Daylight. That was the first thing my torn left eye saw. The blinding rays of the bright yellow star. From the intensity of its assault, I knew this world was at a very dangerous place, or point, or time. You never know some creatures push themselves to destruction and never even truly realize it. I was back on the bed, and next to me was the naked girl. This time she hugged my arm tightly, too tightly, as if she was afraid I would leave. After she rested her head on my shoulder in the middle of my blood and piss, I carried her back to the bed where she proceeded to bearhug me to sleep.
And she could sleep. This was already day two since I had arrived here. one gruesome day of staring at the ceiling, an eventful night and now, if I don't wake her up, I may have to repeat the same for this day. so, I woke her up. Not the peaceful gentle tap or the strange whisper of the morning birds but a rigorous shake. She woke up. Rubbed her eyes a bit and sat up facing me. Her blank black eyes stared at me. They didn't judge, they didn't show recognition, they just stared. I felt the urge to rub her head. this would have been completely awkward but the fact that we were naked made it creepy. I cleared my throat.
"We can leave now?" I said it as a question. I, a creature that had visited countless realities a creature that has never been bound by anyone and anything was here asking a naked lady whether she wanted to leave. she stared at me then turned to look around the room. her eyes scanned the four mutilated bodies in the room, she took in the blood, bones the deformed organs and with the detachment of a god, she turned back to me completely ignoring her work.
her eyes widened slightly, and she covered her chest. so now you feel ashamed. I've already seen everything you don't have to act coy now. I walked of the bed, her eyes were still on me still studying still analyzing and I didn't mind. it wasn't the first time a lady would be seeing me naked. I went to the soldiers, the first one who had his head ripped off. he had the most complete uniform. well, he won't be needing it wherever he was headed, I stripped him and tossed the uniform to the girl. she caught it and proceeded to dress.
I headed to the guy who got his head bashed in and helped myself to his clothes. a military man's uniform. they were a dark shade of black dotted with grey patches here and there. a full overall. it was nothing special really. I put on the overalls, stripped him of his boots and fastened them on my feet. I also took his coat and scarf. he didn't mind at all, what a nice guy.
I turned to the girl to hand her the other guy's boots. she was dressed, true but I wasn't sure who had worn who. the soldiers were fit, tall, taller than me even so to her the clothes were more of a tent that clothing. I chuckled as I went closer to her still carrying the boots I had salvaged. she didn't step back or look aside she just watched me come. she hadn't even zipped up her overalls, your still naked woman.
I tugged her pulling her closer, she didn't resist, she even looked relived I zipped the overalls, folded the arms lengths till her little hands could leave the clothes. I knelt on one knee and did what I had done to my own clothes I fooled the leg part. and when I got to her calf, I lifted her smooth foot up in order to help her put on her shoes. she held onto my shoulder for support, so she doesn't fall. the boots were big, too big. I didn't think it would be an issue, because if you can tear someone's head off you can definitely carry a boot. I tightened the boot to the maximum and unfolded some of the folds I had done before such that the trousers hid the boots down to the ankles.
A belt to her waist held the rest of the uniform. one could still tell the clothes were oversized, but at least now she could walk without it catching the wind and dragging her down. we were now ready to leave the room. I walked to the edge where the men come up on. It was a straight drop down. missy could probably shrug off such a fall, but my mortal body would crack and break on impact. so, I turned to the other edge, this one should have been connected to the adjacent room, it didn't exist. On the other edge, I could see what was left of the staircase. that only left one option go down how the men had come up. at least they were kind enough to provide ropes for us.
I stood at the edge and looked down just in time to see a plane fly overhead. a fast shadow was all I could use to describe it, it almost got to the horizon when it got shot down. now that my gaze was in that direction, I could see it now. all that was left of this area as far as the eye could see. all of it gone, it was just a huge crater, surrounded by what looked like skeletons of broken buildings damaged roads. steel and rebar hug out threatening to fall with every change of the wind. and shadows seemed to stand in place of what once was. the building I was in was at the outskirts of whatever existed here. I could tell there was once greenery around these parts. but all that remained was withered sickly branches that refused to give up.
"We need to get out of here" I mumbled to myself as my eyes drifted back to the crater. that was big, too big. and I knew for a fact it wasn't caused by a cosmic impact. "I'm Alcan" I introduced myself as I stepped of the ridge. she was next to me holding onto the rope slowly sliding down. "...and you are?" I asked after I failed to receive any reply. she turned to me and watched for a while.
"Hellan" she whispered. I would have failed to hear her if I wasn't concentrating on her. Hellan has a nice ring to it. I thought to myself as my boot finally touched the ground. there was fine layer of dust on a ground that seems to have never seen water. it looked deceptively normal, but I could tell. staying here would be lethal to a mortal's body and yet they still fight. I looked around, now that I was at level with the surroundings, I could see it all. the abandoned cars that had their color melted off the caving in roofs the damaged buildings. the building next door had a half of a plane stuck to its side the other half was what had taken the other half of the building we had come from.
And ash. a lot of it coated everything including our footsteps. we would step on it displace it and by the time we lifted our feet to take another step wind would replace it leaving no trail or evidence we had ever come through here. the air burned, and I could feel millions of ants crawl on my skin.
"It must have once been beautiful..." I started, "at least to them..." I turned to Hellan who just watched the surroundings with a disinterest she didn't bother to hide. everything was grey with the occasional black and sometimes white. the men had come in with a vehicle, they must have come here without authorization, or their leaders didn't care about them. either way, a vehicle meant transportation and transportation meant getting out of here much faster. but it also meant...detection. a plane flew overhead, this one much faster than the previous one. it was also headed towards the horizon. this one got lucky it didn't receive enough damage to bring it down.
"We could head down in that direction" Hellan said this time with a bit more energy. I turned to her. why head towards the enemy. I may not be a native of this world, but I knew if planes get shot down at the horizon, then maybe the enemies are a stationed there. so, I looked at her with a questioning look.
"We can leave through there" she explained, and I turned to look at the horizon. now I was curious how did she get here in the first place. I could tell by how strong she was and how fast she moved she also wasn't a native of this world, so hod did she get here. I was curious so I ask,
"How did you get here?" she turned to watch me and for the first time, I saw some sort of emotion flash through. it was fast and she masked it even faster.
"there's a tower..." I didn't hear the rest she had gotten me when she said tower. of course, I knew what tower she was talking about, to be more precise it was a pub. one I frequent in every realm I head to. the horizon, the watery steam ridden horizon than was under a sun that could bake and kill any living creature that dared take it on. by vehicle it could take us about half a day at best forever at worst. this is without accounting for whatever we may encounter out there in the waste.
"If only I could fly" I thought to myself and sighed. I walked to the vehicle our brothers had been kind enough to provide for us. I touched the door, and my hand was coated in a layer of oil. it was icky and sticky and I hoped the interior wasn't the same. I pulled open the door and got in. as I was busy examining the interior of the vehicle, I failed to notice Hellan was standing still outside the window watching me.
"Get in" I said to her as I rolled down the window. she nodded once and pulled open my door. she proceeded to seat onto me and then moved her delicate butt to the next seat.
"Focus" I lectured myself as I felt blood redirecting. I need to get us out of this rock, fast. Hellan, oblivious to what she had just done to me sat there eyes blank. she was giving me a creepy feeling I wasn't used to getting watched all the time. I started the machine and stepped on the gas. I displaced the dust and ash as I drove in along what I thought was the remains of a road. as we neared the edge of the street, the building we had been in collapsed in a cloud of dust. it had done its work and now it rested. I didn't bother turning my head back to look at it. we weren't that attached. the road was mostly nonexistent but lucky for us there seemed to be a huge vehicle that had passed by here a while back, so I didn't have to slow down. I felt Hellan's eyes on me.
"Use your seatbelt" I said. I knew she was mostly invincible but safety first. she turned and looked around the vehicle then turned her eyes to me. it was no use, she was a cute creature who seemed only interested in me. I felt shy to be honest. I had checked myself in a mirror and confirmed I was still me, I hadn't stollen a body. and I knew I had never met her before. either way after she shows me to the pub, we can go on our separate ways, probably I'll get a chance to goof around with her.
I stepped on the gas and the vehicle accelerated. I had the whole road to myself it would be a shame if I didn't go above the speed limit, and besides it's not like someone will suddenly pull me over. I came to another area of the city, unlike where we had come from the damage here was much recent. the battle I heard yesterday. I knew because I could see the shell remnants of a war machine. littered with dead bodies. some were mutilated others were mostly intact. the only difference was the uniforms they wore. one had the black and grey uniforms we had on and the other wore some sort of blue and black. all of them were overalls. maybe to offer some protection against the sun and dying land. I chuckled.
"You see those tanks, those vehicles and even these guns?" I asked Hellan as I put a revolver on the dashboard, and she nodded. cute I thought. " They have been made by the same person, or organization" she turned to look at the remnants of the battle.
"The uniforms too" her enchanting alto sounded. "They are on different sides. Right?" she naively asked. and I nodded.
"I think so" I said as I slowed down to maneuver around a broken cover that seemed to have been breached. my black, grey overall buddies had been breached, must have been heavy. I turned to look at the countless mutilated bodies that will never get a proper burial.
"Most of them don't even know what they are dying for..." I started as I re-stepped on the gas when I got to a clear part of the road. "I doubt even their leaders know what they are fighting for...The futility of mortal life" I tsked and re focused on the road. I took the revolver off the dashboard and open the glove box as I threw it in, I noticed something, sunglasses.
"nice" I took out one pair that was dark shaded and put it on. I passed the purple ones to Hellan, and she followed my lead and put them on. we must have looked like secrete agents, well if kids were allowed to be agents, because the clothes we wore seemed like something we stole from our parents.
we came to another battle area, this time I had to stop completely, it was a plane that had fallen. it was mostly intact as if it had landed instead of crushing. only problem it had landed in the middle of the road. I shifted gear and reversed we would have to take a different route. as I started reversing, I heard a gunshot, straight at my windshield. the impact wasn't hard enough to pierce through. and it was also directed towards Hellan. she turned towards the plane area where the shot had come from. the plane, the fallen plane at the area where it was damaged there seemed to be some blonde guy who couldn't keep his bullets to himself. I got off the vehicle and raised my hands I surrender. I still received a bullet. not anywhere fatal, it was more of a warning shot.
"We aren't here to fight..." I said as I came closer. I know what our thinking. Alcan why do this? stay in the vehicle where it is safe. the answer truthfully was, I had just woken up and Hellan was too naive, we needed someone who actually knew what was going on. at first, I wanted to politely ask Hellan to go get her, then I remembered the guy whose uniform she's currently wearing will be seeing hades without a head.
"I come in peace" I shrugged at my words. but whomever was on the other side didn't seem to believe me as he fired another shot. he missed. these weren't warning shots, he couldn't aim. must be wounded. I took another step, and the bullets kept coming until they didn't come at all. at this point, I had already figure out where he was. I walked there, leisurely. now that I was sure he was wounded and out of bullets, I wasn't in a hurry. I finally got to where he was, he was wounded heavily most of his body was under the broken part of the plane. this probably applied pressure on the wound hence he hadn't bled to death yet.
he looked at me and I faltered. I knew where I was. and it wasn't going to end well. I had to leave this place at any cost and fast.
.