Destination Zero

[MediocreLee]

Hello~! So remember when Fire Emblem: Awakening could have potentially been in a modern setting? Well this takes that, but throws it in the post apocalypse because reasons. xP

Despite this story taking place in the post apocalypse, I will borrow a lot of elements from Fire Emblem; including magic. I'll be changing a lot of things around, however, such as cavaliers being on motorcycles rather than horses. Although there won't be any actual characters from the Fire Emblem series making any sort of appearance in the story, I will definitely do my best to at least put out some references to the series and maybe some characters.

I can't guarantee consistent updates, but I will do my very best to complete this story. I hope you enjoy. =]

Please post any feedback, suggestions, or criticisms you have over here please and thank you.

[spoiler=Characters]

Characters

Name: Iris Mubarak

Age: 23

Gender: Female

Class: Myrmidon

Affiliation: N/A

Name: Ilia Mubarak

Age: 20

Gender: Female

Class: N/A

Affiliation: N/A

Name: Risa Lanford

Age: 22

Gender: Female

Class: Mercenary

Affiliation: N/A

[spoiler=Table of Contents]

Table of Contents

0. Prologue

I. Blind

II. Territory

Prologue

It was only a matter of time until the Yellowstone volcano would erupt. The predictions were correct. The entire world was covered in ash. Lava ate the majority of North America, leaving a wasteland of magma. Frigid temperatures killed plantation and nature, electricity became scarce as a result. People became savages, killing each other for food and water. Animals became vicious and feral. No one was safe from this horrible apocalypse.

Riots were inevitable. Everyone was desperate to survive. Laws became nothing, but meaningless words of the older world. Anarchy was the way to live. Live by your own rules, do whatever you please, seize whatever you like. This world no longer knows decency, just brutality.

-----------------------------------------

Two years after the eruption..

>>DOSSIER

>

>Loading..

>

>

>

>Data Acquired on September 29, 2074

>

>Name: Ilia Mubarak

>

>Threat Level: High

>

>Last Known Location: Boston, Massachusetts

>

>Current Location: Error

>Error

>Error

>Data Corrupted

"Damn! So close. Who keeps interfering with my files?"

Edited May 22, 2015 by DragonSoul

[MediocreLee]

[spoiler=Chapter 1]

Chapter 1 - Blind

Food supply is low, there’s about enough to last just the night. Water supply is low, maybe there’s enough for one night. Medical supply is low, all that’s left are a few bandages and two pills. Heat supply is low, all of the lighters ran out of oil and there are only three matches left. Her eyes count the shallow pile of items gathered in corner of the room.

“Hey Ilia,” her rough voice whispers, “I’ll have to go out to look for some more food for tonight.”

Her sister lifts her head off of the dirty pile of blankets to ask, “Can I come with you?”

“No, it’s really dangerous out there. Stay here, I’ll be back soon,” she kneels down to caress her sister’s long black hair. “Don’t let anyone in here before I come back okay?”

“Okay,” her sister murmurs, disappointed.

Her steps leave light clicks that ring into the air. She brushes by a shattered mirror that fails to reflect her thin frame, tied back black hair, and ragged clothing. In her left hand is a sheathed sword that has seen the destruction of violence. She opens the door and gently closes it behind her.

Each step she takes, the wooden floor creaks loudly. Not that anyone would be bothered by the creaking as the sisters were the only ones vacant in the small home. Her long strides bring her to the door. She prepares for her venture outside by securing her body with a black jacket, patched up with gray tape. She wraps a ragged scarf around her face. Goggles sit in front of her eyes, the glass slightly smudged with dirt. Black gloves tightly bound her fingers. A small string tie backpack hugs her back.

A frigid breeze blows throughout the home as soon as the door opened. She immediately shuts the door and quickly steps over to a beaten motorcycle. Despite the dents and scratches, the vehicle fulfilled its purpose. Her eyes gaze at the gas gauge that hesitates to touch the large E. She straddles the motorcycle, starting the rackety loud engine. And she’s off.

The former city of New York City was nothing, but ruins, ash, and destruction. Buildings toppled over, the ones that remained standing could fall at any moment. The large electronic billboards that were once filled with advertisements have died into a black screen. Some light poles stand, but many have fallen. Ash flies in the air at the slightest touch, like slow drifting snow. Ash even covers the sun, leaving a dreary gray tint. Not many people are out and about ever since the eruption of Yellowstone. The few individuals that are outside stare at her as she drives by. Are they eyes of jealousy or malice? In this world, it’s practically impossible to tell.

She parks her motorcycle behind a rundown restaurant. It’s very well possible that a family or gang has set up their camp within the restaurant, but she wouldn’t know until she attempted to enter. She tightly grips her sheathed sword, preparing for any sort of encounter that may happen.

The back door took some tackles to be thrown open. Once she made it inside she immediately scavenged for possible supplies. She was lucky to enter in where the kitchen is. A flickering light bulb swings back and forth, slightly illuminating the area. She creeps her way to the refrigerator that no longer refrigerated. Inside was a warm air that held spoiled milk, rotten eggs, a couple of bottled waters and some vacuumed food that were questioningly safe to eat. She grabs for the vacuumed fish. A light chuckle escapes her throat, before the destruction of the world she hated the very sight of fish for food. Now, she has no other choice. She places the vacuumed fish into her backpack and takes the remaining three bottles of water as well.

She closes the refrigerator and continues her exploration. Tucked in a dark corner of the stove is a long reach lighter. The trigger still clicked and a small flame introduces itself at the tip. She tucks the lighter into her backpack. She continues to look through the kitchen, but finds nothing to be of any use. It’s possible that prior looters could have taken the majority of the goods this restaurant had.

She moves onto the next room. This room is large and filled with toppled over tables and chairs. A former dining room. All of the tables and chairs were pushed away from a small scorched spot on the ground. People may have possibly taken refuge in this restaurant at one point. Who knows what may have happened to them. She continues on her search for more supplies.

“Looking for something?” a sly, muffled voice sent a chill down her spine.

She whips her head around to find a trio of bandits dressed in ski masks and black clothing at the entrance of the kitchen. The shortest of the trio had a sword in hand. The largest man in both height and size had an axe slung over a shoulder. The thinnest man also had a sword. Without any hesitation, she relinquishes a long sword in defense.

“She’s quite the eye candy, bro,” the thinnest man said, “how about we have some fun?”

“Oh she would definitely fetch some nice supplies if we were to sell her,” the largest man suggests.

“Let’s sell her after we have our way with her,” the shortest says.

It’s not the first time people suggested they get their way with her. She lunges in for the first strike and is immediately deflected by the thinnest man’s sword. Before any of the three could speak, she continued to attack. The trio separated from each other and surrounded her. This would be a triangle attack if the largest man wielded a sword like the other two, giving each of them a similar amount of weight to deal with. The two men with swords attempted to stab her as the largest man went in for an overhead swing. She’s no professional or veteran when it comes to fighting, but these simple attacks were too easy to read. She dodges by diving in a diagonal line and manages to slash across the shortest man’s chest.

“Bro are you okay!?” the largest man exclaims.

“Yeah, get that bitch! Cut off her arms and legs, we don’t need them. Her body is just enough!” the shortest commands.

The thinnest man slashes at her, the blade grazing her jacket. She backs up, pointing her blade at each of the members of the trio as they try to trap her in a corner. The back of her thighs feel the tables stopping her. She knew the trio would take advantage of the tables being in her way of retreat.

The thinnest man lunges forward to stab her. She jumps onto a table and slashes at an angle, catching the neck and killing the thinnest man. The largest man’s axe swung to sever her ankles, but failed as she jumped to dodge. She stabbed downward and pierces the largest man’s chest.

“You bitch!” the shortest man growls. He swings his sword wildly at an attempt to kill her.

She parries the man’s blade and ends his life by slicing his neck. She sighs deeply, looking at the trio that tried to kill her. Despite in the need for food, she would never consider eating another person. Especially after she and her sister were hunted for food by a group of cannibals at the last city they stayed at. She decides to leave the restaurant before another possible hostile encounter could happen.

She returns to her motorcycle and drives away from the restaurant. In a matter of minutes she returns back to the small home where her sister remains. She enters the home, discarding the scarf and jacket. She brings the backpack into the bedroom where her sister sits idly by.

“Iris, is that you?” Ilia asks.

“Yup, it’s me. Sorry if you waited long, I had a bit of an encounter,” she answers.

“It’s okay, I kept myself occupied by sleeping. I had this dream of a beautiful land where there were people who would ride dragons and a pegasus. And people even had magic making everyday life a little bit easier.”

“Such an active imagination,” Iris remarks, kneeling down to be on equal leveling with Ilia.

Ilia’s hands fumbled their way to touch Iris. Ilia’s fingers slowly stroke along Iris’ arms, feeling the open cut wound and blood that trailed from it. Ilia gasps, “Iris you’re hurt.”

Iris looks at the wound on her arm, saying, “Oh, I’ll be fine, nothing a couple of band-aids can’t fix. How about I cook us some fish?” Iris suggests with a smile.

“I thought you didn’t like fish,” Ilia retorts with a giggle.

“We can’t be picky, and maybe I’ll like it now,” Iris responds. She dumps out her backpack to grab the vacuumed fish. A water bottle rolls against Iris’ foot, she grabs it and holds it in front of Ilia. “Do you want water?”

“Yes, please,” Ilia answers. Her hands fumble again to grab hold of the warm water bottle. Before Ilia could take a drink, Iris twisted the cap off. Ilia takes a drink, but small streams of water leak from the bottle and splashes onto Ilia’s clothing. “Oh, sorry Iris. I wasted some water, and I know how hard it must have been for you to get it,” Ilia apologizes.

“Don’t worry about it, we have enough water for a few days. I can always try to find some more,” Iris remarks as she stares into Ilia’s blind eyes.

[MediocreLee]

[spoiler=Chapter 2]

Chapter 2 – Territory

The musk of fish wafts through the room, even after hours of being consumed. The dark night has fallen. A small bonfire of shredded papers and small blocks of wood illuminate the room. Ilia sits tightly against the corner of the room, snuggled up against blankets and a destroyed teddy bear. Iris examines her blade, wiping off the leftover blood from her earlier encounter. Her mind began to wander to the start of it all.

Iris’ blade has seen many battles as she has travelled along the destroyed lands. She may have started as a novice in the blade, but repeated battles have taught her better than any teacher could. Plenty of enemies have threatened Iris, many of them fought her over food or water. Others fought her to subdue her and make her their slave. Ilia was not exception either, rather she was deemed as a real prize upon the monsters that try to enslave her. Ilia’s blind condition made her an easy target. There was once an incident where Ilia was almost carried away by a group of men while Iris was asleep. Ever since that incident, Iris has lost sleep and is continuously making sure to watch over Ilia as she rests.

Regardless of Ilia’s blindness, Iris has continued to protect her. Many would have abandoned a person who was a burden as they couldn’t do anything to help, but Iris couldn’t. She valued her sister more than anyone else left on the earth. Ever since the Great Volcano erupted, Iris has had to protect Ilia. At first, it was difficult as they had to immediately adjust to the frigid temperatures. They were lucky enough to live on the east coast, far away from the zone of where the volcanic lava would cause the most damage which was the Midwest. However, the ensuing chaos that happened after the eruption was the halt of many commercial goods, destroyed farm lands, reduction of electricity, and the termination of laws. Once people couldn’t get their hands on the latest technological devices or if people couldn’t even turn on their computers, they went into a craze. Riots, murders, robberies. No one and nothing was safe.

Iris experienced all of the terrible events herself. Iris once worked retail at a small department store. She was working the night of the riots in Boston. Despite how hard she and her coworkers tried to stop the rioters, they were ultimately overpowered. At that point it was every person for themselves. Iris saw many die that night. Her coworkers, rioters, children, and families. She rushed straight home where she found Ilia curled up in her room, terrified of the chaos that happened outside.

The day after the riot was no easier to manage. That’s when the ash began to set in. Even if she lived far away from the Great Volcano, the ash was able to spread all over the world. People suffocated because they breathed in too much of the ash and died. The ash didn’t fall like drifting snow. Rather it was a harsh blanket of darkness the crashed into the ground. No one dared to exit their houses for several days after the ash fell.

Once people began to grow hungry and exhausted their supplies is when the inevitable apocalypse happened. Neighbors murdered each other to feed themselves. Families began to fight each other for the last piece of chicken. Pet owners killed their pets for their meat or pets became feral and attacked their owners for their own survival. Some people became cannibals as they were willing to eat anything just to survive. Friends became foes, and foes became a food source.

Iris and Ilia had to travel around to avoid being attacked by their neighbors. At first it was to a different city where they found brief shelter in a clothing store. Next was a mall where there was a colony of people working together. The colony eventually dispersed when they were attacked by bandits. That night was the first night when Iris brandished a sword and defended her and her sister. After that colony, Iris and Ilia continued to travel to different states, staying at abandoned houses, stores, or shelters.

The sound of glass shattering echoes throughout the small house, snapping Iris back into reality. Iris immediately preps herself for battle. She blows out the fire and creeps towards the door. Loud footsteps hit the floor. Four, maybe five people entered the small home. They loudly enter each room to look for any supplies they can get. They will eventually search the room Iris and Ilia are currently in.

“Sis, what’s going on?” Ilia asks.

Despite Ilia’s blindness, Iris places her index finger over her lips in a strange attempt to hush Ilia. “Quiet,” Iris whispers.

The footsteps gradually became louder and louder. Rough voices echo throughout the house. More glass shatters, the sound of crashing furniture adds to the ensuing destruction. It’s a raid on a house. It’s common for people, mostly in groups, to enter a house or store whether or not it’s vacant to gather all of the supplies and kill or capture any people inside. As soon as the door flew open and the first leg stepped into the room, Iris slashes a bandit’s unguarded legs and kicks him hard enough that he collides with a wall. She jumps out of the room and stabs the bandit through the chest before he could react.

Another bandit quickly reacts to Iris’ assault and slashes with small knives. This bandit is quick and wild. He’s slashing randomly, so it’s difficult for Iris to make out any sort of pattern to the bandit’s assault. Iris couldn’t dodge forever in the narrow hallway, she’ll eventually hit the end and be an easier target. Iris took a chance and slashed her sword, aiming for the bandit’s left arm. Iris’ blade makes contact, but only a shallow cut was made.

The bandit brushed off the cut and continues to attack Iris. The knives sliced off a few strands of her hair to exhibit how sharp they were. Her shoulder was cut a bit, but nothing too serious was dealt to her. Instead of aiming for the bandit’s upper body, Iris aims for the bandit’s legs and manages to stab through the bandit’s thighs. Despite the bandit trying to fight back with an injured leg, Iris impales him through the chest just like his earlier friend.

Iris hears the sound of struggling in the living room. A dying yell was immediately cut off. Grunts loudly sound into the air, as if a hard struggle is happening. Iris creeps around the corner and finds three bandits and a female warrior carrying a bloody baseball bat covered in nails and barbed wire. One of the bandits was bludgeoned across the head, dying in a pool of blood. The other two were fighting the woman.

“Are you with these guys?” the woman asks loudly after deflecting a bandit’s blade.

“No,” Iris answers.

“Don’t just stand there then, help me!” the woman orders after smashing her bad into a bandit’s back.

Iris hesitated to help the woman. What would she gain if she were to help this woman? How could Iris be so sure if the woman won’t just kill her after killing the bandits?

The woman notices Iris’ hesitation and says, “Hey! Come on now, I’m not going to hurt you if you hurt them. We’re on the same side!”

Iris sighs and propels herself into battle. She stabs through an unwary bandit in the throat. The woman was defending herself from a larger bandit carrying a large sword. The large sword crashes into the ground, barely missing the woman. The woman takes her baseball bat and slams it against the bandit’s shoulder. Despite the amount of gushing blood that streamed out of the man’s shoulder, he continues to attack. The bandit punched the woman, catching her by surprise and landing on the ground.

The bandit turned his attention to Iris and swung his sword. If she didn’t dodge, then she would have definitely been sliced in two. Iris retaliated by using her sword to slice his arms, but she misses and ends up getting punched by the man as well.

“Dammit,” the woman mutters. “Hey, you go low, I go high.”

“What?” Iris questions.

“You go for his legs, I go for the head, easy as that,” the woman elaborates.

Iris recovers herself from the punch and lunges at the large man. With a joint attack, the man didn’t know who to dodge or counter. The confusion gave the women the opportunity they needed to finish the battle. Iris stabs the man slightly above the knee while the woman slams her baseball bat into the man’s face. The man falls to the ground, twitching a bit before bleeding out.

The woman sighs and drops her bloodied baseball bat. She strokes through her long blond hair, stating disgruntled, “Fighting always messes up my hair. But it’s the apocalypse so why should it even matter?”

“Good question,” Iris says. She’s not letting her guard down. Her hand tightly clenches around her sword.

The woman looks at Iris, sighing, “Hey, we’re done with the fighting now aren’t we?”

“Why are you in here?” Iris asks.

“I noticed that the group of bandits here were entering this place, so I figured that there might be supplies in here, so I followed them in and took them out by surprise, or sort of by surprise,” the woman answers. “If I knew you were already in here I probably wouldn’t have come in, I hate entering places where there are already people inside.”

“Then get out,” Iris rudely remarks.

“Damn, calm your tits, we did just fight together,” the woman says. “Maybe, we just got off on the wrong food. Let me introduce myself. I’m Risa.” She extends her hand out with and open palm.

Iris slowly moves her hand forward to shake Risa’s. She responds slowly, “I’m Iris.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard was it?” Risa chuckles a bit, “I might sound really rude, snarky, and sassy, but I can be nice too. Just ask my boyfriend, he can vouch for me.”

“Boyfriend?” Iris questions, “Why isn’t he here with you?”

Risa’s happier demeanor grew slightly grim. She replies, “I don’t know. I’ve been trying to look for him.”

“How can you look for him if you hate entering occupied places?” Iris asks.

“I didn’t say my logic made sense, but I see your point. Honestly, I’m just worried about him. We haven’t seen each other for two years because of that stupid volcano,” Risa answers angrily.

“Couldn’t he just be dead then?” Iris retorts.

Risa sighs, “Possibly, but I’d rather keep my head up so I can see him again.”

“Quite the optimist aren’t you?” Iris asks with a small smirk forming at the edge of her lips.

Risa shakes her head, answering, “Not really. He’s important to me and I’d rather not lose hope of seeing him.”

“How did you two get separated in the first place?” Iris asks.

“If I can remember correctly, a week before the volcano blew up, my boyfriend went on a business trip to here, New York, and I lost contact with him after the volcano blew up. So I traveled across the country just to get here to see if I can find him,” Risa explains.

“You traveled across the country? Where are you from?” Iris questions.

“Seattle, Washington. So yes, I literally travelled across the entire country, from west to east,” Risa responds, “I got here, I think, two days ago.”

“How were you able to get here?” Iris asks. Risa is the first person Iris has met that was able to travel across the country.

“It wasn’t a pleasant time. Crossing all of that magma and finding destroyed cities and towns. I was originally with a group of people, but most of them went insane and killed each other. Some of the rest of us were able to escape and had to travel separately. I was lucky to find a couple of abandoned cars and fuel, but it didn’t last me that long. I had to slowly travel from state to state starting in Kentucky; where there sadly was no fried chicken,” Risa answers.

“So there are more people alive,” Iris murmurs to herself. Even in New York she has hardly seen crowds of people. Anytime she would travel around, she would hardly see anyone. Maybe a few people here and there that aren’t bandits, but groups of people are a rare site.

“Hey, why don’t we work together?” Risa suggests with a wide smile.

“Work together?” Iris questions.

“Yeah, work together. You know, I watch your back, you watch mine,” Risa says, “I don’t think it’s that foreign of a concept. I mean, we’ll watch each other’s back until I find my boyfriend. Afterwards, we can part ways.”

“It’s not that, it’s just that I’m fine working by myself. I have to take care of my sister, and I don’t have time to help you look for your possibly dead boyfriend,” Iris responds coldly.

Risa sighs, “Why not? You know that I can defend myself, and you are more than capable of defending yourself. Listen, I’ll help you protect your sister too.”

“No,” Iris says.

“Oh come on, please? It gets lonely out there,” Risa pleads.

“No, there’s hardly any supplies left for me and my sister. Having you with us will only force us to need more supplies. I’m sorry, but I can’t spare any supplies just for an extra person,” Iris says bluntly.

Risa’s eyes widen, she smiles and says, “Oh, you’re worried about supplies? I can help you look for more supplies. Two people are better than one if we were to search for supplies together, three if you include your sister. I can be a great asset. Hell, I’ll even take the shorter end of the supply since you’re taking care of your sister and all. I just really want to be traveling with other people. With no one watching my back, I can hardly sleep or do anything without being scared that someone is going to attack me.”

Iris pauses for a moment. An extra person would mean that there would be a need for more supplies. However, Risa does give a good offer of helping look for supplies while also helping protect Ilia. The pros outweigh the cons in this situation.

Iris sighs, “Fine, you can be with me and my sister, as long as you actually hold up your end of the bargain. You help look for supplies and protect my sister.”

“Deal!” Risa exclaims. She forces Iris into an awkward, yet strangely comforting hug.