Chapter One: introduction
rhetoric
Word Count: 515

It had begun unexpectedly and inexplicably. 

At first, it was the world-wide, Richter-scale shattering earthquakes that left people stunned and frightened.  The earthquakes fractured continents, separating countries from neighboring countries, towns from neighboring cities; splitting cultures and families and nations until there was no semblance of nationality or country left.  New rivers and oceans and lakes formed to fill the gaps.

Technology held, however – and people turned to it with a new fervor.  Television and web-broadcasting were all most people had left to communicate with the rest of the world.  Communication became everything; it was practically currency.

Then, the sun went black.  Earth was plunged into daytime darkness until the blood-stained moon rose and bathed the people in an eerie, unsettling red light.  The truth of human nature began to reveal itself as man reverted back to forgotten behavior; wild, untamed, uncivilized – only well armed, and provoked, and terrified.

The meteors came next; fallen stars crashing to the surface of the planet like so many dropped marbles.  The constellations began to vanish as if being pulled out of sight by an invisible hand, like the map of the heavens was being rolled up and put away.

The mountains shifted, crumbling and collapsing, as the seemingly endless earthquakes moved their pieces miles and miles from their origins.  Islands sank and reappeared thousands of meters farther out to sea.

Scholars and preachers shrieked into microphones, yelling into cameras, hollering at the people they knew to be watching – It’s the end! They cried, but so few really heard them.  It was like speaking to the deaf, or herding mad animals.  Words held no power except to strike panic into hearts – uncontrollable, irrevocable panic.  It spread like wildfire.

Petrified of the very land they walked upon, humans fled to the mountains that had been re-made in the center of continents – hiding in the make-shift caves and hollows there, carrying their gadgets and computers, televisions, and generators with them – desperate for the confirmation that there were others, like them, struggling to understand.  They struggled to cope, to survive, and to explain.

Factions developed: the clans versus the rogues verses the remaining military groups versus those too scared to trust anyone else.  Against all rational understanding, wars broke out among people – as if the destruction around them simply was not enough to occupy them any longer.  They needed to fight for resources, for abandoned grocery stores and power sources to scavenge.

Reports of strange markings appearing on the foreheads of over a hundred thousand people world-wide began reaching the make-shift news broadcasts.  The markings appeared over night, and were roughly the shape and pattern of a thumbprint without source.  The same day, great storms took over the sky and yet more earthquakes shook the planet.

Somewhere in the peals of thunder, the rumbling and cracking of incalculable storms, people began to vanish.

Out of thin air, it seemed.  One moment sitting in the shadows of the cave, huddled in the mass of panicked, desperate hide-aways, cradling children; the next, gone.  

The gates to the realms had opened.  The Apocalypse had begun.

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Author guidance for This exercise

This is a collab work. If you wish to join, get in touch with me (rhetoric) and write up a bio for me to look over. :)

The setting: Post-rapture apocalypse. Angels, Dark Angels, and Daemons have taken to the Earth. Humans struggle to stay alive.

The end of days is upon them all.

Ratings: Ratings are always up to the reader, but if you're going to rate something below a 4.0, it would be very kind of you to leave a few helpful suggestions for the writer. Otherwise, please don't bother rating; it's rude to rate something down and not give the author a reason why.

the characters:

name: judah
author: rhetoric
age: 26 earth years.
species: dark angel.
appearance: Six-foot-three, with dark brown hair that is only a little shaggy, usually kept to just cover his eyebrows. Black irises. Scarred. Hard, sharp, stoic features. Perpetual five-o'clock shadow. Muscular but lean.
*
name: azazel
author: cat_monty
age: 25 earth years
species: daemon
appearance: Untidy black hair, pale skin, 6'0, slender build, sharp facial features and a scar across his collarbone.
*
name: lottie rose
author: thegirlinthecupboard
age: 21 earth years
species: dark angel
appearance: Tiny frame, thin, and short. Short choppy black hair. Has bright blue eyes but wears black contact lenses. Wears all black.
*
name: alice mayfield
author: xkatieshepherd
age: 17
species: human
appearance: Incredibly pretty in a slightly exotic way. She has an olive complexion, large brown eyes and a tall, slender figure. Thick dark hair that falls in waves past her shoulders and full lips.
*
name: belial, the dark emissary
author: lilley
age: unknown
species: daemon
appearance: Despite his heartlessness the Dark Emissary is an unnaturally handsome man with chiselled features, at six foot two he is not the biggest of his kind. When in human form he is handsome, tanned skinned and muscular with tussled blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. In daemon form he is cowled, horned and sprouts wings like that of a bat. It is said in this form that if any mortal soul should meet his gaze, a fate worse than death would befall them.
*
name: tai "the titan" kaliso
author: lilley
age: 29
species: human
appearance: Tai is massive at six foot eight inches tall and almost as wide as he is tall. He is of Polynesian decent and his appearance reflects this with slightly slanted eyes, long get black hair platted into a long pony tail and black tribal tattoos running down the whole right side of his body from the belt line to the scalp.
*
name: Alexis
author: tillett
age: 19
species: human
appearance: Athletic build, 5-foot-seven, with dirty unmanageable blonde hair, waist length. Peircing chrysolite green eyes. Fair skinned. Her delicate features have hardened with suffering and the need for survival.
*
name: Agaton
author: rhetoric
age: 26 earth years
species: daemon
appearance: Agaton is six-foot-three, with golden blonde hair that he keeps just short enough to run his fingers through, and wide, black irises. He smiles the way women imagine handsome cowboys to smile, with the faintest crinkle lines around his eyes. He has a dark shadow of facial hair and a strong jaw. Sharp features, scars littering his entire body. He has a habit of wearing button up shirts and well-fitted jeans.
*
name: Suzuki Akane (first name: Akane)
author: ghostburgers
age: 23
species: human
appearance: Tall (or willow-ly), walks graceful, Long (mid-back) black hair, electric blue eyes, Japanese.
*
name: Tazereal (Taz)
author: thebear73
age: looks roughly 30 earth years
species: fallen angel/blood angel
appearance: 6'6, muscular, shoulder length black hair, He has scars on his back where his wings once were attached to his back.
*
name: dawn
author: sei-chan25
age: roughly 23 earth years
species: angel
appearance: Long, silver-blonde hair and dark sapphire blue eyes. Small and petite, barely 5'3", she's fairly cute and always wheres a silver locket.
*
name: menefer
author: whispervaughan
age: 16 earth years
species: dark angel
appearance: 5-foot-5, curly black hair that comes half way down her back. Red eyes with flecks of black. Quite thin. Always wears a black ring with a blue jewel on it. Always has her pet snake, Nyoka, with her.
*
name: zoe foster
author: cat_monty
age: 24
species: human
appearance: Tall (5'9) with long legs, short, spiky brown hair, cyan eyes and dark skin.
*
name: Rhian
author: nyxie
age: 15 earth years
species: angel
appearance: Long, light, brown hair (changes in the sun - so it loks like she has blondish highlights), eyes that change colour (generally crystal blue or emerald green), thin, small.
*

name: here
author: author
age: here
species: here
appearance: here
*

updated Feb 22 by rhetoric