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Chapter 7 - Chapter-6

It didn't take us long before we reached the outskirts of the city. The forest had finally ended.

It almost seemed never ending on the first few days, where we even doubted if we would ever make it out of the forest.

However our excitement didn't last long as the city drew close. We saw that the city was completely taken over by nature. Vines curled sound street lamps, flowers blooming through cracks of buildings. No signs of any humans as far as we looked.

"Its eerily quiet in here"I said, glancing around "just like the forest"

"Rayne" Zei pointed at one of the shops which seemed to be covered in vines and purple flowers, its windows shattered and the interior dim and hollow.

"Looks like a regular café shop" I said

"Look at the sign"

"My eyes fell onto the sign that read Espresso Essence,  it seemed like a normal café name.

"What is wrong with it?" I asked looking confused towards Zei

"The name, It's in English. We are still on earth"

The realisation suddenly dawned upon me, staring at the sign in front of me, I quickly looked around me for other signs and strangely enough all of them were written in English

"Just what the hell happened here" I muttered

"Let's keep going, Maybe we'll find some answers" she replied 

Following the Main road, we passed by numerous shops and houses taken over by nature.The silence felt unnatural. It looked like a scene straight from an apocalypse movie.

Venturing further inside the city, we encountered numerous destroyed cars, huge buildings and skyscrapers completely taken over by nature, their glass facade shattered. Many of them were linked with suspended bridges, some of them broken and fallen down to ground, some of them still intact.

It was a beautiful sight to see such marvellous buildings being taken over by nature, but at the same time I couldn't help but ponder over as to why this place was completely abandoned.

What happened to the people who fled this city? Did some kind of plague killed most of the people here…or something much worse,

However we soon got our answer as to what befell the people living In this city

Wandering around the city,we reached a part which was in ruins. The buildings here were in much worse condition than the previous ones, roads split open like a scar, various craters surrounded the landscape. As if some natural disaster had fallen upon this city.

"Perhaps an earthquake" Zei muttered, inspecting the fallen debris and buildings.

We walked further, that was when we saw a horrifying scene that sent shivers down our spine.

Skeletons….countless of them, some laying on the broken road, some buried under the buildings.

I stared at the terrifying scene before my very eyes, neither of us uttered a single word. After a while I took the first step towards the countless skeletons laying around.

One ominous thing I noticed was that many of them had strange weapons and armours which haven't decayed yet.

Many of them had one or more than one missing limb, some didn't even have heads while others were missing their complete lower body. I searched one of the skeletons hoping to find something useful.

To my luck I found a wallet, unlike a leather one this one was made out of metal.

It took me a while to figure out how to open it but I was eventually able to pry it open and found some currency which I was unfamiliar with, and an ID card

Holding my breath I looked at the ID

ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ELEITHIYA

Name- Johannes Jones

Date Of Birth- 27/04/2584

Member ID- 6235423784

Expiration Date- 30/12/2612

My hand trembled as I read the date again.

This couldn't be right.

How can this be the year 2612, That was five centuries over our own time.

Looking around I saw Zei standing behind me as she stared at the ID card with an indifferent face. I scrambled through other bodies to look for IDs and found the same date in all of them.

It was the year 2612… this was earth 582 years into the future.

I sat there stunned in silence , processing the revelation I had just received. The sun was setting, it was going to be night soon.

"We should head back and take shelter in one of the shops nearby for the night" Zei finally said, her voice quiet.

I nodded, wasting time sitting here was going to get us nowhere. I got up ready to head back.

"We should take some of their weapons for protection in case we encounter something dangerous" Zei suggested

"That's a good idea" We scavenged the area, looking for suitable weapons we could use. Most of the weapons were either broken or covered in rust.

"I found mine" Zei shouted from the other side with a hint of excitement in her voice, wielding a black partisan spear in her right hand and a dagger strapped around her waist.

I still couldn't find a suitable weapon for myself, all of the ones I came across were either too heavy or too broken for me to wield.

"What's taking you so long? I am getting tired of waiting" Zei muttered.

"I can't find anything I can actually use,"

"What kind of weapon are you looking for?"

"A sharp, balanced blade that is not too heavy to wield."

She looked around, her eyes scanning through the entire area.

"How about that one?" she pointed her finger towards a tree, a skeleton clad in crimson armor rested there, in his hand rested a rusted claymore Sword, its surface dull and covered in dried blood.

"Are you sure?" I asked, doubtful "It looks like it'll break if I touch it.

"Trust me, my institution is never wrong" she said confidently

I made my way towards the blade, my hand gripped its hilt pulling it out. The blade seems a lot more sturdy than I originally thought, despite being in a poor condition it was still sharp.

Running my fingers through its blade I noticed some symbols carved into it, covered in dried blood. A chill ran up my arm

An ominous sensation.

But I didn't let go.

"This will do," I said, quietly

We made our way back to find a shelter, it was almost nightfall now, the moonlight illuminated the entire cityscape.

 

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