The Children: The Beginning of Our Story

Chapter 23 Ditoa - Hiking, old man and no llama on leash

"So, he burnt part of your face off huh?" Acrem asked with a touch of sarcasm as the three oddballs sat in the white slush as new snow fell softly over the terrain, waiting for the others to gather information. She rested her head against the thick wall gazing towards the sky, it was a different colour to the sky on Rust. 3.5's colouring yet somewhat dull, this planet was so distant. It had so much beauty, yet in the bottom of her gut lay an uneasy feeling, she couldn't quite describe it.

"Yeah... To be fair I-" The duo's short and sweet conversation was cut off by a piercing ring that echoed off the cement walls and through the atmosphere. Ana clasped her hands over her ears, hoping for the unholy noise to end. Ditoa jumped to her feet, fists at the ready as if it was an automatic reaction. Small lights which were once a dull warm white now flashed red, this was no overly loud ringtone, this was an alarm.

"It's an alarm, they must've triggered the alarm. Quickly get behind something, they may send guards to sweep the premises." Ditoa called to the others.

Before they could even dash for a tree Themis, Bryne and the loud small one burst from the wall. Not stopping to talk, Themis waved for them to follow her, and so they did.

Trekking through the now knee-high snow, which seemed to grow higher the longer they were here, they managed to make their way uphill as the shadows stretched over the glistening white flakes. Time seemed to move slowly as they made much distance between the mines and their own party, Ditoa not only seemed to observe the environment but the groups' off-putting emotions as well. Both Themis and Bryne shared the same look of horror, though Bryne looked like he had experienced this too many times before, whatever it was it was most definitely not good. The annoying small one, who the Earthan thought she caught Themis calling Que did not seem the same, the girl's eyes were a mix of emotions, she looked intrigued yet confused. Her eyes, they were, they were white. This angered youngster was an Albino, now she understood the girl's outbursts of emotions, their race was somewhat known for their link to feelings and the colours of the mind.

Ditoa's eyes scanned her escapee friends, nothing out of the ordinary apart from goosebumps and dark eyes. It had been a long day it made sense for them to be wary, though it was really more like a long couple of days, and at that moment it daunted on her.

She didn't know the time, nor the day of the week, she had no idea how long she'd been on this planet. The memory's that were subconsciously washed over started to resurface, her home, her real home. The trees here reminded her of the tree's there, their trunks stretched towards the stars and their branches covered them from any unknown forces of the universe. But it wasn't other planets they should've looked out for; it was those greedy and malicious people who were hiding amongst their own. Oh, how it angered her to remember that, why could she never recall any of the good moments, the ones filled with laughter and joy.

Everything seemed to be happening so fast, her life was flying past her as she ran alongside it in some sort of effort to keep up. The past week or so was nothing but bad fortunes, she lost whatever she called home and then she hurt someone she never meant to. Why would she stray into the desert, why would she jump on that zapnarging bus, why would she put her life into the hands of these odd strangers she had only recently encountered less than 24 hours ago.

Why is she now hiking up a mountain towards who knows what in freezing cold snow? What was she doing?

But the Earthan girl kept going, she may not trust these people entirely, but they're all she's got right now and that sure is better than nothing. And with that her internal conflict was once again subjected to the back of her mind, sanctioning her to really take in where they seemed to be in terms of location.