Sky Fall Book 1

Chapter 1

Casey

I lay there, holding on to a thin string of life. My whole body aches with pain. Skid marks run up and down all over me, leaving my mangled skin to cover it. I press my stinging hands to the cracked concrete below and try to push myself up. My strength fails me and I fall back to the ground with a painful thud, leaving my body paralyzed. I look down at the bullet wound on my abdomen and watch a small river of blood stain the rough ground a dark red.

So this is it? My future gone. Everyone I loved left behind. No, I take that back. I had only left one person that I loved: my older sister. The one who saved my life when I was slowly dying in prison and took on the consequences of her actions. I've made a huge mess of things and she's been cleaning it up. Now I can never repay her.

Truth is, I don't know how I landed myself in prison. I can't remember. I would make small mistakes and my father would smack me upside the head but I would never do anything illegal. I would be too scared of my fathers wrath.

All I remember is the ring of a gun, a harsh, raspy voice, my sister unlocking my cell and aiding me to a speeder where I fled the sky utopia, only to end up crashing into the ground.

Statements flooded my memory.

"You have to warn them," my sister told me. I know she meant the Landrunners, the people living on the Earth's surface. But why? They're our nations enemy. We constantly compete for natural resources we can't get in the sky. I've been told they're savages, filth, and freaks but I'm not sure what to believe anymore. I can't even be sure what to warn them of but I couldn't warn them anyway. I'm lying in a pile of rubble, due to World War III, about to die.

"I'm sorry Elizabeth. I'm so sorry," I whisper hoping she'd hear my words, even through the millions of miles that split us apart. I wish she was here, to pull me into her lap and tell me "It's okay, Casey. Don't worry. I love you and that's all that matters," just like she used to when I was little after my mother passed away.

Then, I swear I see her running towards me. Her dark brown hair pulled up in a pony tail. She crouches down beside me, eyes glowing with concern. My vision then adjusts to the real world. What I thought was my sister is now someone else, a guy actually. He has the same color hair as her but his is short and spiked up. He has forest green eyes that shine intensely into mine and a small scar that follows his cheekbone.

"Oh my god," his voice come out oddly muffled. "Kayden, get over here!" He calls out, looking behind himself.

"What?" Another voice answers with a ring of annoyance. A figure jogs up behind the dark haired boy. His golden hair sweeps gently over his gleaming blue eyes. He stops dead before my body, mouth open in shock. His eyes move from me to the speeder I crashed. "Look at this!" Kayden calls out as he runs behind me. I can barely make out the clank of him stepping on my half broken vehicle.

The dark haired boy never takes his eyes off of me. "Alec, look! This is one of those speeders and look at her arm!" Sure enough on my right bicep, my citizen ID '1311' is printing there. "She's from that horrid 'utopia,' Aerurbem!" Kayden says, disgust filling his words. Alec's eyes gleam straight into mine, showing no anger or distrust.

"We need to get her to camp before her wounds start to get infected," he says cooly as he digs his hands under me. Pain surges through me and I wince as he picks me up. "Sorry," he murmurs.

I'm surprised I made it this long. My ears feel as if cotton is continuously stuck in them.

"You're joking right? You're going to bring a Skyrunner to camp? That's insane!" Anger fills his voice but Alec starts walking away with me in his arms.

Every step he takes feels like a bombshell going off in my body but I hold in my crys.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me? You're crazy!" From what I can tell, Kayden is yelling but Alec never stops walking.

"I know," Alec calls back, keeping his eyes on the path ahead of him. Angry, Kayden catches up with us. When I look at the two boys I realize it's not just my hearing that's messed up but my vision too. They both become a blur.

I look up at Alec and can only make out his eyes which are strained in front of him.

Pain flows from my cuts and wounds to my head in waves of shock. I try my best not to whimper as my brain in being attacked. I can hear Alec and Kayden's voices go mute as my vision slowly fades to black and I pass out in Alec's arms.