Destruction

     There was something that burned in the back of her throat and now she realized what it was, smoke. She tried to open her eyes more but saw nothing but fog. I need to wake up. The thought was momentary, until she realized she had already been awake. She fluttered her eyelids and looked around, she could hardly see through it all. What in the hell had happened? She sat straight up and instinctively reached for her weapon. She needed to get out of here, and that was for sure. Where was out though? She could hardly see her own hand in front of her face. The coughing started raising in her throat and she tried to fight it, to avoid making her eyes water. She cleared her throat and felt along the cheap temp walls, looking for any kind of light indicating an exit.

     There it was, and now as she moved forward and stumbled slightly she realized just how ungodly hot it was. She kept moving regaurdless of what she was headed for, she needed air, she needed to breathe. She felt the walls give way to a door way and started running faster, moving away from the billowing clouds that represented the destruction of yet another camp. She knew this would happen eventually, they had rushed into this too fast, been too ballsy. She felt her knees hit hard on the rocky ground and heaved in deep breaths of air. It would have been fresh if it weren't for the sickening smell of burning flesh and plastic. She turned to look and held her breath now, instead of enjoying the freedom of nearly smoke free air.

     The clouds that billowed were not only from that one small building but from various surrounding ones. They must have been attacked in the dead of night and the technology that supposedly helped them predict must have failed. She tumbled forward some more and heard some distant bangs. She wondered if it was them returning the favor or if more attacks were coming down. She heard footsteps and tried to stand but coughing fits were now coming forth. There was no avoiding it, and as her eyes watered she cursed herself mentally for being stupid enough to want to aid the government in anything. She closed her eyes and all fell quiet. A strange silence that ruptured the noise in such a way that it made her panic momentarily.

 

   A bright light was being forced into her eyes and she tried to fight it off, but it was no use, her arms were heavier than they had ever felt and moving them seemed impossible. She tried to move her head and only managed a sort of flop to the side. It removed the light from her eyes slightly at least. She tried to open them but felt them struggling to stay closed. Come on, Victoria, open your eyes. Just open them like you do every morning. Open your eyes. She was trying desperately to coax her mind into lifting her eyelids enough to see where she was. White walls and sickeningly white ceiling tiles. She was somewhere medical. She wasn't sure if it was a hospital or if it was merely one of the temporary medical units they had built. Either way, she wasn't looking forward to knowing why she was here.

     She opened them more and turned her head to see someone standing over her. He looked vaguely familiar but she wasn't sure exactly who it was. She tried to talk but her mouth and throat were so dry that no sound came out. She moved her tongue around a little trying to make it better. The man hovering over her offered her a straw and for a moment she just stared at him and then at the straw. He nodded and laughed, "Take a sip of water, it'll moisten up your mouth. The morphine is drying it out." She eyed him wearily and took a sip, it felt so good she didn't care who was standing over her, all that mattered was that she could feel the water making it's way to her stomach and cooling her insides like she had been in a desert for years with nothing but a drop of water at night.

    She cleared her throat as best she could, "Where am I?" The words were but a whisper, something that she could hardly hear herself. Even though it was quiet the man nodded and smiled.

     "You're in a hospital in New York. You've been out cold for a couple weeks now. Was starting to get worried. You were knocked out by excessive smoke inhalation and then falling debris gave you some injuries, but don't worry, they fixed you up fairly decently."

     This was when it happened, and it gave her a horrible headache. Memories of waking up in a smoke filled room and trying to get out fast enough to avoid getting burned alive. She looked over at him, he was still a fuzzy figure she didn't recognize. She blinked a few times. She just wanted her eyes to focus. It was slow and made her head hurt more but now she could see him. Short dark hair and brilliantly green eyes. "Oh s**t, Jack!" She tried to yell it but nothing but a loud whisper came out. He nodded again smiling.

     "Good you remember something. You took a good hit to the head, we were hoping you wouldn't get amnesia." He grabbed her hand and smiled, "You think you remember everything? Name, birthday, address, all that good stuff?"

     She nodded, "Yes, Victoria, far too damn old, and probably a couple blocks from the hospital we're sitting in. I hate my apartment, and now I hate my job. Did they discharge me?"

     He shook his head, "Only temporarily, they didn't want to lose someone as good as you I guess. They said that you were take part in some sort of special training when you're all better, but don't you rush! You can't want to keep this job bad enough to not heal properly."

      She smiled, "I'll try to not be a workaholic." She sat up and though it brought pain to her ribs she didn't care. "I'm going home though. I hate this place, always have." There was no arguement about it. She waved at a passing nurse. "Come here and get this crap outta my arm so I can go home."

     The nurse looked instinctively at Jack and he nodded, he knew as well that there was no arguing with Victoria once she had made up her mind. Her shoulder length black hair was a mess and her normally shocking blue eyes were slightly dimmed. She needed rest and they both knew this. The nurse asked no more questions, removed Victoria's IV and returned in moments with the release paperwork. Although she was tired, and sore everywhere, she managed to get up and dressed in a only a few minutes and was walking out with Jack.

 

 

 

     She hadn't been in the car for more than five minutes when it rang. Jack handed her a small bag and she dug as quickly as she could for her little cheap flip phone. She glanced at the caller ID and her look told Jack it was "work". She flipped the phone open and rather than answer professionally she simply said "Yes boss?"

     A chuckle responded to her simple answer and then a smooth voice came, "Victoria! I heard you were out of the hospital. They notified me. But honestly now, there was quite a mess over there where you got hurt. But I have good neews! We've got something great coming through, something that's going to make our side so much stronger. You've been chosen for special training. Just need to come down when you're all better, a nice little shot, and then the academy we've organized."

     "Shot?" She asked curiously.

    The voice on the other side got quiet and after a moment of awkward silence came again, "Victoria, do you want to live forever?"

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

This is the beginning of an apocalyptic book I want to work on. I won't be posting beginning to end for personal purposes, but I'd love some feed back.