ENCODED
The sun was dying, slowly drifting beyond the horizon as dusk stretched its blackened claws of night over the endless land stretching before it. It would be no exaggeration to say this place had become a wasteland. Tattered and crumbled remains of once proud and mighty buildings, rising only feet from the ground, their dusted remains sweeping away with the wind. Fire and brim stone, the fate of humanity they say. Well, another fate had befallen them, one that was right before their eyes, yet they were unable to see. What little greenery that had held the earth in a single piece had been diminished to scorched and ravage brush.
It was a rare occasion to see life here on the surface. The earth's soil had become dry and cracked, even the rains wished not to touch this accursed place. Rocks had barred their way to the surface, jutting out around the building crumbles to show that something, anything at least, was still happening here. The wind whistled through the debris of a once proud city, reverberating like a whispering crescendo, announcing eternity's clutches had been tightened. Los Angelos...one of the mightiest metropolises the world had come to know, was reduced to nothing.
Today however, the rare occurrence of life had made its presence known. Something was stirring, some virile creature, approaching the tumult. A beating heart, blood rushing through its veins at the speed of a bullet train, pumping faster every second as the creature’s tension began to rise, and the adrenaline flooded its mind. Beneath the surface, the earth was shifting and shaking, something was moving rapidly through the crusted land, barreling its way toward the abandoned land above......
A small gopher's head popped up atop the landscape as it peered and peeked around, looking for a meal of some sort. Its tiny little forearms peaked over the hole's rim, and it was lifted up and out. The gopher scurried across the dried land till it reached some dried source of plant life, long dead, but still edible. Its eyes widened as it touched the plant, begging and pleading for its meat to quench his intense hunger. The heartbeat lifted again, a loud thumping echoing across the land as its arms slowly came closer towards the plant....
Thud. A large boot had come sailing down on top of the plant with a thud, crushing its deadened remains only moments before the creature could snatch it up. The gopher let out a hiss, the fur on its back rising as it reverted into attack position. Upon seeing the man as unyielding, its hostile stance changed once more and it scurried off, defeated and hungry.
The man approached one of the building's remains. The remnants of the building at its highest were about 4 feet, over in the far corner. He stepped overtop of the wall remains and onto the tattered rug. In that same far corner, a small threaded rug lay there. It seemed freshly woven, and made from the dead brush that littered the area. It stood out, but only to those whom were looking for it. The man crouched down by the rug, and peeked around in all directions. His eyes bulged a bit, staring hard as he could into the oncoming night. Seeing nothing but barren land, he reached into the corner, and pulled up the rug like a flap. Beneath it was a large, round, metal slate. It had a handle on the far side, and a hinge on the near. It was a hatch, resembling a submarine hatch, but planted into the ground. He reached out, grasping his hand around the handle latch, and heaved the hatch up.
Hopping around to the other side, he jumped foot first down into the hole. He shot down like a bullet from a barrel, but as he descended, he latched onto the ladder bars, and jerked to a sudden halt. His hair, which had been flailing about moments before, had matted down onto his head, as he slowly descended the endless ladder down into the very bowels of the earth.