It was a Tuesday.
I remember because Monday was movies night. We used to go together. Most times we chose some sort of animation movie because of Marishka - she loved them so much. I didn't care. I liked those movies, but what i really I loved how we all had a great time together as a family. And the night before we had been to the movies. I don't remember what we saw – something about a robot? – but I do remember Marishka giggling like the little girl she was.
I woke up to the deafening sound of an anti aircraft alarm. I had never heard the sound of one in real life. I bolted out of bed and got out of the room to find my mother in a frenzy. I asked about my father, she said he had left home earlier, after some old friend from the military called. We started hearing people outside. Marishka left her room, rubbing her sleepy eyes. "What's going on?", she asked. "Its going to be all right dear, now get some clothes on.", mother replied with a smile. She then turned to me with a stern face. I could see the fear in her eyes. No need to sugar coat it for me. Something was very wrong.
As I got dressed, the noise outside got louder. I looked out the window to see people hurrying to go... somewhere. Father returned home and went into his study. My mother rushed to him and they closed the door. I could hear they were talking but couldn't make out what they were saying. I couldn't be left out of it. I opened the door. My father paused briefly, looked at me, then back at my mother. "I have to do this. For all of you." My mother was in tears, her hands trembling in front of her mouth as she turned her face to me. My father opened his old cabinet. I knew what was in there. As he picked up his old rifle, he looked upon the carving on the grip. Then he turned to me. "Did you do this?" He asked. I nodded. It had been a long time ago, when I was about Marishka's age. I remember regretting it and thinking I'd get a beating when he found out. But now, I could see tears forming in his eyes as he came to me and grabbed me by the shoulders.
"Alexei", he said. "I need you to pick up whatever supplies you can in a backpack and get your mother and your sister out. Follow the people outside. Get them to safety."
"What? What about you? What's happening?" I asked.
"There's some kind of invasion. I don't know much. But it's bad. I have to go. I have to buy you time. They're almost here."
"But… I… I don't…"
"Alexei. I trust you. Protect your mother and sister. I love you." He hugged me. I felt lost and disoriented. I opened my mouth but words wouldn't come out. He let go of me, and he turned to my mother. He hugged her and kissed her as she sobbed, trying to dissuade him. He let go of her and turned to the study door.
Marishka was standing there.
I don't know how long she'd been there watching that whole thing. He picked her up and hugged her. "You be a good girl and do what mother and Alexei tell you, allright?"
She was paralyzed, her face blank, eyes opened wide. Didn't say a single word.
Father let her down gently and raced towards the door. "Viktor!" mother yelled. He turned, one last look. Then he left, closing the door behind him.
People on the streets were by the thousands when we got out. They were rushing towards the outskirts of the city. I held Marishka's hand. "You hold on to me real tight, OK? Don't let go!" She nodded, still not talking. We started rushing with the crowd. Somewhere in the distance, the anti aircraft alarms kept sounding.
Then, all of the sudden, an explosion. Guns started to fire. People started screaming and running. We started running too. I remember how my backpack bumped heavily against my back as I ran. I held Marishka's hand on a tight grip. Mother followed close.
We reached the oustkirts of town through the noise of explosions and gunfire in the distance. We could see all the people running, but we didn't even know for sure where they were headed. We just followed them.
Then another explosion came. This one, right in front us. I felt the blast, saw people flying through the air, the smoke and the fire blocking our path. People panicked and pushed each other trying to run faster and get out of the way. Someone pushed us. "Marishka! Hold on!" I shouted. But her grip was too fragile. "Alexei!", she screamed. I felt her hand slip, her touch, lost. I saw her terrified face disappear among the crowd. I tried to follow her but the oncoming of people was too strong. "Marishka!" - I called, but the sound was muffed by the screams of the panicked people. I turned my head to my mother. She looked at me in horror. I could tell she knew what happened. Then another explosion. The ground erupted under us. I flew up on the air, hit the ground, and blacked out.
I woke up to screams and crying though the ringing of my ears. I opened my eyes to see the ground littered with the bodies of people, some immobile, some trying to crawl or get up. I looked around and saw mother's bloodied body lay just outside of reach. Her eyes were open. But there was no life in them.
I couldn't feel my legs. I tried to move. The numbness in my limbs turned to searing pain. I looked down; my legs were mangled and twisted and I couldn't even imagine how they would look beneath my pants. I looked around. I saw people running in the distance. Closer to me, I saw some people trying to crawl or shambling aimlessly. I saw someone not too far getting up slowly. A small figure. She turned her face as she looked around, like if searching for someone.
Marishka.
I lifted my arm towards her. I tried to call but my lungs were not ready. I coughed blood and struggled to regain my breath. Still she heard it, and her eyes found mine. "Alexei!" Her face full of dirt made out a smile - a beautiful sight in the midst of all the horror. She started running towards me. Then I saw something in the distance behind her. A figure, but not a human one. It pointed something towards Marishka. I tried to call her again, but the burn in my throat wouldn't let the words out. She ran towards me, unaware if the danger. I mustered whatever air I could, ignored the pain in my throat and shouted. "LOOK OUT!" She froze in place and turned her head at the figure.
I'll never forget the awful sound of that shot.
A bolt of blue energy punched though her fragile body and projected her to the ground.
"NOOO!" I screamed. "MARISHKA!" My head burned with rage and sorrow. I tried to drag myself towards her. She wasn't moving. She wasn't moving! I grit my teeth and pushed through the pain, dragging my body for what felt like a lifetime until I finally reached her. Her eyes were closed, a single cauterized wound still seared in her chest. I held her face with trembling hands. "No... no... Marishka... wake up... please wake up..." But she didn't. And as I lay there next to her, my tears mixing with the blood in my face, i felt another presence next to us. That horrible figure. It was somehow humanoid but had four arms and was wearing some sort of strange armor. I looked at it with fury and dread. The figure turned its weapon at me. Again, that sound. Then, darkness.
...
...
..."Is it possible?"
..."There you are."
I woke up to a voice. "Guardian?" Guardian? Eyes up, guardian!" it said. I opened my eyes to see a little contraption floating in the air. "It worked! You're alive! You don't know how long I've been looking for you"
I didn't know what was happening. Apparently, I could get up and move again. I couldn't see anyone. All I could see were abandoned cars and some human remains inside. They had been there for a while. "I'm a Ghost. Actually, now I'm your Ghost. And you... well, you've been dead a long time. So you're going to see a lot of things you won't understand."
I heard some sort of scream. I looked out in the distance and saw a group of figures, some like the one I had seen before, and others different – bigger, scarier. "This is Fallen territory. We aren't safe here."
I was confused and terrified. What the hell was happening? Were those creatures the Fallen? Where was I? What did that thing want from me? I didn't really have the time to think about it all, but apparently that… Ghost… was on my side.
"I have to get you to The City. Hold still." And it vanished, but I could somehow still feel its presence. Its voice sounded inside my head"Don't worry, I'm still with you. We need to move. Fast. We won't survive long out in the open like this. Let's get inside The Wall."
There was a building not too far. Our destination apparently. "Okay, I need to find you a weapon before the Fallen find us." We got in the building.
"Quiet. They're right above us" We moved further up. It was pitch black. "Hang tight. Fallen thrive in the dark. We won't. We need more light. I'll see what I can do." And it left me.
I couldn't see a thing. It was cold. I could hear sounds but didn't know what they were or where they were coming from. "Another one of these hardened military systems and a few centuries of entropy working against me." The Ghost's apparent attempt at humor was lost in me. The lights suddenly came up in time for me to see those… Fallen… rushing in my direction in a distant corridor. "They're coming for us!"
The ghost bolted forward. I followed it in stumbles into a corridor. "Here! I found a rifle! Grab it!" it said, its light focused on a human skeleton that had a weapon next to it. "I hope you know how to use that thing!"
I rushed for the weapon and picked it up, aiming it at the end of the corridor. As I tightened the grip getting ready to fire, I felt something. A carving. In the grip. Something clicked in my mind. I froze and I looked at it.
My carving. My family name.
Khvostov
My father's rifle.
The realization came to me like a punch to the face.
They were all dead.
That skeleton – that was my father. That place – that was his final stand. Everyone else – my mother, Marishka, all those people running for their life.
They.
Were all.
Dead.
"What are you doing? They are closing in!"
Tears swelled up as I continued to hold upon the weapon in trembling hands, looking at it.
I would never again see their faces. I would never again hear their voices. I would never again hold their hands.
"You need to do something! I used too much energy bringing you back! If you die now, I won't be able to do anything!"
I heard that sound again. A bolt grazed my body and smeared my flesh. I turned my head upward and through a fog of tears I saw them on the end of the corridor. The same figures that had killed Marishka.
I roared as I aimed the rifle in their direction and pulled the trigger. I felt everything happening in slow motion. I could see the bolts of energy whizzing me by, the fallen reeling with the bullets as they hit. Every shot, every flash of the muzzle of the gun brought a memory to my mind. My father reading in his studio. My mother cooking in the kitchen. Marishka laughing at the movies.
I would never see them again.
My roar melted with the sound of gunfire as the bullets left the chamber one by one. The fallen that had turned the corridor reeled with the bullets and fell, one by one, until they were all down. The rifle stopped shooting, the magazine depleted. Reality somehow got back to its normal speed. I kept on screaming and pulling the trigger. I finally got myself to stop after some time. I could feel the rifle hot on my hand. The fallen lay dead. I looked back and down at the remains. At my father. I dropped my weapon and fell crying to my knees.
Much time passed since then. I found others like me. I fought in a war I don't quite understand, but I do it for every human still living. For all the families still alive so that they don't have to suffer the same fate as mine. I still have many questions. I don't know why I was chosen, and many times I asked to give my light away so that my family could be brought back. But it seems it doesn't work that way.
I have fought alien races, I have been to other planets, I visited other realms and even other planes of existence. I have found things beyond my imagination and my understanding. I have developed powers I never dreamt to exist. And though I have found many weapons, there are times when I open my vault just to see my father's rifle. Displayed as an ornamental relic, as a reminder of where I came from and what I fight for.
Someday, I will find the one responsible for the invasion. For the killing of millions of people, for the death of my family. Then I will take my father's rifle on one last mission. And it will be ornamental no longer.