HROT 3: End of All Things

Chapter 5: Hot on the Trail

The outline of the city was anything but a welcome sight for Shannon as she and the others trudged toward Cömic. The winds had picked up severely. She felt as if she were in a dust storm. She had fashioned a blue mask similar to Serh's white one to protect her nose and mouth from the debris, but she had nothing to keep the particles out of her eyes. It was like being in a desert with a whirling storm threatening them every second. Intermittently, a stray piece of metal or sometimes even a car would blow by and nearly take them out. When the winds got that severe, they had to dig their weapons into the ground and hold on for dear life, lest they be blown away and impaled on some sharp object.

There's no place like home, Shannon thought to herself sarcastically. She dodged a microwave that nearly broke her nose and struggled along with Serh to keep up with Ascensdion, who was stubbornly pushing forward without relenting to nature's fury. "Slow down, old friend!" Serh cried out. "Wait for us! Not all of us are as nimble as you!"

Shannon hacked and coughed as the wind blew her mask down and dust filled her lungs. She stumbled to her knees, and Serh bent to help her. "This is no time to slow down!" the ancient sorcerer warned. "We'll be dead before we ever reach the Architect if we don't get out of this storm!"

Shannon grimaced as she put her mask back on. She was desperately hopeful that she had been right about the Architect being here. If she was wrong, all of this risking their lives would be for nothing. On top of that, they wouldn't be able to leave unless another tear could be harnessed, and she was uncomfortable enough being back on HROT to not stay any longer than she had to.

That brought her to a series of questions: What would she do once the Architect was found and destroyed? What would her purpose be? Would she continue to travel with Serh and Ascensdion once their mission was complete? Where would they go after this? All of the uncertainty was making her head hurt. She preferred not to think about what life would look like once her mission was complete. She had been a hollow shell when Serh and Ascensdion had found her, and only the prospect of saving the universe had brought her back from the brink. Now, with the end potentially in sight, she felt afraid--afraid of success, and afraid of failure; she wasn't sure which outcome was scarier.

She wondered if Ascensdion's keen nose could smell her fear. She wondered if her companions sensed her wariness or questioned her loyalty. They had been there for her when they didn't have to, and she felt compelled to do the same for them, even if it meant facing her worst fear--having nothing to do, in a world without Scott Foreman.

A world without Scott Foreman, the man who had been her rock in the hardest times and had always seemed capable of hurting her far more than anyone else ever could, and yet she loved him fiercely all the same. That was a reality she had been trying to suppress all this time. She was still avoiding the truth, just as she had been doing since she had walked out on Kyle and the others after Scott's death. Even though she knew with certainty that he was gone forever, a part of her still denied it. After all, he did not actually seem to die, only vanish into thin air. Perhaps there was some ethereal plane where he was trapped, waiting for someone to return him to the world he belonged to. She wondered if even Serh's powerful sorceries could make his rescue a reality.

But she knew deep down that Scott could not be rescued, nor could Jamie. They were not just gone. They were dead. Taken permanently from the universe, never to be returned again. Pore had seen to that. And it was so unfair that she was forced to stretch on, seemingly endlessly, without them. She prayed she would find the Architect and slay it, to make sense of why she was still here when they weren't. It sure seemed like the universe was trying to stop her, though.

That was when another concern resurfaced in her mind. That strange creature Serh and Ascensdion had fought in the castle. Who was it? She hadn't gotten a look at it herself, but the way they described it was unusual and frightening. She wondered if it was following them. For all she knew, it could be lurking just behind them, shrouded by the dust storm, waiting for the perfect moment to cut one of them down.