The next day Atlas woke up late as per usual. He still needed to go to school, but got quite used to being late. The town of Ameli’ was quiet and nothing was going on. There was usually nothing going around anyway. The streets were quiet and calm and the only thing to disturb the peace was a boy running through streets cursing himself for oversleeping yet again.
“The last time I am watching “TueTube” all night!… I wish I could say it, but who am I kiddin’? But I really need to do something about my oversleeping problem. Teacher is gonna be mad as hell.” Blaming himself for being late, Atlas was already in front of the school.
“Damn, I wish there was no one to see me climbing over the wall. Why do we even close the gates after school starts?”
Taking off his backpack and throwing it over the wall, Atlas noticed a cat which was trying to climb over the wall as well.
“Looks like I am not the only one in trouble here?” Taking the cat and putting it in the hood of his hoodie he started to climb the wall.
Jumping down on the other side, he began looking around to see if his ninja art has proven to be effective and no one noticed him.
“Well, I guess I am being lucky these days…”
“ATLAS d’Prince!” A voice was heard somewhere from the right side. This was enough for Atlas to understand, he was out of luck today.
“Well, at least that makes two of us, right?” As he wanted to grab a cat, it jumped from his hood and started to run away.
“Traitor.”
“Atlas, this is seriously the last time I am going to be kind with you. Tell me at least one reason for me not to beat your ass right here” the voice that was heard before belonged to a woman in her 30s. She was wearing official clothes and had her bright red in color hair tight down in a ponytail like style. She certainly looked younger than her real age was.
“Ms Scarlett, as a vice principal, don’t you have more important work to do than catching some stray students here and there?”
“I do, and that is the reason I am giving you the very last chance, go straight to class and DON’T YOU DARE BE LATE EVER AGAIN!”
“Roger”
One warning was more than enough for him to understand. In a second he was already running to class.
“I wish you had taken your life a bit more seriously, Atlas. There are actually people worrying about you, you know” vice principal sighed, while looking at Atlas running away in the distance.
——————————————
The lesson was boring for Atlas as usual. Although he tried paying attention, it was hard for him not to fall asleep. Especially when it was history lesson, and despite him being kind of a slacker, he knew history quite well. It was rare to see a person interested in tunnels and hunters, yet not knowing history and how it all appeared.
“Well look at that, Mr. Atlas. It seems like you were watching a third dream while listening to my lecture. Or maybe I am wrong and you heard what I was saying for the last 30 minute. Why not come to the board and recite everything I said?”
*Oh, no! I completely forgot to listen to the old geezer, what topic is even that?* Atlas tried to come up with an excuse not to do the task, but the way the teacher had put it made him understand, there was no escape.
While walking towards the front of a class, he was trying to find any piece of information, any clue that might help him.
‘Post war era: Tunnels’ It was written in someone's notebook and Atlas caught it.
*Yes, good, at least now I know what I am going to speak about. Should not be that hard, should it?*
While standing in-front of a class, he began his monologue:
“Our history consists of two parts, the Pre-war era and post-war era. Post war era starts after the year 2005, when the portals, or as we call them - tunnels, started to appear. The tunnel appearance was unpredictable and what was even worse, is what came out of them. Horrors, the creatures that were unlike animals. Monsters, devil incarnations, true horrific abomination of crea…”
“Just go on, stop with these characterizations,” the teacher said.
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“Well, horrors were creatures of a kind. All the different animals and creatures, but physically stronger than any of today's living mammals. Apart from being physically strong, they possessed the abilities, powers to control energy. Some might call it magic, but I would rather say that it is their biological advantage. Anyway, people were scared, unprepared. Their technology was not enough to kill the horrors. Yes there were weak ones, ones that were killed, but there were also those, whose names still bring dread even today. Like the mighty dragon…”
“DON’T! We are not calling those names. Just… continue with explanation”
“Anyways, horrors are classified by their energy output. Using it, we are able to determine how strong of a horror we encounter. People developed a scale called Kleimann scale or as we call it, horror prowess. It is somewhat like this:
Mercury level: 0 to 1000 are considered low level horrors, those who could be killed using weapons.
Venus level: 1000 to 5000 are quite strong, but could be easily defeated by B level hunter or several c tiers
Mars level: 5000 to 10000
Saturn level: 10000 to 15000
Jupiter level: 15000 to 50000, at this point the distribution varies since their powers vary as well, and there are certain abilities, which are stronger than others.
And of course Pluto level: 50000 to unknown. We are yet to encounter any horror which exceeds the 100000 level mark. Although we never met, it is theoretically possible to. On the bright side, even though the horrors were so much stronger, we managed to defeat them by learning their abilities. And that was 140 years ago. War lasted about 40 years. There is no exact date of victory, since our enemies didn’t really capitulate and what not. Since then, humanity started to grow stronger and progress at a much faster rate, all thank to the abilities”
“Too bad you don't have one, d’princess!” A laughter came from the class. It was not unusual for people to mock Atlas for being ability-less. All he could do was bite his lip and stay low and quiet.
“At least I have brains, Corey! And I am more than capable of using them, unlike your bald head which is filled with nothing. Say thanks to your thick skull for not letting it implode.” Atlas was tired of all this mockery. He did not have abilities, yet he had pride.
“You fuck, is dead. After school, you - me, get your ass ready” Corey replied. Corey was a tall guy who was excellent at sports and was quite capable with his powers. He had short hair, since his dad was an army general.
“Oi, quiet class! Atlas, go back to your seat, and make sure you listen to lecture”
—————————————
After school, Atlas was hiding in the toilet.
“Man man man! What am I supposed to do after school? Corey can suck it, I am not meeting him after school. I gotta sneak out somehow.” Carefully exiting the toilet, Atlas looked around. Noticing no one, he started running to the back exit of the school. But when he was about to exit, he heard the scream: “That is him! He is trying to run away”
*Why are they so annoying* Atlas cried in his thoughts and started to sprint out of the school. Running through the gates he entered a park which was nearby the school. He turned to see if the chasers were still after him. And turning his head he saw Corey with his group chasing him through the park. Immediately he turned on the next street. He was running for almost 10 minutes, maneuvering and spiraling, trying to escape.
He was already pretty far from the school and on his next turn, he saw an abandoned construction plan.
“I guess this is my last resort” He thought and turned right towards it.
“Corey, he entered the haunted site, should we really chase him?”
Although Corey always looked strong and brave, it was only an illusion, his outer shell.
“Nah, I'll beat him up tomorrow at school then. Let him have fun out there.”
——
“Guess I am safe here” Atlas proclaimed and could finally catch his breath.
“Where am I even? Don’t tell me I am at the abandoned construction site. Isn’t this place supposed to be haunted? I personally, don't believe in ghosts, but if there is some horror or whatever, I am really screwed”
He was slowly walking through the site, looking around. Old metallic beams were sticking fro the ground, lots of leftovers and debris could be seen everywhere.
“I really need to get out of here”
As he was about to turn 180 and leave the place, he heard a cracking sound underneath him.
Carefully looking down, he noticed he was standing on some kind of a rock with lots of cracks.
A scary thought popped in his head. “Don’t tell me I am standing on something very fragile. Okay, I just need to slowly step away”
Atlas tried to step from the rocky ground, but at every moment he made a slight move, more cracking sounds appeared. And didn’t have time to react, the ground underneath Atlas broke and he fell.
He was falling for quite some time, until he hit something soft. Then he fell down again, and hit something soft again. This was happening for quite some time until he eventually reached the bottom.
His body was aching, head was spinning. He did not understand what had just happened. He only knew he fell down. After lying on the ground for several minutes, he got up.
Looking around, he found himself in a cave with lots of plants growing around. It was quite humid there. He was amazed by the cave and unknown to him plants, but as he was looking around, he noticed it. The large portal in the other end of the cave, emitting strong power. Radiating and pulsating it was golden in color. About two meter in diameter it looked like a circle of golden and white energy spiraling towards the center. Atlas didn’t even realize that he was already standing in front of the portal. Charmed by the tunnel, pulled his hand towards it, attempting to touch it. However at the last second he realized that he should not touch it, but it was already too late.
He didn’t feel anything when his finger touched the portal, but he quickly pulled away.
“What is it? For how long was this tunnel here? Does anybody know about it? I should report on it immediately, I can even get money for discovering it!”
Already excited, he turned to look for the exit, but as soon as he looked back, he was no longer in the cave and he fell down. He wasn’t even in the cave anymore. He was in the forest. Forest he had never seen before. Not on the internet, not in books and fairytales. A forest previously unseen by humanity.
“Where the hell am I?"