Part1 - Prelude

ATD 40, July 2nd – AwokenFrom Slumber

"LEGACY OF ND……!"

*Thud!*

"Ouch….!"

Rubbing his right arm after accidentally hitting the wall, Nano slowly woke up.

"Aw man….was it just a dream…? It seemed awfully realistic though…"

He yawned and stretched on the bed, accidentally knocking something down.

*plop*

"Hmmm….?" Looking at the floor beside his bed, Nano saw a book.

"Ah…It looks like I fell asleep while reading that. No wonder I dreamt of something like that."

Nano got out of his bed and picked up the book. The room was dim and the light source came from the small holes inthe wooden window.

His room was no bigger than 5m2. It only hada single bed, a study desk, a chair, a small bookcase and a wardrobe. It could be considered a very luxurious dwelling regarding his circumstance.

Nano put the book on the desk while looking at the cover, "Legacy Of The Legendary Heroes".

"….Heroes eh….how I wish I could be like one of them... They seemed to really care and love people and their kind. Like a TRUE family..."

He looked into the mirror above his desk.

What his eyes saw was a young asian male in his mid-late twenties with short hair and a serious look. But in his mind, he saw a nobody.

Sighing while remembering his dream, Nano walked out of his room.

The hall was crowded with people from various ages and races, little children, young girls and old men. They were queuing up to use the shared bathroom.

"Aw man... I should have woken up earlier…..I’ll just come back later…"

Dejected, Nano went back to his room.

Sitting on the chair, Nano picked up the story book from earlier.

"Why did you give this to me….Did you know that it would give birth tothe likes of me…?"

Then he began to remember his past… It was just like an illusion. A fake dream. Fake happiness. A fake family.

Gritting his teeth, Nano tried to get rid of his bad mood by opening the window.

"Ugh….So bright…and it’s kinda hot too…."

From the window, Nano could see his ‘neighborhood’.

It was like a dumpster,the remains of what once was a great city.

Now it was all just a shambles of the past, a ruin of a city.

Most of the buildings were in poor condition and the ‘paved road’ were just dirt and dusty soil.He could see the lack of tall buildings unlike those in story book pictures. Even those who still stood looked very shabby and it wouldn’t be surprising if they actually fell one day.

People were busy as Nano saw from his room, the 3rd floor of the building he lived in, the only 'apartment' in this area. Even though it was called an apartment, it was in poor condition and the rent was very high. What made this building to be considered as an apartment was the fact that it had clean water and ‘sturdy’ walls to protect them from the harsh weather.

After a while, Nano got bored and closed the window as he lay down on his bed again.

That was when he glanced at the calendar hung on the wardrobe.

ATD 40 - July 1st, he had ripped it since it wasthe 2nd today. Monday.

ATD 40. 40 years After The ‘Day’ or what people refer to as the ‘Doomsday’.

Nano recalled of what he knew while walking out of the room, heading towards the bathroom.

There weren’t many people in queue now so Nano managed to get in after a few minutes of waiting in line.

While taking a shower, memories kept coming back to him.

More than 40 years ago, before ATD. A huge war broke out. No one really knew the reason behind it, but it mattered not since what mattered was the end result. Almost no nation was spared. Destruction, death, hunger and all imaginable or even unimaginable horrible things happened everywhere on the earth.The world was split into many factions even though actually they are stabbing each other from behind. And finally the major nations even used nukes and chemical weapons against their opponents.

Many small helpless nations were utterly devastated leaving little to no survivors. Human population, no…not just humans, even animals and plants dropped in number significantly, even those who survived had issues with their health.

When all hope seemed lost, like in the end when no one would remember what peace even was, it came.

A bunch of meteors were going to collide with the Earth. It was like God was angry and wanted to just get rid of humans. When everyone finally noticed, it was already too late.

The already half destroyed humanity was utterly devastated.

But ‘luckily’ it stopped the war and the world went into a ‘peace’ period. It made them finally realize that forget winning the war, to even survive was close to impossible with the situation in hand.

Right now, humanity had begunto rebuild their past glory, like a worm crawling on the ground, scavenging for food. The resources for survival were destroyed by the meteors and war. Climate change was making things even more difficult. Even technology got a huge setback with so many important facilities destroyed, including lots of satellites.

*Krrk*

Turning off the shower, Nano dried his body with a towel, wore his clothes and went back to his room.

Nano looked at the book on his table once again. And then at a small picture of him, still 1 or 2 years old in it, his father, and … his mother, even though his mother’s picture was clearly glued later, since it was impossible for her to be there…

"Hhh….family and heroes, huh. Bullshit."

Nano wore his boots and went out to work.

The sun was already high up by then and it was hot, making him drench in sweat after a short walk.

"Today's sun also fucked up it seems…."

Nano continued to walk slowly toward his ‘workplace’.

He worked at a recycling site.

As the name suggested, they had to find garbage and other things from the ‘outskirts’ of the neighbourhood, pick usable things and exchange themfor money or, repair them first if they were broken, which he was‘good’ at.

On his way, he passed through a market when a commotion erupted.

"What is it…?" Nano hid himself, wary of the commotion.

Then he saw her.

A little girl, her clothes in tatter.

Her long white hair was very dirty, and it looked like that she had not taken care of herself nicely. She had quite the long nails but what struck him well were her eyes.They were clear and full of spirit but the shape of the pupil was like a cat’s.

She was being chased by some shop owner, it looked like the apples she was carrying with her were stolen.

"A thief…?"

But suddenly, she tripped.

It was no wonder that she tripped. She was running on such a road and had very likely not eaten for a long time.

It was common here for people who couldn’twork or were unable to earn enough money to steal for food. They too wanted to survive after all.

"But why did she steal…? She doesn’t look like that kind of girl…." Nano spoke to himself as he observed her. The looks in her eyes told him that she was not a petty thief.

Then the shop owners caught her and dragged her away as the crowd dispersed.

But Nano felt like something was bugging him and so he followed them.

"Damn…what am I doing….should have ignored her and went straight to work….I got a really bad feeling about this now…"

He followed them as they took her to the ruined part of the city, which looked like a giant dumpster, where he usually scavenged for things.

After a while, the shop owner holding the girl tossed her on the ground.

"Kyahh!"

"You little runt!"

"Damned thief! We’ll teach you a lesson!"

5 men against a little girl.

And then the beating began.

But Nano felt like it was enough, while it wastrue that she might have stolen food, she was a child and maybe even an orphan. She must have had an unlucky life and she possibly couldn’t be a bad girl, but the circumstances could have forced her to resort to theft. Just when Nano was going to get out of his hiding to stop them….

The girl began to struggle back.

With a way that made all the men screamed in fear.

Her finger nails grew longer and longer by almost 5 inchesm it was as if her fingernails turned into daggers. And she used it to slice apart the wooden stick in one of the shop owner’s grip.

"UWAHHH…..She’s one of ‘them’. The monsters!"

"I’m not a monster…!" the girl wailed.

"SHUT UP YOU MONSTER! BECAUSE OF YOUR KIND….."

"I’m—" *WHACK!*

Then one of the men hit her from behind with a metal pipe.

The weakened girl fell to the ground, blood trickled from her head.

Her consciousness was fading quickly.

"It’s because of your kind…my wife died…!"

"Our family ruined…!"

"See what your kind had bring us to!"

"I’m not….a monster…" the girl said weakly as she cried in pain.

"SHUT UP!"

"AHH!!!"

A man stepped on her stretched arm.

"Uhhh….." the girl were crying and writhed on the ground, and she looked very pitiful.

"Hey…let’s kill her. She’s weakened. Before she grow stronger and become one of them…"

"Yeah…it’s not like she has a family…"

"True. No one cares for her anyways…She's just a thief. We won't be held guilty."

Nano saw and heard all of it.

And he felt something hot on his cheek.

"Tears….I’m….Crying…?"

Then he remembered the picture book, his past, his dream, all of it spinning in his mind and Nano felt like his head was splitting.

The girl was going to be killed. She was a thief. A thief deserved it. But then…Why…Why couldn’t he accept it.

Then Nano saw a welding mask beside him.

He looked at the girl again, crying in pain.

It was then that Nano made his decision.

"You monster, repent in whatever hell you are going to!"

"Uaaaa...."

The little girl closed her eyes as one of the men swung the metal pipe towards her head.

*WHAM*

""""Wha--?""""

"Uh….?"

The little girl slowly opened her eyes and saw a pair of boots.

Looking up slowly with great difficulty, her vision was blurred but she could still see a figure, wearing a white lab coat-like-cloak standing in front of her, as if protecting her.

"Who….are you….?" she asked weakly.

"A hero…no…that’s wrong…Someone who cares about you. A human being. Same as you."

The girl replied weakly, "Someone who cares about me...? A human….? Same as… me…?"

More tears dropped from the girl’s eyes but for a different reason.

"Yes…a fellow human being."

"HEY WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!? GET OUT OF THE WAY! SHE’S A MONSTER AND A THIEF!"

"SHE DOESN’T DESERVE TO LIVE!"

"I told you….She’s a human, just like us…"

The young man, wearing the welding mask, raised his right arm and suddenly.

*KKRRZK*

""""!!!""""

All of them were surprised to see that the raised right arm crackled with sparks of electricity.

"He… HE is one of them!"

"KILL THEM BOTH!"

"…..I should have went straight to work after all…."

But the little girl couldn’t see and hear anything anymore as her consciousness finally faded away….