The end of the human era

A century ago, a devastating event finished with half of the human’s population. It was caused by an explosion that took place in a military base, off the coast of Russia. Illegal experimentation was being done to soldiers, so they could be transformed into a weapon. This new hybrid-human species could destroy armies if told to, had no emotions, was a cold-blooded killer and was more intelligent than humans. Before the experiments were perfected, many soldiers died because of it. Due to the cells not being able to combine, in some extreme cases, the human would die instantly, burning up from the inside-out. This virus was transmitted either by blood or a cut that the person had or came into contact with. Because the scientists and army generals wanted more power, a drug was created to give inhuman powers to whom it was injected to. This caused the human hybrid to undergo a massive change from looking like a man to transforming into a beast. The specimen grew taller and skinnier, had claws, super strength, and speed. Not only this, but it craved human blood. This new species was not easily killed, only by taking out its heart, was the only way it would die.

These experimentations were discovered by the US army, five years after they had begun. As a result, the USA decided to bomb the military base, giving birth to the end of the human era. Many lost their lives, either their body rejected the virus or others turned into beasts, sadly some were killed by them. As the years passed, humanity faced possible extinction, but thanks to an organization that was working in creating weapons to destroy these man-like-beasts, they averted it. This organization was called Chaos. Walls were built around big cities to protect the remaining humans, many buildings were demolished to be able to create a place where food grew, and clear water existed. As a solution to this crisis, a special unit called Pandora, was created to take care of the beasts, which later were called reapers. These soldiers were born with the same DNA as the human hybrid, but with the difference that they were raised by scientists, and many experimented with them.

But I was different, my mom and dad were scientists, but they raised me outside the walls like a normal human. They had run away, to give me a chance of having a different life and a name of my own, Athena. I had a normal childhood; I mean as normal as it could get with creatures that killed people, but it was good. They taught me how to hunt, defend myself, do chores, help around the village and most importantly, I knew what love, compassion, hope, happiness, kindness, and thankfulness was. I really was different from the others that shared my blood. After living in the village for 10 years, a small group of reapers had appeared, they destroyed my village and killed my parents. One of the directors of Chaos, was my parents best-friend, Lucas, and he took me in. I changed my appearance from white hair and green eyes to dark brown hair and eyes. I also started going to school and because of my natural intelligence, catching up with the class was no problem. In the afternoons, Lucas would teach me how to use a gun and a katana. Slowly the memory of my parent’s death faded away and was replaced by new memories, made with my new and only family.

Ten years later, I graduated top of my class and was accepted into the military. Lucas was not happy with this, but still saw me off when I left for the training camp. Months later, I finished and was sent to the field. Outside the walls, it was scary, hundreds of reapers took the lives of my comrades. Mission after mission, countless died and only the ones that were in my group, survived. I cried for each one of them and swore to make myself stronger so that I could protect the people that I loved. After five years of living in the fields, I was sent home as a reward for completing each mission. True to the word, war did change people, I changed. I no longer harbored any human feelings, only for my family. My name was respected in the army, I was known as “the angel of death” because of my killing skills. While others killed one at a time, I killed ten at a time, all in a very efficient, but bloody way.

Arriving back home, I was greeted by my family with happy tears falling down their faces. I hugged them and thought how lucky I was for being able to come back in one piece. Some of my comrades came back with missing extremities. It really was a nightmare outside the walls, only the strongest and wise survived. After a few weeks with the family, I was summoned to Pandora’s headquarters. There I received the surprise news of becoming a member of the unit. I was speechless, of course I accepted the job because I was paid more, and Lucas could finally retire. The head director, Michigan, told me that I would start next week. I was under the care of captain Noah, he was the one in charge of the deadliest group in the Pandora unit, God Eaters.

The first day of work was uneventful, I met the rest of the group members which were Sandra, Bon, Carmella, and Stuart. They were all kind except for Carmella. I did not get to meet the Captain. Rumors say that the man was invincible and extremely attractive, so I wanted to see it with my own eyes. The next day, we were sent on a mission. As I got ready, a loud crash was heard in the weaponry room. I finished getting ready and made my way to the first floor, where two military vehicles were waiting for us. It was my first mission with the God Eaters, we had to go to the research lab where it all began and retrieve a supposed antidote that existed. I was surprised when I heard that, I mean the whole base was obliterated with bombs. Why would there be an antidote? but apparently a mile from the military base, existed an underground lab that supposedly had it.

We had arrived at the underground lab and had achieved on getting the antidote, but what we saw left us speechless. As we looked around the lab and Stuart read some papers, we were surprised to find out that there was not any antidote. The thing that was in the vile, was the virus that started everything. it was not so hard for us to fill in the rest of the missing pieces, we were after all, human hybrids. Of course, nobody knew I was, but everyone pitched in their ideas and the puzzle was complete. The organization had sent us to retrieve the virus for two reasons, either to perfect it or to use it to end the rest of humanity.

As soon as we exited the place, a huge wave of reapers came our way. I fought and killed as many as I could, but wave after wave they become stronger. Before we could set off the bombs that were placed all around the lab, we had to get away. It was impossible, but after a while of fighting, I was almost out of ammo and energy. We saw an opportunity to leave and took it. We ran as fast as we could, the bombs were detonated, and it bought us more time. Getting inside the vehicles, I was thrown away by one of the reapers. As it ran towards me at full speed, a tall man grabbed me, threw me on his shoulders. With his right hand, he pierced the reapers chest and crushed its heart. He then walked towards the vehicles and placed me on my feet. By the look of things, he had to be captain Noah, I already knew the rest of the group.

We arrived at headquarters and captain Noah disappeared up the stairs, he truly was a mystery to me. I took my gear off and left for my home. As soon as I got home, the sirens were turned on. It could only mean one thing; reapers had gotten over the wall. I grabbed my katana and left with my family. There was only one goal in my mind, to protect my family. In the middle of the city there was an underground passage that was made for this occasion. Grabbing my little cousins’ bags, I threw it on the carriage along with our belongings. I grabbed the ends of it, where usually horses were strapped, and started running towards the middle of the city. Inside this carriage was my uncle, his wife, and the twins. Because I was the fastest and strongest member of the family, we had decided that if the reapers should ever infiltrate the city, I would be the one to take everyone to safety, my uncle and aunt were not happy with my plan but dying was not an option.

While running, I had many encounters with reapers, but I never stopped, it just pushed me to keep on going. After a while, we reached the underground passage, and we knew what would happen next. I could not go down with them; I was part of the Pandora unit. With a kiss and hug to each one of them, I left. I had to protect my family no matter what, I had to make sure they survived this. Making my way towards a big group of reapers, I took out my katana and started killing them. One after the other they fell, I was invincible, that was until I saw one of the reapers grab a small child, just like me, white hair, and green eyes. The fear that was shown on the boy's face, had me appear in seconds in-front of the reaper and I ripped his heart out, crushing it with my bare hand. I cradled the crying little boy in my arms and started running towards the underground entrance. When I arrived, the military guards would not let me leave the boy, saying that because he was a hybrid he had to fight, that was the reason for his existence. I punched the wall in anger, hating the reality of our purpose here. I looked at the kid, grabbed him and left.

I went to look for my team, especially captain Noah, I knew he would know what to do. What a relief I felt once I spotted my team, they were killing all the reapers despite their injuries. Running towards them, I noticed that the Captain was not there. I made my way to Carmella because she was the nearest one and explained my situation. She took the boy out of my arms, threw him on the ground and yelled to him saying: fight! I punched her in the face and grabbed the boy. Running away from there, I ended up in an abandoned building. There, I settled the kid on the floor and took a break. The little kid’s name was Elijah. As I rested my head against the wall with Elijah in my arms, I heard snarls coming from outside. I had closed the door on our way in, but even I knew that would not hold them off. Placing Elijah in a corner, far away from the door, while using my body to shield his little body, I grabbed my katana and pointed at the door. Just in time, the door burst open and in came the reapers.

I fought with all that I had, but I was slowly losing this battle, they were too many and too strong. Exhausted from all the fighting, I was covered in cuts and bruises when a piercing snarl echoed through the room. I felt Elijah’s hands circle around my right leg, he was scared and so was I. In a flash, Elijah was screaming for me while a reaper grabbed him by his thin arm and threw him against the wall. I screamed for them to stop, I screamed his name, I screamed because I felt the same way I did when my parents died, hopeless. My vision got clouded by tears, my tears. I tried to blink them away and that is when I saw it. The reapers advanced towards an unconscious Elijah and everything slowed down. An energy within me burst in my chest, I felt my body change in a very painful way. Claws replaced my fingers, horns appeared on my head, fangs popped in my mouth and a tail ripped through my pants. I felt stronger, faster, deadlier, and more powerful. I snarled at the reapers and in a matter of seconds I had killed every one of them that was inside the building. Walking towards Elijah, I passed a broken mirror and saw my reflection, my long white hair was back, but my eyes were black. Picking up Elijah, I made my way out of the building. Looking around, I saw something that looked like me. It spotted me and appeared in-front of me. Curious eyes looked back at me, it started walking around me, smelling, and studying my body. Then, it changed, I was now looking at a very beaten-up captain Noah. He looked curiously at Elijah’s body before taking him, I snarled at him, but he ignored me. Noah looked down at Elijah and then at me, catching me off guard with the smile that he gave me. Placing his left hand on my shoulder, he said: “Finally, I know now that I am not alone. I told the team to seal the gates, which is how they got in. Let us finish the remaining reapers, together”. A tear fell from my right eye and I brushed it off. We ran towards the security tower and inside was the rest of the team. There, we left Elijah in Sandra’s arms and ran back down. Outside Noah and I exchanged looks, he smiled and transformed. I looked ahead and saw more than a hundred reapers banging on the underground entrance doors. Looking back at Noah I smiled and took off. Both of us together killed the remaining reapers. Covered in blood and scratch marks, I looked up to the sky and smiled, it was finally over. Because I did not know how to change, I had to look for my family in my new form. People screamed when they saw me, and it did not bother me. I was happy that the threat was taken care of, I had a happy Elijah holding tightly to my neck. Did not take me long to spot my family in the crowd, appearing in-front of them, Uncle Lucas gave a high pitch girly scream. Noah, who was walking beside me, looked at him weirdly. I laughed and in a dominant voice I spoke: “Uncle, it is me Athena. This is Elijah and captain Noah”. My uncle’s eyes almost fell out of his head when he heard me speak. His twins ran towards me and hugged my legs. Melody, who was my uncle’s wife, hugged me and started crying. I felt a hand on my back, when I heard my uncle speak: “Thank God he brought you back to us safe and alive. We love you, Athena. Your parents would be proud of the woman you have become”. I kneeled in-front of him because I was taller than him and he gave me a kiss on my forehead.

Months passed before the city was back to its full glory. People were back again smiling, laughing and there was music on the streets. The Pandora project was canceled and the ones in charge of it were thrown in jail. Apparently, they were the ones behind the whole incident. Things were still the same, reapers still existed and killed humans. A second project under the name of Hope, was created to fight off the reapers and it was directed by my uncle, Lucas Knight. I ended up adopting Elijah and started going out with Noah. He explained what happened to me and what I was, evolution is a powerful thing. I guess my parents did experiment on me after all, but I am glad, if it were not for them, I would not have been strong enough to protect the people I love. From what we both know; we were the first of our species and we liked it that way. In the end, we had become the new hope for our people, our existence had become the end of the human era and the beginning of a new one.