once more, this time stronger. It thrust her down and knocked the wind out of her. As quickly as it started it ended, she looked around at all the other people, they were inside of their cars. She heard her daughter run over to her to help her out, they were now just metres away from the cavity.

Then they heard something that froze them in place for a few seconds; someone in the hole was screaming out in pain, soon after more people started shrieking. It felt like the world stopped for those few seconds, the only sound they heard was the terrifying screams of the unfortunate people that couldn’t get out of the hole. The family rushed back to the car and started it, watching as many others did the same. Once the car was started they started turning around when the ground shook and the hole expanded once more, the daughter looked back and saw that the terrain around the ‘portal’ sunk into the ground, revealing what was happening. She saw various beings chasing around the people trying to get out of the hole, bear looking creatures with multiple heads, small dragons flying up and out of the portal, diving down on whoever they saw. She screamed as she saw a small dragon start towards the car she was in. It hit the back windshield and sent cracks all throughout the window. Then it moved towards the side and managed to knock the car off course, they slammed into the wall of the motorway; airbags deploying, dampening the daughters scream. The mother opened her door and stumbled outside, looking around at all of the chaos happening, she saw many other cars speed past her on the motorway, trying to escape the monsters.

“Abel, are okay??” The mother shouted. Abelia looked at her and nodded. Then as she was unbuckling herself she heard her mother shriek, she instinctively looked over towards her and saw what happened. The dragon that knocked the car off of the road was dragging her mother away from the car. Time slowed to a halt for Abelia, she could only watch as she saw her mother get dragged away by the creature; trying to get at her neck. Abelia screamed at the monster and frantically tried unbuckling her seatbelt, all while her mother was powerless to stop the attacks. Moments later she heard her mother's screams stop at an instant.

She looked over at her mother, and saw that the dragon had sunk its teeth into her neck. Her eyes welled up with more tears and she stared for what felt like hours. The dragon was slowly tearing through her mother’s neck. Abelias' mind shut down, she couldn’t believe anything was real. And as if it were bound by fate, a police cruiser pulled up to the mother. By this time Abelia had closed her eyes, trying to wish it all away; and soon after, she heard the sound of crashing thunder.

Prologue End -

A Snowy Day

Small footprints in the snow led into the living room of a destroyed duplex, leaving wet trails in the once-immaculate carpet. Those footprints belonged to a girl, whose name was Lia. The air felt dry, and chock full of dust particulates which danced through the cold winter breeze. She had endured far too much for someone of her age. Saw people's lives get taken in front of her, people sold off as slaves; she knew what the world had come to be. She just learned to sneak around and avoid people in the short 7 months this world gave her to grow up.

She sat down on the old, beaten up chair that resided in the living room; the only audible sound was water from an open ceiling slowly dripping down onto the carpet and making a pool. She was relaxing after a lengthy day of scavenging, her backpack was heavy, and her legs were beginning to get sore from all the walking. Those few minutes where she did nothing but sit down were bliss, she quickly got back up; it was beginning to get darker outside. She walked around the duplex, scanning every room for something of value, but as she entered the last room she saw something that piqued her interest. An acoustic guitar on the wall, it looked perfectly preserved. Which was a strange sight; usually everything was at least touched by decay or water damage, she took the six string and started out. Today was a good day for her, she got a new pack as well as boots; her last pair were already beginning to fall apart from the amount of water they took in.

As she stepped out onto the crunchy, soft snow she took a look around her; broken down buildings with smashed windows, slowly being taken over by nature once more. Cars picked clean of any usable parts; no signs of life anywhere, the only sound was still the now-distant water droplets hitting the puddle. She walked past broken glass and roots sprouting out of the pavement. she still kept her guard up, one hand on her side, slightly gripping her fashioned gun knife; the world was still a hostile place, monsters lurking about. After a long trek through deserted streets, she was finally entering the outskirts of the town; and her legs were starting to suffer from the effects from the extra long scavenging run she took today. She sat down on a bench and took a short break, thinking about everything, her mind was flooded. She felt exhausted, both mentally and physically. She was close to an entrance, her pathfinder gem let her know that. She was ready to head back and get a nice hot drink from the cafe, the gem lit up bright as a white rectangle flickered in front of her; it stabilised soon after and she walked into the cold, shimmering wall.

Stolen novel; please report.

The temperature inside of the plain was just above freezing, and there was a dense white mist engulfing everything. The air was stale, and dry. The ground was some kind of hard material, it felt like concrete but had qualities of sand and clay if you managed to isolate little bits of it. Sometimes you’d run into abandoned buildings, completely sterile; untouched, as if the houses never had people living in them, like doll houses. The gem took Lia to a decrepit house, where upon entry another white rectangular doorway in the centre of the living room started strobing, then slowly steadied itself. Lia waited another second, closed her eyes, then stepped into the portal.

The next time she opened her eyes, she was inside of a library, The Travelers Library.

The familiar scent of books filled her nose, and she walked towards the cafe. The library was enormous, stacks of books going up seemingly infinitely, along with the inevitable mazes within. Huge stairwells to go to the various levels, it seemed impossible for a structure of this calibre to be existing. The library was quiet, as it usually is, but there wasn’t anyone in sight; that was a strange sight. Usually there were at least 5 people within eyeshot. She walked into the cafe and the cashier lit up.

“Hey Lia! Why are you so late today?” She asked.

“I felt like doing a little extra today, and because I’m lazy.” Lia responded in her usual monotone voice. “Also, can you get me a tea? Earl Grey with a little milk.”

“Sure thing! That will be half of a shard.” The cashier responded. Lia grabbed a small white and cyan crystal from her bag and broke it in half, then handed it over. Then she heard the water slowly start pouring into a styrofoam cup.

“What happened to everyone? I haven’t seen a single soul in so long.” She asked the cashier.

“It’s been like this all day, I think I’ve seen at most a dozen people in the 9 hours I’ve been working.” The cashier responded. Strange. Lia sat and pondered, thinking about anything that might be happening to prevent anyone from going to the library. The clock read 11:31pm, she finished her tea and strolled out of the cafe. Shortly after, she decided to head towards the head librarian; it’s domain was tucked away behind many corridors. By the time she got there it was almost done sorting a huge stack of books, dusting them off if they were old and organising them by letter. The librarian was a massive, primordial creature that overshadowed even the biggest skyscrapers and aircraft carriers of the old world. It had a circular, olive coloured body, 6 eyes that were alert, and cautious. 3 spider-like legs that extended deep into the black abyss below, and two more appendages behind the body that came around to the front, pointed at the end that looked sharp. It also had some sort of telekinetic powers, which is how it sorted.

“Hey!” Lia shouted towards the beast.

It reared its massive body towards Lia and spoke; “Hello, what brings you into here?” She felt intimidated speaking to this creature, but kept a cool, calm tone of voice. “Have you seen the library? It seems emptier than usual.” Lia told the monster in front of her. “Why yes I have, there have been exactly 18 people that have come in today.” The Head Librarian muttered. 18? I would expect at least 50, even 25 would seem reasonable. Lia pondered. “What do you think is causing this? The lack of people coming in.” Lia questioned. The Librarian stopped sorting to think for a second, what did happen; Lia correctly intruded its thoughts and conjured up the same idea.

“How was the plain? Did anything seem off to you?” Lia thought back to her trip through the plain. It was as dead and deserted as ever. “Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, same old same old.” She responded. The Librarian stopped again, then told the mortal girl;

“It shouldn’t be something to be concerned about, tomorrow I am sure the library will be back to normal. You must go now, it is 10 minutes to midnight.” Lia looked at her watch and sure enough, it was 11:50pm. Lia excused herself from the behemoth and started through the corridors of books, almost losing herself on the way out. Once she reached the main area of the library she took another look around, still devoid of life. By now the cafe had closed down and the night lights came on, they were a nice dark orange colour to pair with the library's various brown tones. This also meant that the clock had finally struck midnight.

Before going towards the dormitories she found the trading shop and sold her perfectly preserved guitar. It sold for a whole lot, 77 full shards as a matter of fact, then she wandered through the aisles and aisles of bookshelves, finding her way to the dorm section. She took the lift up and up towards the top dorms, after a walk through the halls she found her room. She opened the door and took off her scavenging gear, then plopped down on her bed. She didn’t find him today either, but didn’t go that far out anyways. She takes a long moment to close her eyes and think, she doesn’t get this time often; it’s always nice to take in your own thoughts once in a while. Then she remembered that she has to get up in 4 hours for a certain shop to open.

She brushes her teeth and finally gets ready for bed, slowly noticing the small inconsistencies in her roof, and falling asleep.

Floating

I am floating in a murky grey

Abyss

There’s nothing around me and the fog

The fog is getting thicker and thicker

What used to be clear is now

Hard to

Breathe

I try to cover my mouth with my hand

But

I’m stuck

Static

It’s getting harder to breathe

Is that something burning I smell..?

Chapter 1 End -