With each returning breath his lungs stung and felt heavy. Slowly he kept trying, the stinging in his chest making it feel impossible to catch. Darkness gave way to subtle light as his eyes opened, blurred shapes began to come back into focus. With some excursion, Cain sat up- soot, dirt, leaves and other materials raining from his body.
Deeper breaths. More of that thick, stinging pain in his chest. Everything around his even looked heavy and blanketed. Smoke and smog gave the surroundings a dull and displaced appearance, drab hues faded out in shades of grey and char. Tinges of smolders burnt on the edges of slightly smoked wood and bark, tinder starting to fade with the passing of time.
With each footstep came soft crunching or soft collapse of pillowy soft white ash that rose in mimicked spirals dancing behind his feet. The world was quiet with the last dying crackles and hisses of extinguishing heat or the soft rustle as a hot breeze would stir through the fallen foliage.
Days passed, the sunlight dispersing through thick layers of cloud and dust as though trying to part curtains. This was the only way one could keep track of the days, the lampshade-like appearance of the sky glowing bright yellows and oranges. Then it would fade, darkness befalling the land, steeping it in dangerous blackness.
Cain didn’t know nor understand how he got outside the barrier, but he could feel the presence of Lilith hundreds of miles away. It was the only way he could find direction in the vast death of this planet. Even with crumbling buildings and distopian cities, there was no distinction between what he could see and what as around him. Everything felt like the end, and he knew he needed to get back to Lilith.
He didn’t know how many days had gone by, his body weak still and power still trying to build- he had lost count. Lilith’s power felt closer but he was still some distance away.
A sound caught his ear and he slowed to a stop, turning to look. A buzzing of some vehicle, and it was coming closer.
Ducking behind a tree, he waited as it passed and stopped, three suited me jumping off the vehicle. “Where did he go?”
“Blade said he was traveling this way, he couldn’t have gotten farther than this.”
“Nah, we coulda missed ‘em back there.”
“Or the fucker collapsed, no way he would’ve gone south.”
They looked around a moment, one coming closer to where he was as he was paying more mind to something he pulled from a pocket.
Cain suddenly pulled him in behind the tree and swiftfully stabbed the man through the throat with his blade. Instantly, power flowed back into his, his knees shaking with the lust of it.
“Tony? Tony, come on, we gotta go. Tony?”
Another was coming and Cain was ready. He went to grab the man but the attacker was also ready, just seeing his comrade from around the tree. The wrestled, the driver running over with a large gun drawn. Cain ripped the attackers face mask off, then stabbed him in the eye- making him drop.
Bullets began to fly just barely missing Cain as he ducked the other direction then running at the armed gunman. He went to stab him, the attacker catching him with the butt of the rifle and causing Cain to fall back. But Cain had grown in the past moments through the power of his blade.
He threw his arm out as the attacker came down on him, his blade suddenly flying through the air, through the chest of the attacker and through the other side- the power of it killing him instantly.
Cain’s blade returned to his hand as he slowly stood back up and walked to the vehicle.
