Sudden Departure

Chapter Thirty

I stumbled from the gap in the air and landed on a pile of ash. The dust puffed up around my feet and floated in clouds above the ground.

The sky was an ugly gray color, and so was everything else. Charred remains of trees and plants were shriveled close to the ground. They looked like they might blow away at any moment.

In the middle of the giant field of gray a little sign was pegged into the ash. It read "Battlefield Remembrance; Siege #452k; Victory: Rebels; Casualties: minimal"

I shuddered and slowly turned my head to Shane. "Sh-Shane, what... Where is this?"

He shrugged. "Kind of an in-between plain. There are lots of gaps in the immortal spaces. This just happens to be one that was a forest." He stopped and took a breath. "It was amazing. It had purple leaves. And they all looked like feathers. The light was a soft blue color. But everything just looked red when we fought."

His face had contorted from a blank stare to a deep set scowl.

"The raid went on for days, but it felt like years. I was constantly watching one of my own get pummeled or killed. I even watched the Rebels starve. They didn't have access to Paradise rations.

"But I think the worst part was when the huge air-platforms dropped the bombs. Everyone was red. Everything was red. The purple leaves just burst and splattered this horrible, burning goo onto us."

Shane's shoulders started to quake and his closed eyelids fluttered. I laid my hand on his arm, it did little to comfort him.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me anymore."

He shook his head. Quickly, he grabbed my wrist and spun to face me.

"But I do, I have to. You have no idea how much it hurts to see all of these people get hurt. I'm so sick of all of this fighting."

He walked forward and I stumbled after him. A fog of gray dust followed our path. We walked for forty five minutes in pure silence.

The ground was uneven and rugged beneath our feet and you could quickly hear our breath becoming more labored. You could also hear our hearts beating. Everything around us was so silent and dead it was startling to have something so alive there.

Finally, we approached a hulk of metal. It looked like it was supposed to be a little bunker, but now it was so contorted that it was unrecognizable.

I heard Shane's breath hitch.

He pushed himself up and began to climb, so I followed suit.

We slowly scaled the warped metal and stood on top of it.

Normally, in a situation like this, you would imagine your hair romantically swaying behind you in a breeze. A force of victory and accomplishment whizzing through your veins. But not there, not then.

In that place you only had a heavy rock sitting in your stomach, and another one lodged in your throat. Despair would slowly start to trickle into you. Then, crash with such a force you almost fall over.

From our height, the battlefield looked a hundred times more disgustingly obliterated. If that were even possible. The forest that was formerly, apparently, a dazzling violet color was now crusty and a charcoal color. The remaining limbs of trees were mangled and appeared to be clawing away from the ground. Like the arms of the dead looking for flesh to wear.

Gargantuan craters were riddled in the ground. The circumference of the holes were still singed and smoking. All around you could see puddles of sizzling scarlet sludge. It was either that or blood.

A tear crawled from my eye and down my face. When I looked at Shane, a hoard of them were racing down his cheeks.

When he finally spoke his voice was soft and broken. "Shailene, I- I. I hate all of this. I've been here, in this fight, almost as long as Death has. All of this wasn't meant to happen. We've lost so many and so much.

"And for what? The measly lives of mortals? They'll all end up in our place one day. After we've all been slaughtered they'll replace us. Do the same thing, make the same mistakes."

He halted abruptly and stared into the ruin.

I dragged my hand across my face. "Shane, what happens when you die in immortal life?"

He stopped breathing hung his head low.

"I don't really know. All I know is that you get one shot at Paradise. Either you're not a Sudden Departure and you get pampered for eternity or you come and be a Guardian. If you do something to infuriate the Dignitaries and Officials or you're killed in a battle you go to another place. You get tortured. In ways that are so painful it's unimaginable... So many people I came to love here ended up in the other place..."

I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed as hard as I could.

I shushed him gently and rocked from side to side. "It's okay, Shane. You have me, now. It'll all end soon, I can feel it. I know it."

"But you really don't. You have no idea."