World ends up in war

" Country xxx has dropped supersonic missiles on xxx."

" Country xxx's army has captured the capital of xxx."

" Country xxx has started attacking its neighbouring countries."

In the dead of night, at the internet cafe of Patras city, a heavy crowd had gathered to watch the recent news of a worldwide famous virtual system game. The streets were illuminated by holographic ads of current news of ongoing world war 4. But no-one was giving a damn about it , the crowd were focused on the contestants who were playing in the summer contest of MMORPG: Dungeon Raid.

Drach Lain, the top contestant of mode 2 of Dungeon Raid sat silently as he gazed at his virtual screen window of the game. He was staring at his reward getting added to meet the conditions of first prize.

" Sigh, my eyes are burning. I haven't slept for the last 24 hours because of this damn contest," he sighed, rubbing his swollen eyelids.

Sitting beside Drach, his game companion Liam commented," Don't worry friend, you are the one who will take the prize of 10 thousand euros home. I guess I'll be second or third place.``

" Well, I worked so hard for it bro. I have to pay my sister's school fees and my mother's medical bills."

" Man, I know your condition," Liam assures Drach and both of them focus back on the final announcement of the game.

Drach joined his hands together as if he was praying for winning the first prize. Ten thousand euros were not a big catch but for him it was much more than enough. Drach's father died in an accident leaving sick wife and two daughters of 10 years old behind . As the eldest son of the family, Drach was sole breadwinner. To support his family, Drach stopped studying after completing his schooling. He started doing part time jobs and during the night,he would play in small online game contests to win prizes. Even though the world has evolved into a futuristic society, poverty still remains. The gap between poor and rich was bigger than anyone can imagine.

" Attention everyone! I'm going to announce the final results of the summer contest."

A big screen flashed in the middle of an internet cafe. The host of the contest speaking through his mic was displaying on the screen.

BOOM

Lights inside the cafe started glitching resulting in sudden blackouts. Followed by loud blasting sound reverberated inside the cafe as if something huge fell from the sky.

" What the hell is going on?"

The players , audience including Drach panicked in bewilderness looking around in darkness. Civil defence sirens started alarming around Patras city. The gaseous hydrogen sulphide, which smells similar to that of rotten eggs, entered inside the nostrils of people.

" Ah, I can't breathe! What's this poisonous smell?" Players panicked, covering their noses.

" Is it a natural disaster warning?" Liam asked, covering his nose with his handkerchief.

Drach kept quiet and looked at everyone who was rushing out of the cafe to shelter themselves in a safe place. He massaged his forehead before muttering those nonsensical words.

" Why now? I could have won the prize in a few minutes!"

" Crazy bastard, come back to your senses! This is not time for whining about your loss. Fucking run otherwise we will both turn into dust!"

Liam grabbed Drach's hand and dragged him out the internet cafe. As soon as both the teenagers walked out, the internet cafe caught up in furious flames with a blasting sound. Drach looked around, all he could hear was cries and wailings of people asking for help . The vehicles and ambulances were burning releasing harmful black smoke. Humans piled up together under crumbling skyscrapers. Everything was reduced to nothingness, turning the whole area into wasteland.

The night sky was now covered in black smoke, the suffocating poisonous gases mixed with oxygen made many survivors vomit. This scenario haunted Drach as he immediately rummaged through his pant's pockets.

Taking out his phone, he searched for recent news and for a second he forgot to breathe.

" Countries are now using nuclear weapons in world war. Many countries have been wiped out from the world map."

" N-No, this can't be happening..."

Drach muttered as he smacked his hand free from Liam's and ran in the direction of his house. His heart was pounding rapidly as if it would burst out of his rib cage.

" Drach, wait for me you fucker."

Liam tagged along and when they arrived in front of Drach's house, their eyes filled with tears. The house was reduced to ruins, but Drach entered inside. He looked for his mother and sisters inside the burning house.

" Mother, where are you?" He shouted many times, looking into every room. Finally when he arrived inside the kitchen, he saw skeletons of three people. The muscles and rag of burnt clothes were still attached to the skeletons.

" M- Mother....?" Drach witnessed the terrifying scene of his mother and sisters death. All this time he was working his ass off to provide a better life to his family only to see them dead. Like a broken statue, Drach fell on his knees, tears rolled down his swollen eyes.

" D-Drach...?"

Liam enters inside and sees his friend crying for the first time in his life. Clenching his jaws, Liam holds his friend's right shoulder and says.

" We should get out of here. There's news of another nuclear missile launching in City Patras."

Drach had no response towards Liam's remarks. In the end, Liam punched Drach bringing him back to his senses. He dragged his friend out before the house reduced down into ruin. In such a heart wrenching situation, Liam kept his emotions in check.

BOOM

Another nuclear missile landed in Patras city, turning the whole city into a wasteland. After being unconscious for a few hours, Drach opens his eyes only to see himself laying down beside Liam's corpse.

" Liam? Not you , please..."

He abruptly got up and jolted the body of his friend who had died a long time ago. When Drach gets up, he sees a heap of corpses burning in flames along with vehicles and buildings.

Covering his face with torn cloth of his shirt , Drach walked through the wasteland, all alone.

***

In the year 2046, the fourth world war - a nuclear war - breaks out globally. Numerous countries and cities were completely destroyed, the population decreased drastically, and extensive nuclear radiation ravaged the entire surface of the planet. Oceans and land began to rapidly be contaminated with nuclear radiation, and the global climate started stirring up. Post-war, governments collapsed, social order was chaotic, materials were scarce, production stagnated, global crop failure occurred, and infrastructure was destroyed.

Global economic and trade relations collapse entirely. In this situation, the powerful businessmen start playing their cards.

Months have passed since the nuclear war happened. Oxygen was sold to the residents at a costly price by the government. Those who were not able to afford clean oxygen, died of inhaling polluted oxygen . Society was divided into two groups, first one the elite citizens who were rich and had enough cash to buy clean oxygen and water for survival. Whereas the second group was called slaves, who had no cash,no talent,no access to inner cities.

It felt like the government had given up on these people. Drach was part of the second group, living as parasites by eating poisonous mushrooms and insects. He has adapted himself into living like other slaves.

The elite citizens would live in the inner cities built by rich billionaires. Because outside the inner cities were only sandstorms, polluted air and scorching heat which could burn one's skin.

The slaves would live in small shelters like underground caves or some abandoned military buildings.

In one of the military buildings where Drach was residing along with other young slaves. There arrived huge warfare truck, from which four men wearing black uniforms and oxygen masks stepped out. From their uniform anyone would guess their identity. Those were private corps working for researchers and businessmen of inner cities.

They walked inside the building with their rifles and looked around the slaves. Drach kept his face up as if he was cursing those officers.

" Look for young slaves, not old ones. They will make perfect experiment subjects."

From their remarks, Drach understood why those corps were here.

" These fucking bastards sees us as insects!"

" Who is the bastard to curse at us?" One of the corps shouted, kicking the slaves backwards. He definitely heard Drach's curses and when his eyes met Drach's piercing ocean blue eyes, the officer laughed. Pointing the rifle towards Drach,he chuckled.

" Take that blond, blue-eyed boy. He will make a good experiment subject for our mad scientist LoL!"

Two of the corps grabbed Drach by his arms and dragged him outside. Tossing him inside the truck with others, they locked the door from outside.

' Ah, so this is the end of my cursed life! So the science teacher was correct when he said there's no god in this world!'

Drach started remembering his past. Because after arriving at the laboratory, his body will become an experiment tool for crazy scientists. The scientists who are obsessed with creating mutants, superhumans or cyborgs.

" We will die for sure. Nobody had survived the experiment of those scientists."

" This world is more cruel than we imagined."

Other kids in the truck murmured among themselves. While Drach kept quiet in one corner, he had actually lost his emotions. All he wished for revenge... Revenge from the ones who brought doom on humanity,made him orphan. But he was a powerless 17 year old boy who was now going to become a test subject .

DOOM

The truck suddenly stopped. Drach and other slaves panicked as they too heard the resounding, nerve chilling screams of people from outside. Drach got up and started banging the wall of the inner truck.