Homesick: Ashes Of An Angel

Chapter 1

A thousand miles away from the new AJOX quarters, I was sitting on the ground, staring at the dented holographic viewer, while in a musty tent.

Homesick. That's the first thing I would always feel ever since Ice had abducted Kye.

I felt sick. Missing, my home. Home? I had no home. My home, in town had been bombed to pieces by Ice a long while ago. I was now seventeen, but where was it?

Home is where the heart is.

My heart was with Kye. With Troy. With Jana, Watchee and Pollax, and all the countless others who had died trying to save him. Ashlee. Winter. Castro. My heart ached with guilt. I hoped, that if I was just with them, the feeling would just go away.

But it didn't.

We were all bruised, sweaty and tired from the long hike through the sand scrapyard. Unwanted junks or barrels, rubbish and crates, as well as broken, dusty cars, with broken windows and missing tyres. Troy had attempt to start it up without success, but the cars was broken beyond repair. We had hiked a fair few hours and miles, bulky backpacks hitched on our back as we walked, our feet slipping in the hot grainy sand as the scorching sun battered the back of our necks, making us sweat profusely.

Withers obviously wasn't use to these sort of climates and environment, obviously due to her luxury life as a member of AJOX, but lucky for the rest of us, we were, as we were all Rurals. Troy was just carrying a small bag full of important stuff in here, including our only holographic viewer which we had found, breaking open the crates. Pollax and Jana was both carrying a fair amount of loot, food and supplies we had scavenged and the Scavengers, including James and me was carrying a heavy bulk or weapons, mostly consisting of knives and fresh bullet pouches.

The place Ice had dropped us off seemed to be some sort of long-lasting desert, since there was no signs of wildlife or nature except a few parched-out shrubs. But there wasn't many in the first place, since Mutants, living and dead had been picking them off one by one if no humans were in their sight. We had reached a flat patch of dry, cracked land, and we knew we were exiting the zone, and heading near to the civilisation Ice had assigned us.

Wither's plan was that we were to head to the safe camp which Ice had assigned us, so he wouldn't suspect our true motivations to attack AJOX. From there, we would re-nourish a few days and than take off again to capture Watchee and interrogate him about Kye's location. We had eventually found out that it was Watchee who was forced to give away our location at Troy and Jana's cafe to Ice, under death interrogation, at that was the reason why Kye was even missing in the first place. He had gruesomely betrayed us, but I understood why. I realised he was afraid of death. I didn't even feel anger towards him.

Obviously, that was different for Pollax. Watchee was Pollax's favourite protege at the AJOX military. He would always avoid discussing him, with the rest of us.

After that, we would leave the camp for good and head out to AJOX's quarters to save Kye and get him out of there. Meanwhile, Withers would stay at the safe camp and report daily to Ice and lie to him that we were doing well. I would still wear Kye's pocket watch around my neck at all times, and no one else knew. The flashbacks of Kye's appearance, demeanour and appearance the last time back at the scrapyard scared me, made me wake up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night, panting until Jana or Troy had comforted me, like I was a rocking baby.

The flash of his sharp teeth, his blue and black eyes, his veiny, webbed skin and the blue venom leaking from the corners of his stained mouth. The mouthguard that had been snapped over his head to prevent him from biting, like he was some sort of deranged animal in human form. It was too much for anyone to ask.