Phantom awoke to Jaaz shaking his shoulder. "Come on, Dan-E," she mumbled softly. "Camp time."
Phantom looked around them and found the cloudy night sky, which was letting loose the tiniest bit of condensation. He didn't say a word as the two ordered their Cubes to set up, turning into a small, transparent tent for each.
Phantom curled up on his side and stared out at another destroyed city. It wasn't Sector AP13, but the results were the same: bloody bodies littered everywhere, rubble and glass scattered all over the ground, the air thick, freezing cold, and hazy.
Phantom shuddered. That probably meant that those things were there, too. Nowhere was safe anymore.
He curled into a fetal position and let out a large breath, a puff of white surrounding his lips. All that he wanted to do now was sleep some more. Sleep and leave reality.
Of course, he didn't get his wish.
(-Y-)
Sa5m woke up. She was still on the hovercraft; apparently, wherever they were going next was a long way away.
The inside of the hovercraft was just two rows of seats facing one another, with a narrow walkway between them. The walkway glowed slightly and illuminated the faces of Sa5m's fellow passengers.
Sa5m turned to the right, her neck popping as she did so. Next to her was the little girl she'd saved, who was wide awake, staring at her hands in her lap.
Sa5m now saw that the girl's eyes were a pretty, icy blue, and her hair was straight, shoulder-length, and as black as Sa5m's (minus the thick purple streaks and the thin green ones). She was fair-skinned and unbelievably adorable, like a raven-headed angel. She wore a simple, sky-blue dress with a shiny black belt that held a large silver buckle around her waist and, surprisingly, strange black-and-white shoes. They seemed ancient. They were called….Converse?
The little girl swung her feet around, unaware of Sa5m's consciousness.
Sa5m surprised her by asking, "What's your name?"
"D4nn-E," she answered, looking up into Sa5m's face, which was pierced on her lip and eyebrow, but still pretty. "What's yours?"
"Sa5m."
"Thank you for saving me."
Sa5m smiled. "No problem, kiddo," she replied. Then she said, "Hovercraft. Snack mode. Two child cookies and one small milk."
At Sa5m's side popped out what she'd asked for; she handed it to D4nn-E, who took it thankfully.
D4nn-E thought deeply for a moment, and then said, "My mommy and daddy…they're gone. Do you think that you could be my new mommy?"
Sa5m's cheeks burned. "Um, how about I stay your sister, alright? I mean, of course I'd love you to be a part of my family, but I'm a bit young to be a mom."
D4nn-E titled her head in confusion. "But you're pretty, just like a mommy."
Sa5m laughed quietly and combed a strand of D4nn-E's hair behind her ear, brushing cookie crumbs from her face as she did so. "Well, thanks. How about I be your Auntie?"
D4nn-E shook her head stubbornly. Sa5m estimated her to be about six years old, with the pout that she gave her. "No. You have to be my mommy."
Sa5m smiled at the little girl with the kindest look that she'd given anyone for a long time. "Okay. I'll be your mommy."
D4nn-E smiled and looked like she was about to give Sa5m a hug, but she then realized that she was strapped down to her seat and just proceeded to eat her cookies and drink her milk. "Thank you," she said.
"Now, who's going to be daddy?" Sa5m wondered idly with a laugh. Some girls' thoughts might've, but her thoughts didn't even turn to 7ucker. There just wasn't anything that would make her thoughts go that way. He felt more like an uncle.
Sa5m thought some more and decided to entertain D4nn-E with a made-up person to be her father.
"Let's see. He'd have to look like you," she decided, "With pretty black hair and gorgeous blue eyes."
D4nn-E giggled. "He'd have to be strong," she suggested.
"Yeah, really strong, to help me protect you," Sa5m agreed. "Of course, he'd be handsome; you can't have a scary-looking daddy, can you?"
"Nope," D4nn-E agreed with an endearing smile.
"He'd be kind," Sa5m continued. "He'd accept both you and me for who we are. He'd be brave. And selfless, and honest, and open-hearted as well as open-minded…"
She trailed off, her train of thought disappearing.
D4nn-E tugging at her shirt hem brought her back to reality.
"What would his name be?" she asked curiously.
Sa5m chuckled. "Let's call him Krix." She and D4nn-E giggled at the name; it was so blandly normal that barely anyone used it but adults.
Then D4nn-E let out a huge yawn, stretching her arms above her head as far as her seatbelts would let her.
Sa5m noticed and said, "Looks like someone's getting sleepy. Time to rest."
D4nn-E pouted. "But I want to stay up and talk."
Sa5m shook her head. "Nope. Go to sleep, squirt."
D4nn-E sighed, closing her eyes and turning her head to rest on the small pillow beside it. "Okay. Good night, Mommy."
Sa5m's cheeks burned again, despite the fact that she'd already agreed to be D4nn-E's "mom". "Good night, D4nn-E."
"I love you," D4nn-E mumbled.
Sa5m didn't know why, but she absolutely meant it when she replied, "I love you, too."
Then she tilted her head up and stared at the low ceiling, smiling the tiniest bit. A mom at fifteen? Not what she had expected. Actually, none of this was what she had expected. Not the Forgotten, not the world tearing apart, not her parents dying….
She sucked in a sharp breath at that last thought, fighting tears. No. She wouldn't cry in front of anyone but her grandmother, asleep and in a dimly lit space or not.
She took a deep breath and glanced at D4nn-E again, who was now soundly asleep, her breaths even, her eyes closed. Sa5m found herself smiling again.
"I love you, too," she repeated.
(-Y-)
Jaaz's eyes flew open. The whispers.
Phantom's eyes opened a split second after hers. The two commanded their Cubes to go back into watch mode. Phantom, his eyes flicking around wildly, finally settled his gaze on his sister.
"What do we do?"
Jaaz's eyes stared straight into Phantom's, pulsing with fear.
"Run."
They took off as fast as they could, Phantom surpassing Jaaz within seconds. And then one of the creatures grabbed him from behind. He shouted in surprise and, instinctively, used his heel to tear its chest from its stomach, cutting its torso into two.
He whipped his head in Jaaz's direction. She elbowed one in the face and snapped its head back. She broke its neck, but it still had its grip on her arm, and was pulling with unbelievable strength. There was another one pulling on her other arm, so that Jaaz was certain that the two were trying to rip her in two. She writhed and thrashed about, but, despite all of the damage that she caused to them, the horrible, rotting, once-human things kept pulling harder and harder. Jaaz's joints popped, and tears sprang to her eyes.
Phantom tackled the one with its head still on, twisting its arms off and punching its nose with so much force that he broke the cement underneath it. Then he picked the other one up by its legs and crashed its shoulders into the ground, breaking the legs apart and stomping on them so that the bones broke.
Then he said, thinking so quickly that his thoughts were almost incoherent, "Cube. Activate Hover-craft mode."
"You must wait until morning, Dan-E," his Cube answered. Phantom glared at it and shook his head, scooping his limp sister up and running as fast as he could (which was about 50 miles per hour). He checked her face; she was fine. Conscious, even. But she was weak.
And then he ran into something slimy and disgusting. Glowing red eyes scowled millimeters away from his own.
Phantom backpedaled and took a look around him. The corpses were everywhere. The whispers filled his head.
They were surrounding him. Maybe a hundred of them. He was vulnerable: he couldn't set Jaaz down, or she'd be killed, which left his arms occupied. And he couldn't defeat them all with kicking alone. He was done for.
Within a breath, one dashed at him. Phantom closed his eyes.
And then….nothing.
He opened them again, feeling much taller. As he looked around, he saw that the ground…..
The ground was ten feet below him.
He could fly.
He could fly.
He could fly.
The corpses jumped at him, trying to grab his ankles. A few almost made it, but all that touched Phantom was a single, crusty fingernail against the bottom of his boot.
He stared down at their grotesque, distorted faces in shock for a second. And then he flew away. An ear-splitting Sonic Boom followed shortly after him.
(-Y-)
Sa5m peered from behind 7ucker's bony shoulder. She was much shorter than him. Actually, she was much shorter than most kids her age, getting her tininess from both her grandmother and mother.
So she stood on her toes and moved to the side a little bit to get a good view of the man leading them into the bunker.
He was a tall man with intimidating, thick muscles that showed through his simple, tight grey T-shirt with a white circle on it and green camouflage pants. He had close-cropped ashy brown hair, and a thick white scar that ran down the right side of his face. His right eye had no pupils or irises; it was completely milky white. His other eye was bloodshot and muddy brown. His olive skin was glistening with sweat as his left eye scanned the crowd. However, despite his intimidating features, he did not wear the expression of someone that liked to intimidate. His spare lips were pulled down into a frown, but his eyes ( at least one of them) showed endless kindness.
"I am Xith," he stated in a rough, yet friendly, voice. "As you have seen, your last bunker was invaded by those creatures."
"The Forgotten," one person called out.
"Yes. The Forgotten," Xith agreed. "They invaded our last bunker; this will be your new one. It's full of separate rooms and activity areas to keep you entertained. Family members will sleep in the same rooms. We'll provide food and protection from the Forgotten and any other monsters, natural or otherwise, that may attack. We will have breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the designated times. The rules are that children are not allowed to be unattended to- meaning anyone eleven or younger- unless they're sleeping and are under surveillance. Elderly must be assisted as well. We will not tolerate fighting. Anyone that lays a hand on another person in the wrong way gets locked up in a cell by themselves for ten hours. No stealing from anyone, especially not from the cafeteria." Xith's eyes stared into everyone else's at once dead-seriously before he continued. "And finally: no one- no one- is permitted to leave this bunker without my say so. Am I clear?"
Everyone nodded vigorously except for Sa5m. She couldn't promise that. Things tend to jump out unexpectedly at you; a situation might call for such an act. Anything could happen. So no promises.
"I am your leader. If there are any problems, bring them to me. If you want to join the Militia, come talk to me. You have to be at least eighteen, and you have to have the ability to fight well. We'll call you all for breakfast soon enough. For now, feel free to explore on your own. All heads of the families, find a bunk for your group. If you have lost your family or are a family of one, come to me; I'll assign you a bunk. Any fights over bunks, and you will be put in solitary confinement. On that note, I'll be seeing you soon."
Xith waved a dismissive hand and walked away. Sa5m stared after him with slight irritation, and then she ran as people began to move around. She was able to duck through and around the bodies that surrounded her easily, and she found herself at Xith's side in no time.
She tapped on his shoulder. He looked down at her. "Is there something that you need, Miss?"
Sa5m nodded. "I want to join the Militia."
"Sorry, ma'am. You're too young and incapable." Xith shook his head.
Sa5m's face turned a bright, angry shade of pink. "Yeah, I kind of figured that. I'm not dotted. But I want to fight. And I can."
Xith turned his gaze back to whatever was ahead of him. "Maybe. But you're young. And maybe you have more skill than I think- you sure as skitz have guts- but we need youth here. In case that you haven't noticed, there aren't a lot of us left."
Sa5m stopped suddenly. Xith stopped, too, and turned to face her. "What do you mean?"
He sighed and leaned down, saying in a low voice, "I've been communicating with the army. Everyone's army. We've been using tanks, missiles, all sorts of skitz against those things."
"The Forgotten?"
"Not just them. The other ones. Didn't you see them?"
"Oh." Sa5m remembered, and shuddered involuntarily. "Yeah. I did."
"Exactly. Those things are vicious. No, they're just plain fwitching. Everything that we have against them isn't working. We're even using nuclear technology."
Sa5m gasped. Nuclear technology had been banned a long time ago; it was extremely powerful and dangerous. That didn't even work?
Xith continued, "Our soldiers are all but completely gone. Those creatures are too powerful. Our only spark of hope is to hide out until this all blows over. We need kids here, not risking their lives. We need them to grow up and have more kids, to keep the human race alive."
Sa5m shook her head vigorously. "That's not going to work. If they're really that powerful, then we'll die anyway."
"Maybe. But we have a better chance here than we do out there. Either way, the Militia is for people that want to protect you kids. It's not for you to participate in." Xith pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, and then looked back at Sa5m.
She looked away. He had a huge point.
Stubbornly, she huffed, "This isn't over."
Xith gave her an irritated look and rose back to his full height. "I've got my eye on you," he warned before turning and heading away.
Sa5m stared after him and, with an angry sigh, walked in the opposite direction.
(-Y-)
Phantom fell to the ground, panting. Jaaz sat with her arms curled around her knees, worried.
"Are you okay, Dan-E?"
Phantom didn't answer her, instead closing his eyes. Something beeped, reopening them.
Jaaz lifted up his arm, pushing back his sleeve. Amazingly, against his skin was a message, like a tattoo. Power level: 286/ 1000. Need rest.
Jaaz gasped before the ink faded away into Phantom's skin.
He tried to sit up, but she rested a hand on his back. "No. You need rest." She glanced at the sky; the thick haze was turning from black to grey. "Cube. Hover-craft mode."
"Good morning, Jaazm1n3," her Cube greeted before shifting into the hover-craft.
Jaaz scooped up her surprisingly light brother, seating him next to her and watching the door close automatically behind her.
Phantom rested his head against the window, his surroundings turning into a blur. His lifeless parents, covered in blood, flashed in his mind over and over as his eyelids finally closed.
Jaaz glanced at Phantom. Even while he slept, he looked upset. His eyes rolled around underneath his eyelids, and his eyebrows twitched, as if he were uncomfortable or having a bad dream. She sighed and brushed a stray, snowy-white strand of hair out of his face.
"We'll make it through this, Dan-E," she whispered. "I promise."
(-Y-)
When the siblings landed and the Cube crawled back onto Jaaz's wrist, Phantom's arm beeped again.
Power level: 1000/ 1000.
She sighed in relief and put her Cube into Tent Mode as the ink faded away. Warily, she turned around, expecting to hear whispering. She heard nothing.
And then Phantom woke up.
"No!" he shouted.
"What?"
"No!" he scrambled to his feet and picked Jaaz up, willing himself upward. He shot off.
"Dan-E, what are you doing? You just recovered!" Jaaz looked at her little brother's face. He looked absolutely terrified.
"You won't touch her," he growled.
"Who are you talking to? What's going on?"
Phantom didn't answer her, instead trying to fly even faster.
"Dan-E! Answer me now! Is it the corpses?"
Phantom finally said, "No. It's something way worse."
"How?"
He looked down at her, his eyes glowing, full to the brim with terror.
"They're intelligent. And they can fly, too."
Jaaz gasped and looked over his shoulder. A hint of red mixed with the darkening haze.
"What are they?"
Phantom was knocked out of the sky by a huge, metal tail, creating a dent in the pavement below him. Jaaz yelped in pain; her arm had been broken in the fall, and her head throbbed.
Out of the haze stepped a giant, nightmarish, reptile-like monster with long, sharp, dagger-like teeth and sunken-in, glowing beady eyes. He stared directly at the two, making an ear-splitting noise that sounded like a cross between a scream and a creak.
Jaaz's blood ran cold.
Phantom's gaze couldn't tear away from the eyes.
"Shadows."
