AFTER HUMANITY

Chapter 12: The War Below

The war spread faster than anyone expected.

The Ascended divided into factions.

One group believed the Watchers should be obeyed.

Another believed humanity should resist.

The third group simply wanted to survive.

Humans were caught between them.

Entire settlements disappeared overnight.

Elias led survivors from one ruined city to another.

Noah became one of their best scouts.

He could move through the ruins without making a sound.

Lena worked constantly.

There were too many injured.

Too many sick.

Too many afraid.

Mara became more distant every day.

She heard the Ascended constantly.

Sometimes she woke screaming.

Sometimes she spoke to people who weren't there.

One evening Elias found her sitting alone beside a ruined building.

"What are you hearing?"

She didn't look at him.

"Everything."

"What does that mean?"

"Every Ascended mind."

She closed her eyes.

"Thousands of years of memories are inside them."

Elias sat beside her.

"And now they're inside you?"

Mara nodded.

"Some of them."

She looked terrified.

"There is something else."

"What?"

"A voice."

"Whose?"

"I don't know."

She looked toward the sky.

"It isn't human."

That night, the Watchers finally moved.

The objects descended.

Not toward the cities.

Toward the oceans.

When they reached the water, the entire planet shook.

The sea pulled backward.

For several minutes, beaches stretched for kilometers.

Then the water returned.

A massive wave destroyed everything in its path.

Elias watched from a ruined tower.

"What are they doing?"

Lena answered:

"Measuring us."

Elias looked at Mara.

She was crying.

"Why?"

Mara whispered:

"Because they haven't decided whether we're worth saving."