Blood Horizon: A New Beginning

It was a pitch black night, abnormally dark even. Not a single light could be seen in the massive city but if one looked closely it was possible to see a thick red mist layering the streets. The whole city reeked of a bloody smell because of that mist. This night may have been terribly dark but it was nowhere near quiet. Unnatural growls could be heard at every corner of the city. From time to time tyrannical roars sounded out, and their owners all seemed to be heading towards the same place at high speed. Somewhere near the center of the city there was large fenced off compound. Sticking out like a sore thumb among all the torn and dilapidated residential houses around it was a giant highrise tower. Seemingly in much better condition than most other places in the city although still quite run down and old. At the top floor of this tower was a single young man dressed in tattered black pants and a thick leather jacket, on his back was a large grey backpack. Seemingly very stressed and almost panicky the man was running through a long dimly lit hallway at high speed, at the end of the

hallway was a large double wide black metal door connected to a strange looking screen.

The man abruptly stopped in front of the door almost losing his balance and hurriedly threw off his backpack. He zipped open the bag shoved his hands in and drew out a metallic card. Engraved on the card were tons of thin lines and at one corner were some numbers on the other side of the card was an old sticky note with some sort of symbols and numbers scrawled onto it.

The man stood in front of the strange screen and pressed his shaking palm onto the screen, as soon as his palm touched the screen it blinked to life. On the screen were multiple symbols. All the symbols on the note could be seen on the screen along with many more unknown symbols. The man looked at the sticky notes and started touching the symbols on the screen in the order written on the note. When he tapped the last symbol a low mechanical voice sounded from the screen along with the door sliding into the wall. The voice said "Access granted, welcome Professor 9". The man laughed nervously and picked up his backpack and strode through the door. As soon as he strode through the door silently slid back into place. He was now standing in a medium sized well lit laboratory equipped with some strange devices he did not recognise. At the center of the lab was a silvery metal pedestal with a broken glass case on top. Inside the glass case was a softly glowing white orb. The man walked straight towards the orb as if in a trance he reached through the glass case and took up the orb. For a few seconds he just stood there staring at the orb. Suddenly tears started sliding down his face as his eyes filled with resolution he muttered "Mark..... Kyle.... Sam..... I guess I'll see you soon". He walked towards a small wooden door at the left side of the laboratory, above the door was a sign reading "Roof Access^/Break Room>". He opened the door and went through, the lights were off and there was no visible light switch close to the door. The man put down his backpack again and took out a solid metal rod before wearing his backpack again. He then knocked the rod on the wall twice and a beam of bright light came out of one the rods front. He shone the light around and located the wooden spiral staircase to the roof. He then briefly looked at the table in the break room and to his surprise he saw large glass plate filled with colorful plastic wrappers. He walked over to the table and shone the light on the plate. It looked like the plate had been filled with candy bars at some point, however there seemed to only be empty wrappers now. The man made a light sarcastic smile while looking at the mess when he spotted a seemingly unopened silver wrapper. He snatched the bar and to his instantaneous excitement it really was an unopened one. And to top it off it was one of those super long lasting ones that were still edible even now. However his excitement quickly faded when he recalled his current situation and why he was there. He smiled wrily put the candy bar in his pant pocket and strode towards the stairs. He stood it front of the old wooden staircase took a deep breath and started running up the stairs. When he was nearly at the top a few of the wooden steps broke. He almost fell right through but luckily he managed to slam his right hand onto the nearest intact step. He swiftly pulled himself up and started moving again. He soon arrived at the top and made his way onto the roof. Suddenly he felt a searing pain in his right hand. Sticking right through his hand was a long but thin piece of wood, he figured it was most likely from the staircase. He gritted his teeth, made one swift pull and it was out, he dropped it on the ground put his hands on his knees and took a deep breath to calm down. He then walked towards the edge of the roof and sat down with his feet over the edge. He reached into his pocket and took out the candy bar, unwrapped it and started eating it savoring every bite of the sweet chocolate bar. Filled with melancholy he looked at the horizon watching as the morning sun rose to color the sky. He sat there savoring a chocolate bar for about 15 minutes. When he finally finished the bar he took out the white orb which he had kept in in his left pocket. He observed the orb with a complicated expression before standing up and giving one last look at the horizon he interlocked his left and right hand and held the orb to his c.h.e.s.t with both hands and closed his eyes. He then tilted forward and let himself fall of the tall tower. Unbeknownst to him the orb seemed to react to his blood leaking from his right hand. As he fell through the air at high speed the white orb suddenly flashed a brilliant white light and disappeared. He didnt notice that however as he was just waiting for his impending doom listening to the air whistle past him along with the guttural growls from the creatures below. Finally he landed and then..... there was nothing.