The Call of the Void

We ran undisrupted, through the swirl of bodies; this mass of void, darkened past darkness, despite long past desperation. The society creaked on itself. The last reins of power held by faceless beings, the power being nothing but an ant mill, no leaders and no direction, just enslavement, subjugation, life choices decided by these same faceless monsters. We ran, despite the mass losing hope, despite the futility of it, my hand seemed to spin into her’s until we were one breath rather than two. The Void called, as it always does, demanding more, necessitating more, seeking to engulf.

She holds the heart-shaped locket, given by one long gone, held tight, as our lungs screamed. We somehow broke free of the swirl, but the world was frozen, trapped in times long past. Bare Feet crunching against the snow, sirens ringing, calling for the return. Not of us but of the lost fuel, the piece of our sustaining subsisting lifeforce. It called to us, but we still ran.

Her hair hit my face at the same time the temperature plummeted. The wind blew sideways, our feet stung blue, and then black. The snow was so strong that we could scarcely hear each other's voices, or the sounds of our running. The trees hung to the hillside by the last vestiges of their roots, the wind was one of upheaval, and the snow was one of decomposition, heavy and immediate. The sirens however could somehow still be heard, through the mess of the power of the white. Footsteps wouldn't follow after us, the Void would just pick up our lifeless bodies when it inevitably pulled us back into it, like a gravitational pull. We could out run it, until we had nothing else. This year had been a needy year, a desolate one, and the Void called stronger than usual. It’s slaves jumped over each other, thinking as long as they weren’t the slowest the Bear would eat someone else. They sold each other out, ripped each other down, and chose the Void calling sacrifices. Anything to prolong their meager existences.

We were just unlucky the faceless subjugation of the many mimicking the subjugation of the Void.

As we reached the halfway point, we found shelter in a cave, as I tried to coax some feeling back into my feet. She was bent over, her breathing heavier than mine, hands on knees, the siren still can be heard amplified by the echo of the cave. It tried to call us back, but even the Void knew it was hopeless. It would collect us elsewhere. I stood up, the legs unsteady and held her from behind, whispering in her ears. She sobbed, having lost her family to the same Void that was destined to claim us. I bent down on my skinned knees, which still have the flakes of the snow flung from above. I shivered and reached around her holding her hair and she fell with her hands falling around my back. The siren rang louder sounding as if it was closing in. I dragged her with what little strength I had deeper and deeper, the cave seeming to last forever. I stopped dragging and lifted her onto my shoulders. Her breath was light upon my neck, but I had to push further. No one had been beyond this point, the world past the Void was nothing but snow and peaks, empty, the only space that held any value was there. I fled, hoping at some point the darkness of the cave would end, as the Void continued to call, the siren becoming a part of me, as integral as breathing, as eating; I tried to flee to escape, the darkness so encompassing that it began to take another shape, one of the ringing and one of itself. Her weight became the old grounding point. My feet no longer felt like they were stepping on anything, my space felt limitless, the darkness removed walls and ceilings and windows. I was nothing inside of it, the Void sirens bouncing upon endless echoes, until the sound was itself but infinite times. The walking became too much and I stumbled, her locket bouncing against the back of my neck. For the first time I could hear the sound of something that wasn't snow or siren, but one of feet stomping, the sounds of people moving. They were coming,

A point of light in this environment is the brightest thing, a fixture point, and somehow I found it in my run, to chase this point. I tried to escape the Void, it's all consuming power, something inhuman, but seemingly created by humans. The light became brighter and brighter and brighter until i reach the edge, and stepped out into a world of snow, filled with another mountain peak with another cave, that presumably lead to another windswept hill, with trees barely hanging on as the snow pounded down and suddenly in the face of all that i fell, her falling with me, face first into the snow, as we were overwhelmed and consumed.