Chapter 7: The Road To Sector 7
626 Words
They left Haven before sunrise.
The gates opened with a deep metallic groan, and cold morning air rushed into the tunnel. Elias stepped through first, rifle strapped across his back and a small pack hanging from one shoulder.
Behind him came Noah.
The seventeen-year-old stopped at the entrance and stared upward.
For a moment, he simply stood there.
The sky was enormous.
Noah had seen photographs of it in old books, but photographs had never prepared him for the real thing.
Clouds stretched across the horizon like mountains made of smoke.
The sun was hidden behind them.
Trees surrounded the remains of the old city, their branches twisting around concrete towers and broken buildings. Moss covered the streets. Roots had pushed through asphalt. Birds flew between skyscrapers that had once been taller than anything Noah had ever imagined.
"This is beautiful," Noah whispered.
Elias looked at him.
"Don't confuse beautiful with safe."
Noah smiled nervously.
"Everything you say makes this place sound worse."
"It is worse."
Lena emerged behind them carrying a medical bag.
She locked the outer gate.
"Enough talking."
Elias looked at the map.
Sector 7 was almost one hundred and eighty kilometers away.
They would have to cross several areas where the old roads had disappeared beneath vegetation.
Worse, they didn't know whether the Ascended were following them.
Elias looked back toward Haven.
The enormous steel door was already closing.
Once it shut, they would be on their own.
He turned away.
They walked.
For two days, nothing happened.
That frightened Elias more than an attack would have.
The silence was wrong.
They passed abandoned houses, collapsed bridges and the remains of highways swallowed by forests.
Inside one building they found a children's bedroom.
A bed still stood against the wall.
A wooden toy horse lay beneath it.
Noah picked it up.
"People actually lived here."
Elias nodded.
"Millions."
Noah looked around.
"What happened to them?"
Elias didn't answer.
Lena did.
"They believed technology would save them."
Noah looked at her.
"Did it?"
Lena's expression hardened.
"No."
On the fourth day, they reached the remains of a military checkpoint.
The road was blocked by rusted vehicles.
Elias moved slowly between them.
His instincts suddenly changed.
He raised a hand.
Everyone stopped.
Noah whispered, "What?"
Elias pointed.
On top of a distant building stood a figure.
Human.
At least from a distance.
It didn't move.
Elias lifted his binoculars.
The figure was watching them.
He lowered the binoculars.
"Keep moving."
They continued.
Five minutes later, Elias looked back.
The figure was gone.
That night they slept inside an abandoned apartment.
Elias took first watch.
At approximately three in the morning, he saw something outside the window.
A person.
Standing across the street.
Elias raised his rifle.
The figure disappeared behind a building.
He woke Lena.
"They're watching us."
She didn't ask who.
She simply nodded.
The next morning, there were three figures.
By noon, seven.
None approached.
None attacked.
They simply watched.
Noah finally asked the question everyone had been thinking.
"Why don't they kill us?"
Lena looked toward the distant rooftops.
"Because they're learning."
That night, Elias understood what she meant.
He woke to a sound outside.
A soft clicking noise.
Then another.
Then another.
He crawled toward the window.
There were figures standing throughout the street.
Dozens of them.
They weren't moving.
They were facing the building.
Facing him.
Elias felt cold despite the warmth of the room.
One of the creatures slowly raised its head.
Their eyes met.
The creature smiled.
Elias closed the curtain.
They left before dawn.
Sector 7 was still far away.
But Elias now understood something terrifying.
They weren't travelling toward Sector 7 alone.
Something was travelling with them.
And it knew exactly where they were going.
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