Barrenlands: An Odyssey (Old Work)

Chapter Eleven.

1

THE Engineer and Little Girl's feet remained rooted within the sand, both wanderers too captivated to move; too captivated to blink even. The Engineer was most entranced, having now bear witness to a phenomenon that she had never seen before throughout her many years of roaming the Barrenlands. She had heard about such events – specifically extreme weather – but never thought to live to the day. And yet, here they were, watching something hurtle towards them at speeds that were almost unimaginable. It moved quicker than the fastest mutant she had encountered which seemed tame to... this. Squinting her eyes to focus into the distance, the Engineer couldn't help but remark at the strange, profound effect that it seemed to be having on its surroundings. Not only was it transparent, but it distorted the landscape and left massive dust clouds in its wake. The sky was now tinted brown, the same colour as the sand. The pale blue had gone, and the sun was but a misty haze.

"Drifter," she heard Little Girl whisper, her voice hoarse with panic. Was it fear that held her to the spot? Or was it the knowing that there was no escape? "That's a-"

The Engineer didn't need prompts to guess the final word, for it rang through her mind like a rumble of thunder and spewed out over her lips. It was of the same calibre as what came out of the contraption that was so neatly stowed away in the folds of her clothes, the only difference being that it was much, much larger. And it was fatal. Very fatal to anything in its path. "Pulse."

With the giant, threatening wave fast approaching, the Engineer turned on the heel of her boot and began a fierce sprint towards Little Girl who remained immobilised and still in the sand with wide eyes. But it was an action that was too little, too late, and the going was hard as her feet sunk through the soft grains of sand. It was like trying to gain traction on the slipperiest of surfaces, her shoes unable to grip and propel her forward. She almost found herself falling to her knees, the sand flicking up and trailing into the sky behind her. Within a split moment of bursting into action, the Engineer felt her body explode forwards and her feet left the floor. Like a ragdoll to the wind, she was thrown through the air and landed some way away, her face falling first into the sand and her body landing with a dull thud. She remained fallen, her body and limbs a twisted mess. The pulse had quickly passed, the contorted wave now heading fast away on its trail, and obliterating anything and everything in its path. But the two wanderers didn't move from their resting places.

She and Little Girl were no longer conscious, becoming new victims of the pulse.

2

The wind continued to kick up particles of sand, displacing them as they finally settled back down to the land. As time ticked by precariously around the Barrenlands, the Engineer and Little Girl remained still as a statue with the sand slowly building up and burying them. With enough passed time, they would be nothing more than mounds – nothing that would tell anyone else otherwise; that there was something buried beneath.