The Lost Chronicles Of Pangea: Apocalypse

Have you ever seen an ant standing before a golf ball, the sheer disparity of size and mass would be daunting. Standing in front of the lizard who only had half its body exposed from the rubble of Ahmed's ruined house, David really felt like he was an ant standing before the world itself where almost everything was bigger than him. The size of its head alone could be compared to a fuel truck, it was not as big as the bat David had seen when he first woke up, but their sizes were relatively the same. Its skin was the same yellow as Ahmed's, it even had the same green reptilian eyes with a lot of fury steeped in it.

It looked at David as if David had eaten its mother or child, but standing in front of this huge monster David could somehow not even muster an ounce of fear. The only emotion within him apart from the deep emptiness he felt was anger and an intense hate for the reptile in front of him. Pangea has existed long enough in its modern age to be able to catalog and register every type of ability possible. So David was able to recognize the fact that this lizard had used a parasite to control and slowly take over Ahmed's body.

The abilities with mental control almost usually fell under the banner of mental evolutions, with some of them being registered as magical. Evolved plant life usually used spores or seeds to control, while most biological life forms with a brain used parasites. A select few among them could use bacteria, viruses, and even hypnosis. Ahmed was strong to have lasted this long, but David wished he didn't. Being forced to kill someone you once knew and actually cared about was one of the worst feeling in the world, David felt as if he had lost something and this lizard in front of him was to blame.

But angry as he was David was not a stupid person. He had no way to beat this thing at the moment because he was sure it would take a colossal amount of bullets to bring it down. Half of its body seemed to be stuck within the house, so it was incapable of actually reaching David. But David knew some lizards had really long tongues, and with evolution involved, there was no telling what kind of fearsome abilities the stupid thing had. So David decided to go for a preemptive strike. Just running away would not have worked because David would have left his back exposed to the lizard. So he raised his gun and aimed at its eyes. Then he squeezed the trigger. Unlike the beast that was laying dead a few paces away, the lizard did not have any sort of natural defensive capabilities. Its skin could be penetrated easily which made things a little easier for him.

David is a good shooter, but not a great one. He still had a long way to before he could be considered an expert marksman. Due to the erratic movements of the lizard David was not able to reach his target of an eye, but the bullets were enough to clip the top of its nostrils leaving it with a disproportionate nose and a rather ugly wound. Not to mention quite a few of the bullets went into its face and caused enough damage to have the lizard roar in pain as it rapidly retreated and drew its body back into the shadows of the ruined house.

Its skin could be penetrated, but it was actually quite thick. That or the tissue beneath its skin was a whole lot tougher than expected. From the shadows of the house David could see the lizard glaring hatefully at him. Its green eyes were the only thing that could be seen while its painful growls and breathing rent the silence in the air.

David would have chucked a few grenades to try and finish the lizard if not for a number of problems. First it would be extremely loud and would probably attract a whole deal of monsters around the immediate vicinity, two he was not sure a single grenade would have been enough to finish the job, and three he actually didn't have some on him. He didn't think he would need it, not to mention the amount of attention it would probably draw to himself due to its ridiculously loud noise.(I mean come on, they have flying cars and spacesh.i.p.s, couldn't the people of Pangea have invented a grenade that explodes silently.) David took a long hard look at the lizard his eyes both filled with a promise of how they would see each other again. And when that time came, only one of them would be left standing or alive. David took one last look at Ahmed's pitiful corpse and said to him.

"May the stars be with you on your journey back into the light of the universe's embrace. Rest well Ahmed."

And then he turned and left. As he drove away on his bicycle some part of him admonished him for not trying to give Ahmed a proper burial, some other part told him he was to impulsive and there could have been a way to save Ahmed. But David knew standing around in one place for too long was stupid. With how the world now was you would only be making yourself a target.

But he still felt the guilt, long after he had left the estate and the commercial district could be seen in the distance David was still hanging on to the guilt. It was not as if he wanted it, but he could not get rid of this terrible feeling. He knew it was not his fault, but he still killed a person, and not just anybody it was someone he had known from childhood. Due to his amicability Ahmed could be considered to have been a family friend to a lot of people in the estate. There were people who did not like him, but they fell in the minority and their opinion couldn't count for much. Ahmed had his flaws, really bad ones in fact, but he was not a bad person. He never deserved this but in the end he was left with no choice. Fate and a bunch of misguided kids chose this for him.

And that's when it clicked, Ahmed had said his brother was among the group of people who had left him wide open and vulnerable for a creepy lizard to take over his brain. Mark was the resident bad boy of the area, but he was also known to be a somewhat polite kid who respected his elders, did good deeds, had the s.e.xiest girls as girlfriends. Was the apple of their fathers eye due to how tough he was, all round good points except for the fact that he was now involved in a murder and was sleeping with his mother. (It was a double crime of murder and mother.) David paused a bit and let a rare smile cross his face, but he quickly wiped it off.

Surviving was one thing, but he also needed a goal. He could put finding his family and making sure they were all okay as a goal, but after that what next. He resolutely looked ahead as he passed the rubble of a burnt gas station and made a decision for his future. It was the only sense of peace he could get for himself and the only thing he could do to pay penance for killing Ahmed. He would chase and track down every member of that group, if they were alive and bring them to justice started with his brother. But that was mainly because his brother was the only person he knew was there, he would have to depend on the bastard to track down the rest of those sc.u.ms.

Unlike what he had expected the commercial district was not abandoned. In fact it was heavily fortified as cars were stacked on top of each other to form a barricade. David gave a breath of relief at the thought of more survivors and pedaled faster in anticipation of meeting more people. He was only about twenty feet away from the twelve feet tall barricade when a gun shot rang out close to him. He quickly braked as he raised his gun to aim at the direction the gun sounded from, however it seemed whoever shot the gun was behind the barricade so essentially David was pointing at nothing.

"Who are you and where are you from?" David raised his eyebrows in confusion. Victoria island was really large, it would take a person at least four days of walking without rest to get from one end of the island to the other, so he was not surprised the person who was asking the question had no idea who he was, but to ask him where he was from seriously. Before David could answer he heard somebody else whispering to the person who asked the question.

"And what do you want?"

David was beginning to think that this guy was either really stupid, or really drunk. But he had no time to nitpick about the intricacies of being a guard. Standing here was already dangerous enough so it would be better for him to answer this guys and get the f.u.c.k out of here.

"My name is David Iye, I'm coming from south side estates, and I'm here to get some supplies and a few power cells for my bike." There was silence for a few moments, and then there was more whisperings before the guy asked another question.

"Wait a minute aren't you brothers with Mark the king?"

David wanted to die, for the longest time, which was basically all of his life he had never been known as David to a lot of people except his friends, instead he was known as David the younger step brother of Mark the king. He hated that he had to live in the shadow of his brother, and this was something not limited to only Pangea, it also happened on earth. It was as if he was cursed to be overshadowed by his jackass of a brother in both worlds.

"Yes that's me." David replied with a somber tone.

"Wow I can't believe your brother and mother left the island without you. Its been almost two weeks since they left, are you seriously that unloved."

The person who was asking the question seemed to really have a mouth on him, not to mention that mouth had absolutely no filter. If David was not so angry and about to unload a barrage of insults on this disrespectful idiot, he would have realized that his brother and mother had already left the island, and they have been gone for two weeks.

"You know what just forget it, I don't rally care about your families drama. You rich people are so complicated."

David was forced to swallow all of the animosity and insults he had been prepared to dish out with great prejudice. In between two cars that served as the base of the wall that made up the barricade, there was three meter tunnel precariously made by properly arranging the cars. The barricade apart from being twelve feet tall was actually three meters thick, at least it was strong enough to withstand a lot of damage.

But as David wheeled his bicycle through the metal tunnel he wondered how it was possible that he was unable to notice the tunnel until that guy said he could pass through. If he had to hazard a guess he would say it was cloaked or something. But technology like that would not be found on a place like Victoria island, not to mention abilities that could alter reality like that was extremely rare, unless of course it was a magic based ability or spell, then it would be possible on an even larger and grander scale than this.

As soon as David came out of the tunnel he was faced with a five foot tall sturdily built man. the man had a body that was packed with muscles, that would have been really intimidating if not for his short height. His skin seemed to have been burnt orange by the sun giving him an inaccurate tan because he was wearing shots, and David could see his legs were milky pale while the entire top of his body was actually orange. Black people never had to worry about the danger of the sun except if they were extremely fair. So all David had to show for his time under the sun was a drenched shirt, this unfortunate man however seemed to have been roasted. He was middle aged and bald, but the most eye catching feature about him was the wooden staff he held in his hand. The staff was made from really polished brown wood with four metal bands evenly space around it. There were arcane symbols or runes on the metal bands and on the body of the staff. At the top of the staff was an egg size red crystal that was pulsing according to the breathing pattern of the man.

The staff proved David's earlier theory about magic being used to hide the passage through the barricade. This guy was a wizard, and a rather accomplished one at that. Though his current look did not portray the look of a wizard. He was wearing beach shots and a t-shirt that was really stretched over his muscled frame that David feared that any sudden movements would see that poor shirt ripped to pieces on his body.

"Welcome David brother of Mark. The auto and power store can be found two streets away, just take a right at the next intersection. For food you have to go to the mall, but you have to have something worthwhile to trade. That gun would probably fetch you a huge amount of food. And you better stock up on what you need. The entire island would be under water in approximately a week give or take a few days. Much of the south and eastern part of the island have been submerged. So we have decided to leave in three days, so you won't find much people here since most of them have left hoping to try their luck in the wild. So which means a lot of the materials left would actually be free so take as much as you can carry and get the hell of this island. Thank you for coming."

David was at loss for words. Even in the few seconds that he spent foolishly looking at the person who just finished talking David could not come up with any suitable thing to say. Was he a customer care representative or something, or was he an ad android. Those things were made for the purpose of advertising products on the streets.

"uh….okay. Bye bye."

And then David rode his bicycle as fast as he could away from that guy. It was not as if he was afraid of him or anything, but the guy gave off all the wrong kind of vibes and the most predominant one could only by summed up as creepy, for the whole of the exchange the bald wizard with a heavily muscled body said nothing but just continued to stare ahead.

Following the customer care guard's directions would have been stupid, but David was only following his directions because he lived on this island. Creepy boy with a mouth that lacks a filter should not have bothered giving directions to David, even if they were the right ones.

The power store was located very close to the mall, from where he was standing David could see a lot of people there. The people were not as much as you would see in it's best days, before the whole world went to shit or before the island decided sinking was the only way to keep itself safe. The crowd there was really sparse, but they could still be considered a lot. As for the auto and power store next to it, it was completely devoid of anybody and almost completely empty of any appliance, tools, or even cells. But David was in luck, the storage area of the auto store was broken into, and there was enough power cells there to last him a hundred years.

Unlike the old power cells, the new ones were smaller, had more power, and could actually be recharged for continuous use. The average life expectancy of this type of power cells was two years give or take a few months. But with the modification David made to the quad/hover bike it would be a miracle if that cell would live for up to six months. Without an equally modified power source the hover bike would drain power like it was a kitchen sink.

But there was no time for any more modification, Victoria island was going to be sleeping with the fishes in a week, and David would not be able to move around due to the estimated energy surge his body would be experiencing in the coming days. He would be cutting it close, but he would probably have enough time to get off the island then. Besides he had a hover bike.

With the problem of the power cells solved David took the time to catch his breath as he leaned his back across a rack of power tools. His injuries were not completely healed, and he had been exposed to one problem after another. David wiggled his right foot as he felt the loss of his big toe, but this was the best he could focus on right now because any other thing would just make him depressed.

His mother and brother had left this island for almost two weeks, then did this mean he was lying down on his bed, completely dead to the world for two whole weeks. It did not make much sense. His last memory as David of Pangea before he woke fragmented with memories of two lives were somewhat hazy at best. He knew he tried taking his life due to the shame and betrayal he felt from his mother and brother's affair, but that did not seem like the kind of thing he would do. Skinny and weak, unpopular and nerdy those were the words you could use to describe David. But he was also a resolute person, someone who had all his priorities straight and multiple plans for every situation. He loved life, he loved life a lot. And he hated his brother and was not at all close to his mother even though she was the one who birth him. Their relationship was sketchy and vague, but he still loved her, even as he loved the brother he hated. Because Mark was not always a douche bag. Like every cliché story every told about a broken home, David and Mark used to be best of friends. And then they grew up and things changed.

David felt lost, he had a perfect direction to follow in mind. He had a plan or at least the makings of a plan, but he felt so alone. So lost and so forgotten. He wondered if his father was looking for him, he wondered if his sister would cry and worry like she always did anytime he fell sick or was in a fight that left his weak frame bloody and badly bruised. If it was so, then where the hell were they, his crazy mother and brother abandoned him and his father and sister did not care enough to come find him on the six months that the entire world has gone to hell. Sure it would take almost two months on normal transports to get to the south eastern coast where Victoria island was located. But his father was a big shot hound for the government, getting a faster jet or flying car should not have been a problem. It was almost as if no one cared.

And now here he was trying to survive and find away to reach them, hoping they were okay. Even the two who betrayed him had not been spared of his worry. For as long as he could remember David has always been the one trying to reach them, the only one chasing their shadows. But what else could he do, they were family, you never choose your family. But it was up to you to choose how you much you loved them. And if there was anything David had in spades, it was love for his family.

David moved his head to the left as his gaze fell on a display case. His reflection was staring right back at him. David looked the same on both worlds, the bushy eyebrows, the slightly bulging eyes and the thick lips. The tribal marks on his face were still there, leaving a constant scar. Two one centimeters scars on each side of his face. The tribal marks remained, but their story changed. On earth it was giving to him by his grandfather, something about tradition and some other bullshit. The basic gist was that his dad had allowed an old man to scar the face of a six month old child with a red hot knife because it was tradition. Sometimes tradition s.u.c.k.e.d.

But on Pangea the story about his marks were completely different, here he had an accident when he was about one or two. It was the story he was told and for the life of him, no one ever told him the details about behind it. The only thing peculiar about it was that this mark was somehow caused by Ionite, so no amount of healing would have fixed back his face to perfection so he was left with those scars which had been an endless source of embarrassment for him as a kid, he was teased a lot about it.

David could not be considered handsome, but with his dark skin, tall frame and broad shoulders he would not be considered ugly either. David was skinny, but he had the makings of someone who would have a great body if he just paid a little more attention to himself. He filled out a bit after the last energy surge the regulator had to take care of.

Some would rate his looks at average or cute, his looks was something David of Pangea never really gave a shit about even when he was made fun of for it. David of earth however loved to look good right from the moment he was born. He never liked crowds, but he always wanted to have every eye in the room on him whenever he appears. It was always empowering and it gave him enough leeway to manipulate people any way he wanted. Humans like shiny things, and whether they hated you for it, or admired you. As long as you can get their attention then you have a thirty percent chance of gaining their soul.

David shook his head in confusion as he felt both his memories trying to fight for dominance over the other. It was disorienting at first, before everything calmed down. Who am I, was a question David needed to answer fast, but where would he be getting that answer from.

David rested a bit in the auto store before he left with a shopping cart attached to his bicycle. He had four different power cells in the cart as he made his way towards the mall. Even though each of those power cells had enough power to turn the entire auto store into a hole In the ground, it was not that much heavier than a fifteen inch long loaf of bread.

When he got to the mall everyone in it seemed to be in a hurry. But the mall had somehow become more than just a spot to get materials. What that customer care guard neglected to say when he gave directions to David was that one half of the mall had been turned into a sick bay of sorts. The other half could be compared to open air markets that the David from earth was quite used to in his country. David was doubtful that having sick and injured people close to where food was being sold was hygienic, but no one else seemed to care.

The people injured or sick had really bad luck. Some of them were grotesquely swollen, others were missing limbs, while some of them were growing extra appendages from their bodies. There was even someone who had tentacles coming out of his eye sockets. David had to fight the urge to vomit or run screaming like a little girl. He shuddered and then made his way to the biggest stall that was selling food. Behind the stall was a rather obese pale skinned man. He was so pale David wondered if he was an albino, if he was not then it was quite obvious this man's skin has never seen the sun In quite a number of years, if not ever.

"Good day and what can I do for you." He asked with a rather high pitched voice. The guy sounded like a seven year old girl, and when he spoke, the fat in his body jiggled as if they were disturbed by the sound waves from his speaking.

David did not recognize this guy, but that was to be expected, Victoria island was large enough to have thousands of people living on it with space to spare. It was highly improbable that he knew everyone.

"I need food and any other supplies for a long trip." David replied.

"You're preparing to leave with the rest of the people right?" he asked.

David raised his eyebrow in amus.e.m.e.nt and answered with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

"Well duh, if I don't leave with the rest what would I be doing. Starting a swim school for monsters?"

"I don't think that would be wise young man."

David was so shocked that his jaw was hanging open. What was wrong with everyone today. It was almost as if the only three people he has had a conversation with today were abnormal in some way. One was a dead man with his brain taken over by a lizard with mind control powers, the other was a guard whose mouth had no filter and behaved like a customer care representative, this guy here was just dumb, though it seemed to early to say. David shook his head as if doing so would bring him back to reality.

"Just show me what you have. Also any camping gears you have will be appreciated."

"You have to have something of equal value to exchange with the food and gear." The fat man replied.

David nodded his head and removed the assault rifle from his back. Every gun in his arsenal except for the sky wolf sniper rifle was a pair. He could afford to loose the assault rifle, and with the way this fat man was eyeing the gun, it would probably fetch a lot. David placed the gun on his counter and asked.

"How much can this get me?"

The man raised the gun as he inspected it, he hummed and grunted I'm a really disturbing fashion, but David thought he was a fake, until these words that came out of his mouth next.

"This is an antique Yizart 66 elephant series assault rifle, honestly this belongs in a museum or in an auction house where it would most definitely fetch a hefty sum. But in a fight it's not that useful. Though this one seems to be in good condition. I will give half a box of canned food, half a box of water, and some rusty old tent to seal the deal. So what do you say."

If David had not just used the gun to kill a monster almost two hours ago, he would have thought he was selling a defective gun. But David more than anyone else knew the value of the gun he was selling. Pangea had strict laws governing the use of weapons, so it was hard for any ordinary person not in the military, a mercenary, or in organizations to get their hands on guns. This fatty had sorely underlined the value of this gun, did this guy think that David was just a child who had no idea what he had just brought in. Granted David was actually quite impressed that this man could identify the 66 elephant. But not so impressed that he would let the guy cheat him.

"It seems you are not ready to do business sir, forgive me for wasting your time. I will take my gun somewhere else where they won't try to cheat me of a gun worth two hundred thousand credits."

The fat Man's eyes widened a bit before an extremely crooked smile appeared on his face. He looked incredibly shrewd at that moment which made David want nothing more than to get the hell away from him. Unfortunately this guy seemed to have the best wares out of everybody here.

"Ahh young man, no need to get angry. You know how the market works, that was just me putting your knowledge to the test. I can get you a better offer. How about two boxes of food, with one holding prime canned and properly preserved foods, while the other holds preserved meat of the best quality. All the animals might have grown to become more dangerous, but they also got more tasty. Also I have a standard camping gear, its not the best, in fact it's a little old, but it should serve your purposes. Water is included too." He finished making his offer with a wide smile on his face. David looked at him in silence for a few more moments before he nodded his head and said.

"I'll take it."

The fat man gave a sigh of relief as an even wider smile broke out on his face, David wondered how that was physically possible. Then the fat man went about gathering the stuff David asked for. While he was doing that, David was attracted by the sound of chittering below the counter. He leaned back and saw a cage with three tortoises chewing a hole through the metal grate that kept them contained.

David let an amused smile cross his face as he remembered a story from earth. In Nigeria his home country, the tortoise was actually thought to be the wisest creature there was. He was always depicted as cunning, smart, innovative, and had really strange magical powers, also he was a famed enthusiast of any good food. The three however looked a little different. The legs were narrower and the fingers and claws extended a bit from their body like lizards. Their shells were still the same round shape, but their color was complete different. It was blue with veins of red running in between the cracks.

Their head had traces of horns growing out of the ridge of their eyebrows, their mouth actually had really sharp teeth and quite strong too considering they were currently eating metal. Their eyes however were pitch black with a very tiny silver dot as a pupil. You would have to look closer if you wanted to notice it.

The fact that they were here and in a cage meant that they were mostly not that dangerous, even though he has had quite a terrible experience with cute animals already, an idea crossed his mind. And no matter how much he tried to talk himself out of it David could not resist.

There was bang as the fat man returned with his supplies, but before David handed the gun over to complete the transaction he asked.

"These tortoises, were did you get them from, and can you include them among the things you sold to me."

The fat man looked under the table for a second then looked back at David with a suspicious look, then look back at the tortoises again. This back and forth looking happened for another five seconds before he gave David an answer.

"All three were found close to the sea, at first we thought they were turtles since they were brought to me as eggs. You know we have ways of knowing this thing, but imagine the surprise we got when they hatched and turned out to be tortoises. They are actually evolved but they seem relatively harmless. But if you want them then please take them away, they keep eating through every cage I put them in. An with every metal they eat, they actually grow larger. This three things that look the size of a cereal bowl are actually just a week old. They also eat normal food, but keep them away from anything metallic for as long as you can."

David was actually surprised by the story behind the three tortoises, but he didn't say anything else. He pulled the almost destroyed cage and placed it in a cardboard box. Then he placed it, along with the other supplies into the cart attached behind his bicycle. He gave the gun to the fat man, who just couldn't wait to get his hands on it. It was extremely unsettling watching him c.a.r.e.s.s the gun like it was some sort of treasure, which it was, but not enough to warrant such devotion. David pushed the sight to the back of his mind and rode his bicycle back to his house. He left in a hurry as he had something that he desperately needed to try out. But either way, even with all the close shaves he had with death. His mission today was accomplished.