Chapter One
Shilo clutched at her torch, moving through the musky, narrow passage hurriedly, as though she had done it thousands of times before. She glanced behind her, her ears telling her that she had heard something, but her eyes proving her wrong. She quickly approached the sliding door that led into her mother's crypt, moving it away and allowing her access to the small mausoleum. She hung the still flaming torch on the wall, and entered the crypt cautiously and quietly. She slid the door closed, checked her surroundings and then removed her gas mask. Knowing that it was risky to remove her only protection from the toxic air around her, Shilo felt it was wrong to wear the mask near her mother's grave site. She stashed the mask by the secret door and plopped down on a small step next to her mother's head stone. She took her bag off her shoulder, dumping its contents on the cold, stone floor next to her feet. Among the various items scattered by her feet were a small sandwich she had prepared before leaving her house and a book on insects. She flipped open the book and stared leafing through it, stopping at one page that was full of photographs. She turned the book towards the headstone and started talking to the air, attempting to tell her mother about her ever-growing collection of bugs.
"This one here," she said, pointing a black-coated fingernail at a picture on one of the pages. "I'm hoping to find one soon. They're hardly ever seen anymore, but I'm going to find one. Then my collection of Coleoptera will be complete." She pointed at different pictures, her face lighting up at certain ones, and growing dark with others. She sat by her mother's grave for a long while, talking to what an outsider looking in would perceive as thin air and slowly eating her sandwich. She continued flipping though her book until she heard a strange scuttling sound. Her head shot up and she looked wildly around the room. There was a strange bug in the crypt, walking over the engraving on the headstone that spelled her mother's name. It looked like a cross between a scorpion and a beetle, its small wings fluttering lightly. The insect hurriedly moved around her, perching itself on the door behind her. Shilo scrabbled through her belongings that covered the floor to retrieve the canister she used to catch bugs and crept near the insect slowly. It moved quickly however and scuttled out the small window in the door.
Shilo stomped her foot in protest. "Damn it." she said, frustrated beyond believe. She peeked through the small window, eyeing the bug outside on the ground. It scuttled over to a nearby headstone and climbed the tattered structure. She took a deep breath in, preparing herself for what she knew was a bad idea. Okay, Shilo. Just go out, get the damned thing, and get back in here fast. Shilo reached for the small door handle and opened the door, a gust of soft wind blew her raven black hair in different directions. She looked both left and right, ensuring that no one was outside, then walked down the stone steps. She readied her canister and lid, walking ever so slowly towards the small bug perched on the grave. As she grew closer to it, the bug turned and fluttered its wings, seemingly getting ready to take off in flight. With no time to lose thinking or being quiet, Shilo quickly stretched out her arm and entrapped the bug within her metal cup. A proud smile broke across Shilo's face as she slowly but surely slide the canister towards the edge of the headstone and closed the lid over the opening. She screwed it shut and went to turn around to make her way back to the tomb when she heard a noise come from behind the grave she had just been in front of.
Shilo peered over the unmarked headstone to find an odd-looking man hunched over what seemed to be a corpse. He had long multicolored hair that hung over a pale face. His hands, which were examining the dead body between his legs, were slightly dusted with dirt and looked a little strange parting the features of the dead mans face. Although it was a little creepy to see a man hovering over a corpse in the middle of the night, Shilo could help but be interested in him. He wasn't thin, but wasn't overly plump either, though the mass of him could may have been heightened by how many layers he had on.
"It's not very polite to stare." he said, never taking his eyes off the stiff body below him. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a strange-looking needle. "You're interrupting my work with your peering eyes and making me terribly uncomfortable." He plunged the head of the needle into the nose of the lifeless corpse and began extracting a bright blue liquid from where ever it had punctured. As the vial of the needle filled, the expression on his face grew from blank to pure satisfaction. "There it is." he said with a smile.
For a moment, Shilo hesitated on whether she should come out of hiding, or just simply pretend that she hadn't heard him speak. After a few seconds of consideration she perked her head up a little from behind the tombstone. "Work?" Shilo questioned, her small voice nearly non-existent. What kind of job required a man to sneak around in graveyards and stab dead bodies with a needle.
The strange man removed the needle, wiping it briefly on his coat then returning it to his pocket. "Yes." he said, calmly, still not looking at her. He stood up slowly, his feet still on either side of his bucolic victim. "Work." He reached in his pocket and pulled out the needle again, unscrewing the tip and putting it back in his pocket. He held out the vial of shinning blue liquid and, finally, his eyes met hers. They were dark brown, his pupils nearly nonexistent. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, the bright blue glimmering in the moonlight.
Shilo emerged from behind the headstone, looking closely at the vial in his outstretched hand. After a few moments of careful consideration, she shook her head, an innocent look taking over her face and her cheeks threatening to turn pink from embarrassment.
The man tilted his head down slightly, as if to create a sense of suspense. "Freedom." he said. "A way to make all the pain go away. A chance," he held up his finger and paused for a few seconds. "To improve yourself." He brought the vial back towards him and stuffed it back in his pocket. He jumped up on a nearby tomb and began playfully walking along its edge. "Of course, the people I retrieve it for don't put it to that use." he said with a snicker.
Shilo watched as the fully grown man hopped up and down as he walked steadily along the edge of the coffin. She had become so interested in this strange man that she had forgotten about the dangerous situation she had put herself in. "W-What do they use it for?" Shilo asked innocently.
The man stopped bouncing and promptly sat on the tomb on which he had just been standing. He looked up at the sky and placed his hands in his lap. "Recreational use mostly." he turned his head to the side as a bright light flashed in the sky. "Though I do think some of them come simply for the pleasure of," he paused and glanced over at Shilo, who to his eyes didn't look more than 14. "My company." he corrected. He had intended on making a playful joke about the sexual favors he received in exchange for Z, but noticing the girls obvious youth, he decided against it.
Shilo didn't really understand anything that this man was saying. He seemed to speak in riddles that were confusing and yet made perfect sense. It was maddening. "Who are you?" she asked, a puzzled expression on her face.
The man peered over at her and smiled, waving his hand in a circle in front of him and bowing slightly. "Graves at your service, ma'am." He straightened up and slid back down off the structure.
Shilo quirked her eyebrow. "Graves." she said, slowly and questionably. Oh, how original. A grave robber named Graves.
Graves walked slowly towards the girl, attempting to look as mysterious as possible. In his experience, the more menacing he looked, the quicker people left him alone. All he wanted was to continue his work for the night in peace and without peering eyes. It was when he moved directly in front of her that he noticed the night guard walking along the path behind them, searching for grave robbers such as himself. A smirk cam across his face. He did love a challenge, and this promised to be a good night for ducking and diving through alleyways and doors.
Shilo caught graves staring at something behind them, she saw the light of a flashlight moving along the path that laid behind her and immediately ducked behind one of the headstones. Her head spun back to look at Graves, noticing that he wasn't moving at all, but just simply standing there watching the light grow closer and closer. "What are you doing?" she whispered. "You're gonna get us caught." She spoke as if she had something to hide just as much as he did.
Graves looked down at the girl crouching behind the gray stone and let out a small chuckle. He brought his attention back to the slow-moving light and just when the guard came into view, he whistled. The guard looked around frantically, trying to find the source of the noise. His light moved all around and finally settled on Graves' face. Graves held up his hand and wiggled his fingers, the smile on his face never breaking.
Shilo looked up in him in horror, knowing that the guard would come this way now and find her. She peeked around the corner of the gravestone and watched as the guard moved slowly towards her right side. She looked towards her mother's crypt, the door still slightly ajar. They hadn't set lock down yet. If she waited for the right moment, she could sneak past the guard and run back to the safety of the tunnel and make her way home.
"Yeah that's right," Graves said, playing with the guard. "Come and get me." He brought both of his hands in front of him and coaxed the man to come closer.
The guard moved cautiously in between the grave Shilo hid behind and another. When he got close enough to Graves, he lunged, his flashlight dropping to the ground.
Graves bent down slightly, taking both hands and wrapping them around one of the guards arms. He swiftly swung the man over his head, a loud projection of excursion leaving his lips. The guard hit a nearby tomb, slumping to the ground and falling unconscious. As Graves straightened back up, the alarms started to sound.
Flashing lights consumed the graveyard and loud, long screeches escaped from the many speakers through the site. Shilo's eyes shot around as every exit in the graveyard sealed itself. She scrambled up from behind the headstone, frantically running towards her mother's crypt as the large wooden door slammed shut. "No!" she screamed, hitting the door with her hands and rattling the handle, trying desperately to gain access. She spun around staring at Graves. "It's locked! What have you done!?"
Graves smiled and looked around at the chaos he had created. As he heard the voices of more guards moving through the graveyard, he quickly bent down and grabbed the body he had victimized earlier. Slinging it over his shoulder, Graves ran out to the pathway and motioned to Shilo."This way kid." he said, moving towards a nearby wall. He gripped the fabric that was wrapped around his stiff companion and began slamming its head against the stone wall. A small area of the wall gave way and opened up.
Shilo watched as Graves dropped the body onto the ground and climbed through the hole in the wall he had made. Looking around and realizing she had no other choice, Shilo reluctantly followed. A strong smell swept through her nostrils and made her want to vomit. As she fell through the hole and onto the ground, she looked up. Piles and piles of dead bodies surrounded her and her strange new acquaintance. Some already decomposing, and some that looked as if they had been alive not even five minutes ago. Shilo brought her hand to her nose, attempting to keep the stench from traveling up her sensitive nostrils once again.
"Jackpot." Graves said, a tone of satisfaction in his voice. He pulled the needle from his pocket a third time and attached a new capsule. He bent down over the corpse of a woman, her shirt low-cut and a scar traveling over the curves of her breasts. He shook his head as he examined the woman. "Breast augmentation," he traced a finger over the scar on her chest, then moved to another. "Stomach distention." His hand continued to move along her dead skin as he found each new surgery scar. "Hair removal, nose correction." He ceased tracing her scars and stared down at her. "And yet, still the same common blood flowing through your veins." He shook his head and inserted the head of his needle into the woman's nose, extracting more blue liquid.
Shilo watched him carefully, her heart still beating rapidly from the commotion she could still hear outside. "W-What is that?" she asked, motioning towards the needle.
Graves filled the capsule and removed his needle, unscrewing it again and holding the vial in front of his face. "This," he said, standing up and turning towards Shilo. "Is the 21st century cure," He held the vial in front of her face. "That has destroyed the planet." His voice got slightly deeper and concerned as the word 'destroyed' graced his lips.
Shilo eyed the shimmering vial and felt a strong urge to reach out and take from his hand. She leaned back against the wall, suddenly uncomfortable with how close he was getting to her. Then Shilo noticed something strange. It was quiet. Dead quiet. The guards were no longer making any noise, and this unnerved her. Had they gone? Or were they simply waiting for their prey to make enough noise to be found? Her curiosity getting the better of her, Shilo bent down and peeked around the corner of the hole they had crawled through. The graveyard showed no movement, and the air was stiff with the silence it was consumed in. She swallowed hard, contemplating emerging into the graveyard and trying to get back into her mother's crypt.
Graves had busied himself with extracting his 'cure' from yet another body. As the vial filled and he stood up, he peered over his shoulder to she what his little leech had gotten into. When he saw her looking through his artificial entrance, he lunged for her. "No!" An arm reached through the hole and grabbed hold of Shilo's wrist. Grave scrambled to pulled her back through, but she had already disappeared through the gaping hole. Acting quickly before he was caught as well, Graves ran off into a dark tunnel.
Shilo was thrown to the ground in the middle of a circle of feet. She glanced up at the covered faces that surrounded her. "P-Please." she begged. "I-I-I didn't know. Please." The device around her wrist started beeping, setting off a reminder for Shilo to take her medication. "I didn't," She began to feel dizzy and nauseous. "I can't...can't breathe." It slowly became a struggle to keep her eyes open.
"Can't...breathe." As her eyes shut, a tall man in a dark trench coat and a helmet covering his face pushed through the crowd of guards surrounding her, forcing them farther away before finally bending down and placing a tender hand on her face. Her eyes close, darkness taking over and Shilo falling into a deep sleep.