'Uh…?'

'What… where am I?'

In a small crevice at the base of an ocean-facing cliff, a young man lay sprawled across the floor. He stared at the ceiling with a blank look, unsure as to what his current circumstances were.

As the fog and grogginess clouding his mind began to clear, he blinked a few times and propped himself up against the cold wall behind him. He took deep breaths of air, as if he'd never once breathed in his lifetime.

All of a sudden, the muscles across his body began contracting and relaxing in synchronised chaos, as if doing so for the first time. It was as if he'd never used his body before and was getting used to simply existing.

His senses also began to overload. The senses of hearing, seeing, smelling and feeling all made themselves known. The taste of salt - though he wasn't sure exactly what that was - lingered in the air, accompanied by a faint earthy, musty smell. Though he hadn't moved since sitting up against the wall, the light levels seemed to be fluctuating too. He could also feel, amongst other spasms, his eyes rapidly tightening and loosening as they took in the surroundings.

As the quick contractions began to slow down and the mixture of dull and sharp pains across his stiff body began to subside, the feeling of touch became dominant. He could feel the cobble-like ground beneath his bottom and the coldness of the smooth wall at his back. Every second, it felt as if his already cold body was being sapped of more and more heat. Additionally, there seemed to be a slight sense of itchiness across his skin, not dissimilar to that of pins and needles. No matter how he tried to sit or position himself, the numbing sensation pervaded throughout his body.

And then his hearing seemed to switch on, all at once. The initial sounds were loud and jarring, his mind unused to processing such auditory stimuli. Though he wasn't sure how, like the smells and feelings moments prior, he seemed able to differentiate each sound at a moment's notice. The lapping of waves across the shore, the splashing of the ocean water against a rocky surface, the buzzing of an insect… and a quiet wailing sound in the distance.

The wailing wasn't particularly loud, especially not when compared with the other sounds assaulting his ears, but it possessed an almost captivating quality to it that awakened a sense of curiosity from deep within. Despite his lessening pains and general unfamiliarity with himself, he was able to stand on his two feet, albeit with support from the curving wall.

After a few moments spent standing for the first time, the feeling of queasiness that one might contract from too much time spent aboard a ship came and went, and he became attuned to balancing himself. At first with support, but soon his legs worked almost autonomously, carrying him in conjunction with his other senses to the bright exit just ahead.

Stepping outside for the first time was much like gaining his senses. It was an immense rush of stimuli, alien yet familiar, which induced a similar spike in activity as a sudden scare would raise one's heart rate, that faded after enough time had passed for his body to adapt.

The cold water of the ocean lapped against his feet, filling the crevices between his toes, while the warm sun shone down upon him, illuminating his uncovered body. He even felt as if he could count each individual granule of sand beneath his feet without so much as a single look.

He looked out into the distance, seeing several plumes of smoke and fire on the water, but their sources were too far away and he was unable to determine the cause. While everything was unfamiliar, deep down, he seemed to have an intrinsic understanding of what was 'normal' and what was not.

'And this is not normal.'

The wailing sounded again. To the left.

Turning his gaze in the direction of the sound, but yet again unable to see exactly what the cause was, he resolved himself and began to walk, soon changing gears and switching to a light jog. After some more time, he changed forms yet again into a steady run.

The further away from the cave he moved, the clearer the situation became. Some sort of catastrophe had occurred here… and perhaps not just here, considering those ocean fires and smoke plumes he'd seen before. Craters littered the area and some sort of red matter stained the ground in various places. Trees lay scattered across the ground in a manner which reminded one of a pack of joss sticks opened and dropped onto the floor. Not all trees had fallen, however. Of the few still left standing, the majority were missing parts here and there, though he couldn't immediately figure out what was responsible for the incongruence.

He had glanced a few times into the craters, hoping to glean some sort of information from within, but was forced to look away. The sight was sickening.

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As he tiptoed around the large impact craters in his way, he couldn't help but take notice of the various carcasses that had washed up ashore. Fish and crustaceans of all sorts lay heaped up with different kinds of birds strewn on top. These dead animals, like the trees to his left, were missing parts too. In this case, it was more apparent that they had sustained great injuries before death - it looked almost as if something had taken uniform bites out of every carcass.

The further he walked, the crazier the washed up corpses became, steadily increasing in size and novelty. At one point, even a whale with several fist-sized puncture marks across its humped back lay there, rotting under the sun. As the sea breeze brought the smell of decay in his direction, he couldn't help but gag loudly, covering his mouth and making a beeline for the forest.

For some reason, the sight of this carnage alone wasn't enough to evoke any emotion, but when combined with the smell, a deep sense of panic and terror began to grasp him and he lost control of his body.

It was only when he slipped on a pile of flesh and bone, landing flat on his back with something warm and wet beneath him, that he managed to regain his senses and reclaim control of himself from the fear.

'Calm, calm down.'

He forced himself up off the ground, stumbling once. He knew what he had fallen on, and he could feel chunks of it sliding down his bare back, but he managed to subconsciously suppress those thoughts through sheer gargantuan effort and soldier on.

That was because this whole time, though intermittent, the wailing had continued. It occasionally faded into the background, but every time he felt the urge to give up and seek shelter, to run away, he was reminded that everyone who had been here before had met a worse fate than his. The wailing was human in nature and the very thought of abandoning its source to death here was vehemently denied every time it surfaced.

Tuning out everything except the wailing, his perseverance was soon rewarded.

Sitting on the beach, surrounded by death and decay, was a young boy. From a distance, he couldn't tell what age the boy was, only that he was young. In relation to himself, the boy was younger - that much he knew immediately.

The man from the cave subconsciously cleared his throat, hacking up an unpleasant ball of phlegm.

"A-aba aba," he stuttered, exercising his vocal chords for the first time.

He turned to spit out some more residual waste that had the texture of sand and the taste of dirt, before turning back to face the boy in the distance.

"Ahem, hello there," he shouted, waving an arm above his head.

The boy, sitting there amongst a cluster of craters and bits of limbs strewn about, stopped crying, instinctively looking in the direction of the voice he had just heard. He sniffled, staggering to his feet.

Despite the stranger's sudden appearance, the boy didn't seem too concerned. Anyone, anything that was alive was better than this. A living person to break the monotony of blood and bone seemed to do wonders for the boy's mental state.

The two closed the distance and soon, they stopped, just a metre apart from one another at a section of the beach which was relatively free of craters and corpses.

"What happened here?"

"The sky fell," the boy replied despondently.

"And you're still alive?" The cave man questioned.

Though he lacked many sensibilities, the notion of the sky falling and killing the people beneath seemed ludicrous.

"It broke into small pieces. I think I am lucky."

'It looks as though surviving is not that much of an improvement, though.'

"I see. Well, do you know if anybody else was as lucky as you?"

The boy shook his head.

"I haven't checked."

'The kid is probably traumatised by this mess. Understandably so.'

The cave man nodded a few times, raising his gaze to look at the village in the distance.

'I've already scoured a few hundred metres of ground behind me. If anybody else survived, they'll probably be around the town ahead.'

He glanced at the forest, quickly dismissing it as somewhere a survivor could be.

'If the falling sky didn't get them, then the falling trees would surely finish the job.' He paused for a moment to scratch his nose. 'And if anybody had moved to hide there afterwards, it's unlikely they wouldn't have heard this child crying.'

His gaze returned to the boy before him, who at the sudden appearance of an 'adult' seemed stabler than before. Although, this adult didn't seem to be too much older than him.

"Would you like to go to the town to have a look and see if anybody else is alive?" He offered.

"Mn," the boy nodded.

The pair quickly agreed on their course of action, one skipping, the other walking, towards their destination. Having a newfound goal and purpose seemed to keep them lucid and helped to stave away the horrors all around.

The surroundings soon became a familiarity to them - as if this place had always been steeped in organs from its inception. An upbeat mood seemed to pervade the air, despite it all.

'This kid has been here the whole time all by himself… his parents are probably dead.' He mused silently, shaking his head in pity. He was about to ask for more details about what had occurred, but the boy spoke first.

"Hey mister," the boy chirped.

"What is it?"

"My name is Ji Chen. What's yours?"

The cave man paused mid-stride. The clueless and lost expression on his face said enough.

"I… don't remember."

'My first memories are awakening in that cave. I can't seem to think of anything before then.'

Ji Chen seemed to take it in stride. Out of everything that had occurred recently, a person forgetting his name was barely remarkable.

"Perhaps you hit your head and forgot," the boy reasoned aloud.

"Perhaps," the cave man replied, pursing his lips.

'I have a feeling that things aren't as simple as that. But there are more pressing matters.'

As they continued onwards, coming ever closer to the village, Ji Chen spoke up again.

"Hey, mister no-name," he said, turning to skip backwards with a bright expression.

"Hm?"

"Since you can't remember your name, why don't we come up with a temporary name for you to use just until you remember?" The boy suggested.

Before he could respond, the boy slowed down and shyly continued, "Actually, I already came up with one. Ji Wuming."

The nameless man blinked a couple times, as if running the name through his mind a few times. He even mouthed the words, his lips trying to find any sense of familiarity with the name. After a brief moment, Ji Wuming assented with a slight nod.

"Then from now on, call me brother Wuming."

"Okay!"

The two Jis finally stopped before the entrance to the town. While there were still large craters here and there, luckily, there were fewer than behind them on the beach itself. What was truly puzzling was the sight of a middle-aged cripple with atrophied arms and a vest covered in sachets and gourds lounging atop a large feasting table.

Ji Wuming watched as the strange man held a gourd to his mouth, greedily gulping away at whatever drink was stored within. The man's other hand held a large steak - clenched tightly with greases and juices dripping down his arm and onto the ground.

Ji Chen's eyes brightened the moment he saw the man.

"It's Uncle Hu!"