Evelyn Earth Part 51

“This revolution will be the first of its kind. We can only learn so much from history, before we hit a road block of difference” I muttered to myself. Everything that I had read about ancient civilisations and their downfalls was whirling around in my head. In almost every case that I had studied humanity had exhausted the natural resources around them, which lead to their inability to continue living in the way that they were accustomed.

Slowly, step by step though civilisations re-built themselves and made the same mistakes as their predecessors—in our case on a global scale. There had never been a check and balance system that had extended to every living person on the planet. What if we, as Earth Warriors could create such a system?

“Everything depends on the actions of others” Bas said, “the actions of others with power to be more specific. If there are more Earth and Sun soldiers like Audrey then to put it lightly, we’re all fucked.”

“So we do what we can” I shrugged.

“We do what we can” Bas echoed softly. His fingers squeezed mine tightly and I felt the build-up of power coursing through him.

The first block of houses fell before us. They crumbled silently in mid-air, pieces of mortar floated on the cool breeze before they too were sucked into nothingness. As we moved closer towards the city we became more eager to consume larger and larger blocks of land.

The boys scouted the area before us calling out to anyone who could hear them.

“Show yourselves or be killed! Danger, danger! We are sweeping this block, come out now or be crushed in the demolition!” They tried all sorts of tactics, making it sound as if tradies were levelling the area, or that there was a bomb in the vicinity, but no one came out.

In the first day we never did know if we had killed anybody. We could have been killing people at every stop, but we didn’t care. By the time the sun had begun to set we had cleared an immense amount of land.

“I want to see how it looks from high up” I panted. I was out of breath and my head was pounding. Every time I lifted my arm to brush the sweat off my forehead I saw that my hand was trembling and that my skin had taken on a leathery texture.

“Hold onto me” Bas said. His hand felt course and scratchy like paper that had been soaked wet and then left out to dry in the sun. His eyes focussed onto the ground and the familiar tingle of his miasma spread underneath our feet. His pupils shook abnormally as he concentrated harder and I felt my own eyes zone in on his to examine them further. They were pitch black in a sea of gun metal grey and they vibrated ever so slightly. I was about to comment on this before someone interrupted me.

“Can we see as well?” Travis asked. He was sitting on the ground holding onto his side. Out of all the boys he had done the most scouting. While Bas and I rested between each cleanse, he Izzy and Sloan would spread out in the next area and call out to anyone that was there to listen. Travis scouted inside buildings, searching likely places that people would be hiding while Sloan simply slunk around yelling out warnings of doom and destruction. Izwan had good intentions, but he really was like a helpless baby lamb that needed to be guided in order to survive or succeed.

Bas nodded his head without breaking his gaze with the ground. Izwan who had been standing behind Travis helped him up off the ground and they came to stand beside us. Sloan didn’t move. He stood cradling his injured arm with an expression of fatigue and defiance.

I was worried about him as well. I wasn’t sure how we would spend the night. Both me and Bas had pushed ourselves to the point of fainting and we were in no condition to sleep with one eye open, figuratively speaking. Frankly I was surprised that he had stuck around after I removed his finger, which made me question his motives.

The ground beneath us undulated and rumbled as Bas coaxed it to amass beneath our feet and raise us up into the air. I had to stop thinking and concentrate on not falling off. We had to stand with our feet wide apart to compensate for the roiling motion of the pillar as it extended itself higher and higher into the sky. With a laboured breath Bas clapped his hands together and the pillar solidified.

“Wow” I sighed. It was as if we were on the bank of an ocean. To one side waves and waves of crushed metal and partially destroyed buildings lay motionless while on the other liberated trees swayed in the wind amongst fields of grass and freshly exposed soil.

“It still looks so neat” Bas said.

“You know what quote keeps popping into my head?” I said.

“What?”

“I’m sure I’ve said it before, but ‘God doesn’t build in straight lines’”

“Hmm I know what you mean. The grass is still in squares and the trees are mostly in line with each other. It doesn’t look as natural as I thought it would.”

“Are you disappointed?” I asked.

“A little bit” he mumbled.

“Everything takes time. You can’t expect the Mother to reclaim everything in a day.”

“This is the part where you say the most overused quote ever.”

“Nope, not going to go there” I smiled and leant into his chest. I felt his heart beating spasmodically and mine instantly sped up to match his.

“We’re not okay are we?” I whispered into the sweet skin of his neck. I felt him shake his head from side to side.

“How many more days do you think we can do this?”

“If we rest maybe five or six before we die.”

                “Die?” Travis exclaimed.

                “It’s not as simple as it looks” Bas chuckled. My head moved up and down with the motion of his chest. I pressed myself closer into him and closed my eyes. After my last episode I had felt as if I were burned out. I knew that it had damaged me somehow, but I hadn’t dwelled on it. Now with so much sustained exertion I could feel something was terribly wrong inside me.

I could feel a cough bubbling up inside my throat and I tried to supress it but it came out  with a harsh splutter.  I clamped a hand over my mouth and doubled over in pain. My lungs constricted painfully and I felt warm fluid running down the back of my throat and filling up my nasal cavities.

“Evs spit it out, you can’t force it back in.”

“Eughh” I coughed as thick globules of blood escaped my lips.

“Has this happened to you before?”

“Something similar, when I destroyed the light barrier at one of the angel camps.”

I nodded wonkily. It felt like my insides were liquefying and I could barely keep my mind focussed let alone control my motor functions.

“Izzy do you have any of that powder stuff you had back then?” Bas turned to Izwan who had crouched down before me.

“No, lost all in swim from collapsed bridge to container camp.”

“Dammit. What was in the stuff anyway, can we get some more?”

“Ancient Chinese herbal remedy, old lady give to me in camp. No idea what inside” he sighed.

“I don’t think a herbal tea will be able to fix this” I groaned as I wiped more blood from my lips with my shaky fingers.

“It could make you feel better. I don’t understand why you’re affected so much more than I am. You’re not pushing yourself more than I am, are you?” he narrowed his eyes at me.

“No” I laughed, but it ended in another horrible coughing fit, “you’ve got to remember I’ve cranked out a hell of a lot more power in the last few weeks than you have. It’s taking its toll.”  

“You need to stop. I’ll go on tomorrow alone. You can scout with the lads.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. If we did that then we’d never get this done.”
                “I thought we had gone through this. We’re not sacrificing ourselves for Her anymore. Do you understand me Evelyn?”

“It’s not about that” I groaned. I rocked back onto my heels and then slumped onto my ass. My hands were covered in rich burgundy blood and I wished that they were clean so that I could run my fingers through my hair. “I want to do this. The faster we get it done the better. What if the Sun Soldiers find us again? We can’t fight them in this state and you know it. I’d rather die knowing that I had cleansed the city than die at their light blasted hands while I was recuperating.”

“They won’t come after us.”

“That’s bullshit, come on Bas, they came last time because they sensed our power, and that was just the transference, not us actually using it to destroy blocks of land.”

While we were talking up on the pillar Sloan’s voice reached us from down below.

“Eyyy! Trouble coming our way!”

“What is it?” I asked as I tried to push my hair out of my face with the backs of my hands.

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear.”

“The devil?”

“It’s another quote. Basically we’re screwed”

“Angels!” cried Travis.

“No” I whispered, “right now?”

“Right now” Bas said icily as he stood up. My heart untethered itself from my body and sunk deep into the ground.  

“How many?” I dared to ask.

“Three” Bas replied.

“So basically we’re screwed” I repeated with resignation.