Chapter 1
BOOOM! That was the sound that wrenched me from the world of dreams and happiness. BOOOM! A second time.. I knew this was it. I was alone in the end, the last of my family to leave. My parents had died in the fighting, not fighting but trying to get away from the fighting. My father had got pulled into the vicious crowd. My mother had gone into the crowd of blood and death after he had gone down, desperate to find him. I never saw either again.
So here I was, alone, waiting for death to finally catch up with me and claim me like it did my family. BOOOM! The bomb dropped closer them the last two. Making a line straight for the up turned cart I had called home for that night. It was not a bad choice just bad luck. There was a small part that was not rusted or burnt or had any holes in it. But it still had a line of bombs heading for it.
I waited expectantly, no images of my life flashed before my eyes, but I still thought of what little of my life I could remember before the great depression. I had only been five. My big brown dog, my bed room, my friends and family, all the silly troubles I had before. I waited.
BOOOM! But the bombs had passed over me blasting from my left to my right. I had survived another attack. But others had not, I could hear there screams from near by, screams of pain and screams of sorrow. I lay still. All will be quiet tomorrow.
I woke up to find a shadow looming over me. Lying still I evened out my breathing and listened. The figure tapped its foot impatiently the raspy sound of breathing and the smell of unwashed clothes wafted towards me. I sighed and rolled over quickly jumping up ready to fight. And stopped. My attacker however lunged at me tackling me back to the ground and pinning me there. 'Well, well, what do we have-' he stopped with a groan as I kneed him in the stomach, flipping him and pinned him. I stared at him. 'Brian stop!' I asked carefully. He stopped struggling. He looked at me eyes narrowed.
'How do u know my name?' ha asked incredulously.
He was tall, a bit younger than me with light brown hair. Looking at him carefully I could see the changes the last few years had made, His face was flaked with dirt, but I could see the stubble on his face and a scar on is cheek bone. I was still certain it was him.
'You don't remember?' I asked. He struggled with a word for a second.
'Jane?' he asked, a look of disbelief spread across his face.
'Ya!' I rolled of him, but stayed crouched.
'But.. I thought u were dead?' he said confused. 'When the Grealgan found the house..' he shook his head. ' and they burned the house. We thought u were still in it.'
I smirked at him, 'Nope.'
A loud screeching noise sounded high above us.
'We have got to go!' Brian said. Now it was my turn to be confused.
'Why? What was that?'
'I don't know.. didn't u notice?' he asked looking around at the remains of the road around us. 'This was some really weird storm, and that's not all of it.' he looked around. 'Ill tell you the rest when we get back.' He looked around at the little nest I had made and my tattered bag. 'Lets go.'
With that we made our way through the ruins of the city. The Grealgan, one of the main armies that still fought to gain control and kill all who opposed them, had captured the city almost two years ago. However, they spent so much attention on keeping the city they did not notice what was going on in the city. People were murdered ,shops were looted, soon the city and surrounding land was next to empty. This didn't happen in all the cities though, Fasdi was the first and the Grealgan learnt from it. Other cities were given a lord.
These lords were controlled by the groups and fought against each other. The innocent people living in the cities still treated each other humanely, travellers and traders were welcome in other cities. The wars were never personal as the soldiers were forced to fight.
I thought about what Brian had said. The storm was strange and he was right though there are no more prestidigitators.
As we walked through the ghost city rats scurried in and out of holes, a tattered cat with half an ear missing chasing after them. Blood and body parts lay randomly among the rubble, evidence of the people trying to escape the bombing storm.
I thought about Brians unexpected appearance, what was he doing there in the first place. 'Brian what were u doing back at the cart?'
He stopped an looked at me. 'I was out on a.. trip, looking for food. When I saw u I went to see if you were ok.'
'But you never said anything you just stood there tapping your foot.'
'Well you do know you are a terrible actress? I could tell when you woke up that you were just pretending to be asleep!' he smiled.
'Right.. Ok if you say so.' I don't believe him.. I pulled a knife out of my pocket and hid it up my sleeve just in case.
After twenty minutes or so of walking, we came to a large bordered up hotel. I didn't often come to this side of the city, and when I did I never noticed the hotel. It was painted in a dirty white colour that was peeling off the walls. Two of the walls were covered in the graffiti and propaganda from the Grealgan and the windows were all bordered up with thick sheets of steel. We went around to the back of the hotel, to a small door in the ground. I watched Brian tapped on the door four times.
The door opened to a boy no older than fourteen with orange hair and a freckled face. He smiled at Brian in relief , until he saw me. 'You brought someone with you!' He said, outrage and fear distorted his features. 'how are we suppose to keep safe if you lead people back to us?'
'Chill out Harry, I know this girl, she's safe.' said Brian assuringly. 'she can help us!'
'Ya, ya fine. Have fun trying to explain that to Kevin.'
'Ya I know!'
The boy called Harry disappeared, leaving the small hole in the ground open for me to decent. The hole was in fact a long man-hole with a ladder on one of the damp walls. Brian looked around and lowered himself into the hole after me, closing the door and plunging us into darkness.
At the end of the hole we dropped down to a concrete passage way. Although it was dimly lit with a light I could still see letters and messages stuck and taped all over the wall. 'People left messages and pictures for there loved ones.' he explained. At the end of the corridor we came to another door this was locked. Harry pulled out a key that was tied around his neck, and unlocked it.
