The Tower

Chapter 5, Rose's story

The sun was setting, and everything was settling in for the night. Stephen and Rose were riding on Salutem's back and everyone was well-rested, even Stephen, despite getting no sleep. There seemed to be a destroyed city in the distance. The sun went to sleep and the moon woke up. Rose and Stephen lay on Salutem's transparent blue back watching as the sky grew darker and darker shades of blue as time went on.

"Hey Stephen, look at the stars! They look like they're forming a shape! I don't know if you have this back at your home, but there are these things here called constellations which are like when stars form certain shapes. It's pretty cool actually. Hey, look at that, the stars are forming your face! Ain't that cool?"

"I don't see it. Also, we do have constellations back on Earth. They occur so often we even have names for them! One of them is called the Ursa Major and it looks like a giant saucepan in the sky."

"What??? You have giant saucepans back on Earth??? Our planet is so quiet and boring and then your planet is where all the crazy stuff happens!"

"Nonono not literally a giant saucepan, it's a constellation that LOOKS like a giant saucepan. To be honest, Earth is pretty boring. Our lives consist of school, work, then retirement."

"Oh. That's pretty sad."

"Yup"

At that, the conversation ended and so did the rest of the talking. The peace and quiet of the night kept them entertained whilst riding on Salutem's back.

Ana Rose was a kind, intelligent but mischievous girl who lived in a small town beside a city. Her invisible body is an unexplained phenomenon that simply occurred after the tragedy. Her town had no name, was very simple and uncivilized. The adults went outside the town to hunt for animals and the children gathered water. The nearby city offered housing but the city itself was mainly to resupply on things and usually served as a waypoint. Because of this, there were several things to be careful of like fire hazards, toxic chemicals, etc. Rose was a child when the tragedy happened. On Rose's time off, she would usually play with her friends in her spare time. For Betiko, it was a particularly beautiful day but Rose had to bring in the water but she wanted to play in the sun, so she came up with a plan to give the chores to someone else. While looking for someone to give the bucket of water, she stumbled across a large gang of people with all sorts of dangerous equipment. Torches, matches, some of them even seemed to have high-tech weapons like swords that could bend without breaking and bullets that blew upon impact.

Rose bolted home to find her mother passed out on the couch and her father's hunting hadn't finished yet, so she woke her mother up and told her about the situation. Her mother knew exactly what this meant. She got Rose outside and told her to run with her as far as possible. Rose realized the whole town was empty except her and her mother. Among the crowd, she saw her three best friends. She was so surprised she even stopped moving for a moment until her mother grabbed her by the arm. While running away she was just so in shock and thinking about what she saw. "Did they lie? Were they forced to be there? Why are they in that crowd???" Is what she thought at the time.

Later on, she finally saw her father, who seemed completely oblivious to the situation, and wondering what his daughter and wife were doing in the wilderness. Once they caught up to him, Rose's mother explained the situation to him and he understood. Now, as a family, they ran for Last Light, but just as the city was coming into view, her dad realized they were being tailed by two people of the group for who knows how long. One of them had an advanced weapon that had shot dangerous chemicals like mercury into the veins leading to the brain or heart and the other holding a sword that could stretch and bend at his command. The guy with the gun aimed for Rose but her mother grabbed her out of the way and tackled the man, who then loaded another shot and shot it in her mouth. Rose's mother didn't have much time left nor did she have any other choice so she spat all the Mercury that she could out of her mouth and into the man's mouth which took the man down along with her.

At the same time this was going on, the other attacker used his blade like a whip and hit Rose's father on the back of the head. Just as the attacker thought he was done for, he sprang back to his feet despite his massive pain in the head and hit the attacker with a punch that sent him to the ground. He jumped on the attacker and started beating him with his bare hands, and then the attacker pushed her father off of him and jumped straight at Rose, knocking her down and nearly even killing her with the weapon, however, just as her life flashed before her eyes, her father grasped the tip of the sword very strongly and yanked him back to focus on him. Her father tackled the man and started beating him senseless again. But just as her father was about to deliver the final blow, the man extended his sword and bent it around him and Rose's father, and with a slight, but weak smirk, beheaded them both.

Rose was speechless, breathless, upset, confused. She didn't know how to handle her emotions and just started bawling her eyes out when a quick flash and a sudden loud explosion startled her. In the distance, she saw the impact and the noise of the explosion. It was so loud that if she stood any closer, she would've had permanent ear damage. It was hard to see as well, but she also saw her town up in flames. There was no way people could've survived, but somehow several people came out alive, even if they had permanent damage. After this, Rose thought deeply about her parents' great sacrifice. She didn't think she'd see any action so moving ever again and all she felt for her parents was great love and respect. Then she started walking towards Last Light. Her last light. That is Rose's story.

Salutem's back felt very soft and it was relaxing to watch the galaxy blue night sky on it.

"Oh hey, we're almost here Stephen! Now, I've got a lot of friends and a lot of enemies there, so I'd recommend laying low or stay behind me."

"I'm the reincarnation of thousands of souls lost to war. I think you'll be safe even without Rose."

"No! We've both been here for a long time, so let's just say we're equally skilled, got it?"

"Fine."

There it was. The big city. Rose wasn't exaggerating when she said it was big. The first time she entered here she was alone, terrified, empty. Now, her last time entering here, she'll be entering with a group, confident and filled. She was ready for the worst to come.

END OF CHAPTER 5, ROSE'S STORY