The new world book 1: chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

The sky became fire and fell into the ocean taking the old world with it. This is what everyone of us is told about what happened to the world before Atlantis rose again.

A young woman soars out of the ocean onto a white sheet of rock in the shape of a wide arrow as if an invitation to the larger world of wasteland. She lands with a stumble but stays on her feet and keeps running. A squad of soldiers under the command of another are in pursuit except they don't stumble. Her name is Talani, and although she's a great warrior and very brave she's not stupid so she knows that this is a fight that she can't win. With the terrain being unknown to her granted this is her first time on the surface, as is it her pursuers she gets cornered.
"I am not the heir, and neither is your master. None of us, are. Just leave me be and I'll never go back, I-I'll stay up here." Out of breath she pleads.
"True heir or not, the only thing it seems you false heirs have in common is your ability to say anything just to live." A soldier in green armor rather than the dark blue color of armor leading the squad says with a tone of disgust. "Now, there is another way for you to live." He takes a step forward licking his lips with a smile. "You just have to give each of us a turn with that body of yours." He says as he walks up to her, undressing her with his eyes. She slowly reaches behind herself and draws one of her daggers and takes a swipe at him. He moves back, but not quick enough and the blade catches his right cheek deep and he screams as he stumbles away holding his face. "you bitch!" he breathes through the pain and quickly gets over it then draws his war axe and madly swings at her.
Being smaller and with her armor being far lighter she easily avoids all of his attacks until she gets her opening. She goes under an attack meant for her head and when she stands back up, she elbows him under his jaw. He's lifted off his feet and she jumps up with him then she quickly closes his neck shut with a strike of her hand and he coughs up blood. She lands on him then bends so far back her back touches the floor to dodge an attack from the front. She brings her legs from under herself in time to kick a soldier that comes up to grab her. She holds herself up with her forearms on the floor then propels herself in an arch going over the next blade from behind. She lands behind her attacker and draws her other dagger then slices open his back with both blades. He falls to the floor with a scream. The others now realizing persuading her with words is no longer an option, so they draw their weapons.
She strategically backs away keeping her guard up making sure she doesn't get flanked. Her back bumps into something thinking it could be a soldier that flanked her, she turns around with a slash. She sees her mistake as she only struck rock and realizes her enemies have their opening. She turns around as fast as she can, to find that her speed isn't as fast as she'd like. However, it's fast enough to meet blades with her attacker. The soldier tries to kick her stomach, but she folds her right knee stopping his attack. She kicks him in the crotch, head buds him, then she slices his throat clean open. Blood similar to oil but solely purple sprays her face blinding her. stupid. She's punched across the face from her right and like a trapped animal she grabs hold of it. She digs her nails into it and stabs the soldier in the armpit. She keeps her grip on his arm then takes hold of his shoulder, and slices down. His insides pour out like a gutted fish.
She's kicked hard in the stomach sending her body against the wall again, the blood now gets in her eyes and it burns. She desperately blinks rapidly since she knows she can't afford to take the time to wipe her face. Instead she decides to bare the pain and swing wildly at any sound that she hears. The sounds stop, and she realizes why they stopped, and it's because they want her to get her sight back. She wipes her eyes clean and when her sight comes back to her horror, a blade comes for her face. She moves her head to the left just in time then stabs into his elbow. He screams in pain and she shuts him up by sheathing her blade into his throat. A blade comes for her left shoulder and she moves forward with a turn and slices into her attackers back. She's kicked in the back and she hits her head on the wall letting out a groan from the pain. They let her turn around to see three soldiers are closest to her with the middle one being even closer and attacking.
She bends down as much as possible before the soldier swings at her, the blade just scraping her back as it goes over her. She rolls forward with a flip and slams her legs against her attacker knocking him to the ground. She gets up, turns around, and runs up the wall before propelling herself off it. As soon as she sees the rest of the soldiers moving in she realizes her fatal mistake. She lands on the soldier stabbing both of her blades into his shoulders. He falls with her on top and as soon as they touch the ground she's punched in the face by a soldier, then kicked across the face by another. She's forced to let go of her blades as she falls off of the body. She quickly gets up but not quick enough and is kicked in the ribs and she flies against the wall again. Again, they let her get up.
"Had enough?" one of them questions. She charges them, throwing a punch at a soldier on her right only for it to be caught then cut by a soldier on her left. She's punched by a soldier on her right. She repeats the desperate process with her other arm resulting in the same result, but this time a soldier uppercuts her. Her legs are also kicked out from under her and she lands on her chest and stomach. She rolls over in pain before one of them squats down in front of her, making sure his crotch is as close to her face as possible. "Want to take us up on the deal now?" She growls and strikes his nose with an open palm killing him instantly.
"Just kill the bitch!" another stomps on her stomach she gasps for air and cries out in pain after she's kicked in the stomach. Another soldier lifts her up to her feet by her hair then he throws her back against the debris wall. The one holding her hair then takes off the golden crown from around her face.
"No!" she pulls back her fist but before she can throw it her arm is grabbed by a soldier on her left. She again repeats a pointless process with her right arm with the same result. Of which now has allowed them to firmly pin her against the wall. "Give it back!" she shouts trying to kick free but the soldiers holding her also wrap their legs around hers.
"Aww, the little princess wants her crown back." They laugh. She fights to get free elbowing the soldier on her left and scratching the face of the soldier on her right. She gets free but before she can even think what to do next, a fist plows into her stomach knocking the wind out of her. She goes numb from the pain, and the two let her drop to her knees. She holds her stomach as she desperately gasps for air. They chuckle for a few seconds before the soldier holding her crown squats and grabs her hard by the chin and forces her to look up at his smug face.
"it is not a crown." She growls through her teeth. He smiles at her then back hands her with her crown cutting her face with its sharp design.
"See, if you were not the heir, then why would you have a crown in the first place? A crown such as this at that." He examines the gold crown that has two long horns that would look like ears at a certain angle. Connected to a large piece that looks like a beak that covers her face from her nose past her forehead. The bottom part covering her jaw is colored a blue silver with a gold chin and it connects to the horns behind her ears. Once he's done admiring its design he turns his attention back to her.
"it is not a royal crown!" He walks up to her then grabs her by her hair and pulls hard,
"I don't really care, but my queen does, and she wants it, and your head. But she never said how." The soldier holding her by her hair nods and the two holding her arms pin her down with all their strength. The soldier takes off his right gauntlet exposing his blue skin. "I want to feel that body of yours with my bare hands. While I can, you understand?" He punches her ribs one after the other and she screams out in pain. "Granted it is your body." He punches her in the kidneys and her body goes limp with the exception of natural twitches from the overwhelming pain. They laugh. He punches her stomach again and she vomits, most of it being just spit. Granted she hasn't eaten in a week. "That's not very lady like." He grabs her face once again but with his gloved hand. "Seems to me, that you need be punished." He punches her across the face twice, her lip bleeds, and the cut on her face opens further. "And the punishment, is death." He grabs her throat and squeezes hard while he grabs her breasts one after the other roughly. She closes her eyes, so they won't see her crying, see that she's afraid to die. She won't give them the satisfaction. He pulls back his fist then something cuts through the air and blood sprays on her and her two captors.
She opens her eyes to see that her assaulter is impaled by a trident that's torn through his chest and the forks are halfway into the ground. He gasps for air while blood trails down both sides of his mouth with an expression of shock that matches Talani's. Not simply by just the sudden unknown attack, but the fact that the weapon used is not something that her or any of her fellow Atlanteans have ever seen. Only heard of. The remaining soldiers spread out drawing their rifles while the two pinning her down let go and take cover next to her. The soldiers fire away at the high rise of debris until some pieces collapse, and they're all quickly engulfed by cloud of dust. The cloud becomes so dense Talani can barely see any of the soldiers, but she can hear the sounds of a fight. Suddenly a soldier flies out of the smoke and smashes into the wall next to Talani, his head explodes in gore on impact. The sound of Earth shattering hurts her ears paired with the ground shaking for a second. A gust of wind blows away the dust cloud, the source of it appears to be a completely pitch-black figure leaning down with its fist into what used to be a head and helmet and solid ground beneath.
Two soldiers appear and hack into its back doing nothing to it although they do create sparks. It stands up straight and they attack again and without looking or turning around to face them the figure grabs the blade belonging to the soldier on its left. It then robotically turns its wrist snapping the blade in half then robotically spins and puts its arm through the armed soldier's chest. The second soldier punches the figure in the head with all the strength he can muster. It doesn't move an inch. The soldier screams in pain as he drops to his knees holding his hand. While the figure takes its hand out of the soldier and watches the corpse fall to the floor. It grabs the broken hand of the downed soldier then with ease and one arm it lifts him up by it. He screams and begs for mercy from the figure that still doesn't move an inch despite the soldier using all his weight to get free. Finally, as if annoyed with the soldier's begging, the figure stabs the soldier with the broken blade. The soldier gasps in pain for the blade pierces his lungs before he then starts to choke on his own blood. The figure plunges the blade into his body repeatedly until he stops moving then it throws the soldier to the side as easily as throwing a pebble. It turns its head to look at Talani after she lets out a whimper from fear of this, alien before her standing amidst a pile of dead soldiers.
The soldiers next to Talani draw their rifles and open fire at the alien and to their horror the blue lasers simply ricochet off it. In a split second, its glossy black visor is almost touching her forehead. All the mean while it has smashed the two soldier's heads into the wall with their blood gushing in between its fingers. It takes his hands out of the wall and it stands a foot and half taller than her, its hands drip with blood, but it doesn't look at her.
"My apologies." it speaks in a filtered voice through its black helmet. It turns around and walks over to pick up her crown then walks back to her to then hold it out to her. She faints, it watches her fall to the floor then it picks her up and walks her over to a flat slab of debris and gently places her down to rest. When it does it sees her beauty, despite her bloody and bruised face and her blood covered beautiful dark pink hair. It moves her hair to cover her eyes so when the sun comes out she doesn't get woken up or burned. It walks away back into the sea of white rocks and disappears from sight.
Her face burns from the pain of her blood becoming sticky against her left shoulder as she lifts her head now that she's awake. She tries to lift herself up to get a look around herself, but the pain is too much, so she simply turns her head to her left. She figures she somehow killed all of them and that the alien she saw was just a figment of her imagination brought on by her close brush with death. That is until the black armored alien comes out from behind some debris on her left past where she was being pinned down. It's dragging two dead Leechers as it walks backwards to the field of bodies, fat Leechers at that. The shock from the sight of it and the pain, hunger, and exhaustion take her and she passes out once again.
It seems to place them in a certain spot then poses them in a specific way. It grabs one Atlantean soldier after the other from the ring spreading them out in a crooked broken line. It walks back behind the debris and walks back out carrying a Leecher on each of his shoulders, and one more each in his hands with ease. It drops them in specific places around the soldiers then goes back out of sight then comes back into sight with handfuls of Leecher weapons. It places each weapon in the correct position by a corpse until only two weapons remain, which it keeps.
A small but wide piece of rusted metal with teeth on the edge and a long blade of rusted metal with teeth on the edge. It hacks into each soldier once or twice before it drops the blades for an Atlantean steel blade and rifle. It repeats the same process, but it mainly makes the wounds in the back of the Leechers. When it's done it places the weapons back to their appropriate spots then walks over to the impaled soldier. The soldier has slid down the pole and his back is stuck against the forks. The alien presses its left foot on the soldier's chest forcing the forks to go back through the body then the alien takes the trident out. The soldier lets out a feminine cry both times while the alien tightens its grip on the pole and it retracts into just the 3 forks. It puts the forks over its shoulder and like a magnet they stick to his back on their own.
It starts to walk away but stops for a reason then he turns around and picks up a Leecher long blade. It walks over to the solider it impaled and stabs the Leecher blade into the same wound and leaves it there then finally walks over to Talani. It picks her up and walks further inland out of sight.
She wakes up in what looks to be a cave but it's rather nice and manmade. A fire is in front of her, kindly warming her body in an invisible blanket. The pain is far less than before but it's still there as is her fatigue. She tries to get up and that's when she realizes that she's naked and is lying on a bed made from something she's never seen before. She frantically looks around as fear and confusion consume her. Supported by the thought that she never beat the soldiers, and that they have been having their way with her. The flame that's been blocking her sight to see what's in front of her dances differently. Revealing the alien sitting on a metal box while It examines her until its startled by her scream and she slaps it.
"You-you, are-you are, an alien!" She points and screams at it as she backs away.
"I'm not an alien." it says calmly taking her crown solely in its right hand.
"My mother told me about you, she said that you would say that. And-and that you-you take people away into the sky, with l-light and they're never seen again. And if I ever encountered one of you I should run." It turns its attention at her and she covers herself as best she can with her arms blushing.
"I assure you, I am not an alien." It doesn't look at her.
"You probed me." she scoots back against the wall behind her which is surprisingly cold.
"I didn't probe you."
"Then why am I naked? Where is my armor?"
"I removed your armor to tend to your wounds, by applying a healing ointment I make. And the reason you're still bare is because the ointment needs to dry by air and can't have anything touching it before it dries, or it won't work."
"An ointment? So that means you did touch me, probed me!"
"You were going to die."
"Okay, why do you sound and look like that then?"
"This" it says pointing to itself. "is my armor, and it's the key to my survival out here."
"Then why don't I need one?" It stands up. "What are you doing?" it doesn't answer as it walks over to a rack made out of bones she's never seen. She also sees that her skin-tight blue suit, with aqua blue stars on the shoulders, as are spirals that start at the shoulder and go down to her shoulder blade. which is her family crest and is the same aqua blue colors as the stars. On the back is a silver flexible spine that serves as a power source for her armor. The alien tosses it to her without looking back at her and keeps its back to her, giving her her privacy. She quickly gets dressed eyeing the alien the entire time. When she's done, she stands up as best she can despite the pain.
She turns around to run. "Don't you want your crown?" She turns back and eyes her crown in its hand.
"Toss it over." It does and the fact that it moves startles her, so she doesn't catch it. But before it hits the ground, the alien is there to catch it. She stares at it as it holds her crown with such care in between two of its fingers. She stares in shock at the back of the head of the black alien. It stands up straight with her crown in hand which makes her turn and run in the direction of what she hopes is the exit. She exits the cave out of breath with her fatigue catching up to her again and she's blinded and burned by the sun. She quickly rushes back into the cover of the cave while her eyes adjust. She realizes that she is high off the ground and far from the ocean on her right. To her left is nothing but leagues of barren wasteland of white dirt and titanic eroded, shattered, rocks. She hears the alien coming for her and she jumps off in hopes to land on a slab of debris she can slide all the way down. But when her feet touch it, it breaks apart and she falls further down smashing through or against rock after rock. Finally, she lands but stumbles then falls to the floor. She looks up and notices the full ludicrous scale of the new world she's entered. The fear of the unknown and lostness makes her want to cry, but she can't give up. She can't fail her family.
She knows she isn't this weak so why is she so vulnerable? The sound of the alien landing a couple of feet above her on a pile of debris sends the necessary fear into her. To get her on her feet and moving again and she ends up stopping at the same spot where she almost died. Except all she sees is scattered pieces of armor and a lot of blood. She rests behind cover, so she can catch her breath however she finds that it's nearly impossible because of the carnage around her. She knows what was responsible for this, but what she doesn't know or understands. Is why the alien put the bodies out there. The alien or something lands above her forcing her to run whether she likes it or not for the ocean.
"Could it be worse than what you would face if you went back down?" She stops right before she jumps in now stuck bending over. Forced to look at her reflection in the water. She sees her bruised swollen face and messy hair. She looks past her reflection at the ocean and thinks of the constant carnage, danger, and the slow terrible death that awaits her down below. She looks back at her own reflection and catches herself crying for a reason she does not know and then it hits her. She hasn't been able to process and/or cope with the death of her family just hours before. Betrayed by their own soldiers she was told to run and never look or come back to Atlantis. She stands up straight turning her body so the right half of her is closer to the ocean and the left half of her is closer to the land. She looks back to her left at the land of aliens and the unknown where anything or nothing could happen. She spots the alien waiting on top of a pile debris for her. With her crown now in its left hand.
Even though he is an alien, he saved me so that must mean he does not want to harm me. Or he could just not want his specimen harmed. but he let me get hurt, that is if he was watching the entire time. he saved me nonetheless, but it could just be a tactic to get my trust. then again... he took my armor off while I was asleep and probed me.
It jumps off the rock and lands right in front of her then with a firm grip it grabs her by the shoulders and moves her. now he stands between her and the ocean but at the same time he's acting as shade from the sun for her. She wants to scream, to run, to fight, as it lets go of her. She starts to back up, so he grabs her again and before she can scream, fight, or run. It taps the sides of where its neck would be. A hiss is heard then the helmet retracts away revealing a handsome ATLANTEAN! But one she hasn't seen before, even among the human looking ones. His pale skin with an aqua blue blemish, emerald eyes, and silver hair. His stare is cold, yet his eyes are full of care and show great tire, what from she does not know. May never know.
Fear, anger, pain, hate, fatigue, and confusion flood her body and consumes her so intensely. it's as if they have replaced the blood and bones in her body. Unamused and irritated by this young woman he begins to move, forcing her to flinch. However, he walks past her before a gust of wind is heard and when she opens her eyes, he's gone. Her crown has now seemed to have taken his place. She looks around for him, but she can't see or hear anything abnormal. It could be a trap, a trap she's willing to spring since her family's Cressant is on the line. She slowly takes each step, keeping her ears and mind open and ready for the faintest abnormal sound. She gets to her Cressant then she reaches down for it.
"Are you coming or not?" his unfiltered voice echoes from behind the debris he disappeared behind before.
"Wait but you are Atlantean. Why do you not go down?" She shouts back not knowing how far away he is. "Have you never seen Atlantis?" She shouts as she picks up speed. "How long have you been up here?" she goes faster. "Were you born up here?" annoyed she runs faster finally exiting the maze of debris and she ends up in a wide path with large pillars of debris and rock on both sides. She stops now more annoyed than before. "Why would you not make it look like the soldiers got ambushed?" She screams before something lands behind her, grabs her, and covers her mouth. It carries her into an opening under two overlapping pieces of debris.
"Because the Leechers would ask themselves, what were the Atlanteans doing up here. That answer will be simply that they came up here to camp out like any other squad of soldiers. Why they do it, I or the Leechers know not. Nonetheless the Leechers may be ugly, and smell, but they are not stupid. Some of them anyway. In the end, all they care for, is food." He waits for her to nod. She does. "I'm going to remove my hand now, but only if you stay quiet." She nods, and he removes his hand.
"What is up here?" Even though she whispers he covers her mouth again then holds her other arm down to her side, so she can't fight. Or make any sound. She starts to scream although muffled, she licks his hand, then bites into it yet he seems to not care at all. The ground shakes once then again and again and not before long a large shadow moves past the opening. A large pale pink insect like leg stomps right in front of the opening then moves away. The ground shakes and a horrifying ear-piercing screech is heard that shakes her chest until the creature is finally long gone.
"My home." he lets go of her, but she doesn't move.
"Is that where we were? Where we are going now?" she starts to turn around when he walks past her.
"It's where I'm going."
"What about me?"
"What about you?" he keeps going.
"I cannot stay out here all alone."
"You have the strength to slap the one who saved you and crash through hundreds of feet of debris then run two leagues back to where your death awaits. Now I don't know about you, but that seems to me that you're capable of moving on your own now. It appears my probing did work."
"But I cannot survive out here, I do not know how, I do not know anything of whats up here."
"That's not my problem."
"Then why did you save me?"
"I was going to put that Leecher patrol out, so the next patrol would have something to eat and stay outside the debris. You and the soldiers were in my way."
"Wait, you feed them?"
"I don't know how things work in Atlantis, but up hear if the blood of anything especially Atlantean blood. Enters the air, then it enters the noses of the leechers. Which then brings them in numbers. Large numbers."
"So, you still would not have saved me, even you weren't going to feed the leechers?
"I didn't ask for you to enter my life. I have my life and you have yours. It's not my fault your life brought you up here." He turns around to face her.
"Then why care if I had my Cressant back?" she gets in his face with a raised eyebrow.
"Well you didn't want it, you preferred to run." He stares down at her plainly.
"That is because, I thought you were an alien." He turns around again.
"Aliens aren't real." He exits the cover their under.
"How do you know?" He gives her a distinct look.
"You don't know me, if you want to live up here then let's keep it that way." He walks away from the entrance and she follows.
"Great the first Atlantean I meet that is not part of my family and does not want to kill me, and he's got attachment issues." She says in a condescending tone which seems to strike him hard since he stops dead in his tracks. He rushes back over to her and grabs her by her shoulders. "There are about fifteen different type of beasts just barely this far inland, that want to kill anything that moves. Or makes sound." He makes sure she knows that last fact is aimed at her.
"is that supposed to scare me?" She stares at his hands and he lets go of her.
"You were the one shaking at the mere sound of that creature, and you jumped at the sight of its foot. So, you tell me." He walks away.
"Give me my Cressant back." He throws it to her like it's worthless.
"It was nice meeting you." He leaps away high into the air and propels off rock after rock as he goes higher and farther from her.
"Aliens." She watches him disappear from her sight.