The Wanderers

Chapter 1 – feel again

Her cold lifeless feet dragged across the rock-strewn pavements, she passed out again but this time she awoke in a small room, no light lit up this room, her fingers began to gain life again; confused she cried for help while trying to remember what happened. She remembered. She remembered the last hour of work; pouring hot coffee for her bosses. She remembered buckling while trying to hand the cup to her boss. He shamed her, “you selfish, you selfish…get out my office, now” he stutters in pain, the heat soaks deeper into the fabric of his trousers as his face turn red. She tried to skip a little, through her memories while she so desperately tried to forget that incident and move to the part to how she got here.

She put in the keys to lock up her office after hours, as the inner workings of the door turned slowly, she checked if maybe she wasn’t alone. Her hairs stood on end whilst fear consumed her body, but she brushed it off because she knew she was alone. She finished turning her key and began to walk down the seemingly endless hallway. She heard a creak from behind and tried to pick up the pace, stumbled and hit her head. As the migraine crept in, she was blinded with flashing colourful spots. The pain throbbed and danced around her skull; squeezing it so tightly her eyes rolled back but she tried to crawl away, she tried but every time her palm met the floor and her knees shuffled, the groaning sound from behind her echoed in a maddening crescendo. She remembered turning around and seeing a black figure drift towards her; she screamed, blacked out. Time went passed she opened her eyes and looked down while her cold lifeless feet dragged across the rock-strewn pavements, she passed out again and woke up in this small room.

The migraine didn’t leave her head alone. It caused a deafening pinging sound that caused her hands to grab her head. She thought maybe that would help, but it didn’t, so she removed her hands from her face and rolled in pain. The door cracked open, the littlest stream of light was let in. It was the dark figure, she was able to look around, the wall in which she leaned upon was dripping in blood, her hands in which she held her head with was covered in her scarlet blood. Her heart pounded so rapidly, it ached. The door opened a little bit more, more light lit up the room, so much her eyes burned since she was in the dark for so long. The pinging sound in her ear was replaced with a ticking sound just like a clock. She cried for help while the black figure just watched like a movie.

3…2…1

She blacked out again but when she woke it wasn’t she wasn’t her normal self. She was in a body that felt like an empty shell, waiting for her soul to fill. The place where the blood was gushing out of was nowhere to be found. The new her mumbled, “why does this body hurt so much?” The door was closed again. The room was pitch black again. She stood up and tried desperately not to fall; her legs were so weak they trembled with every single step. Her blueberry tipped fingers felt around the room like crawling spiders, bingo she found the doorknob, slowly turned it while it creaked. It opened, she was surprised yet confused, she was somewhat relieved the door was able to open but even in her befuddled state she was able to think that the person who snatched her past self, wouldn’t leave the door open for her to walk free. She walked out of the room carefully. Checked both directions, she didn’t know which way to go, so she decided to go left. The light flickered. She managed to find a door marked exit and opened it. Looking down, she realised she wasn’t on the ground floor; she was so high up that if she jumped she would die.

“Where you going” yelled the dark figure.

“Leaving so soon,” he said with a grin on his face.

He began to run towards her, nowhere to go, she jumped. The sound of her desperate screams consumed the air. She screeched with regret as she fell to her death. The humming roar of aeroplanes overhead and the whirring sound of cars driving by joined in with her cries. Her blood-curdling shriek followed by one last screech was interrupted by a smacking thud. Her dislocated jaw hung from her face with just skin; her leg bent the other way while her eye was filled with so much blood it was about to pop. The city stood still. Mothers stood in shock, fathers got out the car and stared at her body not knowing the reason why she jumped. Many thought it must be suicide. She gasped for air, wiggled her toes and the blood from her eye disappeared, her jaw somehow slowly popped back into place and she turned her leg clockwise just like when she turned her key in her office door. She sat up while the crowd surrounded her. People ushered their children to look away, confusion leapt from person to person; ‘normal’ people don’t see this every day. She stood up and walked away as nothing had happened. She realised she was wanderer 101 when she looked at her wrist and realised her name was Aya when she looked at her name tag on her work shirt dripping in blood. The blood slowly disappeared like washable markers. She was confused as much as the crowd but she didn’t show it.

The crowd’s eyes followed her when she walked away. No one said a word because no one could find the words to even mumble. She realised what the crowd must have seen so she ran as fast as she could to hide.

You see a wanderer is from the future, they replace a body that has died in the past. They come from a time when something important has happened. Like on September 11 when the 911 happened, wanders from that time travelled to the past, consumed another body and save a lot of lives or even when the great fire of London occurred, the wanderers made sure it was erased from history.