The Thousand-Eyed Crow (#Wattys2020)

Chapter 12 (Lazarus and the Massacre)

The creature ferrying Kallias across the sky screeched as it descended on the rock formation on the south coast of the isles, coming down low before opening its appendages and dropping Kallias from just safe enough to a height to not kill them, but not low enough for them to avoid the impact of the hard, compacted sand when they landed. They rolled across the beach, making several rotations before coming to a stop and hissing in pain as their wheelchair tossed about, luckily just missing being entirely destroyed and bent out of shape.

Not far off, another creature carrying someone else released them to the earth, and they suffered the same fate, tumbling through the sand and crashing into other people who had been brought to the area. Kallias sat up, brushing the sand from their body and ruffling their hair to get the sand out of their hair, even though they knew this was a futile task, and if they survived this entire ordeal, they would be flicking bits of sand from their hair for months afterward. They looked around to see thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people populating the beach, crowding in the area that used to be the English Channel before it had dried up and been replaced by the packed, dry earth as it was now. Many more people dropped from the skies after a moment, as if the sky were precipitating more humans onto the wretched planet. Kallias tried wheeling themselves across the sand toward to the crowd full of people who seemed to be waiting for something, but rolling along sand proved to be quite an ordeal. They struggled, and it beat dragging themselves across the ground any day, but somehow after a moment, they felt so strong, that it would not be an impossible task.

"Does anyone know why we're here?" Kallias asked someone, who seemed very panicked, as if they were looking for someone. The person turned away, continuing on their search for a familiar face.

Frustrated, Kallias rolled along the sand, asking some more people if they knew what was going on, but no one could give a definitive answer. Sighing, they paused, looking off into the distance, and noticed that the creatures bringing people to the beach were disappearing into clouds of feathers as they left. Kallias was not sure what this meant, but it was quite suspicious that this was happening as soon as they completed their tasks. But their renewed sense of strength made the trek about the beach easier, and they felt as if they were rolling along the ground on a smooth surface, and it required very little effort to move, which was not how they felt when they had initially landed.

Kallias rolled off, trying to find a secluded spot, as the crowd was quite overwhelming. They looked off into the distance and blinked, and when they opened their eyes again, they had been transported back into their flat.

This time, Rain stood there before them, their arm and leg twisted but otherwise looking fine, and Kallias felt the pain in their chest return with full force. They could not stop the tears from dripping down their face again.

"What are you doing here?" Kallias asked quietly, their voice shaking slightly, not sure if it was safe to approach their lover. "Is this really you? What happened?"

Rain smiled softly, raising his eyebrows as he slowly stepped toward Kallias. "I'm not actually dead. I managed to dig myself out of the rubble of the re-education center with some help. But when I got out, everyone was gone..."

"I'm so happy you're not dead," Kallias said softly, reaching up and pulling Rain down for a kiss. "And I didn't know you knew how to astral project."

"To be honest, I don't. But it's easier than calling when I don't have my hologram device, I guess. I just really wanted to talk to you and see where you and the rest of the gang went off to, and somehow I managed to figure it out," Rain replied, wrapping his arms around Kallias and kissing them on the forehead. "There was this... creature that dug me out of the rubble, and I thought it was going to kill me, but instead it pulled me out and I think it gave me some sort of magical powers, because my limbs weren't working, since they got kind of twisted up and broken, but now I can literally run and jump and do all of that without any issues."