Apocalypse Challenge - 01 - The calm...

[darkmoon689]

This is my take on the apocalypse challenge, this is a pixel_trade 'hood.





Gabriel was staring at the photo album, he was fresh out of college but all seem far away.



 Another time, another life.



Since his rough return to his home town, he couldn't help but to feel angry all the time.
His live was once simple, one day he was a teenager ready to face the wonders of a college life and few blinks after he was a young adult dealing with the chaos of a crumbling city, where no one was certain of had happen, the panic that follow lasted days maybe weeks by the time the dust settle down whole neighborhood was basically gone and countess families were broken apart.

He never saw his family after the disaster, they had probably perish like so many others. Of the survivors few were lucky enough to have somewhere else to go, the rest were stuck here with everything against them and no hope of recovery.

 It was hard to imagine that just a few years ago he was freshman at college

That there was a time where his biggest concern was turning in his term paper on time.
Well his second biggest concern.



The first was not making a fool of himself in front of Jade (wisteria_sims)
And that wasn't particularly hard to do.



Considering that back then, he was prone to do silly thing to release stress



Pey'j (wisteria_sims) her brother was part of the local ballet company, convinced that being athletic yet sensitive was the way to go to score girls. He wasn't mistaken considering the university performance arts program was the place where many world renown artist had found fame. There was always one show or another filled with critics and such looking for the next big star.




But such prestige only came from demanding long hours of work, training and dedication from all it's participants, and most of the times he was too exhausted to date the girls that he impressed.



Jade had an artistic vein herself but only as a hobby
Her true vocation lay in helping others.



She proved that pretty early on when death came for one of exhausted classmates.



She begged and got a chance to win this guys life back.



And she ended up gaining much more than that.



It was amazing the level of devotion saving someone's life could inspire. MilkyWay (musicboxrose) sure did spend a quite a while demonstrating it.



Regular educational mayhem is the most Gabriel could remember from those years



Well that and the fact that despite the fact that Jade was "taken" he couldn't get her out of his head.



He simply couldn't avoid noticing her.




Even when other things could have been consider more interesting.





Indeed that life seemed very far away.



The long nights looking at the stars dreaming of discovery, were specially missed. Now the clouds of toxic dust that still clutter the skies barely allowed sunlight through.



Some memories are blur and it is hard to determined when exactly they happened. Celyn (cecile_k) passed ot on the the wrong bedroom after night of partying, it was particularly hard to place because he did that frequently.



KitKat (musicboxrose) always avoiding social contact.Dedicated and shy, she was the complete opposite of her out going sibling MilkyWay.




Of course other things are clear as day. Like the begging of Sophomore year when he found himself assisting Jade with a project.
He wasn't entirely sure why he had agreed on hand lab hours would look great when applied for extra credits, but in the other hand being around her was mildly intoxicating.





Now that he though about it, sometimes it hard just to concentrate around her.
Every task took a little longer to get completed.



And when they found themselves alone at computer lab, which was quite often it was even harder not to notice every biological and psycological sign that he was crazy about this girl.



He did tried to concentrate on others stuff.



But most of his attempts would only kind of helped.
Until he discover his real passion.



 Cuisine.



It was so easy to get carried away by it.



Of course he couldn't spend his life next to a stove.
And if he had he wouldn't have hear them.



"So you guys are really done?" - Acacia (cecile_k)




That half heard conversation was all he needed. A door had opened.



An opportunity he wasn't going to wasted.



One of the most fondest memories Gabriel had about his college years was the time at the computer lab, when finally got the courage to make his move.






And what a move it was.