From Shattered Darkness

Chapter 2

Thana shot up in her bed, eyes wide and breathing hard. Those last words of the dream haunted her every night, and she awoke startled at dawn every morning. Her recurring dream hadn't left her alone for a month now, and it worried her. How was she supposed to bring her own kind to extinction. Getting out of bed, she pulled on her old dark blue hoodie, a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and her old black converse. Her choppy, shoulder length, black hair was in no need of any sort of maintenance. The indoor stairs leading up to her apartment had been blocked off so the outdoor emergency stairs were the only way out.

The sky was clouded with thick, grey, impenetrable smoke, and the distant sounds of sirens blared while red lights flashed in all directions. The dust-filled wind that whipped through Thana's hair blew west, toward one of the few intact buildings left in the city that had been a safe refuge for people who'd lost their homes in the last bombing. However, one could honestly ask if the world in fact, was safe at all. The land was covered in cinder block and glass debris from buildings that once stood tall in the heart of New York City. Everything that meant something to her was gone. Her parents were dead, her friends were dead, and her home was destroyed. The world was once a peaceful place as she remembered from her early childhood but over the years, chaos, war, and destruction broke out and her world was reduced to piles of rubble.

World War Three had been dragging on for three years now and most of the world's big cities had been flattened to the ground. Thana was able to persuade the other representatives to wait until the war was over when the nations would be recovering and the population greatly diminished. She had stalled for a month but how long would it last? She needed to find a way around this unthinkable task before her time ran out.

"Humans aren't perfect and neither are we. You have to remember that I'm one of them," Thana had argued. The team met just days after Thana arrived to make plans for their mission.

"So you participated in Mars's destruction and all of the trash that's been floating in space for more than a century?" Blaise crossed her arms.

"Oh, what about the seventh mass extinction, and the horrible air quality?" That was the first time Thana had heard Beval speak and it was against her. He stared at her angrily, shaking his head in disappointment. He turned around, back into the shadow of the towering pillars.

"No, not everyone is responsible for those accidents." Thana knew the word "accidents" was stretching the truth a bit, but she had no good argument. It made her sick to think about killing people because they didn't care for Earth.

"Those 'accidents' were pretty catastrophic," Blaise continued accusingly. Sparks crackled in the space arounder. "If you weren't immortal, I'd probably get rid of you too!"

"Blaise!" Hali harshly slapped Blaise arm. "Thana, we understand that you've grown up with humans and have been one, but this can't go on much longer. Who knows what will happen next."

Thana had been taken aback by Blaise's words. She knew they were right though. Earth couldn't sustain the human population for much longer and would benefit from a few hundred thousand years to recover. "At least wait until the war is over." Thana sighed in defeat. "The population had been greatly decreased by all of the bombings and while their rebuilding, they will be most vulnerable." She waited in the deafening silence that had fallen over the group for an answer.

After a long pause, Hali replied. "Alright, we'll wait."

Thana wished she never woke up on that cloud of smoke. She wished her family was with her, in their old apartment, before the war.

As the sun rose, turning the sky a light dusty red, Thana jumped down onto the outdoor stairway on the side of the building. The metal steps clanged when her shoes hit them and the reddish brown rust covered the rail. It wasn't exactly safe to stand on. Eroded joints threatened to snap under any amount of weight and broken pieces of what used to be a ladder laid scattered across the ground below.

Down on the street, Thana kicked a small rock across the pavement. Keeping her head down, she headed north to an abandoned food market where those who still dared to stay behind, came for food and water. The windows were cracked and shattered glass lay on the ground. It was dark, save for the lights in the freezer which someone had hooked up to a generator. On a dislodged shelf, Thana picked up some dried apple bags and a box of crackers. It wasn't much, but enough for a few days if she spread it out right. Food around here was in low supply and people were starting fights over what was left. Thana had raided the other rooms in her apartment building once everyone left and made a stash of canned and dried food in her room.

Somehow, she'd been able to pay rent for years with the money her grandmother and parents left her. Although her family was wealthy, they hadn't owned large houses or expensive vehicles. If you had just met them, they would have come off as average, middle class citizens. Thana always wondered why her grandmother had left her so much, but she was thankful for it.

She left the store and continued down the street, passing the remains of buildings. The air smelled like rain, humid and sticky. Nothing good ever came with it. It had rained just before Thana lost her family, and when six countries declared war on one another which sparked World War Three. Thana turned around and picked up her pace. It was all too clear what this storm would bring. Death.