Condemned

Tina woke up with a start to a crash downstairs. She was cold and sweating as she got up and readied herself to either run or fight. Another crash then footsteps on the stairs, light steps, familiar steps. Running, she decided and leaped across the room and smashed through the window. She was falling now, the ground rushing up to meet her, she flipped mid air to land perfectly on her feet in a pile of glass from the newly shattered window. Tina winced as the jagged fragments cut into her unprotected feet with ease, but still she ran. She had gone no more than ten meters when she heard someone land in almost complete silence and then they were after her. She was going to have to fight, she knew it but she didn’t like it, she knew her pursuer, he was a friend. The people who often chased her all across the world were her friends and yet she kept running, she didn’t want to hurt them. The footsteps were closer now and she cursed, he was always the faster runner and her hurting cut feet weren’t helping, so she focused on them. She could see the wounds in her mind's eye, she could see how they covered the souls of her feet, how the glass lodged in some of the deeper cuts. She made herself relax and let the heat flow through her. She directed the heat down through her body and down through her legs and towards her feet, then she jumped and even as she left the ground the glass melted and poured out the wounds, her blood was boiling and the wounds were being cauterized and when she landed, a split second later, she was healed.

It had hurt and it had tired her but she had healed and now she was picking up speed and running through the dead silent town. When this had started, little over a year ago, Tina had found dead and deserted towns unnerving and refused to explore them, but now she was used to it and thus she could and would exploit them.

Tina glanced back at her pursuer, he was a tall handsome man of 25, he was wearing an amazingly well tailored black suit that did little to hide his strong boxer build. He had short dark hair and powerful green eyes, his name was Jason. Tina stopped briefly, her arm so hot it was glowing as she put barely any effort into pushing a parked car, suddenly it was flying through the air towards him in a deadly series of flips and barrel rolls. He didn’t have time to dodge the car hurtling towards him at over a hundred miles per hour, but she didn’t care. She knew it’d barely scratch him, after all, he was well trained so should know how to get hit by a speeding car.She was running before the car hit him, she glanced back as she ducked into an alley. The car struck its mark, but instead of sending Jason flying on impact, it just stopped suddenly with a thunderous crash, bending around him with the force. Tina went to walk on but stopped. The car was moving again, screeching in protest as it did. Jason was forcing the car apart until he was free, and to make it worse, he was grinning. Tina couldn’t help herself, she was having fun and she grinned back before darting off with him, yet again,in pursuit.

If she was given a day or two, Tina would have been able to learn the town and plan escape routes, but this wasn’t the case. She had just arrived yesterday, and as such, had not yet had time to explore. She could remember her arrival clearly.

It was midmorning and the wind blew through the streets, somewhere in the distance an alarm was blaring. The sun was warm and the breeze cool, yet the town was silent and no one was stirring as Tina walked down the main street. Tina is a young woman of around 20 with a powerful athletic build, her hair, a dark black blue colour and her eyes matched. She wore tight tattered jeans and a dark dirt coated top.No shoes adorned her bare blood soaked feet. Tina was a mess and she knew it, but that couldn’t be helped. Tina couldn’t be helped. She was tired and worn, The months of travel and danger were finally catching up with her. Now was this any other time and place, Tina could have walked up to any door in town and they’d have welcomed her in with open arms. She smiled at the thought and hung onto it as she walked into a random house. The house was warm and stylishly decorated , the shoes and coats inside the front door indicated that the house had belonged to a family of three. She walked first to the kitchen stepping over the body of the poor woman who lived here.

“Body one” She thought to herself as she checked the fridge.

She was pleasantly surprised to find fresh milk, ham and butter, bought only 2 days ago according to the receipt on the side. Tina then searched the bread bin and took two slices of bread and made herself a sandwich. Once she had eaten and had a drink Tina moved on to explore the rest of the house. She passed a gorgeous but empty living room and went up stairs, going into the first bedroom. Laying on the bed with the tv on was a boy Tina judged to be around 18, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world, but then she thought, who would care about anything when they laid dead in bed. The boy laid with his throat slit and blood pooled on and around him.

“That's Body two.” She said to herself before moving on.

The bathroom was large and luxurious, decorated with sea shells, the walls and floor decorated to make the room look like a beach and it worked, but yet again, the room was empty of anything that could be of use so she left it and entered the master bedroom. The room was massive but plainly decorated, the bed was a large king size with really soft looking pillows and warm looking sheets, so she went over to it.

“I’m terribly sorry.” Tina said to the dead man who laid there.

“And I mean no disrespect, but I need this bed a bit more than you. I hope you can find it in your heart...wherever it may be, to forgive me for this.” She said in an emotionless velvet voice as she laid in the bed with body three, a man who had been flayed open and his heart ripped out, and shoved him off of it before pulling the covers over herself and promptly falling asleep.

As usual for the past year, her night was restless and full of fear and panic as her mind battled itself and played tricks on her. Her sleep was plagued with nightmares of loss and guilt, The ghosts of the dead chased her through a town long since forgotten and a family lost and left behind.

Tina was knocked out of her memories as a fire hydrant sailed past her, hitting a parked car at the end of the alley with enough force to crumple its frame. Jason was right behind her, grinning his head off.

Tina skidded on the cracked pavement, sparks flying as her overheated palm brushed the wall to steady herself. Jason’s laugh echoed behind her, deep and taunting, as though this was all a game. To him, maybe it was. To her, it was survival.

She darted out of the alley and onto a wider street, the skeletons of abandoned shops glaring down with broken windows like watching eyes. Jason vaulted after her, clearing the crushed car without so much as breaking stride.

“You’re getting sloppy, Tina!” he shouted, voice playful, but sharp underneath. “A year ago you’d never have let me corner you this fast.”

“Shut up,” she hissed under her breath, though she knew he’d hear. He always heard.

Her body was already burning more energy than she could afford. Healing herself, throwing cars, running flat out, she was going to hit a wall soon. She needed to lose him before then.

Tina ducked into another alley, this one narrower, hemmed in by brick walls streaked with mildew. She pressed her glowing hands against the walls as she ran, leaving trails of scorched black, then kicked off the end wall to scramble up a fire escape. Jason’s footsteps pounded closer.

At the rooftop, she hauled herself over the ledge and sprinted, glass crunching under her soles. The skyline stretched around her, flat rooftops in every direction, chimneys and satellite dishes jutting like jagged teeth. She risked a glance back. Jason had followed, of course, and was already closing the gap.She stopped suddenly.

Jason slowed too, wary of a trap. Tina’s eyes burned blue with heat, and her whole body shook with the strain of channeling so much energy at once. She raised both hands to the rooftop beneath her, palms open.

The tar roof bubbled, then split with a thunderous crack as molten fissures spread outward from her feet. Heat shimmered in waves, the stench of burning chemicals filling the night.

Jason’s grin faltered, just slightly.

“Tina,” he warned. “Don’t.”

But she already had.

The roof gave way, collapsing into the building below. Tina fell with it, plunging through clouds of dust and debris, landing hard on her shoulder in what looked like a gutted supermarket. She rolled, gasping, ears ringing.

Above, Jason’s silhouette appeared in the hole. He didn’t jump down immediately. He watched her, those green eyes catching the faint glow of firelight like a predator watching wounded prey.

“You’re going to burn yourself out,” he called. “And then what? Do you think the others will just let you keep running?”

Tina forced herself up, ignoring the protest of her bruised ribs. “Better burned out than caught.”

She staggered deeper into the ruins before he could answer.

The supermarket stretched in silence, shelves toppled long ago, shopping carts overturned and rusting. But as she moved between the wreckage, she froze.

There were footprints in the dust. Fresh ones.

Jason wasn’t the only one in town.