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Poison

The warm sun caressed her face, slowly rising over the horizon. His shoulder felt soft underneath her cheek. She felt his slight movement every time he took a breath. His rhythmic breaths were faster than usual, most likely another consequence of his wounds. The pain he had to feel right now added to her guilt. There was no need for her to actually sleep, so why was she stupid enough to shut down during the night? That fight should have been hers, not his. For her these wounds weren't a thread at all, since her body could easily rebuild almost every nonlethal wound. But for him, every single blood loss didn't just mean a lot of pain but also the risk of death. If that really happened she wouldn't know what to do or where to go. It felt bad to admit it, but without his lead she was lost out here. And there was this feeling that he gave her. His company… She hadn't felt like that for years, to be exact since the day she met Hugo. Thinking of him brought back a lot of feelings. Mostly pain and even more guilt. She still felt responsible for not being able to save him from himself. Years had passed by now but still she wasn't entirely over him. His soft voice spooked around in her head telling her he loved her. To let him go. To take revenge on those that murdered him and leave a real legacy for all innocents that suffered like he did. When he was still around it had been the happiest days of her life. Then they took him away from her, drove him into madness and killed him. That day she bathed the city in the blood of those responsible, even though they were all just puppets to the everwatching Nero. Since that day it had been her main goal to take him down for good. But when the situation between the residents of Iron City would get worse every day, she decided to make her way to find a new home for all those that were willing to escape the terrors within the city walls.

A warm hand wiped over her face, his hand. She hadn't even noticed the tears running down her cheeks. For just a few seconds his hand stayed where it was until he lowered it again. It was moments like this when he reminded her of Hugo the most. His caring attitude and his pure optimism were something only few could obtain in a world this hopeless. Whenever she lost her faith he would rebuild it. She only hoped for him to never lose someone like she did. Broken hearts made people vulnerable for hate, anger and even worse things. After encountering all of those there was no one she wanted to live through something like that themselves. But this world was merciless towards all those that had to make a living within it. Maybe somewhere out there was real hope for them all; Alita tried to negate her doubts, see the good part of it. But there was nothing positive for her to see. A few more minutes passed, until he slightly touched her arm and told her they should get going. They left the battlefield behind them and began once again to climb their way over the broken constructs. The daylight made it easier for them to find their way over the bridge and slowly but steady the kilometers passed underneath their feet. It was almost noon when the first spot of green became visible in the distance. Hope grew inside her and they both raised their speed. Then, before the trees appeared fully on the shore, a sudden shadow passed over her head. Just a second later the sounds of thunder filled the air, causing her to look upwards. But there was nothing there except a small cloud making its way in a straight line across, splitting the perfect blue sky in two parts. He seemed to have noticed the cloud as well: "That's a contrail!" his excitement was clearly visible. "Those belong to planes!" he added when he saw her questioning face. Planes. She had heard about those before. Huge machines even bigger than all the vehicles in Iron City, which their priors had used to rule the sky with and travel this world quickly. These days though, there was no human crazy enough to try and fly those. So the only people that knew how it was up there were those that lived in the sky city itself. But if the people out here had already reclaimed the sky, it must mean they were civilized. And even better… There were actual people out here.

Newly motivated the two made their way towards the coast. When getting closer the first thing they noticed was a small trail of smoke making its path into the endless sky. Then a roof became visible and finally, at the end of the bridge, they could see a little farm. The house itself wasn't very big. In fact it appeared rather small, with stone walls and a wooden frame. Around it were fields that had corn, wheat and many other plants plentiful growing in the sun. And between these crops, a few people were working, cutting grass, watering plants and harvesting fruits. All of them wore similar outfits, plain shirts, blue pants and huge straw hats. If one wouldn't look close enough he might easily think they were scarecrows. Close up though, they were busily roaming around, not hurrying but rather slow, as if they had all the time in the world. Alita turned around for her companion, but he didn't seem to share her excitement. He held his arm close to his body as if he was in pain. His skin had turned unnaturally pale and his lips appeared bluish. Even his usually smooth way of walking had turned clumsy. He looked at her, his eyes darkened by pain. When his legs gave in, Alita had already covered half the distance between them and even managed to catch him before he hit the concrete. Panic rose inside her. Whatever just happened she had to do something quick. His short and erratic breaths, his weight inside her arms. His arm! That had to be it. The wound that the beast tore had been quite deep. Could it be that he had suffered lethal injuries during that fight? She carefully laid him onto the ground and started to tear apart the makeshift bandages. The hole in his arm gaped wide open and the crusted blood around it was slightly green colored. It had to be some kind of poison! Hope germinated within her, when she remembered the small bottle of medicine Professor Ido had given those that had been bitten by snakes or stung by scorpions. She recalled him talk about this antidote many times which he had called anticine. Alita started to frantically look through his gear until she found the small red box with the white cross on it. She ripped open the zipper, looking for anything helpful. Inside were a few small bottles each labeled in small letters. None of them had the word on it that she was looking for. A few more bottles and syringes filled with a clean red liquid fell into her lap. Blood? Not that wasn't possible. Alita grabbed the first one and read the label: "Neutroniumdicintrin" Clearly not what she was looking for. Fear started to cloud her thoughts as she kept searching the bag. "Hey there fellas." the scratchy voice behind her caused her to spin around, her hand on the handle of her sword. "Oi! Calm down lady! I ain't trying to hurt you." The voice belonged to an elderly man, maybe around seventy. His skin had a dark taint to it and his lower face was covered by long grey beard. His clothes matched the ones she saw earlier on the farmers and in his left hand he held a small pipe. "Well, if ya aren't gon cut me in half lady, I think we might be able to help your friend here. Got bitten didn't he?" He seemed to have noticed her surprised look. "Aye, don't worry we can deal with that. Almost no one here ain't got bitten yet. Darn beasts just wont stop coming." Alita caught herself. "Yes! Please if you can help him, do it!" "Alright then lady." He sat down next to him and took a look at the wounds. "Ay! These are quite deep." When he noticed her scared glimpse he added: "Doesn't mean we can't deal with it. We have had way worse here. Alita watched as he picked her companion up and started to slowly walk towards the house. She collected their bags and ran after him. He moved surprisingly fast even with the additional weight and Alita almost had issues keeping up with him. When they got closer to the house she noticed how big it actually was. Heavy wooden beams made a solid frame that was then surrounded by stone walls. There were flowers planted on the small windowsills which gave a great finishing touch to the framed glass covering the many open windows all around the building. Behind some of them Alita noticed faces. They were just slightly snitching out, trying to make sure they weren't noticed and whenever she looked towards them they would quickly disappear. The old man walked towards a big door, until a younger man stepped in front of him. "What are you doing? Why did you bring the strangers here? I thought we agreed on avoiding them!?" His voice and his face were both marked by a mixture of fear and anger. "They need help. And we won't send anyone away that requires help." The older man was almost one inch smaller than his adversary and still the younger man seemed uncomfortable to confront him. "Father we don't even know who they are, neither what they want out here. Also no person survives out here just like that! And she isn't even ... human!" He pointed towards Alita but the old man grabbed his hand. "We are good people and we are going to help those in need! Keep in mind what would Jesus do. As long as they don't harm us we are no enemies. Now step aside and get your mother!" For just a few seconds it seemed as if the young man was going to contradict, then he turned around and dashed through the door into the house. "I am really sorry for my son. He is still young and also a little reckless you know." They made their way into the house past a few heavy wooden doors into a small room with a single bed and an old wooden rocker in it. Faded sunlight fell through the window, covering the entire room into a yellowy light. The old man laid her companion onto the bed just when an elderly woman entered the room. Her grey hair was tied up in a bun and her face was marked by laughter lines. She wore a long white apron and in one hand she held a big brown bag. "This is my wife, Maria. She is going to take care of your friend. Also my name is Abraham. Mind to tell us how they call you?" "Alita." Well Alita, if you want you can stay here with your friend, but you can also get to know the others first and then maybe eat something? Don't worry, Maria is going to take good care of him." The old woman smiled friendly while she unpacked all kinds of herbs from her bag. She was thorough as if she had done this many times before. Alita decided to leave him alone with the old woman and followed Abraham through the door. Behind a second door they entered a way bigger room, its walls were covered in furs and shelves and in the middle of the room stood a huge wooden table, surrounded by smaller wooden blocks that served as chairs. One side of the room had tools, a stove and other kitchen furniture while the opposite side was only disturbed by a huge window covering the room in bright sunlight. On top of the big table was a big iron pot filled with soup, while around it, on the smaller woodblocks, there were six other people sitting, chatting and eating. Three of them were young men maybe around their thirty, all of them with the same black hair and
rough-edged faces. Alita recognized one of them to be the one that called her "non-human" earlier. On the other side of the table were three young women most likely younger than their male equals. They also shared the same black hair that all the boys had but the main difference were their eyes. While the boys all had brown eyes, the girls' eyes were unusual bright green. When Alita entered the room, all conversations stopped and everybody turned towards her. "Well, this is the rest of my family. I think you already met my oldest son. This is Adélin. He pointed towards the man that blocked the door earlier. "And these two are Lúcian and Márian. And over here are my daughters Elena, Liana and Oana. Kids, this here is Alita. She and her friend are going to stay here for now. I expect you to treat them with respect." He looked at Adélin especially during his last sentence. Everyone watched her as she sat down on one of the free seats. Abraham grabbed one of the bowls, filled it with soup and placed it in front of her. He himself took a seat on the opposite side of the table. "Why don't you tell us what the two of you are doing out here? This isn't exactly the area you want to travel in if you ask me." So Alita told them her story. She told them about Iron City, the outskirts, the destroyed city, their travel across the ocean and finally their hope to find a new place for the people to live in. When she came to the part where she told them about the beasts, nervous whispering started between the family members until the old man disrupted it. Except for that small disturbance there was silence while she talked. It seemed incredible to the young people that there was so much out there and whenever she described something new to them, the air was almost humming in excitement. Just when Alita finished her story, the old woman entered the room. "Is he okay?" It was surprisingly hard for her to suppress the fear in her voice. "He is going to heal just fine my child. Just give him some time okay?" The old woman took a seat and after Alita told her story for a second time the family started to leave the table. Maria showed her a small room to sleep in but after she left Alita decided to go back into the room her companion was lying in. She laid down right next to him on the bed, simply enjoying his warmth and safety. When the old man entered the room and extinguished the small candle, she was already asleep.