Iridescent: Chapter One

Iridescent

Chapter One

~Waking Up~

After the Fall

Takes place after New Way of Life - Chapter Forty of The Turn

Zara looked out the window thought there was nothing much to see. The sun looked hazy through the dirt and ash that hung in the air. On the street there wasn’t a soul. There were only broken devastated buildings for miles around. The Tower, destroyed, loomed in the distance. She sighed.

It had been about a month since the say the New Order leveled the Island. The Inhibitors were scattered everywhere preventing the Others that lived on the Island from using their powers. That meant that even Zara couldn’t do as much as light a candle.

Zara looked back into her temporary room. The room was mostly empty, looted by someone after the Tower fell. There was a tattered backpack that Zara managed to find in the rubble. Beside the bag were her two katana. What was noticeably absent from the room were her friends. She was separated by her team and had no idea where they were or any idea of where whey might be.

A gunshot rang through the streets that startled Zara. She ducked down and waited. There were no more shots or sounds and she slowly looked over the window sill. She didn’t see anyone and thought it a good idea to get going.

Zara walked to her bag and checked it’s contends. She pulled out a gun and strapped it to her belt. After rustling around in her back pack she pulled out five jet injector vials. Two of the vials were filled with a blue liquid and the other three were empty. The liquid in the vials was called Blue Gold. It allowed an Other’s powers to activate, a vital asset in the current state the Island was in with the Inhibitors dotting the landscape.

She put the two vials in her pant pocket that was deep enough to conceal them. With one last look in the bag, she threw on the back pack and grabbed her katana. She walked to the window and climbed out. Zara shimmied against the wall, finding foot holds where she could. She found her way back to the ground and pressed on.

Her boots were heavy boots were caked with dirt and mud. In fact, everything she had and wore was busty with ash. After the Tower fell, ash fell from the sky like snow for days afterward. She walked through the streets and alleyways keeping to the shadows as best she could. It was the only way not to get any unnecessary attention.

She came across a stretch of road cleared of debris. Zara looked around for another route but they all were blocked off by mountains of rubble. She sighed and pressed onward, staying to the shadowy side of the street. Zara moved slowly hoping that no one would spot her. When she passed a broken shop window, something darted past. She stopped, looked and waited. When nothing moved she carried on a few more feet. A knife fell just in front of her. Zara jumped back and looked up.

“Aww! I missed her!” a voice groaned from above.

“How could you miss that!? She was right there!” another voice shouted.

A deeper voice stepped in, “Pay up, you two.”

“Alright, alright,” the first voice said.

“Man,” groaned the second.

Zara saw clearly now. There were three figures sitting on the ledge of a busted out window. One of them, the African American, was the stronger looking of the three. There was a noise behind her and Zara turned. More men crawled out of the building behind her. The three men and more jumped down from the building.

“We’ll hello there missy,” one of the men smiled, “You lost or something?”

Zara broke into a run. She ran down the street. More men cut off the end of the street. Determined she kept running. She felt someone grab onto her backpack. Zara turned violently and threw a punch. The stronger black man caught her punch. Zara reached back and grabbed the handle of one of her katana. She slashed in front of her. That brought childish ‘ooo’s from the crowd of boys.

The man was quick as well as strong. He let go of her and staggered back without getting scratched. Zara glared at him, the katana in her left hand. She held a fighting stance as the ring of men around her tightened. Angered, Zara turned and slashed out at the crowd.

“That’s no butter knife,” someone said.

One of the men laughed, “Looks like we’ve got a fighter here!”

“You were right, Boss!” another shouted, “She’s a tough one!”

The black man nodded, “Of course I’m right. You can just tell at times.”

Zara looked back at the man. She charged at him as she tried to cut him. The man dodged easily any attack she was able to throw at him. He didn’t once attack her, driving Zara’s anger even further. She felt like he was taunting her.

“Now, now, calm down,” he said, “We ain’t goin’ a hurt chya.”

Zara looked around at the other men in the circle. She looked back at him, “Yeah, right. You think I’m stupid or something?”

“This fighting isn’t going to end well you know,” he said.

“You’re right,” Zara stated, “I’d hate to kill you.”

Zara charged at him again. She attacked with a lung of her katana. The man caught her hand and threw her to the ground. Zara rolled to her feet. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial of Blue Gold. The crowd grew quiet. The man turned at the sudden silence and saw what Zara had in her hand.

“Where’d you get that pretty little thing, girl?” he asked.

“It isn’t going to matter when I’m finished with you,” Zara stated.

The man turned to the crowd, “Hit me!”

One of the others threw a blue vial at him. He caught it and struck his forearm. The jet injector hissed as the liquid was injected into the man’s system. He closed his eyes and cracked his neck. The crowd ran to hide in the protection of the buildings. The man opened his eyes they were a vivid light brown.

“Bring it, Baby,” the man motioned to her. The dirt around him started to stir.

“I plan to,” Zara stated.

Sand rose from the ground and flew towards her. Zara dove to one side. She rolled to her knees and used the vial into her leg. The Blue Gold rushed through her system. It was a dizzying high as every Other cell in her body was activated to its fullest potential, breaking even the overhanging influence of the Inhibitors and their Silver Void.

Her eyes started to glow a dark blue. She saw the sand create spikes from the ground. Zara darted around them. The tip of her katana touched the ground. Zara scrapped the ground with the katana in the similar motion of a golf club. An arrow of blue fire broke through the ground toward the man. The fire struck him and he slid back.

Zara ran at him and jumped into the air. She brought down her katana where the man was supposed to be. Suddenly he disappeared, his being dissolving into sand. The katana struck the ground with a kling. Zara didn’t look back but responded. She took her katana and spun around. In a downward arch she sliced at the man as he appeared behind her.

When he noticed her quick reaction he had only second to react. He dissolved in to grains of sand and jumped back where he reconstructed himself. A warm liquid dripped down the side of his face. He touched it with one hand. It was blood. He looked at the girl again as she ran at him. Angered he shouted. The sand rose from the ground and shot toward her in the form of a fist.

Unable to avoid the attack, Zara was struck with its full force. She was blown back into the solid wall of a building. Zara dropped her one katana and covered her face. The attack didn’t cease and she felt the wall behind her crack and start to give way. She screamed as the wall behind her caved in. The man below smiled as the wall caved from the pressure.

Zara flew into the back wall. Almost instantly she was assailed by several men. She could feel them grabbing at her clothes and hair.

“Get off me!” Zara screamed.

Her whole being burst into blue flame. The men grabbing at her recoiled and screamed in agony as they suffered from severe burns. The intense flames around her subsided as Zara got to her feet. The blue fire remained around her hands and wrists. Zara walked to the hole in the wall and jumped down. She dropped down to her knees before standing up straight again. Zara looked at the leader with fiery determination. She grabbed the second katana. The fire from her hand transferred to the blade bathing the katana in a fiery blue flame.

The man brought his elbows back and cracked his shoulder joints, “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”

Zara brought up her katana, “I just hate to lose.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” the man punched the air in front of him.

His arm turned into waves of sand hurling their way toward Zara. The fire around Zara intensified as she ran at the sandy doom. She raised her katana and sliced through the blast of sand. At first nothing happened. She continued her charge but the blade slid through the sand. Zara then engulfed herself in intense blue flame. The sand slowly turned to glass until it reached where the sand and the man flesh met.

The man cried out in pain as essentially his entire arm had been turned to glass. He looked up at Zara through the pain. Zara’s katana was trapped in the glass and she held on to the grip of the sword.

“Told you, I hate losing,” Zara stated.

She grabbed the katana with both hands and forced the blade upwards. The glass shattered. The noise was earsplitting in combination of the man’s own screaming. The man crawled backwards and held his stub of an arm. He cried out in pain.

Zara walked over to her second katana and picked it up. She walked down the street without any resistance and left. It was a few blocks away that the adverse effects of the Blue Gold take effect.

Zara suddenly felt short of breath and fell against a building. She cried in pain as every part in her body fell like it was on fire. Zara made her way into a building where she waited for what was next to come. She fell to the floor, writhing in pain as she tried not to cry out. Soon the pain passed and left her gasping for air. She couldn’t move and her breathing was more and more labored. After a few more minutes she fell into a deep exhausted sleep.