Evelyn Earth Part 37

The Earth shook, one thunderous boom after another sent seismic waves throughout the area. My eyes would focus on one falling building before losing sight only to regain the vision of crumbling walls. Sounds swam in and out of my consciousness, voices, screams and gentle whispers. I couldn’t feel the sun on my skin anymore. The darkness churned inside me, restless, but unable to break free.

                My throat felt dry. I tried to swallow, but my tonsils were so swollen that only a rasp of air made it through. I summoned up as much saliva as I could and gulped it down only to choke. A coughing fit took hold of me and I clutched at my neck in pain.

                I felt a hand on my back and instinctively shied away from it. Where was I? It was dark and the ground I was lying on was freezing. I barked out the last remnants of air left within my lungs and inhaled deeply through my nose. The hand returned to stroke my back and I shrugged it off before rolling over. I was expecting to see stars, or feel a breeze on my skin, but a decaying ceiling stared back at me sending wafts of mould to overwhelm my senses.

               

                I brought my hand to my nose and mouth and looked around me. I was in a storage room. Papers and cardboard boxes were piled all along the walls and ancient metal filing cabinets acted as seats around one large metal table which had been turned upside down and piled high with burned debris. Left over embers cast a feint red light over everything, making shadows seem more sinister than they already were.

                “Você está bem?”

                I turned at the sound of his voice and saw in the dim light that it was Manoel. None of the other boys were around. I struggled to sit up, but another coughing fit ensued, which left me doubled over with specks of blood on the floor.

                “Fuck” I wheezed, “where am I?” I looked at Manoel and he was quick to answer me with a jumble of words that I did not understand. I motioned for him to help me up and he hauled me onto my feet. The ground swayed for a moment, but I kept my hand on his shoulder until my equilibrium returned.

He led me slowly to the door and waited as I struggled to stand on my own two feet without his support. I nodded once I was sure I could continue on my own and he turned the handle. My first thought was that we were in the belly of a large office, but a gust of wind whipped my hair away from my face and revealed the drastically changed landscape before me.

Directly in front of me lay a wasteland of building carcases, half destroyed cars and empty fields of dirt. I took a few hesitant steps out into the open and turned to look at the building I had come from. I recognised the tall double towers as being what used to be the Sofitel Hotel on Collins Street. I had been inside once for a dinner date and remembered how impressed I had been by the space, well now I could see right into it. Half of the building was missing, leaving its insides exposed and protruding.  

“Shit” I whistled. As far as I could see things were either damaged or falling apart. In some areas there was nothing at all. This time around it seemed that I had stretched my darkness pretty damn far, but hadn’t held out long enough for it to consume everything in its path, just bits and pieces. 

Manoel said something and pointed to my left. A tall tower had collapsed blocking off any path that led to the west side of the city. I looked towards the east and saw only destruction.

“We go north then?” I asked pointing ahead of me. Manoel shook his head in an “I don’t know” gesture and pointed at himself and then at me. He said some names that belonged to the other boys and gestured behind him.

“They didn’t want to stick around huh, I’m surprised you’re still here” I said sarcastically. I did save all of their lives, destroyed gods knows how much of the city in the process, but I probably looked like the devil doing it so it was no wonder they split.

We stood there for a while basking in the awkward silence until I began feeling light headed. I looked up to the stars and felt as if I could reach up and touch them. I stretched out my hand and tried to grasp one in between my thumb and my forefinger.

Manoel caught me before I hit the ground and carried me back inside. In my fatigued state I watched through half open eyes as he struggled to get the fire going again. I was surprised that he had managed to start one in the first place and I marvelled at the resilience of man.

Rays of sun danced across my eyelids. They made orange and ochre spheres that swam in and out of focus. I smiled and opened my eyes and the small circles of light quickly turned black and made my head spin.

“Urghh” I moaned as I covered my eyes with my hand. I leaned up on my elbows and saw that Manoel had built us beds made out of paper. With the lack of fire the insulation from the scattered sheets was probably the only thing that had kept us warm all night. My throat was still sore though and I didn’t relish the idea of catching the flu in the midst of our Earth revolution.

I got up quietly so as not to wake my protector and stumbled through the half open door. That’s strange, I thought, why would he go through so much trouble to keep us warm and then leave the door open? I shielded my eyes from the glare of the sun and looked around.

The destruction looked even worse in day light and the smell was horrible. There must have been a load of flammables that were set off when things began to topple down. I counted at least twelve smoke spires in the distance and three burning cars that I could clearly see. Why didn’t Manoel just go out and bring back some fire if he couldn’t start his own. Idiot.

I picked my way through the debris that lay before the hotel until I found a patch of soft dirt. I sank down onto my knees and pressed my forehead into the ground. The world fell away until all I saw was the terrain. Undulating mounds of Earth spread out before me and I traced the way that I had come. It was easier than I thought, I didn’t even need to think, the Earth already knew where I had been and She showed me the way with a thin silvery line.

Seeing that made me think of Her web and I wondered if I should try and access it, to get into contact with Sebastian. The other warrior would have arrived last night and I had no idea what was going on beyond my own fuck ups. I needed to find out if they were still in the same place where I had left them.

I pressed my fingers deeper into the dirt and sunk my consciousness in with them. An image of the world materialised before me and I zoned in on myself. Glowing lines intersected everywhere and I was careful not to tap into any of them. I simply wanted to see, not to interact. It still seemed suspicious to me that the Mothers web wouldn’t look anything like what she had shown me in my vision.

My pulsating darkness was evident straight away, as I expanded my view two more beacons of pitch black appeared. They were moving side by side and I assumed that it must be Sebastian and the other warrior. Just as I was about to disconnect another flash of darkness caught my eye. It was not too far away from me and seemed to be fading before my eyes. I hesitated before reaching out to it, but what if this was Sebastian and he was in danger?

A deep sensation of pain filled me as I connected with the faded beacon. I cried out in agony as images of searing white light and burning bodies rushed before my inner eye. The pain was unbelievably strong and as much as I wanted to I couldn’t disconnect myself from it. It had trapped me like a fly in a spider’s web and that’s when it clicked. If you captured and tortured an Earth soldier, anyone who tried to make contact with them would fall into the same loop hole of pain. We were all connected in the web after all, all part of the same being, able to feel each other’s pain. The Angels had used the Mother’s web against us and now that they had me they could kill me by proxy.

I cried out again as I felt a stabbing pain in my left shoulder. One scream, two screams, another stab; to the thigh. A familiar presence tingled at the edge of my thoughts and with the last remnants of my will power I sent out an image of my face screaming ‘disconnect’ before two strong hands yanked me off the ground and slammed me down onto solid concrete severing the connection with the web.

“No, no, no, no, no” I cried as tears welled up in my eyes and fell down my cheeks. It had been Sebastian, reaching for me, knowing that I was dying. Images of burning bodies and death were a warning to us, a warning not to connect from the poor warrior they held captive. I just hoped that he received my message and understood how imperative it was to disconnect.

“Evelyn what’s the matter, talk to me, Evie!”

My tears kept flowing and the panic in my heart wouldn’t subside long enough for me to register what was happening around me. My thigh and my shoulder were still burning in pain and I clutched at the two spots in desperation.

                The strong hands grabbed at my wrists and pulled my arms apart.

                “Calm down!” a voice yelled.

                “Make it stop! Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, make it stop!” I moaned. I felt the dress I was wearing being ripped off me and the sharp intake of breath as the person on top of me looked down at me. For a split second his upper body blocked out the blinding light of the sun and I saw his face.

                “Owen?” I cried.