1 Chapter 1: Skyline Incident
Up in the floating offices hundreds of meters above ground, equivalent to the height of a 30-story building was the popular anonymous freelance blogger. Warm and cosy rays of sunlight shone through the iridescent glass panels surrounding Etoile's black matte desk. She was busy typing blogs on recent government activity, specifically immoral government activity. It was only yesterday that she had visited the wastelands unearthing a modern lab within restricted areas. From all the investigation she has done, there were science experiments being conducted on humans, and it's up to her to reveal this secret to the world without getting caught. However, currently, she doesn't have enough information. There were photos and sticky notes all around the glass plane in front of her. Etoile's talent was to write, but she wasn't bothered to become a journalist as all the pressure managers give was too much. She went freelance. Risky but successful.
She stretched her arms and reached for the sky as she tilted back on her office chair emanated all the stress of the day. The fridge was empty as usual, and to Etoile whose inspiration comes from instant noodles and chips, this was a nightmare.
"AH! Where art thou beautiful scrumptious food!" she released a distressed signal and dashed for the convenience stores. Etoile walked out of the complex of hovering offices, towards the single rail skyline trains that hung in mid-air.
"The window seat" Etoile sighed in delight. The window seats were the best, the trains traversed through the skies so clouds seemed within armlength. Such an ethereal scene can only be seen if you experience the skylines trains. She headed for the convenience stores where all she does was stare at the drinks trying to choose whether it's peach soda today or ice coffee. A peculiar man sat in front of her with combat boots and military patterned clothes, his bucket hat covered his eyes as he slept with arms crossed. He didn't bug Etoile at all, he just stood out compared to all the toffed up managers who sat around him. Back to the clouds. The tranquillizing view puts Etoile, and her worn-out brain from all the midnight shifts she pulled, to sleep. She dozed off as the soft breeze that dabs her pale face.
--
I was in my nice little dreamland having this marvellous adventure romance I've longed for as a single 23-year-old woman but someone, or something had to wake me. The vibrating floors of the skyline rails shook me wide awake as I blinked in confusion. The azure sky and fluffed clouds were absent, replaced by a smear of darkness and dim lights from dead stars. I sat there contemplating my next pace. I looked up, eyes searching frantically for some hieroglyph I recognise regarding my location. The Skyline's station monitor was dead. No one was on the train. There was barely any light there to illuminate my sight. I tried to stay as calm as possible, I could hear my heart jumping skipping ropes, banging against my ribs, so loudly I could even hear the blood that rushed to my brain.
"Hello?"
Wrong move.
There were screeching sounds coming off the metallic walls of the train like cat claws on chalkboards. The bashing here and there seemingly creeped closer and closer to my seat. I had no idea what I was to do, school didn't teach me how to escape a train attack! Within given circumstances I panicked and hid under my chair where I had the best view of the typical repulsive metro ground, empty bottles of coke, scattered newspaper and a leather wallet someone dropped.
"What is this! What station is this!" I whispered out of stress.
The banging against the train caused the walls to dent. Moans of pain and angry war cries heard everywhere, at this point all I could manage to make out was that there were 2 people fighting on this train and I'm not supposed to be here. The windows shattered, something I never thought skyline's windows would do as they are made to withstand the pressures of mid-air, 2 large figures came crashing in. With my given angle two men fighting like a pair of feral stags. They were crashing into each other, punches thrown around as they tried to pin each other down. Currently, my goal was to get to the end of the skyline train and use their safety landing cabins that were prepared in case of mid-air emergencies. I slowly army crawled across the floors knocking empty bottles and hamburger packaging to the back of the walls.
"Get your wings off me you bird!" What an odd complaint.
Wait, this would be great news to post! Imagine those headlines "Skyline incident: Windows fragmented; Are they really trustworthy?" or "War on Skyline trains". I'd go viral as the only person to have captured this on camera. The train was empty or everyone else was too afraid to come out of their hiding space; this is my chance to make myself a famous journalist. Trailing down my black turtle-neck tucked in my black cargo pants for my phone in one of the pants pockets. I unlocked it videoing this hysterical moment. The two men's silhouette bashed around from seat to seat and occasionally hitted the handles. Something's off about these two people, they didn't look very human. More like a blood-lusting beast trying to tear each other's heads off. I crawled closer to get a better look at this unwrapping event, one man had folded wings from what the minimal light allowed me to recognise and the other somewhat cat-like.
"Even if this is fake the silhouettes are enough to act as a hook for readers."
The video was never paused, not even until they started fighting above the seat I was hiding under. Animalistic growls and claw scratching the chairs were inevitably heard. I was alright, for now.
BAM
A fist that went straight through the seats caused me to release a scream. Only after I released my fear and distress that I realised more were to come. They have acknowledged my presence, in fact, chances are, they were going to get rid of my existence. I still haven't made a huge amount of money for my retirement; I haven't experienced having a home in those skyscrapers; I still need to try the new flavour of ramen and cucumber flavoured chips. Right now, I'm still a nobody who provides information for news departments. The fight stopped as both participants stood up from the seats, all that was within my sight were their shin and combat boots. The video was still recording as got ready to send it to my cloud so that my manager can access too. This was it.
The two standing guys slowly crouched down to find me scrunched up at the back corner trying to blend in with the wall. Their faces weren't very visible; my focus was upon their irregular silhouette. There was a feather-like object around one's back, it was humungous and unavoidable to notice.
"I can smell a human" A gruff voice came from my left as a hand reached for my feet and yanked me out of my hiding place.
I cannot describe to you how afraid I was, I screamed as if I saw my feet getting bitten off. I hung upside-down with one foot being lifted up by a tall man. On top of his head were two triangular figures that twitched once in a while, they looked like cat ears but were too round and fluffy to be so. My video was still recording with the phone in my hand as I held onto it like my life depended on it.
"What's a human doing here" The winged figure spoke with a very deep, appealing and slightly metallic voice which perfectly reflected his tall height and broad shoulders. The one who held me upside-down and completely lifted me off the ground turned me around up straight. The height difference was horrifying, I felt like a mouse. My scream was suppressed with a large hand that wrapped around my face covering half of it.
"It is a human!" The winged man came to sight as my back was against the person with fluffed ears on top of his head. He came into view as an exceedingly handsome young male with the most beautiful vermillion wings that ombre to white. His fashion sense was also brilliant, long black coat unbuttoned displaying his sinewy chest hiding under the slightly loose white jumper like shirt matched with black ripped jeans and black combat boots. My eyes traced up to his face, he had 2 ear piercings on one ear as his messy black hair was brushed backwards by a hand. He wore what seemed like shades but very techy and modern shades.
His wings flapped a bit as he stated, "Do we kill her?" that brought me back to reality.
