Mydnight Symphony Chapters 1-4

CHAPTER ONE

Under the piles of rocks and debris lay a hand. A creamy, light beige hand, one with ruby red hands; now cracked and broken, once long and beautiful.  He lifted the hand up, surprised to see that it was still connected to an arm, hidden underneath the rocks.

He let the hand drop from his fingers, and strained to pick up the rock. It wasn’t heavy, however he was weak. His hands trembled as he finally pushed the rock aside. He gasped.

The woman could be no older than twenty-five. She was about average height, 5’7’’ maybe? She lay curled up, her knees slightly bent, her eyes closed. Her face and most of her shoulders were bruised, scratched, and bloodied. Her short, auburn hair seemed to stay in the perfect bob it was in, despite her predicament.

The straps on her peachy floral dress were torn. He reached up to fix them, when he noticed the torn handbag next to her. He picked it up and opened her wallet, the first thing that he found. Her driver’s license – issued in the state of Massachusetts. What was she doing here, wherever here was?

His eyes traveled to her name, Jasmyn Miller. It had a poetic ring to it. He looked back inside her bag. Something metal fell out and clunked against the ground. He picked it up. It was a badge. The young woman was a federal agent?

His gaze fluttered to the wallet he was holding in his other hand. He pulled out Jasmyn’s driver license and looked at her age. She was born August 14, 1985. That meant she was only twenty-seven years old.

He was about to put Jasmyn’s wallet back in her bag when he noticed another card. It wasn’t a credit card, it was actually another ID! He pulled it out and looked at the picture. It was the same young woman who was lying in the dirt. However, the name on the card was different. Erica Del Woodsley. He looked at the picture again. It was definitely the same red haired woman, though the birth date on her license made her thirty-seven years old.

Who was this strange woman? He thought. Is she Erica, Jasmyn, or even worse, somebody else? Why was she the only person who had not been incinerated in the fiery path of destruction? Was this young individual was even human?

Suddenly, without warning, the woman’s hand started to twitch rapidly. She softly kicked her foot and very faintly coughed. With the little energy he had left, he sprinted towards the large boulder and vanished behind it, but not before he saw her sit up, groan, and cough very loudly.

Chapter Two          

Where am I?  Jasmyn thought to herself. Pain shot through her entire body. She had to be in some sort of desert. She saw that her handbag was out and her wallet and fake identities were on the ground. Her alias, Erica Del Woodsley, made her ten years older than she actually was, and was one of the reasons she got the job as a federal agent. Her wit, cunning, and good looks were also factors. She blindly reached into her handbag and pulled out her cell phone. The time read 6:54 am. January 13. January 13? The last thing she remembered was being in the Tomoi Bunker on December 20th…

Jasmyn’s eyes opened widely with a start. She was frozen, paralyzed with fear. The Tomoi Bunker had exploded December 21.  December 21, 2012. Every bunker on the Nevadan desert had exploded that day.

Jasmyn looked at her surroundings. Everything was gone. The only remnants of the planet Earth terra were rubble and debris, shards of metal, boulders and dry cracks on the surface. There were absolutely no signs of living bio-specimen, not even the tiny desert lizards that scampered about. She could see lights flickering in the distance, but realized right away that it was just a raging fire, just before the horizon. A raging fire that was blazing closer to where Jasmyn sat each minute.

I’ve got to get out of here, Jasmyn thought. She picked up her handbag, wallet, and identities, and agonizingly began to drag herself across the desert.

Her leg was broken, she was sure of that. But she couldn’t stay where she was, or she’d be burned to death. That’s when she saw the huge black puddle. It was much larger than a puddle, however it lacked in depth. It was maybe a few centimeters deep. Against every screaming will of her body, Jasmyn reached down and sniffed the puddle. It was oil! The incessant fire was burning on dry land. The oil which was seeping up from the ground was a bomb. Once the fire hit the oil, everything in its path would be obliterated. Jasmyn had absolutely no chance.

There was a large boulder about a hundred yards from the oil, but with her broken leg, it would take Jasmyn time to reach it. The fire was burning at a faster rate. She wouldn’t make it in time.

Jasmyn hobbled over to the boulder, dragging her leg behind her. She could feel the heat creep up on her neck, over the fear. Right as she reached the boulder, however, she stopped.

Why does it matter if I live or not? I’m the last surviving post-Apocalypse human. Who will miss me? She pressed her hands to her ears.

The explosion was deafening, even with her ears covered. Death was coming, and she was waiting for it.

Suddenly, she was pulled behind the boulder. She gasped and looked as a spit of fire whipped right past where she was standing. She turned around to stare right into the eyes of a very worried young man.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” He screamed.

“Are you my guardian angel?” Jasmyn asked, in a daze.

“No!” He said loudly, grabbing both her shoulders and shaking her furiously. “I just saved your life!”

Suddenly everything dawned on her. This young man must have also been a survivor of the Apocalypse! Jasmyn wasn’t the only one, she wasn’t doomed! Then she realized that he must have been the reason all of her personal information was on the ground.

“I’m Levi Prescott. And you are -?”

“You know who I am! You looked through my stuff!” Jasmyn snapped, accusingly.

The young man laughed. Levi Prescott was a handsome man. He was tall and muscular, with short straight brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a beautiful smile. He was probably only a little bit older than Jasmyn, maybe twenty-seven. He was starting to grow a little goatee, and he had glasses. He reminded her of someone she once knew.

“I’m sorry, Jasmyn or Erica? Which do prefer?”

Jasmyn laughed wearily. “Jasmyn.”

Without warning Levi Prescott pulled out a gun. It was a strange gun, made up of glass tubes. Electricity cracked at the tip of the barrel. “Who are you and what are you and what are you doing on this planet!” He yelled.

Jasmyn immediately reached for the holster under her dress. She was armed with a pistol. It was unloaded, hopefully Jasmyn thought it would scare him into backing off.

“I’m Jasmyn Miller, Federal Agent. Put weapon down immediately before you do something stupid! And what do you mean ‘what are you doing on this planet? This is Earth, I’m human, I belong here!”

Levi hesitated, and then smiled. “You’re not a federal agent. By that ID card, Erica Del Woodsley is. I don’t know what happened to her, and I don’t care. But I believe that you don’t have the authority to be holding that gun.” He walked up to Jasmyn and smacked the gun out of her hands. It scattered across the ground before clunking against the side of another boulder.

Jasmyn was trapped, and here she was with the only other person on the planet, (who happened to also be extraordinarily cute), and he was holding a gun to her chest.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Levi, if that even is your real name?!” Jasmyn screamed.

“I know for sure that Jasmyn probably isn’t yours.” Levi responded, and pulled the trigger. A hundred volts of electricity surged through Jasmyn’s body. She fell to the ground in agony. Levi stood over Jasmyn’s body. “No human could have survived the Apocalypse that intact.”

Chapter Three

It was light. Fog cleared, and a very bright light illuminated the whiteness of the place. A young man, maybe mid thirties, slowly walked towards where Jasmyn lay, shielding her eyes from the brightness. His figure was distorted. Jasmyn blinked. He was gone. Confused, she blinked again. He appeared, much closer than before. As he walked even closer, Jasmyn was able to detail the distorted outline of his body. He was tall, and muscular, and was obviously of some powerful authority. His hair was so blond, it was nearly white, cut right before his eyes. Who did he remind her of?

He walked until he was right in front of Jasmyn. She looked up at him, and he bent down. She stared into his electric blue eyes. He held out a hand for her. “Come, Erica.”

Jasmyn took his hand, and stared at the man, feeling several different emotions. She knew this man from somewhere, yet she didn’t know him from anywhere. He was trustworthy, however had a subtle hint of a dangerous aura. Suddenly, a name popped into her head. “Levi?”

He laughed, a rich, understanding laugh. “No, my dear Erica. You do not remember me?”

Jasmyn stared at him in amazement. She knew who this man was, why couldn’t she put a name to his beautiful smile? “Uh..” She stuttered.

He laughed again, and smiled, his teeth whiter than the surroundings. “Of course you don’t remember, Erica, it’s been a while. Seven years to be exact. Why, you look as young as when I first met you!”

Jasmyn stared at the man, dumbfounded.

He did not laugh, and instead, spoke with a hint of annoyance. “Erica, it’s me, John.”

Memories flooded through Jasmyn’s head. John! Jasmyn looked at the man, how could she forget him? John Pierce. He had worked in Jasmyn’s division, and he only knew her by her fake identity, Erica Del Woodsley. John had strong feelings for Jasmyn, his passion for her was overwhelming. However, Jasmyn had forbade herself to get close to anyone, especially after what happened with Jared. Her horrible encounter was one of the reasons she had a fake ID with the alias Erica. Jared had caused her to lose her best friend, her social life, any potential jobs, and even respect from her family.

Jasmyn and Jared were both technically on the run from the law. And what better place to hide from the law then to basically hide right under its nose?

Jasmyn didn’t know how she had evaded prison for this long working as a federal agent. The newspapers had reported Jasmyn Miller dead, after she had faked her own death. How? She dressed her recently passed sister Cecelia in her clothes, put her wallet in Cecelia’s pants, and pushed her off the balcony of their 15th story apartment. Cecelia had died that morning when she fell down the stairs of their apartment and broke her neck. She was twenty-one years old. But that was ten years ago, in 2003. Then eighteen-year old Jasmyn began her life as twenty-eight year old Erica Del Woodsley.

Martin Quayle was the only person who seemed to be able to help Jasmyn. He was a North Carolinian fugitive who had fled to New Mexico, and spent a living as a hacker, and creating fake identities for people. He even had gained access to police records, being the computer genius that he was. He made fake background checks for people. He had made Jasmyn’s (or shall we say Erica’s) record squeaky clean. Jasmyn had paid $10,000 for this procedure. However, in a very risky move, Martin somehow scammed the government into sending Jasmyn $50,000 a month. It was enough money to get a tattoo and plastic surgery.

Jasmyn had met John right after she had gotten the job as a fed. He was a handsome man, though about Erica’s age, and not Jasmyn’s.  Jasmyn hated lying to John. She felt as if he was someone she could trust. Be she couldn’t tell her secret to anyone, making it even harder to keep. She knew she would eventually slip, and completely devastate her life. The last thing she needed was to be found out by the real agency, and arrested for several felonies, especially after what she had been through. As far as she knew, using a fake identification to become a federal agent was definitely a felony.

Two years after she had become a federal agent, she learned of John’s love for her. John was of a higher ranking than Jasmyn, which meant he was strictly off-limits. He was charming, he was handsome, and he was serious about his job. And the desire that Jasmyn felt for him grew stronger each day. She completely blew of her pact of “no men” when she first slept with John, completely breaking about every decree of the governmental rules of the federal agency.

They had been caught. An agent, envious of John’s rank, had spied, and had released the information to their superior, who told the Chief of Defense. Jasmyn had been demoted, John had been sent on a top secret mission. A mission from which he would never return. Jasmyn never learned the mission on which John had been sent on, she’d only been told that the government wouldn’t let any agents of low rankings in on any top secret missions.

Jasmyn never even learned the cause of John’s death.

Actually, nobody had. They had found his body lying face down. Nobody would tell Jasmyn where. She didn’t go to his funeral. She was thinking about leaving the federal agency. Her one love was dead. But again, Jasmyn hadn’t made it this far to go home. There was work to be done.

***

Jasmyn looked at John in ridicule. “I don’t understand. You're, y-you're dead!”

He laughed again. “You miss me Erica. 100 volts of electricity really screws with your brain.”

Jasmyn’s eyes went wide, and filled with tears. “So t-this isn’t real, John?!”

He smiled. “Of course not, love. You can’t bring me back to life. When you are finally neutral to the upset in electric charge in your body, you will regain consciousness.”

“John, how did you die?”

John laughed again. “You can’t possibly expect me to answer that, can you?”

Jasmyn frowned. “Actually, I was kinda hoping –”

John cut her off impatiently. “Erica, I can’t tell you what you don’t already know. You don’t understand, I’m not really here, this is all your mind.” 

Tears began to flood Jasmyn’s eyes. She got up off the ground, and stared at John, deeply into his effervescent blue eyes. She suddenly grabbed both of his shoulders with her hands.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too, Erica.” John said back. He leaned in to kiss her, but she stopped him.

“Call me ‘Jasmyn’”.

He smiled. “I love you, Jasmyn.”

She closed her eyes, gently parted her lips, and leaned in again. Ever so tenderly, she pressed her lips to John’s. Right as their lips made contact, John rapidly began to fade. Jasmyn fell right through his transparent body. The whiteness was gone. Jasmyn closed her eyes again. Opened them. She was back where she started, alone again, on a desolate planet. She was still in the desert, behind the boulder where Levi had shot her. She wanted to cry. Tears refused to fall from her eyes.



Chapter Four



“What should we do with it?” Dara asked. She was an athletic girl with wavy black hair and skin the color of a cork board. A rich mahogany. The silver half-body suit she was wearing was tight at the chest ad fell loosely over her waistline. If it weren’t for the fact that he was to be married to Alaiza, he would have taken Dara right away.

“Levi?!”

Levi stopped looking at Dara’s body, and said strongly, “We must exterminate it.”

“Is that wise, Lord-son?” A feeble voice asked from the back of the group. “Shouldn’t it be delivered to High Queen Alaiza before extermination?” The man was short, had a crop of bushy hair on his head, and even bushy eyebrows. Thick horn-rimmed glasses barely stayed on the bridge of his nose.

“I’m right here,” Alaiza said, confused. She was a beautiful woman, with long violet hair with red and white streaks. Some days, with her curvaceous body and plump lips and cornered-off demeanor,  she was sexier than Dara. But any day, Levi would choose the Galatian Dara over Cyrayain Alaiza as his wife. Today, for the first day in several Satellitian days, Alaiza had smiled.

“I meant High Queen Alissindy before –” Dominicus began.

“Will you shut up?!” Levi yelled. “Are you part of the Q-Regency? Are you of the Paragod? No! You’re a lowly servant!”

Dominicus looked at his feet. “I am sorry, Lord-son.”

“Shut up!” Levi yelled again, exasperated. The veins in his head were throbbing.

“Hey,” Alaiza said, “He called me High Queen. I’m going with the nerd’s plan.”

“It was a mistake –” Dominicus protested until he realized what Alaiza had said.

At this point, Gordon spoke. Gordon was bald, muscular, and disciplined. Unlike the rest of the Q-Regency, he was obedient to High Queen Alissindy, Alaiza’s mother. If he refused an order, he would be met by death.

“Lord-son Levi, we must be going to find it. But I must agree with the servant. If it is indeed human, High Queen Alissindy will wish we return it to her alive.”

Levi glared at Gordon. “Gordon Q-wedX, I’ve seen this thing myself. This is no human. No human could have escaped death in a catastrophe such as this destruction.”

“Please, Lord-son. Levi Q-monX. There is a possibility. And if High Queen Alissindy finds out you’ve destroyed a human...”

Levi laughed. “Gordon, that will not be happening, as that thing is not human. Listen, do you want to die if it is human, or do you want the entire regency, the entire Division of Paragod to be destroyed of a stray unknown alien? And if it is human –”

“You will be met with death!”

“I will die as a sacrifice.”

“We will all die as sacrifices,” Dara said, “for not stopping him!”

“Even myself. My own mother would put me to death.” Alaiza said. “I did not come from the other side of the Advasien Galaxy to be put to death because Lord-son Levi Q-monX is an idiot!”

Levi smiled. “There will be no dying. The thing is in shock. 100 volts of it.”

“You already killed her?!” Dara yelled.

“You are an idiot.” Dominicus said.

“Detain him!” Gordon thundered, as Levi rushed at Dominicus. Gordon, Alaiza, and Dara grabbed him and locked him in an electrical orb. Rings of energy surrounded his body like a straitjacket, and he floated a full foot off the ground. Every time he moved harshly, he would be shocked, like an electric dog collar.

“I did not kill her!” Levi yelled.

“Do you not ever ponder what your actions will do to Lord Gahsioxh, your father?” Gordon asked. The rest of the Q-Regency began to walk off into the desert. Dominicus stayed behind with Levi. However he strayed a few feet behind him, at the Garage, the levitating storage-bin looking device which doubled as their ship.

“I did not kill her!” Levi yelled.

Gordon turned around, and yelled, “We’re going to see what this matter really is all about!”