Chapter 1

Unimaginable Loss

~ Ember ~

A rough hand snagged her arm, dragging her alone the edge of the crowd. His long grimy hair dripped with sweat in the heat of the day. When Dark turn to look at her, Ember couldn’t see his scarred face. Instead there was only an eerie old fashioned gas mask with specially coated glass wrapped over the face shield. The gas mask had been jerry rigged to block out the dangerous ultraviolent radiation. Earth’s surface had become a dangerous place since the ozone layer collapsed. A solar flare had rendered the surface uninhabitable. Humans had moved down below almost seven years ago in a last ditch effort to survive. Ember and Dark had ended up in a musty cave, since they were in painted desert in an isolated part of Colorado when the flare hit.

“You okay, Em?”

Nodding she tried to pull herself together. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Let’s make a run for it.”

Gripping her arm, he pulled her slightly to him. “No matter what happens, you keep moving.”

“But…”

“You get to that ship. That’s all that matters to me.”

Swallowing thickly, she wished she could see her brother’s face one last time. Getting up from their crouching position, they began to move around the angry mob. How had her life come down to this? They’d been living on handouts and whatever they could scrounge for so long Ember couldn’t even remember what it was like to eat real food. The thought of leaving her brother behind was bad enough but now people were rioting in the streets over Earth trading women to aliens for food and other vital necessities. The fact was Earth was a hallowed out dust bowl, and desperately needed the trades to survive.

Dark refused to allow her to be sold off to the highest bidder, electing instead to send her to the one world that refused to pay for women. He insisted they would treat her better and not think of her as property. For her part Ember didn’t know what to think. God knows, she needed to get off Earth and the Maruvian home world was reputed to be a pristine newly developed paradise. The thought of fresh air, green food and an alien husband who mated for life seemed like a pretty good deal, all things considered.

“Where in the hell do you think you’re taking the girl? Haven’t you heard we’re putting a stop to flesh pedaling.”

Dark moved almost faster than her eyes could follow. His huge black boot landed on the older man’s chest, knocking him backwards into the red dirt. She watched the mask fly from his face. He began to sputter and the sound of his dry hacking cough left her confused about if it because of the exceedingly poor air quality or because of the dust their tussle had churned up.

“Move, Em. We’ve got to go right now, before anyone sees what happened.”

They both began moving for the huge vessel. She could see a long line of strange looking men in what appeared to be flight uniforms. They were standing in at the ready to help any woman brave enough to make a run for it. The appeared shocked by the scene unfolding a hundred yards in front of them. Several had some kind of energy shield in one hand and a baton style weapon in the other.

A woman would have to be totally out of options for that sight to her holy grail. Sadly enough, she was one such woman. Getting to that ship meant survival and choices. Staying grounded on Earth would just be a slow painful death. Dark was right about this being her one and only chance at a decent life.

They continued working their way around the edge of the crowd until they were about fifty yards away.

“We run now. Go, Em.”

They boot bolted forward, quickly garnering the notice they’d worked so hard to avoid. Sever laser weapons fired in their direction. One burned grazed her arm and she could feel the burn. The crazy radicals didn’t have the weapons on stun. When she was about twenty yards away, she heard a soft thud. Stopping in her tracks, she knew Dark had been hit.

“Run Em, you promised.”

Turning, she saw him lying on his stomach. He’d taken several shots, including one in the stomach. She could tell because smoke was rising from the laser burns. Suddenly, two aliens landed out of nowhere, one on each side of her.

“Take my sister. Get her out of here.”

“You are injured.” The alien’s voice was deep and raspy, but his articulation was perfect.

Clutching his stomach, he stared up at the alien protecting her with his shield. “You can’t save me. Take her out of here.” Dark’s voice sounded strange and disembodied thought the gas mask.

“I won’t leave you.”

Pointing one dirty, bloody finger at the man, Dark spoke haltingly. “I give my sister to you. See she gets to your world safely. If you don’t do right by her, my ghost will haunt you 'til the day you die.”

She wanted to scream at him that she wasn’t property, but Dark had already slumped to the ground. She saw the blood slowly staining the dirt a bright crimson and her knees gave way. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t.

The man immediately grabbed her around the waist to keep her from falling. After screeching something to his partner, he whisked her away. Reaching out with both hands towards her downed brother, it felt like being sucked straight back into a black hole. Her head was buzzing and she couldn’t seem to suck in enough air. Becoming lightheaded, she saw the remaining insectoid kneel. He jerked something from around his neck and laid it on Dark’s body. It looked like a round metal disk. Tearing a thin bar off the side of his pants, he laid it down her brother’s chest.

All hope deserted her, as the realized it must be some strange alien funeral rite. Ember had slowly lost every member of her family over the last eight years, but nothing could have prepared her for losing Dark. He had been her everything, and now she was left with nothing.

Looking down, she saw her own feet swinging in the wind. She also saw another pair of feet. That’s when she understood they were airborne. Her new owner had wings, large ones, capable of transporting them both. It was too much to take in all at once. As her world faded to black, she felt the insectoid clutch her tighter.