No Return

Hope

The year, 3313

The streets lay like haunted stretches of lines on a piece of empty paper, waiting to be erased any minute with the tip of a pencil. The asphalt on their surface had long melted, like everything else around her. Though the place looked empty, haunted, the illusion did not deceive her. The silence didn't mask their existence. They lay waiting for their prey, stalking, expecting, breathing in the excitement.  Any creature foolish enough to step outside would cease to be.  She prayed everyone could see the signs. 

She couldn't help but worry about why they were here. Had they found out about the shelter? She wanted to deny it. It was purely coincidental. It had to be.  This place was no different than another. The Center was probably watching it all from the monitor, freaking out, already making plans for defending the headquarters. 

She inhaled the metallic air, barely suppressing a cough. She held her hand over her mouth, holding her breath, fighting the tickly feeling in her throat.  Tol'vir vibrated beneath her skin in warning. She didn't dare loosen the hold she had over her mouth, not even to assure him she had it under control. But he would know. They had been together at the worst of times. He would know she would die before giving him away. It wasn't just her head but also Tol'vir's on the wanted list. Her eyes stung, she closed her eyes, trying to blink away the moisture pooling beneath her eyelids. 

There was nothing but destruction and chaos. Clean air had long been a rare commodity, but the toxicity doubled when they were around. The Termino. That's what they were called. Cute metallic balls with wings. Like a robot toy one would want for one's birthday. They were different in looks, you could take your pick from a palette of colors. Pink, yellow, red, blue, green and others. They looked harmless. Friendly. Nice. Wrong. They were deadly. They flapped their little wings in the air like they owned the damn planet. And they did. Since that fated day. 

Everything had changed. For the worse.  It was because of them that they could no longer breathe. The Termino released chemicals which polluted the air, sucking out everything that had once been good. Many didn't remember what it had been like anymore.  The trees were long gone, flowers shriveled, consumed by the dirt, long rotten like corpses. Nature was just a fiction one read in books, photos restored from Tranquil times. 

The breeze washed over her face, transporting foul odors and chemicals across vast spaces. She pinched her nose, trying to restrict the air to her lungs. If she didn't get inside the building soon, she felt she would not survive this odor.  She had to sprint to make it.  There were times she wanted to give up. Let the darkness take over, let death conquer. 

Her eye caught the Goldfinch hopping on its foot, looking for food, so close to them. Fighting. Trying to survive. Once a color of yellow, it was now coated in a sticky black tar. Its wings were sooty and clamped on both sides, no longer functional. It was so small and thin she wanted to scoop it up. She held herself back, not falling into the trap of compassion. It would die, just like the others. Food was scarce.

At least, the bird was safe from the Termino, she consoled herself. No, the Termino wouldn't attack the animals. They were after the ones who were gifted, the supernaturals. The ones who had the power to amplify their very own. They wanted the very best. 

"I know Tol'vir," she whispered when she felt the air change. It felt less suppressed, less ominous. The breathing had eased a bit. Not much, just a bit. And the weakness in her limbs had eased. She knew what that meant. They were gone. She hadn't seen them fly away but she didn't have to. They could also travel under the dirt like a groundhog. Nothing stopped them. 

She felt the smog wrap around her skin like cheap perfume as she came out of her hiding space. The bird kept hopping, desperate to make it. She wanted to turn her head away. She wanted to walk away and forget. She turned around, sighed in exasperation and grabbed it. Angry at herself for her weakness, she wanted to squeeze the life out of it. Her fingers loosened. The bird squeaked in protest but then lay still in her hand, content with the rescue. 

The building looked forlorn from outside, derelict, barely standing. It stood like a sick man beaten down by harsh weather and negligence. The walls were of the same dirt they stood on, waiting to crumble upon touch. Should the Termino enter, they would see nothing but a rotten stairway, dirty floors, and wallpapers peeling from the damp, illuminating the ugly wall beneath it. The wind blew in from the broken windows whistling a haunting song inside.   She walked in the corridor, the wooden floor creaked beneath her feet, every step threatening to be the last one before the floor caved in. Finally, she pressed the lever on the wall, too small to be detected if you didn't know it was there,  and the wall slid slowly,  revealing a secret lift. She pressed two floors down, and within seconds, the door glided open to reveal the Center, the heart of the resistance. Before she could even step out, somebody snatched her. 

"What happened over there?" Grayson asked, grasping her wrist. The bird yelped in panic which is when he realized what she held in her hand.  "What is this? Have you lost your mind?" 

She shrugged. "I'm keeping it."

He knew she was trying to hold onto the last vestiges of hope. The hope that she could make a difference. 

"Fine." He didn't deny her anything she wanted. He was a fit and still handsome man though he was probably in his mid-forties. Despite the few streaks of white hair on the sides, his rich auburn hair denied his age. There was no trace of the burden of years on his face nor on his body.  

"Any news?" he asked, walking with her inside the compound that looked widely different from the ground floor. Everything in here was brand new, the walls were made of steel, not a speck of dust coated the structure. The rest was modern technology and sleek design with the few pieces of preserved art from the Tranquil times furnishing the walls and the oriental rugs on the floor, dampening the sounds of footsteps. The air was being cleaned in here with ventilators, so she breathed it all in.   It was good to be back. 

"Dax has scored again," I said. 

"Who is it this time?" He exhaled sharply. 

"Francesca."

"No," he exclaimed. "Don't tell me she failed."

"Yes. She's dead. It was too late by the time I found her."

He punched the steel wall, holding his bloodied hand and yelping within seconds. "Damn him! He won't stop until he has us all killed and buried."

"I know." 

The Termino were the enemy. She despised them. But there was another she hated the most.  His name was Dax. 

As always, thanks for reading

I apologize again for taking so long to start this story, hope you enjoy it. 

Alena