The Mercury Wars: The Clearing

Chapter 2 - Benny

"It happened suddenly before anyone could register it before anyone could escape."

Benny was sat on the edge of the bed, opening up to Connor with his blue eyes holding strength, whilst he kept his composure throughout. Connor sat and listened, taking in every word, not sure how he should process emotions over a life-changing event that he couldn't even remember.

"I was going to get textbooks from the school basement when it happened. As I stepped inside, it felt like the whole ceiling was one giant overhead heater. Burning down at an alarming rate, causing me to pass out and hit my head on the cabinet in front of me.

When I came to, it was around an hour later and the heat was still present. Everything was silent and all the lights were out. I went up the stairs and the hallways were littered with dead students and teachers. It smelt like burning and there was an orange filter over the world.

I tried to use my phone to call for help, but it wouldn't turn on. Everything was fried and the world had been thrown back into the stone ages. Outside was as silent as inside and the sky was covered in a giant white cloud, turned orange by what looked like a raging fire above it.

The streets were empty of life, the air was replaced by pure heat. Everywhere I looked there were bodies on the floor. I was the only one left in the town."

Benny showed little emotion when he told Connor everything. His steely silver eyes only blinked naturally as he described the day that he lost everything. It made sense, as the man had had a whole year to grieve and move on, whilst fighting for survival in a new and harsher world.

"Who did you lose?" Connor asks sensitively, staring down at his hands, placed in his lap.

"My wife," Benny said quietly, finally looking away from the man in front of him to focus on the wall ahead.

"I stayed at home for a few days, kept thinking that the town would have someone from the World Council come and save us. But nobody did, there was no rescue. So I took to the streets, packing up essentials and protection in the form of guns and knives. I set off and just kept walking.

I took fresh supplies from abandoned shops, water from rivers and streams. After two weeks the clouds had left and the sky was blue again, which brought back the day and night cycle. That's when I learned that nighttime was not safe to be alone in the streets."

"Is that because of the animals?" Connor asked, trying to piece it together with the things Link had told him.

Benny stood up and started pacing the room as he explained how the animals were taking to the streets of the cities and towns to feast on the dead. He spoke of how he had found Henry and Clara in a nearby city, trying to fend off a pack of wolves for their survival. He had helped them escape and then they took refuge in an apartment building until the sun rose again.

When you hear about the misfortune of others, you are left with sympathy and upset for their pain. The usual human reaction is trying to relate to it. So Connor was finding it difficult to do just that. He didn't want to appear insensitive, but the thought of the world is lost, the people you care about being dead, he couldn't relate to it.

He couldn't remember a life before he woke up, hadn't even dreamed during the coma that he was aware of. So he can't picture this world that Benny is explaining, he can't remember the family and friends that he has potentially lost. It's because of that, that he finds confidence without nerves to keep asking the questions he needs to know. Like a child that doesn't know the impact of their words.

"Why would you leave the city though?" He asks outright.

"Because eventually we would have run out of supplies and had to fend for ourselves," Benny answers, turning back to look at Connor and sitting on the bed again. "We also knew, that there could be others out there, that is why we left. We wanted to find more survivors and find a place more secluded and safe.