Shadows of Ash and Flame: Part One

It has been five years since the world ended.

Not with a bang or a final, noble stand—but with silence, and the monstrous scraping of something not quite human lurking in the shadow of darkness.

I was twelve when they broke out.

They called it Project Eden—some bright idea born in some scientist in a concrete bunker hidden beneath Capitol soil. Bioweapons that were supposed to replace soldiers, so less human lives would be killed during war times. Designed to be fast, adaptive, and obedient.

They were everything but obedient.

The day they broke free, the sky turned gray and never went back. Fires lit the horizon, sirens screamed for hours, along with the painful cries of people being killed, and then there was nothing. My parents tried to get us out of the city telling us it was safer outside of the city. We didn’t make it. Not all of us, anyway.

Brian was only five when they died. I told him they’d be back, to help keep him calm, but I don’t know if I was saying that for more his benefit or mine. I told him they went to find help and when they did they would be back for us. He believed it for a while.

Now he’s ten, with too sharp eyes and questions I didn’t have the answers to. I have raised and taken care of him on my own since the world turned to ash.

Keep us alive. That’s my most important job.

Today, we’ve made it father north than ever. This is the direction the fliers said that there was a safe haven with the promise of shelter, food, and most of all protection. Lies, probably, but hope is one hell of a drug that can cling to one’s vulnerability.

We were traveling just outside one of the old big cities border, coming across a neighborhood. The homes once filled with families now looked like skeletons—windows smashed, doors unhinged, paint peeled like burnt torn skin. Trees overgrown and wilds taking back what is theirs, roots cracking through the sidewalks. In one yard a rusted tricycle lies in the grass like a ghost of someone’s yesterday.

I looked back making sure Brian was still behind me and hadn’t wandered off.

“We’ll rest here,” I tell him. “Stay close, we don’t know if one of those things could be near by.”

He adjust the straps on his too—big backpack looking up at me with tired eyes. I wish I could give him something more than this—living day by day just to survive. He should be able to just be a kid and have a normal childhood.

We start scouting the first house we come to together. It’s a single story with a sagging roof on one side, but the walls are still intact. We enter the house and go right checking every room, every open closet, moving slowly making sure to be quiet like prey with each step.

Once we make our way through the whole house making sure it’s clear, I turn and face Brian bringing myself to his eye level.

“I’m going to go check a few of the other houses. You stay here and lock the door. Do not come out no matter what got it?”

“Why can’t I just co—” I cut the rest of his sentence short with one look. He nods solemn. “I will.”

I pull the last protein bar we had found in the last spot we had searched.

“Don’t eat it all at once.”

He looks back at me with worry filled eyes. “Okay,” he whispers.

I brush his hair back out of his eyes. “I’ll be back before you even miss me. Who knows I may find a grand treasure in one of these old houses.”

I turned and left him shutting the front door behind me waiting to hear the click of the lock before going any further.

The air outside smells like mildew and distant smoke. I move through the empty houses one by one as fast as I can, making sure to not leave anything overlooked. The first house had mold growing up the walls and vines growing in through broken windows, the second house just had shattered glass littering the floor. I was starting to think that there would be nothing of use, that we wasted time searching this abandoned neighborhood for nothing.

I got to the third house thinking that it will be just like the last two, nothing left to salvage, when I opened a cabinet door below the sink I was met with the most beautiful site.

A pack of bandages, still sealed even which you can never have too many medical supplies on hand. But that wasn’t what had me grinning from ear to ear, no what I saw was three glorious dented cans of beans that might not kill us if I boiled them long enough.

I grabbed them before they could disappear placing them into my pack and turned to move on to the next house what I heard it.

A scream. Not just any scream, Brians.

My heart stops the world around me narrowing.

Oh no, Brian.

I drop the pack sprinting out of the house, feet pounding over cracked asphalt, my lungs burning before my brain can even process what is going on. I slam through the front door of the first house where I had left Brian—

And I freeze staring at the scene before me.

A guy, my age, maybe a year or two older, standing in what used to be a living room. He didn’t seemed armed, just stood there holding his hands up like he is trying to calm a wild animal. My wild animal.

I could see Brian on the other side of him, eyes wide but unharmed.

“You have three seconds to step away from him before I start removing body parts!” I shout at the mysterious guy, blade raised, just in case.

He turns around slowly facing me then his eyes land on my knife.

“Hey—whoa, it’s okay,” the guy says quickly. “I didn’t touch him, I didn’t even know anyone was even in here. I was scoping houses when I found him in here alone. I thought—”

“You thought wrong,” I cut him off. “Now step away from my brother now, I will not repeat myself again.” I grit through my teeth. Making sure to not take my eyes off him for even a second.

He stands there for a second longer before realizing that I was not joking. He moves slowly to the other side of the room.

“Look, I’m not trying to look for any trouble. My name is Xander, I was just scavenging for supplies, I am assuming the same as you.”

He stood about six foot tall give or take an inch or two with short choppy dark hair. He probably gives himself a haircut, his face is sharp jawline but not cruel looking. He looks…normal, almost too normal for the world we live in now.

My instincts were telling me to not trust him a single bit.

Movement from behind this new acquaintance draws my focus away and to Brian who is edging out from behind this Xander and towards where I stood.

“He didn’t hurt me Dani, see,” Brian starts Turing around in a circle giving me a clear view to see that he indeed was unharmed. “I screamed because I thought he was a Blightkin. He scared me as I didn’t hear any noise, but I don’t think he means any harm.”

I keep my blade raised. “And you just know this after just a few seconds with this total stranger? He could be a serial killer for all we know.”

“Ouch, standing right here.”

“I don’t care.” I snapped back at him.

I looked back to where my brother stood.

“He also could not be a serial killer, maybe he is just like us and jut trying to find a safe place.” He stated matter of factly.

“We haven’t seen another single living human being in miles then just out of the blue one shows up and he just so happens to not be the murder criminal kind. Yea I am not buying that for one second.” I made sure to look at Xander making sure he knew I didn’t buy any of his bullshit.

“Look I get it you don’t trust easily, which I am not hating on, but I can say for one hundred percent certainty that I am not one of those murdery criminal kind of people. I am just trying to survive just like everyone else left in this world.”

“Hey maybe he can come with us, please Dani you know the odds of someone surviving on their own out there.”

I mentally groaned, why did my trusting brother have to ask that of me. I should just go with my instincts and tell this stranger to go. I should follow him out and make sure he doesn’t try to double back and ambush us.

“We barely have enough to keep us alive let alone to try and stretch between another person bud.” I try explaining.

“I don’t need any handouts, I can survive on what I find myself.” Xander added in. Like he even had a say in this conversation to begin with.

I just kept looking back at Brian wanting to tell him no that can’t tag along with us, but something in Brian’s look keeps me from voicing this. How long has it been since we had come across another normal human being? It has only been just the two of us since mom and dad died. Dad made me promise to always protect Brian and to never let anyone close enough to hurt us.

I lower the blade, just a little.

“I don’t care what con or game you are up to or what you even want,” I say, keeping my voice low and cold letting this guy know I am not joking. “But if you even as so much breath wrong near my brother, I will gut you with my own two hands and leave you to be food for the Blightkin to feast upon.”

Xander gulps and nods once. “Understood, you won’t even know I am here.”