My first reaction was to lean over the side of my bed and to vomit up whatever I had eaten the night before. Fairly confident I was empty, I shifted back to lay on my back and wonder why I felt so cold. And why the bed felt so hard. And come to think of it, how did I end up in my bed? I leaned over the edge and dry heaved for another minute as the spinning sensation lessened. I wasn't in my fucking bed. I was in some type of coffin thing. The electrodes stung as they came off and I stumbled while trying to avoid the puddle I left when I woke up. My throat hurt, my limbs felt weak and tingly, I was dizzy, had to piss, and my stomach was angry.

I slumped into an office chair and tried to get my head to stop spinning. The only light in the room was a soft glow from my coffin thing and as my thoughts slowly aligned into something coherent, I realized that right now might be my only chance to escape. Standing up and feeling for the wall, I tried to find a light switch. What I found was confusing. It was as if part of the wall had fallen in. By feel alone I searched the desks and computer terminals. Nothing felt like a flashlight and no switch would turn anything on. I dropped myself back into the chair and tried to clear my head.

I started pulling things from the desk and bringing them towards the light of the coffin. The top drawers seemed meticulously organized and filled with mostly pens, empty notebooks, and pads of sticky notes. The bottom drawer contained an off brand cola that tasted funky. Whether that was because there was something wrong with it, my sense of taste, or just because it was an off brand, I wasn't sure, but it helped with the dryness in my throat and the sugar helped clear my head. I wasn't getting anywhere finding a light, so it was time to start trying to MacGyver some shit.

The coffin had several access panels, all of which required a screwdriver. The computers on the other hand, could be pried open. It was near impossible to see, but I managed to pull a coin battery and a red LED. The light produced from that was next to nothing, but in the pitch black of the room I was in it might have been a beacon. Turned out the part of the room that seemed collapsed in on itself actually was. I didn't know if there were people in the other pods, but it didn't matter anymore. I wasn't going to unbury them while I was still trapped down here.

My improvised nightlight helped me locate the elevator, stairs, breakroom, and bathroom. Of course the water didn't work, however the fridge, though putrid smelling, contained two bottles of fizzy water. I'd question who drinks this shit, but I was thirsty enough to silently thank them. A chair got me into the vending machine. Belly full of junk food and thirst sated, I felt I could focus solely on escape now. The guards probably weren't coming down here. Judging from the stairwell, the first floor had tried to drop down. Something catastrophic must have happened. An earthquake maybe. I might be entombed down here. I tried not to let the thought sink in until I was fully certain.

I fist pumped when I finally scored some tools and an oversized button up shirt from a locker that was half buried in the collapse. None of the battery powered stuff worked, but the crowbar was the one and only key needed to pry open the elevator doors. The elevator car wasn't there and my pissy little LED indicator light did nothing to illuminate the empty shaft. The shirt wasn't helping much to keep me warm, but it sure beat walking around fully naked. I wondered where I could score some pants as I started pulling panels off the coffin.

Now that's a fucking score. Turns out the coffin thing ran on several standard power cells. I was a bit nervous about pulling one out. Fortunately the light it was emitting didn't die out with the removal of a single cell. A standard power cell was about the size of a twenty ounce soda bottle. One side was flat and safe to hold. The other had a return terminal with ten output nodes. The cell could discharge 240 volts, which meant each node was twenty-four volts. I was a structural engineer not an electrical engineer so I had no idea how to split the voltage down so a LED wouldn't explode, but I did know enough about basic wiring to line five of the nodes up and power a standard 120 volt appliance such as a ceiling light. It's amazing what a crowbar can do when you don't need to worry about collateral damage.

A few minutes of trying not to electrocute myself and I had a portable ceiling light. Well, mostly portable, I had to hold the power cell still while carrying it. Looking into the elevator shaft left me with good news and bad. The elevator car was below me, so there was plenty of access to the doors above. Contrary to every movie I have ever seen however, there was no ladder. There were a number of pipes and cross beams so it looked climbable. I wasn't going to be able to take the light with me and I needed the crowbar to open the doors. I made another round of the level looking for anything I could use as rope. Plates, paper towels, styrofoam cups, all useless until I considered trying to cut off the power cord on the vending machine. That's about the time I realized there was a mile of ethernet cables connecting all the computer equipment and a bunch more above the faux ceiling.

Darkness greeted me as I pushed the elevator door open. Standing on beams was killing my already cold and sore feet. I leaned back over the ledge and carefully pulled up my light. It flickered off about halfway up and the dark surrounded me in its suffocating embrace. Trying not to panic, I got the light over the ledge and pulled out my LED. The power cell wasn't encased in anything so reaching for it in the dark was just asking to be electrocuted. I felt much better as light flooded the corridor. On one side was the blocked off stairwell. The other direction moved into a few offices full of empty cubicles, another breakroom, a bathroom, and a barred off checkpoint. I of course remembered this part, I was here yesterday, or at least it felt like yesterday. I slid open the bars and froze.

"Um, hello?"

Someone or something was moving just beyond the radius of my light. They didn't respond, just shambled closer. The person looked... wounded? More like they had gone through a blender, but the cuts had stopped bleeding and dried out. Their hair was mostly gone, their clothes were dirty, tattered rags, and their skin was tight, dyed out, and grey. Something in my gut said this was wrong, but I just stood there like an idiot. The person stopped shambling forward. They seemed to take a good look at me, then their face split open from forehead to chin in an ear piercing scream and it charged. I'd swear my heart tried to leap out of my throat as I let out my own scream albeit a far more terrified sounding one. I didn't actually think about slamming the gate shut, but fortunately that was my reaction. I fell on my ass as the thing slammed into the metal bars.

I started up at the monster as it reached for me as if in a rage. It was like it was dead, but not completely. Gnashing at the bars with its… split open head thing. It had fucking teeth in places there just shouldn't be. I needed to get out of here and that thing was in the way. I tried hitting it with the crowbar a few times, but I was hesitant to get too close. It didn't seem very intelligent and watching the thing gave me a stupid idea. A very very stupid idea.

I clicked the latch open and ran. Against my better judgment I looked back over my shoulder to see the damn thing... still stuck in the gate. Slowing down to a stop I pondered going back to push the door open a bit. And then it rather suddenly figured out how to get in. My heart dropped into my stomach. Side note, despite how it feels, your heart doesn't actually move. I have no idea how the mechanics of the sensation works. That said, there was still a freaky zombie thing charging down the hallway at me. I launched myself into the elevator shaft, swinging to the otherside if the door. The monster slammed into the side of the opening then launched itself into the open shaft.

I shouted in triumph a bit too soon. The damn thing managed to grab hold of one of the horizontal bars and was not falling. I swung around the door and back out into the hallway. Picking up my crowbar, I wondered how I could get the thing to fall when it suddenly stopped scrambling. Its head slowly turned to face me. It then launched itself at the doorway catching hold with a single hand. I screamed and whacked at its boney fingers with the crowbar. It made no sounds of pain as the bones cracked. The other hand caught the ledge and its head came up to face me, splitting down the middle and screeching. I kept swinging in a panic until it slipped off the edge and the sound of it hitting the elevator car below reverberated throughout the shaft.

I sat on my ass panting. This was possibly the most terrifying few minutes of my life. Moving the light to illuminate the shaft, the damn thing was still alive. Scrambling around the bottom and trying to climb up. Fortunately its hands seemed to be fully broken. Looking back at the open gate I wondered if there were more of these things.

The stairwell past the gate was clear of debris if not a bit muddy. Dirt, puddles, and the occasional chunk of rubble were the only obstacles as I climbed the two stories. Daylight peaked through small holes in the collapsed building above. Poking at the holes loosened some of the debris and widened the hole.

I pulled myself out of the narrow hole, inhaling my first breath of fresh air since I woke up. I'm not sure how long I laid there panting, but standing up straight and getting a good view reclaimed the air from my lungs.

The city before me lay in ruins. Skeletal skyscrapers reached into the air. Their mirror-like glass was missing or shattered. Multi story roadways stood cracked or missing chunks. The concrete having fallen to the lower levels. Their rebar reinforcement dangling like cut tendons. Cars littered the streets like discarded trash and all of it covered in vegetation. Trees grew out of roads, cars, and buildings, a decade's worth of growth. The clear poly dome that covered this section of the city was mostly absent, its panels shattered on the ground or embedded in buildings. What was left had collected bits of dirt and started growing its own layer of vegetation, shrouding part of the city in green tinted light.

The whole scene was existentially dreadful, yet hauntingly beautiful. As if to welcome me into this new existence, or possibly to warn me of its foreboding reality, a single distant gunshot echoed across the ruins.

*******

I was supposed to do character creation at the end of this chapter. I'm really leaning toward female Tel'ani, but may yet be convinced otherwise. The next post will be a brief description of races in this world.

Some things I don't actually know yet…

I haven't fully fleshed out the MCs personally and skills. I'm putting them as kind of a prepper, but it would probably be good to float them to be a little obsessive about a few aspects of prepping. What aspects though. I'm not sure.