Broken Spirit

Chapter One:Green

Green. Something I've never seen in my eighteen years of living. My mother was the one to tell me about it. She said it was a beautiful color, that the world used to be covered in it, and that the water was a clear blue, not a light gray. That you could actually drink out of it, and not have to boil the hell out of it. Even after that, you still risk getting diseases.

My mom was there when the world went to shit, a war was the thing to destroy it. Everyone wanting to bomb everyone. My mom said it was because of politics and hate, but most say it was because we had idiots running things. Either way, the nuclear bombs were set off everywhere, and everything died. Only a few people survived.

My mom was pregnant with me and my brother when the nukes were set off. She was only 23 at the time, going through her normal routine until she turned on the news and saw what was happening. She tried to get a hold of my father, but the lines were dead, and soon everything went dead. The lights, the water, the internet. My mom waited for days in the cellar, waiting for my father. But he never came, and she ended up giving birth to us in that cellar, alone.

She ended up raising us alone too. Searching for any type of food, but soon the animals and plants started to die from the radiation, and the water that was once clear and beautiful turned into a dark dangerous gray, just like the world. So she was left to scavenge, finding anything that could stabilize us.

A few years later people that survived started forming groups, only based off of religion. They started off as a safe place, a sanctuary. They had food and clean water and kept people safe from the outside world, but people wanted power, and that's when the fear struck in. Divines started to take power, capturing young women and taking away their freedom, making religion the center of their world. Young men were taken away as well and made watch as the Viles killed their parents in front of them, to give them the will to fight.

People went into hiding, but most were found and killed, and the Viles rose in power. My mother took us into the mountains, to keep us hidden. She taught us to scavenge and clean river water, my brother and I quickly learned how to hunt pigeons. We lived in peace for quite some time, until my mother got sick.

Medicine was hard to find, even harder than bottle water. But my brother and I manage to scavenge enough to keep her alive. But moving got harder, we'd have to plan days in advance to leave whenever the Viles sent out search parties. As time went on, medicine was harder to find, and she got worse.

She died only a few months later, the sickness finally killing her. We couldn't give her a proper burial, deciding she rather have us live then digging her a grave. So we ran until we couldn't see the little hut we built were my dead mother lay. That's the moment I realized that the world was gonna kill us, no matter how hard you tried to stay alive.

"Erin!" I heard my name being yelled. I rolled my eyes as I slightly stood up from where I was sitting trying to sew my brother's jacket back together. As I exited the little hut that me and my brother called home I pat Lilly's head where she laid on the ground her head on her paws. I blinked letting my eyes adjust to the bright sun. When my eyes finally adjusted I saw my brother's dark red locks bouncing on top of his head, and his bright blues eyes glimmered running towards me with a pigeon in one hand and his bow in the other.

"I caught a pigeon" he declared like it was his first successful hunt. I looked down towards the bird maybe big enough for us to eat for two nights if we spared some.

"I can see you did" I stated mirroring his smile. The one thing Dylan did was smile, and you couldn't help but smile back. He had inherited it from our mother. I was cursed to always frown, even if I was happy, I'd look like I'm frowning.

"We'll be able to eat tonight, and maybe even tomorrow," he said squeezing past me into our little hut. I took one more look at the sky, the gray sky it slowly becoming darker before turning around and ducking back into our hut.

Dylan was already plucking the feathers from the pigeon and stuffing them into a bag, ready to use them as stuffing. I started getting things ready to start a fire bringing some wood over to the ditch we dug to build a fire.

"You should have come back sooner," I told him putting the wood into the right position as he kept plucking away.

"I was trying to get a bird," he said, not bothering looking at me. I could feel my shoulders tensing up as I took tiny twigs and broke them up.

"It's getting dark, you could have gotten lost out there" I added before placing the twigs underneath the logs. I could feel Dylan roll his eyes at me from where I kneeled.

"I wouldn't have gotten lost out there Erin," he said plucking the last feathers and putting them in the black pouch. I stood up grabbing the lighter from my bag that sat at the end of the blankets I called a bed.

"Still, we made a deal. You can go hunting until the sky becomes gray, that was the deal" I stated putting the lighter close to the twigs, lighting them. I softly blew on coals letting the fire grow bigger until I heard crackling from the fire.

"Erin, I'm back I'm fine. I didn't even see Vile trucks" Dylan declared as if not seeing a Vile truck would get him out of the lecture I was about to give him. Dylan brought over the now plucked pigeon stuck a stick in it and set it over the fire.

"If you come back one more time when the sky gray, I will tie you down and hide your bow" I threatened as Dylan kneeled down to throw some more twigs into the fire.

"Erin, I never knew that you were into the kinky stuff" Dylan replied with a laugh. I frowned as I grabbed Dylan by the shoulders and pulled him up. Dylan looked at me with a slight smile.

"I'm serious Dylan, I went out today past the south river and saw Vile trucks," I said making sure Dylan heard every word. Dylan's smile faded after hearing that, he slowly nodded his head.

"I won't do it again, I promise," he said pulling my hands off of his shoulders and rapping his arms around my waist hugging me. I sighed leaning into him my head resting on his chest.

"We'll have to leave tomorrow, there getting too close" I whispered, feeling Dylan tense at my words. He hated moving, he hated leaving everything we've worked so hard for. He hated moving farther away from mom.

"I'll pack the bags tonight" he whispered before kissing the top of my head and pulling away. He walked over to where we had our backpacks and started to fold up extra food and blankets. I sat down on the dirt ground placing my head in my hands. I started to think of green, and what it could look like, but my mind kept going back to my mom.