From Ashes and Dust (Book One)

Chapter 16.1

Year: 2079 CE

Location: Anchorage, Alaska

Earth was a lost cause. The mortals had wrung out the planet of all the resources it had to offer. Some still fought over what little remained—clinging on to what they felt was their home.

Home.

The world around Vatra had been her home longer than any of the humans. She deserved to keep her feet planted on the soil that she'd bled on. The world that she'd died on.

But, if she stayed, she would truly perish. A permanent death. There was still too much to do.

As Vatra trudged through the thick snow drifts with the other volunteers, she wondered if it was cowardly to leave.

No, I can keep the history of this world alive better than most. There's also more gods who've run away from the destruction they caused, Vatra thought.

Pausing with the line of people, Vatra looked up to the dying sunlight above her. The reflection of ships leaving and entering the atmosphere sent a shiver down her spine. Space was an entirely new concept.

Only in recent decades had humans discovered inhabitable worlds beyond Earth. They'd started relationships with natives on worlds that took years to reach. Travel through space was still in its early development. The world was ending, though, and there wasn't time to iron out the details.

It was a risk many were willing to take. To be the first waves of settlers in distant worlds.

Vatra looked over to Spyro and shrugged her pack onto her shoulders more comfortably. "I wish they didn't have the ships so far north. I don't do well in the cold," Vatra said. She brushed snow off her coat with a grimace.

"We will not be here long," Spyro replied. "Plus, anything further south is too dangerous at this point."

"Yeah," Vatra grumbled.

The line stopped again. Another group of people were loading up on the next ship. Vatra stood on her toes to look out over the dozens of others ahead of them.

A few armed guards were checking identification cards and belongings before allowing anyone on the ships. The process was extremely somber. Like cattle being sent to slaughter.

No one outside their own personal group of family or friends spoke to another. A few coughs echoed here and there, but the only sound to overpower the clearing were the burning engines of the ships.

The cold was bone-chilling. Even through thick layers of insulated clothing and a fur lined coat, Vatra could feel her extremities slowly going numb. Shivering, Vatra huddled closer to Spyro. He barely appeared phased by the cold, but she knew he had to have been bothered from it, too.

Breath clouds surrounded their faces. Vatra opened her mouth to say something, when she heard the heavy crunch of snow to her right.

Three guards ran past them. They clutched rifles to their chests and wore equal looks of panic on their faces. Even through the snow clinging to their eyelashes and brows, Vatra could see the terror in their eyes.

She watched them pass with curiosity. The crackle of a radio on one of the men was deafening in the silence. Vatra couldn't catch much when they darted past them, but she did decipher two words.

Solar flare.

No, we were supposed to have more time left, Vatra thought. Her stomach flipped and she looked over to Spyro to see if he caught the message too.

It was evident he did.

"We need to get out of here," Spyro said quietly.

"Obviously," Vatra managed out. "But, how do we do that without causing a panic?"

"Did you hear that?" A man further down the line from them roared. "The solar flare is going to destroy Earth before we can leave. They're going to let us die here!" He turned and raised his voice, shouting out into the void of the white, snowy plain.

Vatra narrowed her eyes toward the ship and noticed the guards closing up the doors. They really weren't letting anyone else on board.

"Shit." Vatra gasped. "We need to get on that ship, Spy."

"I do not think they will simply let us on board," Spyro said. He looked around with a straight face, watching the chaos unfold around him as if he were watching paint dry.

The last remaining volunteers to leave Earth surged toward the ship. Shouts and screams to open the vessel and allow them on board pierced the air. Vatra swayed on her feet from bodies bumping carelessly into her. She understood their panic well. Why she didn't move from her own spot, she wasn't so sure herself.

Spyro planted a hand on each of her shoulders. "There are other vessels being loaded up further down that way," he paused to nod away from the writhing mass of panic, "let us get away from here."

"Right," Vatra said. She snapped herself back into the moment and laced her fingers together with Spyro's.

The two of them took off down through the snow. It was deep and difficult to maneuver through, but they'd traversed through worse. Survival instinct took over Vatra's muscles. She'd gone through too much to die just because she couldn't get on a damn ship.

Leaping and stumbling, they found themselves inadvertently leading a charge of other volunteers through the snow. Vatra glanced behind her to see about ten other people following in their steps. If only they knew she wasn't going to let any of them stand in her way of getting off Earth.

After what felt like hours of running, they made it to the edge of an embankment. Below them was a plateau barren of snow, and three other vessels sat as if waiting for their passengers. Except, a crowd of people had already formed around the ships.

 "We just need to make it on one ship," Vatra said. She grabbed tightly onto Spyro's hand and both of them made the jump down the embankment without hesitation.

The ground beneath the thin snow was rough. It scratched Vatra's back and legs even through her thick layers, but she pushed the pain away. They made it to the bottom and stumbled forward, keeping the momentum to run into the crowd surrounding the ships.

She took a quick scan of the vessels and tried to make a judgement on which one to go for. Two of them looked like passenger vessels loaded to maximum capacity already. The guards protecting the closing bay doors were shouting and pointing at the people crowded into the ship like sardines.

Glancing to the third ship, Vatra wasn't familiar with its appearance. She hadn't seen a vessel like it in all of the research she'd done on the different types of cargo and passenger ships created for space travel. No, she'd seen many war ships and vessels in her time. This one had been prepared for fighting.

I guess it would make sense for an escort ship, but could they put anyone else on it? Vatra thought.

It was a risk they needed to take, and it was the only ship people weren't crowding around.

Vatra grabbed Spyro's hand tightly and ran for the third vessel.