Part 2 – Friend or Foe?


     The woman leaned over to take a look at who was making their way towards her, careful not to make a sound. She inched slowly to the side trying to get a clear view of the stairs but when she finally caught sight of it there was no one there. She gave a sigh of relief and leaned back against the wood. When she looked up there was a man standing there looking down at her. She jumped up startled and instinctively pulled her sword out ready to defend herself. The man stood there unmoved  by her aggressive action.

     “Back off or I'll kill you too” she snapped at him angrily. The man sighed and shook his head. “What is your problem? Are you not afraid, I killed everyone else and I can kill you too. Leave me alone”.

     “If you wanted to kill me you wouldn't have given me the chance to leave” he said to her calmly. His voice was soothing. “Please. Tell me what happened here”.

     She didn't want to tell him anything, not this complete stranger she just met. But there was something about him, a sort of calming aura that relaxed her enough to think about what had happened. Upon thinking about it though, she realized she couldn't remember much of anything. She lowered her sword and slid it into its sheathe. “I... I don't really know.. all I remember is.. is this.” she waved her arms gesturing to everything around “I know it was me that did it”. She stood silent for a few minutes in disbelief of telling him and desperately searching for her memory.

     “I understand” he paused for a moment to think. “I saw someone else with you. Do you remember this person? Perhaps they have something to do with this as well”.

     She stopped her search, confused at what he had just said. “you saw someone with me? I don't remember anyone and how do you know? How did you survive this?” She back up away from him, afraid. What kind of person would be left unharmed by the power that was unleashed on the city.

     “Calm down please” he reached his arm out to her reassuringly “if you back up much further you will end up falling” She backed to the edge of the building and stopped.

     “Someone was with me?” she struggled to remember something. An image of the still intact city came to mind, she was standing on the same building looking over at the people below. Someone spoke to her. She could not recall the words, then she looked at the person. Before she could remember  them clearly something else flooded her mind. The memory faded as screams echoed in her ears. “Ahh..” she cringed in pain and covered her ears. The man looked at her, he could not hear anything.

     “Hey what is wrong” he asked concerned. The screams only grew louder in her mind becoming more painful.

     “s-stop.. ahhh!” she felt her foot slip over the edge of the building as her legs became weak, then the man yelled something. The world around her faded out, along with the screams, to a sickening laughter and then to darkness.