Futuristic Absolute Zero

[Catori]

Post apocalyptic science fiction end of the world intergalactic nuclear war roleplay.​

 

[Catori]

Alexia swore she heard footsteps, but they weren't there. The past fifteen minutes she'd spent making her way to the exit of this unknown place, she hadn't seen so much as a soul. No one had tried to stop her. It was as if there wasn't anyone to stop her; the place screamed with silence and desolation. At long last, Alexia came to a stairwell. The stuffy concrete walls were narrow but she used the metal handrail to steady herself. Her legs took a wobbling step towards the door positioned above her. Open it, and she would be who-knows-where. Thrown back into the city is what she could hope for. The past twenty four hours had all been a blur. In fact she wasn't even sure it had been twenty four hours. Any amount of time sounded plausible. A week? 60 minutes?

Squinting through the darkness, her hand fumbled along the door in search of a handle or anything. As long as this door led her back to the light, Alexia didn't care that it was for some reason above her. Alexia gave a hard push on the door, and the thick metal took all her force to finally swing it open. She heaved herself up and put her foot out into the world-- What was left of it. If she didn't know better she would have fallen over from all the air that was knocked out of her. Her entire body tensed at the sight, sending still shivers through her. But she could feel tingles like needles piercing her entire form. All the blood drained from her, and she felt her heart stop momentarily.

Deep gray clouds hung low in the sky blocking any chance of sun or remotely finding out what time of day it was, and dust suspended stagnantly around her. Steel frames were the only identifiable parts of a city. Everything else was missing. Disappeared. Was this reality? What Alexia had expected to walk into was a booming technology-driven area, with buildings touching the stratosphere and screens plastering every which way you could look, advertising all the latest new tech. Top-of-the-line cars would have been heard honking their horns impatiently, and people would have bustled to and from. Alexia would have walked through a fancy gold-esque rimmed revolving door, into a spacious fancy lobby where she would have asked to use a phone, because her pockets were dead empty. But that's a 180 from what she did see.

Sickeningly, the picture painted was total destruction. Alexia paused in fear that proceeding any further into the mess would result in her finding the bodies. Surely humanity couldn't all just disappear. They couldn't. Alone was the one word she didn't want to think of right now.

Every apocalypse needs a fitting background song. A song of the past (Way past, about the 1990s) could resonate through Alexia's mind, if she were in a more clear state of mind. It's the end of the world as she knew it... But she doesn't feel fine. More than anything, she doesn't want time alone right now! How can you feel fine, when your entire existence has just been invalidated? She knelt to feel the sand papery- rough pieces of rubble. The feeling against the pads of her fingers was too realistic. "Oh god, oh my god--" Her words choked. Tears would already be streaming down her face if she wasn't in such a state of shock. If she couldn't come to accept this, she would deny it. Though no matter how many times she closed her eyes and gave it her hardest try, she wouldn't be able to wake up from this terrible nightmare.

 

[Flecker]

Strange, strange indeed. What's best to describe it... it felt like a tiny prick, it felt exactly when you brushed your hands against an electric generator, it felt like a tiny spark of fire igniting your hands. Sounds painful? Well after such cold many times below zero, those tiny fireflies is like a surge of freshwater on the barren dessert, it felt like mashing your hands inside a concoction of meat and clay composed well enough to sooth your fingertips. The hatch opened, the smoke started to pour out and a creature stumbled out. He rests his weight on both of his hands pushing against the floor, his chest moved repeatedly up and down faster than any marathon runners in the last lap and he'd roll his head left to right, left to right, left to right, almost every second as if he's a caveman freshly thawed from the ice. He wheezed and wheezed but no one answers, the metallic walls and floors remained silent as witnesses of the first time Martin Graves stepped out of the cryogenic systems.

He pushed against the floor and stood up with a wobble. Knowing those legs would give anytime soon, he rests a part of his weight on the metallic wall. Eventually his feet woke up but at the same time he went quiet. Revealed by the dim neon just above his head, The male caught the reflection from the pod's glass hatch and he saw... a ghost. An entity paler than the Horseman himself, the entity seemed to be shocked as well, it rubbed its cheeks and it seemed to grow more upset when it felt one of its rough ridges on his face with his bony fingers. But the creature's story is much clearer in the eyes, the creature has a melancholic pair that seemed to be afraid yet brave, seemed to be calm yet panicked, seemed to know everything yet it knows nothing. It's a face unpleasant to look at, almost as if it wanted to cry, it wanted to scream and shout "Why me? What have I done to deserve this?"

"O father.." Martin whispered as he walked away from his pod.

As he followed the hallway he noticed most of the pods are filled with skeletons trying to retrieve their freedom, nearly all of them had the same pose, raising their fists or pushing the glass hatch.

The hallway was long and winding but eventually he reached the exit. Everything seemed to be in order at first, the place where this facility's placed is barren and is almost absent of life, but he knows of a bustling city nearby. Scraping any memories of his father's instructions on the city, he finally encountered the remains of such civilization, what's left is just a carcass of its former self. His feet's still sleepy and he stumbled inside with a stability worse than a three wheeled car.

When Martin lifts his head he could see the smoke that painted the sky, when he looked down he could see the cracks crawling and breaking the lane lines, when he turned to his sides he saw abandoned cars with opened hoods, deformed cars with shattered glass, cars that looked perfectly fine but with skeletons in them and rocks, pillars, metals and concrete just littering every corner of the city. He paused in the middle taking a deep breath and exhaled it as he smiled. Indeed ingesting such poisonous air might be a nightmare, but it is much better than being imprisoned in a lavish neverending dream.

As he took in the scenery he heard the unthinkable, a whisper, a sob or maybe just ghastly noise?

"Wait what?"

He instinctively asked as he crouched slightly and walked lowly trying to use the rubble as cover as he approached the source of this voice. He reached for his pocket for any weapon but he realized the trouser he's wearing is nothing but a white plain trouser with nothing attached, he slid his hand to his white shirt's left side pocket and he only got a small silver coin.

"Shit."

He muttered under his breath. Clearly wearing a test subject's garb isn't the right type of clothing in this wasteland. Martin relied on stealth instead, he just went quiet and started observing this creature

 

[Catori]

Her heartbeat returned, racing faster than she even thought possible. Then again, none of this seemed possible. She coughed out the stale air, the debris falling from her open palm. She expected some type of ringing, for the noise to suddenly echo back at her, but that only made her more aware that she stood in a void of loneliness. This was worse than when she'd woken up, although her thoughts were still hazy then, she saw hope that her kidnappers had decided to let her free. Well.

Alexia's joints were heavy like they'd been pinned in place with a rivet. Realizations that she hadn't previously thought of flooded her: They'd lied. Whether they knew this was going to happen or not, their promise had not been kept. Alexia put up with her part of the deal-- being dragged somewhere and following all their orders like a robot-- and now she had every justifiable right to resent those men. No one was around to here her. Nothing could stop her from screaming but the societal norms that she'd grew up with, but throw that all out the window. If Alexia tried screaming, the words would be beat back down inside of her, and every sob she felt coming only turned into harder sulking. Something prevented her tears. "Mom-- Dad-- C-Cassie?" Saying their names could make them come back, if this were a fairy tale.

Her barefoot body stumbled over chunks of concrete, yet she skillfully avoided the tripping and falling aspect of it, or the parts about stepping on sharp objects. When she peered out from behind a slab of presumable once the wall to another tall building, other horrors creeped inside of her. Skeletons came in to view, ones positioned in ways suggesting they were still going through their day. One sitting behind a steering wheel of a car stared straight through her. Another was holding They hadn't been warned. Was this how it the citizens of Pompeii felt when Mt. Vesuvius erupted? Or rather, it reminded her of Hiroshima; Charred spots had been visible where the victims hadn't had enough time to avoid it, their bodies seared into the pavement as a sick remembrance. It could almost be considered a bad Halloween trick that some billionaire took way out of hand.

She drew her wrist away at the feeling of a prick, and on the inside of her left arm was a mark. Said mark came about an inch in width, went horizontally across, and looked like a bloody scar still healing over. How long had it been there? It's obvious why she hadn't noticed it sooner, but waking up with strange scars on your body in a strange place can only leave questions. But that didn't keep her attention for long.

Was that a noise? No, she didn't hear anything besides her own ragged breathing. A movement-- Out of her peripheral, Alexia was sure she had seen something. Was it just another part of some crazy illusion her mind was playing on her? "Please, oh please..." She mouthed desperately, taking off in the direction she thought she saw it. This time did she hear something? Alexia wouldn't care if she was hearing the voice of her captors, she only needed someone to show her she's not alone. "Oh my god," The phrase was repeated roughly twenty times before she went full out. Albeit danger, she couldn't spare a lick of caution. He was infront of her-- this.. man-- And it was the greatest moment of her life to date. Alexia jumped forward, basically throwing herself at the stranger, and she didn't care how awkward, she wrapped her arms around him like her life depended on it, and the kiss she smooched on his cheek, also quite a life-saving stunt. "Oh my god, oh my god." Were those the only words she knew?

Alexia wore an oversized coal black dress made of a thick stretchy material. It fell just to her knee. Unflatteringly, the long sleeves were baggy on her thin build, but she didn't have any other options. Woke up wearing it, and nothing else. On the bright side-- There is no bright side, the sun is behind all those clouds-- It bounced when she walked. And it made a dang good option to clench on to to ease her sudden pain. She staggered backwards, her middle and ring fingers pressed to her temple as if that would help. The pounding had rushed to her head with the force of a tsunami, but she managed to open her eyes and make herself, in a way, able to talk. "Do you know what happened?"

 

[Flecker]

"What kind of pants is this--" A shiver cuts him short, a shiver like one he felt when a sniper's eyes are locked on to him. Perhaps a professional would say that it's just the behaviour of an extreme paranoid, but he could really feel it, he could feel when those eyes no longer wander and began tracking. He went from searching for any backpockets or anything on his trouser to looking back at this strange person. Stunned are his feet and hands -- they couldn't even flinch nor feel the dust particles brushing past. Who's the hunter and who's the prey? Who carried the big stick here? Who's the one more likely to hit others in the head without questions?

Graves gritted his teeth as he ducked behind the cover muttering, "Ah just great!" These wall-like rubbles might seemed like the perfect cover similar to the ones back in the battlefield, but even if the scenery's just like home and you know what to do like it's in the back of your hand, having yourself being experimented on for God knows how long definitely would hinder some of those insincts, at least for the time being. Peeking out from his cover, he immediately spots a pair of browns amidst the thick toxic air particles that danced on the air. Right when he saw those eyes, he knew this new character got a good glimpse of his hiding spot and Graves knew it's the time to give up. What would he gain anyway by staying independent? If it's the freaking end of the world then maybe he should sacrifice the joy he felt from being alone and self dependent and maybe he should start giving a damn!

His knees pushed against the pebble covered pavement and he slowly raised himself up revealing his entire figure from behind the rubble piece large enough to cover from chest-down. Just like when those guns were pointed at him back in mars, he dragged his feet slowly and got himself out of the cover, hands raised just next to his head. "Don't shoot! I'm- I'm friendly--" He'd expect a barrage of shouts and yells after, but instead this presence rushed towards him. Graves readied his fist, elbow, joint locks, basically anything to react to this creature, however, when the fog clears the long flowing hair and the lithe figure brought his hands and guard down.

The character didn't just hug him, she also gave him a smooch? "Uh." That definitely would look cute somewhere, but in this paradise of everlasting dusts, he felt other things, perhaps around a million other things and this gesture went past him unnoticed. What surprised him though to be honest, is the fact that another person's still breathing.

Back then, he wouldn't expect to receive such treatment especially from a girl like her. She's definitely "different" in some ways, her outfit's not some raggedy patient garb just like his. Its dark colors really made the gloom and doom vibes felt clear, yet it also made her gleam with elegance. He stopped and examined her a second time... that dress, no matter how decent it is still caught some of the smudge from this toxic new world, the same type of smudge on his own patient garb. Maybe that's the reason why she treated him indifferently now compared to most girls like her in the past, just like the smudge, the apocalypse left nothing behind, poor, rich, smart, dumb, everyone's struck by the same wave of death and destruction and everyone's survival instinct is the only thing they can rely on. There's definitely no mentions of "charm" or "poise" in the survival instinct's dictionary.

He clenched his fist as he pulled his head up gazing at the limitless grey clouds. "The clock struck 12." A heavy sigh escaped his parted lips. "And unlike anything we've ever thought before, I think the clock would never move again."

The irritants on the air did more than graze his eyes, he swore it's the 1000th times he wiped his eyelids. "We're gonna join them soon if we idle around here." He gestured at the skeletons before reaching for a stick around one-and-a-half cubit long and swiveled his head once. "We'll get to the niceties later, now come on!" He cared little for this character, should she fell behind then that's on her. Should she follow then they'd head to a gray looking building at the side of the road, a lamp post fell on the building's sign and it seemed to take out the letter 'I' from its original position and the sign on this whole thing only reads as 'N' and 'E', the faint ones covered with rubble seemed to read 'D' and 'R'. The building's bricks still looked stiff and it seemed to be a decent shelter.

 

[Catori]

Of all the possibilities, this one had to be the best. She hadn't expected to incite much of a reaction out of him. But given the end of the world, seeing you're not stranded there fated to die by your lonesome sure beat the myriad of other options. Like a holy grail. It was no wonder why she had pounced on him like she was seeing an oasis in a desert or... Beyoncé!

Breath now steady and most of the unstableness gone, Alexia pushed all the memories of the previous life to the back of her mind. If that happened, it might also help with her unexplainable growing headache. She ended up pushing that to the back of her thoughts too, forgetting it existed for the moment so she could focus on the man's words. "12? Is that a metaphor?" She wondered out loud. If Alexia only imagined herself in the present, he looked a lot like the actor posing for the action shot of a movie promo. And just the same relation-- She could fall for an actor with all of her heart, but the two would inevitably always remain at some level, strangers.

"I don't want to be that." Alexia cringed at the skeletons. Even when Alexia tried to block it out, disturbing images flashed through her mind of herself in the same unsightly setting. The thought would have sent her gagging, but she couldn't. An unknown force blocked her.

"Oh. Oh!" Her attention caught at the last second, and she bounded along after him. That stick twirl sure exuded finesse, kind of giving her excitement, like an adventurer. 'It's possible if you try.' Well, that would be her attitude if things were different.

She hated the layer of dust that coated her feet, but that too was another small complaint to add to the rapidly forming list. When would her lungs stop feeling like she was standing straight in the line of a fire, inhaling the majority of the smoke while simultaneously blinking back tears of irritation. Raising her heart rate forced her into another fit of coughing; she managed to hide it well, but it was as if Alexia suffered some sort of asthma in her past.

With her hands clasped in front, Alexia slowed at the wrecked, but less wrecked than others, building. The front windows sat in heaps of shattered glass where presumably there was a sidewalk before the paved road. For the most part, the structure appeared to be in tact. Compared to anywhere else, the brick work was still impeccable. Whatever kind of store it had once called itself, Alexia had no clue, but she didn't give herself time to glance at the sign or even wrack her brain for a memory. Further questions would probably annoy the man, so she kept it simple. Alexia called up to him, trailing a steady ten feet behind, her voice turned more frail or weakened. "I have a feeling we're going to see eachother a lot, so um, I'm Alexia."

She followed straight through the open front door, half of the double door was still on its hinges, swung outwards and holding on for its dear life. The other lay face down a few yards away from its proper location. Above, an awning had been burned to what was now just a wimpy, thin metal frame. Who knew what it had looked like before the destruction? Alexia couldn't remember this place for a long shot. Inside, black and white tiles cracked across the floor. The white tiles were hardly recognizable, covered with unimaginable dirt and other substances. To the left, the shell of an industrial kitchen and knocked over bar stools. It glared back at her with an eerie darkness, but that's probably because of the lack of electricity. Her footsteps slowed, moments later coming to a complete stop as she tried to take in the surroundings. She turned a 360, her hands in tense fists by her sides. Lots of knick knacks were strewn across the tables and floor, and it reminded her of old time movies. What's the place? They'd go in, slide up at on one of the stools where an employee would be wiping clean the metal dishes. Then they'd all get a chocolate ice cream. With the fluffy cream on top. "You think we could live in a diner?" Alexia asked, her tone one of daydreaming.

 

[Flecker]

He caught the girl's name, barely, but he opted not to reply, when you're in the frontline and a soldier suddenly mentioned his name under a downpour of gunfire it sounds a bit odd, doesn't it? Perhaps when the storm died down a little bit.

As the door creaked open, Graves furrowed his brows pinching his nose as he gazed upon the insides of this building. The checkered floors and the shattered utensils littering the floors acted as forever silent companies of the fully clothed skeletons only sitting as mutes. They're the residents of this new town, they're the new participants in this era's new stagnant ecosystem. The hues of red on their tables and the kitchen tools on the left completes the scene of 'what used to be' a diner. As he became accustomed to the metallic air, Graves lowered his hand and calculatively navigate his way through the cracked floors and the rubbles that blocked majority of the paths.

Graves spotted a relatively clean counter just near the kitchen. He brushed aside the charred junk piling up on the table and puts the stick on the surface. He took in a deep breath as he turned around and pushed his hands against the counter resting his lower back on it before exhaling out a heavy sigh and pinches the small piece of skin between his brows. Just as he's about to mull things over, the person's voice broke the silence once more and her tone's not exactly one that could help a man to focus. He lowered his hand and gave a light shrug. "Live here? Sure you can! I bet Mr. and Mrs. Bones over there would love to have a cup of tea with you." He gestured at a fragmented hand sitting comfortably close to her feet as he snickered.

Joking aside, Graves went quiet and his teeth were clenched together tight, he could feel a tear welling up in his eyes but he looked away and brought his eyelids down before they could form. He exhaled yet another sigh as he placed his hands on his hip. "Miss don't you realize.. the severity of this issue?" He trained his eyes on the girl meeting her brown orbs with his own greys. "You and I, we could possibly be the last of our kind, you realize that? You know your mother, your father, your lover anyone you know is most likely dead right?" He paced calmly as he threw his eyes to the side. "Everything's gone... we're fucked right after we opened our eyes not too long ago."

He lifts one of the stool that still looked firm and sat on it as he rests his elbow on the counter lowering his head. "What good would it do if we just struggle? Maybe it'll be better if we just surrrender and wait till our bodies rot."

 

[Catori]

"Oh, that's not what I meant--" She broke off her words, taking a meager glance around the diner once more, attempting sincere concern as the 'joking' part of it zoomed right over her head. Sure enough, the longer she watched it, the more uninviting the diner became. No where had been a 'welcome back!' type of deal, but it dawned on her that there literally was no where they could just waltz back to. Normal was no longer normal, and the ordinary would be considered stupidly weird. Leisurely morning runs? How about trying to keep your butt alive for every waking moment instead? Waking up to see the sun would be an utterly amazing miracle. If there would be a sun. At first, Alexia bent down and gave a hard look at a bent fork, as if it would suddenly start spewing its life story along with good explanations, but when she rose again, she held on to one elbow as though afraid to have it touch anything.

She was the first to break their stare. Of course she knew the troubles they faced, but there's a good old saying... 'Out of mind, out of sight.' The phrases might be switched, but it was the same idea. Her knees locked, and she glared at a dust-smeared feet. In her mind, just about everything she could think to, got cursed. "Shut up." There was a visible quiver in her lip.. It had sent her over the edge. Tears still wouldn't come. Besides, that would just complicate things further than they already were. Emotions are already all over the place, didn't need some wet mess thrown in.

Alexia flew to the ground, not even caring how hard she hit the tile. Within the second, her knees were pulled up to her chest, ankles crossed, and head tucked between her long legs as if that could deafen his voice from her.

It didn't work. Whipping her head up, she gave her best impression of something along the lines of encouragement or inspiration. Did she mention she's a terribly bad actor? And an even worse public speaker? Perhaps the words could come out, they just didn't always sound good. "I know this place looks like hell but... I assure you Hell is a lot worse than this?" The questioning, the wavering doubtfulness. Honestly, did her words hold any real value? Weren't they just a way for her to put up a blockade and forget it. But in reality they acted as a flimsy piece of cardboard ready to be ripped apart. "I'm not ready to die."

"I don't know what you're good for-- I don't know what I'm good for, but why else would we still be here? For all we know this is just some super fucked up virtual reality and they're all waiting for us on the other side. Can't you see anything beyond the negative?" Any other earthly situation, and she would have stopped talking. But Alexia continued the tangent, "What if they're not all dead? Everything's gone but we can start some where. We've already been through this much shit so why not give it one more try? I guess you wanted to what.. suicide? That's the stupidest damn thing I've heard. Chances of two is a lot better than one... We could help eachother." Besides, they're not dinosaurs.

 

[Flecker]

He didn't flinch, not even once. The things that she spouted were like nothing but the buzz of a fly's wings that he just wanted to swat and kill. His eyes were fixed at the mosaic the dusts made on the table when she went on and on about why they shouldn't give up. When she finished he'd remain motionless for another minute and should she still observe him, she'd see Graves finally moving and he'd give the girl a look with a pair of half closed eyes, a pair of eyes that silently whispers to the girl. "Do you even believe what you're saying?" No matter what she mentioned, no matter how powerful they are, the world around them won't change just because someone has something to say about it or someone's angry about it.

Graves smiled a little. "What the fuck do you know about hell, girl?" He would not wait for any replies or demand a war of rhetorics, he would just return to his mosaic on the table, keeping his lips tight again, like the thinking man statue, stuck in the same pose for all eternity and let his mind swim inside the depths of his thoughts. He'd not move any part of his body, he'd feel all of them as if they're bounded by stones and chains of futility. Words are easy, but actions are hard, as far as he's concerned she hasn't done anything that'd get them out of the whole mess, why would I bother? Graves thought in his mind.

 

[Catori]

Alexia did continue watching, expecting his reaction. Good or bad, she wanted some feedback, only to feel the piercing harsh reality when she interpreted his squinting. Maybe forcing her presence to be known was the wrong way to go about it? He did seem to carry an aura of, well, knowing more than her, at least that's what Alexia believed.

"Nothing. Sorry." Alexia murmured, following up with the tiniest of inaudible sighs. She wouldn't be the one to continue a fight, especially after already getting her opinion out, but she would apologize. It'd happened before; Some old curmudgeon screamed at her in the checkout line once and she scurried away drowning him with apologies, only later realizing she wasn't the one at fault. Case in point, she would not start chatting up with him again any time soon. Even if she wanted to convey more reconciling words, those were probably less appreciated right now than if the circus suddenly decided to make its trip to town.

Uninhibited, her body went stiff. Her posture went ruler- straight, eyes closed but still fixated infront, and for a moment she felt she could see something-- something... And it was gone. Magic? Black magic.. or dusty-gray. The whole experienced started like a black and white screened TV. She snapped back, eyes blinking and pupils dilated. Her attention focused on what she'd apparently just heard him say. "I'm not doing anything, because I don't know what to do. I don't even know what happened. In the rare event that everyone disappears and everything turns to dust... do this. Do what?" Her facials expressed utter confusion. Like someone'd told her to put the milk in before the cereal, and she struggled computing.