The Spark of an Angel

Chapter 11 - The Wanderer Stays Silent

Welt laid awake on the thin mattress that was on a cold floor, his head was spinning trying to process what had just happened earlier that day, he heard Patrick's slow heartbeat and his slow breaths, Welt knew he was asleep. He'd just revealed his past in front of a bunch of strangers which felt very alarming to him. He rested his head on the flat pillow, he rolled to the side trying to get into a position to fall asleep. The yelling and banging was quite loud in his head, but he knew no one else could hear it. He tried to shut his eyes and block it out, although that only worked when and if he was alone.

He shifted to his other side, staring at the wall, hoping to trick his wandering head into getting rid of the sounds. He didn't need sleep to function, he needed a cigarette to forget all that happened, that was his escape from reality smoking and occasionally alcohol too. He'd been smoking since he was a teenager which was very common for the kids in his world. They all needed it to escape the reality of the war and the battlegrounds.

The war had been going since Welt was born, that's what his parents told him. They were losing, him and his team were the only people who could save the human race. The only hope. And they'd failed. He didn't want to return to that world in fear that he'd die by the government because he "abandoned" the war effort. Well, he was pretty much useless after the accident that rendered him blind.

Giving the golden chain in his vest a tug, the pocket watch came falling out, of course, the time was only approximated because there were no clocks that he'd seen, so he relied fully on the star. Sunrise was always around 6:30 on the twelve hour clock, which could be altered by the position on the planet and where they were, but it was usually almost always around 6:30. So he only knew the general time. Although he was blind, he could feel heat from objects ten fold in comparison to his crew members.

The ticking of the watch told him it was around one in the morning. An odd hour to find himself up thinking and awake, although when he worked in the war effort, he had many sleepless nights.

He pushed himself up off the thin mattress and made his way towards the bars of the cell. He didn't want to wake Patrick, so he had to quietly beckon a guard over.

"What do you want?" The guard snapped, it was a rather loud question causing Welt to cringe and hold a finger to his mouth.

"Do you have a cigarette? A smoke of some kind?" He said, leaning on the bars, sticking his hands through.

The guard nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a rolled up piece of paper, there was probably stuff inside that Welt couldn't see or sense. The guard lit a match and held it to the paper after passing it to the blind man, "thank you." He said his thanks, before sitting back on the thin mattress.

Taking a long draw from the cigarette, feeling like his mind was finally at ease, he leaned back against the wall, he stared blankly at the ceiling, well, he couldn't see anything as a matter of fact.

The cigarette found its way back into his mouth, once he was finished with the cigarette, he closed his eyes after putting it out quietly, his mind was still wandering due to the panic of what the following day could bring.

At least he couldn't hear the pounding or yelling that the memory would bring. After letting his guard down, he slowly began to drift off.

"Dr. Armstrong, how do you suppose this bomb would work?" A female voice said.

"Dr. Armstrong, when will the bomb drop?" Another asked, as the image formed in the man's eyes.

The flashing lights from the cameras, Welt blinked, he was on a stage giving a presentation to a large crowd, the bright lights combined with the endless amount of questions about the project made his head spin. He slowly turned his head to the side, seeing an oddly familiar face, who was clapping for him. Some of the crowd was clapping too, while the rest were reporters who wanted to be the first ones to know about the project and if it'd be successful.