The Destroying, Part 3

* The City, Above and Beneath

A young boy with dull brown hair smiled back at her through a small ornate black gat in the wall.

“Hey, having fun?”

Timothy was the apprentice timekeeper for the train station and with his grandfather, the master timekeeper, his job was to see through most the working machinery in the train-station, in particular the clocks. Back when Inna was still new to being a stray he had seen her scavenging in the hall an pointed her out to his grandfather. Unfortunately his grandfather had then had gone straight to the security guards to report her and Inna had struggled to  keep out of the clutched for the rest of the day. Later when Timothy had found her again he had explained and apologised for his grandfather and they had been friends ever since.

“Naturally,” she replied, answering his question.

“Well thank god for that, I was getting bored in here on my own, you want to come in?” he invited.

Inna hesitated, Timothy lived in the train station’s tunnels and access passages to tend to the clocks but she rarely got to see them. His Grandfather was too unpredictable and they had no way of knowing if he would catch them.

Timothy sensed her hesitation and smiled, “Grandpa’s not here,” he informed her, “he's gone. I figured you’d like to take a look around while we have the chance.”

Inna smiled and her eyes sparkled, “Sounds like fun.”

Inside they roamed in the darkness, Timothy looked back over his shoulder, “Grandpa had to leave for family business,” he explained, “so I’m in charge of the clocks while he’s away.”

“Nice, a challenge for you then?” she called ahead.

“I love it, but it’s my first day on my own, hence you can help me out," he teased, he knew Inna didn't know a thing about clockwork, but she was happy to learn. “I saw your spat with the guard earlier,” he noted, climbing up a set of stairs.

“Oh?” she asked, following after him “I was only trying to be friendly, I don’t know why he got so upset.”

“Yeah, it's not like the punch to the ribs could have offended him at all.”

She smiled at his sarcasm, “Can’t see why it would have.”

It was a little dark inside the passageways. Dark but cool and enclosed. Timothy took her first through to the medium clock that overlooked a restaurant and café hall. He clutched her hand and guided her up to see. Through the number holes in the clock face she could see out over most the hall. It was fantastic, she could see everyone but not one person saw her, despite looking her way often to check the time.

She looked over and took in a bit of the picture. An elderly couple, a woman in medium blue and a man in a suit, were being guided to a table by a young waitress about twenty-three years old and caramel hair. She then noticed Yumie in the crowd, Well aren’t we all for bumping into each other? she thought,  Although it does tend to start with a one way meeting.

She turned to Timothy. “So,” she smiled, “How do you wind this thing?”

He smiled back and started to demonstrate the procedure. Winding the clock with the massive handle and checking it according to his own pocket watch, he then had to check each part to see everything was working and no bits needed replacing or mending. Then that clock done, they moved on to the next one.

At the next clock she was able to help. It was huge and heavy, so she took on some of the weight and helped him wind. They moved from clock to clock, Inna mentally outlaying the routes and layouts of the passageways. After three more clocks Timothy took her hand and led her up another set of unfamiliar stairs.

They were already pretty high up in the station, they had taken two flights to get to the latest clock. As they climbed Inna saw light coming through the gloom. The passageway was drawing to an end and as it did so she couldn’t help but feel excited and curious thinking of where Timothy might have bought her. Then they started to emerge. Light temporarily blinded Inna as they came out onto flat flooring, it took her eyes a minute to adjust, and only then could she take in where she was … and what she could see.

It was a clock, a huge clock, but it was also glass and transparent, and through it she could see the whole city. The view was fantastic. She could see all of it, and even though the state the city was in was less then fantastic, from where she was it was awe inspiring.

Timothy held out a hand to the view, “Check out our city.”

Inna walked forward to soak up the magnanimity of the view. True, it was foggy, a cloudy day in the city, but she felt illuminated in light, and wanted nothing more than to soak up every drop of it.

A few minutes later she and Timothy had sat together in the clock/window area to gaze out at their leisure. Timothy, having come prepared bought out two cookies and handed one to Inna, turning the scene almost into a modest picnic. She bit into her share of it gratefully then looked up to see Timothy gazing at her.

“What?” she asked casually.

He shook his head, “Nothing ... you just look really nice.” He shrugged.

Inna cocked her head, confused, and looked down at her outfit. Dark green, almost black pants, and white top with short sleeves, she didn’t have much else. Not practically glamorous clothing.

“It’s the light,” he continued, “I’ve never see you in the light, it’s weird to think but you look different.”

She considered this and looked back up at him. She could see it too; he looked different in the light. His face, it seemed easier to look at, more definite. They’d never seen each other outside the train station, and inside they usually only met in the gloomy shadows.

“Mmm, you’re right. I mean, I’ve only seen you in those tunnels and round the station, but yeah, the light does make a difference.”

He shrugged his shoulders and looked out again at the city. “This place isn’t running to smoothly,” he commented. “The city, I mean.”

She looked up at him curiously.

Timothy shrugged, “It’s true, I see the articles in the paper my grandpa gets, they try to only report the good stuff, to keep people’s hopes up, but they still have to report the facts. There’s been massive rises in crime rates this week, muggings, gangs, vandalism …” He looked at her oddly, she understood, rape was the word he wasn’t saying. She lived alone and travelled alone a lot at night, rape, along with mugging and gangs were a big risk for her.

“Wouldn’t surprise me, people are growing insane, waiting for the next …” Now she couldn’t finish, but she knew he understood what she was saying. She was talking about the next Destroying, the Repetition.

“Who did you lose?” he asked.

“My sister, it was hard on my parents. What about you?” she asked.

“My Mum, after she left us Dad killed himself, and I ended up with Grandpa.”

Inna nodded, suicide was common during the Destroying; she’d seen some people do it, and it still gave her nightmares. “That was the worst part, the extra deaths, the people who died because of a reaction to the Destroying, not the Destroying itself.”

“Could have been a lot worse, at least we weren't in the sects," he pointed out, referring to a political system other countries had used with it's people, "I wonder when the next one will come?” he breathed, his voice soft.

“I don’t know, but something tells me that when it comes, rape will be the least of our worries.”

She looked out the window. Before the Destroying this city was one of the largest in the world. It was good, not a wreck, or a sparkling city of angels, but it was good. Until the Destroying came. Many towns were completely destroyed, burnt to ashes sometimes, or vandalised past any possible human habitation; people flocked to the cities. To find work, or be with loved ones or find treatments to the viruses that began spreading like wildfire after an accident in one of the hospitals. Inna’s mother had contracted one of those and had very nearly joined her daughter in the grave.

The city was thrown into poverty and chaos then the Rioting began. It was the darkest time in human history. Inna had come through it, but now she was a stray and a street rat, like so many countless others. Every day there were more people becoming homeless, joining gangs, sinking to the lowest of the low in society, and once there many people didn’t make it.

Now the hospitals only cared for people with identification, they have to check a person’s record before the even allow any patent to be treated. It was a security protocol that went in place after the toll began to build of people attacking hospitals; the other side was one nobody liked to talk about, the fact that the hospitals didn’t like having to treat so many people. They took the option that bought down the number of patients they’d have to treat. This meant Inna would probably never set foot in a hospital for the rest of her life. She lived on the streets with the gangsters and robbers, it was people like her that’d need the hospitals most of all.

She got sick a while ago and almost died because she couldn’t go to any hospital. She was stuck in a little room, with no bed and unable to get herself food, let alone medical tablets, for days. Thankfully she improved before she starved and recovered on her own in a few days, but it had been a scare, and not one she ever wanted to repeat.

She looked out on the rusty brown city again and wondered how on earth it could ever survive another Destroying.

She and Timothy hung out for a few hours after that. Timothy had money and took her down to one of the cafés for a cheep coffee each. They sat together and drunk, talking a bit about what Timothy would do with his free time now he had his Grandpa off his back for a while. One of these ideas was the passageways, in his new free time Timothy could properly teach Inna all the passages of the station.

“Sounds great,” she enthused. “How about we finish this then get started?”

Timothy agreed and upon finishing they left the café and spent the next hour getting Inna acquainted with several routes through the train-station for future usage. Inna enjoyed her time in the dark enclosed spaces, they felt strangely safe and cave like. Most of them were completely alien to her after an hour of learning a few had grown familiar. Then reality hit and it was time to get back to scavenging and being a stray.

After she left the train station she first decided to try looking around the nearby casino. She managed to sneak in quickly and started walking around scanning the red carpet floor. Loose change was what she usually found of course, but sometimes other things were dropped, she’d even take a pen or dropped chip if she saw it.

She spent an hour searching the floor and counters, but then saw some security guards heading her way and made a silent dash for the streets.

Back in her natural habitat she took her usual rounds around the allies, checking drains and looking in trash bins for money or discarded food. However nothing came close to last night’s score and eventually she had to give up on this too. Feeling desperate now she headed to the dump.

The dump was one of the riskiest places. Sneaking in was difficult, then there was sneaking out and not being caught in the mean time.

As always she lay in wait for a convenient vehicle heading into the facility and eventually truck came motoring her way, its inside filled with trash ready for the dump. It stopped at the gate to get in and she seized the opportunity.

Moving as a leopard she dashed to the back and jumped on to the bumper, here she leaped up grabbing the edge of the truck’s roof then she swung herself round and lay flat on the top. Here she breathed a second as a young man came around to check the cargo. They drove in without incident.

The truck would also serve as her escape once it left so she didn’t have a lot of time. While it was still moving she leapt off without being seen and made note watch it wherever it went. She could not afford to get stuck in here. She started foraging.

The dump wasn’t a place she visited often. Maybe when she could afford the time for extra luxuries, but that was rare and it wasn’t the case today. Today most of her hot spots had turned up nothing, she was bored and she needed to try something. Her hope was sometimes she could find good stuff here, even things that she could re-sell. It was a small hope but it was something.

She stated with one of the smaller piles, and going through she found a small pocketknife. She smiled, it was a great find to start with, it even looked sharp so she pocketed it thinking her luck might have turned again. She was right. Three dead watches showed up next, but even dead she knew an apprentice timekeeper who might fix one so she pocketed them too.

The truck driver took his time here and allowed her forty-five minutes of searching. By the end of this she’d found one knife, three cheep dead watches, a crow bar, a frayed white top with a small hole in the back and some old pencils. With this she was immensely pleased, if curious why se was always coming across white tops. She it on over her old top, hoping it’d at least improve her warmth, stuffed what she could in her pockets and grabbed the crow bar. Quietly, she then made her way back to the truck where her driver had stopped chatting. She tucked the crowbar uncomfortably into her pants then took a breath, waited for the correct moment, and leapt. She grabbed the edge of the roof. She couldn’t move right with the crowbar so she quickly grabbed it and waited for a noisy moment to shove it ahead of her. Then she took another breath and heaved the rest of herself atop the truck. She looked over, the driver hadn’t seen. A sigh of relief escaped her lips and she pressed herself down flat on the roof to leave. Five minutes later they had got out without incident, maybe a little smellier, but better for the trip.

She left the truck as soon as she could, but only to find herself on the wrong side of town. She gritted her teeth, unfamiliar territory was never good. She kept to the allies; a crowbar wouldn’t be fun explaining to any police or CSS (City Safety Sergeants) she might come across. The city grew dark around her; she’d been out too long. She needed to stay out of sight. She tried the rooftops for a while. It was cool and clear and the night air seemed colder then the night before, she only hooped she’d be able to sleep better tonight. As she came across the cold iron of the rooftops she could afford to feel no peace.

She remained on guard and edgy as she came across the high streets of the city, but still almost came into conflict with the infamous gang of the rooftops, The City Bats who watched from above to ambush those beneath. Spotting them she backtracked, moving silently away before retreating back to the streets.

The Distroying, Part 2

*A Station of Strays

When morning came Inna slipped out of her basement and quietly scampered through the streets untill she reached the train station. That massive, impending building, neo classic style, even through its weary age and scars from the torment of the Distroying, it had reamined a great land mark. It was wonderful, but for Inna it was also a gold mine. Full of busy, unsuspecting people with money for travelling, it was one of her prime scavenging spots.

She slipped inside and headed to one of the large halls where climbed the wall next to a large clock. She could hear the machinery working from behind the smooth face of the piece, but was enough in the shadow so as not to be noticed by those checking the time. She looked over the crowd and scanned the floors. Dropped change, food left unfinished in the café, her eyes darted left and right to see. She noticed a café getting crowded and darted down to watch. Sometimes people left things unfinished, so just as the opportunity arose she would snatch up the left over coffee, cake, pastry or cookie for herself. Next she would scour the floor looking for dropped notes, cards, anything she could see that might be of the slightest use she would slip in and steal. If she saw it, it was hers.

She watched over the people, by now she knew the layout of the train station and the train time table by heart. She noticed a café getting busy and climbed down to watch its movement. Inna knew how to blend, she knew how to remain unseen, so she let herself become invisible as she watched the people eat and chat, and if she was really lucky, leave their bags behind. Though she was against stealing and pickpocketing from regular people, anything left behind, by her books, was a free for all.

She walked through the tables to one recently abandoned. As she came past she collected a half-eaten pasty and a tip left behind in her stride. Successful, she kept walking unhindered and back out of the café area before she was noticed.

Back on her perch she ate her pastry gratefully. It wasn’t this bad, this life, she mused, when she had enough to eat that is. She smiled and casually looked over the station then something new, but extremely familiar caught her eye. Strays. A group of them, younger than her, were in the train station. They were not obvious as strays to the common eye, they didn’t even look like a group, but from her view up so high Inna could clearly their pattern while it remained invisible to the crowd. She could see them as they sneaked out amongst them, pick pocketing and snatching things off the ground. They stole what they could then took them back behind a corner to meet with the rest of the group. Inna crouched down and singled one out. There was a little girl, maybe eight years old as Inna watched her she noticed she was in the dangerous sight of one bulky-looking security guard.

She continued to watch and follow the girl through the crowd. She saw as one of her friends, a young boy, tugged on a woman’s sleeve and asked her if she knew where the toilets were? As the woman bent down to answer the girl came in from behind and slipped her hand into the woman’s bag. She drew out a fist full of stuff then stuffed the lot into her pockets. Inna watched as she slipped away back into the crowd and eased down the wall to follow her. 
Once in the crowd, Inna had to take a moment to find the young girl again. She watched her go round a corner and followed to the edge of the wall. There she stood with her back against the paint and listened as voices became from around the corner.

“Here!” hissed one, a female and young, probably the girl she’d been following.

“Set them down,” came another, male this time and a little older. “Anything good?” whispered another voice,

“Check later” - the boy again - “we need too much to waste time now.”

Inna risked a look round the bend, it was always smart to keep track of other strays in your area for many reasons, if nothing else they could be competition. She looked at who was there and counted four, the young girl she followed, the boy who’d distracted the older woman, an older boy and an older girl.

One of them, the older boy came started walking to the bend. She backed up to the café on her right and the younger boy walked past, followed by the young girl. They walked by leaving her unnoticed. 

They seemed to work mostly in pairs, Inna watched as they went around pick pocketing and stealing. They didn’t get much really, they were actually quite lacking, it was easy to see why they would run out of money and food so fast. But she wasn’t the only one who noticed their work. Looking up she saw the same security guard that had noticed the young girl earlier was now watching them all.

She lagged behind and blended into the crowd. She needed to observe without being seen herself. She tracked the young girl’s footsteps, watching the strain of her black hair from behind and she continued, oblivious towards to burly security. Ideally she would brush past the kid and whisper the quick warning, but now she watched in horror as she saw him head towards the kids and stood in even more alarm as they still failed to notice.

She started to manoeuvre her way back through the people towards them, but already the guard was much closer to the kids than she was. She waved at the young girl, but caught her friend’s attention. The young boy looked up, but when recognised Inna as a stray went hostile. It took a moment for him to register the desperate warning in Inna’s face then he looked round, only to see the security guard, was right on top of them, barely a foot from the young girl.

The boy grabbed her by the wrist and pulled, but it was too late. The guard leaned in and snatched up her other wrist. She looked up in sheer terror.

Inna asses her stand point as the girl started to struggle. The guard held her still and leaned in, “This isn’t a free for all, rat. Come with me.” He turned to drag her away then - “Ugh!” Inna felt the contact too, her fist and his ribs. She winced, punching hurt! She didn’t waste time, she grabbed the girl and pulled her away through the crowd, trying to mingle before he could spot them again. Only now the burly man was pissed, perhaps because now his ribs hurt. Inna wondered if she'd bruised any.

He started through the people after them, navigating through the crowd. She took a fleeting glance back at the purpling face and quickened their pace, “Come on!” she urged her tag-along. She cursed under her breath and pulled the girl again, “Quick! I’m not getting locked up for you,” she hissed. She dodged and drove through the herds of people until she spotted a dark corner. She smiled, shadows always invited the strays. She took one look back, ducked down and dove to their familiar folds.

She stood up and pressed herself and the girl against the wall, wishing her flesh would disappear into the stone. Then she peered out to look for the guard. She heard the girl gasp, about to say something, and pressed her hand over her mouth. Her dark eyes looked for him, tried to single out possible peoples in the crowds. When she singled out his frame he wasn’t six meters away. He stood above everyone, scouring around above their heads, searching for the two kids he had just lost. Inna held her breath. She surveyed the space around him again and waited. Only when he’d walked completely from her sight did she breath again.

She removed her hand from the girl and she looked up at Inna. “Who are you?” was of course the first question.

“Inna.” The girl looked up at her suspiciously.

She shook her head, “Don’t worry, I won’t turn you in.” The kid didn’t replay, “Hey, I’m a stray too. I’m not going to walk you to the authorities,” she pointed out.

This seemed to settle the kid. “Well, duh. I could see that by the way you hit that guard,” her voice was amazingly condescending for one so young, “thanks, it would have been a close call without you.”

A close call? She raised an eyebrow, seemed to her like ‘close call’ would be a bit of an understatement.

“Don’t I get your name?” Inna asked.

“I guess, Yumie’s fine.”

“Yumie? That’s what, Japanese?” 

“Yeah, what's your name again?"

"Inna."

Silence.

Yumie was dirty, with ashen brown-black hair and a stubborn face which, Inna realised, did look part Asian. “Look, you’d better get back to your group,” she said.

“Well yeah, though I guess you should come meet the others.”

Inna glanced down suspiciously “For allies or competition?”

Yumi’s gaze turned hard, “Depends on circumstances."

“Well, either way, for now it’s a no, I’ve got to go, trailing after you has lost me enough time today, and I still need to eat.” She made to leave.

“But that guard knows your face now, he’ll be after you.”

Inna sighed, “Well that’ll fun.”

Yumi looked confused, whether it was because of her sarcasm or lack of major concern about the guard, Inna couldn’t pick. She sighed, “Don’t worry about it; I can take care of myself.”

Yumi shrugged, and Inna, tired of the brick wall of distrust, made again to leave.

She started up the wall shelf up to her perching point once more. She could see the security guard clearly from up here and smiled at the expression on his face. It was then that she heard a “Pist!” and turned around, “Hay! Inna.” 

The male voice came from behind her in the wall, she smiled.

“Timothy!”

The Destroying - Part 1

• A Stray in the city

The city slept. It was late and the moon was creasing the city with fingers of soft light. She could see. From deep in her blankets Inna could see. She looked out of the window, so close to sleep, but unable to make it through that final gate that came before sleep.

She looked about the room, even in the dark she was able to make out, able to sense, every detail. The instincts, the noticing, they tormented and rescued her most of her life. Acute intuition and instincts, trade marks of survivors and many of which had developed during the Chaos. Every corner of wood and shadow of fabric stood out in their detail, their own unique and tormenting identity tempted out her sharp senses and intuition whilst keeping her from the sublime bliss of sleep. 

She took another breath and closed her eyes. It didn’t work. Five minutes later her eyes had opened and she was looking out through the glass. A stray cat had perched on the fence a small distance from her building. It was glowing, it's white fur seemed to soak up the moonlight creating a white silhouette against the dark. Inna wished she was asleep.

Cats reminded her of Elissa, a gypsy girl she had met in her childhood. Inna had never before known anybody to have as sweet a temperament as Elissa. She did what she wanted, in the way a stray wayward kitty would, sweet and soft in her own right and in each of its own actions. Inna wondered how she was. Was she alive? Was she in the city? Was she driving herself insane on purpose! She rolled over, every inch of her awake, and, as if simply to prove it, she punched her mattress in frustration. The action seemed to do little and grew tiresome quickly. She sat up and hugged her knees.

She was in an old abandoned basement beneath a factory, one man lived in it but he was old and easy to avoid. In her pocket of the building it was pitch black but for the moonlight that could be seen from the window above the side of her bed, but fingers of light didn’t caress the room, the beams were visible from it but only residual light made it through the window plane.

She felt her head droop, and the side of it rested on her knees. She had done this to herself, from the moment she had run away her fate had been sealed, who was she to complain? She had done this to herself. She didn’t cry, things were better now anyway, better then they were at least. She was still a stray, still alone, but she was out of Russia and surviving, getting better and better, she even had a home! This place was good, safe and it suited her, hell, compared to what she had before it was a five star hotel, a free one.

She sighed and tried to stop thinking. She sat there for almost half an hour and barely a thought crossed her mind, then she took one last look out the window then lay down and hoped she would finally manage to sleep. What she hoped was a blanket of sleep seemed to creep over her but naturally it didn’t last. 

She woke she cried and out with exasperation. Pulling the covers to the side, she got out of the bed. Had she even slept? Was it just a doze? She groaned and left the room to walk into the street. The moment she stepped out she wondered if the night had been waiting for her. The air was cool and sweet, and seemed to draw away her frustration like poison from a wound. From the stars she guessed it was two thirty, she smiled, she should have come out earlier.

She walked through the streets, hoping for no trouble, but doubted it. She wasn’t unhappy, she liked the night, it was better then the day, being so cool, quiet and soft, it was simply the lurking danger and lack of people that made it second choice to the day. However looking around Inna saw it was peaceful compared to the day and it's loud confusion. She walked around making the most of her time, but also ready to drive a knife into her belly. She had been hungry for the last two days. 

She had been more unlucky then usual, and her stomach didn’t like it. But maybe tonight was her lucky night. She decided if she was out she had best put her time to use, she wanted that meal soon, so she went around the streets looking for fast food outlets and cafés. Eventually she came to a familiar fast food joint and went around the back to look in the bin. Opening it she went on tip tows to look inside. From the smell alone she knew she could celebrate. Food only a day old that could not be served, she almost squealed with glee, and thanked the elusive God. 

She reached in and pulled out all things decent she could reach. Two apple pies in boxes, five cheese burgers of different sorts, a pastry and two wraps. She took them out and whispered a silent pair of thanks then clutched them tightly and ran off to find somewhere she could eat.

She’d always been fussy about where she could eat. She never minded eating around people, but on her own or with just two she always had to find a descent spot. Tonight it became the fence where the cat still sat, staring at the moon.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked the moonlight fur-sponge. She pulled herself up and positioned her self next to it, “The moon has always seemed a mother figure to me, someone to look after you while you sleep, or a guardian angel if you will, though I think most people have that idea at one point or another.” But then she could no longer speak. By then she had taken out the burger and taken a bite and was so gloriously intoxicated with the food she could no longer bring herself to think about anything else. Food! Oh, how she had missed it. She chewed fast, it was heaven, she decided, pure eatable heaven.

She ate two burgers and an apple pie, after the first burger and a half she savoured every bite, slowing her intake so it lasted longer, though it was hard to make her self stop. To try to force herself to eat slow she started talking again to the animal besides her.

She decided it to be female, when she was young someone had told her, ‘Animals can hear every word we say, and usually understand them better then we do, that’s why they’re worth talking to, even if they can’t answer back.’ It was a notion that had grown into a habit and a habit she still had not grown out of. In truth it was just another thing she clung to, something to straighten her own sense of self and remind her of her own identity. 

She smiled at her temporary ear, “Where I come from you could see the moon and all the stars easily. Out in the country, have you ever been there? I suppose not, though I guess you could have come here with your old owners. No collar though, did they set you free, Little Miss? You should have seen my home. Great green stretches of grass and stone, we alway were lucky family, though, as I'm sure half the world could guess, we left to come here.”

The cat looked up at her with its glorious eyes Inna raised her eyebrows, wondering if the creature was expecting her to share her food. Not likely, this creature cold hunt birds and eat things from bins that she could never eat. 

“If you think your getting anything, you can think again,” she warned.

The creature looked away, as if disappointed and soon left, birds and mice taking its interest. Inna, calmed from her exploits and renewed after the distraction, went back inside her room.

However, once inside she didn’t immediately head back to her bed. She was bored, but still far to wakeful to try to attempt sleep again. She needed something to do, something useful or at least entertaining.

She pulled the string that hung from the ceiling and a dull gloomy light tainted the room grey. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, then she knelt down and pulled a box out from under her bed. Stacks of paper and small objects were piled inside, and a dull ache started in her chest. She reached in and pulled out the first bundle. Stories, short stories, the completed ones, some were written by her, but others were not. They were tied together from her childhood and hidden away for safe keeping. She picked one up and started to read.

I know it took a while but here is the carry on from the prior Blurb and Prologue, please read and I hope enjoy (though you may not) part 1 of the distroying. Comments again are sorely welcome. 

The Distroying

Blurb

It’s depression; depression has swept the world reducing it to what it is now. Even though years have past since the initial Destroying, cities weep in their sleep. Strays litter the streets of towns gone and cities under strain. Rust clings to the buildings, the smell of blood stains the ground, everybody fears the Repetition, everybody knows it will come.



Prologue

Four years ago the earth was thrown into turmoil when the Destroying came to be. Many believed it the work of God’s wrath or Satin's, others called it the Earth’s revenge, some simply left explanation behind and tried to bear through the time. Whatever it was thought to be, everybody went through the same phenomenon no science or scientist could explain. Even after the Destroying the pain didn’t end. The Riots then came so man could prove it was still its own worst enemy. Many died from the Destroying, many went to join them during and after. Then the Riots came to an end and the Depression crept over then swept over the world quiet as breath.

But a new promise came, a promise of Repetition. The Destroying to come again, one perhaps even worse than the first, with a violent Rioting, followed by a worse Depression, some don’t even think it’ll get that far, they believe the apocalypse will come first and grant the world peace from mankind at last. Nobody wants to think of it, nobody says anything, they just try to live and pray, pray that somehow it will be all right. Some, maybe the smart ones, don’t bother.

Right now I'm working on a novel I left years ago, trying to update what I've done and then hopefully finish it. If no one minds I'll post completed parts here, please feel free to comment and criticise, any feedback is a gift!