Clocks Without Time

Chapter 1

Nerida took a long drag of her cigarette. The ends of her hair brushing up against her shoulders as she sat on the small ledge of the rock outside the cave. Time was relative, she new better than anyone else. Time was also running out so why Lev and Ai were taking so long she didn't know. The gun next to her caught the sun directing it right into her eye. Nerida pushed it away. The need for a gun in a desert while being in an elite group filtered and cherry picked made sense but not when you're hunting for time while being stuck on door duty. Nerida took one last drag of the cigarette, she felt the hot ash less than a few centimeters from her skin began to burn a little too close for comfort. Staring at the dying embers she let it fall between her fingers into the sand.

She made her way to the entrance of the cave. Honestly she'd never heard of caves in deserts but the coveters learnt and then learnt that same thing twice. "Fucking agency." she muttered feeling hugely uncomfortable as the wind drove the sand up to scratch against her bare skin, tank tops never did much against the elements. 

"Ai," she yelled. "The fuck are you doing?"

Nerida's words echoed slightly but were mainly taken in the winds grasp and dragged far away. No response. Nerida grunted a soft 'hmm' before returning to the rock this time allowing one leg to hang off the side. The desert was rather beautiful. The sand swallowing up the heat of the sun the same way the sea hunts the shore. The golden hues made Nerida's tan skin shine in a way that was the apple of envy's eye and the pride in the chest of a mother whos child just turned one. To put simply she was so incomparable she was abstract. 

Perhaps an hour had crept past, the sun inching below the horizon when a sharp quake parted the land followed by an unforgiving series of cracks. It was as if someone has cracked their knuckles slowly and broadcasted each sound on universal speakers. Pieces of grit began shaking and slipping off the rock Nerida sat on. She hastily made for her gun, knuckles scraping under the friction of skin on rock. Her boots treaded the sand poorly and her eyes shook manically as the entrance to the cave fractured.

Despair grew as the more pebbles fell. This didn't happen, none of this happens. Nerida could handle a car incident, a bomb defusal, even a bloody terrorist attack but not this. No one prepares a group for if a cave should suddenly come down while their in it. No one. Not even the coveters. 

The slowness of the shoes against the sand pumped frustration all throughout her body. "Keep your damn head." She shouted aloud, the desert once again stealing her voice. Her teeth clenched so tight her jaw set afire in pain. 

"Lev!" Her voice strained then broke. "Ai!"  

She didn't stop screaming until she saw the distant figures of her colleagues. By that point her pulse was higher than a satellite and her lungs had inhaled more of the rushing sand than it had actual air. It would seem the elements were just as scared for their lives as Ai and Lev were. 

The sand whisked more dramatically than before completely blocking any view her eyes could make sense of she was almost there, so she guessed. The grainy shadow of a person ran past her before the entire cave took its last breath and crumbled.

When a catastrophe happens people are told the fallout is worse than the actual event. They're told the event lasts seconds while the grief lasts forever and whatever remains has to deal with the mess. The burden of believing you could've just done more or somehow everything is your fault is a sticky passage that glues itself to people and the dead are the ones happy they can just pass through and it all boils down to luck. Pure fucking luck. That's it. Time runs dry and with it so does luck. That's death and the worst part is it doesn't care.

When the dust cloud settles, Nerida can't get the sand and debris out from her eyes. Her cornea an oasis in the desert and the sand a dehydrated animal who has just discovered how to drink. Nerida coughs and wheezes until her throat is raw and gasping for any intake. Tears finally fall from her eyes clearing the cataracts haze and she blindly walks forward until she can make out the outline of broad shoulders and unruly sandy hair.

It's Lev. 

"Lev, Lev!" Her voice rose an octave as she stumbled towards him, hand meeting his shoulder. He was still. His bruised hands holding the gold essence of time but his eyes were dim, body unmoving.

"I was just with her." He stated simply.

"What do you-," Nerida stopped. Under the pile of rocks and rubble lay bloody ribbons of a severed arm, blood freely leaking underneath the debris turning the sand a new shade of red. Tufts of hair sprouted above the rocks some parts red others accompanied by mushy grey matter. The heat already diffusing the putrid scent across the land quickly followed by the churning smell of vomit. Nerida's gun fell on the ground. 

Ai was dead.