Drifting... [Closed]

[Anonymous]

A haze....

There was no better way to describe it. It is the boundary between being asleep and being awake. Most people pass by here on their way to sleep, yet few stop on the way and they don’t stay long. In this state, the mind is most vulnerable, where consciousness and sub-consciousness blend into one. Where the imagined is real and the real is imagined. Yet sometimes the mind is stuck here; too afraid to go on, too tired to go back.

This was where the drifter has ended up. This haze where sensations are distant, experiencing everything and nothing at once. Where thoughts were few and far between. This is where the drifter had stopped. But where is this? The thought floated lazily, skimming through the emptiness. Floating....Is this death? So cold, cold like fire. It washed through like a wave. A wave so warm, warm like ice.

Eyes struggle open; a crack seemed almost too much. Lights sparkle in the distance. Pinpoints faded in and out of existence. So cold...One light grows larger...So warm...Growing larger but still so small. Blackness washed over him.

[Anonymous]

Time is unmeasurable. Minutes drag on for eternity while years flash by in an instant. The mind wanders. How had all of this come to pass? If only the mind could summon the energy to attempt to remember. If only the mind could summon the courage. The mind tires. Nothing can go without full sleep forever. Yet sleep brings dreams, and the mind dreams fears.

<center>*~*~*~*</center>

Chaos. That's the only word that came close to describing what was happening. Yet something was wrong. His mind was screaming at him that he shouldn't be here, wasn't here, that he was floating in an infinite darkness. He shoved the thought away. Those kinds of things had been happening more frequently, but he always shoved the thoughts aside. Now was not the time to lose his sanity.

He struggled to recover his train of thought. Oh yes. The enemy was closing in on all sides now, they had the city surrounded and was pushing inwards. Districts seven through twelve had been lost already, and they were getting closer to the center of the city.

Fools! He wasn't sure if he meant the enemy or the Council. As if they, an elected body of aristocrats who had never been within ten miles of a battlefield, could come up with any strategy that would work. The complete imbeciles! This war was their fault in the first place and...no, thinking about the Council would do nothing to help. A commander could not make proper decisions while taken with passion. He took a calming breath...

"Sir! A message from the Council!" A nearby Lieutenant shouted. "They have voted to try to hold the City."

...And nearly lost all the calm he had. "WHAT?!" Those utter fools! The City was already lost, but they didn't want their names to go down in history as ones to preside over a capital that fell. As if history remembered very many aristocrats. He gave himself a few minutes before replying.

"Recall heavy armor squads Alpha, Beta and Epsilon to coordinates 42-9-27 and light infantry squads Delta, Gamma and Kappa to coordinates 81-23-64."
"But sir! That will leave District 15 unprotected!"
"Do it!"

After a moment's hesitation, the Lieutenant began typing the order. The District would have to be lost, he would not sacrifice everything for the Council's mistakes.

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The haze was back. Had he been dreaming? Or were those memories? The thought slipped away the moment it was conceived, the images already long since gone. The sleep, the actual sleep, had done him some good. He managed to open his eyes a little bit wider this time.

Before the blackness claimed him again, he saw a huge blue ball, seemingly suspended in the endless black.

[Anonymous]

Where had everything gone? The only thing in sight was blackness. Was this the void he had been in for time immeasurable? Or was this something more chilling? Was this the thing he had waited...no...ached for? Or was it something more chilling still? Who was to say death was the end of the road? Death. That word. To him, it held no meaning, yet conveyed lifetimes filled with waiting. Why should existence end with death? But then again, why should it continue?

The door was open. He had but to step through to end it. Eons of waiting. Seconds in the offing. What lay beyond that door? A memory came to him. A memory of a memory. Fight. Fight the journey to that door. He teetered on the threshold. One step. His body ached for it, his mind clawed for it, but his soul fought tooth-and-nail to stop it. Why did he fight? The question lingered for eons. Why? What made him resist? He had been floating in the void, one foot hovering just outside that door, for eternity. Why not just take the step?

The answer was arriving. The fateful words that would decide his fate. They were approaching. Lights in the infinite darkness. But the mind tires. The mind dreams.

<center>*~*~*~*</center>

A ceasefire had finally been called. All so that the enemy leader and he could speak. All so that peace might reign. To a war torn world, peace seemed far off, a futile hope, but it needed to come.

As he approached the designated meeting place, he took a look around. It was a large square, with a few small statues. What would have been a large, outdoor market in peace time, was deserted now. All with any sense had fled the city or country. Some had even fled into space. He had come alone, as required, but snipers hundreds of meters back would be able to cover his retreat easily enough.

A figure approached from the other side of the square. A slender figure with very long hair. As the figure drew closer, his incredulity grew until he could do nothing but gasp.

She spoke in a cool, crystalline voice. "Hello, brother."
"You...! How...? Why...?" She smiled.
"Have I left you speechless?" Her gaze hardened. "You have betrayed us brother. The Elders have set a bounty on your head." She paused to let it sink in.
"So you're here to kill me? Is that it?!"
She considered him. After a minute, he felt as though she could tell him his height, weight, even the last time he had had his underwear washed. "No." She finally said. "I arranged this meeting between us to warn you. Leave this planet. Now."
"Leave? Why?"
"Because the Elders have foretold the death of this city. They have seen all the decisions you could make and have made plans for each. They have seen what will happen if you stay, and that leads to death. If they have seen what happens if you leave, they will not tell me, but one thing is for certain. This city will fall." She turned on her heel and walked off.

He stood there, watching her go without really seeing her. When the Elders knew something happened, it did. It was how he had been raised, and he had never seen evidence to the contrary. Yet he could not just abandon his troops. He sighed. He would have to. None of them would ever leave this city short of death. He spun on his heel and walked in the opposite direction. Away from his link to this world.

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He hesitated at the doorway. He had left to have a chance at life. Would he throw all his plans and efforts away just to end this endless drift?