The Lost Chronicles Of Pangea: Apocalypse

Awakening To Pangea

David woke up with a start, the familiar ceiling above him served to shock him put of his stupor, but not enough to bring about the clarity he wanted. He felt afraid, but who wouldn’t be afraid when the first thing you remember is your step brother sleeping with your mom. TheThe image was so vivid and haunting that David could not begin to imagine how he would have survived such an ordeal. But then it hit him, he never did survive the ordeal. He killed himself, or at least some other David did.

It was confusing juggling two different lifetimes of memories so similar yet so different that it left him stuck in a loop of comparisons and a droning headache. David could not wrap his head around the entire damn situation. Yesterday he went to sleep in his high class neighborhood on Lekki, Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria, west Africa, earth. Today however he was waking up on Victoria Island, located south east of the black dream sea, a sub island under the jurisdiction of the Iron city, on a planet called Pangea. This was the point where he would panic and ask the universe what was going on, but the intense sense of familiarity he was getting from the room, and the fact that it was not in the best interest of an educated man to panic for no reason.

David knew who he was, who he both was, which of course did not sound right, even to him. Why would he be here, was he dreaming, or was the life he remembered actually the dream. Nothing seemed to make sense. David got up from his bed and swept his eyes through his room, everything looked the same except the walls were painted yellow, and there was a bag of guns at the foot of the bed. He ignored the fact that there were instruments of murder sitting right in front of him and made his way to his window.

When he swept his curtains aside a familiar neighborhood greeted his sight, the only and most notable difference was the fact that the duplex opposite his house had a giant living, breathing bat sleeping on its ruble. The Johnsons used to live there, but his new memories told him that only a young bachelor lived there and he was most probably being digested in the stomach of the bat.

The monstrosity was ten to almost thirteen meters tall, David could not begin to imagine how wide it must be. It took David a second to notice that its piercing blood shot red eyes were staring right at him. David felt his heart stop as he backtracked in fright as he let the curtain fall back in place. His right hip made contact with his bedside cabinet dislodging a rather strange looking watch from the top of it. David bit back a curse as he massaged his aching hip and shot his scared eyes towards the bag of guns and back to the window.

Waking up in a rather strange world was okay, waking up in the body of a person that’s you, but not you is even better. But being stared at by a bat the size of a plane would send even the best of men running. David was no hero, he knew that better than anyone. Of course he was never shy about getting his fist dirty neither did he run away from a fight. But that thing outside was most probably the booth manager that sold one way tickets to hell or any part of the afterlife that’s relevant these days. And now he had an aching hip with no idea what to do next. David shifted his gaze to the floor bringing it directly to the strange looking watch. Well it was less a watch but more of an arm guard, (what do they call that stuff again) it was large enough to cover his entire forearm if worn. It gleamed an intense silver as the rays of the morning light fell on it.

Common sense says that’s a freaky looking bracelet or watch, memory say that’s a regulator and gene enhancement device. Unlike earth, the humans of Pangea had this particular trait of being able to constantly absorb the energy that’s within nature. Which is to say they are more like plants, but the kind of energy absorbed differs from person to person. Some depend of kinetic energy, others molecular, atomic or even heat. The absorption of this energy usually induces mutations or evolutions in the body of the absorber. So in the end the lucky ones who absorb energy enough for it to create a change and alter their biological makeup, develop abilities the likes which you would only ever see on the pages of a comic book, or a TV screen.

The regulator plays a part in making sure that everyone has a slow and steady growth, any sudden evolution can cause serious damage to both the person evolving and the people and infrastructure around him. So the regulator serves as flood gate or something. It regulates the amount of energy absorbed, and distribute it evenly around the human body, based on a person’s most recent and active lifestyle. For example if you were someone who used your mind a lot, like scientists or mathematicians, the regulator would place emphasis on improving your mental abilities, if you were more of a physical person, it would improve your physical abilities. Not everyone on Pangea develop powers or abilities. Only a few lucky ones do, and even among them some would have rather preferred to remain normal as some of the mutations can be incredibly bizarre.

The regulator was not a perfect creation, but it was the only option preventing people from exploding due to absorbing too much energy, or growing the horns of a cow, the fins of a fish and the nose of a donkey. Without the regulator the evolution and mutation would be heavily unrestrained and unpredictable.

So it came as no surprise that David hurriedly placed the regulator on his wrist. It felt cold at first as it made contact with his skin, then it rapidly heated up and sent a shock through his entire body. David felt every bone in his body at that moment. There was such clarity and knowledge about his entire body going through his mind at that second, that he felt all powerful. He could see every cell, feel every cell. He felt like he only needed a thought to communicate with those cells and tell them what to do. And then this feeling went deeper, he felt the molecules, the atoms every single little bit of creation and matter that made up his entire body. Then as sudden as this feeling came, it went away.

David was gasping for breath, he had never taken drugs before, but if this was what drug addicts felt when ever the sniffed or injected those drugs into their body, then he knew why they would be so addicted to the feeling. There was such euphoria, such power. He felt like he was in absolute control, and if not for the fact that there was a giant bat across the street from him, he would have spent more time relishing this feeling.

David picked up the bag of guns and almost stumbled due to how heavy it was. He was a little shocked by it, and the fact that he felt weaker than he looked. He shook his head and instead chose to drag the bag of weapons behind him as he opened the door of his bedroom and went out into the hallway. It was empty and a little dirty. David could see dust on the tiled floor with footprints imprinted on it. David was no tracker, but he knew for a fact that it has been days since anyone had moved through this hall. Their house was a five bedroom duplex, but at the moment the house seemed so empty and quiet. As much as he would rather not do what he was about to he really had no choice at the moment.

“Mom…mom….”