Roughers | an Ashton Irwin Fanfic

Chapter 12

The earth was the color of sweet cinnamon and the sky seemed to follow suit. Immediate heat seared down onto my skin and I had never remembered the sun being so cruel. The dry, humid wind scraped my skin raw; leaving my lips only a ghost of what they were moments before we stepped through the hole-in-the-wall and into the Rough.

Through my squinted eyes, I caught only a blur of the new world around me. From where the horizon dipped, miles upon miles of sand and ashes sprawled out in dunes, covering the barren landscape with a hopeless feeling. I spun in a tight circle, my dress billowing it the humid wind though there seemed to be no water in sight.

I stumbled around to Ashton who held the grim expression the area provided you with. I gazed at him speechless, beyond words and hopelessly beyond confused.

"Follow me," he turned away, heading towards what seemed like no where. "I'll show you something."

We faced the on coming wind as we walked. Sand and rock flew into my face and mouth with every breath I took and eventually I stopped trying to wipe it away. The irritation of the dirt now thickly lining my arms and legs, and the surely advancing sunburn on my features held off most of my thoughts as we went. But not all of them.

Weather of this sort was unheard of in the Pure. I had never come into contact with such an atrocity in my time of existence. Was this it? Was this what made the Rough such a hellic icon? 

I kept my head low as we went, finding it did more to shield my burning face. I shadowed Ashton's footsteps as we went, my eyes trained on the backs of his heels as I trudged on behind him. The ache of ascending a hill filled my calves but I pressed forward, not wanting to complain and doubt my strength as well as pride. But after 15 minutes of climbing my legs were pudding and I felt the weight of the world on my back.

"Can't we just ride your hoverbo-"

Ashton stopped short in front of me, causing me to come clashing into his back and almost tumble straight back down the hill. With his steadying hand, I regained my balance. We stood on stop of a monster dune, the Rough spread out in every direction around us. I held the skirt of my dress stiff as the wind pushed fiercer than ever, but Ashton looked as if he were doing this for his own amusement.

"So why did we climb up here?"

I was forced to shout as my voice was lost in the rumble of the Rough around us. If I hadn't known any better, I would've thought the world was ending. In the city, the weather was perfect, just as everything else was. Clear skies, cool breeze, all year round. It never failed. 

Ashton, like myself, had his eyes scrunched to block the threatening rush of air and bright light enveloping us. He tucked his hands in his pockets, looking out into the distance at something he obviously meant me to see. 

I faced the way he did, looking out past the miles of sand we'd just walked to get here, the constant movement of the ground already diminishing our tracks from existence. Out in the distance, stood something I wasn't expecting to see, and it only baffled me further. 

From the hill on which we stood, we faced the entirety of what looked like a massive iron dome. It was organized geometrically, out of large octagon plates. I peered to Ashton in awe, amazed at how I could've missed such a structure when we'd made the jump into the Rough.

"What it is?" I breathed, my words whisked away as quickly as they came.

He glanced down at me for a moment, studying me like he was debating whether bringing me here was beneficial in anyway he had thought it would. He sighed. "That's the city."

My eyes widened and I cussed as I was hit with sand. I rubbed them with my palms tenderly. "You mean there's another city?" 

This was shocking. As far as everyone knew and was told, we were the only standing civilization left on the planet. How this metallic dome could be another city just like ours left my head spinning.