10 minutes. That's all she had. 10 minutes before the sun sinks into the scorched earth. 600 seconds before darkness.

Lydia was exhausted. She had been walking all day, with no food or water to fuel herself with. Her feet screamed in agony at every step she took, a jolt of pain being sent up her wobbling legs, intensifying her heavy breathing. Her body was giving up on her. She had 5 minutes until the sun went down and 15 before she'd be dead. She mumbled incoherent curses under her shaky breath, her throat begging for moisture. It becoming hard to see, the thick darkness replacing the ember sun, the temperature dropping instantly. But Lydia was near the wall now. She had to get there even if she collapsed at the foot of the smoky grey wall that towered overhead, dominating her vision. She had to try.

But the cruel world was against her, and in the midst of the darkness, Lydia heard barking. Loud, soul shattering barking. Lydia had a dog at home, but she had never in her life heard barking like this. It was vicious, pulsing against her eardrums with it's growls, sending chills down her frail spine. And it was coming closer. Lydia did the only thing her tired mind could think of. She ran. She took the last string of energy she had left in her dying body and ran. But the barks followed. A sharp pain jolted at her side. She clutched both hands upon her hip, her breath hitching when her dust ridden palms came in contact with raw skin, and then as she clutched harder, bone. She screamed, but her voice only reached her throat, where it stayed. But her legs kept moving. 

She had reached the wall, it's cold hard stones pressing against her bare back, shocking her. The beasts had surrounded her. Their ungodly jaws hung open, saliva dripping from their tongue tongues. Long, sharp and gnarly looking, some of them chipped in some places, others dripping in blood.Lydia could barely see them in this light but their fangs were unmissable, no matter the lighting. Like when you can't see anyone behind you, but you feel something there. A sickening feeling, sinking deeper and deeper into your stomach, worsening at every step. Lydia was going to die and she knew it. She took one last long stare at those fluorescent yellow eyes that stared into her own, and lowered her tired eyelids, accepting her fate. 2 minutes was all she had to live, anyway. What difference does it make if she died 2 minutes earlier? No one would care, not even her. She had no need to live. She would go down in history, for the girl who died trying. 

"Malgrins!" a voice yelled, echoing across the desert. The beasts barked, ready to punch on Lydia, but she couldn't open her eyes. She had used up the last of her life source, and she had nothing left. The last thing she felt was a warm heat, gripping onto her weak shoulders, pulling her into her fate. 

xxxx

The world was dark. The world was dark but the darkness sang. It sung of birth and death and everything in-between. Lydia had heard the song and it heard her. In the time she spent in darkness, she learnt of the world in light. The darkness, in the world of light. It kept her warm, a stilled bliss, calming her worries, and numbing her thoughts. Blissful. Dark. The darkness sang to her, and she sung back. But the darkness did not last.

Lydia felt a throb. She felt a tremendous throbbing and it grew and grew every second. It grew until the throbbing was so great Lydia could not ignore it. Sound filled her ears and light filled and light pierced her eyes and the darkness faded. Her eyes were forced open by a blinding light. She could feel something near her moving and a low humming buzzed in her ears. Lydia jolted upwards-fangs, long and sharp. Dripping in thick red blood. The images filled her mind, clouding up her eyes causing her to shriek-loudly. 

Her vision was blurred from the long awaited waking. Sleep dusted her cheekbones like glitter. Something was moving towards her, it's steps shaking the surface she was on. Blood. She scrambled backwards against a wall. A cold hard wall. Image software the beasts flashed across her mind, their snarls still ringing in her ears. 

"Shhh...Shhh... Calm down" A voice hushed. She could see an outline of a face, but it was coming in and out of focus. Her breath quickened-this time out of excitement. A person! An actual living, breathing, human being, who wasn't on the other end of a radio wave. 

"You're safe now" The voice said again. She felt a warm palm placed across her hollowed cheek. Lydia stilled and tilted her face so she could see the face clearly. Their eyes were a smoky grey, light and darkness doing a waltz, telling a story of their own. Here eyes were in focus now, and she realised how close the two were. Embarrassed, she moved the only direction she could-off the bed, which led to her tumbling towards a rather hard stone floor. Her bronzed shoulder hit first, bending to allow the rest of her body to fall with it. She lay there, on the floor for a split second, the pain temporarily immobilising her, until she glanced up at the man who stared at her, seemingly horrified. She scrambled to her feet, who didn't agree with the new stance she had taken on. She stumbled backwards in to someone's arms. "Not quite on your feet then, I see" He grumbled, studying Lydia. 

"N-no, I'm perfectly fi-ine, thank you sir" Lydia croaked, adjusting her shirt. 

"I'm sure" The man said, frowning. He seemed about Lydia's age, his body young and athletic. But his face was old. He wasn't wrinkled. There was no sign of physical age. But his scars spotted his skin, and purple bags hung under his smoky eyes that told stories of his life. Stories of the things he had seen and the things he's yet to see.

"Meet me in the next room in 10 minutes. We'l talk when you're more-" He hesitated "awake" The man turned on his heel and glided out of the white door. 

=================

Author's note:

Hello everybody!

I hope you enjoyed this part of The State! 

I have good news-I'll be updating every Saturday (us) (Sunday pacific) because I have a competition with my friends:

Holly-the-dinosaur

charlithepixie

Destelia

Basically we have to update a chapter of our books every single week, or else we have to buy each other food. Hopefully this means more chapters of The State will be coming more frequently rather than not. 

Already started planning next chapter and it should be good so make sure you put this in your library to be sure not to miss it. :D

QUESTIONS: 

What is your opinion of the man with smoky grey eyes?

What are Malgrins?

What do you think will happen next chapter?

Note:

Still in the process of re-riting the first few chapters, but won't be uploading them until I completed all three or four of them. 

Also, Soon I'll be transferring these little bits into actual chapters, because I don't think 1000 words is a long enough chapter tbh. I'll be putting them together and possibly re publishing the parts that way further down the track -remind me though :)

THANKS FOR READING

COMMENTING

AND FOLLOWING!!

-Mitty284