After the World Ended (Among the Stars Book 0)

by Amal, C. O.

  “Ahh...” Pain coursed through Sophie. I can clearly hear her curses.

  Jacob went near Sophie and examined her hand. There are two long scratch marks running through the length of her hand. And blood prickled on the scratch marks.

  “You okay?” Jacobson asked.

  “Yeah, I am fine.” Sophie said.

  We all sighed deeply and we continued our walk.

  A moment later Sophie stopped moving and she cuddled into a sitting position under a tree.

  “Sophie, are you okay?” Melissa asked.

  “I...I can’t breathe.” Sophie said.

  “What?” I asked.

  We all rushed towards Sophie. Sophie is actually struggling to breath. Her tired form lie down on the ground. Then we all witnessed the change. Within moments hair excessively grown throughout Sophie’s body and she changed into a monkey. Her lips bended in an unusual manner. A moment later she began to breathe normally. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at us as we are the aliens.

  “Mom...” Luc began to cry.

  “Sophie, honey...Are you...Are you in there?” Jacobson also began to cry.

  Suddenly Sophie or what was left of her stood up and ran away from us.

  “Mom...” Luc followed her.

  Suddenly growl came from near Luc.

  Next I heard a scream from Luc. And that was it. He was gone. Jacobson ran for his son.

  “Luc...” Jacobson screamed on the way.

  “No Jacob...” I said.

  But it was too late. From behind a tree I heard Jacobson’s scream too. This time the scream was short. That was it. He too was gone. The five of us ran through the forest away from the growl and screech.

  Part 4 – The Sanctuary

  *****

  Chapter 16

  A.D. 2087, Path to Sanctuary

  We ran at full speed through the forest. There is no one pursuing us but we ran. Maria is carrying Hanna in her hands. The weight of Hanna decreased Maria’s speed. Melissa and Danny are running in the front line.

  Before long we exited the forest and reached a big agricultural field. The once corn grown filed is now nothing but a barren wasteland. Unlike most of the places in today’s world, nothing have grown in the field not even shrubs.

  There are farming houses there and there on the sides of the fields. Large barns and other farming buildings stood there and there. Nothing had damaged in the war.

  We ran towards the nearest house. We are pretty much thirsty and all the apples we had were in Jacobson’s bag. So now we have nothing to eat. We quickly reached the nearby house and we all got inside the house through the unlocked door. I quickly dead bolted the door.

  Maria took her binocular from her bag and looked through it.

  “There are wolfish dogs in the forest edges.” Maria said.

  I grabbed the binocular from her hands and looked at the forest edges. Those mighty creatures are in fact wandering through the forest, may be searching for us.

  “What do we do?” Melissa asked.

  “We will continue towards sanctuary.” Danny said.

  “Yeah. Sanctuary is our only hope.” I said.

  “What happened to Miss Sophie and others?” Hanna asked.

  “You don’t have to worry about them honey. They are in heaven now.” Maria said.

  I looked around the house and spotted a well in the back yard. I hauled water from the well and gave to everyone. We all drank water and filled our stomachs. We also found orange trees not far away from the back yard. We collected ripened oranges in our back packs and also we ate several of them.

  In the sky sun moved downward casting long shadows through the land.

  “All this time I thought some human had released the plague on human kind and created the crazies. Now I understood that the aliens are the one who responsible for this.” I said.

  “I am agreeing with that. These aliens may be thinking about conquering the world.” Melissa said.

  “In my dream, this girl named Evelyn said that she is the Mother Nature and she is in grave danger. May be this aliens are the one who is trying to kill her.” I said.

  “But after the war didn’t you watched the sudden growth of flora everywhere? So whatever the plague was it promoted the growth of flora, that way helping the Mother Nature regain her lost forest lands. All we ever done was cut down trees and destroying mother nature slowly. So how will be the aliens killing her?” Melissa asked.

  “I don’t know, but I think that they are preparing Mother Nature for the harvest.” I said.

  “What else the dream said to you?” Maria asked.

  “Evelyn said that there are more like her in different planets and she also said that her entire kind is being slaughtered.” I said.

  “So there must be life on other planets too.” Melissa said.

  “The aliens are the proof for that.” Danny said.

  “So the wolfish dogs may be here because of the aliens.” I said.

  “But those dogs hunted down crazies too.” Danny said.

  “May be those dogs are here to hunt down humans.” I said.

  “Why are they killing humans like this? Why create crazies?” Danny asked.

  “May be they done his because they have seen us as a threat. We may be the only one who could save Mother Nature from death.” I said.

  “That does makes sense.” Maria said.

  “So are we going to continue our journey now?” Melissa asked.

  “It’s about evening. We can stay here for the night and we will move at first light.” I said.

  “Okay.” Melissa said.

  Melissa went near the glass window and she sat on a chair looking outside. Danny sat on the couch and slowly closed his eyes. Maria and Hanna went deeper inside the house searching everywhere.

  I took a chair from the corner and sat near Melissa.

  “Anything bad?” I asked.

  “No. It looks like they have moved away.” Melissa said.

  I took a deep sigh.

  A few moments later, darkness slowly crept forward through the land.

  Chapter 17

  A.D. 2087, Path to Sanctuary

  Birds chirped all around me. I slowly walked through the green field. Suddenly a crocodile jumped in front of me. It opened its mouth and rushed at me. It is a normal sized crocodile but its sharp teeth alone induced panic inside me.

  I ran away from the crocodile in the north direction. I know I should be going in south direction but that crocodile is following me. I stopped on top of a small hill and breathed heavily. I can see that the crocodile have stopped pursuing me and have went in another way.

  I slowly retraced my path and within minutes I got back to the place where I saw the crocodile for the first time. I increased my pace and I walked towards south. A moment later I reached a small tree land. I entered inside the tree land and moved forward. Before long a building whose roof covered with vines came into view. I rushed forward.

  The building is single storied and I could peek inside through the small walls. The building’s roof is made of sheet and it is several feet above the main walls. In a corner I saw a door that leads inside the building. I slowly approached the door and opened it. I don’t know what I will find in this building but checking inside it is worth a shot.

  I entered inside the building. Sunlight washed inside the building through the gap between wall and roof. There are no windows in the building, doesn’t need one. The room I am in is empty. I opened another door and entered inside the next room.

  Surprisingly I found four humans inside it. They all are men and they were all sitting on the floor with sad face. I can see a door in a corner which supposedly leads to another part of the building.

  “Hello, what are you all doing here?” I asked.

  I don’t know what they are doing here and I don’t know whether they could help me but I asked them anyway.

  “What are we doing here? Didn’t you saw the crocodiles outside? The whole place is c
overed in water. We are fortunate we are in this building in the middle of this crocodile filled lake.” One of the men said.

  “What lake? I didn’t saw one.” I said.

  “Then your eyes have some problem. Open this door and see for yourself.” One of the men said.

  A lake? I slowly approached the door and opened it.

  “What the hell?” I asked myself.

  There is a lake in front of me. Suddenly a crocodile swam towards me. I quickly swing the door to close it but sadly I couldn’t close it. I swear the door perfectly fitted the doorway earlier but now the door have somehow shortened.

  “What the?” I said myself.

  “Hay. What happened to the door?” I asked.

  But I didn’t get a response from the men. When I looked back there were no sign of them. They must have escaped. The crocodile is rushing towards me. Suddenly water starts to pour in through the doorway. The place seemed to be sinking. I rushed outside the way I came inside earlier. Fortunately the building wasn’t surrounded by lake. I found the tree land from where I came.

  Suddenly the whole building sunk in to the lake and crocodiles rushed towards me. I bolted into a run. There are dozens of crocodiles pursuing me. I rushed in the south direction. Before long I saw the men who I saw from the building. They are also running away from the lake in the south direction.

  “Hey, you could have told me that building was about to sink.” I said.

  “Go away man. We don’t know you to help you.” One of the men said.

  “What?” I couldn’t believe what I have just heard from them. Did all the humanity left them? Aren’t they humans?

  “We told you to go away.” The man reminded me.

  “Whatever.” I overtake them and rushed in the south direction. A moment later I looked back and saw the crocodiles who are still pursuing me. There is no sign of those men.

  “Keep heading south.” Evelyn’s voice said in my head.

  “Please tell me what the hell is going on.” I asked.

  Sadly no response came from Evelyn. I rushed forward. Before long I saw a big crowd. They were all going in west direction.

  “Hello, where are you all going?” I asked.

  “Don’t go in the south direction. There are gigantic crocodiles who eats people.” One of the woman said.

  “What?” I asked. I am really tired of running. South was my only hope but now there is no hope left in me.

  “Don’t listen to them Joe. Don’t follow the crowd. Go in your own way.” Evelyn’s voice said.

  But I can’t go in the south direction. According to the woman there are big crocodiles in south. I disobeyed Evelyn and followed the crowd.

  Suddenly people in the front row began to scream and they all started to rush in different directions. I looked in the front row and saw a big crocodile eating people. I rushed in the south direction. Suddenly a crocodile appeared in front of me and it bit me in my head. My world went blank.

  I woke up in the house panting. Sunlight slowly started to sweep inside through the windows.

  A few moments later everyone woke up and we continued our trek in the south direction.

  Chapter 18

  A.D. 2087, Path to Sanctuary

  We walked through the farmlands. The only road present here is a muddy path. We paced through that muddy path to the south. In the south we can see a mountain now, which is increasing our hopes of finding that waterfall.

  A moment later the muddy path ended and the dark road began which leads to the mountain through a forest covered area. We are about a kilometre away from the forest. We increased our pace.

  Suddenly a big wolfish creature jumped in front of us. We were walking absent minded and so we didn’t even saw the creature coming. The dog growled showing its sharp teeth. It is several feet away from as and a moment later it walked towards us. We all stopped moving. We don’t know what to do. My arrows are useless against this mighty creature and also the bow is in my back.

  When it reached near me it smelled me and growled at me. Drool oozed down from its mouth. Tears of fear oozed down from all of us. Also our legs shook with fear.

  Suddenly a gunshot erupted from our right direction and the wolfish creature dropped dead with a wide hole in its head. Blood sprayed in my face. I wiped away the blood from my face using the sleeve of my shirt and we all looked in our right direction with curiousness.

  A moment later a tall man in military fatigues came out of the jungle shrubs with a sniper rifle. There is an ammo belt strapped around his chest. He waved at us and walked towards us. We stood there. Now panic and fear flew away from us.

  “That was a hell of a shot.” Danny said to the man.

  “Thanks.” The man said.

  “Thanks for saving us.” I said.

  He smiled. “So what are you all doing here?” He asked.

  “We are on our way to the sanctuary. We believe that we are near sanctuary.” I said.

  “Sanctuary?” He said. “In this place? I doubt there is a sanctuary here.”

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “Can’t you tell?” He asked. “I was with military before the war.”

  We all looked each other in the face.

  “Military?” I asked. “We were actually looking for one of you guys to know why the hell did the war started.”

  “That’s a long story.” He said. “And I don’t like it even a bit.”

  “Well as citizens, we have the right to know it.” I said.

  He smiled. “So you said you’re going to sanctuary?” He said changing the subject.

  “Yes.” I said.

  “How do you know there is a sanctuary here?” He asked.

  “Well I have this strange dream and according to the dream we have to head in the south. And so far, all the things the dreams had told me came true.” I said.

  “Then, I am coming with you.” He said. “I am Ray.” He put forward his hand.

  I accepted his hand and I shook. “It’s pleased to meet you Ray.”

  We slowly continued our trek to the mountain.

  “So can we get the answer to why the war started?” Melissa asked.

  We all curiously looked at Ray’s face.

  “Well, our military went on crack and they started shooting down everybody.” Ray said.

  “How?” I asked.

  “We don’t know. One day most of our officers started telling stories about enemies in our country. They said that all other countries have declared war on us and we should go to war. We don’t know why. We marched into the neighbouring country and we saw no resistance there. We started shooting down everybody we saw. I didn’t knew what else to do. Before long more countries came to the war. Officers were actually on crack. I knew that what I am doing is wrong. Some of us thought the same thing. We then escaped from the war and retreated into a forest.” He said.

  “Then what happened?” I asked.

  “Then they started air strikes. Some of the soldiers declared we are enemies of the state. They shot down my friends. I somehow escaped everything. Before long the war ended since everyone killed each other.” He said.

  “Did you saw those aliens?” I asked.

  “Yes. Those damnations are the real enemies. They are the one who started this. They must have released some kind of biological weapon which turns good men into crazies.” Ray said.

  “That’s exactly what we think too.” I said. “Not far from here they have a huge building. The crazies think that these aliens are their god.”

  “Damn the crazies. Damn the aliens. If there is a sanctuary here, that’s where I should be.” He said.

  We silently moved through the forest.

  Chapter 19

  A.D. 2087, Path to Sanctuary

  We ate the oranges when we got hungry. We drank water from our bottles. Before long all our food supply got expended. We walked deeper into the forest.

  A moment later we saw a violent stream flowing through the forest. The stre
am is filled with big rocks. There are gigantic boulders on the sides of the stream. There must be a waterfall somewhere here.