Chapter 1 Goodbye...
"All citizens are hereby ordered to go to the nearby bunker or their death is guaranteed. ETA of missile impact is 37 minutes. May we all survive to see the daylight."
Screech….
A depressed voice spoke through the loudspeakers installed all across the country before the entire thing suddenly went silent.
What followed was the sound of a person panting.
For someone who had been running for five hours, the news about nukes being launched was enough to crush their soul.
One such person was a seventeen-year boy standing under the cloudy sky while listening to the latest radio broadcast on his phone.
After hearing the broadcast, a vein popped in his forehead. He had been running for hours only to hear about even more despair.
CRASH!
Something hit the ground with full force followed by a crackling sound. Lying on the snow-covered road, was a mobile phone with cracks running across its screen.
Jason stared at the broken phone for a few seconds before closing his eyes.
Planting his hand firmly against the remaining frame of a broken house, Jason rested his body against it. He wasn't in a much better condition than the remains of the house.
Not only had he run out of drinking water a while back, but also his last way of getting any new information was with the smashed screen of his mobile.
But he couldn't care less about it
He had visited two cities, both of which had been infested by battalions of invading soldiers armed with machine guns, missile launchers, tanks, and various other equipment that he had only seen in movies.
Remembering the screams he had heard, he started rubbing his temples.
A war didn't care about citizens, citizens like him, especially those who couldn't fend for themselves.
'If only all of us could have escaped…' clenching his fist, he once again started moving.
The city he was in had been burned down to ashes due to bombardment. What used to be a flourishing peaceful city was now in ruins.
The reason?
Money and greed.
'I wonder whose idea it was to give the button capable of destroying the world in the hands of hypocrites and thinking that we will be fine. I will personally dig that person's grave and spit on his body.'
He suddenly stepped onto a frozen puddle as he heard a crushing sound below his feet. As he lifted his feet, his face reflected back in the cracked puddle.
His hair was excessively ruffled, his face had a bruise on the right and his left eye was swollen.
"Go ahead and live Jason, live for me, live for those who couldn't."
Every time he heard those words, he felt like he'd just been punched in the gut for it was the last thing he remembered.
Jason turned his gaze away from the puddle before making his way to the city center.
If his memory didn't betray him, there would be a bomb bunker under the city hall. Hopefully, he could get accepted as a refugee.
'Just a few more steps and I can rest. Just a few more steps and I can finally stop for the time being. Just a few more steps and I…'
Jason managed to drag his body along the entire pathway.
Snow had started falling again as he reached the center of the city.
Unfortunately, another nightmare stood right in front of him.
"Everybody out! I don't care if you are a child, woman, or elderly. I want every single person out of this bunker!" The voice of a soldier echoed through the streets.
Standing about 250 meters away from Jason was an entire squadron of soldiers composed of thirty men armed to the teeth.
A metal door suddenly opened nearby the soldiers, revealing the entrance to the underground bunker.
No sooner did a couple of soldiers fire warning shots in the air than the civilians started appearing out of the bunker.
The soldiers moved around the citizens and surrounded them in a circle.
The terrified citizens could only cower in front of the guns and intimidating soldiers.
There were about a hundred humans, terrified to see the end of a gun pointed at their faces.
Jason had already seen such a scene happening twice with the outcomes have been unfavorable for the citizens.
Some soldiers let the citizens do whatever they wanted causing the former to be banished from their country.
Then, there were those who enjoyed what was happening. The ones who were 'loyal' to their country.
Based on that, he could almost predict what was going to happen now.
'At this point, I will be happy if the nuke dropped.' He had already lost everything dear to him and couldn't care less if the world went down.
He wished for it to happen as it would remove a large portion of human filth, though innocents would die as well.
'I need a thorough cleansing of my mindset I guess.'
"Now, let's see…" The same soldier who had spoken earlier started eyeing the gathered civilians. Seeing his shenanigans Jason understood his aim.
A sigh escaped his mouth as he saw the soldier and his buddies advancing toward a few females.
He could just turn around and run away. There were a total of five cities that had the highest and only chances of surviving the nuke.
Their bunkers were twice as deep as compared to other cities and had more food stored up.
However, Jason couldn't be bothered with that anymore. He would rather use his life to save the innocence of a few people than run away and live a half-committed life.
'Guess my heart is too emotional for my own good.' Jason rummaged around the pocket of his jacket before taking out a flash grenade.
He had managed to find it in the last city he had been in the same city where he lost everything he ever held dear.
Looking at the soldiers, he wondered whether a flash grenade would be enough to distract them.
Even if he managed to distract them, there was nowhere left for him to run.
'The chances of success for me have never been high since the moment I got dumped at the doorstep of an orphanage. Here goes my attempt at doing something for once.'
Despite wanting to help, Jason actually wanted to enter the bunker.
It was his only chance at survival and he knew that not trying to enter it would cause him to regret the decision for the rest of his life.
'I don't have much time.' With that thought in mind, Jason started making his way forward while holding the grenade behind his back.
Slowly crouching forward he covered more than half the distance before coming in the point-blank range of the soldiers.
"Captain, someone is approaching." A timid soldier spoke up, causing the captain who had given the orders to stare at Jason.
The distance between him and the soldiers had been narrowed down to 45 meters. Just a bit further and he would be able to execute his plan
"Raise your hands in the air this instant or we will shoot you!" The captain spoke through the loudspeaker seeing Jason's hands hidden behind his back which could be carrying a weapon.
In times of war, even kids couldn't be trusted since anyone could turn out to be an enemy.
Realizing that he had gotten as far as he could, and that was the end of the line, Jason unpinned the grenade and started counting the seconds.
After taking a deep breath, Jason slowly raised his hands and suddenly threw the grenade.
"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" the captain shouted but the soldiers had no time to react as the explosion happened right in front of their faces.
AAAHHHHHH!
"Get into formation!" The captain shouted but forgot the fact that the flashbang had caused them to be temporarily deaf too.
Jason momentarily wondered how he had ended up being a captain. Perhaps by using money?
Jason immediately started running towards the bunker opening and the citizens who were being held hostage followed him as they had
A ringing sensation echoed in his ears alongside the soldiers since both of them had taken the full attack of the flash.
Jason was able to prevent himself from becoming blind by covering his eyes with his arms.
Although he armed himself with the knife he had also picked up on his way here, he had never used a knife as a weapon before.
His experience was limited to what he had imagined in his chunni mind.
Jason's heart was palpitating. He was solely running on adrenaline.
'Just a tiny bit more…' He thought while staring at the opening barely a few meters away from him.
At the same time, a strange feeling passed through his body. Be it intuition or something else, Jason realized that he was not going to make it.
The next second, a banging sound echoed through the air. Jason's ears were still deaf from the grenade so he wasn't able to hear it.
That was why he never had any idea that a bullet hit his right leg until the pain spread through his body.
He immediately fell to the ground but no sound escaped his mouth.
It was as though he wanted to scream but his vocal cords refused to produce any sound. He looked at the last civilian entering the bunker and holding the door.
Many civilians had fallen during the chaos but a good majority of 90% had made it to the bunker.
The man's eyes were terrified as he looked at Jason's body lying on the ground, and then at the blood covering the snow.
"Go on." Jason signaled as the man closed the bunker's door once and for all.
This meant that Jason and the soldiers were sealed outside the bunker with no way of escaping.
Turning around, Jason could see the soldiers had regained their sight though a few of them had experienced third-degree burns on their faces.
Many eyes turned towards his body as they started advancing towards him, the desire of beating him blue clearly visible on their face.
Jason relaxed his head as he gazed at the starless sky. Dark clouds were covering the entire sky as the snow was falling thus hiding the stars beyond it.
'Now, all I need is a bullet to the heart or a truck climbing over my body. Should be enough for reincarnating into another world.'
A smile appeared on Jason's face as he thought of reincarnation.
Although he had dreamt of it many times, he hoped his wish might get fulfilled this time.
Minutes passed by in this manner however, no-hit landed on Jason's body. The confusion caused him to sit up with a pained expression as he saw the soldiers banging on the door of the bunker.
"Open the door and let us in! WE DON'T WANT TO DIE!" The captain shouted while banging continuously.
Jason had no idea why they were acting this way as the nuke was about to be deployed after a few hours. Tha-that was unless…
"I guess we will see what is going to happen now," Jason murmured and closed his eyes.
Those were his last words before his entire country exploded under the power of a 1000 megaton nuke. The entire land got wiped out alongside billions of lives.
Only five bunkers survived the doom, one of them being the one Jason had saved. His sacrifice wasn't in vain as he would come to be known as one of the few civilian heroes of the war.
Little did he know that it would help him a lot in the future.
On the same day, millions of white balls floated over the country. No human could look at these balls as they slowly flew away.
---
Somewhere in a bar...
A white man sipping wine suddenly felt a huge tide of energy coming from Earth. He put the glass down and closed his eyes to focus. His calm and collected expression suddenly turned to one that displayed interest.
"Millions of souls..." He muttered while standing up. "Let's see how many of you can find a good world to live in."