Aya was walking up the mountain side, where her family had lived for generations. The tropical heat and jungle air, making her sweat from every step. Though she was used to the heat, she had never walked for two whole days before.
The shockwave had thrown her into a ditch in the dirt path. She had seen the entire village blow to pieces. Family members, other village people she had know forever and even all the playing kids had been blown away. She had watched as many of them died.
The aftermath had been full of pain and sorrow, as she had helped the survivors, trying to help the wounded and dead.
Her heart had bled that day. She had been thinking about Frey all the time, while screams and destruction had filled her senses.
He had told her he would come for her, he had promised!
She felt in her heart that he would come, refusing to accept that he might be dead.
Out of the 300 people living in the village, less than half had survived. Their houses was too fragile.
Looking down behind her, from the narrow jungle path where only a single person could walk at a time. She watched the line of struggling people make their way up the path.
It was dangerous to walk on the mountain. Loose stones could make your feet slip, and you would fall over the edge, a steep drop to your death 100 meters below, increasing as they walked up the mountain.
The path they needed to take to reach the top, snaked its way along the edge of the mountain. Making it a slow and dangerous endeavor.
Most of the survivors was small kids, being more resilient to the blast, as their bones was yet not as hard as an adult. Young women in the childbearing age, and only about thirty young strong men. Almost everyone above the age of fifty had died.
Only a day after the tragic events, when they had started to travel to the mountain. Knowing there were small plantations and natural freshwater up there. They had been engaged by a large group of vile men, who thought that the shockwave had created some kind of anarchistic paradise.
They wanted to take all the teenagers and young girls.
The men of the village had fought them, creating time for the rest to escape. Aya had taken lead to the mountain as she knew all the routes there by heart.
Besides the 30 young men who had followed the villagers, none other had come back from the fight.
She hadn't slept since the second day of the shockwave. They knew the Viles was after them, they could hear them at night when they tried to make camp. So they had unanimously decided to push on through the dark.
They had all noticed the strange creatures and monsters appearing from the strange blue lights that had touched the ground. But they had mostly avoided them so far. Only a single time, when they reached the mountain, had there been an incident.
A creature, half lion and half eagle had attacked and killed a woman and toddler. They had all started running up the mountain in panic from the strange and dangerous creature, and it had let them run. Being invested to devouring its kill.
She hadn't seen any more of the strange light, so close to the mountains edge.
In a few hours, she would reach her families ancestral home. A small number of houses on the top of the mountain side.