Wake Up And Run

Count-Down

At first glance, anyone who is walking in the streets of the huge city, except for buildings that have been made of sold rocks, the streets, shops, the people going around for their own business, everything looks normal like any other city. Even if you look up, you will see the normal sky, like anywhere else in the world. The fact that it is underground and below the surface by more than one thousand meters, is the most incredible thing.

Not just this city but the whole empire, which consists of thousands of cities, the whole continent is one empire, no one of the current generation knows exactly how old is this empire.

Not just this city but the whole empire, which consists of thousands of cities. The whole continent is one empire. No one of the current generation knows exactly how old this empire is.

The story that's been passed from generation to the next, although no one can authenticate it, says that more than two thousand years ago, everyone used to live on the surface, which was filled with green grass, forests, mountains, and rivers. Although it was ruled by a few different kingdoms, they lived together peacefully.

It was the most prosperous country on the planet, as well as the most technologically advanced; its scientific research facilities were the most advanced in the world, producing the most sought after in all other continents.

Without any warning, and with all the knowledge and the advancement no one else could match on the planet, everything changed in a single day. Some called it a catastrophe, some called it an apocalypse. Nobody noticed it, nobody predicted it. A hurricane that came from nowhere, started from all four directions, davistating everything in its path, growing larger every minute, covering tens of thousands of kilometers, eradicating everything around it, even mountains and rivers.

When it ended after a couple of weeks, the only survivors were a few hundred thousand. Due to the efforts of the governments who had built underground shelters for their own safety, the continent that housed over eighty-five million people survived with only five hundred thousand.

After scavenging what was ever leftover from their technology, they decided to inhabit the underground of the continent. The last survivor, the rulers, brought everyone together and implemented that crazy idea of going underground.

Since their advanced technology could not predict what happened, there was no guarantee that it would never happen again, so to be on the safe side, he put all the remaining resources together to implement that plan.

Also, since he didn't know if what happened was natural accuracy or an enemy attack, he decided to hide all the information about his plan from the other continents, since none of them experienced what they did, although many kingdoms came to their aid and offered all the assistance they could provide.

He didn't show them any hostility, although he suspected everyone. On the contrary, he stepped on his pride and took everything they offered for the sake of his people.

He had been named the Savior King and, later on, the first Emperor.

.............

In an unknown location in this city, several men stood guard in front of a house. That is not different than the surrounding houses, but the inside of this house is absolutely different. It is where the intelligence department of the empire extracts all the information they need from anyone who wonders into their content.

Today was the first day that another traveler came to their empire in more than a decade. That in itself is not a strange thing, but what is that usually there is a patrol unit 24/7 on the surface, with monitoring cameras, sensors, and motion detection systems, and none of that detected this man, and the agent who was assigned to that location went missing at the same time he appeared.

In one of many rooms that was made specifically for interrogation the new arrival was seated there.

The strangest interrogation, which didn't make any sense to anyone who was listening, the man was puzzled, the interrogators were confused; a conversation that didn't make any sense to them was going on.

Jack was filled with anger and frustration. He tried to break free from the rope that he was tied to, but with no luck. The room had no windows. From the things that he could see with this dim light, it was a big room, not the type where you keep someone for interrogation and lock him up, but what he couldn't understand was why they were keeping him. Without doing or saying anything to him, and most of all, what do they want from him? He knew that he was not important, he didn't have any money, he was just a small contractor just getting by.

He has no enemies that he is aware of, and he didn't do anything to anyone, not even I don't know anyone important, he thought and said that last part aloud.

He felt thirsty and the pain in his head where they hit him was fading away. Other than that, he was fine, but with the build up of anger inside him and worrying about his wife made him anxious. The door opened and the same man came back into the room, and this time he was carrying a bottle of water like he knew that was what he needed most.

The man came to him, stood in front of him, opened the bottle and looked at him, asking, "Do you want some?" That was the first thing he said to him since he woke up in this room. As a response, he looked at him, trying to get loose from the rope and wanting to jump at him. "Where is my wife?" He asked, "What have you done with her?" and "Tell me?" in a loud voice.