Rise To Power In The Apocalypse

Chapter Seven: Early Apocalypse

'Is this real? Is the person I'm seeing before my eyes, really?'

Ash kept questioning his thoughts as he sat in the next seat close to his younger brother at the dinner table.

The young boy laughed, smiled, and spoke softly in front of John and Mary Greyhart. 

Unlike Ash, his hair was short and well-combed to his side. He was a bit lanky as well but in terms of facial beauty, Ash won the competition.

Both his iris and pupil were both black but a bit different in terms of darkness.

They all sat together at the dinner table as they had their dinner. 

'Why did they bring him over to this place? We are not supposed to meet until later after the apocalypse.'

"Umm..." Ash interrupted their discussion.

"What made you change your mind?" He asked.

"Well, we figured since you won't talk to us, or you're probably angry we refused you to see your brother, that it would be nice to surprise you with a visit from him," John answered after sipping off his glass of wine.

"Shouldn't you be happy he's here with you?" Mary asked.

"I am," Ash replied as he glanced at Kover, his younger brother.

Ash closed his eyes and scoffed. 

"You know what? I'm more than happy to meet him," he smiled brightly.

'Maybe it's true, maybe I can live a completely different life from the previous one.' Ash thought within.

"Make sure you two bond alright," Mary suggested.

"I'll try my best," Kover replied anxiously.

"Same," Ash replied also.

****

'It's been several days since meeting with Jared and all, and since then, everything has been planned nicely,' Ash thought as he walked across the open street.

He had no destination in mind when he left the house a few minutes back.

His foster parents had asked him to take his younger brother along so they could bond but Ash refused.

All he wanted to do was rearrange his scattered thoughts and get things in order, so he decided to take a walk.

After walking for several minutes, he felt drained and decided to stop at a fancy restaurant. 

As he was crossing the road, a violent tremor shook the entire place as if the earth was tearing open.

The tremor shook with so much power that it brought down standing lights and road signs in seconds.

The glasses, windshields, and windows in several cars and buildings shattered almost immediately as the pieces rained down on whoever was closest.

Frightened by this sudden occurrence, the people around screamed out as they individually ran to various destinations.

Ash, who tried to keep his stance, had a confused look on his face. 

Everything felt like a dream to him, except, the strong quake and loud rumble were more real.

Soon the ground started to tear up, slowly as it scared people away until it sped up towards houses and cars and immediately swallowed them.

Ash began to wonder as he watched the chaos unfold before him.

'I- is the apocalypse starting right now?' 

'Like right now?' he questioned within himself.

'It was supposed to be the next day, I'm sure of it.'

"Hey kid, look out," a man shouted from afar as a huge build was collapsing rapidly, the top half of it broke and started crashing towards Ash.

Ash didn't wait for his adrenaline to pick up before he got up and jumped out of the way.

  

"Not only is the apocalypse different but I will also be among the first to die?" 

A smirk formed on his face as he ran in the direction he came from.

"Why am I surprised? This isn't the first time that things turned south during a perfectly arranged event," he spoke to himself.

"I should find a way to still take control of things even as they are,"

As he ran, he saw a lady trapped under a car and ran towards her.

Before he got there, a man had gotten there first and was already trying to help the lady.

Ash thought the man had everything under control and wanted to leave but he got called back.

"Hey kid, what are you waiting for? Give me a hand," the man grunted as he tried lifting the car.

"Y-yeah," 

With their efforts combined, ash was able to pull the lady from underneath the car as the man kept it above a certain level.

"Are you hurt?" Ash asked the lady.

"No, I'm not," she replied and immediately thanked both of them. "Thank you so much for rescuing me," 

"No problem," they both answered.

Just as they stood, the ground quaked again, this time with force even greater than before.

The cracks on the ground then got wider and began to spread out even further across the city, making tall building tilt and swallowing cars.

Shortly after, the quaking stopped, leaving only screams of pain and the sounds of car alarms going off.

"I should get going," Ash said to them.

"Take care,"

"It could get worst, so be careful," 

"Thanks, I will," 

Amidst the chaos, Ash tried to avoid falling into any of the cracks that divided most roads or cut them in two along the way.

Just as he thought he had avoided all of them, the earth quaked once again.

The rumbling of the earth made him miss a step and he fell. He immediately got up thinking he had no time to waste and continued his running.

Until a large crack split the roads in two just before he could take another step.

The crack that grew bigger and wider in front of him, got slanted almost immediately.

This made the cars close by start to slip into the large hole along with the debris of buildings. 

"For real?" Right here?" Ash asked with a frustrated look on his face.

"It's like the universe is keeping me away on purpose, arrgghh," he grunted angrily.

Soon he started hearing people from the other side of the road screaming at him as he paced around.

"Hey, kid,"

"Get out of the way,"

"Behind you," the shouting got louder by the minute until he realized and turned around.

Several cars and debris, large enough to cover a building rushed at him like an avalanche as he stood there.

He instinctively looked around for any escape route but found none.

"Curse my luck today of all days," he cursed out before running towards it.

"What is he doing?" One asked among the crowd.

"He's suicidal," another replied.

After getting close enough, Ash immediately dashed back towards the whole as fast as his feet could carry him.

Immediately he got to the edge, he leaped into the air, trying to jump across.

As soon as he got more than halfway through, he began to slowly fall before completely crossing.

"This is gonna hurt," he cried out as he slammed into the side of the hole with one of his hands holding on to the edge.

"I made it," he grunted lowly. He soon felt his hand slipping from the edge.

The weight of his body dragged on the area around his hand, and soon it broke off.