Before

A Chapter by Mel Jayne

A lonely traveller finds what they need to get a great journey started.

A person, alone, made their way across a desert. They had no reason to be alarmed, because they weren't as tied up with human needs as everyone else. Their dark skin would have been incredibly hot to the touch but Saff felt no discomfort. They came across a cluster of rubble. They carefully manoeuvred over a metal sheet that looked like it had come from a plane crash. They had been searching this barren land for days.

They had found what they had been looking for in that pile of metal, the object was green and enchanting. It was a necessity, almost lost to the war. Saff had been on a plane when it had happened, a bomb had gone off somewhere cities away. Entire civilisations melted away in an instant. Saff had woken up in a hospital somewhere being poked and prodded, they had been too weak to escape the curious questions and doctors. They had been there a month. A terrible month.

They didn’t need to walk out of the desert, for the rubble that surrounded them contained the only thing that Saff needed for their escape. A door. They put a hand against a door that was sticking out of the sand at a strange angle. The silver colour faded slowly into a dark green. The door opened into a spacious room that was also at an angle. It was a room that was like a cave, similar in material and sound. The room had a familiarity to it as if it had been their home. Saff stepped through the doorway, the shift in gravitational direction mad them dizzy for an alarming instant.

A city lay in front of Saff. Prague, or what it had become after the war had ravaged countries and torn everything apart. There were many buildings that the government hadn't bothered to rebuild. There had been too much destruction. A sharp pain made it's way through Saff's body but they pushed the urge to wince. It had been a very long time since pain had meant anything to them. They were stronger now, more brutal. They were still missing something, a living thing, that would make the mysterious person capable of so much more than they had before. It would be an interesting day.

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