The sun illuminated Windhoek's walls, as the 9th bell was approaching.

Once, Windhoek was a capital like every capital (except for the walls), but now it was like a fortress that Lich would have to invade.

It was quite ironic that the walls, meant to keep the populations inside, was what blocked a visitor from coming.

What was even more ironic, was that the people inside the city thought that the wall was build to defend them from any bomb that would affect them from afar. The president with dreams of dictatorship used this wall to enslave his people.

The world was outraged, the citizens were outraged, the soldiers told to guard the city were outraged, but he was happy. His happiness lasted for about 2 days, because his reign ended with the global war.

What was far more ironic than anything else that happened, was that (like in the case of some other targets in Africa and Antarctica) the cluster-nuke missed, and the walls did what everyone was hoping they would do. They blocked most of the radiation.

The explosion itself only weakened a part of the walls, but it was enough for neutrinos to get through, while still keeping out the gamma, beta, and alpha radiation.

The people inside did not even think about the consequences their health would suffer. This killed most of the city's population, except for the citizens of the most northern district, who consisted of mostly poor workers and gangsters.

Because the dictator tried to steal the little guns there were in the city, members of the second group had a big advantage when the slums started infighting.

Evil won with experience in construction, so the only people with guns quickly took control of the whole ruins, and began the new slavery culture of South Africa. It is said that Windhoek was the first city-state to throw away the old morals and start not only using, but also catching and trading, slaves.

With the history lesson over, Lich started climbing up the wall. A quasi-ladder, which took him 6 hours to create, was the way he would enter.

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Lich was quite sure it was safe, because he stood on each of the steps at least for 10 minutes while digging. The only reason he wasn't in already, was because he wanted to rest. Creating the ladder has tired him a lot, after all.

The climb took him less than half of a percent it took him to build the “entrance”, but the sight at the top was worth the effort.

Most of Windhoek's building were 2-story houses, while the highest structure (other than the flag poles) was twice higher than the average. This way, the city shielded everything inside from the strong winds.

Some buildings were in ruin, while others were burning. One would be hard-pressed to find 2 not burning bricks on top of each other.

The streets had a dark red color, after being painted with the blood and organs of many (now dead) people. Surprisingly, there were almost no corpses (beyond the ones that were covered with flies and maggots for approximately way too many days to be eaten).

The locals were clearly copying Lich's diet, but he wasn't mad.

From the looks of it, the city was closed for far longer than he expected. With nothing moving, it looked as if it was empty.

Lich decided to get to the ground by doing a very intense climb down.

He made a hole in the wall just big enough for four fingers to fit in.

After grabbing it with his left hand, Lich jumped off the wall and started hanging on a single arm. The backpack and his whole body was weighting down on four fingers, but he hung on. This was not even the heaviest thing he had to hold up with a single hand. The worst part was yet to come.

His pick made an arc and hit the wall. A small part chipped, and he made another swing. Like this, Lich would get down from the wall. Doing it slowly would risk someone seeing him during the mining, so doing something crazy was the only way.

When the hole was large enough for his foot, Lich put it in and started slowly squatting. Once low enough, he held the pick with his teeth, and switched his upper and lower right limbs, and grabbed the pick with his left hand.

This way, Lich made his way down, but when he was just 2 switches away, he saw a small child. The girl could not be older than eight, and the contrast between her and the dead city surprised him enough to make his hand slip.

Because he was exhausted, Lich couldn't find the hole with his other hand, and fell to the bloodied street.

He hit the ground with his back, but, luckily, the spine didn't break.

While Lich was standing up, the small child slowly got closer. She was surprised someone came from outside the walls, even though her “mother” and the guards always told her that nothing was out there.

Once Lich fully stood up, he looked down on the child and spoke.

“Umm, hey kid.”

She looked up at the 2-meter tall man's face, but a skull-shaped mask made of silver hid it, while a robe was covering the rest of his body.

The mask was reflecting light straight at her eyes, so she covered them.

In this position, they stood for a few very uncomfortable seconds.