Journey Into The Aftermath |✔

Chapter one: Breakthrough

Death.

It hung over our heads like the stars above, etched into the Celestial constellations that make up the night sky.

And not a soul could escape their inevitable fate.

Except the few brave enough to discover.

The few clever enough to create.

Few strong enough to survive.

This is the wake of destruction.

Resurrection.

This is our path.

This is.

The Aftermath.

****

~ Skylar ~

"Our absolute worst fears have become a reality...and the entire planet as we know it will have to pay the price." a man whispered in panicked bursts of terror though the lens of the camera this recording was being filmed on. I failed over and over again to take my eyes off of his trembling body.

Fear-struck, the man was almost hidden in his half torn, yellow-striped hazmat suit checkered with red symbols and logos. On his filthy face was a pair of busted goggles with ruffled and squalid, dark grey hair waving in from above in loose strings.

In the background, there were alarms blaring nonstop, but he seemed to be in a closed-off room. Inside was pitch black, leaving the only light source to be the six inch square window at the top of the door behind him. In which, it just revealed a screaming woman running by. The only other luminescence was the small flashlight on the camera itself just above the lens.

Almost like he was running out of time, he ripped off his goggles. I instantly recognized the face decked in a perturbed expression.

He was my father.

Licking his lips with an intensity I've never seen before, he ran a trembling hand through his sordid hair and continued. "Something went...something went terribly wrong with the fusion stabilizers for the new project we were working on and the entire nuclear plant is undergoing a chronic melt down" he choked, trying desperately to quickly regain breath.

I don't know why but the way he looked at the camera made me feel like he was talking directly through the lens. A specific message meant for someone who could do something about it.

To...me.

The video crackled with static and white and black lines shot back and forth though the middle of the screen. It left small windows of vision for me to expliot in order to get what could be the final sight of my father.

"No. Nothing was wrong. Someone sabotaged the stabilizers so that they wouldn't be able to control the temperature and radioactive output of our...experiment."

Something about the way he said 'experiment' told me it was most likely classified for the government or a top secret organization on some remote island on bunker.

"And the worst part is, they somehow managed to rewire the g-level 20 DAS chord while I was constructing the stabilizers themselves so it looks like they were built to fail from the very beginning." He took a heavy breath and held it.

"They framed me and now the government is coming after me, hard," he cried. "Whats left of it anyway."

His hands and body fumbled in different directions showing that he is nearly losing control of himself over the pressing predicament. He even gave off a hysterical laugh. This must be just now sinking in for him too. "No matter what they say...I am innocent!" he proclaimed with a piteous ring in his hoarse tone.