Ashes PROLOGUE

Gunshots echoes ... explosions ...

Loud Thuds ..... weak trembles..... far away cry... boom.... slightly stronger shake lately.

it seems to be getting close. As far as I can remember this is the safest, strongest, and most comfortable bunker of all. I wonder why the events on the surface are now being felt. I remember how worried we had been on the first day, weeks and so on. I kinda miss the feeling of being concerned, worried, scared.

Now, look at us. All of us here now have the same blank expression. No one seemed to care anymore. No one seemed to feel. Then the alarm was raised. The lights started to blink on and off every now and then. The big man now stood in front of us. Shouting, Yelling or maybe whispering words I can no longer hear. Then we shouted too. I believe we did. But I could not hear a thing. Others started to grab their gear. So I grabbed mine too. Put on this heavy helmet. God, I swear I'm still alive but it smells like the dead when you put this thing on. Then my face lit up. System reboots successfully so far. Then there you go. I can see through this thick metal now. I look at my hands. Opened then close them like a 1-year-old child. Fits like a glove this armor is. I can hear the echo of my breathe mixing with the sound of the respirator. Then... where is it? ahhh!! There you are! I always wanted to carry and use this in the real deal. I grabbed this heavy metal thing. Removed the lock. Made sure it is loaded. Then put it on standby mode.

"30 seconds" Finally some words clear enough for me to understand! The whole place seems to be falling apart. The main lights finally went out and the only source of light now is emergency bulbs and of course, we have our night vision mode slightly on so yeah not a big deal. I can notice the engineers trying there best to repair and do all sorts of things on their work stations. I can see my squad making sure their rifles won't let them down.

"10 seconds!" 9... 8.... 7.... Yes, I'm doing the counting myself. 6... 5.... "choooooooooog!!!" a loud explosive electrical sound was heard. Like an invisible sonic blast. I felt it pass through me. Like half of my soul already left my fragile body. Yes! It went pass through my thick armor! I was falling to my knees.I looked around. The rest are trembling too. Falling backward. Shaking. Our wirings. Our station or at least what's left of it. Was all of a sudden shut down into a complete blackout. Then my vision blurred. Its getting dark. darker. until it was a complete pitch black. Am I blind? Wait. No! I'm still wearing this heavy useless helmet am I not? So I decided to remove it. It is still dark. But from time to time I'm seeing lights flashing through the darkness. arghhh. It's so loud! What are they shooting at? Then I felt someone grabbing me by my arm. One of my team trying to pull me up. But something had got my leg. I can't stand up. He yelled at me. When suddenly a bright red flash flew right through his head. His eyes were suddenly blank. He didn't even have time to open his mouth. His body just then suddenly fell backward shaking while lying dead in the ground. I hear screams. Yells. Agony. and pain. Yes. I can hear them. I smell sorrow. Despair. Fried and burnt metal and flesh. and death. Everything seems to be unreal. It seems so slow but it really happened so fast. I remember not being able to finish my countdown. 4... 3.... I grabbed my small firearm. Point it on an unusually dark shadow approaching me. 2... 1... I pulled the trigger twice. I heard a roar. a grunt. Haha. At least I hurt this thing. 0... Then I felt something extremely hot had impaled my chest. It made its way pass through me. It is so hot. and yet I feel so cold... It is so dark... but then it turns to gray...