The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ooc]I have had some ideas for a story lately. Read, critique if you like or just critisize me, I don't care. Its a post apocalyptic story, but does not go along with the normal themes, so please continue reading.[/ooc]


                              Chapter 1: Waking Up
 
 A gust of wind blew through the city. Ancient skyscrapers swayed and creaked. This was routine for the denizens of the long abandoned city, mostly birds, deer and wildcats, but something was new today, something was different. Through the dense thicket, a mix of forest and building, in the center of a once prospering city, a man layed in one of the top floors of a skyscraper.

  Alex rolled over and opened his eyes. He quickly shut them, the sunlight stinging his eyes, and groaned. His entire body was sore. He tried to stand, but the stiffness in his joints and muscles stopped him. He layed back onto the ground and stretched, and only then did he have the strength to stand. When he stood though, a shock assaulted him like never before.

  Light poured through the shattered window that made up one wall. A desk sat on the other end of the room, falling apart and covered in dust. On the other wall was what once was a bookshelf, now with the shelf reduced to dust and rotting wood. A few holes showed where the floor had given away, from natural erosion and water damage. Vines and ferns grew out of cracks in the walls and floors. This was once his boss's office. He fell back over in shock, shaking his head.

   What could have happened? He thought to himself. At first he thought that perhaps the building had been bombed, just like 911 maybe. No, that didn't fit. Plants had grown in.
  Then Alexander turned and looked out the window. The entire city was gone. What was once Philadelphia was now forest and crumbling buildings. The first thing that came to his mind was that the city was bombed. His eyes widened as he came to that realization.   We were nuked! He looked around at the remnants of his city. Panicking, shaking his head, he started to back up, walking into the hallway.

    [note]Of course, this is not really the cause of the destruction. If the city was bombed, he would not be alive, and there would not be so much life living and growing. But, the image of a nucleaur holocaust is what the general population thinks of when they picture an apocalypse. So therefore are main character Alex also beleives that.[/note]

  As soon as he put weight on the hallway, his leg broke the floor and fell through. Acting purely on instinct, he grabbed at his leg and tried to pull it out. The force of him doing this broke through the floor. He fell, then crashed into the next floor, lying there only for a moment until that also collapsed under him. A sharp pain shot through his leg when he hit the next floor, this one atleast partially solid.

 Alex coughed from the thick cloud of dust in the air. The debris had finally settled, and he could feel the warm blood coming out of his leg, along with a burning pain. He just waited, screaming in agony, a tear in his eye. Finally the dust settled and he could see. His eyes darted to his thigh, the source of the pain. The head of a rusty nail stuck out through his jeans, blood gushing out. Barely able think due to the pain, somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind he knew what to do. He stuck his finger in and tore out the nail. Blood began to flow out of the wound, and he stuck his finger in it to stem the flow, while ripping off his sleeve with his other hand. He wrapped and tied the wound, cursing at the pain. The cloth from his shirt was quickly saturated from Alex's life blood, but it still stopped the flow. Alexander layed there for many minutes.

    The loneliness is what hit him the hardest. He had lived in downtown Philadelphia all his life, and had always been around people, heard the bustling streets, heard people talking on their cell phones, the buzz of radios and the beeping of little handhelds. Now it was just silence, interupted only by the sqauwking of a bird or creaking of a swaying building. The wind was the most common sound. The silence scared him, terrified him. So many choices available to him, and to have no idea which one to take. No one was there to help him. He had to help himself. To help himself do what, he thought. To get out of the city. There had to be someone alive outside the city. Someone that could help him, to talk to him, to guide him, to give him security.

  Alexander stood. He was a young man, in his mid twenties. He was tall, lean, fit enough, had a dark mop for hair and a light beard. Drenched in sweat and blood, he stood, and shambled over to the hole in the wall that was once a window. He looked out at the city. A flock of birds flew by. The streets and buildings were completely overgrown by trees. The continuous creak of swaying building and howling wind dominated all noises in the canopy of this urban jungle. At this time, Alex understood what it truly meant to be  alone

Chapter 2: Descent
 
 Alex finally gave up on trying to move the rubble away from the doorway. There was to much, and the floor was creaking so badly that every second he was worried that it would collapse. He sighed, and walked over to the window, his bad leg shooting pain through his body. He looked down.

 It dizzied him how high he was, and how unstable this building seemed. Vines hung down the buildings the entire length, and he was tempted just to grab onto one of them and climb down. He backed up though, and sighed. What was the use? He was probably just going to die anyway.  No. He told himself. I'm not going to die alone.. He walked back to the window, and grabbed one of the vines, pulling it close to him. He tugged on it. It snapped off and fell all the way to the bottom. Gulping, he grabbed onto one that looked thicker. He tugged. It seemed strong. He jumped off without thinking, figuring that if he thought about it he wouldn't do it. The vine snapped a little near the top, but held.

  Alex was dangling off the side of a skyscraper, his muscles strained and eyes blurry from both the wind and his tight grip on the plant. He started to climb down on it, but was shaking. The man had never been afraid of heights, but now he could barely take it as he climbed down the rope. When he came to the next window, he planted his feet firmly on the side of the building and pushed off, all while keeping a grip on the vine. He bounced back, then started swinging towards the opening. "Damn!" He misjudged the distance, and instead of flying through the opening his shoulder slammed into the side of the wall and he fell another floor, to just barely grab onto another window.

   Glass sliced into his fingers, the blood running down his arm and dripping onto his face. Only one arm was holding him, and his fingers were bleeding from the broken glass lining the window sill and turning white from holding up all his weight. He couldn't take it. His fingers slipped off, and he fell.

   He didn't know how many floors he fell, but it fell like it took forever, even though he was falling fast. Eventually closer to the bottom of the building were apartments. Alex slammed into a metal grait balcony, landing on his shoulder, dislocating it. Shaken and barely able to move from pain, he was oblivious when the balcony started to creak. It was only when cracks started appearing in the brick holding the balcony that he came to his senses. He stood, and that weight caused the entire thing to slant downward with one long, metallic screech that gave him chills.

  Alexander hung at and angle. Bricks began to fall out of the wall. The balcony was getting looser and looser. It slanted even more precariously every second. Four feet away was another balcony. He jumped, and while he flew through the air the balcony broke off, falling to the botttom. He landed on the other one, breaking right through the rusted old railing. This one creaked, but not as badly as the other one. His spirits were raised greatly when he noticed that this balcony had a fire escape leading from it. He layed down to rest. Later he would walk down it, but for now he needed to mend to his fingers and his shoulder.

Chapter 3: Forest Floor
 
 The sun was starting to set. Alex reasoned he could make it to the ground, find a place to sleep, then the next day hike out of the center of the city. That would start his long trek out of the city and eventually to find somebody else. Atleast, thats what he thought.

  He pulled himself to his feet and stretched. His side cramped. With a grunt he started slowly moving down the steps of the fire escape. Vines, bushes and ferns grew all over it, and a layer of soil even occupied space on the seemingly natural walkway. He passed all types of animals; birds, lizards, large rat like things. They weren't afraid of him, not moving even when he got within inches of them. He began to quicken his pace, since the ancient fire escape seemed stable and the sun was going down fast.

 Eventually he descended below tree level. He had to crawl along under the many branches that crisscrossed the walkway, and vines hanging down, and roots across. It was almost impossible to move the branches were so tightly woven together. Eventually it got to the point where he couldn't move. He sat down to rest and looked over the side. Instantly Alex's spirit was raised when he realized he was only about twenty feet above the ground. He stood again, now invigorated. He looked around for other options to get down. The vines around him were to thin to climb down like he had before, so he had to look for another aproach. As the darkness closed in on the forest, he decided to climb out on one of the branches.

 Alex crawled along the branch nervously. He was sweating heavily when he finally reached the trunk of the tree, where many branches connected and were close together, allowing him to climb down easily and get to the bottom. As he began to put this into action, as soon as the last ray of sunlight disapparead a primeval howl split the quiet sound of birds and frogs.

    [ooc]Please, if you view this thread, comment, because I can't improve unless somebody tells me what i'm doing wrong.[/ooc]