Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

Draycos had slid down the ladder as fast as possible when he was descending. He had descended about eighty feet down the ladder before the first explosion shook the city. He heard multiple other explosions go off almost simultaneously, and the shaft shook with such force that Draycos was thrown off the ladder, hitting his head on the wall behind him. Dazed, he fell another twenty feet before he hit the floor at the bottom of the ladder and was knocked unconscious by the impact. He drifted in and out of consciousness as the floor shook violently beneath his back. The distant sound of the explosions rung in his ears.

He had no idea how long he was unconscious for, but he awoke with a start and sat up. There were piles of broken concrete all around him, and every few seconds another piece would fall from the badly cracked ceiling and hit the ground with a clack. Luckily, none of the rubble had landed on him.

Draycos then quickly examined the condition of his body. He was sore from the fall, and there were some nicks and scratches on his body, but he seemed to be fine, otherwise. Draycos gingerly touched the back of his head, where a huge bump had formed after getting hit hard twice. A sharp pain laced through his head. Sharply sucking in his breath, he curled up into a ball for a moment until the pain faded away. He then stood up and took in his surroundings once more.

Doesn’t look like I’ll find anyone alive down here. He pulled out his cellphone; it had somehow remained unharmed from the fall. Hopeful, Draycos powered it on, but his hopes quickly came crashing down when he realized he had no reception. There’s probably too much concrete above me to get a signal. He looked up violently as a sudden thought raced across his mind. ​But what happened to Iris?!​ He was directly at the bottom of the ladder shaft, so he tried to look straight up the shaft. Unfortunately, there was hardly any light; the lights in the shaft weren’t working, and he could barely make out smoke at the top of the shaft that was blocking out the sunlight.

“Iris?!” he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth as he called up the ladder. “Are you there?!”

There was no response. Determined to find her, Draycos grabbed one of the ladder rungs and started to slowly climb up, periodically calling Iris’s name. The ladder seemed to have come loose from the wall somewhat, so if he hurried, it would probably come off completely and he’d have no way to get back to the top.

After a few minutes of climbing, Draycos finally reached the top and pulled himself out of the shaft. He caught his breath and then stood up to look at the city he had called home.

It was a complete disaster. Fires were smoldering everywhere, and there wasn’t a building intact anywhere; he could see the entirety of Atlantis City sprawled out before him between the smoke.

Staring at his surroundings, Draycos took a step forward. He almost lost his footing as he stepped into something wet and his foot came out from under him. Catching himself, Draycos regained his balance before lifting his foot to examine what he stepped in. The sole of his shoe was completely red. Sweating, Draycos looked down and saw that he’d stepped in a pool of blood. And as he took a closer look around him, he could see them.

Corpses. Hundreds of thousands of now-lifeless corpses were scattered all around him, the blood from them staining the streets and rubble. Draycos collapsed to his knees and vomited. He couldn’t stand the sight of blood other than his own; this was just brutal.

What the hell is going on?!​ Draycos wondered as he wiped the vomit off his lips. ​Was this a terrorist attack or something?! He took another look at his surroundings and vomited again, only this time there was nothing in his stomach, so only hot bile came up instead.

This is insane! Who would do something like this?! He looked up and took a deep breath.

“IRIS?!?!?!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “IRIS?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! SAY SOMETHING! JUST DO SOMETHING TO LET ME KNOW YOU”RE ALRIGHT!”

The only thing that answered Draycos were his own echoes.

“ANYONE?!” Draycos continued to yell. “IS THERE ANYONE OUT HERE AT ALL?!”

Once again, only echoes were heard by Draycos’ ears.

No way. Draycos’s mind went blank as his body went limp. ​Is there really no one else out here? Am I the only one that made it through the bombing?

Just then, his ears picked up on the sounds of footsteps close by. There were a lot of them. Draycos looked in the direction where it was coming from, hoping it was a search and rescue team, but the figures that emerged from the smoke were just the opposite.

There were about a dozen or so people that emerged from the smoke, decked out head to toe in black tactical gear, their faces covered with masks. They all were carrying very deadly-looking semi-automatic guns.

Draycos instantly knew that these guys were part of the group responsible for the massacre before him. An unbelievably strong feeling of hatred welled up inside him as he stared daggers at the men.

“What the hell?” one of the attackers said. “We actually have a survivor here! Damn lucky brat.”

“He probably hid in that, Sarge,” another one of them spoke, pointing to the ladder shaft with the muzzle of his gun. “Pretty quick thinking on the kid’s part; I’ll give him that.”

“Doesn’t matter,” the first one said in a gruff voice. He slung the gun off his shoulder and aimed at Draycos. “He’ll just be another casualty in a moment.”

“Was it you?” Draycos almost whispered. The sarge lowered his weapon a bit. “Did you do this to the city?”

“Yeah, we did,” the sarge replied, raising his gun till it rested on his shoulder as he took a confident stance. “What’s it matter to you?”

“What’s it matter?!” Draycos echoed, enraged. “Why the hell would you ask suck an idiotic question?! And why the hell would you do this, anyways?!”

“Just following orders, kid,” the sarge answered, taking aim at Draycos once more. “Just shut up and become a nice, quiet corpse once I shoot you.”

“Why, you--!” Draycos started. With a bang, the gun went off.

Just then, the ground shook violently. His aim thrown off, the sarge’s bullet hit the ground way off to Draycos’ right as all the men in black lost their footing. Draycos was flung backward by the force of the shaking, stopping just short of the ladder shaft.

“Why’s the ground shaking so much?!” The sarge yelled. “Someone give me an answer!”

“A-Atlantis City must be breaking apart, sarge!” One of his men cried out.

“The supports must’ve been destroyed during the bombing!” another cried. “If we don’t get out of here now, we’ll end up taking a swim!”

“Damn it!” the sarge cursed. He turned his back to Draycos, who was struggling to get back on his feet. “Let’s get out of here before this place comes apart!” With that, the men began to run away.

“W-wait, you bastards!” Draycos cried out, reaching out with his hand as he stood up once more. “Where the hell do you think--?!”

At that moment, there was another violent shaking, and Draycos lost his balance and fell into the ladder shaft.

Damn, I guess this is really it.​ He closed his eyes, waiting for the moment when he’d hit the ground and splatter. ​I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you safe, Iris. I hope you’ll forgive me when I get there.

After a few more seconds, Draycos opened his eyes again. ​I should’ve hit the bottom by now. What’s going on?

At that point, his head hit a piece of rubble sticking out from the wall, and he lost consciousness as he continued to fall into a bright blue light that came from nowhere.

?:??

Location: ???

Somewhere, in an oversized castle sitting on unfamiliar lands, a loud commotion roused its residents from the depths of sleep. Large winged creatures flew in and out of large openings placed all over the outer walls of the castle.

“Find that thief and bring him to me at once!” A loud voice ordered. “We cannot allow the treasure of our kind to be stolen away! Retrieve the Orb of the First King at any costs!”

“Sir, yes sir!” the response came. One creature flew out of the castle and over the courtyard walls as it continued to search for anything suspicious. The moon came out from behind the clouds, illuminating the creature. It was a massive, dark grey humanoid dragon. Its scales glittered in the weak moonlight as its head swung side to side.

“How in the world did someone manage to break into the vault and steal the Orb?” it muttered as it continued to search the ground with its sky-blue eyes. Suddenly, out of the corner of its eye, the dragon spotted something shifting around in the darkness. A small, human-like figure was running away from the direction of the castle, fleeing in a hurry. Its appearance was hidden beneath a black coat that covered it from head to toe.

“Stop right there!” the dragon roared, flapping its wings as it tried to catch up to the figure. The figure began moving at a faster speed. “Stop, I said!”

At that moment, the dragon suddenly heard a loud whistling sound. Cautiously, it came to a stop and warily took in its surroundings, flapping its wings to maintain its altitude. The sound only continued to grow louder and louder. Realizing that the sound was coming from above, the dragon lifted its head to see what appeared to be a meteorite falling from the sky. The meteorite, ablaze in blue flames, was heading straight at the dragon.

“Wah?!” the dragon cried, narrowly avoiding the meteorite as it flew past him. The dragon looked back to spot the figure it had been chasing, but the creature had disappeared.

Damn​. ​I lost sight of him!​ The dragon turned back as the meteorite crashed into the ground with a loud ​bang.​ “I better see what this is about,” it growled as it flew down to the impact site. It landed on the edge of the crater and folded its wings up against its back. The smoke from the impact was too thick to see through, but after a moment, a breeze picked up and started dispersing the smoke. After the smoke was gone, the dragon was visibly shocked to see what laid at the bottom of the crater.

A young male human with spiky, black hair laid unconscious in the crater. He only wore some ragged blue pants, and his body was covered in burns and scratches. A crystal pendant hung around his neck, twinkling slightly in the starlight.

Why the hell is there a human falling from the sky?