After the Argents (editing)

Chapter Twenty-One | Blood

Location: Southern Desert

"This is it?" Jye asked.

A small nod from the girl beside him.

The Beast slowed to a stop at the edge of a dense cluster of buildings. There was no way through the rubble cluttered streets for the wide vehicle.

"We'll have to walk from here," Jye looked up at the crumbling city center.

Buildings over a few stories were mostly collapsed. Many looked like they had burned once, a long time ago. Only a few could be described politely as in good condition. Ground zero for an unnamed war. Better left in the past.

Mouse nodded, looking at that same landscape with a nervous excitement in her eyes. Where ever she'd taken them, all of these miles and weeks and risks, this was the goal. The end point on her map.

She climbed out of the Beast, walking up to a nearby wall to run her hand over it. Layers of cracked grit falling off at her touch. Leaving a print of her small hand.

Jye got out and stretched. A hand ran through his already mussed, unwashed hair. Dark circles ringed his eyes. He watched her as he threw the essentials in his pack and slung it over one shoulder. This girl that he'd given his freedom to.

Only a few weeks. A few hundred miles. It felt like a lifetime. He could read those big green eyes. Would protect her and take her where ever she needed to go. Follow her on this journey she was risking her life to take. Giving up her people and their protection for.

Mouse bent to pick something up from the piles of stone beside the wall. Rubbing it on her pants to clear off the layer of dirt. She carefully ran a hand over the surface. Then tucked it into her pocket.

Jye didn't really know her. Where she came from. What she really wanted. Who was helping her, guiding her. He didn't even know her name. In almost every way, she was a stranger.

In every way but the one that matters.

The band made a soft noise from her wrist as Jye approached. A chime that had the hair on the back of his neck standing straight up. She jerked to attention at the sound. As if she'd been waiting for it.

There was a message on the screen: I got what you needed. Sent secure, don't open until you get there.

Mouse looked up at Jye. Detemination in those eyes.

Together they started forward into the city center. Winding between collapsed buildings and towards the heart of the ruins. A graveyard of a world Before. Before the wars and the storms and the Fall. Jye didn't understand what she expected to find.

Mouse at least seemed to know where she was going. Checking the band and following her map. Right up to a huge stone and metal wall. It extended high above their heads. Part of the tallest building still standing, maybe three or four stories at most. The top looked like it had once been much taller before something sliced through it. Sending the upper floors collapsing back over the city. Twists of rusted metal like massive ribs sticking up from the ground in the distance.

A monster of destruction and death.

And before it stood a child with hope in her eyes.

Looking at that stone wall as if it held all the answers. At the large, rusted lettering announcing the name of this place.

THE ARCHIVE.

Below the sign, the stone was rough and uneven. Jye brushed it clear. Revealing smaller, carved letters.

In memory of the Voice.

He kept brushing away the years and layers of dirt. All along the wall, there were words carved by countless different hands.