Waaaiiit!" Pash screamed as his body vanished into a whirl of light.
The room fell silent. Only Alistair remained, his eyes fixed on the now-empty space where Pash had stood.
Swish.
A faint ripple of air stirred behind him. From the shadows, a man appeared — cloaked in loose, monk-like robes that whispered with the movement. His presence felt neither sudden nor loud, but rather inevitable, as though the world had simply remembered he was there.
"Don't you think your actions are a bit rash?" the hooded figure asked, voice calm and low, face hidden within the folds of his hood.
"Oh, you're here," Alistair replied without surprise, his tone as composed as ever.
"I don't think so," he continued, glancing towards the fading shimmer of the teleportation field. "They've been stagnant for too long. I need to hasten them. And you—" he turned, adjusting his cuff "—get ready for the second phase of their training."
Without another word, Alistair left the chamber. The echo of his boots faded down the metallic corridor, leaving only the cloaked man behind.
The air thickened with silence.
Haa...
The man sighed softly, raising one hand. In the dim light, his fingers glimmered faintly — the skin seemed half-transformed, as though caught between human and something else. He lowered it again, hiding it within his sleeve.
"Would the world have been better off if you all had stayed dead?" he murmured, voice weighed with centuries.
For a moment, he lingered, still as stone — and then, as silently as he came, vanished into thin air. The room was empty once more.
---
•••
In a deserted wasteland, somewhere far from civilisation—
"HELLO! Can anybody hear me?"
Pash's voice cracked across the still air, bouncing off crumbling walls. He looked utterly defeated, his eyes dull, clothes already coated with dust.
He had been walking for what felt like hours — maybe more — and still, not a single soul in sight. Around him, the remnants of a long-dead city stretched on forever: collapsed towers, rusted cars, and sun-bleached shop signs hanging by a single hinge. The silence was almost loud.
"It's always the same, isn't it?" he muttered bitterly. "'Pash, you're special,' they said. 'Pash, you're destined to save the world, they said.'" He threw his arms in the air. "And what do they do? Dump me in the middle of some godforsaken wasteland!"
With a growl, he kicked what looked like an old soda can.
Clang!
Except... it wasn't a can. It was a pipe, half buried in the ground. Pain shot up his leg.
"Arrghhh!" he howled, hopping on one foot like a toddler getting jabbed with a needle. "Brilliant! Just brilliant!"
A faint scuffle echoed nearby. Pash froze. Two rats peeked from a broken window, watching him. He could swear they were laughing.
"Oh, don't you dare," he muttered darkly.
Then—
Tink… tink… tink.
Metal striking brick. Rhythmic. Deliberate.
Pash's ears twitched.
"It's coming from that building," he whispered, pointing at what seemed to be an abandoned shopping mall — at least eight storeys high, its glass walls shattered and vines creeping over the edges.
Heart pounding, he crept towards the sound, slipping through the half-collapsed doorway. Each step echoed eerily in the empty space.
Alright, Pash. Don't die. Just… don't die.
The sound was coming from above.
He took the stairwell, two steps at a time, until finally—
Creeeeak.
He pushed open the rooftop door.
There, perched on the edge like it was the most natural thing in the world, sat a man. Loose jacket fluttering in the breeze, scabbard hanging lazily from his waist, and a leaf stalk balanced in his mouth. He looked like the kind of person who didn't exist in reality — half-here, half-elsewhere. Like that one pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean who always looked suspiciously too cool to die.
"Took you long enough," the man said without turning, his legs dangling casually over the edge. The shopping mall towered nearly forty metres above ground, but he seemed utterly unbothered by the height.
"Uh… who are you?" Pash asked, blinking. "And why are you just—sitting here?"
"Same reason as you," the man replied, eyes still on the sky. "Stranded."
He sighed. "Those Aurora scum…"
Pash frowned. "Wait—where are we, exactly?"
The man turned slightly, smirking under the setting sun. "This here, boy, is Africa. Welcome..... to Kenya." He gestured grandly towards the golden horizon.
Pash followed his gaze. The sun hung low, casting molten light over the landscape. The air shimmered faintly — warm, but thin. The clouds above felt close, as if the earth sat higher than it should. The land stretched flat and open, scattered with the skeletons of old buildings and the distant outline of a mountain ridge.
Feels like the world's been emptied out and left to bake in the sun…
"Kenya," he repeated under his breath. The word felt strange on his tongue.
The cities of the old world were long gone, swallowed by chaos. What remained were the twenty-six new nations — and beyond them, the wild zones. Places like this.
"How the hell did we get here all of a sudden?"
Pash muttered, still confused. "
The man chuckled.
"You do ask a lot of questions, kid. Seems like you don't remember me?"
"Huh? Should I?" Pash frowned, digging through his memory. Nope. Nothing.
"I thought as much." The man rose smoothly, resting his scabbard on his shoulder. "Name's Tobi. I'm the guy who whooped your arse when you had that little… identity crisis."
Pash blinked. "That happened?"
Tobi smirked. "You really don't remember, huh?"
Well, that's convenient, Pash thought. Lose consciousness once, and suddenly I've got someone who says he knows me, maybe the next time it'll be a child.
Tobi stretched lazily. "It'll be dark soon. We need shelter. Pick the second tallest building — gives a good vantage point but not too much space for unwanted guests."
"Why not the biggest one?" Pash asked.
"Because the biggest ones are full of things with claws, fangs, and no table manners," Tobi said matter-of-factly.
He crouched. "Let's move."
Before Pash could reply, Tobi leapt — clearing the ten-metre gap between rooftops with the grace of a cat.
"Huh?!"
Tobi landed on the next building and turned, hands in pockets. "Well? What are you waiting for?"
"Hey! Not everyone's a bloody ninja, you know!" Pash shouted back.
Tobi shrugged. "Then improvise."
"You've got to be kidding me…"
"Don't worry," Tobi called, already jumping again. "If you die, I'll light a candle for you."
"Heyyy! You bastard, don't leave me!"
But Tobi was already gone, hopping from building to building, vanishing into the dusk.
Pash sighed. "Right. Fantastic. Alone in apocalypse-Kenya. Brilliant."
He descended the stairwell and stepped into the streets below. The air was still and dry, carrying only the whisper of wind across cracked asphalt. Shadows lengthened as the sun sank behind the horizon. Every sound — every rustle — made his heart skip.
Okay, Pash. Nothing's going to eat you. Probably.
The target building loomed about a mile away, tall but narrow — maybe twenty storeys at most. Getting there, however, felt like crossing a battlefield blindfolded.
By the time he reached the entrance, his shirt clung to his back with sweat. He glanced at the dead lift doors and groaned.
"Of course. No power. Perfect."
So he took the stairs.
And he climbed.
And climbed.
And climbed some more.
By the time he dragged himself onto the rooftop, he looked half-dead, not because he was tired but because of the fear that came from the unknown.
"Puff… huff… puff…"
Tobi glanced over, unimpressed. "Huh. So you did make it."
Pash collapsed to the floor. "You thought I'd die, didn't you? Well, joke's on you, old man."
"Yeah, yeah." Tobi stretched and plopped down by a small fire he'd already lit. "Welcome to survival 101. Lesson one—" he held up something furry and limp "—cook me a meal."
Pash stared. "Is that a rabbit?"
Tobi grinned. "Dinner."
Pash groaned and flopped back against the concrete, staring at the orange sky fading to purple.
*******