Dogfights

Dogfights - Home (Chapter 1)

The sound of burning woke the dying man from his sleep. Fire and ash circled him and blinded him, making him choke. Above the sky shone bright red, heralding the hellfire that was now burning throughout the city. Screams of the unfortunate could be heard in the distance as flesh was consumed. For a moment the dying man considered that he was in hell, but if this was hell then hell was only a extension of the living world, for the high towers and blinking lights of the city were known to him.

The dying man began blinking rapidly as buildings fell all around him, groaning and bellowing as they receded back into the concrete below. He began to search his memories as he tried to find sanity. Images passed rapidly in his mind's eye. He remembered a man, clothed in black. He remembered death of flesh and soul. He remembered an assassin. Something had gone terribly wrong, some sort of betrayal, and in that instant he recalled what had transpired. Everything was clear now.

Familiar pain coursed through the dying man. He looked down upon his hands despite the pleading of his subconscious not to. What he saw was a horror too much to comprehend. Wild panic flared up inside of him and his eyes rolled back as he quietly fell back into the darkness. The fire continued its relentless, destructive march, unfazed by the coming and goings of what transpired atop these concrete streets.

An ambulance rolled into view, surrounded by massive black vehicles covered in plate. Men burst out of these vehicles and began to scream to one another through gas masks. One of them yelled out and pointed down the street to where the dying man lay. A pair of the masked men ran to the aid of the fallen.

They assessed the body and checked the pulse. Immediately they noticed the missing right arm. It had been separated by a clean incision, too clean, and even underneath all the smog the masked men noticed that there was something strange about the man's flesh, as if it were painted silver. The masked men looked to one another in silent confusion, but before either could speak a low, guttural sound vibrated inside the building behind them. Without another moment's hesitation they lifted the body and carried it up the street and into the ambulance, which drove away as paramedics dressed in white saw to the patient.

Flames twisted and turned as the masked men fought tirelessly into the night. The city that surrounded them watched with passing interest, almost paternal in its patience. In the back of the masked men's minds they knew they were being watched, but by what and who, they did not know. The city laughed at their lack of understanding and then crawled back into the foreground with tepid steps of impunity which echoed across and into the night's sky.

***

Standing defiantly against the outstretch of steel buildings and spiral towers was a hill, a reflection of nature's own. Grass stretched across, sprinting forward until it ran into the cold world that surrounded it, made up of its metals and greed. The sun above was now retreating behind the city skyline, shirking away from all the hatred below it, the culmination of humanity's pain and rage. The sky was painted orange and the clouds bloomed against a border of bleak gray that was coming ever closer as twilight approached.

Kane Lauro drove up the green hill now. His unmarked car rattled and sputtered as the old machinery inside pushed itself to limits far beyond its capacity. It was a rare thing for a resident to be outside their home, their temple of safety, but essentials had been needed and Kane had no choice but to venture out. He wished nothing more than to be back in the confines of his own space.

The wind blew at a steady pace, carrying the leaves of the few trees that dotted the landscape, signifying the beginning of fall and all its quiet wonders. It was rare to see such green, such life, as the great and terrible machine that was expansion devoured all.