Rude Awakening

Lia woke up in a hot sweat and coughed, there was a thick black smoke coming in through her bedside window. She held her arm on her mouth and nose, grabbing her coat, pack and rushing out to the hallway. She saw many others in the halls, coughing and going down the stairwell at the end of the hall. She knew the elevator would be out of commission so she avoided that area completely. Lia started towards the end of the hall, weaving in between the various dorm inhabitants to the stairwell. Once she got to the stairs she saw what the smoke was originating from; a large portion of the library was engulfed in flames.

She rushed down the stairs, nearly tripping twice, by the time she reached the bottom the smoke from the fire made the ground she stood on pitch black. She took out a flashlight and started towards a gate to the plain, she saw many others doing the same. As Lia reached the lobby area, she saw the library guards. Finally showed up huh. She thought, and then she saw the attackers; masked humanoid people with dark grey suits, they had tanks on their backs and carried weapons. As she was examining the aggressor one of them had shot a flame in her direction, she evaded the attack and saw the bookcase behind her light up in flame.

The heat made her grimace, she saw a guard shoot an attacker, as the guard was lining up another shot she heard a gunshot ring out, the next thing she saw was the guard on the ground; presumably dead. She was still stuck behind an overturned bookcase, watching this all unfold. She started towards the guard on the ground, grabbing the handgun and two magazines with it. In an instant she got up and looked towards where she saw the attackers just seconds ago; they were looking the opposite direction.

Now is my chance, I will run to the hidden gate behind the cafe. Lia schemed, she had no more time to waste so she quickly ran, ducking her head to avoid any stray gunfire. The entire time she heard screams and thundering gunshots all around her. She had been using her surroundings to see, but she was coming up on an area where the fires hadn’t yet touched. She looked back one more time to see if she was being followed and saw no silhouettes against the luminescent orange glow of the fires. She was right next to the cafe now, she vaulted over the counter and looked inside of the register. It was full of coloured crystals, she grabbed handfuls of them and stuffed them in her pack. They won’t be needing these for a long time. Lia reasoned, after rinsing the register for shards she filled up her bottles with clean water. After filling the last one, she made her exit, making sure she wasn’t being followed for the last time. Then took out her pathfinder gem, it’s glow was slowly getting brighter, she moved around until she reached a strange looking door. She opened it and went into the room, she saw a gate there. She held out her gem and the gate started strobing, then immediately settled; then she walked into the white, foggy dimension.

The inside of the plain was strangely calm, as opposed to what she just had the good fortune of experiencing. She took this precious time to finish putting on her coat and to check her pack, in case she missed anything. Her scavenging food was getting low, only two cans of corn were left now, her water was all there; as well as the hastily thrown together gun and it’s magazines. She checked the back pocket and all of the shards she stole were in there, as well as her .38 special ammo, that was getting low though. She left a lot of shards in her room. But that didn’t matter, she could easily get some any time if she wanted to. With everything in check, she started walking through the desolate, decrepit ruins of a once thriving gate community. She walked through the plain with her guard up, there might be some backup aggressors advancing. She snuck through the abandoned buildings, slowly making her way through until her gem would light up.

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 As she was entering another building, she heard the loud footsteps of boots against the clay-like ground outside; she immediately ducked behind a window and listened for any more commotion. She heard voices behind the wall, they were human, but so muffled by the window and masks they were wearing that she couldn’t make out any words. Once the footsteps had quieted down she stood up slowly, knife in hand. She tiptoed on the wooden floors to the front door. Upon opening it she saw the invaders on her right, she whipped her head back into the doorway, fearing that they saw her peek. But no footsteps came. She let her guard down a bit, then looked again and saw nothing, just the footsteps in the ground. She jogged the opposite direction of where the masked men went, trying to remain hidden. She began to feel the cold set in as her hands started getting numb, she took out her pathfinder gem and started looking around for the gate. It slowly got brighter and brighter, but she noticed that it was taking her towards where the masked men went. She grabbed her knife with her right hand and kept her gem in her left, proceeding with caution. It kept getting brighter and brighter with every step she took, until it lit up completely and she was right on the gate. But it was nowhere to be seen, she quickly brought her guard up completely.

This had to be an ambush, and she was ready. At once she heard a series of footsteps behind her and whipped her head around and looked at the attacker, it was a large masked man with a machete, he was big, in both size and height. She made the first move, moving in and thrusting her knife towards the giant, he blocked the attack with his arm and knocked Lia off balance. She quickly recovered and got back into her fighting stance, now she knew what kind of combat training he had, she just had to figure out a way to attack. She dashed forward and slashed at the attacker, he used his arm to block the attack but that resulted in his arm getting cut, deep. He recoiled and manically swung his machete at Lia, she evaded and stepped back; trying to think of another way to strike. She saw him speed towards her and swing, she was slow to the draw and ended up getting caught by his machete. She yelped and grabbed her shoulder, it wasn’t a deep cut but it hurt. She stopped focusing on the pain and went in for another attack, this time she lunged at the masked man, successfully sinking her knife into him; then she ripped the cord on the bottom of the handle, firing a bullet right into the masked man’s stomach. After she shot him she yanked out her knife and moved back, watching him collapse to the ground. Then she walked away from the dead masked man and sat down to quickly tend to her shoulder wound, it bled a lot and she worried that she might pass out from blood loss; but she kept going on anyway. She brought out her pathfinder gem, it was bright still. She was close to one, the fake gate technology the masked man had worked on hers; it’s going to be hell trying to figure out what is real and what’s not. But she carried on looking for a gate, remaining vigilant. The gem lit up again, this time she saw a white glow coming from a side room. She swung the door open and saw no one, just the rectangular door going back into the real world. Relieved, she let her guard down and fastened her pack, closing her eyes walking through the gate.

The next time she opened them, she saw a dense, winter forest. Immediately she shut down the gate behind her, and took off her pack; shoving the gem into the back pocket and drinking some water. It was early and the morning dew was still on the ground, coating the bottom of her boots as she walked out of the forest. After clearing away the last few shrubs and branches she saw something that put her on edge immediately. A sprawling asphalt road and a green road sign with the words;

“Motorway J to Techelc. 7 Miles north.”

Chapter 2 End -