Dark Ones Rise

Flesh and Bones: Part Two

I watched the birds. They were flesh.

Most of the changed believed that made them unworthy of attention, the birds were not to blame for this. There were no rules in their homes.

Birds were free. Birds could fly where they wanted and be what they chose.

The changed were not so simple. So I watched the birds, they were simple.

Rules were simple too, their application was the difficult part. Like the little girl, what should I do with her? I looked back to the birds, I was sorry.

The birds didn't deserve to loose their life to this little girl. But I had take their blood.

The baby lay under my counter. Everything being so simple and metallic, her soft flesh surprised me. She shouldn't be alive, and she wouldn't be for long.

Mostly because I had broken the rules, so I would die soon. Looking back to the counter I wondered why I had given my life for this tiny child.

She didn't deserve my attention, she certainly didn't deserve my protection. I should take her to the made, they would be able to complete what I had failed to. I walked to the child, even with a cabinet door between us I could see her eyes.

I had been surprised to find they did glow.

Opening the door I drew her small pale body from the metal chest. She shivered, and even as my compassion reached out I knew she didn't deserve it. She was flesh and I was changed.

Still I brought her small cold body closer to mine. She was a small little thing. So small.

Why was flesh so soft? Easy to break?

Her blue eyes flecked with pale grey looked up at me. She was quiet, this Jo. All the flesh children I had seen were not silent as she was. Perhaps those watery eyes knew more than they told.

My expression hadn't changed, I still looked down at her. She still looked up at me.

With those eerie glowing eyes.

Tucking the blanket closer I opened my door. She was flesh and she didn't deserve to live. But was I willing to give my life to see her dead? I paused, she had to go.

So I left, walking out. Pausing for half a second to s natch a cl oak, before i was gone into the inside of the building. Other changed lived in this place, we lived near the top. And had a direct connection too the city of platforms. I went to the bottom though. And took Jo with me.

She was still silent, her large eyes almost peaceful. I could do nothing more than stare at her. Pulling down a hood I walked on. This a child unusual. Far too unusual.

Perhaps she needed something more than she had. Like the pa rents that had been executed. I hard watched that, their flesh ha broken easily under 09.12, I wondered what they thought about. When they died.

Their child, each other, fear?

I would never know. Still I wanted to, desperately. I kept walked the girl in my arms, tucked carefully against me.

Would she remember the flesh she had come from? Those parents she had been given? I didn't remember that far back, but maybe flesh was different.

I walked on through the maze of streets, arms tucked close to me as I stood tall. Proud. This child was my death but not the one who had stripped my dignity. Her flesh was soft against my hard metal.

No doubt it was cold. Did flesh children not complain? Jo certainly didn't.

I turned a corner, it was so dark down here. Dirty and full of pain. Flesh felt pain, they changed did not. I was changed, this atmosphere of pain was only a thin veil hiding the world underneath. What could be.

I looked down at Jo. Why was flesh so weak if she hadn't cried once?

Her large eye studied me as I studied her. Pale flecks of grey mixed with watery blue to glowing red. I closed the cloak, more shifting my body too manipulate its position than using my hands.

Her pale face was hidden from me, and from everyone else. What would the flesh down here do if they saw a little child of their kind. A baby born of true flesh.

I didn't want to guess. They were an unpredictable race.

"...96 is going to his final test tomorrow." It was one of the made, I almost went to them. Almost cleansed myself of the child and forfeited my life. Something held me back, just wait. So I waited.

"Yeah he may be human but he's better than all of us. Trust me, one day, 17096 will be the future. The entire future.

"We might even be returned to skin and bones." I let out a breath, the made? They wanted to be flesh? I looked down at the slight bulge of Jo's little body. Why would I crush her?

I glanced up to where they stood, not quite in a shadow but not completely free either. Jo didn't deserve to die.

The thought caught me by surprise, surely I didn't mean that. But if the made wanted to be flesh, why shouldn't she remain flesh?

My feet were already in motion, against the will of my mind. The large gate opened to the world outside. A wild place full of dangers, a place only a small few were sent into, and of that small few none returned.

I set Jo on the ground, pulling off my cloak to blanket her from the ground. Then I set to work on our exit, pulling at a sheet of metal I found it near impossible to escape.

Stronger? More like limited. Better? More like altered. The metal sheet had only moved about an inch. The thick frame was keeping us in.

I glanced back at Jo, maybe I should just take her to the made. 17096. I suddenly wanted him, wanted to meet the one capable of making metal flesh.

I pushed at the sheet again, flesh would be easier to move. For a moment I was lost in the question of my life, going out here could still forfeit it. Long before I reached my goal.

I looked at Jo, her blue eye were closed and her cheeks pale. When had they lost that pink glow?

I shove again at the metal. In had only move a few more inches. I looked back at Jo, was this too cold for her?

Walking back to where she waited I saw her breath making fro sty mist in the air, I was struck with a sudden child-like feeling. I want that. The frosty breath.

Tucking Jo back into my arms after pulling the long thick cloak around my shoulders I walked back to the opening I had made. It was only about nine inches wide. I looked at the space, even being a rather modified thin, surely not that thin.

With Jo that would be an impossible feat. I sighed, multiple times I had nearly given my life for this child, and now I wondered why. Why should she get to take that from me?

Yet I gave freely.

Her large blue eyes were still hidden behind thin pale flesh. Flesh that made her weak, flesh that made her venerable.