HAUNTED BY THE PAST

I'm tired, I've been walking for hours through this devastated arid valley, I need to find shelter as soon as possible, I don't want it to rain at any moment. I decide to walk a little further and, in the distance, I find what seems to be a small cave, noticing how the clouds are starting to change around me. The cave is big enough for two or three men to enter. Once inside, I carefully fill my canteen with the water that the few leaks from the impending storm are about to bring. Sadly, the wild creatures unaware of this end up pulverized by the drops. Taking advantage of this situation, I threw it with all my might water I collected to fiercely hunt down a wild boar, causing it an instant and painful death, but it will be my sustenance to continue with my expedition.

Life since these toxic storms arrived has changed forever, now it's not possible to have a normal life, humanity has had to adapt drastically to this new way of subsisting. A clear example is this arid valley, which was previously the domain of Derinkuyu, the mythical underground city, now it is our home. We live like rats, trapped between tunnels and walls, and we are so selfish as to change its name to Yeni Antalya.

Yeni Antalya seems to be a peaceful place, with not much problem there, but here I am, walking through an arid valley, no water, no life, no humans, just only the echoes of the past whispering in the air generating a melancholic atmosphere where you can hear the voices, screams and cries of suffering of what once was life here. My heart feels a constant pressure every time that I walk on this devastated place and I can perceive how a sight is on me in every step I take, keeping an eye on me. I don't feel secure outside my home but I have to. I have to find supplies to carry to my community, the necessity to feed my comrades increases minute after minute but I don't know if I can make it; exhausted, fatigued, I can't find a house, an old shop with something valuable inside, my efforts to search for supplies are vanishing.

My vision started to be blurry, the immense heat of midday hitting me, sweating and worried about the toxic water. At any moment it could rain and that would be my end, but a soft breath of air gave me a second chance to survive. Despite my determination the ulcers on my footprints are starting to peel, make me bleed and again start to lose my vision, my legs don't respond to me, with a completely blurred vision, just in the horizon I notice a spot to collapse my haggard body. «Just a few more steps, I know I can do it». I thought. A last effort but I just tried to move with all my remaining strength and the blindness vision just changed to a particular black, I just fell off on the ground, everything came to peace… my conscience finally has a strange relief.

—Kaan! Kaan! Wake up! —I hear a voice calling me and shaking me—. Oh God Kaan, you are alive!

I'm dreaming something out of this world; I could feel how someone is touching me, I don't know their intentions, my senses are different in this trance, it's like, I can see what is happening in the exterior meanwhile I'm just unconscious or perhaps this is the heaven and I'm being carried by angels. My mind is absent from my body, but my body can notice how it's carried by a man, probably an acquaintance and how this person is walking faster and faster every minute, probably is worried about the toxic water, who knows. The only thing I can relate is in some strange way I started to feel lighter, like if he just dropped my equipment to make the path easier. Slowly I'm recovering my consciousness, my mind right now perceives the past of the time, my body tells me that it's getting dark, the hours of sun are few, the temperature started to dropped. Tired of being carried in a weird way, finally, my body it's again in harmony with my mind and I just get in the ground in a rudely form. My eyes are opening, blurry but clear. I can know who was the man that saved my life, offering some water immediately. «That dream was totally weird; I could feel everything in every moment». I thought.

—Aslan, my friend, thanks to the Gods, you found me. I thought that I would die alone.

Aslan was confused and worried, I don't know why, but here the matter is, I'm still alive … we just continued walking through Yeni Antalya, keeping in silence on the arid valley. The only sound audible were the footsteps of each of us, alert if we notice that we could approach something dangerous. «Aslan has changed a lot since the last time I've seen him». I thought. After an enigmatic silence, we finally are getting closer to our home, the only place in the world that we know is considered safe in a post apocalyptic world. From far, Yeni Antalya seems just to be an abandoned city, the old Derinkuyu, where the mosques, houses, shops are ruined due to the past of the time and now, the corrosion has made its own job to destroy this remarkable place but all of that change when you enter to the whole subterrain system. Life has been reborn from the ashes, there are inside lights on each little room, a market where the only thing that you can't find it's something that hasn't been invented yet.

The city is divided in different sectors or communities, creating the difference in each corner of every corridor. The sector where I live is called Bunker number forty, a neutral sector, preserving its name because it could be considered a sin to change it. However, having those things, sadness it's the only thing that comes to my mind when I see my home but at the same time is the only thing that I have. —Aslan interrupts my thoughts, making me know that they have arrived at the principal gate —.

—Password! —A guard said.

—Just shut up, you know us —Giving Aslan to him ten bottle-tops.

—Alright, alright, that's the password —The guard winked.