When the World Ceased to Exist.
04: Coping Up
. . . . .
Silence...
[ Hello? ]
. . . . . .
My ears began to deafen because of the dead silence of the room. It has no doors, nor windows inside, just a wide metallic space.
[ What's with this place? There was no exits nor entrances for me to leave. So how did got here at the first place? ]
Setting my thoughts aside, I scanned each of its elements one by one. I knocked at the floor and walls and felt their sensations, checked the flow of air, and searched for some openings.
[ Hm... The walls are too tough to bash through with my hands. I would probably need a destructuve object to break these, yet the floor... There's something off about them... ]
Because of the curiosity built up into my mind, I tried to stomp down the floor, yet it failed to show some difference.
[ Damn... This room is so tight! I can't even see an opening to get out of here. ]
Because of my ranting, I didn't notice a crack on the wall. It kept blasting off a poisonous gas, making the air contaminated. It slowly takes my breath every second I inhale, yet I can't do anything much, but to cover my nose and bash through the walls, Yet the strength I have isn't enough to even mold it.
: ( Shit! I should've noticed this gas sooner, but its too late for now. )
: ( What should I do? Should I continue to hopelessly punch these doors? Or just wait for my death? Either ways, there's nothing I can do now... )
Despair began crawling to my skin the moment I sulked at the floor, waiting for the gas to completely restrain my breathing. Until a certain thought kept me surviving. An obvious thought which made my hopes up.
"This is just a dream."
As I etch those words onto my mind. I slowly felt relief down to my chest. The feeling of being safe...
The tough walls around me became dusts that flew away, revealing a vast grassland in front me and a distant voice spoke my ears along with a bright shining directly at me.
"Survive..."
"Adapt..."
"Overcome."
Survive, Adapt, Overcome. Those words struck my soul out as two twisted beasts devoured me in just one snap thus waking me up at a small, white room where I've been sleeping.
[ He woke up! The Doctor, Call the Doctor! ]
The people inside the room went celebrating the moment I opened my eyes in front of them. The nurses beside me was also happy to see me conscious and gone calling the Doctor.
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: Aw, Thank God, You're now awake! You've been sleeping for 2 weeks, you know.
As I glance onto Greg, I saw his left arm taped in bandages. It got injured from the mess caught up weeks ago, where that ominous scarecrow nearly got us killed. But I'm still confused and feeling uneasy about those events.
: Sir! Looks like we're safe now, but I saw fall down the ground before me.
: Oh that? He just gave me a huge bruise on this left arm of mine, so I played dead before he ensure my death. I was also surprised too when I outmarted that monster, so after--
His explaination was too long that I can't understand it that clear, so I just responsed with a nod then the doctors came to check my status. The checkup was gone hours before I got discharged afterwards, because there's already nothing to worry about anymore.
They directed me to another small room which I could stay for a while as long as this chaos still arises from outside the facility. They also told me all about this building and gave me a map incase I've been lost from this wide area.
. . . . . . . . .
[ Hah- Finished. ]
Staying in this room gone pretty boring after I fixed my things, so I decided to go outside and wander around the place.
The corridors aren't that full of people on sight. Most of them are soldiers patrolling the area and some of them were civilian whose taking their time of comfort. Several of them were persons who possesses a jigh reputation into society, so reclaims and arguments are inevitable incase something bad happens.
One of them is the current Governor of Bulacan, Romel Hermoso which is known for his abusive use of power against his citizens and his unending greed. I don't even know how he got here at the first place since Bulacan and Cagayan were cities far from each other, but it seems he already got his mood ruined as I hear his rants on a soldier near me.
[ Hey You, call the administators here. You all are giving me such poor services! ]
[ U-Uh... But sir. The administrators are on a meeting right now. I can't just--- ]
[ Who do you think I am, punk!? I'm a special person here! You all should take care of me like your masters. ]
The soldier is somehow disoriented from what he would do, so he just walk his way to the office to call down the administrators. I wanted to stood up against his statements, yet I moved according to my senses and let it be.
[ It seems this fatty still don't got his desires met. I better stay away from him... ]
I continued to move my feet, circling around the whole building til I end up at the doors of the cafeteria that is totally big enough to fit 75 tables and a two hundered fifty people at once. It was too noisy and crowded at the time as the clock's hands point into 6PM which is our typical time for eating dinner. I got squeezed up on several people when Greg pulled me out of them.
[ Hey Hey, Why the heck are you in here? You still need to get some rest though. ]
[ Oh, don't worry that much! I'm not that weak as you thought. ]
The crowd kept their noises going loud that we can't even hear each other. There seems to be a commotion occured outside the cafeteria and caught their attention for a while, so we took the opportunity to order food and went eating at the tables.
[ Whoo~ I thought we will take forever getting some food. ] sighed Greg.
[ Oh, I heard loud voices outside a while ago. Looks like a fight came up. ]
We wondered our minds as we take a scoop of food every second, until a buffed guy with big muscles took his way outside pushing them one by one. I got intrigued from what he did, so I observed him for a moment, but I failed to move out my eyes when he once looked at me.
[ Huh!? What is it boy? Want me to gouge those eyes out!? ]
He got pissed just by seeing me staring staight at him. Because of that, he confronted me and strangled me out of the public. Greg tried to stop the ruckus this guy made, yet his fighting weren't that effective against him even though his other hand was occupied on me.
[ Holy shit! What the hell is with those moves? It's not just an ordinary fighting. He's not just a simple guy. ]
It was the moment I realized that this man was a special individual which hired by the government to manage this facility with the help of his subordinates.
His name was Fidel Romualdez... A former General and Chief of Staff of the AFP. I don't know what will happen to us two after this incident, but I'm sure enough to say that this is a tough situation we're involved in.