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Far away, behind the Sunset Hills where the Fire Sand blows, anyone who dares to ascent the perilous range would die. The Fire Sand burns any human skin it comes into contact with. Anyone who is foolhardy enough to try to pass through these hills will find a small town, the last of its kind. A decaying town sign hung slightly off-kilter read “Novac” secured into the ground that was covered in what seemed like black soot. Rundown houses stood slanting towards the ground as though gravity were pulling them back to the center of the planet. No residents seemed to be in sight as a woman stepped slowly into the road that led to the dead town.
Blisters coated her body, the stinging smell of flesh and sulfurous hair began to waft through Novac. Wide eyes searched the town, the berserk gaze found a small child peering out from behind a charred house.
“Water! Please help me!” The woman rasped out to the boy as she rushed towards him. Startling the boy, he quickly turned, heading for a house across the road from the charred house he was hiding behind.
“The Sunset Hills sent another Unhinged! The Sunset Hills sent another Unhinged!” The boy cried out to anyone who was listening. As soon as the boy slammed the half shattered door in place, two men appeared in the woman’s view.
“Please help me,” gasped out the woman as she fell before their feet, exhausted from the perilous journey leaving a permanent mark on the woman. Looking up hopeful to have found her saviors. However, when the woman’s eyes met the men above her, she saw only malice and a barrel staring at her; the last sight that the woman who somehow survived the danger of Sunset Hills but would not survive the few minutes of Novac.
BANG!
“This town is no place for the Unhinged.”
The families of Novac were accustomed to the stench of death, the rotting bones seemed to appear everywhere. Their ancestors did not favor their descendants and sent fiery blazes down to the ground every night. At least that is what the three families believed, the McLain’s, Cohn’s, and Webster’s. These three families made up this town that they all grew to love. No matter what disaster that was sent their way, the Novac’s residents refused to leave their home. As long as they were together, nothing could stand in their way, they only needed each other to protect their town.
The Cohn twins, Calix and Zaidan, were the only survivors from the first fire blaze attack, some say that their backs are still scarred from where their parents could not protect them entirely. The McLain’s consisted of Hera whose sisters, Mischa, and Adaline, died of the heat that burnt their town. The McLain’s were always wicked with daggers. Legend says that they never miss their target, and anyone who dares to question them, are never seen again. Finally the Websters, Zora, and Nigel, an elder sister that took her young brother under her wing when their parents died of heatstroke five years ago.
Together, the five of them had formed an unlikely family, trapped in the town that was once vibrant with life, now desolate, forcing them to survive by themselves.
“Dinners ready!” Zora called out into the barren town waiting for her family to appear. Nigel ran as fast as his little legs could take him into his home, the sisters walked in a straight line towards the house behind him. Finally, the twins came sauntering up the stairs clutching their rifles. They were the last defense and would see no harm come to their family.
“I’m starving!” Nigel exclaimed as he rushed to sit down until his sister tutted at him.
“Go wash your hands little one, we don’t want the germs to infect our food,” Zora pushed her little brother towards the bucket slightly filled with water.
“Gruel again Zora?” Zaiden questioned sitting down, laying his rifle across his lap.
“It’s all we have Zaiden,” Hera spoke up ruffling Nigel’s hair as he ran past.
“And how are our supplies, Zora?” Calix questioned before hesitantly taking a bite of her gruel.
“Not right now Calix,” Zora said darting her eyes to the youngest at the table. The Novac family finished eating in silence with eye conversations between the oldest members around the table. After dinner, Hera took Nigel upstairs to rest until bedtime before joining her siblings back at the table circle.
“We’re running out of food,” Zora said simply, the facts were that the supplies from last ransack of the deserted town to the south were slowly dwindling.
“This is what I feared, we are no longer safe here,” Calix shook his head rubbing his forehead to distract himself from his never-ending headache.
“With the new Unhinged appearance, there are bound to be more coming, we don’t have enough ammunition,” Hera twirled her favorite dagger between her fingers skillfully.
“We can’t leave Novac, it is the only place that we are safe,” Zaiden stood up to look out the window, on edge from the last attack.
“So we try to find another town to get more food?” Questioned Hera, “we are dying and we don’t have the means to support ourselves.”
“Calix,” Zora turned to the oldest of the group, he had always been there for the family when times were troubled, “what should we do?”
Calix sat in deep thought, gaze turned downwards, he knew he would have to lead them. They all looked up to him and he was their unofficial leader of the family, the protector.
“We stay here, for now, Zaiden and I will start to search for a new town, we will take the Red String and return every night. Zora, you will lessen the food that you make, except for Nigel. We must find a new town to get food, we will not leave our home unless absolutely necessary.” The rest of the family nodded, no one dared to argue against their eldest brother, he knew what was best for them. The sisters stood to make their way back to their home to try to sleep a good night’s rest.
Suddenly a scream echoed through the room igniting chills throughout the families bodies. Out on the street of their hometown, laid Nigel’s little body covered in blood. Zora screamed as she stared at her little brother, the one that was left in her charge. The sight of an Unhinged filled their gaze with rage that rattled their bones. Hera charged, yelling at the top of her lungs, clutching her daggers with her knuckles pure white.
“Water!” Yelled the blistered Unhinged as they swung their wooden club at the eldest sister. Hera went flying back from the hit across her chest. Calix pushed Zora behind himself and his twin as they raised their shotguns and fired.
Bang
Bang
Bang
Thudding to the ground, the Unhinged laid dead sand entering her mouth from the wind gusts. Tears streaming down her face, Zora ran to her little brother.
“No, no, please, please, you’re okay, it’s going to be okay, I’ve got you, we’re all here, no, please,” laying her head down onto his chest, a cold emptiness made her forget of her blistering warmth that surrounded everywhere after years of living.
“I can’t lose you, Nigel, I can’t…” Feeling her brother’s firm grasp on her shoulder pulling her up behind him.
“Hera.” The simple phrase shook Zora to her core, rushing over to her fallen sister still clutching her dagger, her bare skin blistered from the fiery sand underneath her.
“Hera, are you okay?” Zora shook her sister harshly trying to get a small response, anything.
“Too…. hot…” Groaned Hera shifting slightly before hissing at her burns.
“It’s okay, we’ve got you,” Calix spoke reaching down to pick up her sister ignoring the sizzling of his skin burning as he touched the sand.
“We have to take her inside–” something caught Zora’s eye as she looked at Zaiden, slow motion took place as an Unhinged threw the burning sand onto him, “NOO!!”
Animalistic screams filled her ears as she watched her brother fall to the ground burning. Calix quickly raised his shotgun.
Bang
Bang
Bang
“We need to go now, they’re coming.” Calix pulled Zora towards their house.
“No, we can’t leave them!” Zora cried fighting against her brother, desperate to hold her little brother one last time.
“Zora! They found us, we need to hide.” Staring into Nigel’s lifeless eyes, Zora quit fighting back, letting Calix pulled her into their house. The moans of more Unhinged echoed through the old home. Sobbing on her knees, Zora felt utter hopelessness. Her family was dead, all she had left was Calix, Calix who had figured out the Fire Sand was burning them from the excruciating heat beaming down from the Sun. Calix, who took care of them and never let the Unhinged hurt them. Calix who found out how the Earth ended up as a waste hole that was burning daily and nightly.
“Zora, Zora, it’s just us now, we can do this,” trying to comfort his sister while his voice shook, Calix knew that he was out of bullets but would not let anything hurt his last sister. He would die saving her if that is what it took.
“They’re gone, they’re dead!” cried Zora trying to wipe her eyes, the sun seemingly burning her eyes as well as the sand that got on her skin when she held Nigel. Calix could hear the moaning until it froze. He slowly crawled over to the window and peeked out. The Unhinged were spreading Fire Sand at the base of the house. Looking at his sister, he realized that this was the end: the burning, Unhinged, and sun had won. The last sane people who stayed together because they were a family, were going to be wiped out as the population of Earth was before them.
“It’s okay Zora, we’re together, we’ll take care of each other, no matter what,” the lie and heat burned his mouth as he held his sister close to his chest.
“Are they gone?” Looking up innocently to her brother, she never thought she would lose her family like this.
“Yes, you can rest now, close your eyes and it’ll all be okay now,” Calix squeezed Zora again feeling her relax as she closed her eyes, just in time for her to not see the tears that were filling her brother’s.
“It’s okay, we’re okay,” Calix kissed Zora’s forehead as the house came crumbling down towards the center of the Earth. The bodies of Calix and Zora stayed in an embrace when the Unhinged found their dust-coated bodies.
The Earth was finally, truly dead. The McLain’s, Cohn’s, and Webster’s never thought their deaths would be the consequence of their ancestors that could not admit they were killing their home and everyone in it.
