hyperion: death thralls

rust and dust

I slowly lower us to the ground as korra tightens her grip. "I can't believe we made it." Korra let's go as she lands on her feet before straightening up as I can hear her legs pop. "We were gliding for hours. I can't believe you aren't tired." Korra takes in a deep breath. "How can you do that?" Korra turns and looks at me as I lower myself down. "At least we still have sunlight. We have some time to find a place to bed down in for the night." She turns around and looks up the road. "We aren't far from the city...I hope." Korra looks at me. "Come on. I don't want to stay in one place for long." She faces forward again and starts walking. I follow closely behind as I can feel my strangth growing quickly. My senses are comming back to life. I can hear, see, smell. It's all overwhelming. I feel as if...I can do anything. I can feel my power flowing as it expands out and I can sense what's around me. I can sense small animals wondering around. The trees flowing in the wind and something big comming twords us. Wait. Something big? I stop and look twords the direction of the big thing as I can hear the bushes shaking. It's not a person. "Echo?" I keep my focus on what's moving as I see something pop up. It looks at me as it slowly walks out. What is it? It has a long head and neck with a big nose. It's legs are thin and it doesn't have feet. "Echo. Stay quiet." I look at korra as she's smiling. I look back at whatever the thing is as it's frozen and starting back at me. It licks its nose then lowers its head. It sniffs around then lifts its head as it continues to look around. I look at korra as she folds her arms. It flinch as I face it and get ready to fight. it looks scared. "No, no, echo honey. It's not trying to fight." Korra slowly walks over to me as she lowers my hands. I keep my focus on the thing as it calms down. It lowers its head as it takes a step twords us as I back up a little bit. Korra keeps me in place as she gently wraps her arms around me and hugs me from the back. "It's okey. Just whatch." The think takes another step twords us. It lifts its head and points its nose twords us as I can hear it sniffing. "It's an animal. It's called a 'deer' and they won't hurt you." It takes another step twords us as korra lifts up some food. "Here." She lifts my right hand and sets it into my hand as the thing pulls back a little bit. "Let's feed it." I look at korra as I'm worried. "Don't be scared. It won't hurt you."  It takes another step twords us as it sniffs the food in my hand. I slowly hold the food out as it sniffs it. I look at it's brown fur then at its back. It's skinny. It continues sniffing as I can feel the warm air his my hand. I look at it's stunic and see a bite mark as it's black. It makes a noise as I look at it's eyes and see them turn red. It opens it's mouth and lunges forward as I pull back and lift korra into the air. "Echo!" I move to the left and set korra down as the monster stares at us as it opens its mouth and blood pours out. "What the..." it takes in a deep breath and raleases a massive roar that echos through the forest. "It's infested!" I gather my power as it longest at us. I lung forward and grab it's neck and hold it away from me as it's mouth chomps at me. "Echo!" I pull my right arm back and channel power into it as I plung my hand into its neck and through as I pill it's head off. It's mouth continues to chomp as I drop it. "What the hell?" I back away as I flick my hand to get the blackened blood off of my hand. "Even the animals." I turn and look at korra as her arms are limp. "Even the animals aren't safe from whatever is ravaging this place." Her sarrow quickly rises again. That hope. It's was shattered. I can sense more things approuching us. All diffrent sizes. I look around as I can see them. "Let's get to the city." I hear korra turn around. I start to see shadows approucbing us as I can see the blood red eyes. I turn and chatch up to korra as she's going slow. I don't know what to do. I don't want her to stop but...it feels like she's going to stop at any point. I move and slowly wrap my arms around her neck as I gently lay my head on her shoulder. "Echo." Her spirit is shining but the fire is fading quickly. She lifts her left hand and pats my head. "You don't have to try and cheer me up." I push my head agenst her cheek as she chuckles. "Okey, okey." I don't care about what I have to kill to keep her safe. I don't want her to give up. "I'm sorry. I didn't know the animals could get infested to." She's worried. A rush of feelings I don't understand. She let's her arm fall. "I hope the city's safe." She's holding onto the city. What is it anyway? Is it a place? Will there be more people? Korra looks forward as she stops. I look forward to see a black rising. "No." Korra runs forward as I'm left behind. I quickly chatch up as we go up a hill and stop as we look at crumbling buildings, fires, wondering infested, and korra's hope disopear. "No." Korra falls to her knees. "No." I lower myself to korra's left. "Why..." She's frozen. She's given up. I look around as I see figures wondering around. Infested. I can smell them from here. "We're fucked." I look at korra as she's defeated. Her fire has went out. I look down as see korra's hand balled up. I grab her hand and pull it to my chest as korra lowers her head. "We can't stay here. It's not safe." I look up at korra as I can see tears running down her cheeks. I lift her hand and gently rub her hand agenst my cheek. She looks at me as her emotions are swirling around. "We can't stay here." She lifts her hand and pats my head. "I'm sorry." I get up and I help korra up. "What the hell?!" I turn around and get ready to fight as I look and see three people frozen behind us. "The fuck is this?!" I channel my power as korra holds me back. The first man covered in worn armer takes a step twords us. "You two togeather?" He's lose and calm. The other two chatch up and look at us. Thier service. They look at me as they instantly calm down. "Who are you?" I keep channeling my power. "Look, we've got about 100 tons of pissed off infested rushing to tears us apart." I'll kill them all. "I know your good people so we'll take you back to our camp. It's safe there." I chatch something moving behind them as their focused on us. I channel my power into my hand as I get ready to rush forward. "Echo, no." I dash forward and attack the blackened figure behind the people as they turn around and look as I drop what's left of the infested. "Holy shit. That kids insane." I look up and see the path we took is filled with infested. More than I can handle right now. "We have to go. Right fuckin now." I turn and see korra staring at the infested behind me. "You said you have a camp?" Korra snaps back as she is filled with determination. "Yeah. It's in the city." Korra losens up and approuch her. "IN the city?" I look at the group. "If we want to make it before night, we have to go now." One of then men starts to walk twords the city. The others follow closely behind. I look at korra as she has renewed hope. "Let go." Korra turns and rushes up to the group. I look at the wall of fleash. I want to stop them but I can't. I turn and chatch up to the group as they start to run. "Just follow us! We can't fight the infested anymore!" I stay behind korra to make sure she doesn't get hurt. "What?! Why?!" We turn left and continue running. "We attack them now, we'll be overrun in seconds! They get stronger at night and during the storms!" They are focused. Calm. It's clear they've been doing this for a long time. "Who are you people anyway?!" I can hear korra's breathing. She's trying to keep up but is losing strangth. "We'll explain everything as soon as we get back!" I look to the left as I see something fall. "Fuck!" I dash to the right and lung at the infested before it can grab one of the guys. I turn and twist its head off the everyone runs past me. I drop the still moving head as I look down and see blood is all over my shirt. It's Bruning my shirt. I rip off my shirt and rush back to the group. "Fuck kid!" We continue running as we rush past infested as they look at us and I hear them roar. I turn and look to see a large group forming as they follow us. "Whatch the left!" I turn and see one of the guys jump over a lunging infested as korra doesn't doudge it. I grab her and lift her up as she kicks the infesteds head as it legs go. "We've got more!" I look and see the three guys pull out sharp things as they wave them around as the infested fall apart and fall to the ground in pieces. "Half way there! Keep moving!" I look forward and see a large group of infested as they stop. I set korra down as everyone is breathing heavily. "Great. How are we going to get past that?" I look at korra as she looks behind us. "We're surrounded." I look around and see infested approuching us. "Damn it. And I promised dulis we would bring back something good to." I love forward as I gather my power. "We don't have enough rations for another day out here." I focus on the infested group infront of us. "What are you doing kid?" I can feel my power flowing so fast. It's overwhelming. "Get ready to run as fast as you can!" Korra walks ifnront if me. "Don't hurt yourself Echo. If you do, your in big trouble." I keep my focus on my power. Korra steps to the side as I rush forward and let my power explode as I crash into the infested. I keep pushing through as I stop and turn around to see a the group of infested was split in half. Everyone starts to rush forward as I rush back and start to attack the infested that get close. I push the first infested down as it nearly grabbed one of the guys as I plung my hand into it neck and grab onto its spine. I pull up as drop the piece of bone I pulled out. I turn and rush to the neck as I punch it as it's head explodes. I push through the pain as I try to attack the closest infested that could grab someone. "Almost there!" I turn and see the group has gotten past the infested as now all of the infested are approuching me. I jump back as an infested reached for me. "Echo!" I look at see korra looking at me. I doudge the next few lunges as I jump up and spread my tails out as I channel my power and glide through the air. Korra is pulled as I look up and see a massive wall. I feel my power slow down as I pour all of my focus into keeping my power flowing. My focus breaks as my body is hit with a wave of pain. I get focused again as I glide again but I quickly start to fall. I feel a sharp point in my arm as I fall to the ground. I look up and see that I'm falling fast. I ball up and turn as my back hits the ground. "Echo!" I feel something soft hit my chest. "I told you to NOT shoot asshole!" I look up and see korra as she picks me up. "Open the fucking gate!" Korra starts to run as I plant my hand on my left shoulder and feel something wet. I lift my hand and see freash blood as I look and see a hole in my shoulder. It hurts. Korra stops running as she falls to her knees and looks at my shoulder. "Who fired?! Who the fuck just fired?!" I sit up as I focus on healing as the pain slowly fades. "You okey?" I look up at korra and nod. "Thank mercy." She hugs me tightly as I look and see one of the guys pacing around. "Get your asses down here now! I'm not asking dipshits!" Korra pulls back as she smiles. "I can't believe they shot you. Who would shoot you?" Korra hugs me again as I see sevral people come out of some doors as they rush to the man. "What the fuck did I say?! What the fuck did I say as soon as we got to the gate?!" He paces around as he grabs one of the guns and rips out of the person's hands. "Why the fuck did you shoot the kid?! What made you think it was alright to shoot that fuckin kid?!" His yelling is echoing through this place. Koor let's me go as she takes off the backpack and pulls out a shirt and quickly puts it on me. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was a kid." I look past korra as the man punches the other person. "I said DONT SHOOT! I can't be clearer than that you fucking piece of shit!" The person grabs his face and rolls around as I the guy does something to the gun then drops it. "I'll deal with you later! Now I have to make sure the kids still alive!" He turns and looks at the two guys that came in with him. "Get his ass out of my sight before I lose my shit even more than I already have!" The two rush over to the person on the ground and drags them away as he rushes to us. He stops and kneels down next to us and looks at me. "You alright kid?" Korra looks at him as she pulls me close to her. "You said this place was safe." He's struggling to hold himself back. "I'm sorry. I didn't want this to happen." Korra losens her grip. "That kid should never have been out on the gate. We'll make sure this doesn't happen again." I look at korra as she takes in a deep breath. "At least we can help make sure he's going to get through this." He looks at my shoulder and see the blood in the shirt. "Let's take a look." He reaches over as korra stops him. "He's fine now." He pulls back. "He was just shot. We have to make sure it was a clean shot and the bullet isent in there." Korra takes in a deep breath. She moves my shirt and my shoulder pops out as the guy looks at my shoulder. "What? I'm sure he was shot though." Korra covers my shoulder again. "He was but echos always been able to heal fast." The man gives me a confused look. "I can take a guess his powers can just do that?" Korra looks at the man. "How did you know?" He chuckles. "We have hybrids here that have powers to." Korra freezes. "It's how we knew you weren't one of those slavers. We never see a hybrid get treated like that outside of the gate. It's why we try to keep the hybrids in the walls. So they don't get kidnapped." Korra looks at me. "People...still use hybrids as slaves?" I look at korra. What is she talking about? "Yeah and we've freed as many as we could but there's still alot of them out there. Most of them are slaves to the people who still hold onto the old ways." Korra looks at the guy. "What do you mean?" I look at the guy again. "They still hold onto things like money and stature. The people who fight for them are people they bribe or are enslaved and forced to fight and work for them." Korra looks down. "Trust me. We're trying to save as many of them as we can but the infested hoards are only growing by the hour. We just don't have the people or the resources to risk going out there anymore." I look at korra. "There's more out there?" Korra looks at me as she starts to cradle me. "There always been infested out there. We took out a small hoard before but you kill one of them and ten more come to take its place." Korra looks up at the man as she pulls my head close to her chest. "I'm talking about the hybrids." She pulls my head closer as I start to struggle to breath. "How many more are out there?! How many are suffering?!" I lift my hand and place them on korra's chest as I pull my head away and take in a deep breath. "Echo?" My nose starts to get tingly as I turn my head and sneeze hard. I shake my head as the sneeze hurt alot. I take in another deep breath as another sneeze forces itself out as I shook my head again when it came out. "Holy shit kid!" I sneeze again as I hold my breath to try and stop. "What the fuck? Did he snort coco or something?" I try to breath again as I sneeze again. The tingling stops as I feel something run down my mouth. I wipe off my mouth as I feel alot better now. Something runs down my mouth again as I wipe it off again. "Damnit! Someone get a rag!" I lift my arm and see freash blood. I look down as I see blood dripping out of my nose. My nose can bleed? I just sneezed and now blood is comming out of my nose. "Oh no. I'm so sorry echo." I look up at korra as she's panicking. I look down again as I see a small metal piece sitting on my shirt. I pick it up as it's not sharp. How did this get stuck in my nose? It's a small ball. "Oh no." I look up at korra. She plugs my bleeding nose. "Take in a deep breath." I take in a deep breath as my nose gets tingly again and sneeze harder. I felt something come out of my that time. I shake my head and cover my nose as it hurt. "Damn you Johnathan. I told you not to do this." I look and whatch as korra picks up the ball as she starts to shake. I can breath clearly. Other than the smell of my own blood, I can breath! I'm not struggling at all! "What the hell is that?" Korra crushes the ball as I look at the other one to see that I crushed it when I sneezed the last time. "Lady. What the hell were those things? What the hell did you do to her?" I look up at the man. Her? "First of all, echo is not a girl. Second, I don't want to talk about it. It's nothing important." I look over as someone rushes up to us and slides over as they push the rag agenst my face. I grab thier hand push them away. "What the hell kid?" Korra pulls me away before I could fight them. "Don't run up on him like that!" Korra stands up as now she's holding me back. Who are these people? Are they like the others? "What's wrong with you people?" I look at the man as he's still calm. "What's on that rag? You got anything on it?" The man holds up his hands. "Enough!" Everyone freezes as I manage to get out of korra's arms and get ready to fight. "Echo no!" The man holds his long knife out as he's still calm. I channel my power as he keeps his focus on me. "Whow kid." He slowly lifts his free hand. "Just slow down." He stops the other person from moving. "Don't." He keeps his focus on me though. He's used to fighting. "But-"
"Don't move. Just...just hold on for a minute." He slowly moves his knife knife. "Take it easy kid." He slowly moves the sharp end twords him and grab the top of it. "We're not trying to hurt. We want to help." Korra slowly moves to the other side of him. What is he going to do. "Don't move lady." He's ordering us around. "What are you doing?" Korra stops moving as I have to make sure she's safe. "Don't worry about them kid. Just keep looking at me." I have to keep my eye in korra. "Look." He let's go of the handle and slowly moves it out and drops it. What is he doing? He's unarmed now. "We're not going to hurt you." Korra slowly starts to approuch me as the man takes a step back. "It's alright echo. Just...calm down." I try to keep my focus on the man but korra holds her hands out. I look at the man as he's completely calm. He slowly lowers her hands and stays lose. I look at korra again as I rush to her as she hugs me tightly. "There you go. That's my good boy." I move around as korra turns me and holds me like one of those toys. She does this to me alot. I can save my energy since korra can lift me easily. I look at the man as I wipe off my mouth again. I look at my arm and see streaks of blood. Why isn't it comming off? The person from earlier approuches me as I hold up my arm to defend myself. "Whow, whow. It's okey." They kneel down and lift the rag. "It's just a rag." I lift it up and cover thier own mouth with it and take in a deep breath. "There's nothing on it." Then remove it and give me a smile. "Who are you people?" The man brings the rag up and starts to wipe off my arm as the blood is picked up by the rag. They pull it away as I look at my arm. I lift it as I don't smell anything funny. "You really don't get out often, do you?" Get...out? "We're what's lefts of the low to mid class when the city fell." I look up at the man as he picks up his knife and walks over to us slowly. "Mid class? Like financially?" I look at the other man as he slowly lifts the rag and wipes my face. "Yep. When the city was overrun, the military was wiped out. Thankfully some of us knew what was going on and was already running around gathering what they could." The man pulls the rag back. "Much better." He smiles. "Looks like your nose bleed stopped to." He stands up as I whatch him turn and walk away. "We like to call ourselves the 'foundation'. What you look at inside these walls are all that's left of the people who couldn't afford to live in the city or pay off loans and worked for over 50 hours a week. Most of us lived paycheck to paycheck just to get by." I look at the man as I can feel korra losen up. "How did you even get these walls up?" The man takes in a deep breath. "It wasn't easy. We lost over half of our original group just to get the walls up. Right now we're about the same size as when we started so over half of the people that are here, we pulled out of the shit. Hell, some of us are hybrids we liberated. You'll see them everywhere here." The man tries to smile. "So is that how you could tell we weren't going to do anything to you when you came up to us?" He chuckles. "When we see people like you out there and they have a hybrid like your little boy there, most of the time they'll be in chains and have colers on." Colers? "It's okey echo. We won't put one on you." Korra lifts me up a little bit. "We have a few rules so follow them and you'll fit right in. As for what we call this place, welcome to Jericho." Jer-ico? "Now what's your story?" Korra let's me go as I move forward a little bit and turn. "You've already said his name a few times but what's yours?" I look at the man. "It's korranagin but I prefer korra." The man pouses. "Was your father Jacob korranagin?" I look at korra as she folds her arms. "He was." The man leans back a little bit. "He died shortly after the fall." I look at the man as he stabs his knife into the ground. "Sorry to hear that." Korra chuckles. "Don't be. He was a piece of work so I don't care." The man chuckles. "Alright. So what's his story? He doesn't talk much does he?" I look at korra as I approuch her. "You'd be lucky to hear him even make a single sound." I look at the man. "Why's that?" I can feel that korra is getting angry. "It's a...long...sad story." I look at korra as she let's her arms fall. "Well dulis would love to hear it. We've all got stories and most of us are in your position. You'll talk with him before your allowed to walk around." Before we're allowed to walk around? "Just tell us where to go." I look at korra. "Well that won't be to hard!" I turn around and see a man approuching us as he holds a massive axe and his smile is just as big as the axe. "Speak of the devil." The map stops infront of us as he's half the size of the other man. "Looks like the report was right. Good work Jake!" The man looks at me as I lower myself to look at him. I can see his vanes on his arms. "Looks like your a flighty one, aren't ya little one." His face is covered in hair. "Wasn't easy. If it wasn't for the kid, we'd be little chunks right now." The man luaghs. "As I've been told!" He's very energetic. He's lose and calm. He lowers his axe and plants it into the ground. "This guy's dulis. He's one of the main guys running this place so if you have any questions or issues, you go to him." He luaghs again. "Damn straight! I'll make sure your set." I pull back from him as he lifts his hand and holds it out. "Come on kid. I don't bite." Korra slowly grabs me and holds me as she approuches dulis. "Sorry about echo. He's not used to friendly faces." He chuckles as he lowers his hand. "Don't you worry about that. Now let's get you situated." He grabs his axe and lifts it. He's holding it as if it's not heavy. "Follow me." He turns and starts to walk away. I look up at korra as she looks down at me and smiles. "I've got a good feeling about this place." She gives me a smile. She's happy. Now...I can smile back and not be scared.