The mountain was eerily quiet. Last night's fog could still be seen in small parts of the rugged terrain, while the vegetation was still covered in morning dew. The woody scent of pinewood was so intense in the air that you could taste it. A slender figure was going down a dirty mountain path, while a black hoody was covering his head. His body seemed weighed down, his back bent as he was staring at the ground.
"Eva…'' He mumbled as he slowly took another step forward. The wind was chilly, but his body was not reacting. Lost in thought he continued to speak.
"Another day…"He stopped for a moment, taking his hoody off his head, and stared at the sky. As the gray clouds were filling his vision, it seemed as if he was looking for something. An empty rugged smile started to fill his face.
"I'm sorry… Look, I am smiling for you" His voice weak was carrying with it a sense of longing as a tear left his right eye.
"The shrink is really trying you know? I asked him to give me some pills, but he refused saying that in my current state, I will only abuse them". He wiped his face with his left hand.
"After two years the only good advice he gave me was to keep walking down this fucking mountain". As the words left his mouth, his head looked back on the road and continued to walk.
"He said that I need to let myself actually feel my emotions, and stop running away from them. That's odd you know, as for the last two years I've done nothing else besides feeling them!" A pebble struck forcefully by his left leg flew into a fallen rotten tree.
"I miss your smile you know. I dream about it every night." As the image filled his mind, a smile flashed on his face. The country road opened itself into a large hillside highway. With the change of scenery, the girl's image started to fade out of his thoughts.
On the side of the road, near him, a small rocky cross was embedded in the ground. From his hoodie pocket, he took out a flower. It had tiny bright blue petals and a white center. He slowly bent down towards the cross and placed it on a patch of grass in front of it.
"I read that this is called Forget-me-not…and I will not Eva…See you tomorrow" After saying these words he got up, and continued to walk. Right when he was about to get his phone out of his back pocket, a scream filled his ears.
"HELP ME! Please somebody help me!"
Startled, he turned around only to see a young boy running towards him. As the boy continued to get closer he was able to notice that his clothes were tattered and covered in soot. His left shoe was missing and tears were crashing down his face.
"Please mister help me!" The boy finally reached him. Confused he started saying.
"Hey hey, what's going on? What happened to you!"
"My parents please, my parents are going to die!" The despair in his voice was enormous.
Trying to calm the boy down, he knelt and slowly asked him.
"I'm going to help you, but first you need to relax. What's your name?"
"I'm Clay…" Said the boy trying to ease up his breathing.
"Hi Clay. My name is Darin. What happened?"
"My Parents! They are still inside the house! Everything is on fire! My little brother is there too, they went back inside to get him out of there!"
Darin was speechless. There was nothing he could say that would make the situation better. He quickly got his phone out of his pocket and panicked, dialed 911 but no sound was coming back.
"Fuck! No signal." Once the words left his mouth he cast a glance at the boy who was shivering in place.
"Let's go, I should get some signal down the highway".
"There's no time! They are going to die!" Darin looked at him panicked, not being able to utter a single word. A sense of hopelessness started to fill his thoughts, and fear took root inside his mind.
"Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to do? I cannot help this kid!"
"Look Clay, we need to get a hold of the police, or the firemen we cannot do anything right now." As the words left his mouth, the boy's eyes started to water. He looked back at Darin, and with a look of disdain, turned around and ran back towards the place he came from.
"KID! STOP!" Yelled Darin, but the boy did not reply, he continued to run.
"He's gonna get himself dead! I need to get a hold of the police!" He thought starting to run down the highway, but right then a serene smile flashed in his mind stopping him in place. It was her smile accompanied by a deep sense of regret.
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"Fuck fuck fuck! No, I am not, not gonna do it again!" He screamed.
"CLAY! Wait for me!" he turned around and started running after the boy while at the same time trying to call the police. After a couple of minutes, he caught up with the boy. Darin's lungs could not keep up much more as the uphill climb was so hard, but looking at the child who would just not stop, made him continue. Soon after the smell of burned wood was enough to make your eyes water.
"It's just around the corner! Hurry up!" Yelled Clay. As the road took a left Darin was struck in place. A huge house was on fire, alongside the trees near it.
"PLEASE! Help me get them out!"
As the boy was pleading for help, Darin's body was shriveling and fear filled his mind once again, but this time something else overcame it and calmed him down. He looked at the boy, and took off his hoodie, remaining in his T-shirt. He took his phone and put it in Clay's hand.
"Look at me! I'm going to help, but you need to keep trying to reach the police. Keep on calling them you hear me?!" Yelled Darin.
"Okay, I will do it!"
Darin turned around looking at the house and ripped the bottom side of his T-shirt while wrapping it on top of his mouth and nose. As he slowly approached the burning mess another thought emerged.
"It should have been me Eva, not you!"
He reached the front door, while the heat of the fire was raging on. With his left leg lifted in the air, he heavily kicked it down letting him see inside the house. The whole ground floor was burned down to a crisp, but Darin could not see anyone. As he quickly scanned around, he saw the stairs leading to the first floor, where a woman's voice could be heard.
"HELP!!! PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP!"
As the voice reached his ears, he made his way toward the stairs, but right then he made the mistake of touching the railing.
"FUCK!" it burned his right-hand skin off, but he did not dare to stop knowing that there are people trapped above. Slowly he started to climb the stairs, looking for the source of the screams. Reaching the top he saw a room to his right and started to run towards it. Right as he was in front of it, a chilling scene unraveled. A man was lying down on the right side of the room dead, and a burning wooden beam was on top of him. A couple of steps away from him, a woman was holding a blanket in her arms, clutching it closely to her chest.
"HEEEY! I'M HERE, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS PLACE!" Yelled Darin, but there was no answer coming back. The fire was getting stronger and there was no time. The ripped cloth over his face was not doing its job anymore, and thick smoke was making its way into his lungs making him lose his strength. In the heat of the moment, a clever thought came to his mind. He laid down on the floor, since the some and fire were rising towards the ceiling, and started to crawl toward the woman. In a couple of moments, he was able to reach her. Her whole upper body was blackened and smoke came out of her skin leaving only her head intact. It was clear that she endured an amazing amount of pain before he got here.
"Lady, can you hear me? Let's get out!" Said Darin as he got closer to her eyes trying to get a reaction out of her. Unbelievably the woman's eyes stared back at him, but there was no strength behind them. Then she shifted her gaze towards the blanket in her arms, Darin doing the same. Hidden inside, It was a 2-year-old boy. Darin looked back at the woman, noticing the plea inside her eyes.
"I understand…Please forgive me…" After saying those words, he took the blanket with the boy from the woman's hand. Once it was in his arms, the woman stared at him and with a faint smile said:
"T-thank y-you…" As the words left her mouth, she finally fell to the floor, dead. With compassion in his eyes, he checked the child inside the blanket. The child was ok. Summoning all his strength, daring started crawling back to the door, getting out of the room. Suddenly, behind him in the room, the ceiling came crashing down on the parent's bodies.
He quickly rose up to check his surroundings. The thick smoke was starting to take its toll on his body clouding his mind, the chaotic inferno letting him feel little hope for escape. He glanced back at the stairs he had climbed, now completely consumed by flames. To his left and right, everything burned fiercely.
From his vantage point at the top of the stairs, he could see the ground floor below. The only path to safety was to somehow reach it and make a run for the front door. Time was running out, and panic began to take hold. He closed his eyes for a moment, the weight of fear pressing down on him.
“What am I doing? I’ll never make it out of here. I’m going to die and take this child with me…”As the thoughts were raining down on his morale, her smile appeared again. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked down at the kid in his arms. The boy was staring back at him, his face filled with fear. Darin knew what he had to do.
“Don’t worry, little one. Did you ever fly?”
“Fly?” the boy asked, his voice trembling.
“Yes. We’re going to jump and fly for a few seconds. All you have to do is close your eyes, and I’ll show you.”
The boy buried his face into the blanket, clutching it tightly. Darin wrapped the child securely and held him close to his chest. Determination surging through him, he started running toward the fiery staircase and leaped into the air. For a brief moment, time seemed to slow. Turning his body mid-air, he positioned himself so his back would take the brunt of the impact.
The crash onto the ground floor was excruciating. Four ribs broke instantly, and pain exploded through his body.
He lay there motionless, every breath a struggle as he drifted in and out of consciousness. The anguish was overwhelming, and he closed his eyes, trying to block it out. But the pain wouldn’t let him escape. In the haze, her face appeared again—her radiant smile that always brought him happiness. He remembered how she had always believed in him, and always pushed him to be better. His eyes opened.
"No more! I will not let it happen again!" With sheer willpower, he hugged the blanket tightly. Slowly, painfully, he rose to his feet. The door was blocked by fire and debris, but to the left of it, he spotted a window.
“One more time,” he whispered to himself.
Wrapping the child securely once more, Darin summoned all his remaining strength and once again he started sprinting towards his target. In a split second, he hurled himself through the glass, shattering it as he crashed onto the ground outside.
Smoke billowed around him as he lay on the grass, barely conscious. Clay ran up to him, relief washing over his face. The child in the blanket wriggled free and dashed toward his brother, their cries of joy piercing through the chaos.
Darin Lay still, his body broken and lungs filled with smoke. For the first time in two years, he felt peace. He had saved them. He closed his eyes, her sweet face filling his mind as darkness crept in.
“I did it…” he thought, a faint smile forming on his lips as he succumbed to the inevitable.
But then, as his vision faded, a soft, radiant light surrounded him. The air shimmered, and suddenly, a deep, commanding voice echoed from nowhere:
''SCAN COMPLETE.
NUMBER OF INTELLIGENT SPECIES: 1
NUMBER OF CONTINENTS: 7
NUMBER OF NATIONS: 195
NUMBER OF MAJOR SETTLEMENTS: OVER 10.000 ACROSS THE PLANET
NUMBER OF MEMBERS: 8,194,935,756 AND STEADILY GROWING.
PHASE 1 COMPLETE.''
The voice echoed with an almost mechanical precision. As it faded, the light reappeared, this time enveloping their bodies in a soft glow. It lasted only a few seconds before dissipating. The voice spoke again.
''SCAN COMPLETE
PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION NOT APT FOR SYSTEM: 20%
PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION TOO YOUNG FOR THE SYSTEM: 25%
PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION APT FOR SYSTEM: 55%
NUMBER OF HUMANS NEEDED FOR SYSTEM START-UP: 10.000
PHASE 2 COMPLETE.''
A brief pause followed, then came the final announcement.
''STARTING PHASE 3
TRAINING.''
The two boys clung to one another, the older brother holding the younger tightly as the younger was crying. The older boy cast a glance toward the spot where Darin’s body had been, but it was gone.
It disappeared.
