The Barrier City

Across the baked earth, a road apart from all others had been beaten flat, a road cutting through vast ocher deserts towards the mountains in the west. It was early, with the sun still cresting the buttes to the east and bathing the land in a lurid light. A column of dust hung above the road, catching the sunrays with glowing edges. Beneath the rising cloud, three ragged forms walked, the sun warming their backs and each thinking of little more than the next step. A simple set of crosshairs, held steady, tracked the lead figure.

Kitel took a deep breath and lowered the rifle. Continuing to look east over the Barrier Wall, he examined the cloud of dust with his naked eyes. He squinted and chewed his lower lip, the dry wind stirring the waves of his dark hair as black as his skin. The dust cloud was no more than a third of a mile distant.

He placed the sniper rifle on a rack that rested beside him and reached one of his gloved hands down, lifting from the battlement his silver helmet. It caught the sun on its mirrored faceplate, for a moment reflecting the barren landscape beyond the walls. It was vast and hostile, cracked and broken, and the crimson sun loomed above the trio on the road.

Already the ground shimmered with heat, a dry morning wind obscuring sinuous tracks left by the demons which were nightly drawn to the city.

Tucking the helmet under his arm as he turned, his mirrored body armor became a cascade of flashes. His back to the parapet, the Barrier City stretched out before him, gleaming as if caught in an instant frame of life, frozen beneath the slow-burning sun. He squinted, but did not look away.

The Core of the city bristled with a dozen skyscrapers of varying heights, the same silver-blue as his armor, and each one casting shadows that made the Core into an oasis of shade. Through a haze, smaller buildings could be seen. Layered in dust and soot, they emanated outwards for miles.