Image by Artapixel from Pixabay
The Fall and Rise of a Hero
25,000 feet above The Great City, Burl Arj a former salaryman is in free fall. On his right hand, a relic of the Old World. A five-shot, double-action large-caliber revolver produced by Lion Armaments, firing a powerful .50 caliber cartridge. He stared up at the gargantuan spacecraft of unknown origins covering the entirety of the city. Its main cannons started to move, pointing towards his direction.
Burl smiled as he took out from his trench coat a detonator. Remembering a movie he loved, he lifted it then said, “Hasta la vista baby!” Laughing hard as pressed hard the red button.
A huge implosion resounded. After a few seconds, the entire center structure of the craft vanished; in the middle, a small black sun floats. Burl felt his descent slow down. He knows this, it was explained to him by Kat. He mused himself by quoting her, “The Anti-matter bomb once detonated will starts to produce its own gravitational pull. It will annihilate any matter that touches it creating more anti-matter particles, making itself bigger and bigger till there is nothing left to consume.”
Memories started to come in, flooding his mind, taking him back to a place he used to know. A place before these invaders from far away came and drove humanity into extinction.
The Great City was founded by the revolutionary Neo. It is the world’s capital of commerce. It is where all the nations join together to drive the boundaries of progress. Where science and technology reign. Engineering builds marvels beyond the imagination. Everything was ‘perfect’ till the skies darkened and rain of laser fire came down on the city.
The remaining survivors formed a resistance. In a last-ditch effort, they took the experimental anti-matter bomb made by scientist Bhatt then forced their way into the heart of the enemy.
They already knew the war is lost. All they have going for them is revenge, but hope showed up unusually.
Burl remembered that hope that was entrusted to him. His eyes burned with determination. He drag open his trench coat, the sight of his office attire underneath made him pause and smile. On his right side holsters an unusual gun. It has a simple design, resembles a single-shot grenade launcher. Took it out with his left hand and flicked it, breaking it in half over its hinge. Inside the barrel, a violet life-like orb resides.
He suddenly realized that his descent has stopped and he is now being pulled towards the anti-matter.
Burl turned to take one last look at the ruins of The Great City. He gritted his teeth then pointed the cannon towards the anti-matter and pulled the trigger. The orb shot out exploding a meter away from him creating a small wormhole.
”Guys, I hope ya're on the other side of this thing.” He said it with a smile on his face. Holstered the cannon then jumped in.
Inside the portal was like a corrugated tube made of condensed time and space. His body is slowly losing its shape as if his bones did not exist. He tried to shout but no voice came out of his mouth. His mind starts to spiral out of his sanity. The next thing Burl knew he was flying towards a metal trash bin; violently hitting it, but the pain was a very much welcome feeling.
He saw a glimpse of the wormhole before it vanish into thin air.
”I am not doing that again!” Burl declared as he chuckled. He put his left hand on the bin dragging himself up laughing. He then tapped at the communication link attached to his cybernetic mask, “Guys! Guys! Ya need to hear this! I came back in time to save ya’re sorry asses! Guys!
Burl’s eyes started to adjust to the darkness and his head starts to re-orient itself.
His heart raced as he realized that this place is nothing like the futuristic utopia that is The Great City. He turned his head left and right seeing nothing but rats and garbage scattered all over the abandoned alley. He started running. His legs failed him multiple times, but he drag himself up every time he fell, until he reached a ruined highway leading to a dystopian metropolis.
”Where the hell am I! This isn’t The Great City!” He exclaimed. Smashing his revolver towards a brick wall in fury breaking a part of it. A small neon sign fell, it hung a few feet above the ground by its electric cables.
Burl grimaced as he read it.
WELCOME TO ZEELIS
FIN
Thank you for reading 😁
Author's note
The #inkwellprompt is: They're here!
Genre(s): Science Fiction; Utopian and Dystopian
Added challenge is world-building... I tried feels like I am lacking.
Inspiration? Didn't have any till @dynamicrypto introduce me to a contest by @psyberx. It is a character creation challenge which is set in a dystopian background. Will be making a separate post for that, as this doesn't fit it (especially the part with the tags). I mostly use it as inspiration since it holds everything I need to make a story: Science fiction and a world to build!
I also want to thank Burl for lending me his name 🤣 and also The City of Neoxian and its Citizens.
My references that I used in creating this story: .500 S&W Magnum, Smith & Wesson Model 500, Trench Coat 🤣, Anti-matter, Luke Aikins and Sky Diving
All links go to Wikipedia.org. The pictures and the banner in this post were made or taken by myself, ©@khoola. In the cases when they were taken from other sources I stated the source in the sub-caption of the pictures.