Starfall: Chapter 1

Northwest Florida, Near Escambia Bay                                                                                             

June 24th, 16:58

Adam startled awake surrounded by fire.

‘Blam! Blam! Blam!’

An armored figure fired his M17 into the darkness. “Solomon, get up!” He extended a hand as the fires surrounding them intensified and rushed ahead of him. “Adam! Get u—-!”

He was cut off as a blur of shadow rushed past him, tearing his throat out.

Adam quickly got to his feet, spinning around and surveying the area. Where did it go?

A serene twilight sky stretched out over the quiet wetlands. The only sound  to be heard was his own quickening breath.

The situation had gotten as bad as it could get. He hadn’t taken his time on the hunt, and his team had paid the ultimate price for it. As the shadows grew larger, Adam cursed himself. He should have known better. He should have been better. He should have been patient. If he had, three good Hunters would be home by now. They would be alive. Adam couldn’t forgive himself for their deaths, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to let himself be taken by what was out there in the darkness. 

Slowly, as the fires died out, his white combat uniform began to glow eerily, casting light around him. It was another sign of the troubling situation. He ran his hair through short, kinky hair . A mixture of blood and sweat dripped off his caramel skin.

He reached into a foot-long pouch strapped to his thigh. Night had completely fallen and he was out of time. Quickly, he removed two thick clear tubes and wrenched them together. They cracked loudly and an intense light exploded from the sticks illuminating a meter in front of him.

Adam narrowed his eyes and stared straight ahead. A patch of darkness didn’t move like the rest. Instead of retreating from the light, it slowly crept forward. The ShadowSpawn had been revealed. No matter how many times he saw one, Adam still felt a chill.

It had the form of a man but its form was blacker than the night. The light from the flare sticks, shining like day, was devoured by the creature’s physical space. It moved in a jerking fashion, as if it were skipping parts of its own motion.

Adam didn’t have time to waste. The flare sticks were very powerful, but wouldn’t last more than 5 minutes. He jammed the sticks into the ground, one in front of him and one behind. He was just in time as the ShadowSpawn stepped back into the darkness. Adam took a ready fighting stance. This monster alone had already taken out the rest of his team while there was still light out. He couldn’t afford any mistakes against such a relentless enemy.

Adam noticed a quick movement to his right and dodged back. He winced in pain as the ShadowSpawn clawed at his uniform, tearing through the armor and gouging his shoulder. It didn’t make sense how powerful these things were, coming out of nowhere and destroying everything in their path.

Adam realized he was in even more danger as he landed near the edge of his light source. He only had an instant to react. A ShadowSpawn always went for a kill-shot if it had the chance. He knelt and placed his palms on the ground. Adam concentrated his thoughts on the soil around him. The ground began to tremble as a thick wall of condensed earth rose behind him.

    A crunching sound came from behind the wall. Adam took a step away and made note of five holes in his wall. That’s where his spine had been. In his mind, he imagined the wall exploding forward like shrapnel into the darkness. He concentrated again and thrust his arms forward. The wall acted as he willed, as if Adam had hit it with his own body.

Adam cautiously moved back to the center of his arena as the dust from his attack spread. He held his hand up in a stopping motion, halting the cloud. He could feel every particle. It was difficult to hold on to all of them in such a wide area. He waved his arm sideways, sweeping the dust away and revealing the ShadowSpawn.

Adam had stunned it. The creature stood frozen, holes marking its figure. The holes slowly closed, but the damage had been done. The ShadowSpawn looked different than before. Its movements were slower, and it wasn’t absorbing as much light as normal. Adam could see through it. He was close to killing it.

It wasn’t over with though. Although weakened and dying, this thing was not to be toyed with. It lunged forward, ready to end the fight. Adam was one step ahead. He made an uppercut motion. Thin pointed pillars shot up from the ground, impaling the SHadowSpawn, finishing it. The monster twitched and went still. It faded, leaving no trace of existence behind.

It was over. Adam had won, but he was drained. It was a struggle to even stay on his feet. He placed a finger in his ear where a small black device rested. He gently tapped it and it beeped.

“Control,” He stated. “Solomon reporting. The ShadowSpawn has been exterminated. My---” He paused. “My team is dead.” He swallowed hard. He couldn’t forgive himself for letting his team down. He knew better. He was supposed to lead and protect them. He---

“Hunter Solomon, what is your status?” He heard the voice in the communicator ask urgently.

Adam snapped out of his thoughts. He didn’t have time to sit around. His light was dying and there was no telling what else was out there. “My team is dead. I’m headed for the rendezvous point.”

“Acknowledged.” Control responded after a moment. “We’ll see you soon.” 

Adam ended the communication and grabbed the flare sticks from the soil. He began to walk towards the rendezvous point when he felt something that stopped him in his tracks. Like the particles of dust, Adam could feel all things Earth, being a Geo-Kinetic. He felt it in large amounts, above. He looked skyward, his eyes wide as flaming meteorites streaked overhead. They were headed towards the rendezvous point.

Adam ran as fast as he could towards the Bay. His muscles ached and his lungs burned. He felt a drain beyond the physical but kept pushing. He had to do whatever he could. He activated his communicator. “Control, can you hear me?” He huffed. “What’s your situation?”

No response. Adam kept running.      

It felt like an eternity, but he finally made it. Adam surveyed the area, searching for his support team. The soil all around was soaked through, flooded. “Control, can you hear me?” Silence still.

A bright light shot into the sky from the opposite end of the bay, a signal flare. Adam sighed relief. Now he just had to figure out how to get over there. It had to be over three kilometers away. He focused his mind and summoned what little he had left in him to create a solid slab of earth. The water weighing it down made it heavier. The strain was considerable, but he condensed the dirt and soil down, wringing the water out.

He lowered his makeshift platform to a height that he could easily step on. He collapsed upon it. The slab then rose high enough that it wouldn’t be bothered by the turbulent waters, and slowly made its way to the opposite shore. To Adam’s surprise and pleasure, this trip felt a lot shorter than his run to the shore.

Eventually, he was able to make out his team’s ship on the shore. Only a little more to go.

Then felt it. Adam yelped as a stabbing, near crippling pain ran through his legs. Kinesis had its limits. The use of his power, and the Genesis Energy that fueled it, was now turning back on him and physically hurting him. He lost control of his platform and dropped into the water. He tried to fight the pain, to keep going, but fighting only made the pain worse. The increased weight of his legs pulled him down quickly submerging him. Adam could feel the bits of the platform melding into his legs. It was the first sign that a Geo-Kinetic had overexerted themselves.

Adam knew better than to use more GE than his body was capable of handling, but he had no choice. He dug deep, trying to fight off the pain and block out the fatigue. He continued to sink. Adam swam as hard as he could, trying to break the surface. He couldn’t do it anymore. He felt himself slipping away. The darkness took him.