Felix Montclair is the boy's name who is asleep on a bench right beside a tree in the middle of the park. The park seems peaceful, a soft breeze coming from the west—blowing his dark reddish-black hair and clothes along within the wind. He was a good-looking teenager who's pretty friendly and kind towards others. On the other hand, he's quite gentle and submissive towards his family, of course. He's not just your ordinary man or something. He's from a wealthy and prominent family. He's also known for his wisdom and good manner. Although he's from a prominent family, he chose to be independent.
However, he had just lost everything, like: home, family, a place to sleep, flowing water, and … everything as fast as blinking an eye (except for his sister) which caused him to wander around the world with his sister at their young age; also bringing a camping backpack full of surviving tools (and books in Felix's backpack. Yes, he loved books so much) that they brought from their home and even from the ruins. The incident that caused them 'homeless' was a terrible incident, and no one could possibly avoid themselves from the Mass-Slaughterer: Chronicles, or that's what people mostly call them. The world almost reached its final destination because of them; only a few countries were capable against the Chronicles.
Moreover, in this post-apocalyptic world, there's no such thing as 'peaceful life' nor even the regular world has one. After knowing all of those facts, he's still able to sleep deeply. In fact, it's quite interesting how he's able to sleep peacefully; not knowing if he got something to eat later on. However, there could be a reason behind it.
"Bro, Brother! Look, I got something …." Suddenly, a familiar-energetic voice echoed to Felix's ears.
As he opened his eyes slowly but steadily, a girl silhouette loomed in the corner in his eyes; she was holding a basket in her grip. Her present feels warm and loving to him (yet sometimes she's a bit annoying).
"Look, I got some cuisine and beverages for us, hehe." Seren said, raising the so-called 'gourmets' in the basket excitedly.
Felix's eyes are finally wide open. He gave a look at the girl who was standing beside him. It was Seren Montclair. In short, Felix's little sister is also his most precious person in the world, right now. Even though they're not related biologically, she still remains special in his heart. She was a beautiful, charming, and captivating girl but also quite innocent in Felix's eyes. Why, you ask? Well, she has lots of charming yet adorable features—she's a short petite girl. Unlike Felix, his height is above average than others of the same age as him. Seren's hair color is mostly brown; her hair is long, thick, and silky soft. Also, her light blue eyes are fascinating. Although she was small in size and looked vulnerable at first look; she's actually a strong and caring person. Again, in Felix's eyes.
"W-what? …." Felix's reaction is natural for an after-sleep person. Then, he rose to a sitting position facing his little sister with a messy look after quite a long dream, supposedly. "Oh, nice …. Where did you find them?" He raised an eye to her. Slightly tilting his head in curiosity. His face signifies eagerness for an answer (his face is actually flat, but Seren already understands his expressions.
"U-uhmm, it was … hard to tell." Slightly trembling, Seren pointed to a ruin just a quarter mile away from our distance.
Felix's eyes widened to the area she was pointing at. It looks like a modern bakery shop that has collapsed into rubble; the only thing left is the crooked southern wall, ready to collapse any time soon. The building has lost its dignity and its structure. And not just the shop, the buildings around didn't stand a chance against fate and circumstances.
"Didn't I tell you not to explore the ruins alone? It's dangerous. What if one of the walls started to collapse and then fell on you?" Felix said with a serious tone but calmly. He's a little irritated at her sister's wrong-doings.
"Sorry …." Seren grumbled, and her shoulders lowered; facing down in the feeling of pity.
Suddenly, the ruin's only wall that was still standing collapsed. The collapsed wall caused smoke that billowed quite high; but not too thick. How ironic, even the most luxurious yet expensive construction, were destroyed into worthless smithereens and pieces.
"Ekk! …" Seren got startled due to the spontaneous 'ice breaking'.
"See? It's DANGEROUS and life-threatening." Felix warned his sister once more. Not wanting to raise his voice even a notch, though.
"B-but, …" Seren hesitated while raising her face to stare at her brother once more as if preparing something. "At least we have food, hehe." She grins, with a very wide smile on her face. Her voice was very calm and sweet at the same time—it almost sounded like a whisper-low tone. She also raised the basket in her grip to a shoulder level. At this point, how did she even manage to control her mood so quickly?
Felix regrets his words and feels a sense of guilt for Seren. He was stunned for a while before saying a word. Then, he relieved an emphatic sigh.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you; I was … worried about you, that's all." Felix's eyes soften to her little sister. Also, a soothing smile formed on the corner of his lips. "Thanks, for bringing something to eat for us. I'm pleased." An even more soothing expression formed on his face. "C'mon, take a seat. Your brother's starving right now!" He patted the bench gently; for her to sit down beside him.
Seren's eyes perked up. Her smile is wider than ever.
"It's fine!" Seren said, handing the basket to Felix. Then, she turned her body around to take a seat accordingly.
A soft breeze came out of nowhere; Seren's long, brown hair and Felix's were gently blown along the wind dramatically. It seems like nature has also approved of their lovely and positive relationship.
"Allright, let's eat. Shall we?" Seren said with an energetic voice out loud. Clearly excited to feed her stomach like a starving kitten. She's excited to eat the looted food; also leaving us a sign of adaptation to this messed up and destroyed world.
They enjoyed the meal that was being brought by Seren inside the basket; there was a croissant, water, and some other. It was based on top of an aluminum foil. Although it doesn't seem like much, they are grateful; occasionally sharing thoughts with each other. Their aura is so peaceful in the middle of chaos. Word by word, they chat peacefully as if forgetting the enormous destruction out there. Their existence is like the star who pierces through the night sky (Mostly for Seren, she's the one who talked much; whilst Felix's are mostly setting himself all ears). What a lovely family, isn't it? To sum it up, Felix swallowed, sighed, and then they bumped up to this topic.
"It's been 2 years, right?" Felix's voice was a little lowered all of a sudden. He's still holding a parted baguette in his right hand, also.
"Yes?" Seren hadn't understood a thing and was curious about it. She also took another bite.
"Y'know, 2 years have passed since the incident …." Felix said in a low tone but firm; also lowering his gaze a little to avoid eye contact with Seren.
Seren's eyes go wide. Her mouth is full; she tried to talk, but it left her mumbled. She was a little surprised by Felix's spontaneous speech—which gave her some kind of a flashback. Then, she quickly swallowed the remaining appetizer to speak. You heard it, 'appetizer' (she ate a lot).
"Yeah …. But I'm confident that we'll get this through, as long as we're together!" Seren's energetic and soothing voice is back to take control of the atmosphere.
Felix's gaze is locked to Seren once more as she speaks.
"However … I'm still feeling pretty curious, though. I mean, like, how the regions we've walked through are always destroyed by the Chronicles, but we survived every time without any injury."Seren's voice held the feeling of sympathy and worry to the victims.
"Yeah …. What a miracle, isn't it?" Felix said as taking another bite. Munching on the bread.
"But, the leader of the Chronicles has never been found, though! …. Lemme… Oh, it's Lady Hecate-" Her energetic voice stopped right after Felix started choking, then violently coughing to the side.
At the word 'Lady Hecate', Felix immediately felt sharp and extreme pain in his head—it happened spontaneously. The remaining food in his mouth abruptly burst all the way out. He let out a scream but held it back right after. He was gasping like crazy while holding his head. His eyes got teary, and there's saliva all over his lips. The pain was so intense and irresistible; the feeling was almost like a boulder falling from a 10-story building straight to your head, crushing it. That's how painful it is. Seren was apologizing numerous times to Felix; also rubbing his back as a comforting gesture. As time went by, the pain eventually reduced a few notches. Then, he faced Seren once more—his face looked messy and devastated.
"It's alright, I'm okay …" Felix tried to give Seren a smile even though he couldn't really hide all of the pain in his face. "... It's actually my fault. It's my fault that we ended up on this topic." He said as taking a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his face.
"Okay … I hope you're fine." Seren said in the expression of sadness.
"I'm fine, of course." Felix gave Seren a pat on her head. Her hair is so thick and silky-smooth running in between Felix's fingers.
"But still, I got too carried away and didn't watch my words …. It must be painful to you, brother." Seren said in the tone of sympathy and guilt. "OKAY, let's just … talk about something else. Like, the weather's nice, right?" She looked stunned and embarrassed due to her chit-chats. Her face's red, like a tomato.
The atmosphere's getting quite awkward for a few moments until Felix finally responds with a giggle.
"Yeah, it's nice, isn't it? My beloved sister" Felix burst into laughter at the end of the sentence.
The tense moment drastically loosened as they quickly forgot it and then changed the topic. Even though Felix's not sure what word that could possibly have caused such a thing—all he heard was Lady Ha*ct*; the words are unclear, leaving him in a 'don't know' situation. Nonetheless, he's able to adapt himself because it has happened before.
To break things down, Lady Hecate is the leader of the Mass-Slaughterer: Chronicles; she wasn't just a leader. She was the creator of them and is responsible for this post-apocalyptic world. Chronicles, there are 2 types of them: Syn-Serpent and Syn-Falcon. And each of them has a specific size and is classified from the smallest to the biggest—for Syn-Serpent, there are S1, S2, S3, S4, and so on; for Syn-Falcon, there are F1, F2, F3, F4, and so on. Their size limits are unknown. All of them were commanded by the genius-evil Lady Hecate alone. Her whereabouts are still unclear—some testified that she was last seen just a week after the disaster started in Belgium, which was also 2 years ago. Unfortunately, that's all of the information known to man (for now).
Back to their state, they're done enjoying the meal. After they're both full, they also save a few for later. In this cruel and messed up world, foods really are valuable and hard to find; Felix and Seren had not even eaten for a few days back then. They packed them neatly as they should—the parted baguette's wrapped back to its plastic, the water, croissant, etc.
Then, Felix leaned to the backrest of the bench and also let out a long sigh to the air.
"What's wrong?" Seren asked, slightly raising her eyebrow—her expression emphasize innocence.
"It's nothing. Anyways, shall we continue our trip?" Felix winked at Seren.
"Allright, all right, let's grab our backpacks then." Seren said, standing up firmly.
They're both picking up their backpack placed under the tree. The backpack's quite heavy due to the amount of things that they find important from ruins—especially books in Felix's backpack. Felix looked like he's having a hard time lifting the backpack. Then, Seren reprimanded him.
"Brother, can't you just abandon those books? You'll have back pain, otherwise." Seren said in a worried but firm tone.
Felix couldn't help it but left some books that he had read before on the ground. He gave up lifting the overloaded backpack. Though he loved books more than anything, yet Seren's words can not be ignored and were correct. The backpacks now are light enough to lift and then wear it on the back as it should. Even though he had just abandoned the books, he still spared some time to give it the last goodbye. Seren looked at her brother cynically (but playfully, she's just playing around).
"Are you done? Broo." Seren responded to Felix's loving-books behavior; slightly pouting. Her irritated face looked cute anyway.
"Yeah, I'm done. Now, we'll go." Felix also responded nonchalantly.
They took a step forward—a gentle and steady step followed by another. They went towards the ruins just outside the park, which is supposed to be a soothing housing area; the atmosphere's very chaotic—there's houses that you can't even call home anymore. Then, there's a lot of cars that are unrecognizable for their actual shape. The roads cracked, and some even broke. They walked through the road, sometimes gazing around, looking for things that may come in handy. It feels like the world is theirs. No one, like, no one's around. Strangely, there's not even a dead body around; no human corpses, like, clean. At this rate, where did it go? Did they already rot? It's not like these people would have enough time to evacuate from the Chronicles; they're so strong that even the military's overwhelmed facing them. Maybe for a stronger country, they would probably have the required gears and army to face them, though. Many researchers are working day and night to find the most effective yet efficient arms.
Alright, back to their state. Felix and Seren walked silently side by side until Seren finally spoke up.
"Hmm … Brother, where are we going, exactly?" Seren said, looking at Felix with her eyes of curiosity. It's not the first time she has questioned it.
Felix paused a moment before replying. "I don't know, we'll just … go, as far as we can." He replied with the same old sentence he had used before to respond to Seren's same questioning.
"As far as we can…. Alright then …. But we do need a shelter to sleep in, though; we've always slept in our tent or even ruins. It's tiring, Bro." Seren added another response after a few moments. "Well, forget it. Spending time with my brother is everything I need, right Bro?." She giggled, then cheerfully smiled at Felix; her expression was cute as always.
"You're right it's tiring, isn't it? … Alright, I've added it to the list; we'll look for a country that's surviving. That'll be our mission." Now, that is a new answer in response.
"That's what I'm thinking." Seren's eyes perked up, and she excitedly added another reply, "Okay, our adventure will be legendary!"
Felix's lips are showing partial smiles in the corner. "Yeah, let's continue this adventure, TOGETHER!"
"TOGETHER!"
They're both shouting loudly as if they might have awakened the entire resident if it's still inhabited; also raising their hand high in the sky.