~~~~~
A lone wheelchair moved forward under the orders of a lanky male sitting on it, traversing through the vast snowy expanse of the dense white fog, covering and obstructing what little vision he had of his surroundings.
However, the male named Adam had some idea about his surroundings due to the GPRS function present in his arsenal. But that was not an issue at hand this time. The main issue was just that he was extremely panicky and scared.
His hands were shaking, his jaw tightened every time he tried moving over the snow in his wheelchair. The short ridges and loss of vision just further pushed him to the brink of losing hope. And all he longed for at this moment was to reach the end of the haze; And nothing more. Venturing through the dense white snow and shivering due to the cold was sure to take a toll on his weak body.
But he kept moving forward as cold sweat dripped down his forehead, moving in a straight line. However, he suddenly stumbled and fell on the cold snow, yet again.
Thump!
"Urgh..."
"Huff...huff...huff"
Trying his best to move up to the wheelchair, which miraculously adjusted and stood up itself, Adam sat down yet again, however, his expression was increasingly becoming ugly as time passed, trembling in the cold.
He couldn't believe this was him! A panicky, sickly child!
He, who was one of the pioneers of a Mega-Project which potentially had the opportunity of saving the entirety of humanity, was panicking? Just because of some mere cold?How disgraceful! Is this how he was going to survive?
He was seriously disappointed in himself.
However, what this so-called pioneer of humanity was experiencing was something the modern humans of 2099 had forgotten due to the complete eradication of difficult living conditions on Modern Earth. However, for Adam, it had started manifesting itself in form of fear.
Fear of death!
However, one might say that during the last battle between the humans was also fear-inducing but it was during an apocalypse, which means people knew that they were going to die. But here, Adam knew he had to live. He had to survive, he had to persevere. He had to find shelter, and most importantly, humans.
He had to find the so-called civilization! Or else he might just die without curing himself! Now that he knew there was a cure.
This was the reason he was in such a panicked state. He had given up the moment he had opened his eyes and that was why he was so calm and collected despite knowing the fact that he was one of the last human survivors of his Era. He was ready for death if it came by him.
But just as his stepfather uttered the hope-inducing phrase that 'There is a Cure', his conscience kicked in and the emotion inside him, depicting complete surrender to death was replaced by fear. And that was kicking in form of dread.
Sitting up straight, Adam realised that he was extremely scared of the lonely atmosphere and especially the snow, which was slowly causing frost bites to form on his mildly bearded face.
However, he gritted his teeth, mentally commanding himself to persevere as he kept repeating the last line his father told him.
"Live, son"
Adam closed his eyes, his forehead scrunching into a frown as he licked off the remaining snow off his crusty lips. Moving his hand towards the little food storage he had beside his chair, he picked up a bottle Of Mason's House Brandy, gulping down its contents inside his thirsty throat.
Picking up a rope from the storage box, he tied the bottle to his neck, essentially forming a necklace. Calming his head from the mild warmth provided by Brandy, he looked forward with a determined expression.
Clenching his fists, he muttered in a weak tone, "Move".
And instantly, the wheelchair moved forward through the thick density of the winter fog.
~~~~~
After what felt like an eternity, Adam finally reached the end of the dense fog, albeit with droopy eyes and a pale face. However, what greeted him was not the civilisation that he longed for, but a thick density of a forest. And looking at the massive clearing he came from he realised that the place he had traversed was a giant lake.
Turning his wheelchair around, he looked back at the thick fog and gulped down a mouth full of saliva down his throat.
'Did I cross a giant lake?', Adam thought," And the tower is in the middle of it. But how is it floating over, if it's a giant lake? Shouldn't it sink? "
'However, it seems to be afloat. Maybe the old man did something. A protection sequence perhaps.'
'And he is not wrong either as if he didn't install it, I would have just died the moment I stepped out. Hah..at least I am safe now.
Sigh.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Adam gulped down the remaining amount of brandy present in the bottle. Noticing a rock just a few meters from his position, he moved in his wheelchair towards it.
He then picked it up before crushing the glass bottle into pieces, breaking it into fine particles of glistening glass.
Picking them up, he gently placed the glass on the rock as he proceeded to grate them into fine particles with the stock of his gun before dumping the glass powder into the metal box beside his wheelchair.
"This will come in handy", he muttered looking at the fine power of glass.
He also noticed his diminishing stock of bandy as well inside the metal box.
" I need to conserve them as much as possible."Adam muttered."There are only three jars left. And if I want to survive the cold of the night, I need at least one to light a fire and one to keep myself warm from the inside."
Picking up another bottle from his stash of brandy, he tied it with a rope on his neck before looking forward.
Tapping his wrist twice, Adam mentally ordered his system to show him the [Time]. Instantly, a blue hue enclosed his frosty and dull iris as numbers akin to a digital clock formed on his eyes.
[10.35]
Looking at the time, Adam sighed as he thought about the long hours of effort it took for him to cross the lake. He had looked at the watch just minutes after he started traversing the lake and from that point to the point where he was now at. It had taken him 6 hours just to traverse this gigantic lake!
Sigh.
Adam sighed yet again, thinking about the time it took and the amount of danger he just went through. Just a slight misstep might have just outright killed him. And he would have just drowned in the lake. Furthermore, he can't swim. So the chances of his survival were...
Practically zero.
A cold shiver ran through his body as sweat formed on his forehead, even in the frosty cold of the winter. But riling up his resolve he finally decided to use that specific GPRS function of the nanobots this time.
"Scan" he mumbled.
A map manifested in front of his iris, depicting the entire area around him, which he determined to be about a kilometre wide.
'So it's a kilometre wide.....huh?'
Adam's eyes widened as he kept on looking at the map in front of his eyes. He gripped the handle of the wheelchair, visibly agitated as he kept sweating profusely, all the while looking at the map.
"There is nothing but rows of trees around me....", he muttered in a dejected tone.
Controlling his chain of thoughts which were just resting on the thin line of consideration for suicide, he sighed, trying his utmost to calm his head down.
His hopes of finding were thoroughly crushed as all he saw around was just snow and trees. Furthermore, a small red dot was depicted on his digital map, blinking rapidly, visibly closing in on the distance between him and himself.
Realising that the blinking red dot was not an ally but rather an enemy, Adam grew increasing scared and agitated as he slowly manifested the plasma magnum on his right hand, gripping it tightly. The surrounding atmosphere grew increasingly silent and all that could be heard was the slow shaking of tree leaves and the occasional howls, sounding closer and closer to himself.
" A wolf pack", he muttered.
Instantly, he looked over to the dense population of trees, Adam hurriedly murmured," Move." as he slowly moved towards a large density of pine trees, gripping the plasma gun to his chest.
Somehow covering himself with the tree leaves, he leaned over the thick density of the bushes, trying his utmost to hide.
And just as he had adjusted himself. A lone snow-white wolf entered the clearing.
White mane thick as the glossy cover of snow and with silver fangs threatening to tear off just anything it's the view and with clear blue eyes, it looked like a good old sabertooth tiger of the Jurassic Age rather than a wolf.
But those pointy ears gave off the vibe of a wolf rather than a tiger, so Adam went with the description of a wolf.
"Snow wolves..." he muttered, peeping to see the majestic creature.
However, to his shock, the wolf slowly started transforming. And from what Adam saw, gave him the most surprise of his entire life! Not even him being one of the only humans of the old Era was more shocking than the sight of the creature in front of him.
The pristine white mane receded in as the wolf slowly stood up on its two hind legs. Its face slowly morphed into a human-like one, with human limbs, eyes, ears and nose. Its fangs went inside as well and what remained of the previously majestic wolf was astonishing to watch.
A woman, much bigger than him, stood wearing a white fur coat, cautiously scanning the entire clearing with her cold blue eyes. However, Adam noticed a peculiar feature in the new life form in front of him.
She had pointy ears!
"An Elf? Snow Elves perhaps!....And shapeshifting? Is it possible now...", he muttered while peeping from the thick shroud of the bushes, visibly excited as his eyes sparkled with astonishment?
The woman, however, cautiously stood in her position, scanning every single detail of her surroundings with occasional sniffing involved. And slowly and slowly her legs began moving towards the hiding space of Adam, behind the big pine tree.
Noticing her movement, Adam slowly, clicked the safety of the plasma magnum and changed its firing mode of it, with a slow click. Aiming it at the spot of the approaching woman, Adam shook profusely, visibly scared of the oncoming disaster.
But instead of a woman approaching, all he felt was a tap on his shoulder from his back.
His eyes widened, perfectly understanding that he was caught off guard. And just as he slowly turned his head, all he could see was that same beautiful woman crouching down on the spot beside him, which was once his so-called cover.
The woman kept staring at him, or perhaps his gun, completely nonchalant about the entire situation.
Adam felt agitation and nausea washing over him, as his hands were shaking profusely. Looking at the cold blue eyes of the woman, Adam felt helpless and all that came out of his mouth was just a meek voice of helplessness before his vision dimmed and he passed out.
~~~~~
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