Children of Kenaza

Prologue

Cough cough.

What's going on?

Where am I?

Cough cough.

Is that smoke? It's hard to breathe. What's that light? Can't think...

"Sarah!"

Sarah? Who's sarah? Who's that man running in my direction?

"Sarah!"

That name again...

Am I Sarah? Who am I? Is that...fire? What's going on? Why is everything burning?

The man approaches me. There are three vertical scars on the right side of his face. He is wearing black pants. Black tee shirt. Black boots. A set of dog tags hangs around his neck. A broken Saber in his hand. His clothes are torn and dirty. He drops his Saber and kneels next to me. His hand grasps my shoulder and gives it a shake. I don't recognize him, but he appears to know me.

Who am i... 

"Sarah! There you are! Come on! We need to get out of here! Jotun's lost control. He's attacking everyone and burning everything! We need to get out of here!"

I tried to recall what had happened before I was knocked unconscious. My head was throbbing. My body feels numb. Suddenly, a white hot pain pierces my mind.

SARAH! HELP ME! THE SEAL IS BROKEN! I CAN'T CLO- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

In the distance, a fiery inferno erupts. Bolts of icy lightning shoot off in all directions, striking buildings and people alike. Everything in the blast zone is immediately incinerated.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!", I cry out as I sit up and clutch my head in my hands. Blinding agony threatens to tear my mind apart. Tears well up in my eyes. So much pain.

"Sarah! Can you stand?", the man asks me.

This man thinks I am Sarah. Am I Sarah? What was that explosion?

I look at the giant fireball as it expands and dissipates. The pain in my head subsides. I take my hands off of my head and look up at the man. I give him a shaky, unsure nod. He lifts my left arm up and wraps it around the back of his neck and holds my left hand in his. I look at his hand.

This hand. It feels familiar. This touch. Who is this man? Why can't I remember anything?

He wraps his other arm around my waist and helps me up. I stand up, unsteady on my feet. My head swoons and my vision darkens. "Hey. Hey. Easy now. It looks like you took a nasty whack on the head.", the man said. My vision clears and I take a moment to look around me. In all directions, there are tall buildings that have sustained heavy damage. Debris and destroyed objects litter the ground and streets. Oily, black smoke billows high and blankets the night sky. Amber light dances on all manner of surfaces as millions of flames devour everything in sight. Buildings are burning. Trees are lit up like torches. The ground is a monochromatic expanse of black, scorched earth. Human-shaped lumps of ash and coal and ember lie on the ground, as if frozen in time.

A sob catches in my throat, as my hand covers my mouth. I feel wetness stream down my cheeks. I stare at the absolute hell in front me in muted horror.

SARAH...IT'S TOO LATE...RUN...THEY'RE COMING...

The man jerked my body. "Hey! Snap out of it! We need to go. Now! I know where a safe house is. We can head there and get you patched up.", the man said.

They're coming. That's what the voice said.

"They're coming", I said. The man looks around us, scanning the immediate area. "What are you talking about? No one knows where we are," the man said.

A moment later, the sound of debris shifting snaps the man's attention to our right. A leviathan of a man coalesces from the shadows. His body encased in metallic, scaly armor. The armored figure sets his gaze upon us. He rears his head back and let's loose an earsplitting, unearthly roar.

"s**t!", the man belts out. He tightens his grip on me and spins us around. We run in the opposite direction, navigating the rubble of a collapsed building. A moment later, hundreds of roars sound off in the distance. "s**t, s**t, s**t! We gotta move!", the man exclaims.

This sound seems to have snapped me out of my daze. My vision sharpens. I feel energy start to surge through my body, melting away the pain in my body and head. I escape the man's grasp and run alongside him. We say nothing. There is only escaping. Running. As we make our escape, we hear hundreds of sets of feet make their way toward our previous location. A moment later, a cacophony of roars echo in the distance. Hundreds of sets of armor rattle. Hundreds of Sabers hum. Then, all at once, all of that noise heads in our direction. 

We make our way through the devastation and find a road. "Come on. This way.", the man says as he points down the road. "We can make faster time on the road,'' he said. We follow the road for a few miles. We say nothing, focusing on putting distance between us and the horde we left behind. All around us, buildings are ruined. Signs of a great battle are scattered everywhere. Scorch marks. Dead bodies. The remnants of explosions. I could not fathom the level of destructive force that had wrought such devastation here. I was at a loss.

Who is this man? Who am I? Where are we going? Why can't I remember anything? What the hell happened here? What was that voice in my head? So many questions...

We approach a rundown building. "There it is.", the man said as he pointed to a door in the building. He looks all around us for a moment. He then nods, apparently satisfied with what he sees or doesn't see. He stops at the door and pushes his hand against a panel by the door. The panel slides to the side, inside the wall, and an electronic keypad extends out. He looks at the keypad and presses a sequence of buttons and an electronic beep sounds off. The keypad retracts back into the wall and the panel slides back into place, as if the keypad were never there. The door lock disengages and cracks open. He puts his hand on the door and pushes it open. We enter the building and he closes the door behind us. The lock engages and a single red light illuminates the darkness we find ourselves in.

He looks through a peephole in the wall and scans the exterior. He closes his eyes and sighs deeply. "Ok. I don't think they saw us. I guess it's good that those things can't smell a fart in the wind to save their lives.", he said with a grin. He turns around and we start walking away from the entrance, down a long corridor.

"What is this place?", I asked the man. He looks at me with confusion. Suddenly, his eyes light up and his expression changes. "Oh, right. I forgot. You've been out in WEST CITY for a while. This is facility 442. We set it up not long after you headed out. Sorry for not letting you know on the comm before you got here. Things have been moving along pretty quickly.", the man said. We approached a door at the end of the corridor and entered. It was a room encased in metal, about 10 feet high and 20 feet squared. There were two bunks to the right and a comm station to the left. The food synthesizer, Transmed unit and sanitizer were tucked away behind a half wall at the back of the room.

This man. He saved me. I don't know how I know him, but I do. I have to.

I watch him as he walks over to the Transmed unit.

Hmmm. Not bad looking. I wonder if he's single. What??? What are you doing! This man just saved my life and all I can think about is that? Come on! Get your mind out of the gutter! f**k sake...

He arrives at the Transmed unit and pulls out a hypo gun. He types on the built in keyboard and a vial of amber colored liquid fills the vial in the Transmed chamber. He inserts the vial into the hypo gun and walks over toward me. "Hold out your arm.", he says. I hold out my arm and he rips off the remainder of the tattered sleeve and injects the contents of the vial into my upper arm. "Ow!", I exclaimed, rubbing the injection site and scowling at him. He looks at me. "What's the matter? Big bad dragonbitch doesn't like shots?", he says with a laugh.

"No. Apparently I dont", I grumble at him. "What was in that vial?", I ask. "Apex-IV. It's designed to stimulate and accelerate cellular regeneration in Riders.", he says. I look at him blankly. His face loses the glowing, childish charm it once had and his brow furrows. "But...you already know this. You helped create and test it.", he says. His expression further changes into one of worry.

"Sarah."

My eyes meet his. "Hmmm?"

"What's my name?"

I look at him. I see a look in his eyes. A mixture of fierce determination and sadness.

"I don't know. I don't remember anything."