Beautiful Remains

Time passed us by, bringing dry, starved air with it. The days seemed frozen and stale towards us, never granting me nor the others a warm wind. Frost would have settled on the scattered glass shards, sparkling like forgotten diamonds against the pavement, but there was no humidity. Water itself was scarce and everyone agreed, a dry spell had come through.
Better a drought then a flood, I concluded.

“Do you see the white cloud, due North? Above the old outskirts?” came a whisper.

Andrea’s lowered voice fell into the silence I was bathing in, prompting me to awake from my relaxed daze. We sat together, alone, on the roof of the base.

My eyelids moved aside to reveal the same dismal sky I had been forced to gaze upon for the past two years. Instead of the silver-lining my grandmother once spoke about, black gold decorated the tainted fluff. Hazy smoke filled in all the spaces in between. No blue, just gray.

“...Ashley?” the blonde questioned.

Her small head whipped around to answer her own question of whether or not I was awake. Golden, tanned eyes peered down at me curiously, observing as I pulled myself up from a lounging position. No feeling left her body as she turned back towards the north and pointed with a gentle finger to the horizon.

Beyond the ruins of the metal giants and above what looked like a far off mountain range, a single white line ran across the sky. The beats in my chest stopped as the pure clouds came into view. Suddenly the darkened sky appeared abnormal and threatening, while the distant lines of ivory held something magical.

“They’re so pretty…” I gasped.

I hated sounding girly, I got enough of that from my appearance, but the small veins of snowy white inspired me, pushed upon me a strange emotion. Perhaps it was a disguised type of fear, hidden in a coat of hope, that grew in me. It could be I was just rekindled with a desire to see the future pick itself up and start anew, but either way, I was awestruck. Those clouds meant something to me.

“What do you think this means?” Andrea pondered out loud.

“Maybe it means the worst is over,” I suggested.

“I hope so.” the girl muttered.

Molecule by molecule, I peeled my pupils from the wonder on the skyline to the female sitting beside me. Andrea’s own fiery orbs were fixed on the colorless mass. Tension flowed through her veins as casually as blood, giving her every stance and movement a ridged look. Day in and day out, her body stayed alert, her mind observant, quick, but her concealed smiles and heartfelt worry made her approachable. Some of the guys thought she acted unfriendly, but they failed to see that she had helped us when she didn’t have to.

Willingness to let a bunch of poor travelers into one’s own home interested me, but the person I was finding in her was unexpected. Occasionally, she would let us hear her laugh or allow us a joke, but other times no one knew what she was thinking. That was just how she did things and I wanted to know how she decided when she would do this or that.

“Wanna tell the others?” I inquired, surprising myself with the amount of distaste that slipped into my tone.

“No,” she replied,”wait and see if they notice themselves.”

Satisfied, I laid back down, but not in the same place as before. I shifted around until I could see the lovely cloud easily without having to sit up. Andrea didn’t seem to mind that it put my back against hers, in fact, she leaned against me once I was settled.

“I doubt they’ll see anything for a while.” I commented, to which she just sighed happily.

If she was content with just seeing the water vapor on the horizon, I couldn’t wait until the snowy cotton candy was above us.

“Good night, Ashley.” she chuckled as I dozed off.

“Night.” I humored right back.

Notes

This was a little thing that I wrote and I kinda like it c: Either way, thanks for commenting @ smutty pariah!