Evelyn Earth Part 33

“It’s people like him that we can’t rely on” Sebastian seethed, “I don’t even know if I can rely on myself. We are all human after all. Our emotions could change what we believe in in a split second” he spun around to face me “we aren’t reliable Evelyn, how could She have trusted us with so much power?”

“Calm down” I put a hand on his chest and a flicker of my power transferred to him. I felt the fear and indecision that was broiling inside him. We weren’t much different after all, not on the inside. We were both caught up in something so tremendously huge that our tiny human minds couldn’t full comprehend everything that was going on.

“I think we’ve talked enough for today—too much actually. The other warrior will be here by nightfall, all we have to do now is wait, wait and not worry about all of this.”

He nodded in agreement, but his face was still creased with concern.

Travis, Gerard and Izwan came into the clearing led by Sloan and Sebastian’s features instantly resumed their previous hardness.

“Alright lads” he said and I smiled at the typical English expression.

“Sloan says something new has come up?” Travis mumbled up while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“We’ve made contact with another fighter. Two actually” Sebastian answered.

“One is on his, or her, way here. They should arrive when the sun sets, but the other sent out what you could call a distress call” I added.

“Distress call?” Gerard repeated.

“We received images of a lot of dead bodies and fire, the fighter was scared, but Evs here thinks it might be a trap.”

“I’m not sure, but it seemed way too convenient. The plan is to stay put until the other warrior arrives and then we’ll take it from there.”

“I’m not even going to ask how you two did, whatever it is that you did. As long as you’re sure Snow then that’s all I need to know” Travis said sombrely. The others all seemed to agree, even Sloan although I thought I could detect a trace of annoyance emanating from him. I guessed that it had something to do with my sudden inauguration into their group. It had been all well and good when Sebastian was the only one he had to defer to, but now that I was here it made him seem even more insignificant.

“What we do until it get dark?” Izwan spoke up.

“Whatever you like boys. Just stay out of trouble and be here when the sun sets.”

I took that as a sign to disperse and began to walk back to the Asian grocery store. My stomach was rumbling and I needed to fill it with something solid. It looked like I wasn’t impervious to all human needs after all. I ducked through the hole that Sebastian had created and began roaming the aisles. I grabbed a bag of shrimp crackers, a huge bottle of jasmine green tea and what looked like dry Goji berries, but I couldn’t be sure since all the writing was foreign to me. I didn’t relish the idea of eating inside this dank store so I made my way back outside.

Izwan was leaning up against the wall and gave me a slight nod as I marched past him. The others were nowhere in sight and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had been surrounded by people continuously for days and I desperately craved alone time.

I walked for a few minutes before I found what I was looking for; a relatively small building with a flat roof. I placed my food haul carefully on the ground and craned my neck backwards. I needed to get up onto that roof, but how? I could knock down the adjacent building and use it as stepping blocks to get to the top, but it could attract unwanted attention. We still had no idea if there were scavengers still roaming the city streets and I did not feel like disintegrating any human beings this morning.

I walked up to the shopfront and placed my hand on the smooth wall. Closing my eyes I concentrated a tiny amount of energy into my palm and felt the solid mass melt away under my touch. I could do this quietly and effortlessly I realised.

I placed my other palm on the wall and allowed my power to flow through me, slowly and steadily. With no one around to distract me my dragon seemed much more pliable and less volatile. He uncurled his long tail and stretched languidly through my fingertips.

I opened my eyes and frowned. The whole shop was gone. I placed my hands on my hips and took a step backwards. The whole street was lined with similar shops and my ebony tinged hands itched to obliterate each and every one of them, but I was hungry dammit and I needed to conserve my energy for tonight’s meeting.

Sighing I stepped onto the soft dirt that had appeared from under the confines of the concrete building and took another look around. By eliminating this shop I had revealed a hidden access ladder that led to the roof of the shop behind it. I quickly grabbed my food and began the awkward climb to the roof. Once I was at the top I made my way to the front of the building and swung my legs over the edge. I had a pretty decent view of the city and the sun was shining right onto the spot I had picked. I popped open the shrimp cracker packet and dug in. If only I was sitting atop a grassy mountain, with trees billowing behind me and birds soaring overhead. I grimaced at the mental thought, which sounded like a badly composed line of poetry and laughed out loud at my own ridiculousness.

No matter how much I wanted freedom and green grass I belonged here, amongst the mess that man had created, where my power crackled within me waiting to cleanse everything around it.

Just as I was scooping the last crumbs of the shrimp crackers from the packet and feeling content a movement in the distance caught my attention and made my blood slow.

A group of roughly ten men were making their way along the street below me. As quickly as I could I scampered backwards, swinging my legs under me and landing flat on my stomach. It didn’t look like they had spotted me and I cursed myself for not seeing them sooner. They were practically under the shop I was sitting on top of and as they moved past I caught a glimpse of what they were saying, for all the good that it did me. They were speaking another language.

One man laughed loudly and pushed one of the others as he exclaimed something in what sounded to me like Portuguese. The others replied in the same easy going tone and continued ambling down the middle of the road.

I rolled onto my back and listened harder. If I had far-sight then I should have abnormally good hearing as well. I listened until they had turned a corner and jumped up. I had to find Sebastian and fast, if this group of scavengers, if that’s what they were, stumbled on Izwan or any of the others they would be in trouble. I knew that I didn’t need to worry so much about his group of men, but something of the old Evelyn still remained inside me and that something wanted to help her friends.