Ten years had passed .
Lucien sat on his wheelchair as he looked at himself in the long mirror before him. Today was the day of the spirit trials . He looked towards his handicapped legs and reminisced that ominous day .
That green lightning and ear -deafening thunder were the harbinger of the paranormal apocalypse ,that had brought the whole world and mankind on its knees and on the precipice of extinction . The sky that had turned pale dark on that day never changed back to its original blue and the sun was never seen again . The whole earth was wrapped in an eternal never ending night.
Lucien's thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling him on his walkie talkie . He quickly motioned his wheelchair to the table in his room and grabbing the walkie talkie pushed the push-to-talk button. " Hello, this is Lucien here " he answered .
" Lucien this is Commander Max , come to the fitness bay in next twenty minutes , they have come ." there was a small pause and again commander Max's voice was heard " Lucien you sure you want to do this ? I know what you are capable of . You don't need to prove anything ."
Lucien sighed internally , he and commander Max had this conversation before a few times and each time Lucien's answer had remained the same . " Commander , I know that you are concerned but I have to do this to see if I am capable of helping more people . If I fail I won't be dejected , I will continue to help you as I have been doing for the last ten years until I grow old ." Lucien answered .
A resigned sigh was heard on the opposite end followed by Commander Max's voice "Ok, you are still that determined kid that I found on the road ten years ago, I wish you luck . Max over and out " The walkie talkie was silent now .
Lucien put it down on the table and went towards the wardrobe , opening it he took out a jacket and a small box . He wore the jacket on which "No. 6" was logoed . it was the identification number of Lucien ; same jacket was given to each member of the underground bunker with other numbers to avoid confusion and for monthly headcount. Lucien now opened the small metal box and took out a laminated folded paper and opened it.
A rough sketch of a man and woman holding hands of a small girl with pigtails was drawn on the paper with red crayons. Apart from the three sketches another sketch of a small boy was drawn on the left corner of the paper with blue crayon. It was Annie's drawing from that day ten years ago when the world
The never ending night brought with it the most horrific supernatural cataclysm that the world had never seen before. Ghosts phantoms and similar spirits of the dead woke up and were manifested in shadow form . They preyed on human life slaughtering and eating them wantonly . With each human being killed and devoured these tainted and corrupted spirits absorbed their life energy and their shadow body slowly manifested into an ectoplasmic body . They became more human like in appearance but their primal ferocity and malevolence stayed the same .
Humans ,who were killed, turned into shadowy nefarious spirits and the cycle continued . All the army ,navy and air force of the world were left defeated within the next year of the day 0 of the apocalypse . Scientists and paranormal researchers had tried various methods to subdue this paranormal epidemic, but all had gone in vain . Technology and Army , the two hands of the modern civilization were defeated when faced against this supernatural calamity.
Lucien put Annie's drawing in the pocket of his jacket and kept the metal box inside the wardrobe. He then moved towards the entrance door of his cabin and unlocking it went outside. Crossing a narrow passage, Lucien reached near a flight of stairs . Positioning his wheelchair on an inclined slope specially made for him, he rotated a particular knob on his chair handle . Small micro spikes came out from the wheels of his chair gripping on to the flat earth underneath.
Lucien moved his wheelchair up the inclined plane easily with the help of these micro spikes and on reaching the top landing he again adjusted the knob and the micro spikes shortened in length ,almost invisible to naked eye ,on the wheels . The surface traction was now again suitable for movement, so he moved his wheelchair ahead until he reached and entered a hydraulic elevator . As the elevator door started to close, Lucien tapped the button for the 10th floor , the fitness bay .
Facing complete annihilation, mankind, as its last straw , turned to occult studies . A group of occultists, historians and archaeologists found ancient scriptures containing long forgotten lore of a bygone epoch . Through studying these scriptures, ten amongst them were able to enter the spirit elemental realm where they gained the trust of benevolent spirits through spirit communication .These benevolent spirits bonded with these humans and became their weapons against the malevolent spirits roaming the earth.
These ten people came to be known as the Primordial Shamans . They established spirit academies at all corners of the world and started training other humans in this occult art to retaliate against the abominations . But only one out of every hundred were capable of learning this art and mankind's numbers were greatly dwindling with each passing day. So, not leaving everything to fate, these academies started sending their trained representatives at every known underground bunker ,where humans all over the world now secretly resided , to look for prospective individuals through trials .
The elevator door opened on the 10th floor ; Lucien had reached the Fitness Bay of the underground bunker where the trial of the shamans was to be held.