In the Wreckage and Smoke ... There lies Hope ("Smoke" Entry)

[roseglade.livejournal.com]

Title: In the Wreckage and Smoke … There lies Hope

Rating: G

Word Count:    547  words

Characters:  OC

Spoilers: “Time of Angels”

Warnings: N/A

Episode Setting: Before “Time of Angels”

Summary: “In the wreckage and smoke stood the outline of a woman.  All I knew was she was pissed.”

I was scared.  My whole body trembled in anxiety.  I remain quiet every waking hour of every waking day.  The stone figures never slept so neither do I.  There's no way to stop them.  There is no escape once you’ve turned your back.   There is no hope.  I remained silent in the labyrinths of caves below my city for more days than I could remember.  My only company in the darkness were that of sparse native rodents.  After months of first searching, I learned that I was the only one left in the city below.

The world knew nothing of our existence.  To the outside world, our civilization had dead for centuries.  We continued living our lives as hermits in the deep mazes, until that day.  I, Emperor Bastien Alexiou of the fifth rank of the same name, and my beloved people lost everything the moment the ship crashed and the statutes appeared.  Out of the sky, they and their ship fell.  We thought nothing of it as we sought to aid the injured, but to our dismay were injured in return.  There was no escaping them.  There was no hope for anyone.  No hope for me.  

As my body ached from malnutrition, my ears perked up at the almost silent sound of engines.  A sound.  In many days of pure silence, I hadn’t heard anything but the scampering footsteps of rats, but this was new.  I peeked out from my carven.  The sun burned my skin and I cursed.  I’d lived in darkness for so long, the sun was foreign to my frail body.

In the distance, appeared a bright blue box in the midst of smoke from the wreckage.  My heart nearly burst at the sight of it.  Life.  In the wreckage and smoke stood the outline of a woman.  All I knew was she was pissed.  She paraded out of the box and seemed displeased at the surrounding area and at the box.  Life.  This was my chance.  I could escape this horror and save her life too.  But would I make it?   I knew that the statutes watched me closely from a distance.  Helpless and vulnerable in the open, rocky terrain I would be susceptible to any attack.  But the Angels were in the city below me, deep in the maze of death.  I could make it.

In the wreckage and smoke, there lies hope.  I could see my salvation in the form of that women.  I couldn’t wait any longer.  I would run faster than anyone ever had.  I stepped out.  The sun scorched my skin and blurred my eyes.

“Miss!  Run for your life!  The Statues will take you!”

The women looked at me for a moment.  I smiled at her warm eyes.  But suddenly,  there was a white flash and she was gone.  I, breathing hard, I surveyed my surroundings.  It was dark and I was alone.  My eyes watered at my last hope gone.  I could not save her.  She would face the same demons, the same horrors I had faced.  I turned to return to my prehistoric home and froze.  The statue smiled as its finger was an inch away from me.  I could have sworn it had just laughed at me and my hopeless attempt at salvation.