Shattered Into Ash

Shattered Into Immortality

Nathaniel:

I need a team. I awake to find dust all around me. The town is quiet. Too quiet. I creep out from under the table I hide under. Through all the bleeding and fighting I did nothing. I had only been in a war once and I just got lucky that time. I don't know what to do in a time like this. Luke made me play the game of war, a board game that mimicked the real wars that had been fought across the galaxy. Luke always beat me, he beat me bad. He never gave me mercy, he never let me win because in a real war the other side doesn't show mercy.

That was before Luke had matured. I don't know what made him mature. It's just that once a Zodiac reached the point where their mind has become mature, usually through a major event or loss in their lives, that person will be immortal at that age forever.

Mike and Luke are both eighteen and a half years old. They have been for a while now. Azun matured on his eighteenth birthday when Dad pulled him aside, I don't know what they talked about, just that I heard a lot of commotion and things breaking in the other room and Azun crying in his room all night long as he slept on his face. It wasn't till a few weeks later that he showed me the scars on his back from dad's belt. Ames matured at the age of sixteen and two months, he always acted like he mature much earlier though. Vestry matured at seventeen and three quarters, he didn't quite care to mature since all he wanted to do was work on machines. He was probably pressured to mature by Luke. Dustan I never really knew him all that well, and to my knowledge he hasn't matured yet, but my best guess would be in between sixteen or seventeen. Dustan left right after he turned fourteen to discover his power on a long journey across the sea. I haven't ever gotten any letters from him.

I walk across the burn down houses. There are no people anywhere. I see a light aiming from the great hall. I start to head in that direction when Alvin's hit catches my eyes. It's the only house untouched. I crack open the door, which desperately needed some oil. Inside his bottles remain untouched. The air is colder in here then it is outside. The windows are open and the moonlight shines inside. I touch a wick on a candle, I still had a bit of firepower lift from what Vestry has given me. The candle light exposes across the room, creating shadow monsters. The light also illustrates the tears on a young girl's dark face. Her figure is crouched in a corner, I rush over to her.

"Are you ok?" I ask.

She nods. It's Vector, the shape shifting animal girl Alvin and I found in the trees. I had almost forgotten about her after my moment with Stinger. Her face is covered in dried and new tears, looks like she isn't quite a fighter like me.

"There were so many of them." Her voice cracked. "I didn't know what to do, I was never part of military back home. I was spy, a scout."

"That's ok." I help her off the ground. "I am not cut out for military either."

"Why is it so quiet?" Vector grabs my arm. "Is everyone dead."

"I don't know." I let he stay close to me, she is not as brace as I am. "Let go see."