*Future of the Fallen

Intro: It's later. So last week I did an exercise of dialog. This week I decided I liked the story so much, I would flush it out. Don't be surprised that the story is a little different. I mean, Molly isn't pregnant in the dialog but is in this new version. I wrote it with the intent of it being a prologue. That being said, it doesn't exactly end and it is more than a thousand words. I know I broke my own rule but hey, that means you get a little more to read than usual. Who knows when this story will actually be written completely but I promise you, it will be written. I guess I should add that the genre is specifically steam punk but I am putting it in science fiction because I don't normally write steam punk.

Molly pushed back another strand of hair and looked at the loaf of bread distastefully. She'd tried all morning to make something good from the flour they'd found and all she had to show for it was a small round blackened loaf. It could have passed for a rock amidst the rubble. This was not something she was suppose to be eating in her condition.

"Molly, are you here?" Thad called, from the front of the house.

"Where else would I be?" she murmured but raised her voice. "Aye. I'm in the kitchen."

"Well, hurry up and pack."

"Pack? For what?"

"The sky is Fallen."

"Is that all?" Molly sighed and turned back to the small loaf. She'd hoped it was something important instead of yet another Fallen.

"What would it take you to pack?" Thad said, sticking in head in the kitchen door. "Come on. Hurry up."

She left the loaf on the cutting board and turned towards her husband. He stepped out of the way as she brushed past him, her long skirts sweeping the dirt floor. The small bedroom had three stable walls and one wall made of rubble. A small breeze always drifted through the cracks of the rocks and made the evenings especially cold. The boxes which acted as her dresser remained stacked precariously in the corner. His boxes lay scattered, empty on the ground.

"We have to hurry if we are going to make the steam bus."

"I'm going. If the world were burning."

"If the world were burning what?"

"That would get me to pack," she said with a smile as she reached for the small toolbox next to the bed. It would fit nicely next to the slips and blouses already packed. Then she could put the extra skirts on top.

"No, Molly, don't pack the wrenches. You may very well get your wish. I've never seen a Fallen like this one before."

The oil stained tool bag landed on the floor with a thump. She frowned at them over the skirts in her arms.

"Did you feel that? The whole house shook," Thad said feeling the doorframe he stood in.

She scurried over to her suitcase and let the bundle of clothing drop. Something screamed, a high metallic screeching noise, and the house shook again.

"They’re actually planning on landing," she said flipping the lid close and securing the buckles in place.

"Move!"

They ran, hand in hand through the small house. Thad picked up a suitcase similar to the one Molly carried as they dashed through the front room and out into the acrid air. The rubble skyline was punctuated with large ships. Each sip sported a dozen tentacles used during landing and ground momentum. The bulbous bodies held up in the air by giant steam turbines. As the ships continued to inch closer to the ground, the hot air from the engines pelted the ground in columns, which grew stronger by the moment.

So focused on the form above them, Molly slammed her foot into a large rock and only by seizing Thad's arm. He steadied her gently and placed his hand over hers on the handle.

"Give me the bag."

"I can get it," she said, brining her attention back down from the sky.

The gusts from one of the columns of steam blasted down on them sending small rocks and other debris pelting into them. Her hair, normally contained neatly in a knot, blew free, the long black locks dancing in the air.

"It will be faster this way. Besides, we can't have you getting injured."

Every intention she had on protesting died with her as the screaming noise resumed. She glanced up at the ship closest to them and saw the first hints of flames from the engines. Most of the time the bots used the tentacles on the ground but not always. Sometimes it was easier to hover over it. That always required a lot of heat, and fire.

"Don't look at it," Thad said adjusting the suitcases in his hands.

"We must look like ants to them."

"Come on, we still have to make it to the bus."

Molly nodded and picking up her heavy wool skirts in her hands, followed after Thad. He led the way around the rubble on the ground. Stories explained the large rocks came from buildings which stretched hundreds of feet into the air. They were nothing but fairy tales though, and everyone knew it. Any history before the bots had long been destroyed.

Another scream sounded and Molly looked up at the ship as a particularly torrential blast of air struck the ground directly in their path. The waves of heat made her skin fell as if it were an onion being peeled layer by layer. She quickly covered her eyes. A moment later the blast slated, the engine needing to be refueled. Thad lay on the ground, staring up at the sky, his face lobster red. The ground beneath him turned red from his empty trouser leg.

"Thad?"

His eyes twitched and he groaned. Her eyes futile scanned the blackened landscape. Nothing moved save what was propelled by the blasting air.

"Bus."

"I won't—without you." she said moving closer to him. It took all of her will power to focus on his face and not his missing leg. "Can you walk?"

Now that she was even closer she saw that his other leg was useless. Torn by a thousand flying blades of debris.

"You have to go. You hold the future."

"I won't Thaddeus Jackson. We are the future. I didn't get pregnant on my own."

Another blast caught her by surprise and the force pushed her back a few steps.

"Run!"

"No!" She wiped her eyes, trying to hide the tears and clear them from the dust. Her mind raced as she looked around and caught sight of a glint of copper moving between the blocks.

"The bus. I'll go get help." She said turning to Thad who twitched, his eyes closed.

With her long skirts hiked up further than appropriate she scampered around the blocks. The bus past her and she waved frantically. The breaks squealed as it pulled to a stop. With her chest rising and falling in great gasps she stumbled up to the open door.

"Sir," she said stepping onto the lowest stair and looking up at the driver. "You have to help me, my husband."

The door squeaked shut behind her, nearly catching her still loose hair in the hinge.

"Sorry, gal. We're moving on."

She turned and looked out the dusty window. Thad's form was invisible as the bus pulled away.

"No, we have to get him!"

The bus skidded on two metal wheels as a blast of air shot down right next to it. She quickly moved her hands away from the metal and glass, now throbbing with the heat.

"He's Fallen. Nothing more to do."

She stared blankly out the window as the giant bot ships fine-tuned the engines, no longer descending but holding their positions forty feet above the ground. Just over the tallest of the buildings.

"Would you look at that," another passenger said, "the fires a starting."

As the flames from the engines danced over the sides and dripped onto the ground, Molly buried her head in her arms, thinking of her unborn child and her undoubtedly dead husband. The bus sped out of the newly Fallen city.