Prologue

“We didn’t realize that we started the apocalypse – the door was closed. I am so sorry for what your people have gone through to get back here.”

Sergeant Alyss Marker stared in shock at the display that had just spoken to her. She hadn’t even been able to aim her rifle at it before being frozen. The moving image of an old man seemed to look directly into her soul for a moment before continuing.

“By our estimates, and this is a very rough guess, somewhere close to 600 years must have passed since we accidentally destroyed everything. As the rest of the facility powers up now, you’ll be able to verify everything I’m about to tell you.”

Marker realized that by breaking into the cavern – no, she corrected herself, facility – her team must have triggered some sort of power-up sequence. It wasn’t surprising that the old technology still worked, but this was the first time anything of this magnitude had been discovered as far as she knew. This was definitely the first time she had seen anything more advanced than weapons and toys.

The nearing sound of gunfire and yelling distracted her enough that she missed what the old man was saying.

“… are gone now. I’ll likely not last the day, myself.” Instead of looking sad, his face showed fear. “They won’t be kept out much longer. Not without someone manning…”

Another burst of gunfire, this time from the next room, ripped her attention from the display. She remembered what she was doing here. She hoped some of her team was still out there, covering their retreat into the tunnel, but the sounds told her that most of the gunfire was from the more advanced weaponry of the Emmirate soldiers. The Arican Unity had fewer, much older weapons, though most of the time they had more soldiers.

Marker’s division had been battling the same two contingents of Emmirate soldiers for almost two complete moons now, finally being able to create a temporary stronghold in one of the old cities. Her Commander had been killed during the initial campaign to clear the lakeside and reclaim that territory for the Arican Unity. The ancient equipment there would have been able to provide wood and food for thousands of people. Instead, they were driven into the mountains, away from their homes, during one of the worst winters she could remember.

She had lost over half of her people crossing the mountains, and nearly half as many again in the sprint from the base of those mountains to the ruins many days ago. Over that time, her forces had acquitted themselves well, taking out at least 2000 of the enemy and several of their vehicles, both old and new, while only losing a fraction of that number themselves.

Finally, the Emmirate soldiers found their footing and forced her team to abandon the trove of equipment buildings they had sheltered in. They retreated around another lake, following an old road while keeping the setting sun on their right. She led them, almost by accident, to what seemed to be an ancient fortress. Between it and the nearby water, there was a fault in the land, and her team had taken shelter in it. With the single entrance to the small cavern, her team could defend it almost indefinitely – or at least until they starved to death.

Two of her men had been exploring the cavern, looking for anything that might help, when they found the hatch. It had obviously been built in a hurry, but was as ancient as anything else they’d found over the years. Several piles of old bones told a grim story as Corporal Casy Barns cut through the old metal with a torch.

“Looks like a defensive position, don’cha think?” Private Henness looked at her while she thought about what she was seeing. He pointed at some marks in the wall next to where he was standing. “These could be bullet holes, or even arrow holes. Someone didn’t want someone getting in there.”

Marker looked at the hatch and realized that the strips of metal it had been welded to were not originally part of it. “Looks more like some folks wanted to block this area off, I think” she said, “and someone was trying to get in while they were doing it.” After another look at the dusty piles of bones, she added “Or maybe several someones.” She looked at the debris within the bones. Nothing new, she thought, just bits of metal that used to be on teeth or drilled into bones; the ancient people were very advanced.

Barns finished cutting the hatch free and let it fall inwards. All three were quiet as they listened to the echo.

“Grenade!”

The blast at the front of the cavern shook the walls, setting free centuries of loose stones and dirt and things that grow in caves near a shore. Before the first screams of the injured had really begun, two more blasts began bringing down more rock.

“Into the hole!” Marker screamed. Henness was already diving into the unknown blackness of the hole, with Barns close behind him. Marker looked back towards the entrance – her soldiers were firing their guns and backing into this last part of the cavern. So few remain, she thought. Out of more than a thousand men, women, and gaia, she thought only about 30 were still with her, and most of those were injured and bleeding. They had taken down nearly two contingents of Emmirate soldiers, fully 2500 people, and she was fiercely proud of them. It wasn’t right to end up taking shelter in a cave until you died, but her first duty was to keep her people alive as long as possible, and her second duty was to outlive them if she could.

Another grenade exploded in front of the retreating line of soldiers, then another closer to the far end. She saw some of her people fall as she threw herself backwards into the hole, and the glint of another grenade falling within their midst.

Their screams followed her all the way to the ladder, then to the hall, and finally to the door.

The old man on the display was silent, frozen still as if in death, with a pair of lines blinking in the corner near his shoulder. The lighting had been getting steadily brighter since she had climbed up into the hallway, finally stopping at something like a late afternoon might look even though it was nearing dusk outside. Now a number of red lights became dimly lit, and a new voice issued from everywhere.

“Small weapons discharge detected in level SB3, sector 2. Authorities have been notified. All personnel are required to check in at the nearest terminal. This alert cannot be cancelled.”

Marker looked towards the open door and noticed a map was mounted next to it. She held her rifle aimed at the door as she approached it. The writing was familiar, but it took her a few seconds to adjust to seeing it so neatly written.

She thought that the room she was in was in sector 2, and she was certainly on level SB3. She’d been hearing gunfire almost the whole time she’d been in here, but it was getting less frequent, and now just sporadic. She suspected the power system had only just started pushing out enough power for the alarm system to activate, otherwise the red lights and voice warning would have occurred much earlier.

An Emmirate soldier walked into the room, already bloodied and limping, and stepped directly in front of Marker’s rifle. She pulled the trigger almost on instinct, before even having completely identified the man as an enemy, and blew the back of his head open for him.

She stood still for a moment. The gunfire had stopped. She wondered if she was alone in here now; just the ghosts of the freshly dead and the ghosts of the ancient dead to keep her company. The flashing red lights were becoming stronger, and the light level had increased closer to a daytime level.

Some of the other displays in the room were beginning to come to life, showing everything from text to graphs to diagrams of things she didn’t recognize. She stood in front of the first display again, looked into the old man’s eyes, and decided to learn what she could while she was here. Not knowing what else to do, she touched the blinking symbol on the screen. The old man immediately began to speak again, picking up where he had been cut off.

“… beneath the Infectious Disease Research Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. With the Rockies to the west and two large lakes for cooling the equipment and hiding the runoff, this was the perfect place to build this installation and keep it camouflaged. After the Event, it has also served as a fortress for these last 20 years.

I am the last of us, now. There were nearly 250 people here in the beginning. But there were 9 billion of them. We never really had a chance.”

He paused for a moment, seeming to collect his thoughts. Staring back up into Marker’s eyes, he said “But then there was a glimmer of hope. That is why I’ve made this recording. That is why you, whomever you are, however many centuries from now, must listen. That is why you are here.”

Next Chapter: A Light Against the Dark