POV Dus, 2nd in command.

Pop… Pop… Pop… Slap! Eno was smacked across the back of her head, the bubblegum dropping to the dusty desert floor of the outback “Hey that was my lasst piece!!” Eto pulls her hand back, ready to give her another, never one to put up with her sister's shit, I guess that's why she was our team leader. Eno straightens her back and thanks her for the smack, not wishing for another.

“Sso that means I don't have to put up with your loud asss popping noise ever again, I'm going to add bubblegum to your resstricted items for a month!”

Both Ale and I looked at each other giggling cautiously, not wanting to get into the range of Eta’s wild backswing. Everyone was tense, we had been trying to find the enemy base for months. Every few weeks we were given new coordinates with possible places that the people could have been taken to. All we really knew was that they never made it out of Western Australia, which would have given us a good range to look at, if it wasn't the size of half of America.

Whoever thought that it was a good idea to make one territory half of its country was mad, not that there was much here anymore except for excessive amounts of Oscium crash sites. Government scrambling to get at it anyway they could, turning it into a tiny hell, which is an improvement from the previous export which seemed to be dust. It got everywhere, I would wake up with it in all my clothes, thankfully it could just be shaken off with our bodies, I can't imagine how humans would be able to do it with all their porous skin, bleh!

“Eno, Dus, Ale, group up I’m getting a transmission from command” We quickly pull a camouflage tent over the 4 of us, its pegs automatically drill into the ground creating a cover as well as blocking any sound. The radio crackles loudly giving us a beeping signal, one that only Eto knows the code too. She closes her eyes and her tongue darts out slowly to the beeps. Checking her map, we coordinate where we are and our new location.

“We have new co-ordinatess, about 3 days east, close to one of the towns that were hit during ascenssion, due to resources we can't get any rides, if that medical facility were still there maybe, but that's the whole reason we’re in this mess… Let's move out, camp in 4 hourss''.

The tent is packed back into Ale’s pack, and we all take out our water bottles, making sure we're properly hydrated for the next 4 hours of running. With the sun at our backs we stretch our limbs, line up like racers in a 100m dash, and wait for Eto to give the signal, her tongue twists out of her mouth, we all tense for the 3rd whistle, she doesn't need to tense up, she's always first place. As the 3rd whistle hits our eardrums we all push forward, bringing up the dirt and dust behind us, a shockwave seems to spread from where we have left, there's nothing faster than sisters trying to one up each other in a race.

…

The nights here are… peaceful, the star's beautiful, different from what the elders told us was our birthright, in the primal desert. The blue hue is always in the sky, always shining.

My sisters and I sit around the campfire listening to the crackle, a south western lizard has strolled up to the camp, Ale slowly strokes it’s back, it flickers its tongue in and out, tasting us, knowing us, we exude calm, the scratching of chalk on paper rises through the crackling of the fire, Eto’s only respite from the world, to sketch, we all have something that balances us.

I lean and rest upon my backpack, thinking, always thinking, of our ancestors who we were named for, or at least named upon. Would they have wished to see the end of this sky? The first of us, before being slaughtered for their stories. The ones that were able to see the empty sky and this one, would this sky end the same… I hope not, at least not in this lifetime… I wish to live in the world that we've been told of, where no one will be a victim, where we will all fight… together, no longer in the shadows.

A voice starts off in the dark, Eno sings of and to our home, we feel the shivers of want down our spines, the lizard sleeps by Ale’s side, Eto stops sketching and closes her eyes, we all wish, we all need, we all want. Return home.

A hum builds from my throat as it does from my other sisters, our symphony becomes one, we are the instruments of our survival, together we are whole, birthed in the same womb, and we will leave the world together, as fate has foretold… we could only smile at such a thing, we weren't 4, we were 1.

But that would not be today, it would be years before the end of our life together was reached and that was enough for us, we would happily throw our life away for this beautiful world, one that we know would soon change, the deserts would become forests, the people of the land would become beautiful, the world that would truly ascend, we just wanted to see that day come.

The song ends, the lizard wakes up from its stupor, tears at the edges of our vision, quickly licked up with our tongues, our ancestors would be proud of us… surely?…. We wish each other a sleep of the great dream. Eto takes the first shift, the rest of us know we are safe with her, the first watcher.

…

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The coordinates are about half a day from the town and half a day from the remains of the medical camp, both areas that we had already visited, both that had been dealt by a different disaster, one by man and one by existential removal… we can only pray that they find hope in ascension.

The desert stretches before us, finally we come upon our destination, an unassuming stretch of it, we sigh and wait, the silence merges endlessly with the wind.

“10 Hour ssearch in a mile radius from this point, find what you can and we can report if it'ss another goddamn wrong signal” We all equip the Geiger counters and metal detectors to our chests and lower ourselves to the floor, each at a 90 degree angle from the start point, each start moving and zigzagging across the dry crumbled dirt mixed with clay.

After 3 hours of constant movement a buzzing courses through my spine and up my brain stem, Ale’s call, I stand up and see my sisters in the distance all look at each other, we race off towards the calling and find Ale pressed against the ground, a matte painted sandy metal heated from the sun is uncovered.

“Well sshit” I mutter under my breath, we might be able to get home sooner than we thought.

For the next hour we search for an entrance, finally finding a liftable ventilation panel that we are able to slink into, they've got to breathe somehow, it's impossible to tell how big this thing is, but it seems deep, how long has this been here for? definitely from before the ascension.

The ventilation shaft is thin and we have to abandon our bags as we made our way through the corridors. We only each took with us a knife and a gun, not that we couldn't take down an entire facility with only our hands.

Eventually we find an opening that seemed to lead to an internal part of the base, serious work had been put into this, from the length of the ventilation it could easily host a small army, not to mention it must have a proper entrance somewhere, we could find that on our way out.

Exiting the ventilation we barely make a sound, passing through what should have been a prison, food supplies and empty packages against one of the walls, left to rot in this place. There aren't any bodies, just the remains of them. At least the place had working plumbing, not that all the ‘inmates’ seemed to be able to control themselves to use it. It smells horrible in there, after a quick check we go through, passing guard stations and tables with cards and magazines. There's no one here, Eto expressed what we were all thinking, “We might be too late...” We looked at each other panicking, hoping that there was still time, it was months before we were even able to be sent out here, with so much chaos caused by the accession there was too much for us to do! Before command even realized this base stopped responding, the entire world was on fire, what's one more medical base in the middle of nowhere when hell is on Earth.

Footsteps approach from the corridor and we all tense ourselves, pushing ourselves into the shadows where we could, a man with an unkept beard and those unmistakable eyes is fumbling for a cigarette, clicking, and clicking his lighter trying to get a light, desperation.

Eto motions for execution and Eno gladly takes lead, rushing past him like the wind, knife in her hand. His throat is pierced through, he barely notices, dropping his lighter and cigarette and looks down at the hand holding his death, gurgling coming from his throat he pushes Eno away, she hits the floor as we all draw our guns he does the same, we unload, a bullet each, mine at the head, Eto’s at the arm holding the pistol and Ale’s at the heart, he stares up at us smiling, that fucking smile, as he finally dies.

We move as quickly as we could, if he's already in this state then it's either finished or as close as! Dashing through we hear yelling from beneath the floorboards, someone’s still alive, the ritual might not be complete.

We ignore everything in our way throwing ourselves down the stairs and pause at the bottom, a child is staring into the eyes of a gnarled monster, the chosen architect, he smiles, his death at hand, the large piece of red crystal pierced through his chest, he can meet his fucking maker, it can take from him what he took from everyone else, the child is what matters.

Eno pulls off her mouth cover to vomit, it splashes over the ground at the feet of all the dead bodies used as sacrifices for the tree of knowledge. I pick up the child, I'm assaulted by the voice of creation, just not my fucking creation. As I've heard many times, it screams, begs promises and we block our minds to its intrusion as we've been taught. My sisters and I know its whispers and are not shaken by its convictions. This child must be a core, I just hope they can be saved.

I move up the stairs away from the madness that besets me on all sides, my sisters support me, I nestle the child in my chest, holding them gently as a mother would. As we get to the top Eto pulls out 2 grenades from her backpack, this place is to be abandoned, destroyed, never to be found again! we work so that the people of the world don't know the horrors that it's facing, not yet, that they will never know that this is only the beginning.

The explosion and fires rage below us finally letting up on my consciousness with a final scream, it won't speak to me or the child again.

A core will always be a core, I can only hope they are able to find a place for themselves in this world, they have a destiny, but one that is yet to be seen.