Preapocalyptic

After everything was cleared up, like someone who wasn't planning on making a run for it, Vic gazed at her for a while, before asking.

"So this means we're going to stay here until everything is over?"

"Why wouldn't we? I don't need the time. You on the other hand, needs a little more than a day of training.

Vic's cheeks turned red. Previously, when Anna revealed how she got her extra time, his body froze, if it was a life or death situation, then at the very moment he would already be dead.

"We have a month before your tattoo. From now on till l next shadow you'll be training"

Vic stared at her, her cold gaze sending chills down his spine, he could immediately tell she wasn't joking

A day and a few hours of training made him feel at deaths door, a month of that training and he was literally gonna break.

Before that, might as well know how the world was like before this damned apocalypse Vic pondered before asking.

"How was it like before the apocalypse?"

Having already asked his father, who was never detailed enough, this question one too many times, he just gave up. Being born after the apocalypse hit, he too wasn't well versed. Not having the confidence to ask anyone else from his group, Vic just accepted the little details.

But now he found someone he was somewhat comfortable with, and judging by how she explained her previous encounters she seemed to have been born before the apocalypse, he couldn't help but ask.

"How old do you think I am?"

"I don't know, over a hundred"

"Well you're not wrong" she didn't want to dwell on the age matters, so she decided to just acquaint him with what she knew.

"Before the world fell I was still young so I was yet to see a lot of things it had to offer, that said, I saw my fare share. But I don't think it will be more than what everyone in your group had seen"

"It will"

Seeing the curiosity on his face, she was momentarily taken aback before she begun her trip back to the old days.

"Let's see, where should I start?" Scratching her chin "I assume you know where we are? Right?

"A city"

"No the name of the city or even the country"

It has another name? Vic pondered before shaking his head.

With a frown Anna continued.

"This is Nairobi, and the capital of Kenya"

Kenya I've seen a name like that before he nodded in understanding.

Vic was lucky, his father, having been tought how to read and write by his grandfather, he had decided to do the same for his son. Though Vic threw a tantrum whenever the lessons begun, he was still very grateful for the education, after all it helped him learn a little bit about the world in books and keep himself company whenever his father went out.

"There was the schools where kids the same age would gather and learn"

"I've heard of that one, my dad told me all about it when he was teaching me how to read and write"

"You can read and write?" Anna was perplexed, being born in a world filled with terror and the first thing he learns is to read and write?, I don't know if he knows this, but he's a very lucky kid.

"Yeah, my dad tought me"

"How about television, computers and smartphones?" She asked looking at Vic who inturn shook his headhead. Though he heard a little about them, he still wanted to hear about her experience.

"In them you could've watched cartoons, funny cat videos, movies, some even showed series with a world somewhat similar to our present. There was even apps where you could read any book ever wrote"

"What are movies and videos?"

Anna was terrible at explaining things, but nonetheless she tried her best.

Going on to talk about planes, VR games, she even told of how humans interacted with the many animals that were yet to go extinct.

She went on till dawn broke, the void opened and myths once again roamed earth.

...

Inspite of the growling of myths in a far away distance that were now audible if only a little, she still persisted.

Ignoring them she went on and on like a young girl taking about her first love.

Vic sat beside her keenly listening, nodding in understanding from time to time.

He was well ammersed in her stories even forgetting what day it was, the snarling of the myths brought him back to reality for a moment, though after recalling who sat beside him, he went back to not caring.

She was a Manipulator there was nothing a grounded myth would do to her that she couldn't return tenfold.

After two hours of ranting on about everything she new of the old world _ or rather what was remotely relevant, she stood up.

The recurring noises of myths and humans crushing that were so far for Vic to hear and for Anna to be barely audible, still ringered.

"That's more than enough for a break, there won't be another one for a month" Anna said, with her ethereal now cold voice.

Vic smiled helplessly before standing up.