Guardian. A brother and sister run through the empty and desolate streets, a pack of rabid, or maybe just hungry, dogs ran behind them. The sister held her little brother close. If the dogs got to her, they wouldn’t get to him. She’d make sure of that. He was only eleven and he still had a future ahead of him, as bleak as this world was now. They had made it this far. They were almost to the coast, almost home. But the dogs were growing ever so close, so she whispered in his ear “run as fast as you can” and then raising her voice “GO” and he took off. She climbed the sea of cars that they we weaving through, and drew her bow. She swiftly drew and shot the arrows as quick as she could. She hit the two dogs in front in their throats in her first two shots. Her not three shots weren’t so lucky, all misses. Her nerves were impeding her more than necessary. There were only three dogs left. She had to assure herself that she could do it a few times before she drew again. Sprinting over all these cars threw off her aim. But she focused and hit one dog in the leg and it smacked against the asphalt. She took aim at another, but it pounced on her brother. He was ready for it though, and plunged his knife into the mangy creatures neck. The last one knew it’s fate and attempted to flee but not before it caught a swift arrow through the skulls. The two of them walked off of the highway into a little town area. Nature had been attempting to take back this place, vines and plants grew all throughout the streets. It looked like the place hadn’t felt the touch of a person in at least 20 years. “Sis, sis I’m scared” she rubbed the dirt and smut away from his eye “Hush now, little Snatcher. Nothing to be scared of. This town is empty.” She led him towards an empty old diner with scribbles on the sign she could not fathom understanding. “What if there are ghosts?” He asked her, seemingly about to cry. “There are no such thing….” she took a pause and looked up at the sky. It was dark and dreary out. “And if there were…. we would be the ghosts. Left to haunt this world for a very, very long time.” She wiped the tears from his eyes and ushered him to bed. She then kept watch for 3 hours, before drifting off to sleep herself. When she awoke, he was already moving about. He was cooking rabbit, he must have caught himself. That Snatcher was quite the quick learner, which was a very useful trait in this new world. After eating she grabbed a map, and departed. There were only a few miles off from the dockhouse their grandmother and grandfather apparently owned. That’s what she read in that note her mother left her, at least. They just had to head to the other side of town and take the railroad tunnels. It could be really safe… or extremely dangerous. But she was confident enough in her skills that they’d make it. She held him as close as she could as they moved through the old streets. “Broadway” the sign read, she could read that much. “I wonder…. I wonder what people used to do here?” she asked her brother. Little Snatcher wondered for awhile and said “I think over there they used to dance and sing” as he pointed to a court yard, overgrown with shrubs and grass. “Oh, and over there I bet they used to all take bathes and get all clean for when he returned!” He said as he pointed to a fountain, although neither of them truly knew what it was. “Him?” She asked “Who is ‘Him’?” he looked at her and laughed “HIM” he said as he pointed to a winged statue in front of a tall building with beautiful painted glass. She studied the figure for a while. “You know, Snatcher, that looks a lot like you.” And it did. Although the figure was blank, it shared a similar structure as the boy. Of course, it was a lot more clean than him. ”Hey! Look! Lights!” he exclaimed, without reacting to her observation, and pointed to a big red building that simply said “FIRE”. “Fire? That building doesn’t look like fire.” She muttered. “Is that where fire can be made!?” Snatcher asked very excitedly. It was rather cold. And they could use some shelter. It had been many light cycles since they last saw another person! Maybe someone was in there, and willing to talk to them! So they went in, ever so carefully. Not knowing what they’d find. Joyous laughter of two men echoed through the halls. They followed the noise. The men both pulled out guns as soon as the two entered the room. “Woah, hey there little girl, and… boy” They said lowering their defenses. “Come on over here, get something to eat, you must be starving.” She did not like the way they looked. “No, I’m sorry, we stumbled in here by accident. We must be going” She tugged little Snatcher. The men drew their guns again. “No, we insist. Eat.” They looked like rotten corpses amongst the living. They had no sense of care for their wellbeing, and that was easy to tell. She didn’t know what they wanted with a young girl and boy, and didn’t want to know. So she walked towards the men with her hands up, and quickly shoved an arrow in ones knee and shot at the other using his gun. But unfortunately she missed every shot, but so did he. So they ran. Running again. The man was on their tail. She could tell that he wanted revenge and all she had to do was get distance and she could best him. So she ran towards the building with the painted glass, with Snatcher on her back. It wasn’t a far run and once she got to the building she easily busted through the door and down the corridor, which was filled with long chairs and cobwebs. He was right behind her though. So she was going to have to try and different approach than archery. She threw Snatcher towards a back door and he landed on his feet and ran right out. She really appreciated the fact that he always knew what she wanted him to do in these situations. The man was tired out after running around the seats for about a minute, and that gave her a window to run outside, draw her arrow, and fire. But something caused her shot to miss and the man caught up to her. He pushed her down and jumped on top of her. Clutching his hands around her neck and squeezing ever so tight. As her consciousness faded she swore she heard singing. Beautiful singing. Like her mother used to, when she was little. She awoke covered in blood and the man was nowhere in sight… well pieces of him were. Different pieces of his body were scattered throughout the stone courtyard. There stood little Snatcher, with tear-filled eyes looking ever so frightened. “Did you…?” but before she could finish asking he said “No.” and pointed to where the statue had once been, and it was gone.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 05:41:00 +0000
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