The Time from Before

The Other Side

Allen has never experienced something like this in his life. He felt as if he were going at the speed of sound, but felt as if he felt as though he were being slowed by the fluid. And, in only a minute, he abruptly stopped.

Pushing forward, he emerged from the fluid and breathed. He didn't have to breathe as much as he thought, as the travel time was much shorter than he had first anticipated.

And the fluid strangely slipped off whatever part of his body that wasn't submerged. Just like he was hydrophobic; the fluid didn't cling to him at all. Nor did he feel any tug back to the liquid, expecting a force to drag him back in, just as the opening on the other side had sucked him in. But he felt nothing. Apart from the chilliness of the liquid. That was hard to ignore.

But now he had other problems. First, where the hell was he?

He looked up at the grate that blocked his way. A quick sigh escaped his lips, and he prepared himself. He braced his feet against the opposite walls and pushed hard against the thin metal bars with his hands. He felt his feet slide down and he lost his grip.

He cursed and tried again. This time, he wedged his feet more firmly and lifted himself up a bit. He rammed his shoulder against the grate and twisted his arms. He heard a creak as the grate loosened slightly. Then, as if the cover wasn't using friction at all to stay in place, it popped off.

Allen pushed it to the side and he climbed up. Quickly making sure his gear was still on him, he took a look at his surroundings.

...

He was in a narrow alleyway, surrounded by colorful graffiti and posters. He could see some buildings and shops in the distance, but they looked deserted. The only signs of life were a few cephalopods who were casually walking or skating on the streets. Thankfully, he went unnoticed.

The subtle wind pushing a few papers down the street, a distant sound of construction equipment, and the much louder roar of a train... was this truly a city not populated by humans? To Allen, this just about felt like home. A long, long forgotten home...

'Where to go from here... well, might as well make a shopping list.' Allen thought. 'Sasha needs shoes, so I'll mentally mark that down. We could do with packaged food, as I'm sure that fluid would ruin anything not sealed... oh, if I could find a few radios, that would cut communication time. Maybe a new set of boots, while I'm at it.'

A distant, but loud sound quickly reminded Allen of where he was. Stretching for a moment, he got back to work.

Making sure his rifle still functioned, he noted what state the safety was in, and moved in the shadows. He moved to avoid the streets and kept anywhere quiet. He was in a city, though, so everywhere was fairly loud. He expected a few cephalopods roaming the alleys, you know, gangs and whatnot, but it was surprisingly empty. Perhaps some sort of event pulled a large portion of the populace towards it, leading to empty streets and alleyways...?

He made frequent stops at abandoned buildings. Just to search around and get a feel for the cephalopod's architecture. For the few residential buildings he came across, he noted that the interiors were strikingly similar to Japanese homes. Certain details were strangely lacking, but the feeling was still there.

Not only that, but Allen came across an underground parking garage. He saw roads, but a strange lack of vehicles to populate those roads. And the entire parking garage was empty. Graffiti was more dominant than the presence of any motorized vehicle, which was a strange detail for, you know, a car garage.

However, despite his efforts to avoid loud areas, he found himself near the loudest area he'd been in during his entire journey through the city. Keeping himself behind cover, he counted the number of cephalopods in the ocean of color.