Chapter Negative One

Something that won't be directly told in the book...this is something the main character forgets, and sees flashes of it throughout the duration of the story...

 

Sapphire sat in the passenger’s seat, screaming in pain as the wound in her chest worsened.  Noah sat in the back seat, encouraging (Driver) to go faster, to make it to the hospital in time.

“Go faster!” Noah urged.

“If I go any faster, I could easily kill us all.”

Noah was frustrated with the whole situation.  He was unsure how the injury had come to Sapphire, but he did know that if she didn’t get treated soon, she could die.  Sapphire screamed again and Noah slowly closed his eyes, tears forming.  His energy seemed to sap from him as he sat there, in the backseat of the car, his best friend dying in the front, and the world around him seem to fade away.  A sudden gust washed through Noah’s hair and he opened his eyes again, only to see the road racing up to meet him.

Noah smashed into the bitumen at sixty-kilometers an hour, the road tearing the skin off him, as he went into a roll and bounced into a ditch beside it.

Blood seeped from all the wounds he’d gained as he screamed out in pain, much like Sapphire had done seconds before.

What just happened? Noah asked himself.  Little did he know that the question he just asked would be answered in a way he never expected, and the answer itself will change his life radically.

Beside the road Noah had crashed into was a large paddock that he recognised as the large rolling hills of ‘Lightning Fields’, a place that was once considered a sacred host for the gods and demons alike to gather and express disagreements in battle.

Noah would’ve joked about the irony if he wasn’t so worried about being caught by one of those creatures like the bus driver and if he wasn’t suffering from horrific injuries.  He couldn’t feel much more than the hot, raw pain searing through his skin, but his instincts told him to get away from the thoroughfare.

As Noah crawled through the waist high grass, the breeze began to slowly pick up until cyclonic winds flattened the grass around him.  Ahead, just above a large hill, a large cloud, dark and empowering, conjured out of the evening sky.  Noah struggled to look up, but when he finally managed, a lightning bolt shot down from the heavens and blew the top off the large hill.  Noah watched in fear as dark shadows escaped from the earth and formed an army of creatures.  The creatures themselves were hard to focus on, they just seemed to be shadows that walked in a humanoid form.  Struggling to his feet, Noah tried to get a better look at the creatures, and how many there were.  The blood from the abrasion on his head had started to dry from the wind and his green eyes were bloodshot from tears.

Standing tall, Noah could see all of the creatures, but he fell to his knees once more as he estimated how many soldiers there was for this army.  Though it was hard to tell one creature from another, he guessed there was at least one-hundred thousand.  He knew what the creatures were, as well, they were the Anti-gods that Artemis once spoke of.  She hadn’t known the actual names of the creatures, but that was what she had called them.

Another lightning bolt shattered the darkening sky and another figure appeared.  This one was on top of the hill all the creatures had come from.

Noah had never seen this person, if it was a person, before, but he knew that it was the leader of this army.  He was still in shock about how fast it was all happening.  Just moments ago, he’d been in the car, worrying for Sapphire’s life, and now he was kneeling in front of an army that could easily destroy everything on the Earth’s surface.  He felt so useless and vulnerable as the army, as one, started to march in his direction.  At first, Noah thought they were after him, but he believed that was paranoia setting in.  He glanced over his shoulder in the direction they were heading and he could see the lights of the city piercing the ever darkening sky.

He looked back at the army and, as they got closer, he could make out the dark red eyes of the creatures.  They weren’t looking at anything, they just seemed to be staring into oblivion as they marched towards the city.  The distance between Noah and the Anti-Gods was decreasing rapidly and he was awaiting the moment when one came up to him and finished him off.

As the front line of Anti-Gods reached him, Noah was amazed when none of them touched him.  He looked up and glanced around at the creatures.  As the passed him, they looked at him, and Noah saw in their eyes that they thought he was worthless, not even worth finishing off.

Line after line of Anti-Gods made their way past Noah, each one consisting of hundreds of the creatures, all of them were going to destroy the city if he didn’t stop them.  He doubted that he could survive one of the creatures, but he knew he had no choice, Noah wasn’t going to sit here and do nothing.

Pain searing through all of his limbs, hammering his brain, Noah slowly climbed to his feet again.  He leant slightly to one side as his injured leg strained under the weight and his teeth were clenched as he tried to scream out in agony.  Slowly, Noah raised his head to see the rows upon rows of Anti-Gods stop and look at him.  Fear pulsed through his veins and his heartbeat was thudding in his ears.  Sweat was trickling alongside the dry blood down the side of his face.

With all of his strength, Noah lifted his injured leg and advanced one step towards the closest Anti-God, which backed away in turn. He frowned in confusion and looked up to the top of the large hill, where the leader of the army sat, perched over the hordes of creatures, watching the scenario unfold.  As Noah squinted at the creature, the Anti-Gods formed a gap between their ranks, forming a path from Noah to their leader.

Confusion surged through Noah’s senses as he began to limp towards the hill, What’s happening?

With each step, a new wave of pain scorched Noah’s energy, which was sapping quickly as he began to climb the hill.  His injured left leg collapsed underneath him and he fell to the slanting ground, before beginning to tumble down the incline.  Trying to grab a handhold, Noah’s hand shot out, trying to stop him from rolling over, but his momentum had built up too much already.  He continued to roll and his arm got pinned under his back before a large crunch echoed through Noah’s body.

 

A scream echoed up from the base of the hill as Zeath watched from above.  A slight grin spread across his face as he watched the boy fall and break his arm.  He didn’t understand why the Anti-Gods hadn’t just finished him off, maybe they knew something he didn’t.  They could always sense things nothing else could, they could always sense the power that ebbs from himself, maybe they could sense something about this boy as well?

As the boy hit the bottom of the hill again in a moaning pile, Zeath decided that he couldn’t wait any longer and he began to make his way down the hill.  When he reached about halfway, he jumped the rest in a single bound, landing less than a meter from Noah’s head.

Zeath looked down at the human child, lying in a pile of limbs and pain, a puddle of his own blood beginning to form.  Zeath had never seen such a worthless excuse for a human.

“Stand up, Human,” Zeath ordered the boy, but when the boy tried, but failed, Zeath turned away from him and began to make his way back up the hill, “Finish him,” he ordered the Anti-Gods.

The grin returned to Zeath as he made his way up the hill again, his dark cape fluttering in the slight breeze.  He could hear his creatures growl in anticipation as the advanced on the boy.  He didn’t even give the boy the honor of Zeath’s, the new god, eye as he died.  As he climbed up the hill, a dim outline of Zeath’s body formed on the grass in front of him.

What the…He asked himself, but before he could turn around and find out, there was a large flash that filled the whole field and continued to spread. It reached the city in less than a second, and continued for a few kilometers, before dying out, leaving the image of the grass in front of Zeath in his eyes.

Spinning around, expecting to see the mass of Anti-Gods towering over the boy, but instead finding the boy holding his fist high above his head while breathing heavily on his knees, confusion flowed through Zeath.  All of the Anti-Gods were gone. All 121, 063 Anti-Gods, vanished.

Zeath couldn’t believe it as he jumped down to the base of the hill and grabbed the boy by the hair, “What are you?!” he asked through clenched teeth.

The boy, who had dry blood down the side of his face, shed a single tear as Zeath pulled on his hair, “What did I do to deserve this?”

“What?!”

“What did I do to deserve-” Noah broke from his grip and rose to his feet, standing tall, “THIS?!” holding his fist high above his head again, light began to gather around his fist.

“My god,” Zeath uttered, stumbling backwards, before falling onto his back, “You’re one…of…them.”

Author's Note

I haven't got a name for the driver yet.
And sorry if there's any...errors, i'm going to be rewriting this whole thing, so it should be fine :P
It's just the idea i'm trying to get across at the moment.