A man walks through the remains of a Field littered with the charred remains of humans and animals alike. This man, who wore a lantern with a blue flame and the Tattered remains of once great armor looked at the scene of devastation. He wore a complex expression showing joy but also sorrow, fear but also elations. He stopped walking, fell to his knees, his arms falling to his side. This man who was destined for death screamed to the heavens, a vulgar war cry, a declaration to everyone that he had survived his execution.but who is this man?
It was a windy day here in the Antarctic center. The wind swept by kicking up snow that had long since fallen. Upon the icy roads of falcon scott walked a man. This man who looked to be in a hurry had short brown hair and bags under his eyes. He wore a pail visage upon his skin as if exhausted. Upon his body he had a thick coat that ran down to his knees and wore sweatpants to keep warm. His shoes were nothing special, just some padded boots to keep his feet warm.
Under his breath he murmured " crap crap crap" his hurried walking turned into a jog then, into a run. He was late for work. He had snoozed his alarm and was now running late. He wasn't even able to drink his morning cup of coffee before he left. Hungry and tired he sprinted to work.
After a minute of sprinting thought the crowds of people he could see his agency center. He burst through the door only to be stopped by security who had asked to see his ID card
the card read :
Name: Noah
Last name : Brooks
Age : 24
ID: 440986972
Height 5 10'
Occupation: sensor maintenance
The security guard looked at the ID card, handed it back to him and nodded "you're free to go sir" he nodded back and kept walking. Wheezing and out of breath he walked towards the employee's lounge to get his much needed cup of coffee. Brewing his synthetic coffee his mind drifts to the day ahead of him and starts to make a mental list of what has to be done. After a few minutes of brewing the machine stops making noises signaling that the coffee is done. Picking up the jar he poured it into his mug. Taking a deep breath to smell the coffee he sighs, and takes a sip.
Today was maintenance day which in essence was glorified menial labor. All you do in the "field" is check up on sensors scattered across the city. Not the funnest thing to do on a cold day like this but you gotta make a living somehow. In reality he believed himself pretty lucky to not be hit by the nightmare spell when he was of age. He would take sensor maintenance over fighting horrible creatures any day of the week. At least that's what he would tell himself.
Anyways after he finished his cup of coffee he went out to do his fieldwork which would be cold and boring. As predicted nothing special happens. The day was mired in mediocrity filled with much of the same simple tasks. He fixed the sensors and had little chat with the people around town. Every now and then he would stare down at his watch just itching for his day to be over.
The clock hit 6:00 and Noah could not be happier. Today was a slog. He just wanted to go home and sleep.
As he walked home he got a message on his communicator from a friend Ashton asking if he wanted to hang out. Torn between going home and hanging out with a friend he just stood there for a few seconds weighing his options. After much debate he finally decided that hanging out with his friend wouldn't be so bad.Besides he hadn't seen them in a while.
Arriving at the restaurant he met Ashton and some other friends there. Ashton has been a long time friend of his and many years ago infected by the nightmare spell. Actually that's how Noah had met the others in the group, they were Ashton's cohort. There was Liz who was the archer of the group then there was Bryan the tank of the group then there was also light the healer of the group. As for Ashton he was the swordsman which ment was a good all a-rounder. Noah had not met up with Ashton in a while so it was nice to catch up but it became apparent that he did not have much to talk about. Other than his slightly different morning Noah did not have much going on in his life.
Ashton on the other hand had plenty of stories to tell. It very quickly became a one sided conversation of Noah listening to Ashton and his cohort tell tales of their travels. Not that Noah hated it. He quite enjoyed listening to awaken talk about their harrowing adventures. Their tales so fantastic that it seems like a fairytale.
After a long night of storytelling it was time for Noah to head back. He didn't want to be late to work…again.
This was his daily routine. Nothing heroic or exciting just an average man with an average job with awakened friends.
(One month later)
Today was a good day because the Sun had finally come up. After such a long time without the sun it was nice to have it back.It was sunny, a perfect day to have a nice stroll to work. He got out of bed and started the brewing process of his coffee, then he started to get dressed. It being warmer he decided to wear a pair of cargo pants with thermos underneath and a long sleeve shirt with a nice brown overcoat he also put on his old reliable padded boots. Ready to go he picked up a disposable cup of coffee, filled it and left.
The walk to work was serene; the sun was just rising in the distance casting a warm glow upon this desolate street.Despite his morning coffee he still felt groggy which was weird but he chucked it up to a late night on the phone. He walked through the front door of his agency with a smile on his face. He saw the guard and decided to make some small talk while giving his ID to him.
"Good morning sir" said Noah trying to sound nonchalant. The guard responded looking surprised at the sudden conversation " morning can I have your ID" Noah answered back " sure " he handed him the ID while yawning.
The guard looked up without moving his head and asked while checking his Id " long night?" Noah answered with a bit of embarrassment " nah just up on my phone " the guard gave him a deadpan look then handed him back his ID" have a good day" Noah responded with a you to and went on his Mary way.
Today's work day was nothing special again. It was another "maintenance " day which was kind of boring but at least it was somewhat bearable due to the better weather conditions.
As he stepped out the office he took a deep breath, cold Antarctic wind flowed through his lung in stark contrast to the warm rays of sunlight hitting his face. With a sharp exhale he was off to another day of menial labor.
The day was as boring as usual. It was a lot of the same going to each sensor and checking if they are up to code . As he came up on another sensor close to the city outskirts he noticed something wrong. There was a faint humming noise coming out of the electrical box next to one of the sensor arrays. Noah put on his rubber gloves and opened the sensor box to see the problem. It looked like a wire was detached from the main transformer of the power supply. Nothing too serious , a quick and simple fix.
He reattached the transformer to the power but jumped when the siren went off. He almost instantaneously disconnects it, the alarm only having time to say " open in 105".He stood there in startled silence then bursted out into embarrassed laughter . After his embarrassing scare he started to check and see what was wrong with the alarm but other than the already separated wire nothing was wrong. He glared at the electrical system pondering "why did the alarm go off". The only thing wrong was a disconnect circuit. This shouldn't cause any false alarm problems. Right?
But then a realization struck him " if the only problem was the power source then why did the alarm go off at all … shit!" as quickly as humanly possible he re attached the transformer and like before the sirens blared he listened to the siren and an announcement was made " warning warning gate opening in 15 seconds"
His eyes widened. " gate, here, in 15 second their to fucking way!" the announcement rang again " warning warning gate opening in 10 seconds" the feeling of despair he felt hearing those words was indescribable. Not time to run to and not enough time for awakens to respond and not a weapon in sight. He was unequivocally fucked.
He's a mundane human stuck near a gate. There's nothing he can do now .The siren said it's final warning"warning warning gate opening in 5 seconds" " this is how it ends!?" He still had so much ahead he had a life to live, a spouse to meet he couldn't die here, but what could he do he had no power, no skills in fighting, all he did was fix sensors. His final thoughts were thoughts of defeat.
As this thought crossed his mind a crack in reality was made. It seemed as if the air had cracked open right in front of him. He felt as if he was being pulled in but the force stopped and everything went black. His body hit the ground unmoving and lifeless at the mercy of whoever or whatever comes out of that gate