The black void of senselessness enveloped me like a blanket, it lulled and surged like the gentle lapping on a summer beach. My mind, without being able to sense anything, drew me into my imagination. Dreams of my prior life and world filled my heart, rocking me to an inescapable sleep. Was this what death felt like? Falling asleep surrounded by your innermost comforts?
Gently I closed my eyes.
I awoke, well rested, the fear of death long past. It seemed the toll for my mistakes wouldn't make it the last mistake I'd ever make, but I didn't intend to repeat it. That bloody hurt.
I cast my gaze around, not moving my head to avoid disturbing the Rain I felt still nesting in my hair. We were still in the observatory, left in the same state as before, the entrance way leading to the surface unentered and undisturbed. For now we were safe.
I felt Rain shift slightly before flying up and landing on the table where our bags were and nosing through them before glancing back at me. It seemed it was time for breakfast. I got up and rifled through the bags finding the remainder of our meagre food supply. "It's enough for about two meals," I told Rain, "Breakfast and Dinner seem like our best options." I planned to spend the day hidden in the observatory before poking my head up to see if we were safe. It would be bad to get caught by the aliens, but even worse if we didn't have the energy to run.
The dreary morning meal commenced, and finished far too soon for my liking. Ignoring the disappointment and growing worry about our situation, I turned my attention to the bookcase. It seemed like outside of that mirror, books could affect my grimoire as well and I was keen to see if I could find anything useful. I wished I could have read a bit of the Occultar Astris and maybe find a pattern but when I woke up the book had disappeared and Rain seemed to have no clue where it had gone either.
I spent most of that day scanning through the books, when a quick touch across their spines yielded no results. I found myself sitting down and reading, skimming mostly, and chatting to Rain mostly one sidedly about the things inside the room. Calm and distracting it felt as though the world had stopped inside that room, cut off from everything else.
Time, however, did not stop for our stomachs. We put it off until it felt roughly like dinner, but honestly I wasn't sure. Eventually the sound of solemn chirps sounded the end of our attempted fast and we ate the last of our supplies in a quiet dinner.
The calm exile ended soon after. I looked at the scrap that I'd shifted in front of the exit path before we'd slept and drew a deep breath, before moving the metal to the side. The world lay before us. A world filled with killer aliens.
Slowly, carefully I tiptoed out, Rain buried in my hair as we made our way to the surface. Nothing seemed any different from the day we ran in there, but the tense slowness that filled my body made it seem different, the shadows of scrap piles fixed in that glaring sun seemed still to move and flicker, just on the edge of vision.
Despite the sweat that dripped down my back no deafening whines or laser show lights appeared. We seemed, for now, to be alone. I looked around trying to spot a less crushed scrap pile that might contain something of value, but nothing lay in eyesight. I identified the direction I had come from and the way the aliens had gone and went away from both.
Quiet as I could I traversed through the wreckages until eventually finding something not so smashed apart as to be unrecognizable. A sign that said 'Home Heroics Garden Centre' was laid over the front section of the centre holding up the wreckage of a nearby building, with metal strewn to the side. It seemed the tacky billboard filled with slogans had protected the front of the place from completely collapsing leaving the doors and products relatively intact. The latter half of the place was squashed like a pancake but it was better than nothing.
I entered through a broken window that was ceiling to floor, making sure to watch my head so no glass scraped Rain and we found ourselves in a section filled with potted plants, ferns and flowers. Most were dead and wilting, with only a few sturdy specimens still hanging on. Nothing seemed edible so, watching for debris, we started to explore. After passing a small section of gardening tools and some miscellaneous bags, we found ourselves in the vegetable section.
My hopes rose as it seemed our luck had gotten better, but they were quickly dashed when I saw what remained. Half the section was crushed with the only thing left being rotten carrots and soil. I searched half heartedly already expecting the disappointment, with only some bags of seeds left remaining.
I sighed, but some weird emotion lingered in the back of my brain. I looked at the seeds again. Incresco. The word flashed through my mind. Could that spell help?