Doomsday, Chapter two, Salvation!

Quick recap:
Lizzie, the highschool student aspiring to be a vet, meets a diviner-looking old person who tells her she’s a bad omen for those around her, while it still might be a scam, a baseless sentence or just a harassment, Lizzie still ponders those empty words told to her, on an alternative earth, a distorted version of the real world, where she seeks parallel help from those who rescue what remained from humanity after such an apocalyptic event, who knows? Would it possibly happen that youth will be leading again on front lines or permanently perish, creating a chance of disintegration of life means! Or? Did they already survive and there’s no alternative world they tend to inhabit!?

The scene of apocalypse is often seen in its magnified figure, in which fire is hotter that it feels, water is stronger that it looks and all the life elements are quite intimidating… and it’s all because of fear, despite the truth that narrates those events of death however the method in their actual scaring forms, fear always magnifies things, sometimes death will just be a salvation for some; of those who suffered their whole lives without a single life compensation or someone to comfort them through their moments of defects. And sometimes, life is just crueler than a moment when bodies separate from their ethereal versions.

No one would ever anticipate that there would be any survivors of the disastrous natural event just occurred a short time ago! As Lizzie woke up by the echo of few and yet delicate water drops shedding over the green ground her bruised forehead was lying over, alongside her brother whose puppy wasn’t sharing the same spot with them, the same as the rest of the family members!

The sky was plain gray, no single bird to hover over, or to console those who had lost their families, her and her brother were both soaked up and shivering, as the climate was also colder than usual, accordingly, their movements were slow, not just because of the water impacting their weight since it’s covering all their clothes, but also because of the waves strength affecting their muscles especially meanwhile resisting. Lizzie was trying to handle her shock alone without contributing her young brother in it, he just wanted hugs, holding hands and his torn bunny.

She walked towards the dull-looking buildings, surrounded by dewy meadows, emitting a glimpse of hope in the middle of a catastrophic crisis, she entered a tall building, where the elevator is malfunctioned, the documents in the archive are wet, and the residents are no longer existing, just their trace, clothes, diaries, bloodstains and objects. When Lizzie enters the first apartment she senses a presence from, she sees a broken photo frame of a soldier in the marines shattered on the floor, she tries to hold it up, but the glass cuts her finger, leaving a scar she covers with a piece of wet cloth she found in the bathroom. She entered the kitchen, looking for food, and finds only tuna cans in the cupboard, and wet moldy bread on the counter, she decided to take the tuna cans only and gather water from the bathtub with a bottle, she gave her brother three sips, and took the same number of sips to preserve the rest until she finds another vessel to collect more water. She entered the bedroom, and took some clothes, put in a suitcase and found a diary book that looks well-preserved from the flood, she opened due to curiosity, and learned about the housewife that inhabited that apartment, filled its walls with screams and smoke, as her ex-marine husband used to beat her day and night instead of seeking a psychiatrist to help him recover from his traumas, she wished to be a mother, craved it for long, and when she learned about her pregnancy, she lost it the same day after her husband pushed her downstairs deliberately to make her miscarry, he never wanted a child, another soul to suffer just like him, especially a boy, who most likely go to the military and die for those who are in charge, the ones who get the salute eventually, the same exact ones who did nothing to be saluted for.

Avella, the warm-hearted housewife was never heard, she lost her dreams as she lost her baby, she guided Lizzie and her brother to her, not to let them suffer reading her story, but to help them gather resources, she played the very motherly role she looked forward to have, with two kids looking for their family members like a needle in a haystack.

Avella wished for an apocalypse to end the suffer she endured, but she couldn’t wait till it happens, she ended her life before this flood could access her house, her husband couldn’t find an alternative to release his anger over, hence, he also took his own life shortly after her.

“If she only knew, if she only waited!” Lizzie smiled with wet eyes, looking at Avella’s beautiful face, and sensed the bittersweet ending Avella was eagerly awaiting, then she sensed a hand rubbing the back of her head, she freaked out, and looked back, to find a relatively transparent shadow fading away, the shadow has dropped a paper with co-ordination, and a short text stating, “it’s alive, downstairs, hiding in the basement.”

Lizzie took her brother and ran downstairs to solve the puzzle, hoping real bad to find a trace of her family, the basement had a rusty metal door, with a giant side hole, that is considered enough for a slim human being to pass through, she warned her brother and told him not to follow her until she calls him in, she entered cautiously, trying to peering into the darkness, then she hears someone breathing, she holds a mop stick in her hand and gets closer, pokes that thing, and she finds out it’s her dog, she cried and hugged it, while it was shivering from coldness, and weakly barking as he recognized her, she took him out, and heard a voice coming from the basement, telling her, “Follow the dog, he followed your scent until here, he might guide you to your loved ones.”, then the voice vanished permanently.

Lizzie followed her dog upstairs, she was wondering if her parents where in the same building, she entered another apartment, it felt quite unholy, unlike the first place, it seemed like it was full of dark spirits wishing to replace a living soul and release their long-term lurking grudge, the furniture looked vintage, and there was a mannequin standing in the hallway uncovered, beside another that was covered, there was a table with a useless phone, and a city dictionary, and in the bedroom there was a vintage radio, thought to be also not working.

The dog climbed up the bed, and sniffed the radio, then started barking loudly, Lizzie was frightened and tried to cool down her dog by giving him a can of tuna, she then started inspecting the radio, and found recent muddy fingerprints on it’s corners, she tried to operate it, multiple times, but it didn’t work, then she started looking for a way of communication inside the room. She started with the wardrobe, where clothes were all messy and moldy, she opened the drawers, and found a letter, from 50s, full of scorns from the sister of the resident, it seemed that they both had a conflict over inherited wealth, one thought the other wasn’t worth it since she didn’t serve the deceased father while he was alive and sick. Lizzie deduced that the letter was written by the resident and not sent, she heard noises in the hall, she went outside to observe, and she noticed a mild change in the uncovered mannequin, she tried not to panic and thought it was a tiny earthquake, then she went back to the room, the dog finished eating and then jumped again on the bedside table, dropped the radio, and surprisingly the radio started working, giving distorted signals at the beginning, Lizzie held the radio, moved it right and left and changed the frequencies, till she heard noises, indicating a voice behind.

"welcome back in "the awakening " podcast, today is a big day, the tunnels we built over years had now earned its own benefits, a lot of people could survive that disaster, alongside with some who also survived on earth... the airplanes could pick some people up as possible as they could... and the appearance, in addition to the atmosphere had definitely changed but the estimations of the scientific researches including the damage perception were proven wrong, 99.9% was an exaggeration in fact, after adjusting it was 54.88% which still kept half of the earth safe to live over, the scanners are still updating about missing cases, alive and unfortunately dead." Glitch, noises...

"People were informed earlier that the tunnels won't afford more than a certain number which unfairly caused a lot of people to die upon , greetings from the broadcast tower, some areas are provided with electricity and some radius approximately 70% of our country doesn't have a good signal or electrical field to communicate, in case you're one of the lucky ones, please, try to rotate the radio buttons 2 times clockwise, 4 anti-clockwise, 1 clockwise, 5 anti-clockwise... I will repeat the pattern for you, repeats, this frequency in the device you're holding will help the scanners find your location, calm down, try not to touch any water source because the water might be contaminated due to industrial leaks, put your clothes on your nose nearby the water sources and find a house to hide under its roof, stay around the radio. Stay safe everyone, we will be there for you as soon as possible."

Lizzie then heard a sharp sound of something dropping, when she tried to go check, she found the mannequin standing up from the floor and trying to approach the bedroom, once she kicked it and went outside the room, she found a total different apartment with different furniture, more modern-looking even though it’s still the same place she entered and nowhere else, the mannequin was replaced by dead old lady decomposing, holding another letter in her hand but it was dirty and stained with decay liquids, she preferred not to take it, and took her brother out, leaving the mystery of this sinister apartment behind.

Gladly she took the radio with her, entered another apartment and found two young men smoking while sitting on a balcony fence of a building in front of them, she tried to call, but they never listened, she went to the kitchen looking for more food, and they were lucky enough to find leftovers in a broken fridge that still didn’t expire, she ate and gave her brother and the dog food, then saved the rest in a plastic container, she found some ice she could surround the food with, and water bottles that aren’t yet opened, she went to the balcony where she was hoping to find signal again, and tried the radio one more time, using the calling pattern they talked about in the broadcast, but no sign of approaching vehicle or helicopter coming to rescue, Lizzie took both her brother and the dog under the bed ruins and slept out of tiredness.

After few hours she heard whispers, and the place felt hotter, she woke up without waking her brother, her dog disappeared, but she preferred not to call, after she could peek through if the bed ruins to find mourners with veils on their faces carrying candles and repeating indistinguishable words, her heart started beating so fast, she gulped her bloody-tasted saliva and tried to sneak out of the room without someone notices her, she took her brother as he was opening his eyes, telling him to stay silent, he adhered to her, then she crawled between everyone’s legs carefully, until she left the apartment, she went upstairs and found the dog in the basement again, it looked scared and enthusiastic since it found its friends, she took the dog, and went outside the building, to find the sky black without stars, only the moon, and it looks less bright than usual, there were asphalted roads, a nearby hilltown, and a following neighborhood, surrounded with trees and floral bushes, Lizzie found a parked bike beside the dumpster, she took it and placed her dog in the basket and her brother on the backseat, she drove it along the narrow road, witnessing mysterious movements in the dark, she was trying to avoid those noises as much as possible and drive until she finds a safer place, the radio worked all of sudden, it was playing ominous music with singing group, she couldn’t understand what they were saying, and she shortly turned it off before she gets noticed by anyone.

After desperately looking for a way of survival through seeking help from others, it turned into hating to be found by anyone, the climate was farther from being safe and it seemed like hunger, thirst and desire had driven people crazy after waiting for too long, Lizzie doesn’t know time, she doesn’t know how long she lingered in that building alongside her dog and brother, the only sign that she stayed a while, was the food all eaten and the water all drunk, she doesn’t even remember what happened in mean time, only short memories, divinely trigger,

A scene of a group of people eating corpses on the roof, and others violently having sex, and only one person with a black coat and a mutilated face stands by the roof fence, looking at the degenerated versions of human beings, and then he demonstrated a circle with blood slowly elevating from the ground to the sky, reviving the dead souls lying on the floor and turning the place into a feeding court full of ham, wine, vegetables and even human meat, it looked like a devilish pact, made by desperate souls to seize life beyond their suffer, even if that life they’re promised was short or harshly conditioned.

Another scene she reminisced was the room she slept in getting filled by a group of people who found them and stole their food, therefore, Lizzie assumed it was only one night and not several days as she thought, she stopped the bike and climbed up a fence of an abandoned house, she opened the wooden gate from the inside to allow her brother and the dog to enter, then she locked it back, she entered the house, it was luckily and unluckily empty, she could observe the moon from the dining room windows, and she could find a trail to a rural neighborhood behind, there was a far sound of a tractor, before she went towards it, she had to check the radio again, but it didn’t work, except for one time, a person tried to ask for help too, but his voice faded away again, she jumped from the window and walked cautiously on the trail as there were two water canals feeding the crops, the tractor sound suddenly disappeared, and she got lost, she found a house with an oven burning, and a chimney releasing a smell of baked bread.

She was starving but she couldn’t directly enter the house out of fear, she had to sneak into it, and then steal the freshly baked bread on the dining table, then jump back out, trying to find a place to hide.

There was a collapsed house a bit far away, but it was totally isolated, she operated the radio, but nothing was playing at all, she picked up the bread loaves and divided on all of them, then the man with the black coat and distorted face showed up again,

his voice was weird, it was a mixture of different voice tones, males and females, he said, “You will always stay hungry, this (bread) won’t satisfy your hunger, and no single soul here would will to help you, it’s only me who can satisfy you.”

She covered her brother behind and the dog got missing in the field, she was trembling and slightly walking back,

“I can smell and see your fear even though I don’t have a perfect nose like yours, neither eyes, there’s no need to be scared, you saw how these humans on the roof came back to life with one spell I casted, and I shall also cast upon you if you wish. All I need is at least a nod.”

She withdrew and ran, holding her brother’s hand, then the radio worked again,

she will rapidly try putting her co-ordinates on the radio, while her hands were shaking badly, then she hears,

"Agent gb12 talking: we got your calling, head away to the northern lake, it's 48km ahead of your building, we are awaiting you there, repeating..."

Lizzie will carry her brother and start running to the point where they would pick them up,

When she arrived, she found out that other people were rescued and loading the plane, they entered with them passing by the authorities to scan their data and find their families, some found their families either dead or alive and some didn't... but Lizzie and Aaryan found their parents alive with the puppy, crying that they lost their two kids in the water... Lizzie tried talking to her mother when they reached to her but she found out that everyone is real except her and her brother...

With a fading voice behind, coming from the same radio she obtained,

"Unfortunately, we found two dead bodies one of a kid 8 years old and the other of a teenage school girl on a green area, their family members could survive because of the airplanes floating over their house, meanwhile the kids drowned deeply. "

This explains the lost memories, the constant hunger and thirst, even after trying to temporarily satisfy themselves, it also explains the time distortion, them being unheard except by the dead, and explains the disappearance of some objects, and the appearance of another, but the dog is the only mystery. We never know if the diviner was true, we never know if Lizzie is struggling to live again and she’s in a coma, and we never know if none of this happened and she got deluded subconsciously by that diviner and started seeing things, but the only narrative we could rely on at the moment is youth being chased in all eras, killed once, chased another time, envied and neglected, even though it’s full of ideas, love and will to share and contribute, but the world sometimes tend to banish that kind loving spirit, turning it into a cautious, helpless and lonely soul, that might deviate, and might prefer staying lost forever.

The perception of salvation is variant from a person to another, sometimes incorrect due to despair or delusions but sometimes it's true, and not misleading, differing the truth from its contradiction will lead you eventually to salvation.