I was being smothered with a thick cloud of smoke. Gasping for air I scrambled around on the muddy ground feeling the rough, wet surface of the road. I tried looking for my hands but I couldn’t even see them. Even my eyes were stinging, the smoke drying them out at an alarming rate.

  The noise was overwhelming too, a deafening roar that echoed amongst the glowing red sheets of smoke that danced around me. From behind a force sent me flying further forward, clearly onto the road where I landed painfully on my back, the mud seeping immediately into my clothes. A building must’ve exploded behind me or something. The air was knocked completely out of me, as well.

  I cringed in pain as I rolled over, gasping for air and trying to crawl a few meters toward what I thought was the water. I didn’t get far because within moments I’d come into close contact with a burning car on its back, the heat gave me goose bumps and sent me coiling back. For minutes I just lied there trying to breathe, coughing the poisonous gas out as I could. I could even feel my head going dizzy already.

  Some common sense came back as I covered my mouth in some of my shirt and tried to see where I was. Hmm… A burning car, the side of the road nearby where I was blasted from, that was about it. Norton was still nowhere to be seen, probably burning in one of these blazes.

  I crawled a little further, a flush of heat surging at me with a shockwave of debris. Forced back some more I gave up trying to struggle in that direction and aimed at manoeuvring around where I thought the blazing car had been. I found the car at least from the sudden increase in heat that came bursting forth and managed to crawl around it without getting singed. From there it was actually pretty straight getting to the dock, the smoke was lesser up the dock end of the street and the temperature dropped dramatically with every meter.

  At last I reached the loading area where the smoke was no more than a spiralling vapour. I rolled over toward the water coughing all the smoke out of my lungs, the taste of blood soon entering my throat. I ignored it though and stood up, a little shaky at first but managed a small shuffle down the dock a bit further.

  The night was cold and apart from the roar from the street behind me I could hear the deep moaning of the ship beneath me in the chilly waters. Somewhere down there supplies and even souls were laid dormant in the dark. I hadn’t seen a boat sink before, but that boat surely sunk faster than what I would have thought.

  “I was worried about you.” I jumped as Norton’s voice broke the night’s strange vibe. He appeared from behind an abandoned truck further down the dock. “When I saw the shadow, I wanted to make sure it was you before I came rushing.” In a simple leap he reached me and checked me over.

  “I was worried about you, too. Thought you were resting with all of them.” I actually had compassion in my voice; it was so strange to hear emotion in times like these.

  He looked up at me, those freckles almost laughing at me. But he had emotion in his eyes as well; he almost showed compassion and an underlying trust.

  “Listen, we need to move. The Federation is only minutes away; they’re bombing the coast tonight. We have to get back further in or somehow get into the canal.” He had already been scouting, I could tell by all the crap over his clothes. I didn’t deny the Federation’s plans but knew I just had to keep with Norton. If we could get to the Federation we’d be safe – for now.

  “You found any boats?” I asked, staring blankly to the dark water beside us.
  “We had one, but then the Fed’s made the lovely choice of blowing it up!” He looked calm though for someone who’d just had their main plan taken away. “But I have found a smaller vessel not far along the coast, a little north of here. Might take us ten minutes run to get there. Let’s get going now, they’re not far.”

  We dashed off into the side streets further back from Silent Cove until they ended. It was right on the coast, I could even hear the waves crashing not far off and the sea breeze was cool and refreshing in the night. Yet as the roar of the fiery cove dimmed to a soft rumble a greater roar echoed through the sky, something that made the very ground almost rumble. Norton kept looking forward but I dared look up to see flashing lights all over the sky. Bombers from the old trade wars chugged through the night sky as silent as possible in packs of twenty to thirty.

  Norton took a quick drop off down to the beach just as I heard the first deep rumble in the distance, the first bomb sinking into the cold ground and splitting the night with its deafening explosion. I spun around in fear as a closer and more defining boom crackled into the night, lighting the beach where we were in a dark, blood red. The shockwave from it actually sent me surging forward where both Norton and I fell into the sand.

  We both got up quickly and reached what looked like a small, abandoned jetty. Bobbing silently at the end of it was an old, rusted sea hawk. Norton rushed up onto the creaking wood and over the three bodies that were lying there dead. I wanted to ask questions but he’d already leapt on board of the hawk and had started up its engines.

  I made it on board as a bomb decimated the beach we were just on and shattered the attachments of the jetty to the beach. Norton stopped playing with the engines and watched in horror as the jetty started to break apart now its foundations had been ruined.

  “My God! They know what they’re after on this operation! No wonder it’s been building up for six years now. Bloody hell!” A second bomb erupted nearby underneath the waters surface while a third shattered the little office that had been attached to the jetty meters away. The impact rocked the boat viciously and sent Norton and I to the floor, struggling to get back up as debris flashed through the air and a shower of water bucketed over the hawk.

  “Now would be good!” I yelled, surveying the hundreds of bombers screaming through the sky above us. I could see the flashes of their under hub where the bomb was released. It looked like hundreds of stars plummeting toward the earth below.

  “Got it!” Norton kicked the throttle and sent the engines into overdrive as the hawk burst to life and skipped over the waters surface. About three bombs landed where the hawk was only moments ago. The shockwave shook the hawk violently again but we were on our way, sliding over the waters surface and out into the darker, deeper parts. As we zoomed away I turned to watch the coast coming to life as explosions burst into the dark night and flames licked across every part.

  “This is just the beginning…” Norton hadn’t turned around but spoke loudly and confidently. He knew their plans. “We must get to some place safe and then make an effort to meet up with them. I know of a resistance camp in the Kadrid Mountains, south of the city. A fair trip, but manageable with working transport. What, you never knew people resisted?”

  My face must have revealed everything. For the first time since this world had sunk into the depths of nothingness, I’d heard about a resistance camp. A place where people like me fought against the gangs that ruled ruthlessly through fear and oppression. If only I’d known earlier.

  “We can’t make it even back to the city, can we? By morning the whole coast and city will be a graveyard! And finding transport, well…” I watched as silence grew between Norton and I, and watched as the coast lit up like a giant matchstick on fire. The smoke that billowed upwards into the night sky was even darker than the night itself and seemed to smother the atmosphere. Whatever life that had remained there until now was gone. How can I still survive?

  A splash next to me brought my attention back to where I was. Norton was slipping a chain into the water. I just watched with no questions and soon enough he huddled up in a corner of the cockpit of the hawk and attempted to sleep. I should’ve done the same but nestled up against a small box and watched the spectacle. The whole coast was ablaze and further in shore mushroom clouds stretched for the sky before fizzling to nothing. The cold morning air sort of didn’t help the sleeping issue either. Minutes or hours could’ve floated away with the water beneath the boat and I just sat there. No feeling of fatigue came over me. In fact no feelings came over me at all. I was numb.
  

* * *

The Kadrid Mountains: what a boring, cold place. The trees whizzed by with their snow-capped pine trees that were brown and failing. The higher we got, the greener they became but they still didn’t look natural. More like a hazy hologram of a tree, almost non-existent.

  I shrugged and snuggled into my cold seat. Norton drove silently with the crackling radio echoing nothing but, well … crackle. I knew he hoped for some communications interception as we got closer to the resistance camps but I highly doubted such a thing. They were a resistance group, pretty much rebels, they wouldn’t have their plans being broadcast over an old radio frequency. It’d be too easy for the gangs to intercept. But still, the kid was young and naïve.

  Deciding to break the silence I coughed and cleared my throat.
  “How much further, you reckon?” I didn’t sound interested but truthfully I was really excited.
  “Not sure. I have rough co-ordinates but I know they move their main operations frequently. From what I’ve heard and learnt the main camp is s’posed to be hidden in the forest that covers most of the peak.” The humming of the swirling fans vibrated in my ears, I hated fan cars. “But I’d say with the speed we have, should be no more than an hour until we reach the peak.”

  He was right. We’d only really just started our ascent and already the trees beside the road were thickening. The only way they could really tell where the road was, was because of the lack of trees. A thick layer of leaves covered the old bitumen and boughs of trees created a canopy over the dark road. As we went, it grew darker and darker. I mean apart from the fact that thick clouds silently stalked the peak the trees engulfed the road and turned it into almost a night drive.

  “I wonder what this place used to be like before the war.” Thinking out aloud was something I’d always enjoyed and such a question had been playing on my mind more than ever lately. To see this place in a different time when perhaps snow didn’t fall on this mountain, where families woke to a spectacular and warm sunrise every morning. How different the world would have been.

  Norton kept quiet focusing on driving. The headlights didn’t work and the high beams were faltering so he really had to concentrate. I watched as the trees and their roots began to creep onto the edges of the old road and cringed as we had a few close calls. It was beginning to get dangerous and the roots were causing an uneven surface for the fan car and were starting to make it a bumpy ride.

  I watched Norton struggle with the altering terrain and slow the car down to thirty miles an hour. Even then we just missed a tree that had sprouted closer toward the middle of the road. He hissed as it appeared suddenly and we were thrown violently to the left. As soon as we’d passed it he pulled the throttle back and stopped the car.

  “We walk from here,” he said. You could hear he didn’t like the idea because even I knew it’d be freezing out there. But he didn’t hesitate. Instead, he gathered the small bag he had salvaged with some basic belongings and unlocked the door. He had to kick it open and as soon as he did a chilling, savage mist entered the car. I followed suit and soon enough we were trudging forth along the barely lit road.

  Norton had left the high beams on so occasionally we got a good flash of light before darkness ensued again. We didn’t talk and kept our energy for heating our bodies up. The air, although somewhat sheltered at that time, was freezing. I hugged myself in an effort to keep half warm but it still failed to do anything.

  Whatever strength I’d accumulated over the past three days from sleeping on the boat and finding a transport in the barely noticeable city subways and transport centres was now being quickly sapped from me.

  We walked for at least half an hour before I collapsed. The urge to sleep was so strong but Norton kept me awake for some time. He huddled with me and covered me with a flimsy sheet he’d pulled out of his bag but I continued to struggle. By then the night had started to fall as well and the air temperature began to drop even further.

  “Come on … stay … me!” His voice faded in and out and the canopy above me that had glittered with the afternoon sun caught in their leaves was turning into a dark cavern roof. For a moment I felt my breath stop as the night air almost rushed up the road, chilling everything by more than a few degrees. I breathed out, loosing my grip on the sheet that covered me. Then hazily and as if I had something blocking my ears, lights flashed in my face and a muffled voice was mumbling something. I felt the last warm spots in my body succumb to the cold and my vision turned to black.


* * *

The first thing I remember was the warmth of something to my right and the timing of a perfect beep. No voices, no movement, just me and those noises. A crow squawked nearby and the noise of tyres over a dirt road. Conversation of men then joined the noise and then a group of footsteps trekked past where I was.

  It all sounded so muffled but I didn’t care. I heard something move nearby, the sound of something crunching and moving about and a small grunt.

  “Xabe?” A voice echoed loud and clear in my ears. His voice was familiar.
  Someone touched my head and dabbed it down with a cloth before I heard the door open and close. Memories began to trickle back. Wait. Wasn’t I dead?

  I couldn’t open my eyes so I just lied there summoning the strength to try and sit up. Minutes went by and I couldn’t move. I was getting frustrated, angry even when I heard the door open and two voices talking.

  “See?” The child’s voice split into my mind. Norton!
  I groaned at an attempt to speak and tried to open my eyes. What was wrong with me?!
  “Yeah. He’s still exhausted, no way he’ll even be able to move for a few more days yet.” A cold set of hands felt my forehead and my eyes suddenly were ripped open. A blinding light flashed into them and I tried to recoil. All I did was move a little.

  “He’ll be fine, just needs a lot more rest. Stay with him, though, he’ll need you when he’s well again. We’ll need him, too.” The door opened and closed a third time but I heard someone shuffle towards me.

  “You’ll be fine.” His voice was actually soft and full of emotion. Not something I would have thought I’d hear from Norton. My strength ended there and I drifted off to sleep for another few days.

  The next time I was awake I was able to see and mumble a few words. The time after that I could sit up as well and the time after that I was able to just stand up with Norton’s assistance. Within two weeks I was barely walking, but walking nonetheless.

  As soon as I was able, Norton took me for a tour around the section of the camp we were in. It was the care unit area, but even still the defence they used must have been from the war. Large turrets were mounted on top of buildings and the large, black wall that surrounded them. Armed guards patrolled past their area every fifteen minutes and doctors were watched and looked after all the time. Norton explained that this was one of six major camps with about twenty smaller camps linked throughout the rest of the forest. And forest it was. Apart from a windy dirt road that went through the middle of the camp, it didn’t look like many trees had been removed at all so as to remain cover and protection. Even the wall didn’t breach the tree tops.

  After ten minutes and a quick tour I retired to my warm room where I had a constantly burning fire to keep me warm. The doctors said I was almost dead when they reached us and I had a terrible turn of hypothermia. They kept mentioning how lucky I was to survive, but I didn’t really share their enthusiasm. Because again I was reminded that I was alive, reminded that somehow I could survive in such a world.

  A week went by as my strength began to return to full and sleep was my best friend. Everyday I slept for sixteen to twenty hours and when I was awake I tried to refresh my memory on combat basics and Norton instructed me on ranged weapons and how to use them. Yet it was after this week when we had our first contact with the gangs in over a month.

  It was the middle of the night. Norton and I were fast asleep, huddled close to the fire for warmth. The night was probably one of the coldest as winter was fast approaching and autumn was nearly through. The first sign of a fight was the distant noise of a soft humming. Up in the mountains you could hear vehicles coming an hour before you saw them. I’d even heard the humming before I went to bed whilst talking to a sentry, but when the noise faded as quickly as it appeared we thought nothing of it. Nobody else had heard it except for us two so the captain’s ordered no extra patrols.

  I later heard they’d walked the last few miles before midnight in the dark before reaching the most southern entrance of the camp. That camp was the barracks and defence fort but somehow they’d slipped past all patrols and made their way to the first aid camp. Wall patrols were silently killed and disposed of and it wasn’t until a mobile patrol discovered one of the sentries missing from the tower that the alarm was raised.

  All of a sudden, from within my dreams the alarms blared into night splitting the darkness in two as floodlights lit up major roads, paths and the walls. Both Norton and I awoke startled as the sirens rang loud and sharp. Without a moment’s hesitation we grabbed our weapons and I slipped on what I could from Tran’s old suit. As we opened a crack in the door gunfire erupted into the night as patrols had rushed to the wall and were firing upon enemy on the other side. That, however, was their biggest mistake. A guard patrol had silently been killed not long before the alarms were raised and the back gate had been opened letting the stealthier enemy in.

  Norton and I had begun to rush toward the wall when we heard the noise of gunfire coming from HQ. Without a moments hesitation we ran back as a dispatched group of guards came as well. As we neared the building the top levels of offices exploded. I saw a group leaving from the back entrance headed toward the main hospital.

  “To the hospital,” I said as quietly as possible so that the group of guards heard us as well. We split up and Norton and I headed back the way we’d come. If we could cut them off at the depot before they reached the hospital we could possibly stop them there.

  As we neared I pulled out two flash grenades and threw them into the centre of the road. It lit the road up and flashed into the sky. Thankfully, because of my goggles, I was able to see through the bright light and find the group on the other side. Without a moment’s hesitation I pulled out a frag gun that the rebels had leant me. Firing directly at them, the six shards flew towards them and pelted into the buildings they were hiding between and struck some of them. A few bodies fell into the street while I watched as the others were grappling onto the roof. I turned to face Norton but he’d vanished.

  I ran through the darkest patches I could find and sprinted into the hospital. Unlike the dead hospital at Luno Place, this one was alive. Doctors and nurses were running about like crazy and all stopped dead as I burst through the door.

  “Lock this place up! We got enemies on their way; they’ll be entering through an upstairs window and soon down here. Do it!” A doctor began to move toward the main control area at the back of the room. I ran to the stairs and began sprinting up. Despite the fact that I’d just spent three weeks recovering I felt relatively alive.

  I made the third and last level quickly and smashed through the door to find the room flashing with smashed lights and beds trashed everywhere. Without a moments hesitation I pulled myself back on the door and into the stair case as heavy fire started from the right side of the room.

  Gasping for air and shaking like no tomorrow I pulled out the frag gun again. I focused, ripped the door opened, aimed and fired. I heard the walls shattered and items go flying but no body fall or cry out in pain.

  I focused again and opened the door this time something solid striking the side of my head. I collapsed into the door and heard gunshots pulsate through the air nearby. Figures gathered around me as an explosion erupted into the night in a distant building. I saw the men cock their weapons but another figure joined them. Norton chopped two down before they realised what happened and I tackled the last while he got the third. Dropping the frag gun I pulled a pistol and shot the fourth quickly.

  “Thanks,” I breathed as we immediately ran back into the staircase. I picked up the frag gun and placed the pistol and it away safely.
  “Don’t mention it.”

  We reached ground level quickly to find the floor empty of people but the door securely locked and the lights off. They must have gotten to an escape tunnel or something.
  “Ok, we need to get to where those others got in through the back.” Gun shots echoed outside as I watched a figure fall helplessly to the ground. A second explosion echoed through the night and the battle outside was building. Aircraft now buzzed overhead with pulsing cannons and even bombers from the gangs.

  “This is going to be a long night.” Norton smirked and headed back upstairs. Level three windows were the only way in and out of the hospital.
  We reached it and melted the door so no one could get back in. Within moments we were scaling the hospital walls aiming at the building next door. Gunfire sprayed toward us and I pushed us off the wall and let us drop the remaining distance. It killed the knees but we made it and ran through the alleyway between the buildings and began to run to the gate that was now wide open and guards fighting oncoming enemy. I knew it was Norton and my duty to get that gate shut before we ran out of men.

  As we ran I frag gunned a group coming to attack our men from behind and ran straight for the controls. They look liked they’d been attempted to be destroyed but thankfully some of the wiring remained. The goggles immediately put two and two together and highlighted the wires I needed to spark to make the gate close.

  Gunfire showered toward the little control bunker I was in. Ducking I grabbed the necessary wires and slapped them together. Almost immediately the gate groaned and began closing. Some of the enemy tried pushing against it but just got pushed back. As many as possible ran in just before they closed and locked and whatever men we had finished them off.
  “Good move,” Norton cheered as he sprinted past, two pistols in his hands ready for the next encounter.

  I leapt from the bunker before throwing a grenade at the controls and sprinting in the other direction. It blew up in a shower of rubble and wires and that was my job done. Now, I guess it’s time to get these aircraft.
  I was headed to an abandoned turret near the eastern edge of the wall when a figure came out of nowhere and kicked me. Ever so slightly but with such force and precision it forced me into the dirt. I looked up and fought back without second thoughts. For a moment we struggled before coming face to face.
  “Oh my God, not you again.” There she was, the bitch herself.
  “I’ve been waiting for this for a good while. Last time was luck, this time is destiny – you die.” The woman in leather smiled widely and sent a crushing knee in my stomach. I crouched over gasping for air as she ripped off my helmet and grabbed my face. “Those two were meant to die, and so are all these people. You’re fighting for the wrong side, buddy.” With that she twisted me away and sent me falling to the ground.

  “What is it with you and death?” I gasped.
  Oh boy, this is going to be fun.