Awakening

by Hayden Pearton

  Chapter VI: Sands of Isolation

  In which they are divided...

  Pain. There’s so much pain! Why won’t it stop! I am consumed by raw agony! What did I do to deserve this? My chest is on fire, and my limbs hover between numbness and misery. Every inch of my body cries out in torment!

  My head hurts. It’s like someone has ripped open my skull and driven a white-hot dagger into my brain! I’m blinded by the pain. My eyes refuse to open, to gaze upon the instigator of this torture. I’ll do anything! I’ll betray anyone! Just make it stop!

  “KILL ME!” I scream, as the last vestige of my sanity slips away.

  “Not yet,” a voice replies.

  I slowly open my eyes, staring in awe at my surroundings. The pain dips for a second, and my vision clears. I am in the glade where I first met Her. It's quiet now. Things have changed. The rumbling brook has dried up, becoming a long line of dry earth. The trees have returned to their withered states, grey and black skeletons with cracked bones. I am alone now.

  No, I have always been alone. The only person left on this dead planet.

  The sky overhead is burning, a deep crimson that strikes fear into my very soul. The pain is mounting. It supersedes everything else. My vision blurs. My head aches. I no longer know who or what I am. I am a leaf in a storm. I am a pebble in a rockslide. I am a twig in a flood. I cannot move, and can only wait for the next gruesome image.

  Suddenly, everything settles, and the pain is gone at last. I am standing in a large, burning crater. The smell of charred bodies pervades the air, clogging up my thoughts. In the distance, a small metallic objects flies through the sky, trailing flames from one side. It feels familiar somehow, but before I can put a name to it, the scene blurs once more.

  I am standing in the middle of a busy city centre. People, as intangible as ghosts, surround me, each moving with purpose and life. There are women shopping, children laughing, men tending to market stalls. It is a place of peace and happiness, not yet touched by the pollution that encircles the globe. A woman's sudden scream destroys the happy moment. She has now run out of breath, one arm extended, pointing towards the incoming munitions. A single missile breaks formation, arcing downwards towards the scene, aiming directly at me.

  The people run in terror, trampling each other in a pointless attempt at escaping the falling death. The missile impacts, greenish-yellow smoke rising from the now broken canister. The gas fills the plaza, leaving nothing standing. All over the city, similar scenes are taking place, judging from the wails filling my ears. Those who are left alive fare no better than those who are dead, with overturned vehicles clogging up the main streets and the sick and dying racing towards the overburdened hospital. The scene blurs once more.

  I am once more in the glade. I scream in terror at the figures lying on the dead grass. Kingston, covered in blood and dust, lying face down, immobile and beyond all help. Maloch, cracked and broken, eyes forevermore robbed of their light; a massive hole where his chest should be. I turn. I can't watch. I know that the next thing I see will break my mind, and I cannot… I will not turn back!

  Unseen hands tug at my charred clothes, while invisible fingers turn my neck to face my dead friends. A solemn voice fills the air, calling out in an ominous chant, “Hark and listen, for the reaper is coming. He's coming for you and for me... Will you run? Will you hide? Will you cry? Will you scream? The reaper is coming, he's coming for me... and he's coming for you!”

  The song has brought back the pain. It seems to resonate with every syllable… growing inside of me… driving out everything else. My eyes snap shut, unwilling to see the final sight. But ghostly hands return once more and wrench open my hard-pressed eyelids.

  She is there, standing before me, eyes closed. Blood stains the left breast of her dress, as if someone had physically broken her heart. Her pure white hair is streaked with red. I want to scream. I want to flee from this place, but an unknown force keeps me rooted to the spot. She opens her eyes, and they have the blank, lifeless stare of the dead.

  She weeps scarlet tears, mouthing over and over again, “Why? Why? Why did you kill me?”

  A scream comes unbidden from my breathless voice, piecing the burning heavens. The pain has now reached unbearable levels… It feels as though my skull is being split in two!

  The last thing I hear…, before I lose myself… is a woman's voice, a voice I do not know, saying, “This… This is what happens if you fail!”