In theory Kaiser had seen the world before the gates appeared, he'd been ten when it'd happened after all. Despite the decade he spent in the world that came he didn't remember all that much about it. He could recall bits and pieces, his mother smiling at him as they walked in a park, his father letting him ride on his back on the way back from school, spending time with his little brother. Small memories that he remembered fondly despite their tinge of sadness.
The memory he had the most clarity around was the last day in that world, his father was watching the news through their dinged up and cracked TV and something he couldn't really understand was happening. He remembered being confused why they were talking about a movie on the news with such serious expressions. There was footage of a giant portal in the middle of a populated city, and armed soldiers stationed around it. Whatever it was must have been serious though because his parents looked worried. The next couple weeks were like any other for Kaiser, if not for the air of tension that surrounded any talk about 'current events'.
On the tenth day, Kaiser was not allowed to watch the news with his parents, they'd instead told him to go to sleep early. That night he listened to his parents argue in hushed tones after they thought he and his brother were both asleep. And the next day all four of them rushed to a crowded train station and waited in line for a spot on the trains to open up. Sometime the next day they finally got a spot on the train and said goodbye to his dad. Apparently, that train was for children and mothers so his father would take the next one. The train ride took nearly all day to reach their destination, but when they finally arrived they were in a city Kaiser had never seen the likes of outside of TV. Where they were, wasn't anything to write home about, it was mostly tents and cobbled together shelter for the mass of people who'd all gathered there, waiting to be let inside. The thing Kaiser had never seen the likes of was the wall, it stretched out far as the eye could see, and was so tall it cast a shadow over the entire camp for the first half of the day.
It only took a day to finally reach the foot of the wall, it seemed like they'd once again been given priority due to Kaiser and his brother both being kids. There were multiple heavily fortified entrances in the wall but only five were open to allow people in which seemed odd to Kaiser since if they opened more up they could let in more people couldn't they? Each entrance had multiple armed guards, but they all also had one person with a golden badge, that person pointed at people in the line and those people were separated into a different group and led away, the rest were allowed inside the wall.
When it came time for Kaiser and his family to go inside, the woman who manned their entrance pointed to his mother as one of the people to be led away.
Before Kaiser was able to understand what that meant he was already being pushed through the gates along by the rest of the people who'd been allowed in. Once inside he remembered the two brothers waited near the entrance for a long time for his mother to join them. Instead, his aunt came to bring them home, and it was only then it was explained to him what had happened. That his mother wouldn't be joining them until later. But later never came.
The world had been shaken when the first portal, or gate as they would come to be called appeared, but people's reactions were not what they should have been. A massive portal had appeared in the center of a crowded city seemingly out of nowhere and with it the people in the vicinity of it appearing had disappeared. The news covered it, but most people continued on, with simply one more thing happening in the world that didn't change the material reality. And then another gate appeared, and another, and another by the ninth day tensions had risen to a fever pitch. With the state of the world as it had been prior this was simply a breaking point people saw the government as at best incompetent and at worst willfully maliciously, either way riots broke out across the world.
By the tenth day the army meant to guard the first gate was so occupied brutalizing their own citizens they didn't notice the change in it, maybe that's why the monsters that stepped out were able to wipe out the city so fast. Or maybe not considering that by the end of the day two more cities had been destroyed across the world. Each gate held its own horrors and each gate was impossible to suppress, human weaponry was nearly meaningless against the monsters that appeared. Cities fell like dominoes, swaths of humanity wiped out without even putting up a fight.
That was until the awakened appeared, super humans like those from fantasy novels or comics, mages who could throw fireballs, swordsmen who could cut steel like styrofoam. Finally humanity had a way to fight back against the gates, but there weren't enough of them and even fewer of them who'd actually risk life and limb to fight.
So humanity ran, in North America a team of awakened were able to use their abilities to raise two massive barriers one in the east and the other in the west. A man in Russia had the ability to create a bubble large enough to keep monsters out of the capital. All across the world governments scrambled to create similar defenses with whatever resources and awakened they had on hand, but overall there simply wasn't enough space or power to save everyone. So a decision was made, the same decision in many different countries and powers across the world,
Only those with magic power will be allowed into the strongholds. Scientists theorized magic power or mana was what separated regular people, and those with the capacity to awaken, so those were who the government chose to prioritize. Everyone else would be let in if there was room.
In the days following his entrance into the walled city Kaiser spent a lot of time watching live streams of people outside the walls. He hadn't been able to contact his mother or father so this was the sole thing he could do to feel connected to them. That particular day, the live streamer had said he could feel that something was coming, the trains that'd been running non-stop in the days before had stopped arriving. And halfway through the day the streamer was proven right, people began to scream, people from the outskirts of the camp were all moving to get closer to the walls, because they'd finally arrived, the first wave of monsters had finally reached the walled city. Unlike most of the people in the camps the streamer fought his way past the surge of people, because he was one of the few awakened who'd volunteered to fight the occasional monster that would find its way to the camps. What Kaiser saw once the streamer reached the edge of the camps was no random group of monsters though, it was a horde one that the small group of volunteers couldn't hope to stop.
The streamer's voice shook as he realized what was going to happen, some of the other awakened ran, those who remained looked as if they did it more out of resignation than resolve. Out of all the awakened there only one stepped forward, unlike most of the awakened he was armed, judging by his badge it was one of the awakened who manned the entrances. He stood out from the crowd not just because he seemed prepared for a fight, but also because even through the poor quality of Kaiser's screen he could tell the man had a presence the rest of them didn't. A hero had appeared.
Before he'd even realized it Kaiser felt something well up inside him, an emotion he seldom felt outside of reading books or watching TV. Kaiser was hoping the hero could save everyone. In the next moment the monsters were upon them and the hero made his move, imbuing his sword with a power that made it glow before using it to cut through the first couple monsters leading the charge. His power seemed to allow him to not only strengthen his body and weapon, but burn everything in his way. Even when monsters began surrounding him, you could still see his light shine through them, as he danced between monsters cutting them down before they could get past him.
The man was captivating, the glimpses Kaiser saw fueled the hope he felt, that maybe they'd do it, they'd stop the horde. But one man is not enough to stop a flood. Not long after the fight began the camera fell to the ground and monsters flooded past it, you could still catch light shining from somewhere beyond them, but there were just so many. Finally the stream was shut down. Swapping to the news the footage on screen confirmed what he'd been dreading the camp had fallen, there were no survivors. They were working to extract one awakened who had still been fighting even after everyone else had been wiped out. But not even the hero made it.
Kaiser sat in the silence left after he closed the laptop, the hope he'd felt died, twisting into something different. Seeing the man fight even for just the short time he'd gotten to see him had inspired the boy. He wanted to be like the hero, protecting people. But now, knowing it wasn't enough, that he too had died, he just felt anger and sorrow. He also felt something else, he felt it strongly, but was ashamed of it, he felt contempt for the hero.
***
Kaiser had a bad feeling about today, so like any time he had a bad feeling he'd made sure to get home early to clean their apartment. He collected the laundry, swept and mopped, and even dusted every surface despite the fact it'd only been a few days since the last time he'd done it. Now he was doing the dishes, although he was doing them much slower than he'd usually do them. That was because it was nearly five, and at five his uncle would be home and he'd get his answer as to if his gut feeling was wrong or not. Though much to his dismay he was seldom wrong about it. That's why Kaiser was taking so much time doing the dishes, making sure every plat and dish was spotless in the hopes that his uncle seeing him doing a chore would save him from the man's wrath.
It'd been nearly four years since the first gate and during that time he and his brother had been living with his uncle. Well, they had been living with their aunt and uncle, but that hadn't lasted very long. That was why he tried not to resent his uncle, it was probably very hard for him to house the two of them.
'Speak of the devil.'
A beep had just sounded from somewhere behind Kaiser announcing that someone had just unlocked the apartment, and considering the weight and speed of those footsteps it was undoubtedly his uncle.
"You're back?"
That tone, it was the tone he used with Kaiser whenever he was about to take out his anger on him.
"Did I not tell you what'd happen the next time I found out you were hanging out with those people?! Hey! Look at me when I'm speaking."
Kaiser was still putting away the dish he'd been cleaning when his uncle walked in and so had not turned around which was a mistake. Although looking his uncle in the eye when he was mad was also a mistake, along with anything and everything Kaiser did while his uncle was mad.
Kaiser turned, his gaze lowered, but hopefully not too low. "I'm sorry, I know what you said, but I didn't know how else to get the money."
"I don't care that you're to stupid to get the money I told you I don't ever want you working with Roy's people."
His uncle was now uncomfortably close to Kaiser now, much less than an arm length away. Kaiser found himself trying to assess what he could do if the situation broke down any further.
"He owns everything in this area though, I mean he even own where you work–"
That was a mistake. Kaiser felt himself being lifted off the ground by his shirt, since he'd closed his eyes instinctually the moment he realized what he said.
"Are you implying my work isn't legitimate? That I'm a criminal like you or the people you're always licking the boots of just for the chance they throw you an odd job?"
Kaiser shook this time not with fear, but with anger, 'Do you think I want to work for them? I wouldn't have to if you didn't keep forcing me to pay rent when you're already getting money from the government for housing us. I wouldn't have to go to them if you didn't keep throwing me out until I came back with enough cash to satisfy you. I would hav– fuck'
Kaiser wished he could fight back, wished he'd awaken right then and there and finally pay his uncle back. But he didn't, he didn't awaken, or swing, or speak his mind, instead he spoke, his words soft and timid. "No, I'm not, I misspoke, I'm sorry."
Instead of responding his uncle simply dropped him and turned around. "I want you out before I'm back. I'm done with your shit. Just you, if Rin goes missing I'll report you for kidnapping. Oh! I know, maybe one of Roy's people will house you." He laughed at that, as if this entire situation was no more consequential than throwing out the trash.
Kaiser didn't move from where he'd crumpled to the ground even after he heard the apartment slam shut. He was angry, not just at his uncle, but also at himself for just taking it. More than anything he was angry he didn't stand up, not for himself, but for his brother. His uncle had never laid a hand on Rin, but he wasn't qualified to be a parental figure to the kid, the only reason he wasn't kicking them both out was because Rin was worth the cost of keeping around and Kaiser, apparently wasn't.
When he finally did get up, he simply grabbed what few positions he had and left.