Project Damien: Lord of Shadows

Chapter 3: The Storm

Nature did not play with the former towns and villages. Grass as tall as a grown man grew out of the roads, trees tore through tall multi-story buildings, branches broke through windows and walls to let in the light, and roots crushed front doors and dug deep into the concrete. Human constructions did not represent an obstacle to nature as they once did - they were nothing more for her than the earth from which they once grew. Buildings were destroyed, overgrown, cars covered in slime and moss, and I just curiously looked out the window, trying to find at least some sign of life.

Do not get me wrong.

I have never seen more of nature in my life than the piece that was located at the exit from the sewer - and even that was only a few tall trees reaching tens of meters, a few bunches of grass and flowers as tall as me that grew there and a polluted lake where the Corporation discharged sewage . All animals and creatures avoided that place, mainly because army patrols regularly went around the perimeter and control sensors already registered heat sources for several kilometers. A fast special unit then took care of destroying the mutated animals that were too desperate, curious, or daring to approach the safe zone.

My hopes of seeing anything alive were dashed very quickly when all I could see at the speed the hovercraft was moving were shadows flickering among the ruins of buildings, living in what they may have once considered their home.

Wildlings. To preserve something of who they are, or more precisely, who they were, that they still stay in the ruins of their homes?

Sometimes I couldn't help but wonder who they really became, how their minds work. Have they lost all their memories and the only thing that attracts them now is to eat and mutate? Or do they still at least remotely remember who they were and live in endless agony that they are no longer who they used to be and do not want to accept who they have become? Although they were described in the lectures as soulless, bloodthirsty beasts, hungry for meat, desiring nothing more than to break through security barriers and invade cities and cause disaster.

But what if they are a victim just like us?

Something in the sky caught my attention, as did the fact that we were slowing down and starting to descend. There was a group of birds in the sky, bigger than our hovercraft, their feathers were bright purple and they looked ferocious - maybe they could tear our hovercraft apart in one bite.

“We have to avoid them. They are moving to another hunting ground. Hold on."

The pilot in front said and began to descend more rapidly, slowing down and weaving through the tree trunks.

Even more interested, I glued myself to the window.

A pair of men in black suits with blue stripes and helmets on their faces watched me carefully, as if they were afraid that I would try to escape them. Where to? Jump from several tens of meters and hope to survive the fall or what? The other two sat in front, piloting the hovercraft, avoiding the too-high tree branches. They were afraid to go hide among the clouds, which wildly billowed and twisted like tornadoes in the sky. Who knows what drew them in? And who knows what will happen when it throws them out.

As if nature was reading my thoughts, the hovercraft shook and I heard something that resembled thunder. I looked up at the sky and saw the colored clouds stop and start to fall from the sky in tufts like shooting stars.

"Here is EMV 247, we are carrying an important person with an unusual phenomenon and we find ourselves in a third degree storm. We are requesting reinforcements. I repeat, we are in a third degree storm and we are requesting immediate assistance."

I heard one of the pilots talking on the radio, but his answer was only something between screeching and rustling where it was difficult to understand the words that the operator on the other side was saying.

Oh great. So we have it clear. Not only are they leading me to I don't know where, we also found ourselves in an absolutely unpleasant situation.

From the window, I saw puffs of smoke rushing around us, shining in different colors and falling somewhere far below us. The pilot was trying to zigzag through the colorful rain, which in any other situation would have been beautiful to watch, but when I saw how it broke through the branches of trees and stuck through the walls and roofs of old buildings and crashed into the ground, it reminded me of a meteorite impact.

That's when I noticed her. It was only a second before I lost her in the trees. Her long black-purple hair was blowing in the wind, her black dress flowed and curled around her. She didn't seem to notice the falling pieces of the clouds, the meteorites were falling around her, but she didn't even move, she just stood and looked up at our hovercraft.. no. She was looking directly at me, her eyes seemed to pierce through the distance, as if they did not perceive the speed at which we were going, and for that brief moment, her eyes, reminiscent of the night sky full of stars and ancient, older than humanity itself, gazed at me. It seemed as if a hint of knowledge appeared in them, as if she knew who I was, although I had never seen her in my life.

After all, how could I know someone who lives in the wilderness? Like, why, is she not a Wildling? How did she survive?

Before I could even realize what was happening, our hovercraft was long gone.

Bits of energonite from the storm fell all around us, and the pilot tried his best to zigzag through the trees, hoping to get as far away from the fragmented clouds as possible. That's when it happened.

Something chased after us, it looked like a hand that suddenly appeared from one of the branches. At the last moment, the pilot turned the hovercraft to the side and we just spun around for a while before crashing into a tree trunk. The hovercraft screeched and groaned, the dashboard at the front became furious and began to beep and make alarming noises.

"We have to make an emergency landing because-"

The pilot did not finish his sentence.

One of the energonite meteorites crashed into the hovercraft, breaking through the energonite force barrier that the hovercraft had, through the ceiling and through the pilot. We lost control and the co-pilot was still trying to keep us in the air, but we were already hurtling towards the ground and hit the ground with a thud, along with another group of meteorites.

So this is an Energonite storm.