Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving this story a chance~! I've been wanting to write a legit apoc story for a while now (AABC is technically not apoc, even if it has an apoc in its title, lol).
I have shelved about two or three stories in the past few years because they bored me, and only this one survived. I hope this one that saw the light would be fun for everyone!
Fair warning, the FL will be a foreigner to the pre-apocalypse world and I want to give her some breathing time to appreciate its beauty. This story will also involve the entire country, so the actual apocalypse will...not start immediately. hehe.
Hope it'll still interest you!
Now, to the story!!
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The Central Stronghold, 50 Years after the Fall
On a planet stripped of life, amidst the hollow, fractured structures looming underneath the dull, dusty skies, only one place was left with light.
This was the Central Refuge, the only safe zone still standing in this dying world.
Sadly, not for long.
BOOM!
"AHHH!"
"DAMN THESE BUGS!"
"They're climbing up! Get rid of them! HURRY!!"
This lone base was now surrounded by hundreds of millions of insectoid creatures of varying appearances, but all with a single goal in mind—to consume.
Some had thin bodies and sharp raptorial legs, some were thinner but could fly, some were stouter with heavier attacks, while others were just huge with nearly impenetrable defenses.
Their numbers were dense and endless. Even at a height, one could not see the end over the horizon. It looked like they covered the world.
In a sense, they kind of do.
From above, their entire base looked like a little pimple surrounded by an eerie dark sea that consumed everything in its path. How easy would it be for such a massive force to overcome this little pimple?
However, as hopeless as it may be, the people of the base wouldn't go down without a fight.
BAM!
A young man with pale skin stood in the middle of the battlement, palm bleeding. He then shook off the blood dripping from his palm, targeting the flying insectoid rushing at him, splattering on two more bugs below it.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The blood ignited upon contact, creating an explosion that destroyed the flying bug's hardy shell, while seriously damaging the other two.
"Nice one!"
Next to him, a chubby auntie jumped over the wall as if she were weightless. She stretched her legs to give the two bugs a kick each, and suddenly her kicks seemed like they weighed tons.
On another side, an intense fire tornado—fed by two Awakeners—traversed the enemy line, obliterating bugs wherever it passed through.
Sights such as these played all over the territory, especially around the battlements as the Awakeners handled the bugs that managed to go over their initial defenses.
And there was an increasing number of these bugs.
Amidst all these battles, the sounds of shooting were also consistent. These were their snipers, all positioned safely a few blocks into the safe zone.
There was one who worked extremely seamlessly with the awakeners on that side and had saved them many times, causing the casualties on this sector to be much lower than others.
The level of trust was high, and they could leave their backs to this sniper, allowing them to push themselves and their abilities to the limit.
The shots were usually perfect, except for the occasional close calls.
Bang!
A bald guy gasped when he felt something sharp pass his cheek. Because of the sting, he could tell it was bleeding.
After punching a hole into the alien he was fighting, he whipped his head to look at a roofdeck area a block away. "Hey, Naia! Watch it!"
At this, a pretty redhead popped over the parapet wall. "Sorry! Your head was too shiny! I got distracted!"
Vein popped over the bald guy's head, and he was so angry he wanted to laugh. It so happened that another alien had crept up, and the strength of his punch seemed to have increased a level.
"That… that girl gets more annoying every day! What happened to the cute bundle of joy back then?!"
BANG!
Another close shot, but this time it killed another bugger that appeared next to him and was poised to slash his backside.
"You're welcome!" the feminine voice echoed from afar.
"..."
"Let it go, Smith," Pairo, the main fire user, laughed at him. "Kids can't stay cute forever. It's against nature. Not to mention: that one's already in her 20s," he said, smiling despite the fact that he was drenched in sweat and blood, completely used to the pain.
Smith rolled his eyes and, with a huff, grabbed another bugger trying to climb over. This one was an infantry-class insectoid that wouldn't go down even with a few of his punches.
Pairo sent fireballs to weaken the monster, while Smith served as the meat shield, controlling its movements while his teammates weakened it.
BANG!
BANG!
On cue, two shots landed on its eerie eyes, making it scream as they pierced through. The monster visibly slowed down and weakened, and Pairo and Smith worked together to take it down within a few more shots.
"You're welcome, again!" the voice drifted to their direction again, making them smile again despite the ache in their bodies.
It was a welcome air of levity, especially when their bodies and spirits were getting heavy.
They had been fighting for more than a day straight, and their fighting population had been reduced by half, and there was no end in sight.
Even among their non-awakened population, who mostly served in logistics, as snipers, or as workers in the control room and wall defenses, had gone one by one due to sheer exhaustion.
This massive base had once been part of a larger suburban area under the scope of the Capital City. By that time, most of the world had become a wasteland either due to the various natural disasters or by the invaders that ultimately caused it.
Now, after fifty years had passed since the monsters arrived, what remained was a small area protected by a wall tens of meters high and a two-meter-wide battlement area.
The wall was dotted with various weapons on its surface, each one able to release large amounts of energy. Each one was controlled by a well-trained guard, usually a non-awakener, because Awakeners were far more useful going against the monsters directly.
Most of the survivors, by this time, had developed the ability to fight against these beasts, with the greatest fighters even able to handle several at a time.
One had to know that any of these aliens, even the weaker ones, could —once upon a time—decimate a small town before they could be dealt with.
It was just that by the time the Awakeners appeared, it had already been many years since the aliens terrorized the planet. By the time people gained the ability to fight back, the monsters had already multiplied to overwhelming numbers.
One would wonder: How different would it be had they discovered their strength a bit earlier?