The Last of His Kind - Chapter One (V2 working title)

The pain of being alone and never been so strong.

Chapter One: The Bunker

 

The Bunker, It was once our last place of hope for the future.  But centuries later, it has been ransacked and raided by countless people struggling to survive. Deeper inside was what we thought our last hope would be, The Vault. It was powered by its own reactor, it had been carefully designed to not fail, however it would produce less and less power as it aged. Over time the systems inside the Vault have slowly shut down. This was one of the failsafes for the entire system. As power failed over time the vault would shut down what was deemed unimportant. The lights, power to the door itself, the monitoring systems, and even the pods themselves, would all be slowly shut down as time passed.

An alarm sounded inside one of the pods. It was a sign that the system was failing. In these events the system would shut itself down and attempt to wake the occupant. It had never been successful in the past. The eyes of the man slowly opened as if from a deep groggy sleep. His mind struggled for a moment to remember where he was. He reached up with one hand to rub his head, until his hand bumped against glass of the tube. His eyes widened with panic still not able to remember where he was. He tried to bang on the glass but the liquid in the tube prevented him from getting a hit on it that would make any sort of noise.

His hands wildly failed around the edge of the glass, desperately trying to find a way out as it became harder to breath. At this point the system had almost fully shut down. The life support system pumping oxygen into him had shut down and it was only a matter of time before he suffocated. The tunnel vision started to set in as his hands found some sort of handle at the top of the glass. He grabbed it and pulled it down as hard as he could. He grabbed hold of the tubes with both hands and pulled. He gasped in disgust as the tubes came out, only to get a lungful of the fluid that filled the tank. His hands reached wildly around the tank trying to open it. Just as panic started to set in, his hand found the emergency ejection lever. He pulled it with everything he had.

The door to the pod popped away from the rest of the system and the contents came spilling out onto the floor. The man continued to struggle to breathe as he lifted his hand to his neck. As he did, his hand bumped against the oxygen and feeding tubes running into his body. He traced them slowly as the tunnel vision grew worse. The thicker of the tubes ran into his mouth and down his throat and the other went up his nose and to his lungs. His eyes widened in horror and he grabbed hold of both tubes and pulled.  As soon as the tube came out he could feel the acidic burning coming up from his stomach. His mind was in full panic mode and the vomited out onto the floor. Desperately he gasped for air each time he could.

After a moment he finally stopped puking. All he could manage to do was lay in the puddle of fluids on the ground. He took big deep breaths trying to calm down. The stale air inside the vault, or the fact that he just had a tube in them, burnt his lungs slightly as he slowly caught his breath. After a few moments his sat up and looked around. Everything was starting to come back to him now and in the dim light he could see the giant room he was in. The room was giant, too large to see the back wall of in this lighting. It was full of more Stasis pods each one about 5 feet from the next, and each one held a remnant of the past.

Most of the pods where dark the power systems in them long shut down. Some had shut down because some error or another had killed the occupant inside, causing them to die in their sleep. Others were not so lucky. In several more of the pods the occupants had been woken up but the pods failed to open. Unable to open them from the inside, for one reason or another, most of them simply drowned or suffocated.

 The man slowly got to his feet; he was a little shaky from being in stasis for so long. The “food” that was being fed to them through the tube had be designed to be fully absorbed by the body so there would be no reason for a system to eliminate waist. Never the less as he moved to each pod the urge to use the rest room grew. He continued to search for any sign of anyone else that had gotten out or was trying to get out. He saw a body curled up on the ground a short distance away.

The man rushed over to them hoping they would still be alive. He rolled the female figure over onto her back and she looked back up at him with lifeless eyes.  His heart suck and he fought back the bile rising up in his chest. He pressed his fingers to her neck and his head hung in defeat. Her pulse was gone, and her corpse cold. A tear rolled down his face and he ran his hand over her face closing her eyes before pulling the tube out of her mouth and nose. As he sat giving her a moment of silence he realized the ground around them was still damp. He had only been a few minutes to late.

The man rose to his feet and continued on, he found a few more corpses in various states of decay lying on the ground, but each one was clearly dead. He passed countless pods with corpses floating inside. There were a few that looked like they might still be alive in the pods, but with the monitoring systems offline he had no way of waking them up before the system did it automatically. Son he reached the back wall of the vault, he turned around and when back to the front, he passed his pod and a few more rows, but the story was still the same. He would be alone from this point forward. He sat on the ground facing all the coffins in the room. The tears flowed freely as he realizes he was probably alone for the rest of his life.

Every dark though imaginable crossed his mind, he even thought about just ending it all here at one point. As he sat there wallowing in self misery his memories of the mission started to come back to him. He was part of the security detail for all the scientists and doctors and civilians that had come on this trip with him. Before that he was in the US Special Forces, and considered to be one of the greatest snipers of that time. He then realized that there had been other secret bunkers each one with a vault just like this. Somewhere inside one of those, someone must have gotten out alive. He needed to get out of this tomb and find the other bunkers.

His nose started to work again and he could smell the stink coming off of him. He had the dying urge to get cleaned off. He stood up and moved to the locker rooms that had been intended for the occupants to clean off in after they woke up. He walked over to a stall and turned the knob praying for it to work. After a moment the only thing that came out was a few little drops of rusty water. He let out a sigh and left the room. Back out in the main area there were several large shipping containers built into the wall. Inside each one would be the essential for living; i.e., water, food, ammunition survival supplies and anything else like that that had been left for them.

He opened the one labeled “Water and inside were large plastic cans of water and pallets of water bottles.  He almost smiled and grabbed two of the large ten gallon cans and carried them back to the showers.  The water in the cans and the soap that was inside the lockers in the shower area would be used to clean himself off.  After finishing scrubbing himself off he lifted the second can over his head and dumped it out. Letting out a sign of relief he dropped the can to the ground and looked for something to dry off with. Inside another locker he found stacks of towels. He grabbed one and dried himself off as he walked back out into the main chamber.

The man walked back to the pod he had come out of and knelt down in front of it. On the ground in front of each pod was a locker that was sealed with a vacuum inside it to make sure that the contents would not decay over time. Each one would have what that person would need to do their job in the new world. He grabbed the handle and lifted up, with a pop and hiss, the locker rose up out of the ground. Inside his were some sort of combat suit that he had never seen before and a few other gadgets, including a rifle and side arm or some sort. Each item inside the lockers would have a manual to go with it to explain how it was to be used.

 He had the typical military look to him; with bright blue eyes that had dimed with the grave situation before him. After a time he had finished reading the manuals and put the suit on. It was some sort of mechanized power suit. It was capable of making him stronger and faster than a normal human, so the manual said. Somehow it tapped into the nervous system of the user and was as easy to use and walking.

The back of the helmet was built into the torso of the system, and the front of it attached to a socket at the throat of the system then rotated back to attach the rest of the helmet. The entire system could be sealed and would keep him alive in a vacuum for a limited time. Once the helmet connected to the power supply in on the back of the suit the display inside activated and connected to the cameras on the front of it.  The entire thing made him look more like a robot than a living person.

It took a little bit to get used to the system. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing, and something felt like it was digging into the base of his neck. He kept reaching up to his neck trying to rub it only to be met with the hardened metal of the suit. Even so the pain in his neck passed after a bit and everything felt as comfortable as a pair of jeans and jacket.

“This thing is weird, but if it’s gonna help me survive then I have no choice but to use it.” He had a slightly deep smoky voice.

He reached back into the locker and grabbed the side arm. He took a few minutes to get acquainted with it. Checking how the sights looked, where the mag release was, the safety, and even did a quick field strip of the weapon with the help of the manual. It had a high capacity magazine that held twenty-five high velocity rounds. Once he felt comfortable with it, he strapped the side arm to his hip and then reached for the rifle. It felt nice in his hands, almost like it was made just for him. It was simi-auto and fire an impressive looking round. He did the same with it as the pistol before slinging the rifle over his head so it hung at his side ready to be used.

He moved to the front of the chamber, back to the other containers. He opened the one labeled ammo and filled the magazines for his weapons. He opened the next three containers looking to see what else was in them. The first one he opened had survival supplies in it. He grabbed a ruck sack he found in it and began to load it with things he would need once he left. Everything was packed supper tight and from the looks of things wouldn’t be hard to repack to its original size.

He made sure to get plenty of food and water, a water testing/purifying system for once he was out of the water he would bring with him. He made sure to grab a sleeping bag and some thin tarp looking material that would probably come in handy. He made sure to grab extra ammo for his weapons, and a fire starting kit, along with several other things that we won’t take the time to list now.

One of the things that had caught his eye was a small UAV. It would synch up to the combat tablet built into the inside of the left forearm of the suit. An extra set of eyes was always nice. He activated it and it whirled to life. He synched it up and did a test run with the help of the manual for it. He grabbed it back out of the air and shut it down before connecting it to the suit on the lower back.

Finally hours had past and he was as ready as he would be, nothing else in this place would prepare him anymore. He closed all the containers and sealed them using some locks he had found. He made his way over to the impossibly large vault door and looked up at it. He grabbed the handle of the vault door and gave it a twist. The system unsealed with a hiss and pushed outward then stepped through the threshold.

He gave one last look to the tomb inside before pushing the massive door shut. The door didn’t seal once it closed but its weight would keep damn near everything out. He turned away; hopefully he wouldn’t need to come back for more supplies. He slowly made his way out of the bunker, checking for anything useful as he went. The entire place was covered in a layer of dust that had not been disturbed in who knows how long. There was nothing of use; everything had been ransacked several times over. So many questions ran though his mind; most importantly how long had it been? He eventually reached the outer entrance. Letting out a sigh, he braced himself before opening the door to the bright world beyond.

The visor in his helmet adjusted to the light and shaded it for him. It was an alien landscape, humanity had not been kind to the earth before he went to sleep, and it mother earth did everything she would to correct humanity’s mistakes. He was looking down in to the valley below there where no trees but a few large bushes had begun to grow out of the tall grass. It was a completely different view from when he left. Off in the distance he could see the silhouette of a city in the distance. He reached onto his back and grabbed the UAV and tapped a few things into the tablet on his wrist. The UAV whirled up into the sky above him.

“Let’s go Vergil, someone has to be alive somewhere.”

Author's Note

Here its is chapter one. Still working on chapter two, and it will be posted soon. If you missed the Prologue, use the below link.

http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/NuclearBunnie/1536983/

Reviews

[David Jae]

This is good. I like stories like this, dark and full of intrigue and suspense.

Personally, it would have been better written in the first person; there was a lot of exposition and that might have been better told through dialogue or interior monologue.

Still, I like to see where this goes.

[DBKaine]

I agree with David. Definitely an intriguing read and I would like to see the outcome. I would just say that you need to correct your grammar etc, but we've all gone through that stage. Others are still learning like myself. I do feel this could go somewhere. Try not to repeat the same detail too close in a sentence, but great work still. Congratulations on what is obviously the beginning of an interesting book.
DBKaine