Chapter 23: Metal

A firm hand helps me to climb an invisible ridge, the mess of concrete and metal that used to be a highway. A death trap for the visually impaired.
"Come on boy, just a little farther." Danta says. I get one arm over the top before a loose piece of earth caves beneath my foot.
"Woah there," Danta says, catching me, "That would have hurt a bit."
"Thanks." I reply.
"Anytime, you two are my charges now, and I won't be letting you go like the last two." I can hear the tension in his voice as he says this, after all, the boys in question had died not even forty-eight hours ago.
"Right." I reply cautiously. Not once had Danta confronted myself or Clair about the brothers deaths, even though we had been the only two present afterwords. A fact that kept me on edge. No one was this nice. Period.
"So where are we headed anyway?" His gruff green voice asks.
"There is an old building up north," Clair says, leading us along the desolate pavement. "Our group was headed that way before you captured us. I'm told that it is a safe haven, somewhere that the ghosts can't get to."
"I've heard that one before girly, and look where it's got us, how can you be sure it's safe?"
"I would trust my life to the person who told me this. He would never tell me something without a good reason. Besides, we have no other leads, and we can't run forever." Clair replies.
"Fair enough girly, fair enough." Danta says and sighs.
"And my name isn't Girly, it's Clair."

My legs feel like led by the time we stop to rest. I crash on the hood of a car, one of hundreds lining the highway, making exiting the city on foot our only option.
As we sit there sharing our food and water, I think back to this time last year.

The leaves had begun to fall, reds and oranges, mixed in with yellows and browns.
I was sitting with Joshua and his father. We had been hiking along a nature trail about a half hour out of the city, but it felt like the middle of nowhere, like the rest of the world had ceased to exist. As we sat and joked about the irony of world peace amongst other things, I saw Joshua turn away. His face was vacant, lost in thought. He got that way often, especially with his father being sick.
Though they both tried to pretend it wasn't a big deal, his father was dying, the cancer in his leg was increasing daily, but it was always Joshua I saw worried, never his father.
"Come now Joshua, you aren't an astronaut yet son, earth still needs you.." His father said, snapping Joshua out of his trance. My friends face lit up once more and we laughed. How I miss that laughter.

As we sit amongst the car wreckage, I hear a clang, breaking me from my memories. The chatter that had been going on between Clair and Danta has stopped and been replaced with Clair hissing at me to hide.
Quickly I scamper over to them, trying to remain quiet. The clanging was growing louder with each passing moment, but I could not get a feel for what it was making the noise. The sound was definitely mechanical, but uneasy, like a man struggling along with a broken leg.
Then there was the humming, a sound quite familiar to me by now.
"Ethereals." I whisper.
"No. Minders." Clair whispers back.
I peak around the edge of the car, trying to imagine the tin soldiers marching towards us, but I need not have bothered.
There in front of me were a dozen or so glowing amber knights. Unlike the usual minders however, these ones were not civilian friendly. They were metal terrors, come to slay the two remaining Dragons.

Reviews

[yuki]

this is really good thank you for sharing :)

[Eryn ♪]

Thank you for reading! :)

[Lucy Morningstar &heart..]

*fangirl squee* FINALLY A NEW CHAPTER!!!

This is really great; you know I always love your stuff. There are some grammatical errors but otherwise its really awesome/awesome in spite of the little grammar things. Really wonderful job here :)

100/100

Ps-i can has new chapter soon?