The Impact

[Enolx]

"The world was running just fine. Man was the top of the food chain, industry was thriving, and the life expectancy was long. Nobody had expected that to change in just an hour. On the news they said that the meteor would miss the earth. Then they said that it would burn up in the atmosphere. Then they said it would land in the ocean away from people and there would not be an issue unless you lived on the coast.


They lied


On April 30th the meteor hit Washington D.C. On contact it caused an EMP like effect that not only took out electronics, but also took out other frequency dependent communication. Ten minutes later the earthquakes, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and tidal waves hit. 20 minutes later the sky is covered by a think layer of dust and debris. After ten minutes in pitch darkness the dust cleared to reveal the destruction nature caused. After another ten minutes people just started dropping in the street. I was on of them so what comes next is what I learned when I awoke after. During the last ten minutes the earth went into overdrive and the world became covered in vegetation and some the plants and animals underwent rapid evolution.


Now humans are not the top of the food chain. Industry has been destroyed and has reverted to near midevil infrastructure. Life expectancy is a thing of the past. All this happened in one hour but that's not the biggest kicker. Plants and animals weren't the only things to undergo rapid evolution. Most of the humans that had dropped during the fiftieth minute had not awoken but the ones that did woke with strange abilities. They could do things that normal humans couldn't, and of course they were hated and feared for it. At a time when humans should be united we of course divided ourselves.


Now it's Humans, verses the Elevated, verses Nature. As expected humans in both forms are loosing. Nature is unrelenting, unmerciful, and unchained. Does humanity stand a chance, we hope so. It is to find a chance that some of us are trying to make it to the meteor drop sight to learn about what caused this. The only problem is the closer you get to the meteor the stronger the evolution is, which means everything is more deadly the closer you get.


We are the 42nd expedition team. We are leaving from California which has one of the last handholds of human civilization. The others have not returned so we assume the worst. This only serves to move use foreword, because we know that humanity rides on our success. Who know maybe we will get our faces in a mountain if we succeed?


To those who come after me. I leave this message to let history know what has happened to the strong and proud human race. I hope that I can tell this message myself after we return but, sadly I'm a realist and I know we will most likely die. If you chose to follow me remember to write something for the people who come after you and also remember we cannot give up. If we give up that's really when we are done for."

 

[Enolx]

"Alright maggots," a tall well built man dressed in a camo outfit with black boots yelled. Angelo shook his head and looked around to gather himself. "What the hell," Angelo said to himself " Did I join the army or something." The officer walked up to Angelo and started yelling in his face. " Is something funny boy?" The officer spat " It seems Mr. not paying the fuck attention has the answer to my question. So what would you bring to the island?" Angelo was not sure what was going on. How did he get here, what was here, and why was he here were the questions running through his head. Without missing a beat Angelo saluted and responded with " I would take a Rambo survival knife, sir." Angelo kept shaking his head in confusion after he answered. " What the hell," Angelo wondered " Why did I say that. This is too...." Before Angelo could finish his thought he blacked out.


Angelo felt a wet sensation on the lower half of his body. As he came to, different stimuli flooded his senses. He could hear the crash of the ocean waves, he could feel the heat of the sun and the cool of the water on his body, he was blinded momentarily by the unrelenting sun, and he could smell the salt water and tropical vegetation. It took a moment for strength to return to him and for his senses to adjust. When they did he noticed he was on a beach. He looked foreword and noticed the jungle in front of him that seemed to get more and more dense farther in. He turned around and looked out into the ocean, all he saw was a grand endless expanse of blue. When he turned back around and look at the ground he noticed a letter sitting on the beach. He picked it up and read it.


Hello Mr Dante,


Welcome the the Island. It is a tropical paradise filled with life and abundance. You have been left here to learn how to use the gifts given to you and how to survive. There will be no rescue and no assistance past this point. You have already been given the item of your choice. If you look to the sky you will see two pillars of light. Those are your way off the island and they can be seen from any point on the island as long as nothing obstructs view of the sky. Beware the island is filled with danger and it gets more dangerous the closer you get to the light. You are also not the only person on the island. In closing I will give you the most important information you need to know. Everything wants you dead. Enjoy your stay on the island


sincerely,


The man in the striped suit


Angelo stared at the paper in disbelief. "Is this real right now," Angelo said. He looked through the sky and he found the pillars of light. One of them was deeper into the jungle and the other was far out over the ocean. "This is real, holy crap," Angelo yelled. Angelo was brought out of his panic by the sound of his stomach. "Man I'm thirsty and hungry," Angelo said to himself " I might want to find something." He looked down the beach and noticed coconut trees spread across the tree line. When Angelo started to make his way over to the trees he felt a slap on his thigh and he felt some extra weight. When he looked down he noticed a long knife hanging from his belt. He realized that will all this time he had never payed any attention to himself. He then stopped to give himself a look over. He was wearing a light long sleeve shirt that said kiss me I'm single with long baggy cargo pants, and his black converses. " Well other than the new knife this is all me," Angelo stated and he started off towards the trees. Once he got to them he easily climbed the tree and knocked down four coconuts. He spent a lot of his time climbing in his free time so he had become relatively good at it. After making his was back to the ground he found a rock and used that with his knife to poke a hole in the coconut. After taking a deep drink of the coconut he sat back in the shade and though about his situation.


"Well the guy in the letter could have been lying," Angelo though " There could be someone searching or passing by. Yea, I should wait here and see if help arrives." With a plan in mind Angelo set out to make a signal on the beach in case a ship came by. He gathered loose leaves and sticks from the jungles edge and laid them out in an SOS pattern on the beach. He then started to gather more materials for a fire. "Man I'm glad I watch a bunch of survivor shows or this would suck," Angelo said with a smile as he went to work.

 

[Luxii]

"Ma'am?"


Cassandra's eyes fluttered open. Nnngh... I must've dozed off. Once her amber eyes focused, the image of an attractive woman in a flight attendant's outfit was before her.


After a quick look around, it was apparent that Cassandra was in fact on a plane. It bothered her that she couldn't remember why... As far as she could recall, there weren't any planned trips in her future. To add to the weirdness, she was the only passenger on this flight. There were just rows and rows of empty seats in front of her and behind her.


"Ma'am?" the woman asked again, a pleasant smile on her face. "What would you take to the island?"


"Huh?" was Cassandra's educated reply. An island? Was she going on vacation? Then wouldn't she already have packed all she needed? "What kind of island are we talking about?"


"I need to know what would you take to the island," the woman repeated, still smiling. It was kind of creepy actually. This whole place gave her the creeps. Maybe she needed to have something to protect herself...


"A- a knife," Cassandra blurted out. "A machete." Those were the big knives that Rambo carried around right?


Then her vision blurred at the edges, causing her to slump back into her seat. What the hell was happening? And then, darkness.


xXx


When Cassandra finally came to, she could hear the sound of waves crashing before she opened her eyes. It was soothing, rhythmic, and she didn't want to wake up. The soft sand was pleasantly warm on her back, cocooning her. She inhaled the smell of sea air as a gentle wind glided over her body.


Wait... She shot into a seated position. What in the hell is going on?


The landscape was beautiful, she had to admit, nothing but the sea and beach for miles in front of her. Twisting behind, she saw a tropical sort of forest. Her pulse thudded in her ears, panic slowly creeping up the back of her neck. Her breaths came short and fast while her mind tried to make sense of it all.


"Okay," she muttered. "Get your shit together and assess the situation, Cassie."


Taking inventory of herself was the first priority. She was wearing a pair of tight fitting jeans, a loose fitting blue tunic top, a white tank top, and her favorite pair of Doc Martens. All of that seemed right. There were no cuts, bruises, or other injuries she could see. It appeared that for now, she was unharmed.


A little ways off in the sand, something was stuck in the sand with a piece of paper attached to it that was fluttering in the breeze.


Cassandra stood, brushing the sand off of herself and shaking out her white-blonde hair, and took the few steps over to check it out. It was a knife in a sheath. The sheath had a long strap on it, for carrying on your back, Cassandra guessed. Maybe that flight attendant listened to me after all. After she plucked the weapon from the sand, she tugged on the handle to expose the blade. It was about sixteen inches long, slightly curved, and it was it was as deadly as it looked, then Cassandra would be in business.


She untied the paper from the handle, then slung the weapon over her back. It rested on an angle, perfectly between her shoulder blades. If it was needed, all she had to do was reach over her right shoulder for it.


The paper had a lengthy message:





Hello Ms. Seal,


Welcome to the island. It is a tropical paradise filled with life and abundance. You have been left here to learn to use the gifts that have been given to you and how to survive. There will be no assistance or rescue past this point. You have alreaddy been given one item of your choice. If you look to the sky, you will see two pillars of light. Those are your way off the island and can been seen from any point on the island as long as nothing obstructs the view of the sky. Beware that the island is also dangerous and gets increasingly more dangerous the closer you get to the light. You are also not the only person on this island. In closing, I will give you the most important information you need to know. Everything wants you dead. Enjoy your stay on the island.


Sincerely,


The Man in the Striped Suit





"Fucking fantastic," Cassandra muttered as she folded up the paper and tucked it into the front right pocket of her jeans. Off in the center of the forest, she could see the one of the two beams of light the letter spoke about. The other was in the middle of the ocean off in the distance. "Okay, so get to the lights and I can get the fuck out of here."


The beam of light in the jungle seemed the easier of the two for now. Plus, Cassandra's fear of open water made the second light pretty much unattainable for now.


The foliage was thick around the forest, so Cassandra decided to walk down the beach a little ways to see if there was an easier path into the brush. The knife could be used to clear a path if necessary but why start to dull the blade's edge now if there was a path of least resistance? Plus, the letter said everything wanted her dead, so Cassandra wasn't about to waste the blade on plants if she didn't have to.

 

[Enolx]

Angelo gathered some branches and let them dry out in the sun. Jungles tend to be constantly wet, but at the tree line there was more dry material. He fluffed the hair of the coconut to use as tender and soon he had everything needed to make a fire, other than the spark. He got a flat piece of wood and cut a grove into it and he then smoothed out a strait stick he found. "Well I hope hand spinning is not as hard as they make it sound on TV," Angelo proclaimed.


"This is bull shit!!!," Angelo yelled " This is way harder than they made it sound." It had been an hour and all he had to show for it were his bleeding hands and a pool of sweat. He threw the stick down and stomped off towards the ocean to cool off. As he walked towards the water he saw something off in the distance. Angelo shaded his eyes to get a better view and he was able to see the object, it was a cruse ship. "It's a ship," Angelo exclaimed " I just have to get its attention." With renewed energy, he began to jump around and yell to try to get the ships attention. "This won't work, I need to get a smoke signal or something," Angelo said. He quickly started trying to make a fire again. It hurt, but he worked through the pain and he was rewarded with a small ember. He carefully put it into the coconut hair and blew it into a fire. After placing the burning mass into the center of the wood stack he soon had a roaring fire. "I am man, and I have created fire," Angelo yelled with a smile.


He then ran to grab some live plants. The plants would cause white smoke that would be easily visible against the dark green jungle background. The plants did their job and soon a pillar of white smoke took to the sky. Angelo ran to the waters edge and continued his yelling again. To Angelo's elation the ship turned and began to come towards him. "Yes yes yes," Angelo yelled as he jumped around.


His heart sank when he watched what happened next. As the ship approached a pillar like object shot out of the water, followed by another, then another. The eight pillars then wrapped themselves around the ship and lifted it out of the water. When the creature came out of the water Angelo couldn't believe what he was seeing. " Those aren't pillars, those are tentacles," Angelo said as he dropped to his knees in disbelief " That's the Kraken, the fucking Kraken. The ship was then ripped apart and the pieces were dragged to the bottom of the sea. Angelo sat there staring at where the ship had been. His eyes shifted from that spot to the beam of light far in the distance behind it. "There is no fucking way I am going to that light," Angelo said.


Angelo got up and looked at the pillar behind him. He stood up resolute and strong. He had been broken by watching that ship be destroyed. He now knew that this was real, and that he would have to man up or die. He locked eyes on the pillar that was far into the distance of the jungle. " I need to get ready I have a long trip ahead of me," Angelo said. He looked to the horizon and noticed that he was running out of daylight. "I will settle here for the night and I will set out tomorrow," Angelo said to himself " I need to find fresh water anyway those coconuts will kill me if I only drink those." He then walked over to his fire, it was still going but it had stopped producing the white smoke. " I will need some more fire wood too," Angelo said to himself as he walked into the jungle.


As he was gathering wood he grabbed some of the vines that were hanging. After gathering as many vines as possible he started to make his way back. As he did he heard the sound of something moving across the the ground. " Don't be a snake," Angelo though as he looked around " Don't be a snake."


It was a snake.


The encounter happened quickly. He saw the snake, the snake saw him, and the snake lunged. Angelo swung the sticks he was holding and caught the snake before it hit him. The snake was only down for a second, but in that second Angelo ran over with his knife and stabbed it through the head impaling it into the ground. Angelo rested beside the snake as it's dead body twitched. After Angelo recovered, he beheaded the snake and buried its head before taking the body back to his camp. When he got back he made a skewer to cook the snake. After removing the skin from the snake he put it on the fire and started braiding vines into rope to use as a hammock for the night. He sat next to the fire as he worked and watched as the sun went down.

 

[Luxii]

Walking through the sand in boots was hard work, especially with the sun beating down overhead. There didn't seem to be any easy openings into the jungle. Cassandra was sweaty, cranky, and hungry. There was a fallen palm tree in the shade of the trees, so she took a seat on that to catch her breath.


It looked like the sun was beginning to go down. She should probably start making preparations for nightfall, especially since there was no way she was making it to that freaking beam of light any time soon.


This seemed as good a spot as any to set up camp for the night. But truth be told, Cassandra didn't really know the first thing about survival skills.


"Just use common sense, you idiot," she chided herself.


The sand would comfortable enough, but what if any creatures decided to crawl over her and bite her in the middle of the night? She would have to fashion a bed of some sort. There were plently of palm leaves and fallen branches around that she could use. A coconut crashed into the sand a few paces away from her. Startled, she craned her neck up and saw she was sitting right under coconut trees. Don't want one of those fuckers conking me on the head in the middle of the night.





By the time she had dragged enough branches and leaves out more towards the beach and stacked them together in a make shift bed, the sun was setting behind the ocean. It was spectacular. In any other situation she would have wanted a picture, but now she just wanted to get everything situated before it was pitch black outside.


After the "bed" was set up, she retrieve the coconut that had fallen. She hacked off the top with her knife, expecting coconut milk, but there was only the flesh inside life. She guessed if she wanted something to drink, she would have to shimmy up a tree and hack off a green one. Not tonight... maybe tomorrow. She scooped out the flesh from the inside and ate that, it wasn't nearly as sweet as the stuff you could by at the grocery store for baking, but it would do for now.


It wasn' much but it would take off the edge of hunger until tomorrow. She would have to find water and more food, and probably someway to make a fire. She settled down onto the leaves and branches, and shut her eyes, hoping that morning would come quickly.

 

[Enolx]

Angelo finished the rope just as the sun was going down. He didn't have time to make the hammock so instead he climbed a nearby tree and tied himself to it for the night. He knew it was not going to be a pleasant night, but at least he would be safe and off the ground. As the light left the sky the only light in the area came from the moon, stars, and Angelo's small fire. Angelo ate the snake as he watched the stars, and before long he drifted off to sleep.


Angelo awoke, in the middle of the night, to his body being in extreme pain. Angelo yelled, cursed, and flailed in the tree. He fell out of the tree, but the rope he tied to himself caught him quickly. Angelo continued to yell and he started to punch himself, to give him a different pain to think about, as he hung from the tree. After ten minutes the pain started to fade. Angelo took this time to climb back up into the tree and get some sleep. After what he had just gone through even a hard and rough tree felt like a soft mattress. He quickly found himself back asleep.


Angelo was awoken by the sounds of voices coming though the jungle. " Yea I'm sure the smoke came from this direction," one voice proclaimed " Also did you not hear the screams from earlier." "That could have been someone dying, people die a lot here" another voice said " I feel like I have been seeing the same trees over and over." A laugh resounded through the jungle. " I'm the only one with real night vision," the first voice said " Of course all the trees look the same to you." "Hey I can still kinda see there is a good amount of moonlight," the second voice responded " The boss wouldn't have sent us if there wasn't enough light to see." Angelo kept still and quiet as the two of them walked under him and onto the beach. Angelo got a look at the two people. One of them was a tall man with a slim build and a spear on his back. Angelo could not be sure what it was, but on the man's lower back it looked like there was a tail. The second person was shorter than the first and had more curves to their figure. Angelo though it was a young child from their voice, but after getting a better look he realized it was a woman. The woman had a something hanging from her waist, Angelo assumed it was a knife, and she walked confidently on the beach.


" Ha, there is the fire, I told you this was the way," the man, who turned out to be the first voice, said " Never doubt the eyes of a jaguar." The woman looked around the area. "Yea we found the fire, but where is the person who made it?," the woman asked "Maybe we were too late and an animal or some other person got them." Angelo listened in closely and untied himself in case he need to make a quick escape. " It's all good," the man said " They are up in that tree over there. I couldn't smell them because of the fire, but luckily they decided to make some noise." Angelo quickly jumped from the top of the tree. He landed, went into a roll, and came up quickly feeling nothing as he landed. As he was about to run he saw the man in front of him. Now that Angelo got a good look he realized that what he thought was a tail was in fact just that. "Hey calm down we were sent to help you," the man said " Follow us we will explain after we check up on this other woman a ways up the beach."


"You have a tail," Angelo stated. The man smiled. "I have a lot more than that," he said " Apparently you do too." The woman walked up to the two of them out of breath. "Holy hell you are fast," the woman said. She looked Angelo in the eyes and when she did he noticed her eyes were yellow. "Hey, he already has a power," the woman said " That explains the screaming. Regardless we should go see if your nose was right about there being a girl near by." The man started to make his way up the beach. "Yea your right," The man said before turning back towards Angelo and saying "Come with me if you want to live." The woman slapped him on his back as she passed him. "Your so corny," she said with a smile "Find a different line." As the two of them walked down the beach Angelo decided to follow. "Never!!!," the man yelled as they walked up the beach. Angelo looked of the the horizon as the sun started to rise.