Wings

Chapter 1: My World

I crept down the empty city street, keeping my eye out for trouble in the seemingly post-apocalyptic world I lived. It was always unsafe to travel any distance in London, you never knew when The Straze would find you. They were brutal people with the most demonic views of life, seeing only what they could gain from it and caring nothing for others. These police of the satanic tyrant, Edmund Strazier, were ruthless and prayed upon the odd citizen they came across. Most of the city was demolished, decaying under the plants and rubble that had overtaken the once beautiful scene. Looking around at the cracked pavement and skeletal shells of buildings, I almost couldn’t remember the beautiful city that had stood here, just six years ago. So much had changed since then, since Strazier over threw the British government in a coup d’etat more powerful than the world had ever known. The city was burned, the queen and prime minister beheaded in the castle front lawn, and a new age began, a dark age.

No one dared resist Strazier, his temper flared at a sidelong glance and before you knew it your head was on a pike in the front lawn (not that any grass remained, it was all dirt and stone now). Resistance was futal anyways, the tyrants following of brainless muscles impossible to contend with. They did as they were told, taking lives left and right for seemingly no reason and capturing the city in a state of fear no one could break. One hair out of line and it was your head.

I nervously ruffled my wings as I glanced down the alley to my right. Not a soul in site .This part of the city had been uninhabited for years, the buildings too frail for use. Any weight and the floors would crash, a body easily buried alive under the rubble. Many people had been lost to the city itself, the once safe home of thousands becoming their final tomb. It would be easier to just fly over this area, avoiding the rubble and danger that was prevalent but flying would draw attention to myself. Anyone seen in the air nowadays near the city center was seen as an attack and shot down immediately. I had seen it happen many a times, the odd person stretching their wings too close to the castle. I ruffled my feathers, itching to fly just thinking about the action. I loved the feeling of the wind under my black and white wings, the air rushing by, the feel of weightlessness; nothing could compare.

At the next alley, I turned, seeing a hopeful looking pile of rubbish. Citizens had almost no money these days (I had none at all) so picking had become a common hobby. The only way to get new things was to find them in the rubble. All my possessions were used, from the clothes on my back to the blankets at home (or what I called home; It was really just a whole in the side of a brick building). I was currently desperate to find a new pair of boots, my last pair having fallen apart completely yesterday and leaving me barefoot to wander the city for new ones. My feet were already bleeding constantly from just this day without, the glass and rocks all over the streets cutting at the tender skin of my heels and toes. I skipped around a piece of metal as I headed for the promising pile, bending to pick up a nail on the ground and toss it in my weathered leather bag as I proceeded. I could always use more nails to help hang the blankets over my whole-in-the-wall-home.

As I stood up, I heard footsteps behind me. I froze, hoping I hadn’t been seen. Was it safe to turn around? What if they were creeping up on me right now, about to attack? You always had to watch your back these days, you never knew who to trust and who was working for whom and who would pick a fight. I slowly turned my head, hoping to see nothing but an empty entrance to an alley. Luck was against me however as I saw four men, all with dark gray wings blocking my only escape. Why had I come down a dead end alley? This was perhaps the stupidest move I had made since I had decided to cut my hair with a rusty knife from a dumpster.

 The sun hit the uniform of the far right man as he stepped forwards, revealing the demon-winged insignia of Strazier to my eyes. I was dealing with Straze, the guards. This was not going to end well.