Desolate

Romance and bloodthirsty aliens meld together in a timeless story of infatuation, new love, and the struggle to live in a world that's already dead.

It began as an invasion. They came to Earth, attacked the capitals. Man fought back, able to push the aliens back with their military. It became a war between two worlds. The human race fought for its survival. The invaders brought out their greatest weapon: nuclear bombs. They dropped these onto major cities, towns, and capitals all around the globe, killing everyone.

            Man fell to its knees in submission. The aliens have claimed Earth as their own. Only one person has survived the holocaust…

 

            She jumped as the bright green blast was fired straight for her. Aya cried out, but silenced as she caught herself on the ground. Quickly, she scurried for cover under a charred, half-melted mass of metal. Unbeknownst to the girl, this mass of metal was known as a car to the world that had existed before her. Her surroundings were of a huge city destroyed in the aftermath of the invasion. Of course, sixteen-year-old Aya knew nothing of this. She had grown up in a world that was almost all her own. Well, save for the aliens who occasionally wandered her way.

            As Aya hid under the car, she wondered if it wasn’t her imagination. There seemed to be more and more aliens popping up around the city eager for a chance to kill her. It was eerily silent, she noted. Aya was quiet, listening.

            CRASH!

            A blast blew the car apart. Aya pressed herself against the ground. Her heart raced in anticipation. The dust from the blast created a hazy atmosphere, which only added to the gray of the dead city around her. There was a series of low, sharp clicks. Aya swallowed. The clicks grew louder and louder. Aya scrunched under the rubble and forced herself to breathe slowly. In and out. That was the trick. In and out. The sounds grew louder and louder until they were right above her. She caught her breath and froze. The first one scuttled out in front of her first on its spindly spider legs. It swung its humanoid torso round and round. Its three narrow eyes blinked. Two were in the normal place one would imagine them on a human face. The third was right on the forehead above the other two. Its tail was raised high in the air, ready to strike at any sight of Aya.

            It tasted the air with its long, black tongue. Aya spied its teeth and fought back a chill that threatened to creep up her spine. Those teeth were literally fangs, sharp and deadly. The teeth were nothing to worry about. She warily eyed the stinger on the end of the alien’s scorpion-like tail. Green poison glittered. Aliens had killed animals before with that stinger. It killed slowly. It was torture, every second painful. A swift death by those teeth was preferable.

            A second one appeared from the darkness, what light there was glinting off of its blue-green leathery skin. It glanced at the first one and spoke with a pattern of clicks and tiny screams. The first one nodded and glanced around the setting. All it saw was strange rubble with a vision of only black and white. Aya watched, transfixed as always by their strange and dangerous beauty. Her face was dirty enough that they couldn’t see her. It was easy to hide. A bit of dirt flew her nose. She seized, breathing softly, and then released a huge sneeze. Her body shook in dread. The first alien clicked its blast gun with a hand and directed it at Aya.

            Aya leaped out of the way before the blast could sear her. The second alien dashed for her with inhuman speed. Aya turned around, her hand going to her pocket, and whipped out a lighter. She flipped it open and produced a flame. The alien braked and backtracked slowly as she advanced on it. Aya leapt at the creature and grazed its skin. All of a sudden it burst into flames. It let out a piercing shriek that rang through the silence. Aya licked her lips. The second alien died instantly, its body withering to the ground into a thick gray dust. Alerted by its companion’s death cry, the first alien sped to where it heard the shriek. It aimed its gun for her, but paused at seeing the fire in its line of vision. Before it could attack her, Aya had lit a stray piece of rubble and threw it at the creature.

            A smell of sweet death hung around the area. Aya watched the alien burn to its death. She panted from the dread the aliens’ appearances had caused her. She was never afraid. She had grown up around the creatures and had seen their weaknesses. Nothing would ever surprise her.

 

            Aya found herself in front of the city’s only lake, which was also the purest within miles. She bent down to the side. She had been out about an hour after killing the aliens to search for food. Aya had scrounged up a few bags of chips, crackers, and canned fruit. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to get her by. Aya bent over the shore of the lake and looked down at her reflection. Pale blonde hair that was dirty hung about her cheeks in matted clumps. Her face was Asian, though she didn’t know it. She had never seen any other people her age or any other age. Her bright green eyes were narrowed as she squinted down to look at herself.

            Aya cupped the cool water in her hands and poured it into her mouth. She swallowed, grateful for the wetness on her throat. Sighing, she bent down for another drink and paused. Her mouth opened in an “O” shape. The reflection of someone was staring at her. Not someone. Someone who looked like her. She jerked up immediately, having been afraid that he would disappear. He didn’t. The boy merely smiled over at her. Her hands curled into fists and she yelled, “Who are you?” Her eyes narrowed in distrust. “What are you?”

            “As human as you!” he returned.

            The boy moved around to the other side of the lake. Aya sniffed and cautiously followed his movements. She met him at the other end of the lake a few minutes later. His brown hair fluttered about his face. He merely smirked down at her, for he was tall and slightly muscular. This she noted.

            “What’s…‘human’?”

            “Mankind?” he asked. “You’ve never heard of it?” He gaped when she shook her head slowly. “Wow… I guess I should start with my name. That look on your face is pretty scary. I’m Ryan.”

            He held out a hand for her to shake. Aya simply looked up at him as if he were crazy. “Aya,” she answered. “Ri-anne?”

            Ryan laughed. “Eye-ah?”

            Aya scowled up at him. This boy was strange. Ryan was smirking down at this girl. She was the first human he had seen in all of his eighteen years. All he had seen were dead cities and bloodthirsty aliens. Meanwhile, Aya crossed her arms. She didn’t trust anyone, “human” or not. She licked her lips. Ryan watched her do this in rabid fascination. She swallowed nervously and turned her back. Aya walked away from the boy.

            “I have a place up the river, Ri-anne.”

            Wordlessly, Ryan followed after Aya. A smile grew on his face. He liked her even more.

            There was a strange connection between the two. Maybe it was because Aya found him so similar to her. Never, never, had she seen another being with features like hers. Granted, they appeared different. So many thoughts flittered in and out of her mind; there were so many things she longed to ask him. Where did he come from? Who exactly was he? Why did he look so much like her?

Idly, Aya ran a hand through her dirtily matted blond hair. Ryan"a strange name, she thought"eyed her with a strange sort of rapt fascination. Unaware to Aya, Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but he found that it was always falling shut. She didn’t know that she was even human. How did she survive for so long without being killed?

Finally intent on breaking the silence between them, Ryan opened his mouth and audaciously asked, “How long have you been here?”

Her mane of yellow hair snapped back and those piercingly green eyes seemed to narrow in on him for a second as she considered his question. Ryan could almost hear her thinking, Should I trust him? She came to a decision when she said, “All my life. It hasn’t been easy.”

With scrupulous gaze around them, Ryan nodded in understanding. “I can imagine.”

A flicker of interest ignited in Aya’s eyes. She turned away before anymore questions could be asked. “Come on. Follow me or might get spotted.”

“Where are we going anyway?”

Once again, she turned her gaze towards him. It was a quick thing, but it was an action that told Ryan to be quiet. “The only haven in this desolate place.”

Then, with a flick of her shining pale blond hair, Aya was off again, her long legs swiftly and silently moving her across the torn terrain. Mystified, Ryan had to move faster than normal just to keep pace with her.

 

            Another hour had passed. They sat in silence underground. Ryan had followed Aya to the center of a copse of buildings. Once she arrived at the center of the copse near a tall, tarnished metal pole, she began marching across the ground. At first, Ryan was confused at what she was doing. Had she gone mad? To his surprise and fascination, Aya’s thick boots sounded hollowly over the surface over a small patch of glass interwoven with ivy. Even more fascinating was the exact moment he watched her lift the ground up to reveal a small room big enough for many people hidden underneath the ground. The same girl before him opened a bag of Lay’s chips; the plastic complained before giving away with a silent whoosh of disappointment. She could feel Ryan’s eyes on her, but she never turned around to acknowledge his gaze. Aya had done that in the beginning when his eyes burned into her back. Her bright green eyes had met his warm brown ones. A funny feeling rippled down her spine and into her stomach. She swallowed nervously and dipped her hand into the plastic bag.

            “Here,” she said tonelessly, throwing a bag back at Ryan. She didn’t know if he even caught it. The crumple of the bag and a crunch of chips were her answer.

            Aya brushed back some clumped blonde hair behind her ear and raised her eyes to meet Ryan’s. An amused smirk played on his lips and in his eyes as he watched her back in return. “What are you?” she asked.

            “You don’t trust me, do you?” Ryan laughed, having finished a handful of chips. A few yellow crumbs sprayed the dusty floor of the cellar. Aya watched him and licked her lips. “I wouldn’t either. I thought I was the last person on Earth.”

            “Isn’t a person a…I guess, me?”

            “And myself as well, Aya. Haven’t you read anything?” She shook her head slightly. “So, you’ve probably only read a little?” She nodded this time. “Then you know the basics. You don’t know how Earth got to be so screwed up.”

            “All I know are those killers out there. I know that this is a city and that there’s water that surrounds it. This place was a shelter of some sort. From what…I don’t know.”

            Ryan shook his head and glanced up at Aya with more serious eyes. “You’re younger than me. You wouldn’t remember. It was a year (a measure of time) called 2012. Just the beginning of a new year. I remember all the colors. I was two when it happened. Aliens invaded Earth. Their ships came down to rest in fields. I remember them being a shiny silver-blue. The world went crazy. I remember screams as they attacked the entire planet. The military, I later read, of every country on Earth tried to push them back. That’s when the aliens dropped something like nuclear bombs on nearly every city on the planet. My mom shoved me inside a chamber to escape the radiation. Everyone died. I remember crawling out days later. It was all silent and everything was dead. I cried.”

            Her green eyed widened with something indescribable. It hadn’t occurred to Ryan that Aya might have never had a single relative like he once had. “That would make sense,” she finally murmured, munching on the food in her hand. She thoughtfully licked the salt from her calloused fingers. “What this place is…”

            At the suggestion, Ryan’s eyes drifted over the shelter. Recognition dawned; it looked nearly exactly the same as the strange chamber his mother had put him into before the aliens’ bombs fell. The bunk beds lined against the walls, neat and waiting to be slept in; trunks underneath each set of beds, no doubt filled with dehydrated and canned foods, stale water, clothing, and other necessities; yellowed posters of instructions on what to do when a “nuclear bomb threat faced your family.” He vaguely remembered his mother telling him a little about the old bomb shelters built years after the Second World War. It had something to do with the hate between two countries he had never heard of, Russia and the United States. Though, he believed that where he lived now were the remnants of the latter.

            A thick coat of dust rested heavily on all surfaces. Even the ground, which he had thought much lighter, was a darker color in its rest. Dust mites floated around them, visible only in the minute rays of a single candle that Aya had perched on a small pedestal mounted on the wall. It was used; how Ryan could tell was by its height. The candle was halfway through its life, frozen dribbles of wax caught in the act of crawling down the candle’s length. He had to blink to force himself out of his distant thoughts.

            While he had been preoccupied with his own thoughts, Aya had opened a bottle of water, sipping at it gingerly as if it were precious life. Ryan’s eyes landed on her, probing her face curiously. Her countenance, though worn and tough, was intriguing. Her eyes flashed a warning as they met his. Heat crept up from his neck when he realized he had been studying Aya for much too long a time. Swallowing hard, he broke into a smile. Only, Aya returned his bright grin with a glare even colder than before.

            It was much too obvious she didn’t trust Ryan. Aya intended to let him know that. It wasn’t everyday someone like her, human, came wandering around. In fact, no other person besides Aya lived in these parts. She didn’t even know if others like her, and him, still existed. The only recognition of other human beings Aya had was deep in her memories.

           

            Life back then was a happy, foggy haze. The bright firefly memories of childhood flitted in and out of focus, flashing to only let them know where they were and then disappearing into darkness where she couldn’t remember. Aya remembered gray. Loving voices cooing to her in dulcet tones. Being a child, it was only natural that she followed them in the promise of love. Then, maybe, there were two people who were her parents. A mother whose face she couldn’t remember and a father who was a pair of tall legs and strong arms. Both she recalled with a warm, bittersweet flash of affection. The fact that she couldn’t remember their faces aroused a protruding lump in her throat, far away enough that she couldn’t swallow it away.

            Another dark haze, and she remembered voices of warning. Voices screaming out for help and others for mercy. The pang of unadulterated fear stabbed straight through her trembling breast. Her small body shook horribly as she called out for her mother, who failed to answer. Finally some kind, old soul scooped her up and shut her in the shelter that she and Ryan found themselves in. Aya remembered his withered hands and recalled that his scent was familiar and comforting. He sealed her away in the shelter, where she stayed in darkness for some time. She couldn’t hear anything outside of her shelter. When Aya grew restless and her limbs ached for movement, she pushed open the trapdoor to the shelter just a crack and gazed out onto the world.

            The air was burning. Aya breathed it in and felt her lungs catch on fire. She covered her mouth and nose with one hand while her feeble arm held up the heavy door. Bodies lay crumpled all over the ground. None of them moved. Fire rimmed the horizon with a glorious orange-red tinge. The entire world she had known then had ended. None of the creatures, the aliens, she later encountered bothered to scour the landscape then for survivors. Why would there be any? Their weapons created mass destruction. They expected everyone to be wiped out.

            It was only later did they learn differently.

 

            Two more hours passed. The sun was beginning to set. Aya had curled up on the dusty, hardwood floor. She had found out many things like what the huge hunks of metal she often saw outside were (they were called “cars”) and what the stuff she was eating was called.  Her mind was weighted with so much new knowledge. Everything Ryan had said made sense. Plus, he seemed so sure of what he knew. He didn’t know a lot about what happened in the past, but at least he could remember. It was better than the stupid little theories she had thought up for the empty city throughout her childhood. And, of course, the intangible memories she could never quite clearly remember. Surprisingly, she found herself coming to like the boy with the strange name and warm personality. A strange new feeling pooled somewhere between her heart and her stomach. This feeling grew a lump in her throat. How could she have ever lived without people? All of a sudden, she felt unbearably lonely and was thankful for Ryan’s company.

            Aya shivered. Ryan scooted closer to her and wrapped a careful arm about her shoulders. She glanced up at him. He smiled down at her sweetly. Aya found herself smiling back quite shyly. The last two people on Earth in a dangerous world that had once belonged to their ancestors. Survival was the only thing that they needed. Maybe there was something else that they needed to live now. Ryan leaned down closer to her. Her heart fluttered faster inside of her. Aya’s smile grew wider. A flush burned her cheeks pink, but she was happy that he couldn’t see that in the dim light. The gnawing loneliness inside of her slowly dissipated. Ryan was staring at her full lips, which she kept licking so nervously. Ryan’s warm brown eyes burned into hers. She blushed harder and closed her eyes slowly. Waiting. Wanting. His warm breath brushed against her full lips. Their lips almost touched.

            For a moment, Ryan’s eyelashes brushed against her cheeks. Aya didn’t know what to do or if she should say anything. Here was this boy, as human as her, who dropped in on her life out of nowhere. “We don’t have to"you know, do anything,” Ryan finally croaked, breaking the silence between them. He cleared his throat. “I just"I’ve never seen another human in such a long time…”

            Aya nodded. “I know. I feel the same.”

            Ryan laughed softly, grinning down at her. “What luck it was for us both to survive. And just the perfect girl, too.”

            Shifting her eyes away shyly to a corner, she closed them and felt Ryan’s breath once more against her skin. Aya could sense his closeness right before his lips whispered over her cheek. Before she could catch him at it, Ryan had pulled away and was sitting in fetal position, arms wrapped around his legs and hugging them to him as if he were afraid of her. When she glanced into his eyes, it was completely the opposite. They burned straight into her. Probing and taking in all that she was. They sat like that for a few minutes before a sound snapped them from their shared meditation.

            Be-eep. Bee-beep. Be-beep. Followed by a series of screaks, gwlaahs, and very faint clicks.

There was a terrifying crack and the sound of old wood giving. A huge cloud of tan dust rose from the site of the crash. Just as the crash had occurred Ryan had grabbed Aya and pulled her towards him, rolling them both to the side to avoid being hit. Both of them coughed violently as the dust cleared. An exchange of screaks and shrill screams were shared. An alien scampered out from the receding cloud of dust and wood bits. Instead of the usual blue-green color, its leathery skin glinted a dangerous scarlet in the fading sun. It screamed at her and Ryan. Ryan and Aya both leapt to their feet at the exact same moment. Four more scarlet aliens scuttled into the small chamber from above, clinging to the ceiling by the special hairs in their spider-like legs, and screamed at them. Two sped at the two humans. Rough skin grazed her.  She could feel the raw sting of pain and the faint wetness of blood trickling down her skin. Neither Ryan nor Aya had any time to react.

Aya frantically beat at the alien that had grabbed her, whose hasty hands groped her body as they slung her over their owner’s shoulder. Her worn boots scraped at the alien’s tougher skin. The alien shrieked in protest and glared at her with its three eyes. It raised a strange syringe container, containing a liquid that glinted an irritated pink in the light of the quickly fading sunlight. Then, the alien snatched Aya’s wrist in its hand and plunged the syringe into her lower arm. Quickly, the pink liquid went to work as it coursed through her veins. A heavy lethargy descended upon her within mere seconds of her forced dose of the evil liquid. Through her laden eyelids she watched helplessly as Ryan, who struggled for liberty as she, fell victim to his own dose of the sedative.

She closed her eyes and all the world turned to darkness.

 

            What are these? That had been his last thought before blacking out.

            When Ryan came to, his vision wasn’t entirely clear. At first every thing that he laid eyes on was extremely blurry. Luckily that soon disappeared. Then, a slight ache resonated somewhere in the back of his head. He realized that he had been laid upon the floor, and, obviously, in a not-too-kind manner. Meanwhile, Ryan attempted to move his limbs. He could see them respond, but he could feel nothing. They were completely numb. It was a weird feeling, and one coupled with none too friendly feelings as the five scarlet aliens from before strolled towards him. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Aya, who lay back-to-back against him. She was still unconscious. He turned his attention towards the aliens, eyeing them suspiciously

One of the scarlet aliens stepped forward and spat a ruby substance like glue between them. Aya softly groaned, finally coming to. She tried to move about a bit and found that she couldn’t move properly. Eventually, she tried to struggle; the substance hardened around them, binding their backs to each other. Aya shrieked in frustration, her eyes widening in fury and tears threatening at the edges of her eyes. Ryan turned his head and breathed on her cheek softly to remind her. Aya calmed at the touch of his breath. Yet her inflamed ardor remained unflagging. She glared up at the aliens. The leader merely snapped its jaws at her and then turned to its comrades. They exited with a series of low jabbers and high-pitched shrieks. Both Ryan and Aya wished that they could understand what they said.

 

            Many hours had passed since they were abducted and brought to the aliens’ lair. It was fully dark. Aya shivered, struggling against the sticky binding. She never dressed heavily because where she lived was hardly freezing in the winter.

“It’s s-s-so c-c-cold i-in h-here,” Aya gasped, curling up against Ryan’s warmth. Whispering, she said, “I can see my breath.”

“Just hang on.”

Aya inclined her head to the side to better view Ryan’s activity. He fiddled with something in his pocket.

“Ryan, what are you doing?” hissed Aya. Her pretty eyes narrowed in confusion

“I’m working on it. Just a sec…” His face scrunched up in concentration. “Ah, got it!”

There was a triumphant sigh and he held up what appeared to be a lighter in the darkness. He flipped it open with the best of his ability held the small flame to the binding with some difficulty. The dark ruby substance bubbled for one second and, reaching the end of its life, shriveled into a fine powdery orange dust. Moaning in relief, Aya attempted to get to her feet. She labored for a moment before falling tipsily to the ground. With a glance up at him, Aya begged Ryan to help her. He gave a cocky smile and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her to his side and to her legs. She shook violently, threatening to tip over once more. He wrapped his arms around her shivering body, serving to keep her steady, and maneuvered them through dark hallways. They weren’t even that.

The walls of the compound curved in towards them and shrank as they went on. From their structure the hallways were reminiscent of tunnels. Embedded into the walls were the computerized language of the alien race who hosted them. Some of the letters of their language were rounded like numbers while others bent with sharp angles like shapes. Others looked to be combinations of numbers and letters. Silently, Aya and Ryan felt a slight respect for their enemies. They were as, if not more, intelligent than they. For what reason they could not comprehend, the aliens wanted them dead.

            At the exit of the lair, aliens were there to meet them. Ryan squeezed Aya protectively to her body. By that time, her body had nearly fully recovered from the sedative. She pushed away from Ryan, who clawed at her.

“Aya, don’t fight! You’re not strong enough.”

“I’ve been fighting these b*****s all my life.” Her hand slipped to her pocket, which she hadn’t been able to reach before in the compound, and pulled out her lighter. “I’ll be the one to judge that.”

Then, she leapt on the closest alien with it. The alien, taken by surprise, shrieked and turned a dust. It wasn’t so easy with the others. Pursing his lips into a grim grimace, Ryan had flipped out a sharp looking tool that we know as a Swiss Army Knife. He slashed it across another alien’s chest. The alien reared back and whipped its tail up over its head. Ryan ducked and rolled to avoid the attack and ended up on his knees. The ground burned where the alien’s stinger had stuck. The alien rumbled in a low tone. It pulled once, twice, three times, and succeeded in getting its tail free. Aya dodged and fumbled against two aliens. She raised her lighter to the arm of another alien. It burst into flames, screaming and running maniacally all over. Suddenly, it fell down onto the ground, slowly dying in the midst of the battle. Amongst its comrades a furious chattering and screeching began. They thirsted for revenge. The other, which had been beside the flamed alien, whipped its tail at Aya in the hopes of stinging her. In that moment, Aya realized that her endurance was quickly waning. Aya danced around the creature and tripped over her own feet, which laden with numbness from the drug. She fell to the ground back-first. At the same time, the stinger caught her right in the stomach.

            Aya shrieked a piercing shriek unlike like those of the aliens’. This was bloodcurdling. Ryan chanced a glance over at her and his eyes widened in pure fear.

            “Aya! I’m coming. Hold on!”

He fumbled forward and managed to kill the one he was fighting before he ran over to fight the one that towered over her. Baring its sharp shark-like teeth and screeching an inhuman snarl, the alien lashed its stinger at Ryan. He dodged out of the way and pierced the creature’s heart with his knife. Ryan jerked it out and, without another thought, dashed over to Aya.

            “Aya!” He sniffed, tears rolling down his cheek. Aya’s eyes fluttered gently. The pain burned in her stomach. “Aya! Don’t do this to me!” He sniffed. Aya shuddered as the pain rolled over her. “AYA!”

            Smirking to itself in triumph, the alien collapsed to the ground. Silver blood splattered all over the floor from its abnormal heart and trickled down its sides. Ryan paid no attention to its end. He gently placed his hands on Aya’s wan cheeks. Her lips were slowly losing color. Fear stabbed him from behind, the fear of loneliness and love lost combined. How could he ever live again without people? He searched for them so long. He wouldn’t bear it if Aya suddenly departed like everyone else he once knew.

            “AYA!”

            Aya could hear his voice. Very faintly. She blinked. Everything was fading. Feeling it throughout her entire body, she knew that her death would be slow and painful. Aya swallowed slowly, a lump catching the breath in her throat very briefly, and reached up a shuddering hand to touch Ryan’s cheek.  Biting his bottom lip hard, Ryan could hardly believe how cold her hands had gotten in-between the last time he had touched them and the battle. She winced, breathing raggedly. He could feel the tips of his canine penetrate the thin layer of sensitive skin of the lip. The pain from the tiny wound barely registered, but he could feel the blood gently bubbling up. Ryan focused his eyes on Aya’s and blinked away the tears that burned his eyes.

            “Ryan…,” she whimpered. “It hurts.”

            “I know it does.” He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. “I know.” Ryan stroked her hair tenderly and parted it to the sides of her face so that he could better see her face. Her bright green eyes were distant but fixed on him, dancing with something deeper than affection. “You’ll be fine, okay? You’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you, Aya.”

            Aya smiled wearily, wincing slightly and eyes dancing even more. “I k-know you w-w-won’t, Ryan.” Her teeth were chattering now. She closed her eyes and swallowed once more. Pain shot throughout all parts of her body from the center of her stomach, which gently oozed an indescribable liquid. “Do your best…”

            All she could see was black. Aya felt something sweep her up. There was a pressure on her lips that was warm and tender and soft, fear and sadness lingering behind it. She smiled to herself and weakly wound her arms around Ryan’s neck. Her body shook uncontrollably, especially against his blazing hot warmth from the battle. Skin, wan and clammy, slicked down against the nape of his neck to rest at the meeting of his shoulders. She didn’t know where he was heading. The pain was too slow and excruciating to tell reality apart from dreams, but she knew that it was some place safe.

            Even in that desolate world, there would always be safe places. Aya trusted him to find such places.

Author's Note

Warning: there is some violence.

Reviews

[ATG]

A very well written and entertaining story. The romance in the story was well done and the sci-fi elements weren't too bad. There were a couple minor errors, but nothing major. Some parts of the story were confusing to some degree or had minor misinformation behind it but it was no big deal. Overall, it was a good story.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

A good story if one like sci-fi........very well written