Chapter Text
In 2010, Empire City suffered a terror attack. Six square blocks and thousands of lives wiped away in an instant, a blue light so bright that it would blind you with your eyes closed.
I was there.
When the quarantine was put in place, my family and I were trapped. Every single day was a struggle to survive. I saw crime and death on a scale I could never have imagined. When the USTV news started spreading lies and misinformation, I stopped working for them and started documenting the truth.
In 2011, the quarantine ended. As soon as the blockade on Stampton Bridge was torn down, I took my family and floored it south to Washington D.C.. I had to bring the truth to light, and there was no better place to take it than to the President of the United States.
Behind us, a demon appeared. A titan of fire and brimstone. I looked back just in time to see the skyline of our home vanish in a fireball. When we got to D.C. with the demon hot on our trail, I prayed to God in Heaven above that He may protect us from it. My prayers were answered, as it crossed the horizon and avoided D.C.. Soon after, I saw holy light shine across the skies, and reports came in from New Marais saying that ‘The Beast’ was dead.
The death toll was in the millions and the damages were in the billions. It would take decades to rebuild everything that The Beast destroyed. Before that, President Navarro’s impeachment trial. My documentation, my photos, my recordings of everything that really happened in Empire City, the crime, the living conditions, I gave all of that to the proper authorities. We were mistreated, and Navarro would soon lose his seat as President. I hope the next President is better at handling disasters.
Everyone who survived the Empire Event and The Beast has since travelled west. The federal government has mandated that every state and every major city in the US prepare refugee camps for survivors. My family and I went to Chicago, Illinois. It’s cold in January, and it snows a lot in Illinois. I helped everyone I could. I had to. I didn’t want to see Empire City repeat itself. I went around Chicago asking for anything to provide warmth for the homeless. Spare blankets, sheets, mattresses, tents. Extra clothes of any size. Old, broken wooden furniture and spare firewood to build fire barrels and bonfires. Food.
My name is Rose Brant. Wife to a husband. Mother to a daughter. Former USTV news anchor. Investigative journalist and freelance reporter. Humanitarian. Believer of God. The reason the world hates Conduits.
This is how I died.