Destiny: Chapter 1

Destiny
Chapter 1: The Darkness Uprising

Rain started to fly downward like tiny bombs of water from the clouds above. As it traveled down, it fell past tall buildings, crumbled with age, cracking at the edges and the windows missing fragments of glass from the frames. The first drops of rain finally hit the cracked pavement of a sidewalk. Water ran down the sidewalk and into the street below its edge, where grass, weeds, and an occasional tree were sticking out of it, making huge cracks in its many lanes. Behind this street stood a sign reading the words ‘Welcome to Bakersfield!’ in faded letters covered by wild vines, tangling themselves around the sign. The sun’s rays were very weak through the clouds and the town had an ominous eerie feeling to it. It was abnormally cold and the shadows of buildings, plants, and other objects seemed to be moving or flit into another dark corner, as if they were alive. No one had lived here for ten years. A couple of miles away, another town by the name of Crooksnick was in the same state as its neighboring town, deteriorated and deprived of the life of humans. This continued for the whole county of the area, then the whole state, the whole country, the whole world.
Somewhere in Earth’s orbit, a satellite floated around Earth, its power core was shut down due to some unknown reason. Reflected on the lens of the satellite was a world unlike the world we know today. Its once white clouds were now a charcoal black, its seas were a deep green, and its land was gray, as if an unknown force had wiped out the whole human race, many years ago. The whole world was glazed over in darkness. There were two particular areas where the Earth had a different feature. There was a region of clouds the spiraled into circles around god knew what in Asia. But there was also another region. It was very hard to notice on the reflected lens, but a tiny light could be seen somewhere in the western region of North America. It was the only light left on Earth and it seemed to repel all the clouds and darkness around it.
But this Earth wasn’t always like this, as you obviously know. Ten years ago, the Earth was blue and green, and the clouds were a pure white. But one part of the Earth suddenly fell into shadow on a sunny area. It was like a small dot on a map. But it started to grow and expand, and as it did, the Earth’s population began to thin. Soon the darkness was enclosing around one small area…

A wave of shadows, as if casted by a giant fleet of air balloon up in the sky, was moving rapidly toward a set of twenty people. Most of them were little children around seven or eight years old, but three of these people were in their early thirties by the look of their faces. All the faces were stricken with terror as the shadows chased on their heels. They were all running to the last building in the town that had not been over run by these monsters, an old six story mall. As a girl with black wavy hair turned back to see how close the shadows were to her, she saw a blonde boy trip on a crack in the road. He cried in terror as the shadows engulfed him. But as she turned around again, trying to suppress tears of fear, one of the older men dived into the shadows, punching through its mass as if fighting an invisible force. Soon, he too was engulfed by the chasing darkness and the little girl turned back and looked at the other children around her. There were two boys running side by side, holding what seemed to be matching action figures. She saw another girl carrying a sketchpad and some pencils. They were almost one block from the building when the girl tripped just as the blonde boy had done. She tried to hasten back up, but she knew the shadows were faster than her. As she looked into the grasps of death, the older man burst out from within them and picked her up off the ground with his right arm with ease. He was covered in bloody gashes that weren’t to deep, but deep enough to bleed tiny amounts of blood. She looked across to his other hand and saw the blonde boy, thrashing and crying loudly. She couldn’t understand why until she caught a glimpse of the front of his blonde hair. It was soaked with crimson blood and the girl looked away quickly, not wanted to see what had happened. She looked ahead and saw that the children were rushing into the double doors of the indoor mall. The two other older men started to close the doors quickly as the man carrying the girl and the convulsing boy ran over the thresh hold. When the doors closed, the man on the right door quickly ran over to a power switch and flipped it on.
Outside, a giant beam of light shot upward from a radio antenna on the top of the building. Once it reached a certain point, it created a dome around the building, protecting it and its inhabitants. The man who had pulled the switch sunk to the floor and wiped the sweat from his forehead. The man carrying the girl placed her on the ground and said, “What’s your name, sweetie?”
The girl gave him a frown and said, “My mommy told me to never to strangers, and I don’t know you.” The man gave a smile that was meant to be caring and sympathetic.
“Well my name is Greg,” he said, holding out a hand. It shook a little for the blonde boy was still crying in his other hand. “Now that you know my name, I’d like to know yours.”
“My name is Skye,” she said softly so none of the other children could hear her. She shook his hand, looking at the boy. “Will he be ok?”
Greg looked at the boy and said, “He should be fine and I hope he’s tough, because he is my little brother. His name is Zach,” he added and the standing up he said to Skye, “Go and meet some of the other kids Skye. After all…” he muttered his last words under his breath, “… we are the last humans alive.” He walked away with Zach in his arms, jerking and twitching from the pain of whatever wound he had. Skye looked around for the children she had seen earlier. She saw the two boys and the girl and walked over to them. She introduced herself and asked who they were.
The boy with glasses answered, “I’m Jeffrey, and this is my twin Tyler.” Unlike Jeffrey, Tyler had spiky hair where Jeffrey’s was flat, and he wore no glasses. Tyler raised a hand in hello without speaking, staring at the floor, tears welling in his eyes.
The other girl, who had long blonde hair asked, “Are you ok Tyler?” He continued to stare at the ground, but spoke in a shaky voice.
“Jeffrey and I hid in a rose bush when we saw the shadows kill out parents. I never wanted to see that. I’m scared.” Just then Greg walked over with blankets, water, and sandwiches.
“There is an advantage when trying to survive in a mall,” he said, trying to do his best on putting on a smile. Then his face turned serious. “I’ve been talking with the other children and there is a museum on the third floor showing off some ancient mythical weapons from an era of time called “The Great Darkness”. I want each of you to pick one set of weapons for yourself to protect you in case anything bad happens. Can you do that for me?” They all nodded and Greg moved away to the next group. The blonde girl stood up and held out a hand for Skye to shake.
“I’m Annie,” she said as Skye shook it. “I just can’t believe all of this is happening. First I see my parents die, and now that poor boy might die…” The two boys and two girls stared over at an area where Greg and another man where standing above Zach, who was shaking less now, but around him lay many bandages soaked all the way through with blood.
Skye’s eyes started to well up with tears just as Tyler was doing.
“What is the point of staying alive if we are just going to be killed later?” Skye looked at everyone around her, waiting for an answer. Many other children from other groups had heard her and looked around at her. Skye walked to a corner and huddled herself into the little niche as far in as she could and silently cried.

Time passed and Skye, wiping her eyes from tears, stood up and looked around. Everyone was huddled around each other, signing a piece of paper. Skye walked up to them and noticed that they all had different weapons. She realized that she had to go pick out something to defend herself with and she ran to the elevator. As she got inside, the man who was helping Greg cure Zach ran into the elevator.
“Hi!” he said, with a smile. The rest of the ride to the third floor was in silence as Skye played with the fringe of her shirt. When the doors opened to the third floor, than man said, “See ya later!” She waved back and looked at the exhibits. Of course, because of her timing, there were only two weapons left. One was a metal staff with a giant diamond fixed in place on the top end. The other was a giant sword, the blade being about the size of her body, but it was wider than her body. It had a gold hilt and a bandaged up grip. Trying to pick up the sword, she found it two heavy and realized why no one had taken it. She instead grabbed the staff and made a pose with it.
As she started to walk away, she remembered about the injured boy. She turned and grabbed that sword and pulled it off the stand it was sitting on. When it hit the ground it made a loud clang and continued to make a loud screeching sound as she dragged it along the ground. As the elevator doors opened, to her surprise, there stood the boy, covering his right eye with his sleeve.
Skye held out the sword and said, “This was the last weapon, and I thought you might have wanted it. My name is Skye, and your brother told me that you are Zach, right?” The boy nodded his head as Skye entered the elevator. As he took the sword, he wasn’t expecting the weight of the weapon. The hand covering his eye fell to hold the sword and she caught a glimpse of his face. His hair came down to about his eyes and was fairly long for a boy, while her hair went down to her shoulders. His left eye was a bright blue color while she had hazel eyes. But while her right eye was open and intact, his right eye was closed and there was a big bloody gash passing right through it and near the bottom of his face. They spent the rest of the day talking with Tyler, Jeffrey, and Annie. They signed the sheet that everyone had been signing a while ago, and it turned out to be a role call list and a group list labeled “The Organization”. Greg had already written Zach down under III, and Skye took the last remaining number, which was XII. Jeffrey had placed VI, Tyler with IV, and Annie with XV. As they talked, Zach asked the question, “Do you think we will win against the darkness in the future, maybe ten years from now?”

As shadows moved from alley to the inside of wrecked mailboxes, a hooded figure walked alone down the street. One shadow seemed to follow the figure and then with sudden agility, it lunged at him. The figure held out his arm and with a shining light that engulfed his hand, a giant blade almost as big as him appeared with a golden hilt. The figure jumped into the air and did a back flip, jumping over the shadow that had leapt at him. The shadow turned, showing glowing red eyes and a jagged mouth. Then the figure ran toward the shadow and swung his blade at it. As he passed it, the shadow spilt down the middle and evaporated into the night.
“Anyone else want to try and give me a challenge?” The figure yelled into the night and he slowly backed up. Shadows started to pop up everywhere around him. He pulled off his hood. “Me and my big mouth.” The figure was eighteen, but these shadows had not changed at all over the past ten years. But he had. His blonde hair was now a little longer, a smile spreading across his face, and his right eye closed due to a giant scar going straight through it.