U.S. Forces are pounding the Soiler positions with heavy artillery. Tanks and anti-aircraft weapons bombard the fortress wall but the Soiler defenses hold... and the Heat Matrix in the sky seems to grow stronger with every explosion.
A squadron of Air Force Fighter Jet Raptors come roaring below the plumes of fire that crisscross the sky, their wings already aglow with too much heat.
The lead pilot contacts command base, his voice dry and confident as he controls his Raptor F22, a 340 million dollar flying weapon, "Target in sight... temperature is still rising, I'm losing both ailerons..."
---
The LIMO stops close to the massive Soiler fortress wall. Livia emerges. The artillery blasts are deafening. Agent Torres can barely make out what Livia is saying, "They are not listening to us, they have increased the shelling. Every blast makes the Warming stronger."
"I hope you know what you're doing," says Agent Torres with concern etched deeply all across his already deeply furrowed face.
"Thanks Torres. I'll be alright. See you on the other side," and Livia starts climbing the fortress wall.
Torres watches for a beat, then orders the limo onward, it speeds away.
The Raptors fly overhead... Livia sees that their wings have caught fire. The pilots try to deliver their ordinance... the missiles explode harmlessly against the Soiler wall that reaches right up to the Matrix of scorching rays. The F22 wings disintegrate right above Livia, the planes crash into the wall.
---
General Fieldman and the President watch the planes crash on their surveillance monitors, the pilots have ejected, but as their parachutes open the chutes catch fire... the pilots fall to their deaths.
The President paces, "They've got us trapped like fish in a net. Not one of our planes can get through that ray field!"
General Fieldman suddenly states with unequivocal confidence, "We go Nuclear." As if it is the only solution.
The President disagrees, "You sound like a war-mongering idiot in a blockbuster adventure film. Think about it, what's the point? The number of nukes required to win this war would create a Nuclear Winter for the next 300 years... mankind would not survive. But those damn Soiler creatures would."
"Some one had to recommend it, I thought it would be better if I was the war mongering idiot in the record books. Then it's time, Mr. President, to relocate you to our safe OPS site... Norad.
"Underground... like the Soilers? No, General. I've read Bollingsworth's files. If you ask me everything he said is turning out to be true. He and Agent Torres are right, it's time to make a radical change in our plan. Get the G8 on the line."
---
Livia rises on a stream of bubbles... a Soilder appears... Livia delivers a blow... knocking him off the wall...
---
The wind searches uselessly for a soul in the Wind Desert. The Ruins are deserted. Everyone is gone.
---
Floe awakens in pain. Darkness smothers her. She can not move, heavy stone debris has trapped her. She can just make out Eric's deathly white face in a crack of light.
She tries reaching out toward Eric, trying to touch his body. But he is too far away.
A raspy, hissing, barely audible whisper, "Eric. Eric?"
Nothing. No sounds from Eric, nor from above Floe. She listens more carefully but the silence is quickly smothered by her own thoughts. Black thoughts. The dogs of anxiety running closer and closer from far away, their yelps and growls mixing with the dread deep inside her gut. When would she ever find peace? Not even now. Not even now when she should be dead.
Floe hears her own voice but does not recognize it, "I'm sorry."
She sobs. Tears welling in her eyes. Here in the darkness the tears feel like giant swells of salt water, and she decides not to wipe them away, let them roll down her face, let them drown her, let them flood her existence away. But the the tears do not even course down her cheek. Floe's tears drop upwards, defying gravity, she hears them splatter on the stone pinning her down. And that could only mean one thing.
Floe whispers,"Olphina?"
YOU ARE READING
Sky Swimmer
FantasyIt is the time of The Warming and UL Hamada has risen from Soilerdom to reclaim what is rightfully his, the upper world. Our world. But if one girl can muster her courage, overcome blistering panic attacks and accept a fate written in lore long ago...
