The Lost Chronicles Of Pangea: Apocalypse

Left Behind

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**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 i***t, 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 really care about your family’s 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 off 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 s**t 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 ever 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.