Chapter 2: Mankind's Fall

The year 2124.

All was chaos. The apocalypse. The Fall.

The end of the world. 

That was what the history books called it.

The earth's former azure-blue sky was tainted a stagnant grey with dark venomous fumes forming massive patches of black clouds. In this 'futuristic' world, the sun was but a memory. A thin grey fog surrounded the atmosphere, the air tainted and veiled.

The flourishing landmass was scourged, gouged, and withered. The iconic greenery of the planet became vast patches of toxic fuming membranes filling the earth with pestilence. Cities fell, and continents burned.

Civilization collapsed. Humanity erased to dwindling numbers. Savage creatures of grotesque proportion prowled the ancient ruins of a civilization that was.

On the first day of "The End", they said the sky and its firmaments 'fell' first, bridging the boundary between the day and night. The second day, the ground withered. On the third day, the oceans boiled and drained. The fourth, the earth shook. By the fifth, half of humanity was wiped out.

It all began several years ago. In the year 2034, humanity made a remarkable discovery when its first "extraterrestrial" was found washed up on a beach shore. 

This creature defied all known descriptions. Its physique appeared as a mass of flesh, with a thickness akin to the toughest animal hide, and covered in strange and peculiar scales. 

Its bones, although soft and cartilaginous, possessed an exceptional density and durability, reminiscent of the strongest metals, yet retained the flexibility of rubber or heated plastic. 

This surreal being exhibited a biology so bizarre that it captivated the imagination of scientists worldwide.

A single cell, a single cell held enough power and secret to boost human evolution two hundred years forward, and raise the standards of the human race.

The corpse, however dead, held a vast amount of peerless energy to fuel hundreds of civilizations. A discovery that rocked the world. The single corpse of a creature was like heaven's eternal gift to humanity. And also their greatest curse.

For the first few years, humanity thrived. Earth evolved. Civilization grew. They believed they were at their prime.

By managing to genetically and synthetically re-create those cells with a method to 'breed' them, the human race's possibilities never became endless. 

The biological making of a cell held secrets, a remedy believed to cure all disease and prolong life, furthermore, to forever erase the physical capabilities and limits of man.

Eventually, Godhood didn't feel so distant and vague for the human race.

Mankind Scientists continued to further their research into this mysterious creature and the endless secrets held by every one of its cells for many years to come. Then they began to dabble in the 'creation'.

This was the trigger to the fall of mankind.

The new genetically engineered cells initially, however, slightly inferior to their predecessors, evolved and acquired a distinct sentience and awareness. Humanity merely ignored this and treated it as just another breakthrough discovery. They celebrated, jubilated, and cheered, none of them fail to realize and acknowledge the subtle signs of mutations that underwent the absurd speed of evolution.

Until it was too late.

The cells grew, then multiplied. They clustered, forming tissues, and the tissues in return, fused forming organs and a dense structural frame.

The 'first' living Elder Gods on earth were birthed from human labs. And then one day, dimensional rifts 'broke' the sky, tearing apart reality and bathing the earth in spontaneous radioactivity that forced a massive mutation in the earth's fauna.

The Radioactive energy was merely the first disaster to come from the Dimensional Rifts. 

Beings of a different realm, a distant plain far beyond the Earth, their armies marched across to ours in droves.

July 23rd of the year 2054, humanity faced their 'first' invasion from the Elder Gods.

.

.

.

.

(Present Time)

Civilization fell and mankind was forced behind walls, abandoning the rest of their vast territories and resources. Those who couldn't however, were left 'outside' to survive...to 'die'. The earth was a desolate place, reeking of pestilence and uninhabitable territories. The tainted sky and fuming black clouds had never seemed so low before as they did on this certain day.

That was what Lyra Diego thought as she stared solely at the bleached heavens.

When suddenly a voice called out to her from across.

"Hey, little lady, if you don't wake up we're gonna' leave you behind!" A middle-aged man looking man with rough edges and grey hair, donning a quasi Advanced-level battlesuit with technological gears and accessories, yelled out with a growl before turning around to march forward. He was a tall man of 184 cm and a big build with his figure accentuated by the slim fit Battlesuit he wore.

Lyra awoke from her stupor and ran after her party already leaving for the 'Den' without her. She had to rake in enough profit today.

Lyra, the middle-aged man, and a few other members of the hunting party donning similar accessories arrived at the 'Island' southwestern gate, pensive.

The atmosphere among the group was tense and heavy. The members of the party suppressed their trembling and swallowed down saliva. Their expressions were stern, some determined.

Lyra was among those in between the latter and the former. Her fine azure eyes glinted with a steady light, her fingers clenched tightly in her gloves.

"Move." The middle-aged man from earlier nudged his way through the small group and reached the front. To one side of the gate was a small guard post manned by a few Gatekeepers.

"We've got a hunt on the outside. The Scout team discovered a new 'Den', and I've been put in charge of leading a small troupe to clear it out and retrieve resources. You're gonna' have to open the gates." The man explained.

Lyra hadn't paid attention to this. Her gaze lingered on the closed gates of the Wall, her thoughts lingered even further.

Since 'The Fall" humanity and civilization have evolved and changed far beyond that which meets the surface. Technologies of half a century lost, millennials of human history discarded in the war of 'The end'.

All that was left...laid beyond the gates of Allan Fort.

Soon the sound of a deep rising hum reached the ears of all those gathered nearby. The ground underneath their feet shook and trembled, the tremors rising and increasing alongside the mechanical ringing and electrical whirling. It was like the Earth itself roared in defiance.

The world seemed to shake as the heavy colossal gates rose and shifted. Horns resounded, alarms blared seemingly in protest, announcing to all those who listened.

The southwestern gates...were ascending.

Lyra watched with feverish eyes. No matter how many times she observed the scene, the nigh-overwhelming sense of weighing apprehension never ceased.

Gates of over fifty thousand tons and eighty feet high tend to cause a lot of chaos when moving. Lyra watched closely with clear admiration. The process took a full minute, each second like a passing eternity to those gathered. Those endless eternities brought them so feverishly closer to what could be their final day.

Many faltered.

Many considered turning back and running away.

Many feverishly fell into prayer...to anything other than 'Gods'.

Then the middle-aged man's heavy voice resonated deeply through the sounds of blaring alarms and horns, garnering forcefully their attention.

"Do not fret!"

They shivered.

"Do not look away!" 

They swallowed.

"Do not look back! For all those who do...!"

The fifty thousand-ton gates came to a finite stop a mere three meters away from the ground.

"Only death awaits."

***

Now let's begin a little event for the premiere of RED. You remember the Mc, right? Yes. Now we're going to begin a count down till the arrival and introduction of our Main Character starting.....now!

Six chapters to the MC introduction. I can't wait .

If you want to know what happens next, add to collections right now.