Chapter 2

Shadows POV

Shadow

Chapter 2

 

             A slight rumble in the ground startled him awake. He knew the sound all too well, it was the sound that plagued him in his nightmares. Had they finally come back to finish off all that was left?

 

            It began to rain as he neared the city, covering any sound he might make, but also what he might hear. In the distance, he saw the wreck of the ship that had landed. It was not like the Raiders’ at all. As he crept closer, he saw it was hardly a ship at all, but a vessel much like the time ship he had used to travel to Earth himself. They were capsules made through the Intergalactic Alliance, when it still existed. They were used for the speedy transportation of very few objects between the known terrestrial planets, such as weapons, technology, and even small numbers of people. Was it possible that the Raiders had moved on? And that the victims of their terror were now fleeing to Earth? It seemed unlikely, but desperate situations tend to make living things resort to desperate measures. He hoped that if the case was that a being had driven the capsule, that whatever it was had not gone very far. As he cautiously advanced on the ship, he realized that what he thought had been a pile of rubble was a figure, completely still, and only identifiable by the ups and downs of shallow breathing. The sky became alight with electricity from the storm, and illuminated the figures’ long, white hair and broken body. She, or what he assumed to be a she, did not appear to be in any shape to attack him. He ran up to her and studied her from a few feet away, it was not often that he discovered a creature so similar to himself. He had not seen a Sapien, commonly known on Earth as human, in over six months. They slowly disappeared after the second invasion. Those who had not been killed spread out and fled in a worldwide effort to conserve the human race in the case of another raid. She was dressed in some sort of uniform, and carried a sheathed sword in her belt. Her hair was waist length and pure white, as were her features. Her skin seemed almost transparent in the glowing gray of the night. Her eyes suddenly opened, and she turned weakly to look at him. Even with her severe injuries her ferocity was intimidating. She fumbled to her knees and made an angry noise, with no words that he could decipher. Did this creature not speak the Common Tongue? Where was she from then, if not from the twenty planets once united through the Intergalactic Alliance? She squinted through the pouring rain, trying to focus on him, but she could not seem to keep herself steady. She shook and fell to the ground again. Shadow ran up to help her, and she seemed too ill to notice his approach. Her eyes closed, and she went limp. He carefully picked up her broken body. She was so malnourished it was hardly a burden to lift her. He carried the mysterious girl to a place far away from the dead city, and the ghosts of what had not been destroyed on Earth.