✗ //i believe this is the angst i was waiting for
Send me “✗” for a drabble in which my muse kills yours.
Dust settled. Risen by the winds, uninhibited by the lack of infrastructure. A deadened plane, once host to teeming life and bustling community. Only the hollowed shells pf unnerving synthetics patrolled the land. Battlecasts. what a name, considering their intrusions, their purpose for was not battle, rather eradication. Unyielding at the task, granted by the vision of the Creator, the machines carved the landscape offering the only solace in a swift end.
Within the rubble, lay the remains of civilized life Scathed and suffering. Famished by both sustenance and hope. Their lines crushed, homes vanquished. Concrete trenches below the beloved city scape provided final refuge. How long, was the popular inquiry, how long until they find here? Hushed voices; mislead tales to those still youthful, unaware of the involvement they so inaptly played.
Machines of their own device remained active, humming with gentle activity. Constructs of mercy, bearing what life they could give for the remaining. Tubes pumped sterile fluid between cracked skin. Delicate flesh severed by heat, by metal coated broken bones, masked the sheer punishment inflicted on such a young soul. Crimson eyes flickered between the darkened surroundings, otherwise motionless atop the wrinkled bedsheets. Her company, only company for the time, nestled with singed fur. Button eyes watched her carefully from spherical form.
There he returned, the man amongst others, whom chose life, or the prospect of fighting for it. Olive long coat trailed his steps as did the dust tracked inward. Surface beheld the girl’s reflection. A painful sight, blues shielded by opaque lenses. He couldn’t tear away, but only approach. Beret of their faction, the Resistance, settled bedside as did the signature eye wear sat atop the bridge of his nose. A breath, soft, deep. He spoke;
“Hey. Keep Poro some company?” A gesture pat along the toy’s hem. Eyes shifted between the two, settling on her own.
“Listen, Ani… We might have to move soon. There is another band of refugees closer towards the city walls. The Sheriff is already setup, and they have better doctors than what I could manage here.”
Anguish silenced in his tone, only reassuring behest his words. Coarse, though, was the soldier’s voice. Too well did her wounds matched past diagnosis; the fracture ribs slowly bled into the soulmancer’s ribcage. Before long, the organs would prove useless The girl drowning within her own body. Salem rifled through the drawer, locating contents included syringe along with loaded subsistence. The needle found the tube funneling itself into lithe frame.
“I’ll need to slow your heart rate. During transit, you might begin to bleed if I don’t, and I’ve no tourniquet. You will fall into a medically induced coma, and by that, you’ll sleep.”
“It will be no more than a long nap. Once you awaken, we’ll have you properly treated. Your healing won’t be for weeks, months even, but The first step is getting you to a better place.”
A pause, wine hues blinked twice. unable to verbalize, the damage preventing such. Eye lashed fluttered several times, affirming his words. The man’s body hovered over, lips pressed against the tenderness of a forehead before resting back. The needle slid between the surgical dressing, the contents soon pumped slowly into the girl’s system. Red irises felt the heaviness of eyelids; her vision blurred as the concoctions softly rested her mind and beating heart.
Salem paused, watching the effectiveness of the merciful drug. Aging man leaned back; tracing her frame with solemn blues. The makeshift monitor relaying the expected flat line.
It was the last time he’d see her eyes again.