The Last Survivor

7: City In Flames

I begin to walk with determination, ready to enter the city that is engulfed in flames. With every step I take, I feel how the ground of the earth shakes uncontrollably, and I can see how the cracks extend in various directions as if they were veins of an earth that has been wounded. As I move forward, I remember the abilities that the mysterious system has given me, and in my mind, I begin to want to figure out which of these abilities could be the most useful for me in this very decisive moment in life where there is a race against the clock to survive. 

As I got closer to the burning city, I realized that the flames were devouring adjacent buildings and constructions, the smoke was further darkening the gloomy sky. As I went further into the city, I heard that around me, there were very distant screams and cries of people who perhaps were suffering to survive, at least, although it was painful to say it, at least, there was hope that there were survivors, and if there were many, it would be much better for me to achieve my objective.

Everything was at stake; I did not know precisely what could happen if I did not win this mission and fulfill the words dictated by destiny. Everything made me nervous, and even more, knowing that I had let my sister wait for me in a new dimension that we now barely knew existed. Although well, on the one hand, it was always better for her to take refuge there than to have come with me to witness all this.

While walking, I had a very slight feeling that I was not going to be alone in this whole journey, and knowing that was very comforting to me. Luckily, on my way, I witnessed how things would start to go well, a woman appeared. She was desperate, and scared, but her body was in complete health, which was the most important thing.

“I'm Sara, and I thank God for having found you. My whole family has died in the earthquake, I'm just here, and I thought I would be alone going through all this,” said the woman when she approached me to ask for help.

Suddenly, my eyes behaved in a mysterious way, they remained paralyzed for a few minutes, I heard a beep echo in my mind, and I saw how a pair of green rays were drawn in my pupils that reminded me of those pupil readers that They used it as massive security in the safest places on the planet so that not everyone could get in so easily.

Soon, the female robotic voice that had previously spoken when my system was activated appeared again to tell me: “Approved”, and without having to ask her any questions about it, I understood very well what she was talking about; The woman in front of me has been approved to be one of the survivors who would travel with me to the new world.

I explained everything to the woman, in detail, but at the same time, very summarized, because my excuse was that I didn't have much time, our salvation depended on how quickly we would be able to find more survivors together before the world began to collapse before our eyes and would like to take us with him.

Sara quickly accepted my proposal, and she joined me to help me find more survivors. So, Sara and I have immersed ourselves in the devastation of the city together on calls. Every street seemed to have become a labyrinth of chaos and despair. Everything has been destroyed by the uncontrollable fury of nature. The earth continued to move slightly under our feet without giving us any sign that a catastrophe was going to occur. Time was against us for us. As we continued on our way, more voices joined the set of screams and cries. However, my body was able to perceive that, ultimately, there were signs of life.

The smoke begins to bother our eyes, but for us that is not an impediment that could ruin our mission. Sara remained serious and sad about the loss of her entire family, but at the same time, she was brave in the face of everything that could happen.

Little by little, we found more survivors, Jason, Hanna, and Jackson joined us on our journey. However, we soon had to stop our path, since night was approaching. How did we realize this? It was all thanks to my system, because the voice in my head announced to me that it was already night, and that it was time to let my body rest and recover my energy, why else, the next day, or in the middle of the night, if something were to happen, I would not be able to withstand the necessary strength of my abilities to survive.

So, with my survival companions, we took refuge in a semi-destroyed building that remained intact despite its weakness to stand on the ground. Obviously, we all took it upon ourselves to review before this was going to be our ideal place to spend the night, and also, we have made an important decision together.

“Guys, I think right now it would be good if we took turns at night. That is, if I start right now to do a two-hour shift without sleeping, when those two hours have passed, someone else will come to replace me to allow me to go to sleep, and so on until the day has arrived, and we are all sure that we have done our turn. "Do you think?" Jason suggested after we had all left the building as a group to agree on this plan.

“I think it's an excellent idea, so we'll all watch each other's backs and know how to react in case something happens in the middle of the night,” Hanna responded with determination.

“Yes, I think the same, that's how we will do it. And to make the decision fairer, since there are five of us in the group, we will do the following: look for a rock and keep it hidden in your hand, do not let it be seen until it is time for us all to be gathered here again. When that time comes, the rock that is largest will be the one that will start the turn first, and we will continue taking turns in the order in which the sizes of the rock appear; first the large one, then the medium one, then the small one and then the smallest one, and so on. Did you understand?” I said.

Everyone nodded as if they were soldiers following the orders of their officer on an important mission, and we separated from the group to begin searching in this same sector for all the rocks we could find to meet our challenge. In a few minutes, we all returned to meet at our previous meeting point, with our hands sealed into a fist, hiding our rocks in it, and when I gave the order, we all opened our hands, showing that if we had fulfilled our part of the challenge.

This time, it was Sara who was unlucky, her rock was the biggest, and now she would be the one who had to obey with the first shift of two hours of surveillance at night while the rest of us got some sleep.

“Very good, Sara. You will stay here please, any strange noise, or anything strange that happens that you think you need us to be here with you, you go and wake us up. Okay?” I said to Sara. She looked at me with a little terror in her eyes, however, something in me told me that this 23-year-old girl was not going to let herself be defeated by anyone regardless of the personal situation she was going through at that moment.

"Yeah. You have nothing to worry about, I'll be fine. I promise I will take good care of you. I won't be careless for a second. Go rest, because you really look like you haven't done that in a good couple of hours,” she said confidently.

I smiled. It was true, I hadn't been able to sleep for a day, and I still don't know how I managed to stay standing without having the intention of wanting to sleep. If I had experienced this situation at school, surely in math class if I had fallen asleep because those classes have always been, for me, the most boring of the entire school year. The worst thing of all was that I was always a genius for those classes, even though sometimes I was very distracted or asleep.

I remember how Professor Smith always scolded me for being absent-minded, but her grades with me were always generous at the end of each month. Now, I just hoped that she would be one of the next survivors we find for tomorrow when we have woken up and are ready to leave to continue our mission.