DeathWatch No. 0 – A Beginning

This is Issue #0 of DeathWatch, an ongoing Serial.

This tiny short is just the beginning — or a beginning. (You could go back, and back, and back, and back, into the history of the world, to learn where everyone came from, and how wars come to be, and how nations are built, but instead, you can just start here.)

Happy Reading!

* * *

“Look out!”

The blur of metal and glass came too close; Kieron could hardly breath, and whatever he managed was noxious, choking. He doubled over to cough, reaching gloved hands to cover his mouth, his eyes stinging.

Someone else shouted again, but as he straightened up, there was a world-shattering impact. Everything in his body screamed. While he was weightless, his mind on fire, the whole world spun.

He could hear the ocean, somehow, and then the spinning world was red.

And then it was dark.

* * *

When he woke, he could taste blood. He still couldn’t breathe.

The world was out of focus.

His stomach lurched.

“Don’t try to move.” The voice tried to sound comforting, but instead, it only sounded familiar.

No.

It felt familiar.

Up and down finally made sense of themselves, and Kieron realized realized he was lying on the ground, in the middle of a street, in the slush. In the distance, sirens wailed, high and lonely. He knew they wouldn’t get close enough in time. People were shouting, crowding around.

Above him, a woman’s silhouette leaned over, haloed by a fierce winter’s sun, the grey of the world dominating everything above him.

“Hold still,” the silhouette said. “Hold still, Fallon. They’re coming. You’ll be okay.”

He tried to tell her his name wasn’t Fallon, but the only words he knew were full of blood.

They ran over his lips, and then the world was red.

And then it was dark.

* * *

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