War of Elysium

Chapter One: The Child

       She opened her eyes to darkness. Rubble blocked out the sky and blood pooled in her mouth. Her name was Adeladia and she was afraid.

She did not call out. She pushed and clawed upwards until she felt the setting sun warm her face. The grit snapped her nails and her clothes snagged and tore on exposed steel poles. Her hand slipped on the fresh frost that had formed on the surface of the crumbled building. She was pained but she had made it. Her breath clouded in the open air and her sweat felt like ice under the winter winds. 

Around her lay corpses. A dozen, a dozen more and a dozen after that. An arm poked out from beneath the rubble but no body was attached, just the arm. A mound of bodies, bloodied and mangled, lay cast before her. They hadn't began to rot yet, she hadn't been buried for long. 

"Otets!" She called out. "Otets!" Her voice failed as she tried to call again. 

She walked forth. Down the collapsed building and past the corpse mound. Children cried and mothers gasped for air through punctured lungs but she didn't hear them. She didn't hear the father calling out to his dying son. She didn't hear the young woman pinned beneath a boulder inches from her. She didn't see the birds starting to pick at corpses nor did she see the blood that had started to gush from her abdomen. 

"Otets?" She breathlessly called out. She went light headed for a moment and tumbled to her knees. That's when she noticed. The shard of metal, ten centimetres long, dug deep within her belly. She didn't panic, she couldn't. She was so drained of energy and will that fear and pain were simply too much exertion for her to handle at this point. 

A droplet of blood landed on her hand and she was grateful for the warmth. There was no shelter as the harsh eastern winds whipped her short brown hair into her eyes. "Otets... I'm- I'm tired. Can I... Just rest here for a moment?" She mumbled as she sank to the floor. She curled into a ball and shifted around the metal shard. "I'm cold, Otets. I'm just going to lie here for a moment. Gath- Gather myself." She continued as her eyes grew heavy. 

       The whistle was innocuous. It could have been the wind through the rubble or a singing bird in flight, it wasn't . It grew louder and louder. Closer and closer until the whistle was a whistle no longer. It was flame and explosion and the chaos of battle. A bomb had settled a few hundred meters from her. The explosion was near deafening but it managed to rouse her. She realised the fighting wasn't over... There were more to come. 

She rose to her feet with a great, and bloody, effort. She had to find her father. 'where could he be? ' She considered. His office! She knew he would still be at work. The building wasn't far, she could make it and they could flee the stacks together. She just had to move.

     The rubble spanned for miles. Buildings she grew up in, played in, laughed and cried in lay level across what used to be pathways and roads. The route was easier than normal. If this had been a day earlier, she would need to make her way through winding streets and darkened alleys.  Now? A near straight line had been carved through the skyline. She climbed through the holes that used to be houses and surmounted the towers turned ashy mounds.  She was near halfway there before the bombs started again. Further away now. No major threat to her. She sheltered for a moment all the same just incase they began landing closer. 

She, Adeladia, had nearly made it. She could see her father's building on the horizon. Her heart sank and jumped as she noticed the armed men surrounding the building. Soldiers! Were they here to evacuate the city? She walked closer, clutching her wound as the pain started to set in. The soldiers were scouring the area, searching for something; or someone. They belonged to the ministry, however, surely they had to be there to help. She clambered over a fallen column and called out for a nearby soldier.