Background: This story takes place in the far future, World War IV just ended, with America recovering, covered in many wastelands. In this story, we look into the character of Hollow Edge, a middle-aged man, raised in Carson City, Nevada, traveling the world to find his missing sister. Ending up in the distant state of Georgia. He hasn’t seen another life form in 20 years – even though there’s 14 billion people on Earth as of the taking of this story, taking place in the year 2649, 38 years before the events of L.A.W.Z. (video game this reporter is developing). Hollow must safely make his way through his journey and find his sister before the team unknowingly following him catches him and twists are found in the journey of
“Hollow Edge’s Ephemeral Paradox of the Silhouette”
Chapter 1 (Part 1): The Search
“Negative Four, carry the two…where’s this numeral go, ah yes here.” A man is seen rambling off as he writes on a chalkboard. “1400, subtract that from this numeral, carry this number, there’s the answer, y=4,670x²(12),” the man says as he circles the answer several times. A crash is heard as the man looks behind him. The world is now seen around him as he stands in front of the chalkboard. The building he’s in is all crumbled, glass shattered, bricks laying on each other. “Who goes there?” the man yells into the woods that lay behind him.
A shadow is seen running through the woods as the man pulls out a revolver, shooting at the figure. The man misses his first two shots, but finally makes contact on his third shot. The figure screeches in a nonhuman sounding way. The man walks over “What did I just shoot?” the man asks himself in his mind.
The man finds a trail of blood, but no sign of the figure, he looks around but only spots several vultures. “How in the hell did that thing escape?” the man questions himself.
The man then pulls out a journal from his bag. On the front it reads “The Journal of Hollow Edge: The Traveling Huntsman.” The man opens up to the first blank page and writes, “Date August 24th,2649; Long way from home, down in Atlanta Georgia, strange things, shadows that can’t die when shot, things are different after the war. I believe I’m the age 41, I can’t remember much, just my name, age, my father, and anything in this bag I have.” The man turns the page, “My name is Hollow Edge, I’m 41 years old, from Carson City, Nevada, this is day 428 of being out here…alone, it’s been really lonely.” Hollow closes the journal back into his bag.
Hollow walks through the woods, after miles of walking he stumbles upon a torn down kingdom. He walks in, exploring it, he ends up in the dining hall, which seems to be in perfect shape. A whole feast was set out on the table as a teenage girl sits on the other side of the table. The girl is wearing a hat that hides her face as she eats.
“Come sit, I know you’re probably starving after your long trip,” the girl says as she looks up smiling. Hollow walks over to the table and sits on the opposite side of the girl. “How do I know you haven’t poisoned the food or something?” Hollow questions the girl.
“Well I wouldn’t be eating sugar pie, now get to eating, we have places to go,” the girl says to Hollow.
“I just have one more question. What shall I call you by name?” Hollow says as he takes a bite out of a chicken thigh.
“Well, you can call me Cherry, Cherry White,” the girl states as she grabs out a revolver from her purse.
“Woah, miss!” Hollow says as he drops the chicken thigh and raises his hands.
“I’m not aiming the gun at you,” she says as she grabs the barrel with a cloth then drops it. A figure rushes in and grabs the revolver before it hits the ground.
“I think you dropped this m’lady,” the figure says as it stares at Hollow with its non-existent eyes. Cherry giggles.
“That’s the thing I saw in the woods,” Hollow says as he points at the figure.
“Yeah, I am, and thanks for barely missing your shot,” the figure states.
“Then why did you scream?” Hollow questions the figure.
“Well, that would be the reason she calls me Grim. I seem menacing but in reality I’m not,” Grim answers.
Hollow takes a bite of a roll, “So…You the only two out here?” Hollow asks.
“Well of course not silly!” Cherry exclaims, “I couldn’t protect myself and Grim can’t interact with animate objects such as humans.”
“Let me introduce you to Ronny,” Cherry states as she stands up and opens a door, whispering something inside. She sits back down as the door opens up revealing a man with short, white hair.
The man had a scar from the right side of his jaw up to the top of his ear, and another one traveling from the left side of his nose to the top of his right eye. The man had two swords, symmetric of each other, and two hoisted pistols on each side. He wore underclothing of some sort with armor placed over it.
“This is Ronny!” Cherry exclaims as the man walks over to the table.
“Yea, you’ve said that a million times, and how many times have I told you to stop calling me that, my name’s Ronin, Ronin Heights, not Ronny!” the man exclaims harshly.
“Oh stop it Ronny,” Cherry says as she giggles and blushes.
Ronin, still angered, looks Hollow’s way. “Who’s the new guy?” Ronin asks.
“That’d be…What’s your name again?” Cherry asks Hollow.
“Cash, it’s Cash Osborn.”
To be continued…
Key for featured image:
- Endokore: Knight/”Goon” of Ranvish; Top Left
- Dom-O-Gram: Dragon Keeper/ Forced “Goon” of Shashari; Right of Endokore
- Gourve: Alien from the planet of Venrox; Right of Dom-O-Gram
- Ronin ‘Ronny’ Heights: Side Protagonist/Antagonist; Top Middle
- Andrew Crenshaw: Cowboy Hitman; Right of Ronny
- Shashari: Lost Sister of Hollow; Right of Andrew
- Xemono: Watcher of the land; Top Right
- ZyexVe: (Z-I-Ex-V) Demonic Demi-King; Below Xemono
- Sashion: ($@$h!0n) The Technology Enthusiast; Bottom Right
- The Paradox: Butler of Walker; Left of Sashion
- Ruthloss: Younger Knight Brother of Endokore; Left of The Paradox
- Hollow Edge/Cash Osborn: Protagonist; Bottom Middle
- Ranvish: The Antagonist; Direct Middle
- Walker: Father of Cherry; Left of Hollow
- Hush: Female Assassin; Left of Walker
- Cherry White: Teenage Girl/Gets Kidnapped; Bottom Left
- Grim: The Shadow/Figure, Protector of Cherry; Above Cherry
- Crimlin: Chemical Plant Owner; Above Grim
