After the World Ended
Among the Stars Volume Zero
Written By
C.O. Amal
Copyright © 2016 C.O. Amal
Published By C.O. Amal on August 2016
4th Edition
All rights reserved
ISBN 9781370443581
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This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
To my sister
Table of Contents
Author’s Note
Prologue
Part 1 – The World Today
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Part 2 – Wandering in the Forest
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Part 3 – Danger Everywhere
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Part 4 – The Sanctuary
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Part 5 – Destruction
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Part 6 – United We Stand
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by this Author
Author’s Note
After the World ended is a standalone story in the Among the Stars universe. In this story a young man named Joe is struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. After the war, nature reclaimed most of the land quickly.
Nobody knows why the war started. It just started. All around the world, all of a sudden people started to kill each other for no particular reason. After the war ended, the surviving people were in a new world surrounded by forest.
Nature reclaimed the land all of sudden, very quickly, like somebody accelerated the growth of flora using some kind of chemicals.
In the new world new problems are arising from everywhere. Humans started to get hunted down by massive wolfish dogs, some of the people started to become ape like men due to an epidemic, and like that, the whole world is in destruction.
The new world is like a world where de-evolution (reverse of evolution) happened. For some reason nature is claiming everything, even the humans.
Introductions are over and let’s head to the story. I hope you will enjoy this and find out the true reasons for how the human world ended.
* * * * *
Prologue
A.D. 2085, Outskirts of Soberfield
Joe woke up in the early morning with the sound of something crashing in the backyard. He is 20 years old and he is living with his father and mother, but his parents are not home. They are on a business trip to some remote island.
His sister Maria is sleeping in the next room. First thought that crossed his mind when he heard the sound was that, some thugs are trying to broke inside his house. Joe quickly took a baseball bat from the corner and went near the switch. He pressed the switch several times but it seems that electricity is out. He looked out through his window and found something burning in a corner.
There is no neighbouring houses near their house and the nearest house is about one or two miles away. And their house is near the highway.
Joe quickly walked towards his sister’s room with the bat in his hand.
“Maria? Maria?” Joe called out in a low voice.
“Umm ... What is it Joe? I need to sleep. I have a big day tomorrow.” Maria said sleepily.
“Maria, there is someone outside, burning things.” Joe said.
“What?” Maria quickly threw away the covers and she stood up in the faint light.
Sun is still hours away from breaking. Maria slowly walked beside him. She also took a baseball bat in her hand.
They both slowly climbed down the stairs and paced towards the back door. They are taking steps very slowly and are looking around for any sign of more thugs. It isn’t normal thugs’ presence in Soberfield. Last year police wiped out most of the criminals by a new criminal control law. So whoever doing things in the backyard must be a very experienced thug.
“Shouldn’t we call the cops first?” Maria asked.
“If we wait, whoever outside will burn down our house.” Joe said.
Suddenly a series of crackling came from the backyard. Something is burning away.
Joe slowly opened the back door a little and peeked outside.
“What the?” Joe mumbled. He couldn’t believe what he is seeing.
Joe opened the back door fully and stepped outside. Then Maria also saw it. There is an aeroplane crash landed in their backyard and it is burning up.
“Run Maria, it will explode in any moment.” Joe quickly began to run.
But Maria seemed to have frozen. Joe quickly came back and grabbed Maria’s arm in his, and they both ran through the road away from their house, away from the burning aeroplane.
Boom!
They haven’t reached much distance when the aeroplane exploded. Joe and Maria got thrown away into a distance by the shock waves of the blast.
“Ahh ...” Pain coursed through Maria’s arm.
“You okay?” Joe asked.
“Ahh ...I think I broke my arm.” Maria said.
Joe quickly examined her hand and found her hand bended in an unusual manner, like the letter U.
“Crap. It looks bad. We need to take you to a hospital fast.” Joe said.
“Joe look.” Maria said.
“What?” Joe asked.
“Our house.” Maria said.
That’s when Joe thought about the blast. He looked back and saw his burning house. Most of the house had crumbled.
“Where would we go now?” Maria asked.
“Don’t worry about that. At least we got our lives back.” Joe said.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Suddenly sound of explosions came from various places.
“What is happening?” Maria asked.
“Oh, my god! Look at the sky.” Joe said in shock.
Maria looked at the sky and she too got shocked. In the sky fighter jets are flying in different directions firing all the way. In a distance some of the jets crash landed and fire consumed all around the crash site.
“What the hell?” Maria and Joe said in unison.
“Did we miss any announcement, or evacuation?” Maria asked.
“I don’t think so. If anything bad had happened, dad or mom would have called.” Joe said. “Come on. Let’s first take you to a hospital.”
“Okay.” Maria said.
Joe and Maria
slowly walked through the road in the faint light. It seems that Maria’s right hand had become numb. A moment later fighter jets disappeared in the horizon.
“Where do you thing they had went to?” Maria asked looking at the sky.
“Who? The jets?” Joe asked.
“Yeah. Who else?” Maria asked.
“I think they went to fire at someplace else.” Joe said.
“What the hell is happening god?” Maria mumbled.
* * * * *
Part 1 – The World Today
Chapter 1
A.D. 2087, New Soberfield
My name is Joe and I am one of the few fortunate survivors of the war.
The war was pretty intense and it nearly wiped out the entire human population. Nobody knows why the war started. One day, all of a sudden, people began to kill each other. It’s like the freaking old movie Crazies. People have gone crazy and killed each other.
You may laugh and say this is just a story. Laugh all you want, but the fact is, it is very real. After the war ended nature began to reclaim everything. Forests began to grow in the middle of the cities. It’s like someone sprinkled some growth hormones all over the place.
If you have seen my world you would say it is a forest. The entire world is a forest now. It is also a big maze too. My old city Soberfield is in the middle of a forest now. I call this new place as New Soberfield.
The new world is like an abandoned planet in the freaking Ganymede Galaxy. There are wide spread stories about people who had escaped the war to neighbouring planets. But those are just stories. When the war began, airfields were the first things which were destroyed. Fortunately no one dropped nuclear warheads.
I personally go with the movie Crazies. Someone must have unleashed a biological weapon on us and those who infected were become the crazies. According to the new stories, all the crazies killed each other. There are also stories about crazies living inside forests, planning to kill all the surviving humans. I think that those who survived the war are immune to the plague the unknown men had unleashed.
Whatever the plague thing is, it also accelerated the growth of flora.
Now I live with my sister Maria in an abandoned house. There are three other families living near us. Those are Jacobson’s, Danny’s and Parker’s families. All of them are friendly and if it isn’t for them I would never have survived this long.
We eat what we hunted during the day. We go to sleep early because there are stories about big carnivores venturing in the dark. There are of course many survivors in New Soberfield. Most of the survivors are living by keeping a large distance from others because some thinks that whatever the plague was, it may not be activated in our bodies and they think that it may activate soon. So everyone is afraid, but me and my neighbours think that that’s a joke. We must be immune since a lot of time had passed after the war.
Jacobson have a son named Luc. It is me and Luc who go to hunting. Me and my neighbours live like a big family. You can’t see this kind of relation in lot of places in this new world. We usually won’t wander too much away from New Soberfield. What I know about the rest of the world is from the travellers who had passed through this place.
Yeah, we have seen lot of travellers. Most of them were on a journey to a sanctuary. They claim that they have this unusual dream, may be a vision, calling them to a place where everything is normal, but I personally think that that’s absurd. Whole world is covered by forest. Where will we find a sanctuary in this?
Anyway I am happy where I am. And my neighbours are happy too.
Jacobson’s wife is a doctor and she is a very resourceful woman so we are saved in a manner of speaking. And she cooks delicious meat with spices obtained from the forest. Oh, I usually forget that I am inside a forest. In fact this world provides everything we need to live, right outside our houses.
Sadly all the good technologies got lost in the war but we got lots and lots of candles from a shop. And we have some reading material too. So life isn’t that boring. Danny is very good at designing things. It is he and his wife who made bows and arrows for our needs. Danny have no children but me and Maria are like their children.
Parker have a little girl named Hanna. His wife had died in the war. Maria and Hanna are best friends and they always walk together.
In the middle of the forest in New Soberfield we have actually built a heaven.
* * * * *
Chapter 2
A.D. 2087, New Soberfield
I woke up early in the morning. Yesterday our smoked meat fully expended and today we need to go for hunting, again. Maria is still in sleep. I walked inside her room and patted her cheek.
“Maria?” I called.
“Yeah.” She said in sleep.
“I am going for hunting. Will you be okay alone?” I asked.
She opened her eyes. “This isn’t the first time you’re going for hunting, leaving me alone here. I will be okay.”
“Okay.” I readjusted her blanket and I left the room.
I slowly marched outside and saw Luc polishing the metal tips of his arrows. Sun have just started to rise from the horizon.
“Did you woke up early?” I asked.
“Yeah. A little early. Thought about beating you today.” Luc smiled.
I smiled back. Usually I was the first one to wake up. “So where will we go today?”
“I don’t know. There may be one or two deer in the south. There is a big grass field.” Luc said.
“Then, south it is.” I said.
We slowly began our march to deep inside the forest. Once dark roads are covered by fallen leaves and there are two or three rusted cars there and there. Most of the trees are filled with thick green vines and they are a major source of clean water. There are of course other sources of water here. I like water from the vines. I usually cut one or two vines and sip in the cool water.
We passed abandoned houses and more rusted cars on the way. Small jungle shrubs are growing throughout the forest. One of the most interesting sight is monkeys. There are lot of monkeys here in New Soberfield and they always begin to make sound early in the morning. Another interesting thing is birds. Birds visit this part of forest all day and their pleasant sound is one of a kind.
We passed more abandoned houses. Most houses are filled with vines and the roofs are a mess with fallen leaves. In some part of the forest there are trees growing out of houses. Whatever the plague was it actually promoted forest growth in an incredible rate.
A moment later we reached near the grass field. The grass field is big and we spotted stags grazing through the grass. I examined my surrounding thoroughly. I need to make sure there are no big predators out here. Lions and tigers are usual in this part of the forest but they always stay away from humans.
“So, who is going to shoot?” I asked.
“Let’s toss a coin and find out.” Luc said.
“Okay.” I said.
Luc always carry a coin with him and we usually toss the coin to determine who is going to shoot the deer. We don’t want to shoot down more than one. Luc tossed the coin and it flipped up and down several times in the air.
“Head.” I said.
The coin finally fell down but sadly it was a tail.
“Yeah.” Luc said with joy.
“You win. Shoot down the one you like.” I said.
Luc quickly took aim at a large stag. The stag turned its head and looked at us. I saw a curiousness in its face. I feel sorry, but world is like that. We need to kill this Stag for preserving our lives and, no need to show any sympathy. In this new world sympathy have no place.
A moment later the arrow, with a swoosh, propelled forward and it hit the Stag in its neck. The stag quickly fell down breathing heavily. We quickly ran towards the fallen stag. I took the knife from my socks and I drove it in the stag’s neck. Then I twisted the knife. The stag breathed for a final time and its head dropped to a side.
I quickly cut away the head using my razor sharp kni
fe. Then we both dragged the rest of the stag’s body with us. At the time we reached our house it was about noon. Even though sun is highest in the sky, the air is not that warm. Because of the presence of trees, it is very cool here. Danny, Parker and Jacobson helped us cut down the stag into manageable pieces, then we placed the fresh meat above the smoking platform.
The platform is made up of four tree trunks erected from the ground. We burn things under the platform to smoke the meat. After making the fire using the old matches we began to smoke the stag.
It took us about four or five hours to smoke the meat completely. In the evening Danny’s wife Lara cut out small pieces from the smoked meat and she cooked for us. We get the required water from a small stream flowing through the forest not so far from our houses. There are also lot of apple and orange trees growing by our houses. So food is abundant all around us.
I finished my meat and walked towards Maria and Hanna who are still not finished eating.
“Today’s meat is extra tasty.” Hanna said.
“Yeah, that’s because, Luc is the one who caught the stag.” I said. “So Maria, how was the day?”
“Again we finished the story ‘Peter Pan’ and we played hide and seek. So day was pretty good.” Maria said.
“You should learn to hunt. It is actually awesome.” I said.
“Well I don’t want to kill innocent deer and rabbits.” Maria said.
“But you can eat it, right?” I asked.
“Well, meat is a very good source of vitamins and minerals.” Maria said.
I almost laughed. She actually likes to eat meat but she don’t like killing animals. I actually enjoyed our little talk after the meal.
“See you inside the house.” I left Hanna and Maria and I slowly paced towards our house.
* * * * *
Chapter 3
A.D. 2087, New Soberfield
I woke up in the morning with a piercing head ache. I often have this headache without the proper medicine. All our medical supply expended last month. Now I have nothing for this headache. Jacobson’s wife Sophie gave me all the tablets she had for the headache. Now I have no idea what to do. All I can do is bite my lip and wait for the head ache to be over.
The sharp headache coursed through my head. It’s like someone pounding on my head hard. I buried my head in my bed and I waited for about half an hour and after that my head got back to normal condition. I sighed deeply and sat up on my bed.
The house I am in is small and it have two bedrooms, one kitchen and a toilet. Maria is still sleeping in the other room. I can hear her snoring. She seemed to be at peace. No nightmares I guess. I went to toilet and then got outside the house. It’s actually a miracle we have a house with working toilet but I have to fill the water tank each week, for that I need to bring water from the stream using a bucket. Of course Maria will help in those works.