My head ached, the glowing symbol may have vanished but I felt as though it was still happily pulsing inside my head -- there was a feeling reminiscent of a heartbeat behind my eyes, which hadn’t been there before.

After a few seconds of futile struggling, I managed to pry my eyes open.

Everything was slightly blurry, haloed by a blue light that pulsed along with the rhythm of my heartbeat. There was almost no light, just the slightest illumination.

Wherever I was, it was dark.

However, there was a soft, white, glow that permeated the surroundings. The light didn’t flicker, it was a steady illumination that, while dimmer than the light of the double moons, acted like a perpetual twilight.

There was a cold, hard surface under my back.

The fact that I had my sense of feeling pulled my mind back from dwelling on the odd symbol and the mysterious white ambiance around me.

When I looked down, I could see that I was laying on a stone floor.

--But, the stone under me was cratered.

The indented stone was cracked in a radial pattern.

Still laying on my back, I looked up and saw an arched ceiling comprised of a gray stone -- in which, there was a large hole. I could see the stars through it.

Well, it seems that I had crashed through several meters of stone and landed in a cave.

After observing my surroundings, I sighed and lay perfectly still for a few minutes; the pain in my head finally disappeared. However, the pulsing continued.

Slowly, carefully, I sat up and looked closely at the ground beneath me.

A dark substance coated the stone. All around me, and pooling beneath me -- the substance, while partially dried, was wet and, thick. The same dampness coated my clothing and causing it to cling to my skin.

I scooped some of it into my hand, to inspect it; to confirm the slightly disturbing theory that had popped into my mind. Looking at the sticky, partially concealed crimson liquid, I could see that it was blood.

My blood.

Judging the way that the blood was splattered around, and the amount -- it seems like I had exploded when I impacted the stone floor. Blood and pieces of my body spraying everywhere. I had hit the floor at a high enough velocity that the blood had small gooey bits scattered throughout it.

I decided to not dwell on this disturbing thought too deeply.

With a sigh, and shaking my head, I gingerly climbed to my feet.

My pain had finally completely disappeared. I could see again. While I could still feel the pulsing in my head, I was becoming accustomed to it, and my sense of balance was better.

Pulling my gaze from what seemed to be my remains, and deciding not to think too hard on how I survived, I looked around.

The source of the soft white glow, which luckily illuminated the wide cavern, originated from veins of white crystal. These crystals ran through the gray stone walls -- the crystal veins looked artificial, they formed symbols that looked peculiarly familiar.

I knew that I couldn’t just stand around aimlessly. I needed to look for an exit from this cavern; luckily, the exits were really simple to locate.

There were two visible passages which lead out of the cavern -- both of which were perfectly equidistant from each other, situated on opposite walls of the cavern.

Having recovered from the fall, and located the exits, I decided that it was time to start moving; time to find a way out of my current location. I needed to leave these caves and find the rest of Humanity -- the instinct was swirling through my subconscious.

However, when I tried to take my first step, I discovered that I had been wrong; I hadn’t quite recovered as much as I believed. My sense of balance hadn’t recovered -- it was fine when I was standing, but as soon as I tried to take a step -- I accidentally fell to my knees; I barely managed to catch myself on outstretched hands.

Luckily I didn’t face-plant onto the blood soaked stone.

The crimson, cold, semi-congealed liquid on my palms drew my gaze; looking at these blood coated hands of mine, I felt recognition -- and remorse.

These crimson-soaked palms once covered this world, and again they will cast their sanguine shadow.

Huh?

What was that odd thought -- it didn’t feel like mine, even though it came from somewhere deep in my head. But, before I could do more than note its presence, it was gone again.

Shaking my head, I tried to figure out how I could survive such an obviously fatal fall -- how my body could still stand here, perfectly fine, after exploding on a stone floor.

Rapidly shaking my head, I slowly stood up.

When I tried for the second time to take a step, I was more successful and only wavered slightly. By my third step, I knew that I had finally recovered.

I was no longer almost falling over every time my center of gravity shifted.

After climbing out of the crater, I stood still, trying to decide which way to go -- without any ideas, I just decided to follow my instincts.

Looking up at the moons, which were visible through the hole in the roof, I decided to go through the passage that was on my left.

The crystals in the wall provided enough light for me to look around without straining my eyes, more than enough light to navigate the room which once had a completely flat floor -- which was now marred only by the crater that I caused.

Well, the crater’s formation also scattered different sized and shaped stone shards around the once clean floor.

Since my sight was slightly limited, I focused on my hearing -- which I noticed was stronger than my sight.

If anything moved near me, I would be able to see it; however, by then it would have seen me as well -- it would be too late to run.

Deep down, I suspected that I wasn’t the only living creature in these caves; this feeling was because I felt as though something was watching me with a bestial hunger -- a ravenous beast, observing .

The thought made my skin trembled slightly.

Having moved only a small distance -- I heard the noise that I subconsciously expected. There was a scratching, skittering noise on the floor behind me.

Something was coming.

It was too late to run, my only other choice was to fight.

***

If I was to fight, I needed something to use as a weapon.

This was simple, all I had to do was to bend down and pick up a sharp shard of stone -- one that had been scattered around because of me unexpectedly dropping in.

 

I had no idea if I knew how to fight, nor did I know for sure that whatever was making this noise was an enemy. This reaction, my body entering combat mode, seemed to be a deeply ingrained instinct that not even memory-loss could erase.

Half crouching, I held the shard of stone like a knife.

If the shard was bigger, I could use it defensively. However, the nearest rock was sized and shaped perfectly for slashing and stabbing.

The clattering was getting louder and clear, I could hear individual footsteps--skittering footsteps.

Four.

Four feet.

Every step was accompanied by a strange ‘clink’ sound; to my hyper-active mind, that clink sounded like claws on stone. But there was also a strange dragging sound following the footsteps.

--Then.

It rounded the corner.

Staring at me, from the passage that I had picked to explore first, was a huge rat.

At the shoulder, the rat was almost as tall as I was. Its short, brown, fur was mattered with blood and other unidentifiable…things.

Large blue crystals grew from the rat’s shoulder-blades; these crystals were incredibly large and wedge-shaped. The base of these crystal ‘blades’ base was as wide as my thigh. The blade swept back along the line of the rat’s body -- tapering to a thin edge and needle-sharp point.

Instead of claws, it had sharp crystals which were each longer than my forearms -- all of the crystals that grew from the rat’s body were so sharp that they seemed to cut even the air itself.

Dragging behind the rat was a massive, scaly tail.

The tail was as long as the rat itself and wider than my upper-arm.

 

It was comprised of pitch-black scales with strange silvery lines running between the plates; the interaction of these two colours formed unnatural geometric shapes.

The rat’s eyes glowed deep crimson, an internally generated light that illuminated the immediate area around its head.

Looking around, the rat saw me. It made a high-pitched chittering noise, before hissing. While still emitting that ear-piercing hiss, the rat jumped towards me at incredible speed, slashing at me with its front left paw. The five massive claws aimed towards my chest as it tried to cut me into numerous, easily chew-able pieces.

Barely managing to catch sight of the sharp crystalline claws slicing towards me at an incredible speed, a wave of fear and adrenaline surged through my body. Everything seemed to slow down and a blue light suddenly burst from the back of my left hand.

Swirling noiselessly around me, the unknown light suddenly coalesced and changed shape, forming a misty armour.

My mind was racing, my body seemed frozen in this accelerated world -- the claws were still approaching me, though moving strangely, as though through thick liquid.

Even before I managed to arrange my thoughts -- let alone command my body to move -- there was a loud, metallic sound. The rat’s claws deflected off the misty, glowing, armour surrounding me; the armour didn’t even have the smallest scratch or dent from the powerful impact.

However, the force -- though weakened -- passed through my body; I felt like all of my organs were flattened for a second, before I was knocked back. I flew rapidly through the air and slammed into a nearby stone wall.

The stone behind me cratered, splintered.

Stumbling forwards, I acted on instinct and threw the stone -- which I still had in my right hand. As the stone left my hand, the blue light swirled and latched onto it, coating it; the rock suddenly exploded forwards, rapidly accelerating until it reached a speed far beyond that of which I had originally thrown it.

There was a high-pitched hum as the air around the glowing rock seemed to twist and distort.

After it reached a speed which was indiscernible for the human eye, becoming a streak of blue light, the rock smashed into a rat’s large and ugly face. With a loud sound, the rat’s head exploded into a cloud of blood, brains, and bone shards.

Following the inertia of the impact, the rest of the rat’s body flew backwards and slammed into a wall. Unlike me, when the rat hit the wall, bones cracked and organs went ‘squish’.

Killing the rat was much simpler than I had expected.