Inside a poorly lit room, a woman was lazily browsing the internet with a laptop resting on her lap. She had brownish skin, a thin face with a broad nose, and large yellow eyes. Her beautiful curly hair was a striking shade—not entirely brown, nor truly red, but something dancing in between.
It was early morning, a few hours before dawn. Even though she had been working all night, sleep refused to come. It was New Year's Eve, and for some reason, Jamila felt restless. Perhaps it was the fact that she wasn't able to see her family over this last week or maybe it was just the heavy silence of the city. In any case, scrolling through social media wasn't helping.
Jamila looked over her feed, feeling a wave of depression as she saw photos of friends enjoying the holiday, some with their families, others at loud parties.
Just as she opened a chat window to send a few congratulations, the entire apartment began to tremble.
"An earthquake?!"
Jamila immediately jumped out of the bed and hid under it, scared. Earthquakes weren't so common where she lived, in fact she had never felt one so strong in her whole life! "What the ****!?"
The whole building shook heavily, books on its shelf toppled, crockery fell from the cupboard and broke. All Jamila could think of was hiding under the bed, scared, praying the building wouldn't topple over and bury her alive.
The situation felt hopeless. From outside, the distant sounds of chaos drifted in: people screaming, the crunch of car crashes, and the rising wail of ambulance sirens. The city was descending into madness
Fortunately, the tremors didn't last forever. What felt like an eternity of terror was actually only a few minutes. But even after the shaking stopped, the screaming continued.
Jamila crawled out from under the bed, surveying the wreckage of her life. Shards of glass littered the kitchen, her TV lay face-down on the floor, and her books were scattered everywhere.
Sighing at the mess, she moved toward the window to see the damage. As she opened the blinds, the light momentarily blinded her. When her eyes finally adjusted to the strange twilight, she gasped.
The first thing she saw was the canopy of a beautiful tree, with colorful leaves that reached her window. The leaves were unlike anything she had ever seen, at the size of her own hand, each leaf had three colors!
Marveled by that sight, she unconsciously extended her hand and grabbed the nearest leaf. The leaf was a mix of blue, yellow and purple, and was soft by the touch. Thin lines like veins covered branched on the leaf.
She tried to pluck it, but it wouldn't budge. She pulled harder, using both hands, but the leaf remained firmly attached to the branch.
"Hmm?" She tried even harder but the leaf did not even move.
"Wait... how is there a tree up here?!" she exclaimed, stumbling back in shock.
She lived in an apartment on the tenth floor downtown; there were no trees nearby, let alone one this gargantuan.
[What if it's poisonous?]
The thought struck her like a bolt of lightning. She rushed to the bathroom, scrubbing her hands until they were red. But as minutes passed, her skin didn't turn green, and no ulcers appeared.
"Phew..." She relaxed slightly, watching the colorful leaves sway in the wind. [The wind can move them, but I can't even pluck one? This is beyond weird.]
After rubbing her eyes and realizing that she was not dreaming, Jamila decided to look out the window again.
The view left her even more shocked!
The city was completely in chaos, immense trees sprouted out in the middle of the streets destroying anything on its way, reaching heights higher than any building nearby. Some cars had crashed on the tree trunks or made an accident trying to evade it.
Many people were doing just like her, looking with amazement mixed with horror at that sight.
Fortunately, as far as she could see, no buildings were destroyed by the earthquake nor trees nearby. It seemed as if the city had been perfectly enveloped by this new, alien forest. Wherever she looked, her view was blocked by a sea of colorful foliage.
Remembering her parents, she lunged for her phone.
*Out of signal*
"Shit!" She tossed the phone onto the bed and grabbed her laptop, but before she could open it, a powerful voice boomed through the sky.
"Don't be afraid, for as of now, you are safe."
The masculine voice was imposing, resounding through her apartment as if the speaker were standing right next to her and miles away at the same time. Was it God?
"There is a book near each of you. Use it to cultivate! One week is all I can guarantee for you all!"
*******
"I remember running to the window, searching the sky for whoever was speaking, but I found nothing," Jamila narrated to the soldiers, who listened with rapt attention. "The canopy blocked everything. Thinking about it now, it's been a month since I've seen a blue sky..."
Her voice turned somber, and she took a moment to steady herself.
"In the end, there really was a book on my bed. An old, strange book containing the technique I use now. I was totally isolated—no internet, no signal, nothing. People were going crazy in the streets, but I had a stock of food, so I decided to stay inside and give this 'cultivation' thing a try."
"You were luckier than us," one of her teammates added. "It took me two days of staring at that book before having the courage to even open it."
"You'd still be weaker than her even if you started a day earlier, Kian," another teased.
Jamila offered a small, sad smile. "It was the best decision I ever made. As the week went on, the world outside fell apart. Gangs took over blocks as the law crumbled. Looting was everywhere. People ignored the warning of the 'gods.' Later, we discovered we couldn't even leave. There was a barrier trapping us in."
"Yeah, I saw it too," said the oldest of the group, a man with graying hair. "A translucent dome that covered the entire city. Nothing could cross it—not a bird, not a bullet."
"We realized later that the barrier was actually protecting us," another companion added. "It was the 'one week' grace period the voice mentioned."
"Yes," Jamila sighed. "Things only got worse once that week ended."
*********
Jamila had just finished her last can of food. It was bland and metallic, but it was fuel. She had been without electricity for a week, and her water had run out the day before. Oddly, the light outside never changed—it was a perpetual, unchanging twilight.
Days and nights passed by with no changes in the atmosphere. The climate was a never ending twilight with a gently warm breeze that kept the treetops swaying.
If not for the collapsing society she was in, today would be a good day for a picnic. However, with nothing out to do but cultivate, Jamila was bored most of the time.
Luck seemed to be on her side the last week as she easily avoided contact with her neighbors who left the building and the looters who she saw ransacking the stores.
Isolated from the rest of the world, the city she lived in was barely able to maintain order. The authorities were already burning the midnight oil to preserve certain areas in an apparent peace. But with the limited resources, it became increasingly harder to do so by each passing day.
With food becoming more and more scarce, rebellions were starting to pile up. All of these facts were unknown to Jamila as she looked over the now empty can, wondering if she would soon need to resort to looting to feed herself.
"AHHH!!!" A terrified scream woke Jamila from her thoughts.
Gunshots followed, but Jamila didn't move at first; that was a normal sound in the city now.
However, the screams grew louder, more numerous, and more desperate.
Driven by a morbid curiosity, she went to the window. She instantly regretted it. Down below, a tide of people was fleeing from... animals?
Jamila could not discern exactly what people were running for. Were it lions, apes, cheetahs and elephants that ran around killing people? But why did they seem to be bigger? Why did that elephant look like a mammoth?
Then, at the end of the street, she saw it: an immense snake sliding across the asphalt. It was as thick as a car and dozens of meters long, crushing vehicles and swallowing humans whole as it glided through the ruins.
Horrified, Jamila slammed her window shut and huddled near her bed. This was the true apocalypse.
"I'm safe here, I'm safe here, I'm safe here…" Jamila repeated to herself over and over again. Trying to ignore the sounds that reached her ears from below.
Unfortunately, sometimes you could not escape reality, no matter how fast you ran nor how much you deceived yourself. Moments later, she heard her window shatter.
It took every ounce of courage to look up. A long, thin, hairy black leg was stepping into her room. Then another. And another. The beast—a monstrous insect—crept inside.
"S-Spider!" Jamila shrieked as the creature's four obsidian eyes locked onto her.
Jamila was terrified of spiders, let alone one that big. She felt her legs shake as her whole body froze and she could only stare as it slowly creeped forward.
It was massive, its hairy legs tapping rhythmically against the floorboards as it approached its cornered prey. It moved slowly, as if savouring the fear radiating off the girl. Less than a meter away, it opened its jagged mandibles wide.
Jamila felt the death coming closer and closer, paralyzed, shivers ran down her skin and she felt extremely cold.
[Am I going to be spider food? ]She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to look at the twitching fangs.
"No... I can't die like this!"
In that moment of pure terror, a spark of warmth ignited in her chest. The energy spread to her body, calming her mind and relaxing her body. Realization struck her!
What had she been doing the whole week? Cultivating! Didn't the god say to cultivate well for one week?
She had noticed the changes in her body after cultivating for a week, even more so after she stepped in the First Stage of Body Cultivation a day ago. However, as a simple girl that she was, Jamila never thought she would need to use the power in this kind of situation.
"Red Lion Cultivation Technique!" she screamed, her voice cracking as she pushed past her fear.
She flooded her muscles with every drop of Qi she possessed. The spider, expecting an easy meal, lunged. But Jamila wasn't a victim anymore. She reached out with lightning speed, her small hands grabbing the creature's massive chelicerae.
"I'm not going to be spider food!"Jamila mustered even more strength by focusing the Qi into her arms.
*CRACK!*
The insect's mandibles snapped like dry twigs.
"DIE!!"