Let's take a few steps...(DudeGuy and Selena)

Let us take a few steps into the ficticious future, shall we?

A few thousand years into the future, and the land is beautiful. May laws and acts have been put into place to make the world a "greener" place, and it's efforts are surely showing. Beautiful new archeticure has made buildings even more efficent than they once were. Schools' and colleges' curriculum has expanded tremendously, and there have been a variety of advancements in medicene and health. Sounds too perfect to be true, right?

Among this glorious world was an organization named PRAT, or People for the Reduction in Advancements in Technology. These people were against the advancements in technology, wanting to stay with tradition because if the world kept making these advancements, the world would become a safer place, and therefore too overpopulated for comfortable living. They slowly but surely gained their way in political and governmental powers, being one of the most powerful organizations at the time. Since no one was going to stop in the advancements, PRAT stepped in.

All over the world, people mourned and weeped. Many, many cities, randomly selected, were bombed by PRAT, corrupting and destroying most leaders and those who held governmental power. PRAT, on the other hand, claimed they were "helping the population of the world." Many people died throughout the cities, leaving only a few survivors here and there. PRAT sent out assassins and soldiers to kill any survivors on sight, to "help the population of the world."

This is the tale of two of those surviviors: two college students who use their brains and brawn to survive.




Selena layed on the ground, her vision blurry. What..what just happened? All I heard was a huge bang or something...and now I'm here on the ground.. She brought herself up slowly until she was standing, leaning against a nearby wall. One hand moved up to her head, rubbing the painful pulses that seemed to be pushing her skull. She was wearing a typical college students' wear: t-shirt and an old pair of worn jeans, but her clothes were ripped and snagged, and a bit bloody in some places. She leaned against the wall for several minutes, trying to clear her head. She looked out toward the rubble of buildings, only a few standing. The world seemed utterly quiet, for now.

As one could imagine, it took PRAT a considerable amount of time to infiltrate governments, corrupt officials, and take strides towards achieving their ultimate goal - reducing the population of the world. When one sat and thought about it, such a goal seemed. . .well, stupid. Humanity had finally been making great strides towards peace. A utopia was no longer a vision, but an achievable goal. With time, overpopulation would have become a problem, but with more scientific advancements, they would have been able to fully expand into space, using machines to terraform other planets on which they could settle.

Raphael had, at one point, been a part of PRAT. An orphan who was adopted by the group and raised as a child soldier. They were to become the elite force of PRAT by the time they were fifteen, and spread throughout the world where they would carry out random acts of murder, terrorism, and any other atrocious thing that came to their minds in order to help control the population. The program was discovered four years ahead of schedule by several secret service agencies and it was dismantled. All of the children were "deprogrammed" so to say, the intense mental conditioning that they were put under was broken down and then, they were all rehabilitated until the age of about eighteen.

It had taken a full seven years to change the poor souls into "regular people". They were each given a new chance at life, however, they were all closely monitored from the shadows. Some faded back into that old life, while others were able to move on.

PRAT was thought to have been eliminated once the children were found, but the world soon learned that the organization would not be silenced so easily. A massive, simultaneous, world wide terrorist attack was carried out. In several big cities around the world, bombs went off and the death toll? So astonishing that the media was forced to keep the exact number under wraps.

A school in this particular city was near the epicenter of the explosion, and several of the buildings had been damaged. Luckily. A quick glance outside told a horrific tale of death and destruction on a massive scale. With a single look, Raphael knew that this was their work. He awoke in the corner of the room, his back and head leaning back against the wall. His hair was slightly burnt, as were his clothes. Small bits of shrapnel cut through his skin, causing him to bleed. It stung at most. What caused him the most pain was his pounding headache, and the high pitched noise of the follicles in his ears laying down. His warm, brown optics struggled to focus on what lie ahead of him, while his mind was unable to process what had been going on before the explosion.

He needed to move but. . .it hurt to much to do so just yet.

Selena held her head for several minutes, the pain slowly dissapating away from her. Her vision cleared, and she stood up from the wall slowly, taking in deep breaths with her mouth. She glanced down at her leg; blood was coming through her jeans in odd-shaped slash marks. The debri must've caused that... she thought to herself. Her dark eyes moved from her body onto the rubble around her before looking up at the sky. The most beautiful hue of cloudless blue contrasted sharply with the dark and evil feel that the destroyed city had. She looked at the buildings and rubble about her. It's too quiet...where's everyone's voices, the city? Her mind couldn't focus on one thing. Selena took a deep breath with tear-filled eyes as the revelation hit her. "Is anyone alive out there?!" She mustered up the energy to yell.

Shouting. . .someone else was alive. After silently thanking God several times over, Raphael opened his mouth to speak. But no sound came out.

He had to do something to make some sort of noise. After a few tries, he finally managed to push himself out of the corner. His body fell forward onto a pile of debris before him, knocking several things over. Those things released a cloud of dust in the air. The dust traveled through his nostrils and into his throat and lungs, causing him to cough. Needless to say, it was painful, but he figured more than enough noise was made for the girl who shouted to hear him.

Raphael began to scan his classroom with his eyes to see if anyone else who had been there at that time was still alive. He could see that several people had been blown to bits - quite literally - while others just weren't breathing. A groan escaped his lips as his eyes slowly closed. PRAT. He thought that they had been dismantled a long time ago, but he found out through their various demonstrations over the past year and a half that they were very much alive, well, and very active. Their protests rarely ever became violent though. So this came as a major shock to him, though he guessed it shouldn't have. The people behind this were evil. Pure evil. They let their passion concerning the subject negate logic, and failed to look at the programs that were being researched and looked into so that the human population could spread out and over population would not have been a problem.

There were still plenty of area's here on Earth that could have been settled as well! Many development projects that were starting to make these area's inhabitable. And then. . .and then came the next phase of their plan! They were going to slaughter any survivors that their troops found in the ruins. Such would have been the job of the older people that were being trained at the same time he had been. He pushed himself up onto his knees and shook his head to regain his bearings. He needed to find her, and they needed to find a place to hide, at the very least. They could help any survivors that they came across along the way.

Selena heard something, a sound like a man coughing. Her head turned to where she heard the sound, and she spotted a man down on his knees about 40 feet in front of her, amongst the rubble of the large school they were in. He was situated in one of few remaining corners of the building; the rest of the school was destroyed except for a few sections of walls and corners strewn about. Adrenilin seemed to shoot through her body when she realized that someone else was alive, and she walked, slowly bure surely, over to him. She took deep long breaths as each step caused pain to shoot up through her leg. The travel over to him wasn't easy; bodies and parts of bodies and rubble and debris in her path. Within 10 minutes she was standing a few feet away, one hand along the wall of the corner to help her regain her footing.

In that same ten minutes, Raphael managed pull himself together enough to stand upright and balance himself on his feet. He brushed the dust off of his face and checked his body for injuries. By some miracle, he was still alive and still in one piece. Of course, there were cuts and busies on his body, even a few bits of shrapnel still stuck in him, but nothing life threatening. Thankfully. The other person who was alive, a young woman, soon stepped into view. He recognized her as a girl who was in a few of his classes. They never really talked though. Either way, it was great to see someone that hew knew.

He quickly looked her up and down, checking to see if she had any life threatening injuries. From what he could make out, there weren't any major injuries. Thankfully. He did notice that she had been walking funny though. "Are you alright," he asked, knowing full and well that such a question was near pointless. Raphael took a step in her direction, extending a hand to help her stand upright. From where he had been standing, he couldn't see her that well. "Where is the pain coming from," he asked.

Selena looked up at the man with her dark eyes, strands of brunette hair falling back out of the way from her face. He looks rather familiar...wasn't he in some of my classes? she thought for a moment, then taking his hand and standing upright. "Um, thanks..." She said, her other hand grabbing at the size of her head where the dulled pulses continued to slow. She closed her eyes, trying to push the pain away before shaking her hand.

Her body ached and writhed with so many different feelings, she wasn't sure where the pain itself was coming from. "Um..I'm not sure...are you alright youself?" She said, her eyes moving from his and onto the rubble in front of her, noticing someone else standing among the broken pieces of steel and concrete.

"There's a man...right there, about 100 feet in front of us..." She moved her hand to motion where the man was at, and then she gasped, with widening eyes, "And he has a gun!"

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Raphael replied quickly. It wasn't that he was lying, but he wasn't seriously injured. He could stand up, and he could walk. He had been thrown into the corner of the room by the explosion and he was feeling a bit bruised at the most, beyond the bits of shrapnel stuck in his body. Honestly, her response concerned him. Not being able to decipher where the pain was coming from meant that it was coming from many places, or that something happened to her that messed up her ability to decipher where the pain was coming from. If it were a neural injury, she could be in serious trouble.

But then, she said that she saw someone, and that made his heart stop completely. No way in hell. . .they're here already, was the only thought that went through his head. In one, swift movement, he wrapped an arm around her middle and spun around with her, hiding their forms behind a nearby wall. Raphael immediately lowered his head so that he could whisper into her ear, "Listen to me, we have to run. Do you think you can run? Or do you need me to carry you?"

Selena gasped as he pulled her down by the waist behind a crumbling wall. She took a moment or two to come to a conclusion to his question, thinking it over in his mind. I've played softball several times with a sprained ankle..I can do this... She thought to herself. Her body raced with adrinelin, and she gave him the strongest and most determined look she had since they had met, turning her head to looking straight into his eyes. "Don't even think twice. You're hurt too. I can run. Trust me." she whispered, a seriousness in her voice.

She heard footsteps...it sounded like boots, walking over the rubble and bodies.

"I want you to trust me here. Stay low, keep your head down, and don't move until I say so," Raphael whispered. He slid from behind and and knelt down at her side, holding his finger up to his lips silently tell her not to make any noise. The sound of the footsteps came closer and closer until he could see the shadow of the person standing there. He reached out and grabbed the barrel of the gun, pulling it toward himself. At the same time, his right arm traveled down the barrel of the gun and his elbow hit the man in the throat, causing him to choke. Raphael pulled the gun from the man's hands, then kicked him in the chest knocking him backward onto the ground.

Without wasting a moment, he jumped on top of the man and punched his face into the ground, knocking him out cold. His hands quickly searched the man's body, finding several spare clips and a small radio. He quickly rejoined Selena and leaned back against the wall. "Alright. . .we need to hide. Somewhere secure," he said breathing heavily. "That thing you did. . .where you found that guy. . .can you do that again?"

Selena nodded, letting him know she understood. Trusting a guy I don't know...this better work... When Selena saw the guy's shadow, she didn't breathe, didn't move, didn't think. A feeling entered her body, like she could never smile again- but this was soon interrupted by Raphael grabbing the gun and punching and kicking the man. With each punch and kick, Selena winced, keeping her eyes shut, running his words through her head repeatedly: "I want you to trust me here. Stay low, keep your head down, and don't move until I say so."

Selena thought for a moment, then looked towards her classmate. "Where..where would a safe place be?"

"I haven't the slightest clue," Raphael said. He carefully examined the gun, making sure that everything was in working order. Satisfied that the fire arm was in good condition, he fitted the strap around his shoulder. He sat back for a second, slowly closing his eyes and thought of a more suitable answer for her question. Where could they hide? They needed some place that was relatively hard to find. Somewhere. . .out of the way. Hard to access.

"The service tunnels. . .under campus. Not many people who went to the school here knew about them. Without knowing exactly where they are, finding them would be extremely difficult," Raphael said, his breath finally returning to normal. With all of the debris everywhere, he was certain that finding access to these tunnels would be difficult even for him. Surely, not all of the entrances could be covered up. Of course, after that, they would need to find food and clean water at the very least. There was no telling how many of these people were here or just how big the blast zone was.

And certainly, the world government wouldn't take this lying down. They would send in troops to get rid of the PRAT forces. He and Selena could be rescued in time, and after that they would be just fine. Right? At the very least, that was what he was telling himself.

Selena looked with her dark eyes at the gun he had for a moment. It reminded her of her father, who had a very steady hand with firearms. She then sat back against the wall, relieved that the PRAT man was out cold. "Uh...thanks for doing that." She replied, her breath slowly returning to her. One hand moved her brunette hair from her face, revealing some rather deep scratches along her cheeck that were still bleeding. She looked at her hand, striped with the blood. "Who...who would cause this much destruction and and injury? Why?" She asked, almost to herself. She knew it wasn't the time or place to ask, but instead be concerned with a place to hide. She shook her head.

"The service tunnels...I've heard of them, but I'm not sure where they are located. I wonder how we could access food and water though from the tun-....GET DOWN!" Selena spotted another man pointing a gun at them, standing atop one of the few remaining standing buildings, stopped mid-sentence and pushed the classmate under a concrete slab that was leaning up against the remaining section of wall they were on. She moved to get under the slab...but she heard a gunshot before she got herself fully underneath the slab.

Her shoulder flared with pain, and she looked down at it split-secondly, seeing how a bullet nipped her shoulder pretty good, causing the fabric to have a rather large rip across her shoulder. Her eyes brimmed with tears.

Raphael knew who was behind this. He had a good feeling he knew what would happen next. He knew a lot about these people because he had been one of them at one point in his life. Taken in, raised, and brain washed into believing that they had to kill people for the human race to survive. PRAT tried to sound like a righteous and noble group, but they were basically a cult that gained a lot of power in all of the right places. They used greed and appealed to the lusts of many in order to make their twisted goals a reality. It was scary that they were able to make such a thing happen. But how was he going to explain all of this to Selena?

Just as he looked up at her, he found her pushing him down onto the ground. Raphael didn't know how, but Selena was spotting these men who were hiding amongst debris attempting to snipe at them and end their lives with what looked to be relative ease. Though he was safe, Raphael could see that Selena was in need of cover. He stepped out in front of her, aiming the gun up in the direction the bullet came from. He put his eye in the lens, quickly seeking out the location of the sniper. "You're alright, it just skimmed your shoulder. I'll cover you, get to safety," he said as he fired off several shots. He couldn't see the sniper, but he was putting himself in harms way to give her the chance to get out of the line of fire.

Selena nodded at him once more, her hand gripping at her shoulder. She looked around, looking for a place to hide..a place that was safe. She spotted it: She saw the winery where her father used to work. It was now in ruins, but she knew underneath where it stood was a natural cave where the wine was stored. She noticed a small entrance that led into the cave-basement, looked around and didn't see any men from PRAT, then looked back at her classmate who had finished shooting. "We HAVE to go this way!" She said in a whisper with the motion of her hand, as to not alert any hiding PRAT men.

Selena's mind was whirling with different thoughts. Why is this happening!?

Raphael fired off a few more shots, slowly backing up beside her. He didn't know exactly how she was doing all of the things that she was doing, finding these trained soldiers and even spotting things so far away so easily, but he was impressed. Selena either had good instincts, or good senses, or both. So long as they both still drew breath, he didn't care how she was doing these things. He glanced back over his shoulder, following the motion of her hand as she showed him where she was talking about. "You go first and I'll follow," Raphael said. His choice of words weren't the best, but he intended to cover her the entire run to the place where she pointed.

"Go while there is still dust tin there air," he said softly yet sternly.

Selena nodded and made a dash for it. She hobbled somewhat on her injured leg, but was still somewhat quick on her feet. She stooped down and quickly crawled into the entrance of the hole, walking a few feet into it. Her heart was going 90-to-nothing, and she leaned against the cool clammy feeling of the cave wall. She watched as the other student, who was right behind her, slipped through the hole and into the cave. She let herself slip down into a sit, trying to catch her breath- not because she was physically out of breath, but because she was outright terrified at the men who had guns.

Raphael was mad at himself. He had wasted about half of the bullets in the clip firing off shots wildly in an attempt to keep them both safe. He could have done the same thing more effectively with less than a fourth of the clip before. He too slid down to a sit as he caught his breath. The rush of adrenaline that pumped through his veins was now subsiding and he was starting to feel tired. This place. . .was a cave? He wondered how she knew about this, but that was the least important thing on his mind right now. They needed food and water at the least. They would be okay for about half a day before they would start losing strength. A day would net them both an extreme loss of focus and anything after that? They would be in serious trouble.

"This place. . .I don't know how you found it, but it's a good place to hide. If we knock some more debris around the entrance, it would be near impossibly for those guys to find. We need to find supplies. . .food and water more than anything. We have shelter, and so far as clothing goes, it should be a while before we absolutely need anything more," Raphael said. There was one last thing they would need too. "Fire. . .we need to be able to build a fire when needed. Though. . .there isn't much by way of ventilation here. We should make this a secondary location, and stay in the service tunnels. If I remember correctly, they should have some great ventilation in them. I think. . .that the campus used them to transport things too. I can't remember."

Selena stood up after she caught her breath, walking about 10 feet into the cave. She looked around in the darkness that wasn't illuminated by the daylight coming through the hole. "This is where my dad works..er...used to work." She replied, her voice echoing off the walls of the cave. "This was a winery, and they stored all their wine and wine-making ingrediants down here. I've been down here plenty of times..now, if I can just find the switch.." She said, her hands fumbling along the wall of the cave until her hand came upon the light switch, flipping it and illuminating the place. "Somehow, the solar panels must still be connected to these wires, seeing as we have light." She walked a few steps over to the opposite wall of the cave where many large wooden barrels sat against the wall, some stacked on top of one another. "Well, here's our food...this winery produced a variety of fruit and plant-based beverages...everything from apples to wheat." She replied, a slight smile on her face. "Plus, all the ingrediants for fermenting the wine- sugar, agents, everything." She pointed into a tunnel that led down deeper into the cave. "They said that the underground freshwater stream makes this winery create the best wine in the whole city. The whole cave system stay naturally cool, around 60 degrees."

Her mind returned to his concern about making fire. "I'm not sure where we could find fire, but I would feel much safer in those service tunnels you've described. There's no telling when or if this cave could collapse under the weight of debris on top of it."

Raphael closed his eyes and thought long and hard. He was silent for several minutes, attempting to piece together all of the information in his head properly. PRAT had practically destroyed the city, maybe completely. They couldn't see everything from where they were. All they knew for sure was that they were the only ones alive right now and they were stuck here with each other. There were armed men out there hunting down any survivors, and that there was no way they could talk their way out of an encounter with the PRAT soldiers. There were two places they could use to hide, this place and the service tunnels. With the debris stacked up on top of the cave, there was a chance that it could cave in. That would be bad, considering all of the fresh water underground here and all of the food that was here. Wine wasn't really his thing, but if he had to drink it to survive then he would do so gladly.

"The foundation of the building looked sturdy. There's a lot of debris up there sure but. . .this place should last for a while before it caves in. Hopefully. If we can find the service tunnels, we should be just fine. If we can find some dry wood, or some paper, and something to make a spark, making a fire won't be a problem," he said. "They're probably looking for us out there. We should lay low for a while. The next time we come across one of those guys, I'll see what I can do about getting some information out of them. I'm not optimistic about the outcome but it wouldn't hurt to try."

Selena turned to him, her eyes watching him as he spoke. "And now we wait." She replied, leaning her back against the wall and sliding down it until she was sitting.

She looked down at her shoulder, seeing where the bullet had skimmed across the surface of her shirt and cut through the fabric, causing a somewhat short but deep slash on the surface of her skin. Her eyes closed, somewhat out of relief that they had a chance to rest. She then opened her eyes once more, looking towards her classmate. "The name is Selena, but most call me Sellie. I wanted to thank you for all that you've done thus far..the gun-fighting, the punching and kicking..."

"Raphael," he replied, stating his name rather plainly. Selena had to be curious as to why he was able to do all of the things he was doing. Normal college students didn't know how to fight, disarm a man, or fire a rifle. He had done all of those things and had done with without the slightest bit of hesitation.

After closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he went back into thought for a moment. There was so much that needed to be done that he was having a hard time prioritizing it all. What came first was their physical health. They needed to eat, rest, and take care of their bodies. "Don't worry about your shoulder. It's a flesh wound. It'll heal itself over in time. We should hurry and get the shrapnel out of our bodies, and clean out the wounds before they get infected. I'm guessing the stream is toward the end of this path," he said, motioning to his right with his head. The sound of flowing water could be heard when there was silence in the cave.

"We need to find out what's going on with your leg too. I hope it's not a serious injury."

Selena nodded, standing up and starting down towards the stream. "Ahh, I'm sure my leg will be fine..oh, and yeah, the stream... it's down here." she replied. She wasn't sure if her leg was going to be alright, but she didn't want to add another worry to his list.

Once they reached the stream, Selena knelt down, cupping her hands and reaching down into the water. She brought her hands to her face with the water, sipping the water up with her lips. She then splashed water on her face, wiping the excess off with the upper part of her shirt that covered her lower neck and chest. She then looked over her body, picking out the small bits of shrapnel. "What is this stuff..." she replied in wonder, not knowing the effects of the substance.

Raphael knelt down beside Selena and cupped his and in the water, splashing a bit on his face. "It could be a number of things. Bits from desks, the building. I wouldn't worry so much about what it is right now," he said, sitting back on his rear. First, he sought out the bits of steel that he could feel inside of him. There were several in his abdomen, his arms, and his legs. He had smaller lacerations from where he had been skimmed on his limbs and one long gash along his face. He didn't notice it was there until he looked down into the water. Once he was finished picking the bits he could feel out, he checked for others that he couldn't feel by running his hands along his body. Thankfully, he had been facing the explosion rather than it being toward his back, and landed against a corner. There was nothing on the back side of his body.

There were just a few smaller bits left in him, nothing that would cause him any major concern.

He ripped off a bit of the sleeve of his shirt, then dipped it into the water making sure to soak it thoroughly. He cleaned the blood off of his hands first, then his face and around the rest of the wounds. There were no signs of any medical supplies anywhere nearby. Hopefully, they would be able to find some in the service tunnels. If not? They would either have to tear up their clothing or deal with the wounds as they were.

"If your leg continues to bother you, let me know. It would be bad for both of us if there were a serious problem with it," he said. Raphael could see that she was toughing out whatever was wrong, and didn't have a problem with that.

Selena finished pulling out the bits of shrapnel, then shifted her weight onto her rear. A sigh escaped her lips. She turned her head to look at Raphael. "May I ask you how you know so much regarding warfare..and firearms and such? No offense, but I never would have thought that a mere student could've done the acts you did. I thought they left that stuff for the older folks." she asked, her voice in an inquizitive tone. Her hands took a pony-tail holder from her wrist, affixing it in her hair so her hair was up in a messy bun, out of her face. She wiped away a few strangs of hair that hung into her face.