Chapter 2
The Descent
Though two days was a short period of time to prepare for anything, Ethan still had some things to get ready. Firstly, he called both his office as well as Layla's school informing them they'd be absent for the next few days due to 'personal reasons'. Afterward, he went on a shopping spree of supplies–mostly water, drinks, sugars, and food that can last a while, loading them all up in his car. His father had a hunting lodge just two hours away from the city by car, and though Ethan hadn't been there in a couple of years, the place shouldn't have fallen apart in the meantime.
The Descent itself would have no impact on his hometown directly–but the discord and chaos it caused eventually turned the lovely home into a hellhole, one that ended up claiming Layla's life merely three days after the Descent. As such, his plan was to settle in the mountains for at least the initial period of time. There was also a Tunnel that would appear about two and a half months after the Descent just near the lodge that he would be able to enter and start getting stronger.
He simply told Layla that they were going on a vacation, and the girl appeared quite excited that she'd spend entire days with him, not questioning further. The fairy creature, on the other hand, asked questions unrelentingly, but after being ignored by Ethan for some time, it quieted down, falling asleep.
He finished all his preparations midway through the Monday, and he and Layla boarded his old and reliable 2008 Corolla stuffed to the brim with supplies and sped off through the city streets and toward the exit. He rolled down the driver-side window and let the winds whip him as Layla sat silently in the backseat, watching some cartoon on her phone. Though their preparations were hasty, he felt like he did as much as necessary for the time being.
It was only just the start, however–the consequences of the Descent weren't felt just for a couple of months but were a permanent change in the fabric of society. In his past life, he spent the first 3-4 years being shuffled about the military camps, civilian hotspots, annexed shelters, and a myriad of other camp-like facilities designated for the cowardly, the lost, the broken, the-whatever-demeaning-name they came up with at any given time. It wasn't until the fifth year after the Descent that he picked up a weapon and went to fight.
By then, he was lagging behind tremendously–compared to others he was weaker, slower, and dumber. But, luckily, by that point in time, the good people hadn't yet gone extinct. Sarah and Jameson took him under their wing and tutored him until he got caught up on all the basic knowledge, taking him to the Tunnels, the Fields, and even the Terrors once or twice. However, just like all the other good people, their good nature eventually got them killed, and by the tenth year after the Descent, the only people remaining were the vile sort, the kind that he became.
The drive felt much longer than two hours despite the fact that they didn't encounter any traffic jams. In part, it was likely due to the heat that was still climbing, and in part, it was because the scenery was rather samey, especially after leaving the immediate city.
The lodge was situated some two miles up a mountain, roughly ten minutes by car from the nearest other inhabited house, and the last stretch of the road was particularly difficult to get through as it hadn't been maintained in years. In the end, though, they arrived, and, just as Ethan had hoped, the lodge didn't seem too decrepit. While there were clear issues due to the lack of maintenance, with a few days' worth of work, he would be able to get them all under control. Just enough, anyway, to live here for a couple of months.
As Layla was getting quite sleepy, he shaded the windows in the car and let her sleep in the back as he suspected the lodge first had to be ventilated to be livable. The moment he unlocked the doors and opened them, his suspicions were confirmed–stale, old, hot air blasted out into him, causing him to heave for a moment before coughing to recover.
"Holy shit," he mumbled, certain that something had died in the house. Rather than going in immediately, he left the door wide open and circled the lodge, looking for anything that needed immediate fixing. Aside from a few rotted parts and some water damage near the windows, nothing seemed too awful, making him quite happy. Though he wasn't averse to physical work, knowing his body's state at the moment, he wasn't exactly looking forward to it.
Somewhat shockingly, he was able to latch onto the nearby network from here, gaining access to the internet. While he already knew all the events that would unfold, having direct access to information was still quite necessary–changes might happen that he couldn't have foreseen simply by him leaving the city early.
After some twenty minutes, he headed inside the lodge. The smell was still there and the air was still mouldy but it was somewhat bearable. He used his phone's flashlight to look about–there was a lot of dust everywhere as he expected, and quite a few spiderwebs and the generator in the back likely didn't work, but it still seemed somewhat livable. The lodge had a central area where two couches sat facing one another with an old plasma TV situated at the back end between the two. A fireplace sat lodged into the wall behind one of the couches, laid in brick, while the kitchen was to the front of the house, facing the 'living' room.
To his left was a small hallway that led to a bathroom and a bedroom, and that was the entirety of the lodge–small, simple, but good enough. He went back to the trunk of the car and took out some cleaning supplies, a mask, and latex gloves before heading back into the lodge. Hurrying while there was still some daylight to burn so that he could see, he started with cleaning the countertops and the furniture before moving on to the wooden floors.
Some two hours later, the lodge lit up–not to the point where it looked even remotely good, but it looked livable. He had some issues with the bathroom in particular as the water damage was the most extensive there, but it would suffice for the length of their stay. He had finished just in time, as no longer than five minutes after, Layla had woken up and came crawling out of the car, demanding to eat something.
The young girl's expression lit up as she saw the insides, hurrying over to one of the couches and tossing herself onto it while Ethan quickly fixed them some mac and cheese. The two sat down and ate, but as he didn't have enough time to check out the generator, the TV wasn't working just yet.
"How long will we stay here?" Layla asked innocently.
"I don't know. How long do you want to stay?" Ethan asked back.
"Hmm. A year!"
"A whole year? You like being with me that much?"
"The most," she nodded, smiling widely.
"Well, I don't know about a year," he said. "But we'll be about for a while. Won't you get bored, though? Without your friends?"
"I won't," she said, though Ethan spotted a wince in her innocent expression, one she couldn't hide.
"... what's cooking?" he asked. It was their 'code expression'--if one of them asked a question that way, the other had to respond honestly, no matter what.
"... Jeanie told everyone momma and papa died to run away from me," she said in a barely audible whisper, her head lowered. "And that… you will die too…"
"Is that why I got a bunch of missed calls from Mrs. Frocklin?" Ethan asked.
"..."
"Hey," he called out softly as he sat over next to her. "You know that none of that is true, right?"
"..."
"Hey, Layla," she looked up at him, tears swelling in her eyes. "Mom and dad didn't run away from you. Trust me, they hung on for as long as they did because they wanted to see you grow up as much as they could. And me? Hell, I ain't going anywhere. I'll be here long after you've grown, got yourself hitched, and started a family of your own. I'll probably be that weird uncle to your kids that attends their parties and gives them weird gifts and smells kinda funny."
"He he he. Like Uncle Jerry?"
"Eh? Yeah, I guess. Kinda like Uncle Jerry. But I doubt I'm gonna be smelling like Uncle Jerry though. I don't like natural smells."
"Hm?"
"Nothing, nothing. So, don't listen to Jane."
"Jeanie."
"See? She's so unimportant I couldn't even remember her name."
"He he."
"Don't listen to her. She's just a dummy."
"... I won't," she said, tossing her arms around him and burying her head into his chest. "You promise you won't leave?"
"Even if you beg me to."
"I won't. Ever. I promise."
Whether it was because she had just eaten and cried herself out, or something else entirely, Layla once again went to the slumberland, and Ethan laid her down gently on the couch, tossing a blanket onto her and cleaning up the table before going to the back end of the lodge, inside a small outhouse-like structure where the generator was situated.
It was a fairly sizable thing, yet still smaller than Ethan remembered it. It just barely reached his knees in height and was box-shaped, with a good chunk of colouring having faded over time. None of the main outlets were connected so, praying for the best, Ethan connected them and went back into the lodge to check if that was all he had to do–and, to his shock and joyous surprise, it was.
Alongside many other supplies, he had also packed some twenty gallons of fuel, though judging from the sizable chunk he saw sitting on the shelves above the generator, he didn't have to. Nonetheless, it was better to have extra than none.
While Layla slept, he began to unpack things from the car; their clothes, the food, and medicine that needed to be refrigerated–though he first had to ventilate the fridge as well since it had been some time since it was opened, and clean it right after– the survival kit, their electronics, and a myriad of other miscellaneous things.
He found one outlet in the bedroom, checked if it worked, and set up a simple charging station to charge their phones and two laptops that he had brought along. By the time he was finished, the evening had come and was fading, bleeding out into the night. Compared to the city, the lodge was silent. So silent Ethan could hear his heart beating. However, he wasn't unaccustomed to the silence. Long into the future, it was more shocking to hear anything but silence. If anything, he felt most comfortable at this decibel.
The two spent the remaining time until the Descent in and around the lodge; he'd taken Layla on some hikes to the nearby landmarks that he remembered, and then had to carry her back on his shoulders as the girl would either get tired or get blisters. Though the TV worked, they didn't use it that much as laptops and phones were much easier to navigate.
Uneventful days were about to come to an end, however. Shortly past midnight, Ethan felt a shake–at first it felt like a distant and brief tremor, but the ground kept quaking. It was just enough to be noticed, but not enough to cause any structural damage–at least not this far from the impact.
Both the fairy creature and Layla eventually woke up–Layla from the tremors and the creature from knowing what was unfolding. Layla snuggled over closer to him, appearing somewhat frightened, while the fairy creature left the lodge altogether and seemed to fly up into the sky. The tremors lasted a long while–at least an hour–but nothing came of them. Not this far out anyway. As Layla was still awake, Ethan didn't look up anything online as he didn't want to terrify the young girl. However, as soon as she fell asleep–soon after the tremors stopped–he opened his phone and went online. As expected, it was hell.
News came pouring out by a second about each and every city that got buried–New York, Boston, Lisbon, Porto, Rabat, Havana, whole swaths of Ireland, over half of Wales, almost entire western France, Spain's northern provinces, most of Portugal save for the most inland parts, while all island nations situated in the Atlantic were sunk or sinking–Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, as well as large parts of Iceland.
The true extent of damage was unknown–as was the number of casualties–and would never truly be figured out. The scale was truly large–it was apocalyptic. Even if the Descent did nothing else but caused the initial catastrophe, it would be by far, no contest, the worst event in mankind's history, likely outstripping every other in combination. But, unfortunately, the initial impact was just the beginning.
Ethan took a deep breath, put the phone away, and left the lodge, breathing in some cool night air. It was time–he mumbled 'Awaken' softly into his jaw, and felt a kindle of fire burn through him rapidly. His body began to feel scalding, pain assailing him from virtually every inch, but he endured. He felt much worse, after all.
The pain didn't last long–perhaps ten to fifteen seconds–and by the end of it, he stood there covered in sweat from head to toe, appearing no different than before. However, invisible to everyone but him, there was a window floating to his side just as there was one before, saying the same things it did with one exception. This time around, Ethan was the first one to Awaken.