ACCUPATION 3 The Descent of Man

Chapter 2: "I Can't Die"

I woke up naked and trembling. This time I was deeper underground, the hydro power plant gave it away that I was in the lava sector. Walking inside, my body burned against the heat of the magma
Falls coming from the power plant. Steam bled out from pipes and whistles blew as the gears turned. At least the powers still running, without power people won't survive long underground. Feeling my back I felt a scar from when the wall collapsed. I live yet am left with a scar. Why? I fell down praying trying to understand why I couldn't die. Was it biological? A mutation? Perhaps my father's experiments broke the world more than I thought. Anthony too is incapable of dying. We are sure to not be the only ones. Anthony doesn't know this yet, he thinks he's been especially chosen for some special purpose.

In a way I was disappointed. For a long time I had longed for death. I'm forced to stay alive and fix my problems somehow. Maybe that's why I can't die? Maybe I'm supposed to be a force for good? Maybe I was being rewarded for all my years of faith? Nothing made sense, but one thing is clear.

The underworld is contaminated, most likely not a chance to rebuild it. As for the surface, it is now under the control of a power hungry tyrant. Anthony, he's so different from his daughter Daniela. Daniela is warm, loving, innocent, and sympathetic. What happened? Why is he like this? Walking around the power plant I saw a room with the door cracked open. Convenient, as most doors wouldn't let me in. I knew how to hack but lock picking wasn't my favorite thing. Inside the room I saw a grand painting. It graphically portrayed what had happened, people running and screaming, others staying to fight. It was a picture of the fall of the Rust Bucket. (The name of the city)

Surprising that someone would paint such a traumatic event so soon after it happened. I guess how else do you understand what happens in your life without art? Below were cups of paint, they were dried out. Sticking my hands into the cup and pulling out the layer of dry paint. It was thin... whoever painted this was here a day or two ago. Perhaps there's a clue of where they went? On a vintage table by the painting I saw a map, and my heart sank.

A circle had been drawn around a part of the cave system. Also a line through what they must have thought to be a clear path. The place they circled was a laboratory I remember my father building. They made deadly diseases in that laboratory during the gear war. If they were hoping to find sanctuary there they were mistaken. Chances are that this black lump disease was made in that laboratory.

I suddenly realized I was still naked and found a hazmat suit to wear. It's not the most comfortable thing to wear, if anything it felt like wearing a sweat suit, at least now I would be more protected from the virus. There was also some much needed food and water I gathered and stored in a bedsheet I tied to my back. Before I left I saw something, a magazine in the trash. It had a picture of trees on it, apple trees. It had been a long time since I had the fruit of any tree. Picking up the magazine, pictures of apple orchards filled the magazine. I didn't know an orchard was so peaceful. Putting the magazine in my hazmat suit I left the power plant. I needed to get there before the painter did. Perhaps this underwater laboratory was where my father hid during the war.

heading the direction the painter had gone I hacked a car and speeded my way through the empty underground highways. Driving down the cement blocks I entered the dark tunnel. Lava dripping down from the leaky ceilings, trash scattered everywhere, it had been abandoned. Or so I thought. Refugees flooded the tunnel wearing as little as possible because of the intense heat. Tiredly they sat in the back of hover trucks or hover wagons with luggage. They looked mournful. The mutants and robots were quickly advancing ahead of them, leaving them behind. Some stayed behind to help their human relatives keep the pace.