So the prologue and the first chapter of Awakenings are complete and posted to the Awakenings website. The prologue introduced readers to the narrator for the first person segments of the tale, which will occur roughly every other chapter. Marin Astoris was getting ready to move to the East Coast to begin graduate work when the world ended. Seperated from her friends, she found herself alone miles from campus with no way to get back except her feet.
Chapter 1 took readers back to the university campus that had been Marin’s home for five years. Six survivors climb out of the wreckage of a library at the heart of campus to find the world they knew is already dead. The sky is red and fire lazily drifts down. Whatever’s happened has already started to reduce the buildings around them to ruins. Earthquakes and other tremors shake the ground. Survivors slowly hook up with each other, some opting to stay, others opting to leave. Many realize that something truly bad has happened, though few realize to what extent.
Three of Marin’s close friends, Kellin, Rory, and Drew, all realize how dire the situation is. They can feel that the ley lines criss-cross the small midwestern campus are writhing, twisting and changing as the fragments of an exploded asteroid rain down onto Earth’s surface, changing the planet forever. They set out on the grim task of checking parking lots and nearby M-45 to check the damage and to assess how many corpses they might end up looking for over the next few days and weeks. Many still hold out hope that it’s a localized event, but these three know better, and some of the rest suspect the same. As chapter 1 draws to a close, Kellin, Drew, and Rory are headed down to do a cursory check of some of the buildings on the north end of campus before they head onward toward M-45.
Chapter 2 resumes Marin’s point of view and narration as she stumbles up the highway back toward campus, with little memory of most of her hike. All she is aware of is pain–both hers and that of the very fabric of reality–and a driving need to get back home to the university and her friends.
Chapter 2 will comprise most of the entries for the next couple of weeks and give readers a little more taste of the awareness that Marin, Kellin, and others have of their surroundings and things left unseen to the naked eye and unfelt by the unawakened.