Chapter 1: By the Shadow
Walking among the rubble of society, a young woman was watching her surroundings carefully. She moved pieces of old furniture and debris away with the tips of her feet, looking for something she could make use of. Her big combat boots made a muffled sound on the ground with her light steps and the dust was whirling up around her legs.
She was wearing a pair of high-cut black shorts, a dark, sleeveless top and a pair of “netted” gloves. Over her shoulder she had a short rifle and around her waist she had an old, threaded, black mini-bag. She had a pair of shades covering her eyes and in a big bag in her hand she had a few things that she had found on her walk. That was the way people had to live now – the few that where left. They all lived off the leftovers from a world that had been destroyed years before.
No one knew how or why it had started. All they knew was that people had started getting sick. A new kind of disease that no one seemed to be able to find a cure to.
They had called it “Morner Disease”, after Abraham Linux Morner, the man who had been “patient zero”; the root of the pandemic that so quickly had killed most part of the human race.
As the old civilization was nearing its end, wars had started. The different governments all thought that some other country was responsible for the crisis. The first week there had been discussions; lots of them, all futile. Then bombs started dropping, missiles began launching. After four weeks the United States, Britain, Russia and a handful of other countries where the only ones that still had some sort of government.
Big parts of Africa and Asia were nuclear bombed and all the large countries were constantly targeted for new bombings. After nine weeks, all contact between different countries was cut off, but the nightmare continued. Now home-made bombs and mines were pretty much everywhere, and there were very few buildings that hadn't been set on fire.
Of course, there was no winner, since most people were gone and the ones that were left had no way of communicating with anyone besides the few they ever met. No one could know how many others had survived, and very few cared anymore. But it wasn't until then, when the fighting had ceased and the wars were over, that the real horror started. That was when the human population was just about a third of what it had been before, and people were scared and lonely, but at least they were all immune to the virus that had started the disease.
Until it started mutating.
It was only a fraction of the remaining population that got the new form of the virus, but it was all that was needed. You see, the mutation meant that the person who got the virus changed, turned in to something that didn't always entirely resemble a human being anymore. The people who had this new virus grew longer canines, they turned tall and slim, and their skin took a slight bluish colour. Their eyes often had a silver colour and the mutated people were stronger, faster and had better hearing than the average human.
The people who got the mutation thought that it was more like a blessing than a disease. Maybe even the next step in the human evolution. But the “pure”, as they called themselves, the people who didn't change, were not so calm about the change. They figured it was something dangerous, as people mostly feel when faced with something new and unknown.
So the pure tried to make the mutated submissive. They treated them as something less then human. Even less than an animal. Many of the mutated people were beaten, abused and even killed. Then the Pure and the Mutated were soon divided – like mortal enemies, killing their opponents any chance they got.
That was why the woman was walking so carefully and was so aware of her surroundings. She didn't want to run in to anyone from the opposite side. She knew it was dangerous to walk alone in these days, it made her more open to an attack. It made her more vulnerable. But she didn't care.
She was a very skilled fighter and she was always took precautions, always stayed alert. Besides, she liked the danger; she liked the rush of it. She liked walking alone with only her own abilities to rely on. Not having to rely on anyone else, or having to look after someone.
No. It was much better this way. Walking alone…
She bent down to pick up a small jewel of some sort and her long, electric blue, elf-like hair fell down in front of her face. She had found a small heart formed pendant, buckled from several years of being stepped on, and with a few black spots on it, as if it had been in a fire. As she raised herself up again, she put the pendant around her neck. She smiled softly to herself and stroke the hair gently out of her face, as she calmly continued forward towards the now setting sun.
Then her senses suddenly picked up a soft sound, almost undetectable, but still there, and she twitched. She listened carefully, eyes closed and her face tilted up towards the sky. Now she heard it perfectly and she could feel the vibrations inside herself. There were people coming her way. They were still several hundred meters away and couldn't have spotted her yet, but they were heading in her direction and if she didn't move, they would see her as soon as they came closer.
She looked around to find a place to hide, at the same time as she calmly continued to listen. It was a whole group, maybe ten or fifteen people. Most probably men, as far as she could hear. Just a little bit in front of her, she saw an old cellar almost completely covered by rubbish and pieces of the building above it. It was the best place to hide nearby, and she hurried towards it.
As she crawled in, she made sure to pull some more things over the hole behind her, so that the men wouldn't see it if they weren't looking too closely. She pulled up a long, black, leather coat from her bag, and quickly put it on, pulling the hood over her head – hiding her hair and any of her clothes that might draw attention from the otherwise grey and colourless surroundings.
The people came into sight no more than two minutes later. There were thirteen of them and, just as she had suspected, they were all men. They were laughing loudly, stumbling on their words since they were drunk, and obviously uncaring if someone heard them or not. They probably figured they were pretty safe, being so many. Stupid. If they met their enemies in that condition, they'd be dead in seconds.
Not that she cared too much. They were not her allies. Witch of course was why she pulled closer in to the shadows and kept quiet. Though they probably wouldn't spot her unless she got up and ran right in front of them, she figured there was no shame in continuing being careful. She didn't Have to fight these men, so she wouldn't. There was no point.
She studied the men a bit closer as they continued their slow walk ahead. And she found that they were pretty much alike. They all seemed to be strong, but not slim nor very muscular. Men who probably mostly relied on their sheer size to beat their opponents. All of them were wearing colourless clothes, as most did these days, and on their feet they had boots or sneakers – which was no surprise either.
There was only one man who wasn't quite like the rest there. He was walking at the side of the group, not saying anything and keeping a close check on the surroundings. She found herself watching the man with a bit more interest then she had with the rest. He was mostly watching the hills a bit away, as to make sure no one was coming towards them from there, but he was also looking at the buildings, to make sure there was no ambush or surprise of any sort waiting for them anywhere.
She quietly thought about what it would be like to fight the man, since he seemed more experienced than many she had met. At the same time, she continued studying him.
He was not very much taller than the other men, but he was slimmer. Seemed to be a trained soldier of some skill. His eyes were like those of a hawk when he looked around, and his body seemed constantly tense, as if always ready for combat.
He also had a scar running over his left eye, which made him look very harsh and kind of scary, like the boogie-man in some children's story she couldn't quite remember the name of. When the men were just straight ahead from where she was hiding, she bent her head down and even held her breath so that she wouldn't move and make her presence noticed, her trained heart now slowing down to a point where it almost seemed to stop.
Then she heard it. A sound on the other side of the hill right in front of the men. The men had heard it too, and she could see, in the corner of her eye, how they started running ahead. Only the man with the scar took it slow, took a last look around him, and then hurried forwards with his fellow men. Little could he or they know that it hadn't been the sound of a person, but more like some kind of animal. But she didn't complain. She stayed down for little while, watching the men disappear over the hill and making sure that they were really gone before she moved.
Then she crawled out, brushed some dirt of her clothes and stretched out. The sun had now pretty much gone away entirely, so she took off her shades, tilted her head up towards the sky and opened her gleaming, silver eyes, at the same time as she also opened her mouth a bit, as if to taste the night, the gesture revealing her two longer, sharpened teeth.
She was one of the “mutants”. One of the few who had gone out on their own, who didn't stay with a group, hiding from their enemies. No… she didn't believe in always hiding away like that, never going out, just because of the fear of others. And she was never a part of anything anymore. Not since her family had died. Not since her friends had gone away, died or just pushed her aside. Not since... well…
She saw no use to find new friends or anything of that sort now, just because the world seemed to be coming to its end. There was just no point, she thought.
Her name was Shadow.
She had had a different name before. Before the virus. Before the wars and before all of this. When she had still been just a human.... She never spoke that name. It was a curse. A link to a society that was gone. A link to a species she was no longer a part of. Then she hadn't been anything special. She had just been a normal, teenage girl. She had been like most others.
But now, she would never be like anyone else ever again. She was different. Older. Now she was strong. Fast. She had found that she had a natural talent for surviving. For beating the odds. For winning. And for killing…
Her hair fluttered in the wind as she pulled the hood of her head. She stood still, watching the broken moon slowly rise on the dark, night sky, while breathing slowly. “Breath in, Breath out”… It was her mothers voice whispering those words in her head now.
“Breath in, Breath out... Just take it slow, and try to relax honey...” that was what her mother had been saying when Shadow had been lying in the hospital bed, fighting for her life. Everyone had thought that she was going to die. Thought she had the virus. Which, of course, she did, in a way... it was just that at that time no one knew about the mutation.
As it turned out though, she survived them all…
She had been laying in that bed during most part of the wars. Mostly unconscious. She could remember her family being there a few times. Her mother crying and whispering to her. Then she remembered how they had stopped coming. And how she herself had gotten better, how she had changed. How she had been chased, persecuted. How she had found her sister and her parents. Dead… killed by the war, or... God knows what...
She could remember looking in to their empty, unseeing eyes... Feeling a part of herself die at that moment, when she was sitting on her knees besides them with tears falling like rain and thoughts like acid filling her mind...
It was all behind her now. It had been years since that happened. But she still remembered, even though she every day tried to forget…
She took a deep breath and started walking, slowly. She didn't quite know where she was going, but it didn't matter. She never knew. She just walked wherever her feet and senses lead her, without asking why. She knew she just had to keep moving. There was nothing else for her. She had nothing else left. No where specific to go.
So she walked, hoping to find a reason to stay alive, or a fight that would lead to her death. After maybe half an hour she closed in on the cave like place that was her home at the moment. She never stayed too long at one place, but for now, this was fine.
It was actually a kinda ideal place to stay, since it had several ways in and out, was well-hidden from people who didn't know it was there, and it was pretty easy to see if someone was on their way towards it, since it was surrounded by open spaces in all directions.
She stopped at a safe distance and looked around carefully, to see if someone was nearby. When she had concluded that no one else was there, she slowly started to make her way in through one of the back ways.
She listened carefully the entire time, and sort of sniffed and tasted the air, to sense if someone else had been there.
It was safe. As always.
When she had gotten in, she put her bag and mini-bag in a corner and lay down on the temporary bed she had made for herself. She put the rifle softly on the inside of the bed, right beside her long sword, and felt around under her pillow to make sure she didn't sting herself on one of the knifes she kept there.
She then stretched out and closed her eyes, her mind still tensely listening to and feeling the surroundings. It was one of the downsides of being who she was. She could never relax, her senses were always aware of everything and she had started acting somewhat paranoid sometimes.
But then of course, she had all right to do so, since pretty much everyone that was left of the entire mankind, was out to get her…
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--
"Left in the darkness of my sanity, fantasies of dust.
Subsiding in my darkest dreams, taunting calls of lust"
--
[ Tobias Vincent Solem ] # [ fisk ] # [ Deviant since 2001 ]
--
"Left in the darkness of my sanity, fantasies of dust.
Subsiding in my darkest dreams, taunting calls of lust"
--
Nescit Vox Missa Reverti
--
"Left in the darkness of my sanity, fantasies of dust.
Subsiding in my darkest dreams, taunting calls of lust"
ehmn.. I don't know.. sure.
--
"Left in the darkness of my sanity, fantasies of dust.
Subsiding in my darkest dreams, taunting calls of lust"
Chapter 1: By the Shadow
Walking among the rubble of society, a young woman was watching her surroundings carefully. She moved pieces of old furniture and debris away with the tips of her feet, looking for something she could make use of. Her big combat boots made a muffled sound on the ground with her light steps and the dust was whirling up around her legs.
She was wearing a pair of high-cut black shorts, a dark, sleeveless top and a pair of “netted” gloves. Over her shoulder she had a short rifle and around her waist she had an old, threaded, black mini-bag. She had a pair of shades covering her eyes and in a big bag in her hand she had a few things that she had found on her walk. That was the way people had to live now – the few that where left. They all lived off the leftovers from a world that had been destroyed years before.
No one knew how or why it had started. All they knew was that people had started getting sick. A new kind of disease that no one seemed to be able to find a cure to.
They had called it “Morner Disease”, after Abraham Linux Morner, the man who had been “
As the old civilization was nearing its end, wars had started. The different governments all thought that some other country was responsible for the crisis. The first week there had been discussions; lots of them, all futile. Then bombs started dropping, missiles began launching. After four weeks the United States, Britain, Russia and a handful of other countries where the only ones that still had some sort of government.
Big parts of Africa and Asia were nuclear bombed and all the large countries were constantly targeted for new bombings. After nine weeks, all contact between different countries was cut off, but the nightmare continued. Now home-made bombs and mines were pretty much everywhere, and there were very few buildings that hadn't been set on fire.
Of course, there was no winner, since most people were gone and the ones that were left had no way of communicating with anyone besides the few they ever met. No one could know how many others had survived, and very few cared anymore. But it wasn't until then, when the fighting had ceased and the wars were over, that the real horror started. That was when the human population was just about a third of what it had been before, and people were scared and lonely, but at least they were all immune to the virus that had started the disease.
Until it started mutating.
It was only a fraction of the remaining population that got the new form of the virus, but it was all that was needed. You see, the mutation meant that the person who got the virus changed, turned in to something that didn't always entirely resemble a human being anymore. The people who had this new virus grew longer canines, they turned tall and slim, and their skin took a slight bluish colour. Their eyes often had a silver colour and the mutated people were stronger, faster and had better hearing than the average human.
The people who got the mutation thought that it was more like a blessing than a disease. Maybe even the next step in the human evolution. But the “
So the pure tried to make the mutated submissive. They treated them as something less then human. Even less than an animal. Many of the mutated people were beaten, abused and even killed. Then the Pure and the Mutated were soon divided – like mortal enemies, killing their opponents any chance they got.
That was why the woman was walking so carefully and was so aware of her surroundings. She didn't want to run in to anyone from the opposite side. She knew it was dangerous to walk alone in these days, it made her more open to an attack. It made her more vulnerable. But she didn't care.
She was a very skilled fighter and she was always took precautions, always stayed alert. Besides, she liked the danger; she liked the rush of it. She liked walking alone with only her own abilities to rely on. Not having to rely on anyone else, or having to look after someone.
No. It was much better this way. Walking alone…
She bent down to pick up a small jewel of some sort and her long, electric blue, elf-like hair fell down in front of her face. She had found a small heart formed pendant, buckled from several years of being stepped on, and with a few black spots on it, as if it had been in a fire. As she raised herself up again, she put the pendant around her neck. She smiled softly to herself and stroke the hair gently out of her face, as she calmly continued forward towards the now setting sun.
Then her senses suddenly picked up a soft sound, almost undetectable, but still there, and she twitched. She listened carefully, eyes closed and her face tilted up towards the sky. Now she heard it perfectly and she could feel the vibrations inside herself. There were people coming her way. They were still several hundred meters away and couldn't have spotted her yet, but they were heading in her direction and if she didn't move, they would see her as soon as they came closer.
She looked around to find a place to hide, at the same time as she calmly continued to listen. It was a whole group, maybe ten or fifteen people. Most probably men, as far as she could hear. Just a little bit in front of her, she saw an old cellar almost completely covered by rubbish and pieces of the building above it. It was the best place to hide nearby, and she hurried towards it.
As she crawled in, she made sure to pull some more things over the hole behind her, so that the men wouldn't see it if they weren't looking too closely. She pulled up a long, black, leather coat from her bag, and quickly put it on, pulling the hood over her head – hiding her hair and any of her clothes that might draw attention from the otherwise grey and colourless surroundings.
The people came into sight no more than two minutes later. There were thirteen of them and, just as she had suspected, they were all men. They were laughing loudly, stumbling on their words since they were drunk, and obviously uncaring if someone heard them or not. They probably figured they were pretty safe, being so many. Stupid. If they met their enemies in that condition, they'd be dead in seconds.
Not that she cared too much. They were not her allies. Witch of course was why she pulled closer in to the shadows and kept quiet. Though they probably wouldn't spot her unless she got up and ran right in front of them, she figured there was no shame in continuing being careful. She didn't Have to fight these men, so she wouldn't. There was no point.
She studied the men a bit closer as they continued their slow walk ahead. And she found that they were pretty much alike. They all seemed to be strong, but not slim nor very muscular. Men who probably mostly relied on their sheer size to beat their opponents. All of them were wearing colourless clothes, as most did these days, and on their feet they had boots or sneakers – which was no surprise either.
There was only one man who wasn't quite like the rest there. He was walking at the side of the group, not saying anything and keeping a close check on the surroundings. She found herself watching the man with a bit more interest then she had with the rest. He was mostly watching the hills a bit away, as to make sure no one was coming towards them from there, but he was also looking at the buildings, to make sure there was no ambush or surprise of any sort waiting for them anywhere.
She quietly thought about what it would be like to fight the man, since he seemed more experienced than many she had met. At the same time, she continued studying him.
He was not very much taller than the other men, but he was slimmer. Seemed to be a trained soldier of some skill. His eyes were like those of a hawk when he looked around, and his body seemed constantly tense, as if always ready for combat.
He also had a scar running over his left eye, which made him look very harsh and kind of scary, like the boogie-man in some children's story she couldn't quite remember the name of. When the men were just straight ahead from where she was hiding, she bent her head down and even held her breath so that she wouldn't move and make her presence noticed, her trained heart now slowing down to a point where it almost seemed to stop.
Then she heard it. A sound on the other side of the hill right in front of the men. The men had heard it too, and she could see, in the corner of her eye, how they started running ahead. Only the man with the scar took it slow, took a last look around him, and then hurried forwards with his fellow men. Little could he or they know that it hadn't been the sound of a person, but more like some kind of animal. But she didn't complain. She stayed down for little while, watching the men disappear over the hill and making sure that they were really gone before she moved.
Then she crawled out, brushed some dirt of her clothes and stretched out. The sun had now pretty much gone away entirely, so she took off her shades, tilted her head up towards the sky and opened her gleaming, silver eyes, at the same time as she also opened her mouth a bit, as if to taste the night, the gesture revealing her two longer, sharpened teeth.
She was one of the “mutants”. One of the few who had gone out on their own, who didn't stay with a group, hiding from their enemies. No… she didn't believe in always hiding away like that, never going out, just because of the fear of others. And she was never a part of anything anymore. Not since her family had died. Not since her friends had gone away, died or just pushed her aside. Not since... well…
She saw no use to find new friends or anything of that sort now, just because the world seemed to be coming to its end. There was just no point, she thought.
Her name was Shadow.
She had had a different name before. Before the virus. Before the wars and before all of this. When she had still been just a human.... She never spoke that name. It was a curse. A link to a society that was gone. A link to a species she was no longer a part of. Then she hadn't been anything special. She had just been a normal, teenage girl. She had been like most others.
But now, she would never be like anyone else ever again. She was different. Older. Now she was strong. Fast. She had found that she had a natural talent for surviving. For beating the odds. For winning. And for killing…
Her hair fluttered in the wind as she pulled the hood of her head. She stood still, watching the broken moon slowly rise on the dark, night sky, while breathing slowly. “Breath in, Breath out”… It was her mothers voice whispering those words in her head now.
“Breath in, Breath out... Just take it slow, and try to relax honey...” that was what her mother had been saying when Shadow had been lying in the hospital bed, fighting for her life. Everyone had thought that she was going to die. Thought she had the virus. Which, of course, she did, in a way... it was just that at that time no one knew about the mutation.
As it turned out though, she survived them all…
She had been laying in that bed during most part of the wars. Mostly unconscious. She could remember her family being there a few times. Her mother crying and whispering to her. Then she remembered how they had stopped coming. And how she herself had gotten better, how she had changed. How she had been chased, persecuted. How she had found her sister and her parents. Dead… killed by the war, or... God knows what...
She could remember looking in to their empty, unseeing eyes... Feeling a part of herself die at that moment, when she was sitting on her knees besides them with tears falling like rain and thoughts like acid filling her mind...
It was all behind her now. It had been years since that happened. But she still remembered, even though she every day tried to forget…
She took a deep breath and started walking, slowly. She didn't quite know where she was going, but it didn't matter. She never knew. She just walked wherever her feet and senses lead her, without asking why. She knew she just had to keep moving. There was nothing else for her. She had nothing else left. No where specific to go.
So she walked, hoping to find a reason to stay alive, or a fight that would lead to her death. After maybe half an hour she closed in on the cave like place that was her home at the moment. She never stayed too long at one place, but for now, this was fine.
It was actually a kinda ideal place to stay, since it had several ways in and out, was well-hidden from people who didn't know it was there, and it was pretty easy to see if someone was on their way towards it, since it was surrounded by open spaces in all directions.
She stopped at a safe distance and looked around carefully, to see if someone was nearby. When she had concluded that no one else was there, she slowly started to make her way in through one of the back ways.
She listened carefully the entire time, and sort of sniffed and tasted the air, to sense if someone else had been there.
It was safe. As always.
When she had gotten in, she put her bag and mini-bag in a corner and lay down on the temporary bed she had made for herself. She put the rifle softly on the inside of the bed, right beside her long sword, and felt around under her pillow to make sure she didn't sting herself on one of the knifes she kept there.
She then stretched out and closed her eyes, her mind still tensely listening to and feeling the surroundings. It was one of the downsides of being who she was. She could never relax, her senses were always aware of everything and she had started acting somewhat paranoid sometimes.
But then of course, she had all right to do so, since pretty much everyone that was left of the entire mankind, was out to get her…
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