The Remnant

Prologue

Street lights swept over the jet black limousine that appeared to be speeding down the highway. The sleek paint job, silver plated door handles, darkly tinted windows and well-rimmed tires gave a strong impression that whoever was encased within its illustrious exterior was no doubt some foreign dignitary or politician.

Following a fair distance behind the vehicle, too far away to be regarded as suspicious but close enough to maintain an awareness of the direction it was headed, was a smaller, humbler car. It was a faded white country truck with peeling paint and dented bulbar; from appearance, it had no doubt endured several a bumpy, dirt road.

These two cars drove in near proximity of each other down a fairly quiet interstate road for several minutes until finally the limousine ahead took a quick turn off the main road down a single-lane residential street that soon curved out of sight. The driver of the faded truck, now aware that he had been caught out, swiftly placed his foot on the accelerator and bolted hastily after his target. Following the limousine he took a sharp turn to the right, followed by a screeching of tyres as he almost immediately came to a sudden stop. The limousine he had been following for the past several hours had stopped, oddly enough in front of an abandoned plot of soon to be developed land.

Jumping out of his car he didn't bother to slam the door shut. He just bolted down to the car that he had nearly rear-ended. As he approached the vehicle he slowed his sprint and gradually kept walking until he was facing the back passenger's window. He breathed heavily as he placed his hand exhaustedly upon the roof of the car in some futile misguided belief that the car would obey his wishes and remain idle. He did not say one word as he simply stared intently through the tinted window as if he could see whoever was sitting on the other side. The truth was he could see nothing. The windows were that of double-sided glass, so all he could see was his own disarrayed and dirty reflection staring back at him.

His eyes were filled with desperation and his hands were now shaking as he found himself at a loss for words. Eventually, after what felt like hours, the black window slowly slid down and a female face peered at him in confusion. Her deep brown eyes stared at him for a long while before she muttered, “I don't know what else you want from me.” Her voice was full of pain; he could hear it as she clenched her fists together and broke their eye contact to stare at the floor.

He moved his hands so that they rested on the windowsill of the car and leaned forward, his heart pounding like a drum. “I know you . . . you’d never do this.” His voice was that of a desperate cry, a plea for sanity.

Tears began to well up in his eyes as he tried to hold himself back from crying, even though it was the one thing he felt he needed to do in front of her to show her that this was insane.

The driver in the front seat mumbled something to her that caused her whole posture to change, and suddenly those eyes that once appeared so vulnerable, so broken, now became as cold as ice.

“Let go,” she hissed, even her voice now sounding like that of another.

At the hearing of her cold words, his grip only tightened as he clenched his teeth in frustration. “This isn't you. Please, don't forget everything we've fought over for the past year . . . is it really worthless to you?”

But she didn't bother replying, for the driver in the front had obviously had enough of this pointless banter. The window started to roll up and the car drove away, leaving him to stare at the tail-lights slowly faded out of sight into the mist. His solemn figure stood there for several minutes whilst his mind tried to process and absorb everything that had happened.

“Theo!” a voice yelled from the distant darkness. Another man's figure stepped into the light of the street lamp, followed by the figure of a woman, who soon joined the group. Their eyes both had the same daunting question in them and all Theo could do was look down hopelessly in disappointment as he muttered, “It's too late. They have her too.”