The aftermath of the war looked chaotic, grim as things seemed unrepairable, globally every men, women and children were suffering. Humanity lost almost everything during the war, a war so sudden like nature's wrath that they were never prepared for and everything crumbled, everyone knew that life would never be the same as it was.
Weeks turned into months and months turned in to years, but the human race remained in suffering and still didn't make a comeback since the war. Mankind was slowly trying to get back on their feet's, but that wasn't easy, almost everyday monsters would attack earth in some places bringing them a step back from overcoming their circumstances. They were forced to live in the present experiencing suffering like cave people. Everything was shorten since the war, especially food and medical supplies the most important things to sustain life. Every man who possessed a robotic ability had to join the military to defend against the creatures and secure humanities future, as long as someone was apart of a community they had to play a role, if they couldn't oblige to such rules they were turned away, but no one would like to be out in a dilapidated world with no friends, family or company. The most important jobs of each community were Scouts, Soldiers, Traders, Barricade Unit, and the Disposal unit. Due to the structural change of the land and the years that passed many did not know what was beyond their community walls. The Scouts were responsible for leaving their community to create maps and find anything that could be of use. Soldiers were those who were placed on the front lines to fight against the enemy, the monsters, whether alien or human. Traders were those who were sent out to engage trade formalities among other communities, they were accompanied with soldiers to fight against raiders and monster attacks, there were some who were formidable in both the trading and soldier department. Barricade Units main responsibilities was to remain on the walls surveilling their surroundings every tick of the clock, both sky and land, night or day. When monsters were defeated near the base there body would rot before bursting and releasing a repulsive odor, the Disposal Unit sole purpose was to carry the monster's remains far from the community and burn them.
The years kept passing as people wished for an easier life waking up every morning praying that everything was a long and traumatizing dream. Some people who were scouts were out doing their jobs scouting areas when one of them saw something like a hand print on the ground amongst the rumbles. He signaled to his teammates getting their attention to stop and showed them his find.
"Look here" the man pointed squatting down brushing away the dust and debris to give them a clearer view.
Another man squatted down for a closer look as his eyes scanned the area seeing some sort of pattern. They then decided to investigate in hopes of something useful that might lie beneath. They spent about two hours pushing the debris from the area, after cleaning they saw the number twelve within a circle in the middle of what might be a circular door. One of the scout member who seemed to be the leader walked back to the hand print and knelt down, he noticed how some markings closed its self with the circle.
"Step away from the circle" he said with a deep voice. He wasn't sure what might be behind such think door, but as a scout it was his responsibility to discover the unknown, with that he hesitantly placed his hand against the marking and waited for a reaction, a light then quickly flashed under his palm as if it was reading his hand. After that they heard loud sounds of metal breaking and cranking away slowly creating an opening, the ground trembled beneath them as the doors opened. They steadied themselves from falling as they retreated from the opening as the numbers slowly separated revealing an entrance. The doors were enormously thick and they were now having second thoughts of entering, they thought maybe monsters lied beneath or they might release something that was greatly dangerous due to the thickness of the doors. The leader of the group then pushed his fears aside taking the lead which his teammates then followed in his footsteps. The leader told two of them to remain at the entrance, the remaining three then swallowed what little fears were building and made their way down, after about two minutes of going down a ladder the scout leader again told one of them to stay behind as he and another member continued. He didn't know what dangers awaited him so he thought it was best not to have everyone bundled together.
They finally stood on flat grounds and within their eye view they saw another barricade if what might be another entrance that was sealed with bolts all over. Their path was dark and slightly dim from an unknown light source and the silence was deafening, it was too silent. They walked up to the bolted door and stood in front of the enormous barricade. After the war every structure was destroyed and nothing was left intact, but now they were surprised, it was the first time they saw something in perfect condition that wasn't being held together by a thread. But what could be behind a door with such heavy security, that was so deep underground, the thought made them tremble. But they made up their minds to open it and find out.
"Shaun check the left side for anything that seems like it could be used to open this up", the leader spoke.
"Yes sir" a slightly built man responded
They went separate ends of the door searching for anything that looked like it might be able to open the door. Shaun then called out to his leader and showed him that he found a handprint that was similar to the one above. The man walked over to Shaun and confirmed his finding and it indeed looked similar to the one above. Once again the leader inhaled sharply before placing his hand against the print. The barrier like door then separated creating a path for them to enter. They both mustered the courage and walked through, as they did they reached a very bright circular room, but what surprised them was something far different from what they expected, what they saw were bright dumbed founded eyes that caused them to freeze in their tracks, it was the eyes of children. As they entered they were greeted with the eyes of children that stared at them. Seeing children so deep underground was not what they expected or even close to expecting, as they stood there a young boy finally spoke up.
"It's about goddam time you guys showed", the boy spoke with an irritated tone as he hopped from the sofa. "What took you morons so long?, d you know how long it's been?" the boy kept talking as he walked over to both men. "And where's that four eyed blonde bastard?"
The two men remained silent as they listened to the boy who was ranting on and was clearly upset, but then one of the men spoke.
"Who are you children?" the leader Sam asked in a low and confused tone. The young boy stood in front of Sam and gave him an annoyed look as his eyes flickered and he furrowed his eyebrows. A child who was wearing glasses that seemed to be in his late teens or early twenties stood to his feet trying to calm the other boy down.
"Just calm down a bit Nikoi", the little boy then pulled himself away and stood to the side, it was clear that Nikoi listened to the boy in the glasses and as Nikoi did as told the other children's tried not to laugh. The boy then fixed his glasses striding over to both men who only stood in place
"Hi my name is Vincent" he said as he stretched his hand towards Shaun and Sam who hesitantly shook his hand and gave their names in return.
"These are Cherry, Sean, Coral, Ivan, Luke and Peach" as he called their names he pointed at each child who nodded or waved politely in acknowledgment.
"And the hot tempered one over there is Nikoi", Vincent said as he pointed at Nikoi who just turned his head away with his arms crossed. Sam went on asking if they knew how long they had been there, but they were unsure since there weren't any clocks in the rooms.
"I have no idea, we were such tiny things when we met" Vincent chuckled as he responded, for some reason Sam suddenly felt uneasy.
"But I know it's been long" Vincent then added as he exhaled a huff of air through his nose.
"So what about the blonde guy that kid was talking about?"
"Oh that guy is called Felix, he's the one who brought us here. Before he left he said that someone would come and get us and that we were part of the Twelve or something like that, but I'm unsure what the twelve is though", Vincent explained as he rested a finger to his chin.
After Shaun heard about the twelve he started fanboying explaining everything he knew about them and told the children that their parents were heroes. The children were very surprised hearing such things, but were in doubt that their parents were such heroes. Sam then went on and asked other questions such as where did they sleep and what they ate. The room the children were in was obviously comfortable but it was only one room, but then Vincent answered his questions. Vincent waved his hand over the wall and a door appeared, he explained that the doors are there, but were simply camouflage like the wall.
" We had someone who took care of us" a little voice from one of the girls added.
"Yeah she was nice"
"Oh really, where is she?" Sam asked, seeing sense that the children must have had someone to look after them.
"Dead, I was this big then" Vincent answered flatly with his polite soft exterior still in contact. As Vincent answered both men felt uneasy. Vincent used his hand to show how tall he was back then and both Sam and Shaun could tell it was a long time ago.
"Enough with all the small talk I'm getting out of here" Nikoi snapped finally speaking up as he started storming off in the direction Shaun and Sam came. They quickly followed him while calling him back, but their calls were ignored so they started chasing after him. While climbing up the ladder Nikoi saw a woman sitting there, he gritted his teeth and kept moving forward, he wasn't going to let anyone stop him. He would escape everyone and find the police then return home.
"A kid?" the young woman whispered to herself seeing a young boy.
She tried stopping him, but Nikoi pushed her to the side and she managed to grab onto the railings almost falling off. She heard a call from Sam who told her it was fine as he knew fighting on a ladder might not end well, Nikoi moved faster as he heard they weren't chasing him. He decided as soon as he reached up he would run away and find his father on his own. Nikoi proceeded climbing up and as soon as he felt light hitting his skin his smile got wider. Nikoi held the last bar on the ladder pulling himself up and immediately started running off, but before he got far he started moving slower before he froze in place as the colors from his face were drained, with his eyes which were widen in disbelief. The others then came from below and saw Nikoi standing there as they called out to him, but when they also reached the surface and their eyes laid on the surrounding they were lost for words and only remained still in place. Nikoi always wanted to go home and with every time that passed he wished to leave, but the sight before him and the others eyes were not the place they once knew. The cities were desolated and deserted as it was covered in debris and buildings that seemed like they were being balance by a pebble, outside was misty, eerie and the air was so thick it felt as if it was weighting on them.
"What happened?", Vincent uttered
"A lot happened" Sam spoke as he rested his hand on his shoulder. Vincent appeared as a calm, collective and responsible person for his young age and he had a very reassuring voice. But when he was faced with the site of the outside view he lost his composure and also appeared scared even though he was trying to hide it, but his fear was obvious.
"Where are we? Where's everyone and where's my family?" Vincent stuttered stumbling over each word. Nikoi was standing in shock as he couldn't hear a single sound behind him, Shaun saw Nikoi standing alone and even though he was seeing him from behind, he could read the emotions flowing off him. Shaun slowly made his way to Nikoi, but as he was only inches from him Nikoi grabbed him angrily as tears ran down his face.
"Where's my dad?" Nikoi shouted as his hands were trembling and fear in his voice.
"You were saying something about them being heroes, now where is he" Nikoi shouted. Shaun cast his eyes down with a dejected look not answering. Nikoi then punched him and screamed
"Answer goddamit!", but Shaun remained silent. Sam then told him to explain since there was no need to hide anything. Shaun took a final breath before meeting Nikoi's gaze and then he spoke loud enough for the others to hear.
"There was a war with some Alien creatures a long time ago" Shaun started slowly as if he was choosing his words correctly. "We the human's got some type of ability that allowed us to transform, I'm still unsure how everything came to being, but this is all I know. And about the Twelve all I know is that they saved the city a few times, but no one really knew who they were and during the war they also fought and….. I also heard they died and was nowhere to be found", Shaun spoke as his voice kept getting lower and Nikoi's grip loosen.
This was the reality they now had to live, but the children couldn't process anything. The children started coughing and leaning over, two of them coughing up blood, everyone knew that the air might be affecting them since they weren't used to such unhealthy air. Sam ripped off pieces of his clothing and handed it to the children to cover their nose. The other scout members also did the same. Before any more questions were asked they heard gunshots in a distance and decided it was time to get moving. Sam gave Shaun the order of taking the children back to the safe zone with the other members and that he would stay back with one of them to guard the area and after they completed the task they should return so they could gather anything that would be of use. They nodded in response and immediately everyone started moving. The children didn't know what to do nor did they knew what was best, but they were tired of their underground home and finally they had the chance to meet someone. After a few minutes of detouring they reached a jeep with a man leaning on it, he had a tick and muscular body and was wearing pants that looked like it was from the military and a marina, he had blonde hair and had things hanging from his belt with a large gun that was strapped to his back. As they got closer the man straighten his pose and gave them a confused look.
"Kids? I thought you guys went to loot. Wait are we going to start eating children, does this mean we'll resort to cannibalism" the man spoke as he placed a hand on his head. The others on his team only sighed as they were use to his unusual comments and behavior, the children's gulped after hearing what he said as they looked at each other taking a step back.
"No XL we're not resorting to cannibalism" but even though Shaun was talking the man called XL obviously wasn't listening.
"Well I guess it's one way to survive, by the way Shaun where's leader Sam and that other woman".
"They're guarding the loot area we found, we'll pick them up tomorrow since it'll get dark soon, hopefully they'll be ok". They then heard a screeching sound that drew their attention.
"What was that?" one of the children asked trembling, but their question was left unanswered.
"We better get a move on it" Shaun spoke with a slightly ordering tone and everyone immediately started getting on the jeep. They drove from under a collapsed building and as they did an eye flickered open revealing a shiny dark bead like eye and a low crackling sound followed as a moving object was in view.