***Completed***
If you knew your world would soon be torched to carbon, would you fight to save it?
...Or light a match of your own?
Violina, a girl polarized by love and loathing, finds herself thrown into a post-apocalyptic world with mankind on t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The girls hastened to put as much distance between themselves and the alleyway as possible. Picking a direction at random, they sprinted.
When Violina looked back to see whether her pursuers had decided to cross into the field after them, she saw only grass where the alley had been. The rift, or portal, or whatever it was, had disappeared.
"What happened? Where are we?" asked Lux with distress in her voice.
"You're asking me?" replied Violina haughtily. "Weren't you the one who just ran in here straightaway?"
Lux fought to catch her breath. "What can I say? I panicked! Jumping into an anomaly without question seemed like wisdom at the time!"
"Come on, let's see if we can get a better look at what we've got here." Violina pointed to a secluded grove. Bent on finding answers, she climbed one of the taller trees while Lux paced back and forth, staring intently at the grass.
What Violina saw only confused her more. In one direction towered the familiar cliffs surrounding Eden, but looking through the canyon, the industrialized city of golden towers as she knew it was not there. Instead, a smaller city of stone and brick sat quietly.
"What do you see?" came an urgent inquiry from below.
"I honestly don't know, Lux." Violina looked westward. There lay the aptly named Western Sea, exactly where it ought to have been. Turning north to the forest of cottonwood and maple trees, a mass of steam billowed from an absolutely colossal fortress unlike anything she had ever seen. Even from such a distance she could make out the turrets and batteries of cannons lining its walls. Or had she seen it before? There was something familiar about it, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.
Lux called to her once more. "Just so you're aware, I'm being really super patient, and I'm very proud of myself!"
Violina stretched her leg down to a lower branch. "I'm coming back down!"
"Good, I've been pondering my guts out trying to make sense of this and have nothing!" Lux stopped pacing and added in a clarifying tone, "Figuratively speaking, of course, otherwise that would be really gross. Anyway, please tell me that you have some insight?"
Violina brushed a leaf from her shoulder. "There's a city through the canyon. I think it's Eden, but, well, come on. I've got some questioning to do."
Lux, obviously eager to do something besides standing around and speculating, agreed.
As they walked along the face of the mountainside, the girls heard angry muffled voices echoing from the mouth of a small canyon.
"What's going on?" Lux climbed the nearby cliffside for a better view. "Highway robbery?"
"Sounds like we're near Eden after all." Violina scaled the rocks to join her. "We should approach them from above."
As they drew closer, sure enough, two men were beating a third while a restless packhorse weighed down by a bulky load stood nearby. The three men appeared to be unaware of the girls' presence.
