The Saga Of The Emptiness Harbinger - Chapter 1 Becoming Shorty

I woke up and slowly opened my eyes to look at the clock.

‘Shit, I’m late again. Professor’s gonna kill me this time.’ I thought as I jumped from the bed and ran into the bathroom while changing my clothes.

‘I might catch the bus if I hurry.’ I ran through the door out of my room and ran down the hall when my father showed up in front of me and blocked my path. Then he said:

“Late again?”

“Not if you let me pass through the door so I can catch the bus.” I said roughly since I was a little bit annoyed by him blocking my path to the only possibility to catch a bus to school.

“I told you not to watch TV that late at night, but you didn’t listen.”

“Dad, let me pass I need to go to school. I’ll be really late if I had to walk.”

As always, my father didn’t let me go. It wasn’t that he’s nuts or something. He doesn’t believe in the government issued programs that schools are using these days, are good for us kids. He thinks that they’re too militaristic and violent for the kids of our age.

I say shit.

I’m 17 now dammit, our Emperor lead our army to a wonderful victory at that age. I’m not to compare to him of course. He’s trained for war his entire life, and he’s a Ghargonov on top of it. And me? I am nothing more than a kid from the neighborhood.

I sighed and said:

“Then what should I do the entire day if I ain’t going to school?”

“Oh, but you are going to school. But not that one anymore.” he said coldly

“What do you mean not that one?!” I said a little bit too loud because I was surprised by the coldness in his voice.

And then it happened.

A loud bang came from outside. My father didn’t even have time to turn around and open the door to see what happened when the door hit him in the back. The door knocked him unconscious and pushed him into me. We both fell to the ground as the explosion sent us over to the other side of the hall. I nearly blacked out because of the sheer force of the explosion. Not to mention hitting the floor, and the wall, oh and don’t forget the ruble that was flying everywhere. Seeing that my father was unconscious and isn’t showing any sign of waking up soon I pushed him to the side and got up.

‘What the fuck just happened?’ I thought ‘Could it be…’

My thoughts wandered off as I got out of the house through a hole that was called doors seconds ago. And what I saw was the same thing my father hated in the country. The military.

Actually, I saw civilians to be more precise, or even more precise, what was left of them. And the military part of what I saw was the giant shiny metal zeppelin high up in the air, and a hole in front of me. ‘Test bomb’ I thought as I ran back to where my father was and tried waking him. He woke up after a few slaps. He seemed confused for a few moments before calming down.

“What happened?” he asked, still unsure about his surroundings.

“No time to talk, dad, they’re gonna start carpeting us in a few moments.” I answered hurrying him on his legs and to the basement.

“Carpeting? Oh, crap. What is their formation like, and which side they’re flying to?” His mind cleared up quickly after he heard me say carpeting, and he also quickened up his pace. Basement entrance was a couple of meters away from the back door.

“There’s only one big but he fired a test bomb so he’s proba…” I started talking about what I saw when my father interrupted me saying:

“Fuck it, it’s no use going to the basement, he’ll soon be above our neighborhood. We might as well stand here and watch the fireworks.”

“What! Why the hell are you saying this?!” I yelled at him.

“Didn’t they teach you about lasers at your school?” he asked in a tone full of ridicule.

“No, they didn’t yet. We should have learned about them today but somebody didn’t let me go to school.” I answered using a similar tone.

“Blast radius will destroy everything within fifteen kilometers. We have no way of running away since it’ll penetrate into the ground and make a hole two kilometers deep. And it happens to be hovering just above our house. Heh, nice way for saying thanks you old bastard” My father was talking about the precise measures of the blast and it blew my mind.

I blacked out from unknown reasons, but I’m sure that it was from the big boom that followed my father’s words.

I woke up in a dark room. Soon I figured out that I’m laying on a bed much like a one that you could find in a hospital. When I tried moving my head it felt light like a feather, as did my limbs.

‘Damn, did I die or something? Wasn’t expecting it to be so dark, even in hell.’ I thought to myself ‘But I should look around a little bit, I might find something or someone.’

As I stood up to look around, lights came on and I heard somebody say in a mocking voice:

“And here we are. A kid trying to sneak out from us! Haha, didn’t have a good laugh for a week!!” I was startled by the laughter louder than a grenade. I turned around to see who is it that thinks I’m running away, and I had something to see. There were three men in their thirties wearing same blue uniforms, a same blue beret and black boots. They seemed to be playing a game of rock-paper-scissors. Nothing unusual for Pangrasian special forces to be so carefree when on duty.

“W-what happened?” I stumbled to remember how to speak, must have been in a coma for a couple of months. Then I remembered my father and the sight of him looking at the giant shadow in the sky with a mix of excitement and fear showing on his face.

“Where is my father?!” I really panicked for the first time in my life.

“Calm down kid, we ain’t gonna tell you shit if you don’t calm down!” One of the soldiers raised his voice to pull me back from the abyss of grievance and insanity. I calmed down and asked:

“What happened?”

“Your city was attacked by Almidhsfead Empire, and they went all out to destroy it. And they succeeded, sadly.” the soldier said.

“Where is my father?” I asked again.

“Before I tell you, we need to get to know each others’ name. I’m Mark Harckson, a centurion of the Special Forces. The other two gentlemen that are accompanying me are not worth mentioning since they are going to a long mission in a few minutes. And what should we call you kiddo?” the man who is supposedly a centurion asked in one breath.

“My name is…” I realized that I can’t remember my own name, nor my father’s name, nor any name from my past. So I said:

“I don’t know, I can’t remember any of the names that I knew. And how long was I out?”

“Half a year. Can you walk?”

“Yeah, I think I can. But I don’t think that the doctors will approve me leaving this place so soon after I awoke.” I said halfheartedly.

“Who mentioned any doctors?” Mark said with a false confused face.

I was stunned by his answer but I quickly composed myself and asked him about my father.

“He’s disintegrated by the laser.” Mark answered simply and shrugged his shoulders.

“And how am I alive when half of the city is gone?” I asked in a heavy voice while trying hard to keep my calm.

“It’s a secret that I can’t tell you yet. Come.” he shrugged again.

As I stood up I noticed that I’m not wearing a typical hospital gown, but rather a standard issue military shirt and cargo pants.

‘So I’ve been out for six months and I wake up dressed up like a soldier. Fishy, but who cares.’ I thought for myself.

I followed behind Mark and walked out of the dark room, and into a slightly brighter hall. Down the hall, I could barely see outlines of many doors that looked like the one I just walked out of.

“Don’t look around too much, you might see something that you were not meant to see. Oh, I know. Since we don’t know your name, I’m gonna call you Shorty.” Mark said suddenly.

“What, why?!” I immediately asked, dumbstruck by his sudden exclamation.

“‘Cause you’re so short, you can’t even reach my chin when you get on your toes.” he answered.

He was right. But one thought stayed in my mind. When did I get this short? I know that I was average height before the explosion. Who cares. It can’t be that bad to lose some height, right?

As we walked through the door leading out of the building, I felt immense heat hit me in the face, blinding me for a second. When I opened my eyes I saw that on the other side of the street was a concrete building. Mark didn’t say a word and just walked down the street. I followed him since I couldn’t even guess where we are. After a couple of hundreds of meters, we halted at the end of the street. In front of us was a vast square full of people quickly moving around. The sunlight had finally fallen on my face after a long time, but the feeling was somehow different. It wasn’t as hot like it was back home. There was some other source of heat in here since I could feel the heat and the sun was obviously not the source of it.

‘Can it be that I’m still in a coma?’ I thought for myself.