Photographs

So Kai walked away, never to look back at the civilization, which would slowly destroy itself. Looking ahead of him one could see the sadness in the land; the barren wastes would be difficult to travel. A tune in his mind would keep him going, for days he would walk, wondering what lie ahead. He would ignore the feelings in his mind, and the truth in his dreams. A long lost echo of humanity crept up his spine, chilling him and leaving a sensation of death. Everything he had ever known had been destroyed before he could learn of the world, and so, without hope he would head onward, towards the mecca of knowledge, towards the sole remaining forest. The plants twisted and dying would block his path, and the roaming wind would assault his eyes with dry sand and frozen rain.

With each new footstep Kai recalled a moment from the previous night and shuddered at the dark fortunes they held. It had all started with a funeral, the funeral of his beloved. Terrified of a future alone he began to wonder why she had died, a freak accident of no-ones fault. The storm-ridden sky could not cloud his thoughts. Why had she died? Perhaps it was something best left unthought of, he would try to move on, honoring her death. If only he hadn’t heard her final words, they would haunt him until the end.

Kai Recalled her last breath, and the shadowy jaded vision came clambering back to him. “The sky will bleed with the changing times, and I have not been able to stop it, Find the men responsible for the shroud, and destroy them, my only regret is that I could not spend the rest of my life with you, and that I never told you where I am truly from, goodbye dear Kai.” The last moments of her life had startled him. He had no idea what she had meant by that, where she was truly from, perhaps it would remain a mystery. The look in her eyes had shattered his dreams, and his resolve, just as it had bolstered a new strength within, waiting to be discovered.

The rain had warmed, and was no longer stinging his face with a striking pain. He looked up to the sky and saw in the clouds the ever-growing brightness. Every cloud has its silver lining he thought, and millions shall die when they find this one. The scattered bodies that lay upon the roadside seemed to nod in agreement. As his foot struck a small puddle on the path ahead of him, the sound sent his thoughts cascading back to the night before.

Lying on the table blindfolded and bound, he could hear the men standing above him, they asked him once again who his wife was, and if she had given him the key. Though he knew not of what they talked, he insisted that he had not been married. The men struck his jaw, with pounding blows. When they finally asked him what he knew of the shroud, a startling thought went through his mind, that these were they who threatened the entire world. A silly coincidence? Her last words had held true, she was not who he thought she was, even though he knew her so well.

Gunfire broke the constance of the interrogation leaving him alone in the room. Kai had managed to loosen the ropes binding his right arm. If it had been the grace of god himself, Kai would have paid no attention. In the moment he frantically clawed at the other ropes holding him from freedom. In the few moments after he had gained his bearings he realized that he had not been left alone. Each of the men in the room was now dead. Kai wondered if any of them had fled, or if there had only been 4 interrogating him to begin with. He thought back upon the number of voices but could not clearly recall how many there had been.

Thinking back he realized that the gunfire had come in 6 shots, but there were only 4 men, had there been two more? Looking around the room he discovered no trace as to the missing bullets, each man lying upon the ground had been hit squarely in the head. The lifeless figures bleeding from their incomplete sculptures of faces. The cold and compact room had dim lighting but this did not stop Kai from seeing the exit. He ran, nearly tripping over a fire extinguisher.

Upon reaching the hallway he saw nothing but sterile tiles heading in both directions, this the only door for what appeared to be miles. The acrid smell of smoke hung low in the air, as if a fire belonged in the distance. How had he gotten here? Should he not have told the police investigators of her last words? All he could remember was the pain on his head after he had opened the door to his house, no one had been standing there, and somehow someone had gotten behind him

An explosion clashed briefly with the silence and in an instant he decided to run to the left, hoping that it would lead to safety. When he finally reached the stairway the searing pain in his left shoulder had found him. One of the two missing bullets had hit him, and he had not noticed it. Adrenaline kept him climbing, story after story of stairwell rushing past him.

A seeming eternity had passed by the time he had emerged from the staircase and onto surface. He recognized the location, he had come out in an alleyway behind the police station. It was twilight and he could see the devastation that must have occurred whilst he was held underground. It was as if the entire skyline had been turned into wireframe, as if someone had de-rendered the city. No mere novel could prepare him for the chilling horror that he witnessed here, dead bodies littered the streets, what had happened? What had he survived? Alone and cold he headed away from the city, perhaps he could find answers elsewhere, surely this devastation couldn’t be global.

A low disquieting rumble from the distance brought him back from his memory. The sky began to grow dark, and the clouds rushed away, as if someone had flicked a light switch and thus cut all power to the sun. When the light returned, the mountains in the distance were no longer there and the city behind him was only a stardust memory.

Reaching in his pocket he removed the piece of paper he had cleverly hidden “Sha-Uri.” The only clue he could find as to his mysterious love. Was it a place, a person, a name, her name? Perhaps it would hold meaning to survivors, or to the men, who must be hunting him, there must be other survivors, the sixth bullet was meant for them. He would not risk his instinct as a mere musing, but would hold it as truth. Such men of resolve cannot survive with a lighthearted attitude.

No vehicles anywhere, how strange, everything seemed strange, thinking back upon the rubble, there was a clue as to what had happened, no metal was left. The rubble was piled brick, the wireframe was exactly that, wires and plastic, as if the metal skeletons had vanished. Kai walked over to a nearby body and examined it, clothes, but no wristwatch. Approaching other bodies, he found watchbands, and stones, but no metals themselves. What had caused this, perhaps this thing called the shroud?

How had she known about the shroud, she worked with photography, at a studio. Kai remembered visiting his wife at work many times, and recalled her photo lab in the house, had she stumbled across something? Had she taken a photo she wasn’t meant to have taken? He would check the lab later; first he would decide where to go, and how to find a meal.