Fan Fiction ❯ ...Mange... ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One

I'm running faster, faster than I ever knew I could. The wind whipping my hair against my face, trailing behind me, as if I was flying like I was meant to be. I probably would be enjoying this escapade if I weren't running for my life. "…No one escapes from the Homes. At least, not for long…" as they say. That's what they tell you there, where they teach you to read a little bit, understand the language so that you may come of use when you grow into your age. The thought of this keeps my feet slapping the asphalt as I run down the empty street, through this dead town, as adrenaline pushes at my heels.

I got a head start, but this is just a game to those creatures, built to hunt us down. Each one of their prototypes fitting to our characteristics each made to hunt us and us alone.

This town, which had once been full of humans, echoes the voices of the dead, whom I know were my ancestors. Every now and then I find a place marked with blood and shudder as I hear the screams that fill this hollow place. This town, which had been so full once with human scum, until the Rulers cleared out the area for another Home. My Home.

I wanted to scream out all the pain I was feeling, from the torment I had just escaped, but I didn't. I had never been so scared in all my life, but it was either this or to be shipped off. And I was never going to share a bed with a human. Never.

I can hear the click of their mechanical heels getting closer, they're fast, and they know I can't fly. Almost as if I had their mind, I know that they can smell my fear, for I see them pushing faster. Only those who are brave teach themselves to fly, and I wish I had been braver then when Lucas had asked me if I wanted to learn.

I closed my eyes, my breath short as I felt sticky tears trickling down the sides of my face. I wasn't brave; I was just a fool. A lucky fool. The clicking of the machinery was pounding in my ears along with my heart, and I dared steal a glance backward at them, and I saw them. The wolf-like creatures with eyes of a bloodlust red. Their mouths opened a gape and their teeth of shattered glass showing. I didn't want to die…not like this.

Desperately, I flap my pure satin wings, with no use. I jumped a few times along with my running, trying to be airborne. They had no flying machinery among them, so if by luck I flew, I actually had a chance. There was no air drift here, the place only had a chill of death…nothing else, so I knew in the depths of my mind it was useless to try. I could feel their rotten, steamy, oiled breath upon my heels, the three of them trailing me, and soon they would lunge forward and-

I nearly screamed when I felt someone grab me. As I looked at the face, I noticed he was not a human, and I felt myself calm. I didn't know who he was, maybe he even worked for the Rulers, but I could never be sure. He held my back as if pushing me forward as he stole a glance over his shoulder, and ruffled the hair from his eyes.

Suddenly one the machine in the lead fell back, knocking the others away. They knew now that another was upon me. They clamber up, as quickly as they could recover and attempt to pursue us once more.

He was not an Aerol like me…a Tsroo'gaa, yes, I believe that was what they were called, I noticed when I glanced back at the wolves. He pulled me in an alleyway, my heart skipped a beat as he did so, he kept turning corners, jerking me back and forth and I was sure he knew where he was going. I could hear the howl of the wolves, as they came rounding the bend right at us, we came to a dead end, and then I really screamed. He cups his ears, and trips, straight into the wall. I could almost feel our skin being ripped apart, clashing with that of the brick wall…but it felt smooth, as we went straight through it! It was like a long tunneled slide, I hardly had time to look back over my shoulder to see if the creatures were following us when we land on something soft and bouncy.

I looked around at this den like area, how did we get here? I wondered glancing about at the lit walls, I stared at his eyes, as if he said, "No thanks to me." His eyes were smug, and as he stood I notice he looked much older than eighteen! I wanted to throw my arms around him in gratitude but he rudely walks away without an explanation and left me here on the uncovered mattress.