The Crossings: Chapter 1

I don't know how I got here. All I know is that I need to get out. I've been here for 2 weeks and no end to this torture in sight. Every street I come across is empty, deserted and the buildings are crumbling, decaying, or fallen. I feel like I'm being watched but I can never find the eyes that watch me. I haven't been able to find the exit to this city, even though I've searched and learned every inch of it by memory. All the roads I follow are blocked by crumbled buildings or piled carwrecks, too mangled to climb over. I haven't forund another living thing except me. The only thing I have that gives me the will to continue is a flower I found, growing in a crumbling office tower, under a slim shaft of light. It was watered by a broken pipe that dripped streams of the precious water. I care for the flower with my life, the only color left in this gray scape. The delicate way the flower bends like a snow drop, white as snow with crimson streaks running through its petals. My name is North, and this is the story of The Crossings.

North flicked her ears up, she was feeling it again. Something was watching her. SomeONE was watching her, she was almost sure of it. She has had the same feeling every night since she arrived there. She got up, her dark blue-black fur blending well with the dark gray inkiness of the office building at night. She looked around, her violet eyes reflected the pale moonlight as she looked around futiley for the 15th time in 14 nights. She knew she was being watched. She couldn't deny the chilly claw of fear raking down her spine, the strange feeling she got when she knew she was being watched. She felt the gaze boring down on her, as if it could see right through her. She knew she would never find the source; each night she would look around, find nothing, then lay down only to have the feeling return a short time later. North looked at the flower again, as if to reassure herself that it was still there, or perhaps that she would be okay. Then she padded in a few circles as most wolves do, and laid down. As soon as she closed her eyes the feeling returned, stronger than ever before. North tried to ignore it, and somehow managed to fall into a fitful sleep.

Morning came like a sheltering relief over North. Her stomach rumbled loudly as the sun rose. "Ugh, I'll be lucky to find anything today." She moaned to the flower. The flower had become North's companion in the decaying city. North had been surviving off of human trash for the past 2 weeks. The only other animal she had seen was a rat, and it was only one about a week ago. Since then, she hasn't seen a single living creature. She began trekking through her usual rounds around the city. She was aware of the wind blowing from behind her, ruffling her fur, but it carried no scent of living prey, nor the scent of grass so North made it stop. She felt the wind slow and stop. North grew aware of a velvety flower petal that kept floating around her. It was snow white with red streaks. It must have fallen from the flower. 'Strange' North thought to herself as the petal drifted by her snout. 'The flower was in perfect health when I left it.' North trotted back to her den to discover that the petal had not come from her flower. Slowly the feeling crept up on her. She was being watched, again. A mixture of hope and fear filled North. Hope that there were other living things and fear that they weren't friendly. She turned to leave for her scrounging routine to see a shadow leave from her doorway. "Hey!" She yelled running out to see that whatever it was had completely disappeared. But it had left something for North. Animal bones lay scattered at North's feet. They were arranged, forming the skeleton of a dog and a human. It was a warning that North understood all too well. Everything finally made sense. This city had been blocked off on PURPOSE. Whatever lived here trapped the inhabitants inside the city and slowly hunted them off. Nothing could escape. North understood it all.

She was next.