Entering the gate, I was met with an enormous cobblestone shaped road made out of light, it kept on stretching for miles and miles onto the stars. Before I knew it I had lost control of my armored truck and it kept on gliding on a road that was made out of light, I looked behind me and saw planet earth at half the moons distance. I shifted my focus on the Americas continent and in awe I let out a weird sound out of my mouth. New York and a couple states near it were wiped clean off the face of the map.
I tried to look for Amari's car who was right behind me but I was met with a void that signified that the road was being destroyed when I passed it. I tried to steer the armored truck but to no avail, the vehicle was traveling at a fixed location.
A lot of questions flooded my mind, ' how could I breath in space?', ' is this what its like to travel at light speed?'.
I wasn't worried about my people that much because everyone was far away from the destruction, regarding Amari and grandma, I am sure they went through the gate a couple of feet behind me.
I said screw it, let me enjoy the view as I passed many planets and stars, the road seemed to be fixed to a location that I assumed to be the planet where herathia was located.
70 minutes had passed, and I finally saw the planet, and let me tell you it was gigantic. I saw 8 continents, all were equal or close to the size of Africa, and even then, water still covered most of the planet just like earth.
What blew my mind was the biggest continent that was located at the center of the planet, it had a thick X shape that resembled a Japanese shuriken.
One of the contenintes looked very similar to the Americas and it was located at the west side of the world, same as the Americas.
Before I could study and admire the view, while getting closer to the planet i noticed the sea was covered with colossal sea beasts fighting violently, all over the 9 seas.
I was using my advanced military grade goggles, but Im sure even if I took it off I could see the monsters tearing at each other.
I noticed the road was ending at the west side of the planet, the same location as the Americas continent. I got anxious about the landing since I was moving at a what I believed was the speed of light but as soon as i was close to the atmosphere, my speed went down almost instantly and the road had vanished before my eyes.
Shit, am I just stuck in space now? Will I get suffocated because of the lack of oxygen? Will I get crushed in space?
In the middle of my lamenting, the armored truck was starting to get transparent slowly at the front, and the cause was slowly moving its way towards me. I felt my consciousness slip away as my arms and legs were being erased before my eyes, then I passed out
***
I woke up in the middle of a forest near an unconstructed road confused and mildly anxious, I opened the truck slowly and pulled out my handgun to check my surroundings and to my surprise no one was here? What the hell? Isn't there supposed to be a grand empire that was advanced enough for space travel at light speed?. All I saw was trees and rivers and ancient looking roads
A cracking sound of a twig alerted me and I turned around to aim at the source and was met with a familiar face, it was the dad that was with Amari and grandma! He looked like a hobo with scars all over his body and a dirty bush that covered his face
Dad: thank goodness you are here! Have you seen my wife and daughter? Are they with you?! He looked at me with fear in his eyes and anticipation.
I took some clothes and medicine from the truck with some food and told him to calm down and explain things to me
???: I have no idea whats going on, aren't they supposed to be with you with in the same car? Why do you look like you just went through hell when we just got here?
The dad was furious, he got up in the middle of me fixing his open wound on his back and said
Dad: YOU JUST GOT HERE? I ARRIVED ALONE WITHOUT ANYONE SIX MONTHS AGO!
SIX MONTHS?! I couldn't hide the shock from my face, and what did he mean by alone!?
???: alone? Please calm down and elaborate
The dad was spinning in circles and fuming, he eventually calmed down and started speaking
Dad: six months ago we arrived in this planet together but for some reason when we got close to it everyone started vanishing one by one. I thought we was going to die.
He started sobbing uncontrollably
Dad: I woke up in this hell hole 6 months ago with no sight of my family and your people, I survived everyday by avoiding the monsters and eating their left overs
My heart started beating at an uneven rhythm as I heard him recall what happened to him I thought to myself ' what if they arrived earlier than us? but by how long? Nothing makes any sense?! All of us entered the gate almost simultaneously and somehow I arrived 6 months later than him?'
'What if they were still not on this planet? What if they arrived way earlier than us and got killed?' I slapped my face to wake myself up from the infinite questions and decided to focus what was in front of us
I went into the truck and pulled out some frozen meat from the freezer and started preparing food for two people, I have to get rid of the frozen goods because the freezer uses most of my fuel and I had to conserve just in case.
After 20 minutes, the dad asked what I was doing and I told him "we can't search for our families on an empty stomach right?" his face brightened considerably, he finally saw a glimpse after six months of hell. He wiped his grimy tear soaked beard and said "you don't know how much that means to me, thank you kid, you really are an angel", he proceeded to go to the river to clean his hands and face before eating.
I saw six small bipedal hairy looking dogs with sticks in their hands behind us and I reached for my handgun, the dad said " leave them be, they wait for you to sleep or lie down before they attacked you, on a rare occurrence they will attack you while you are taking a shit". The creatures backed off and I let my guard down, went back on cooking the meal, and took a mental note to never shit in these woods, knowing my luck I will get ambushed on my first stool break.
The dad came back to me after a while looking like a new man, shaved beard, hope in his eyes, and a clean fit that used to belong to yours truly.
After admiring my fashion sense for a minute i plated down the extended table at the back of the truck and played some classical music for todays main dish, beef wellington.
The dad took a bite of the meat and after a couple of seconds he started crying his eyes out
I got annoyed a little bit because he cried in these two interactions I had with him than I did my whole life, I asked "what's wrong? Do you have a rotten tooth or something?", he said" NO not at all, where did you learn how to cook son? This is magnificent!"
I started reminiscing about my childhood before the incident, I told him a short version of how I learned my culinary skill
???: my dad was a pretty famous athlete, one day he lost his legs in a terrorist attack done by the herathians. He got pretty depressed after that even serocola couldn't help him, he spent all his time away from me in his room.
The dad shifted his attention on me after he decimated the food in front of him, I felt kind of good that someone outside of my close circle actually cares about what I say, I can tell he is a good father
???: he used to watch cooking shows on his phone, so I pitched In the idea that he should cook launch for me to see what he learned, he actually got mildly motivated and got off his bed for once. He tried to cook a Carbonara and lets just say we had to order take out that day. After that he always was in the kitchen and not just rotting in his bed, I always helped him cook lunch and dinner, and my compulsive obsession kicked in, I tried to perfect every step of my cooking until I arrived at the level I am at today
Dad: that is quite the story son, im sure your dad was proud of you, and appreciated you being there for him at his lowest
I actually wanted to laugh at his reply, my dad's abuse got worse when I became a better cook than him, he always envied me when I did something better than him
???: thank you, by the way I never got your name?
Jim: my name is Jimmy Brown but you can call me Jim, my daughter's name is Jenna, and my wifes name….. why are you looking at me like that son?
???: why is there a huge laser aiming at your head?!
I backed away from him on instinct, Jim panicked a little when he noticed there is a line that kept on following him from the sky, he stood up and tried to get away from it but couldn't, he talked in a concerned voice
Jim: Whats going son? If this is a joke please stop....
Before he could even finish his sentence, an enormous pillar of light that resembled a solar flare shot from the sky aiming at the poor soul, his death was almost instant.
I stood there stupefied and scared that I was next I sprinted towards the armored truck hoping it can stop what ever that attack was, but deep down I knew it couldn't possibly block that kind of attack. A huge 40 foot radius hole that went down a couple yards was at the place of Jim, the hard rock turned into slag, rolling down the sides.
After a while of anxiety inducing anticipation, nothing happened. I took a deep breath and scouted my surroundings, still nothing. Only when I looked at the passenger's seat I found an old looking book that felt eerily familiar, it had an ink pen clipped to the thick gray cover. Picking it up a painful flood of memories I forgot about invaded my mind
I knew the fucking book, I studied it 8 years ago with a close childhood friend, I found it in a random library near me and got hooked ever since, a new language that hid a lot of tales and adventures laid within it. I opened the book and was met with shock when I found it empty unlike before