pyrokinesis • z nation (discontinued)

△ chapter 1 △

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multiple volumes of yellow, orange, and red colored the sky as the giant star known as the sun traveled closer down to the horizon, as the moon would soon take its place in a matter of hours. tall, looming buildings casted long shadows, and they only grew longer as the sun continued its leisurely voyage.

phoenix was seated down at the edge of a small sized building - which used to be a convinience store - that she called her current home, with her legs dangling loosely and her hands resting on her lap. the teenager's face displayed a relaxed expression, and her slightly plumped and chapped lips were shaped in a ghost of a smile.

dusk was the female's favorite time of the twenty-four hour day, and she continuously came up to the rooftop of her 'home' every single night ever since the apocolypse began. she loved how the warm toned aesthetic blended together perfectly, and, just before nightfall, how they slowly retreated as if they were being chased away by darker shades such as purples and blues. simply watching the scene take place brought a sense of serenity and glee to phoenix, despite the loneliness she felt each day.

the city area of chicago, illinois that she resided in was completely void of humans and even the walking corpses people call zombies. how, you might ask, are there no zombies, especially in an urban setting?

well, bluntly put, phoenix killed all of them a while ago. burned them all to a crisp until all that was left was the odor of rotting and smoldering flesh. the stench wouldn't dwindle away until after a few weeks, but the solitary seventeen year old urged herself to deal with it, as she was the one who caused it in the first place. but, it was worth it in the end, for she had a whole city to herself.

of course, there was the occasional group of straying zombies, but they weren't much of a hassle to kill off. as for humans, phoenix hadn't witnessed a group in about two months. the band of people she last saw were just passing through, and as quickly as they came, they left at the same pace. the lone survivor was rather pleased of that, though. the less the merrier, in her opinion. she never did well with people, and the groups she actually did join always ended up being dead. either under her, or zombies. but mostly her.

so, she made the decision to try to avoid contact with any and all humans, for fear she might put her life or other innocent people's lives in danger.

phoenix's lips parted slightly as a soft sigh left her mouth; the unpleasant memories of the past two and a half years of the apocolypse now suddenly weasled their way into her thoughts.
her eyes squeezed shut momentarily, as if the action would automatically rid her brain of the infesting thoughts. when her amber optics reopened, the female reached into the pocket of her leather jacket and pulled out her pack of marlboro cigarettes. after opening up the miniscule sized box, she slipped out one of the few remaining tobacco filled sticks and returned the rest into her pocket.

with slightly narrowed eyes, her pointer finger on the hand that didn't grasp the cigarette produced a small flame at the tip. phoenix felt no painful burning sensation as she basically embodied fire and it didn't cause any harm to her.
she lit the cig with the flame, and, with the blink of an eye, she made the small source of light vanish. raising the "cancer stick" to her lips, phoenix inhaled the smoke into her system. the previously calm expression that her face wore was now wiped away and her features held no emotion.

exhale.

a small puff of grey vapor escaped from the girl's pink tinted lips, and her nerves were instantly calmed.
yes, she agreed that smoking was a bad habit, but she only did it whenever vexatious thoughts plagued her mind. it was frequent, but it wasn't daily.

in only a short matter of time, the cigarette was decreased to only a few centimeters, so phoenix breathed out a final cloud of smoke and rubbed the remaining cherry of the cig into the concrete of the roof edge.