《Blue Skies In An Apocalyptic World》 Chapter 0: Prologue ¡°Hah... Hah...¡± Cold wisps of white pearl like air gushed out of my lungs, my heart raced rapidly, going through overdrive making sure that I wouldn¡¯t drop unconscious. I can¡¯t handle it anymore. My mind felt as if it was breaking into tiny fragments of glass, each shard stabbing into my consciousness, it was excruciating it my mind felt as if it was about to leave the body even through all this pain. Stomping into a pile of manure I would have usually felt disgusted but I couldn¡¯t care less where I trudged. The rain hid the tears in my eyes, my heart was breaking down, and the cold rain was ripping the heat away from my body. My t-shirt and jeans were soaked in blood but they were being slowly washed away. ¡°CURSE THIS WORLD?!¡± I roared into the darkness, my heart was beating harder and harder, the cold sweat on me was being washed away by the rain. It was like the weather was corresponding with my heart and inner demons. I tripped over a piece of wood and fell face flat into a pile of mud, all the energy in my body was being sapped away by the rain. Kneeling forward I grasped my hair and pulled it without remorse. The pain was killing me, I couldn¡¯t handle it, dying now would be such an easy escape. Crawling forward, the mud held tightly to my knees, keeping me down. ¡°What¡¯s the point in living? Why? Is it my fault? I... I... Please *Sob*... Someone...Sob* Help me!!¡± In this lonely, starless, cloud filled night I cried my heart out, there was no one left, no one I could truly turn to, hugging tightly I buried my head into the mud. Desolate, empty, these were the words I could describe what I felt like. Raising my head to the sky I howled, releasing all the pain inside my heart. All of a sudden a glaring torch flashed at my eyes, blinding me for a moment. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Panicking I retreated, Impossible! There¡¯s no way they could have found me. Even though my legs felt heavy I pulled myself up and retreated towards a tree, before I tripped over a root and fell down once again. Pulling myself behind the trunk, breathing heavily I tried to stop my heavy rasping breaths. The light flashed passed the tree trunk, I took this chance to look at the figure. The figure that walked passed me had slick straight hair that was now dishevelled and covered his forehead. His face seemed to have aged 10 years, I recognised him even with his stubble covered face: ¡°Arthur, Arthur, help me...¡± Hearing my voice, Arthur violently turned to me. His pace increased going from a speedy to a rapid sprint, quickly drawing closer to me. ¡°What happened to them?!¡± Those were his first words; this caused the terrifying memories that were making my mind collapse to resurface once again. ¡°They¡¯re dead, Arthur! Arthur! They¡¯re all dead!¡± desolation was all that filled me. Arthurs face seemed to have aged another 10 years in that instant: ¡°Let me take you away from here first!¡± I grabbed onto his wet shirt, and pulled it towards me; I didn¡¯t give a shit about how hard I pulled: ¡°Arthur, I can¡¯t handle it anymore! I can¡¯t! I CAN¡¯T! Please erase everything... Pleeaase!¡± --------------- The prologue is quite short, but this makes the entire story more interesting. If you have time go check my website (Shameless Self-promotion) : My Website Chapter 1: Noah Freid It¡¯s the year 2451 and I¡¯m waking up for the first day at the Academy. Even though the world has been through an apocalyptic disaster education will always exist. What I mean by education is gruelling training for battle; I go to the Royal academy of the Vermillion kingdom. This is an island off the coast of mainland Europe or what used to be known as Great Britain. After the apocalypse, the Vermillion noble family took over the country and everything was now under their rule. Well, it¡¯s not like I care about that, I¡¯m part of a minor noble family called the Freid noble family and my name you ask? It¡¯s Noah Fried. What about age? I¡¯m 16 years old. ¡°Ring!.. Ring!..¡± ¡°So... Annoying...¡± ¡°Bang!¡± The first thing I hear in the morning is an alarm, hearing this constant ringing drives me insane, so every night I end up getting a new one because I always break it in the morning. Every part of my body was aching; I just wish the protective membrane could take the aching away. Today is the first day of actual training in my new boarding academy, but yesterday the instructors forced me, and I mean specifically me to go through a horrific, painful, stressful course. ¡°Noah! Get up!¡± A shout echoed through the house and entered my room, pulling the pillow I covered my ears and groaned. Why did I have to piss off the Instructor on the induction day? Life is only going to get harder. Dragging myself off the cosy comfort of a warm blissful bed I went to the toilet. The toilet was like walking naked in the snow, it was freezing. After doing my business and washing my hands I looked in the mirror. I stared at my reflection and rubbed both my cheeks. My greens eyes were hazy, my dark brown hair was dishevelled and a few streaks of hair were growing on my chin. Overall, in my opinion, I was just above average in terms of appearance, nothing special but neither something that caused people to be jealous of. Walking out of the toilet I walked to my wardrobe and pulled out a set of completely black training wear which was going to be my uniform for quite a while. Taking off my pyjamas I could see the red bruise on my shoulders and back that were still as sore as a bitch. I put on a tight black t-shirt and black army pants with quite a few pockets and took a jacket and put it on. Looking around my room, I realised how much of a mess it was. You must be thinking: ¡®what a slob!¡¯ Well, it¡¯s not my fault, my plan was to clean it yesterday but after coming home from the induction I collapsed on the floor. How¡¯d I get on the bed? My memory was kind of fuzzy after I entered my room; I have little to no idea what happened after. Since I am part of a minor noble family I naturally lived in a mansion with a room for myself. I had a cosy bed, wardrobe, toilet in my own room and the latest in holographic tech. The curtains were closed and that was the way I liked it, I didn¡¯t want to see gloom and darkness the first moment I opened it so it was kept closed. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I picked out more clothes from my wardrobe, placing it inside my bag. The academy was a boarding school so I¡¯d be staying there for the next few months. Finally finished packing I went downstairs. When I reached the table in the dining room there was a middle aged man seated on a comfy chair with a tablet in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. His straight blonde hair was slicked back, his short beard fit him well and there were quite a few wrinkles showing that he was ageing. Taking a sip, he raised an eyebrow: ¡°Aren¡¯t you even going to say good morning?¡± ¡°Mornin¡¯ old man,¡± I said with a smile. The man turned to me, his expression was anything but pleased: ¡°You little...¡± Just before he finished the sentence he managed to calm himself. But the words that came after caused me to tremble from the deepest regions of my soul. ¡°Noah, you better learn some manners or we can go to area 1 again.¡± A small vicious smirk appeared on his lips, he then took another sip. Sweat immediately trickled down my back, my palms were sweaty, knees weak and my arms were heavy. ¡°Dad anything but that!¡± Just remembering the scenes that played out in my mind caused me to nearly have a panic attack. This was a trauma that I could never rid myself from. My dad wasn¡¯t really my dad; he adopted me when I was fourteen, his real name was Arthur Freid. I have no memory of the times before but he treated me as if I was his own child, he was my only family member and I was his only family member. The kindness he showed is something that I would always be grateful for. I pulled a chair back and poured myself a cup of tea and sat down across him. ¡°This will be the last day I¡¯ll be seeing you for the next few months, good riddance.¡± He said, with a depressed smile that betrayed his words. ¡°I¡¯ll be back before you know it!¡± ¡°You¡¯re late, you do know that?¡± He interrupted me while I was in the middle of spreading jam on my toast, hearing this I immediately checked the screen on my watch. ¡°Shit!!¡± I quickly took the cup of tea and drank it all in large gulps, scalding my tongue. Grabbing my bag containing a good amount of clothes and books, I put the toast in my mouth and ran out of the dining room. ¡°See ya¡¯ Old man!¡± I remarked just before leaving the house, behind me, I heard an unbound and especially aggravated roar: ¡°You little Shit!!¡± --------------- This is the first chapter of my novel, if you''ve found any problems in my grammar I''d like for you to point it out. Well, have a good read. My Website