The Resistance

"Go!"

My mother had tears streaming down her cheeks like rivers, the brightness in her eyes I was so familiar with lost in mere memory, a dull faded past. Her dark hand was outstretched to me - her fingers tensed into hook like claws as beads of transparent sweat glistened in the glow of the fire. Her curved lips were pulled down at the corners into a snarl that was threatening but empty and weak as her voice broke off into spluttered coughs, racking her delicate body. I winced at the taste of ash settling on my tongue.

I had continued shouting, but I don't know why. Sometimes fear does that - just grabs hold of you, and digs into your skin with such force that it draws blood and pressures you to plead for it to let go in some internal battle while on the outside your hopeless; a writhing mess calling for your mother over and over again.

"Get out of here!" She'd demanded, and I took two steps backwards - almost falling over the ragged ground that was littered with rubble and broken pieces of wood.

The pain choked my throat, suffocating smoke blistering my eyes, stinging my flesh as the severe heat prickled the back of my exposed neck. My head was forced around to stare away from the pain and instead focus on moving forward. I wasn't running away, I assured myself, not deserting her. Moving forward.

"I love you, mum." I told her before I lost her in the wreck, pieces of the ceiling falling down and landing on the ground with loud echoes as the flames continued to roar all around me, trapping me like the iron bars of a cage.

I spun on my heel rapidly, fear speeding my heartbeat quickly to a fierce rhythm as a small pin of lighted wood floated down in front of my stained face. I sprinted out of the door with all the strength I could muster, trying to tame my fracturing heart as it pierced my chest with throbbing pain.

Where were the others?

I looked around weakly, and abruptly my eyes caught the sight of alien figures walking calmly and precisely through the village, a cloud of peace in a storm but with a threatening demeanor. Ducking down, I watched the procession move forward through the scene with a righteous air about them as I tried to control my breathing, wiping my streaming nose hurriedly.

There was a single man standing at the front, but I was unable to distinguish what creature he had evolved from because the fur on his body had been ripped off and any sign of identifying features had been... removed. His complexion was pale as he turned to face the audience, his skin set alight with the light of the fire as his arms rose higher into the air; turning his head as he surveyed the audience.

"With fire they will become pure. Soon they will know the real meaning of perfection." His voice rang out, forcing the rest of the world to a deafening silence as his outstretched arms sliced through the dense atmosphere in front of him, his face looking over the large group of people with such a self confidence that I assumed they were under his control - slaves to a master.

Who were they?

I stood up and turned away from them, running past the ignited corpses that melted in the rising temperatures, trying to ignore their glassy eyes that pleaded for salvation as fear rose inside me till I almost choked. Blisters and burns were clear on those who weren't swallowed whole by the fire and they whimpered like lost souls, innocent children. I cried shamelessly as I tried to escape, running into the sweltering heat of the never ending desert that lay outside my home.

 And now I was alone.

My feet were weak and tired, fatigue wearing my body down quickly as I trolled on through the landscape with the small blaze of hate flickering inside my empty soul. I looked down at my shoes but I had to avert my gaze when the imprint of black soot had marked the material; evidence that the fire had been real.

I spat on the dry earth as the two hot suns lit the vast horizon in their burning flames; my saliva stained with a bright crimson. I wiped my tongue on the back of my sleeve desperately trying to scrape off the taste of my own blood as bitter tears rolled down my face.

My feet were dragging through the sand now, long marks of a bare wake trailing behind me: the feeling of sharp sand grains embedding themselves deep into my heel roaring through my body. I turned my head around to see the damage done to my village, my home. Great clouds of dark smoke rose off the buildings in contorted fingers as they scratched and clawed the scarred sky. Licks of fire danced around the huts, their brightness entwined with the shadows that lay around their dominance.

 I fell to the floor a while after, my body limp as I sank into the sand; treasuring the comforting embrace of rest as I closed my eyes and let myself be taken by the darkness for the night as I pushed away the troubles that plagued me.

Rays of the two bright spheres pierced the clear sky and shone down on me, weaving in and out of my resting body energetically as a sweltering breeze blew over the landscape.

I flickered my eyes open and winced as my sight readjusted to the light, and I rolled over onto my back as a loud groan escaped my torn and split lips. I closed my eyes again but the feeling of sand rolling down my shirt tickled my spine and forced my body to sit upright; my rough hands scratching the back of my neck as the memories of the day before flooded me cruelly - the shadows plunging my mind into a dark abyss with their suffocating grip.

I shook my head, and instead stood up and took a determined step forward as I ignored the sharp burst of pain that had erupted up my leg when I did so. I turned my thoughts away from my life and instead thought of the blandest things I could to steady myself, looking at the area around me for an escape.

The sand looked like a dull khaki blanket had been thrown down onto a solid surface, rising and falling in irregular peaks, flowing over the never ending oblivion that contrasted with the empty sky that looked down over it all, a higher power watching down onto the happenings of lesser creatures.

The air smelt hot, the temperature rising into my nostrils like steam as my eyes were forced to water with the intensity of it all. I could imagine what my appearance must be: a weary traveller, lost in life and searching for paradise. Red rimmed eyes, tear streaked and grimy face masked in layers of ash and soot.

With a deep breath I kicked up a patch of arid sand and pushed my hands firmly into my pockets as I tilted my head to the side, letting my dark hair cascade over my lean shoulders as I did so. My stomach gurgled like a bubbling brook and I rolled my eyes with an empty smile that gently tugged at my lips.

"Bloody hell." I muttered aloud, letting the sounds form in my mouth to remind myself of the words and how they tasted as the inevitable loneliness crawled over me; the thoughts of my family's dying screams echoing loudly at the back of my mind.

 I needed a plan, but that would take time. Scrap time, it would need resources - at least something to trade with but I had nothing.

Thank god I was a Feline - a Canine couldn't have survived a day out here.

I'd never thought about it, but it was all weird - wasn't it? In the large game that was the universe that a tiny speck of rock could have so many varied creatures living on its surface - ranging from Felines and Aves to Canines and Catrols - and even though they had evolved from four very different species they were all interlinked and were unable to thrive without the other.

A one in a million chance.

Yet the hurt that was so bitter inside of me for my family's deaths was deeper than the whole of space put together. 

I would avenge them, whatever it took.

But first I needed a plan, and some breakfast.