32. Kaelen

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Kaelen woke up as soon as the first rays of the sun peeked out from over the horizon, falling directly on his face. He squinted his sleepy eyes and with a grunt turned to his other side. He didn't want to get up yet, although he knew he should - it was already daylight and he shouldn't stay in one place for too long, especially since there was nowhere to hide on the scorched earth of northern Arizona.

The previous day he had set out from Sedona later than he had intended, which meant that he had only crossed the border of some nameless, ruined town at night. He still had at least three days of tramp ahead of him to the nearest camp to the north of Sedona - the Four Chiefs had the town of St. George in southern Utah marked on their map. Temron, Colin, Usain and Carter had trouble picking a wanderer to go to that area, but Kaelen kept feeling the second Chief's gaze on him. In the end, he volunteered himself partly to spare the difficult route some unfortunate hiker, but also to air his head, to put his thoughts in order.

So far, he wasn't doing very well.

He sighed and rolled over onto his back with an arm thrown over his eyes. He knew that once awakened, he wouldn't fall asleep again, so he lay there and listened to the silence around him. After a while, he came to the conclusion that this is exactly how deaf people must feel. He couldn't hear even the slightest rustle, a gust of wind. Nothing, just nothing. The silence seemingly soothing, yet so overwhelming.

Later he began to wonder how the deaf were not going crazy. After all, it was awful and so abnormal. It was as if everything had died, there was nothing left. One man, alone in a field of death that was waiting for him to fall silent forever, as well.

Kaelen picked himself up from the dry ground and began to get ready to continue walking. At the very thought of death he was getting unpleasant chills. Someone might think that he was an Aeternal, he had died more than once, so another death wouldn't make a difference.

But death is impossible to tame.

***

He had been on longer journeys before, but the very beginning of the one to Utah seemed to him more difficult than the others. He hoped to reach the Colorado River quickly, avoiding the eastern wilderness as much as possible, which was already nothing but sand before Invicta's invasion.

About two hours after resuming his walk, he allowed himself a short break to drink some water. He tried to drink regularly, a little at a time, and when he didn't feel thirsty, as he did this morning, he saved the water for later. He had the same two huge waterskins in his bag as before. He self-soothed - considering that he had given one to Ritael on the way to Sedona and they had somehow survived, it wouldn't be too bad this time either, especially since he had both all to himself, and would come across a large river at the halfway.

There was literally nothing around him but sand and rocks, making it seem as if he was walking in place. He hoped that the area would soon change at least a little. He doubted he would meet anyone, he didn't even count on it, as the chances were zero. After so many years, Aeternals and the people had either already found refuge, were in slavery behind the walls of the largest cities, or were dead.

The first years of the invasion were really hard. They fought for their lives, getting away from Invicta was the biggest priority, and once they managed to escape... then where to next? How many died looking for any living cities, any living souls? The world was huge, and all the safe places were small and hidden.

The Aeternals and the humans. Both races fell victim to the Invicta Beings, everything was taken from them by those invaders.

Kaelen wondered if the humans even knew there was anyone else on their Earth? Did any of the Aeternals reveal themselves to them? If so, what was the people's reaction?

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