The Tattooed | Completed | ✔

Chapter 19 - Gone

Soon we're flying over an empty and freezing land. Nothing is growing and nothing is living.

We hear no cries of wild animals, out hunting in the cold night. We hear no wind, there is nothing to drift on and my wings are growing tired. We have so long to go and I push on even if it wears me out. Eddy is deadweight and she slips every now and again. My arms will grow tired before to long and I won't be able to keep pushing her back between my wings. I dip low to the ground, the sand and rocks are close enough to reach out and touch. My wings brush the ground with each downward push. Howl has buried himself in his wolf's fur to keep warm and I don't blame him. This coat is barely keeping me warm enough and the higher I go, the colder it gets.

A few more hours and we'll reach the wall that surrounds Norden. From there we can take the train around the Providence to the Sector I had been living in. There aren't any trams there so we'll have to take a bus, the roads being worse than Central's were, Eddy won't get anymore sleep. Howl and I will be running on FUmes by that point but Ella's house won't be far from the bus stop. We can rest there for a few hours before heading to Fuga.

There was a peak of light off in the east and I smiled.

"Eddy wake up and look at this." I rolled my shoulder enough to push her. When she just groaned in response, I barrel rolled, that woke her up.

"MOM!" Eddy poked her head out of the coat, her face close to mine as she glared at me.

"Look." Jerking my head towards to sunrise, Eddy was silent as she stared. It was beautiful, the sunrise from the Great Plains was extraordinary. Nothing stood in the way of the sun's light as it began to rise.

The sunlight meant we were almost to the Providence, it was just over the next rise in the land, just there waiting for us to hide away again and be human. People who are born without the Tattoo gene don't consider those of us who are born with it to be human at all. We're scum of the earth to them, nothing more than a wild animal on their land who's killing off livestock.

There was shouting and then gunshots, bullets hitting the sand below. Howl and his wolves stopped, causing a cloud of sand to fly up. I dropped a few yards away and jogged over to them, Eddy slid from under the coat and landed in the sand.

"Careful." I tugged her up as she dusted herself off ",Howl what's going on?" My wings vanished long enough for me to pull the coat off and toss it to the ground.

"They must have known we were coming or they've just increased the watch for Tattooed traveling between Providences. That must be why you had left in the car the first time. No one would suspect a young couple moving." We were quiet a few more moments before there was shouting, closer this time, and more bullets hit the sands on the rise.

"I'll distract them. Get Eddy and yourself to the otherside of Norden. It'll take the rest of today but don't stop. Don't stop and don't look back. Understand?" I picked Eddy up and handed her to Howl. With a finally nod, they took off to the west, it was closest to the Great Woods and furthest from the gun fire.

This is it Gwyn, keep them busy and don't get yourself killed or for that matter, injured. You're carrying a child in you and you want this child even if it was-nevermind. Just be super careful not to get messed up.

A personal pep talk wasn't really going to help much but what could I say? I was about to head-on a group of people that wanted to probably kill me. Hell this would more than likely be the most entertaining part of my week if I didn't end up dead. The shouting grew incredibly loud and then they came running over the rise. At least twenty people raced towards me screaming and shouting, getting a clear aderiline high off this. Not all, however, were human. From within the group, tattoos began to come to life and peel away from their hosts, running along side them as they made a bee-line down the rise.