Chapter 1 Emergence A piercing lightning, brighter than a thousand suns, slicing straight through the sky, preceding an unending thunderclap that tore through the ground like a earthquake. The quiet school-night becoming a hot summer day of panic and fear. That was her last memory of the world above, a memory that was almost half her age. She looked up at the rusted metal cage protruding from the ceiling of the place she called home for so many years. The dank and disgusting sewers many yards below the world above kept her safe from the horrors above, but at the cost of holding her to face the horrors below. Her little world underground was turning upside-down. Her father was dead, and soon the ex-soldiers who also call this place home will come seeking to collect on a debt. If she stayed here, she would have to face them in his place. Her only hope was above. She lowered herself off the concrete walkway, plunging into the knee-deep, decade-old sewage. It stank like every rotten thing in existence, and it was blacker the the lightless sewers around it. This sludge seeped its way into every room, every tunnel and every hole and crevice in this world, but for the first time in years, she took notice of it. Its putrid fumes, its disgusting texture, and its toxic taste. She grabbed the rusted ladder leading to the access in the ceiling. She stared up towards the portal to the world she never truly knew. Her only knowledge of it being vague memories of childhood glee and that horrible light. Her father told her that the world above was a horrible place. That the people who stayed in that light became horrible monsters. If that were true, she would have to take her chances. She ascended to the top of the ladder, and looked up towards the heavy 1 steel hatch that concealed the mysteries above from her. The unknown be- yond was waiting for her. She raised her arms up high, touching the cold metal of the barrier, and pushed it aside with all of her strength... She looked up into the bright crystal blue sky. It glared back, the light of the sun drilled straight through her eyes and burned deep. Her vision snapped painfully into a blurry splotch of red and black. She shut her eyes, no use. The world above burned. It only subsided after she tightly covered her eyes with her hands. Perhaps her father was right after all. She retreated back down into the dark, head in her hands desperately trying to protect her eyes from any sort of light. Her vision did not return. There was no going back for her. With her vision gone, her hopes of survival underground dwindled into the realms of impossibility. She had to risk that she’d run into someone who wouldn’t immediately take advantage of her, or even better, someone with medical knowledge. She felt around her waist for the small razor-blade knife she kept clipped to her pants. Feeling around the bottom brim of the knit jacket, she sliced off a long ring of fabric from it. She covered her eyes with the band of fabric, using it as a makeshift blindfold. She would be vulnerable and deprived of the principle sense for the rest of her life. There was little choice for her in that matter. It was either this, or certain death. She stoically began back up the rusted ladder back up to the outside world, praying to whatever god existed that her hasty eye protection would curb the sea of fire she was about to expose herself to. Praying that all of the trouble she has already gone through just to get a glimpse at the outside would not be the biggest mistake she’d ever make. That thick steel manhole cover was the only thing separating this worth- less life from the one to come. She shut her eyes tightly, clenched her teeth, and reached her arms out to the cover. She lifted, pushed, and held her breath. She didn’t feel anything yet. The blindfold had worked well enough. She tilted her head upward, feeling the warmth of sunlight on her face for the first time in a decade. She climbed slowly out of her old world, feeling the hard asphalt ahead with her rough hands. Crawling along the pavement on her hands and knees until she was stopped by a nearby wall. She climbed up off the floor, the wall guiding her. then , she heard the mechanical racking of a shotgun slide from directly behind. 2