» Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:23 pm A middle aged man with that cliché scruffy beard for Wasteland living woke up on cold stone in cave that was deep somewhere in the desert. Taking just a few seconds to gather himself, he quickly changed his mindset to the daughter he realized he was missing. He jumped to his feet fast enough to give him a head rush, which made him stumble then fall down to his knees. After the spinning room and sick stomach, he shook his head, took a deep breath, and stood again. He examined his surroundings like most people with a severe case of memory loss. He was in a cave, with only one way to go; a black void on one side, and the rest walls.
"Mandy!" He cried for his daughter Amanda, "Where are you?!" He could hear his voice echo down the halls of the network of caves. The longer her heard his voice echo, the more saddened he got. The network was so huge and so massive, and he had no idea how he got there. He had no idea where it was to begin with. He was overwhelmed by so much as once that he started to weep into his hands. "Where am I..." He asked himself quietly, until finally screaming the words. "Where am I!"
Again, and again, the Father cried for his daughter as he walked slowly into the cavern. He had just then realized his eyes were totally adjusted to the light, or lack thereof. He was in total darkness, and he could only assume he wasn't alone in the network because of his current condition. He kept walking, determined to find his daughter Amanda. He thought of what she looked like, praying to himself his memory won't be the last time he sees her. She was a short 5 feet, but only twelve years old. Green eyes, and red hair with massive amount of freckles. She had a chip in her front tooth from a little accident she had playing with a pet Radroach of theirs. She chipped the tooth when she was around ten, and didn't even cry over it. She probably knew the tooth would fall out anyways, but she was still a tough little girl.
Nirvana rushed through his body at the memory of his little precious girl. He smiled with the temporary ignorance of the fact she was missing. He continued back into his presumed grave.
"Dammit." The Father muttered, as the cave came into a fork. The way to the left looked more rocky and dangerous, while the way to the right had more of a flat surface to it. He thought about it, and took a few steps left thinking it would be the way his daughter went. But he stopped, and looked to the left. The arch above suddenly looked less natural, and more like it was built by someone. The edge around it was smooth. Someone took my baby girl he said to himself. He moved to the left, and continued down the dark path deeper into the ground. The Father didn't notice the ground was just ever so slightly tilting downwards.
"Amanda!" The Father screamed again. The Father was walking in the same direction for hours, without a fork in the network or anything. He's walked miles underground in the black, without so much as another sound. He was started to reach the point where he didn't know if he'd prefer a torch, or his beloved daughter. His feet stung with each step, he thought they must be blistered and cut from so much walking. At that thought, he finally realized he wasn't wearing any shows. In fact, he wasn't even wearing a shirt. He suddenly felt the air on his upper body. He had raggedy jeans, that were soaked wet with something he guessed to be water. The Father felt a heavy weight on his wrists. With the other hand, he felt the smooth cold handcuffs around his wrists.
Interesting enough, the Father thought nothing of it, and kept walking and crying his daughters name. He walked farther down, in the same direction, for miles until he collapsed and passed out.
Slowly he opened his adjusted eyes. His head ached, and he massaged his temples and grunted loudly. He could hear the damn echo again. He only walked a few hundred feet until he saw a the path start to get shorter, and more narrow. He kept going until he had to arch his back. He kept going even when he had to get on his hands and knees and crawl. He kept going even on his belly, slithering through the extremely tight space. And he stopped when he couldn't go any further. He reached his arm farther through, until he realized the only thing that could go any further was a rat.
"Daddy..." A sweet voice said from the other side of the tiny whole. The Father could feel a cold hand grab his with compassion. The voice screamed violently, then grabbed on to the Father's hand tight. He held back, and tried to pull. He started to scream profanity as the top of his lungs. He yelled so loud his voice went quiet entirely. He forced his other hand to grab the girl's hand, cutting his entire arm on sharp rock as he shoved it through the tiny space to grab his daughter. He shook violently, his heart pounded, his throat burned. The voice on the other side of the wall got louder, and she held on tighter. He grabbed her so tight he was worried he'd break her. He was worried whatever was pulling on her would break her. He let go. The voice cried for help, and got fainter, and fainter, and fainter.
Excruciating pain being ignore, the Father shuffled his way backwards, cutting the sides of his legs and arms on the small space as we went back. There was enough space to get up a little, and turn around, so he did. But first he hit his head so hard on the cave ceiling it started to bleed in an instant. He was so full of adrenaline he ignore it, and made he way back to the main save system. He sprinted for possibly miles, until he came back to first fork in the cave. He looked back up on his way out, and noticed the arch still looked like it was carved for a door or pathway. He went to the right side, and breathing so heavily and tasting blood, he started to go forward. When he finally took a few good breaths, and a few steps to the right, vomit spewed from inside of him all over the ground in front of him. For another time, he collapsed and passed out. This time in a pile of his own bile.
Again, and hopefully for the last time, the Father woke up with a ridiculously painful headache. He didn't even hesitate, and he started to jog down the right hallway towards what he hoped would be his daughter. This cave system kept splitting, and the man kept seeing the carved arches, and he knew not to go through those halls. He kept walking through the smooth surfaced caves, yelling Amanda's name over and over again. Not too long later, he saw something that shocked him. Light. He wasn't sure if it was sunlight, or artificial light, but all he knew was that it was light. He sprinted once again forward. He screamed another time, "Amanda!" He was startled when there was a reply.
"Daddy!" The voice was definitely his daughter's. The voice cracked, and sounded desperate. The Father came up to the light finally, and found a massive cavern in front of him. Holes in the cave ceiling exposed sunlight down onto what seemed like a settlement. The Father walked down the pathways leading to the tiny town. Building started to make shape, and moving people in the single street. At the end of a street, there was one semi-large ruin with a huge wooden door. The people on the streets all stopped what they were doing, and turned to the man and stared at him. They moved to the sides of the road, and their eyes followed him as he walked toward the building. He looked at them, and saw them all wearing handcuffs just like him. The Father made his way to giant wooden door, and turned back to look at the people. To his shock, the people, and the buildings, and the light had all vanished. He turned back to face the door, but instead what he saw horrified him. Tiny bones were shackled around the wrists, attacked to a massive iron door. The numbers on the door read "106".
