Blood from her hip spilled out, forming a small pool of red underneath her. The stinging in her wet hands grew more painful with each passing second, and eventually she was forced to let go of her baseball bat. Breathing, which was once a subconscious action, had now become a hard task. It was as if her lungs had shriveled up to the size of raisins. Despite all those glaring problems within Sunshine, the rush of excitement filling her mind was enough to keep her satisfied, but most importantly, conscious.
Unfortunately, there were two problems Sunshine was faced with. One was that exhaustion had taken her body hostage, so she couldn’t muster the strength to find a way off the mountain. Even though her aura was able to temporarily keep her conscious, that was going to run out soon. She couldn’t afford to pass out on a mountain.
The other problem was she had a cut on her lower torso that needed to be healed. It didn’t feel fatal, but the bleeding was getting worse. There were four types of energy in the world that Radius Ability users could access: Radioactive Energy, Nuclear Energy, Molecular Energy, and Atomic Energy. Molecular and Atomic Energy users stood out because they possessed the unique ability to heal themselves, although their methods differed.
Sunshine was a Mole, a user in Molecular Energy, and while she was capable of regenerating small cuts, Elias got a pretty good slash on her. The only way she could have an injury like this healed was if Jesus had done it for her. The horse man was an Atom, an Atomic Energy user, and an Atom’s healing ability was special as they could simply replace the wound with what was lost rather than rearranging their molecules to stitch it.
In an attempt to stop the bleeding, Sunshine redirected half of her aura into the cut, strengthening its defenses. Clearly, that was a dumb idea as the pain of doing so crashed into her like a speeding train. It felt like a hand made of salt had pinched her insides. Squirming and clutching her wound didn’t decrease the feeling. It seemed like her eyes were about to water, but the cold prevented the tears from seeping out.
Despite the first failed attempt, she opted for another, something more risky. She raised her pointer and middle finger, encasing them in aura. Then, she slowly lowered her fingers towards the wound, fear gripping them tightly. One wrong move and Sunshine could either worsen her injury or end her short life.
Sunshine’s teeth were chattering like crazy, and if her skin allowed her to sweat, she would. Her pounding heart was so distracting that focusing on keeping her fingers still became the last thing on her mind. The aura tickled her red flesh, dipped itself into the crimson pool, and finally pressed against her skin. With careful precision, she began to slide her fingers down the cut. The wound didn’t allow her to get far as the pain gave her a strict reminder of what would happen if she went further.
Cowardice won in the end, and Sunshine lay there cursing at herself for letting it.
Breathing was about to become a thing of the past and her injury desperately wanted her to sleep. It was at that painful moment where Sunshine realized just how alone she truly was. All it would’ve taken was a call to either Jesus or Dante, and she was sure they would’ve come along with her dad. Her desires clouded that possibility.
I’m not gonna die. I’m not gonna die. I’m not gonna die
The cold, ominous hand of death caressing her body must’ve been what Jerome had felt seconds before he turned into a Type Two Radion. The fact that those zombies would’ve had to brutally mangle his body for him to be so unrecognizable as a Radion had just occurred to her.
No… she already knew that. She just didn’t really care at the time. Her immature, silly, childish fascination with her dad’s new form smothered the dormant understanding that Jerome had died. Her father died and all she did was ask stupid questions like a stupid nerd.
Sunshine wondered how Jerome had felt about that. He probably hated what she did. With the way she acts in general, it probably took a lot of effort just to tolerate her.
A tear ran down her cheek even through the cold.
If she ever saw him again, she’d definitely have to-
“Hey, kid…” Sunshine glanced to her left and saw that the voice came from the teleporter, Benji. His eyes were still shut so it was likely her Bright Lights technique was still active. “You gotta turn this shit off. My eyes… they're starting to feel a little hot.”
Sunshine kept her mouth shut, unaware of what tricks this guy intended to pull.
Benji crawled some more, slowly closing the distance. Despite being blind, the guy had the bag of marijuana in his grip. “Listen, I can’t walk and I can sense that you’re injured too. If we both don’t get out of here soon, either the cold or the diminishing oxygen is going to take us out.”
“If I deactivate my technique, what do I gain from it? How do I know you’re not gonna leave me here?”
“Leave you? Girl, I can’t even walk,” he replied tiredly. Water dripped from the white streaks of his red hair onto his lips which he licked right after. “The only way I’m getting out of here is through your help, and the only way you’re getting out of here is through my help too.”
“So you plan on teleporting one of us to the bottom of the mountain? Now I know you’re tricking me. Your ability’s radius is this section of the mountain we’re laying on, isn’t it? That was why you and that other guy chose to fight me instead of just teleporting yourself out of here. We’re both stuck here, and I’m gonna guess that you want my technique deactivated so you’re not blind when someone comes to rescue you.”
He sighed. Not a sigh out of annoyance or disappointment at what she said. It was a sad sigh. “What’s your name, kid?”
“Sunny.”
“No one’s coming to save us, Sunny. Our SBs don’t work at a height like this, and the fact that we all randomly teleported here means that no one knows where we’re at anyway. Even enemies have to become allies when both sides are at the brink of death. You agree, don’t you?”
Her Mind Trick technique usually has a time limit between thirty seconds to one minute, so she didn’t know why it was still active. For now, she had to use it to her advantage.
“So if I make your eyes normal again, what do I gain?”
“My healing ability,” he said, raising his hand toward her. “I’m an Atom so any blood, skin, or flesh you lost will come right back the moment I touch your wound. I know you can’t heal it yourself. I sensed you try and I heard you fail.”
“Even if you did heal me, how do you plan on getting us both back to the ground? Actually, what would I have to give you in exchange for helping me with that?”
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“I’m sure you already noticed from before, but my ability doesn’t just work on myself and others. I can teleport people with objects too. You saw that when I teleported those two items in your hands. One of us is gonna throw two rocks down the mountain and I’ll switch those rocks with us. I’ll help you down if you let me take all of this bag of marijuana with me. We got a deal?”
“No. Either you only take half of it, or I take all of it. I’ll have you blind for the rest of your life if you don’t agree with that.”
Benji chuckled. “I don’t think you can afford to deny this. You’re dying, you know that, right?”
“So are you,” she quickly replied back. “Even if you did leave me, you have a broken leg. You wouldn’t get far until a Radion or animal made you a meal. Plus, you need eye contact to teleport. You can’t do that if you can’t see. You’re gonna heal my wound first, and then I’ll help you teleport us both down.”
“Sunny, if we’re both still here in the next… ten or fifteen minutes, you’re gonna die before me. Your body is much smaller than mine, and you’re just a little girl. I have the high ground here while you’re at a disadvantage.”
“No you don’t. Between the two of us, you have a weaker control of the energy around us. That’s the downside to being an Atom. You guys are more efficient at manipulating your own bodies rather than anything else.”
“What does weaker energy control have to do with surviving up here?” He sounded more irritated now.
“Do you know who Jesus Hernandez is? Wearer of the head of a horse?”
His eyebrows raised. “The Devil of the Apocalypse…”
“Good, you know him. That means I don’t have to explain the boring details. Have you heard the story of a mountain falling from the sky like a nuke and destroying the entirety of Lexington? Have you heard the stories of a Queens native who practiced his sword swings for seven months straight on a mountain wearing nothing but underwear? Do you know that Jesus was the one who did that? The 576,000th swing and that piece started to fly.”
“Enough of your… fairy ta-”
“Do you know how he was able to swing all those times in the freezing cold without any food or water? His aura was able to sustain him for all seven of those months, and he taught me how to do the same thing.”
“And I should believe this, why?”
“I have his number on my Status Board. You can check it if you want.”
His lips quivered, seemingly debating his options. It might’ve been unlikely Benji would believe her lie, though leaning into it was the only thing she could do.
“I saw a Status Board, damaged beyond repair, on my way over to you,” he said. “Even if I wanted to check, I couldn’t. Then again, I don’t really know what you were suggesting earlier.”
“By the time fifteen minutes pass, you’ll be dead and I’ll be able to stay here for another couple hours or even days. In other words, you’re not deciding if I live, I’m deciding if you live.”
“I know you’re lying, and I know you'll choke at the last second,” he growled. “I hope your pride doesn’t get you killed.”
Minutes passed, and the two hadn’t budged an inch—neither in their movements nor in their ambitions. While they were both shivering, it was clear that Sunshine was suffering the most. Yet, she had to stand her ground, and judging from Benji’s groans and twisted expressions, he was about to fall.
“God damn it!”, he shouted, covering his eyes and squirming on the ground.
“You said your eyes were getting hot, right?”, said Sunshine, her voice a little raspy. “Must feel like a breath of fresh air.”
“Shut your mouth, kid! This is nothing compared to what you’re going through. I’m sure of it.”
“I always wondered what being blind must feel like,” she said through the sound of his pained groans. “I heard that you won’t even see darkness. You only see darkness ‘cause you’re looking at the inside of your eyelids. Being blind is like closing one eye or seeing out of your elbow. You just see… nothing.”
“I said… shut the f-”
“It would really suck to be blind in the apocalypse. Imagine you’re running away from a big, terrifying, radioactive bear or a pack of hungry dogs, and the only thing you can do is run face first into a wall ‘cause you can’t know where you’re going.”
Benji gritted his teeth. “I’m not going to-”
“Oh, and this is the worst one of all. Just imagine you’re spending time with a woman. She has a beautiful voice, soft lips, and says all the things you want to hear. Then, you start feeling her up and, to your horror, it turns out that that she was actually a-”
“Ok, Ok!”, he said, placing a hand on her wound. The cold roughness of his brown skin made her wince. “You win, ok? Just… fix my damn eyes before they fucking burn away.”
One moment the wound was there, and the next moment it was gone. Not only was the pain gone, but her fatigue was as well. She jumped back and took a slow, deep breath. It was like his healing ability reset her body entirely.
I can’t believe that worked. Thank you horse man for being a complete weirdo! Sunshine turned to Benji who went back to covering his eyes. Now that I think about it… I don’t really know how to make it stop.
“I’m not gonna lie… I don’t really know how to deactivate my technique,” she admitted.
“What!? Jesus Christ, how the hell did I get played by a fucking kid?” Benji stood up on one leg and began to hop away from her. “My eyes!
“Hold on, man.” Sunshine picked up the bag. “We still need to get down from here, and you need my help to do that.”
“Screw you!”, he replied. “We can both die here for all I care and nothing here will change my mind about-”
He tripped on a rock and fell on his broken leg, a scream filling the area soon after.
“Wait… I saw you heal yourself before, so why can’t you do that now?”, she asked, approaching him.
“Because your stupid ability comes right back after I do. I only have two seconds of sight before it goes right back to burning pain!”
Sunshine picked up the rock Benji tripped on and stuffed it in her pocket. “Hmm… that sounds like useful info. What about your broken leg?”
He sucked his teeth. “I’m not skilled enough for that. I can only do cuts or bullet wounds.”
She picked up a couple more rocks. So he doesn’t know that he made my body completely better, huh? After checking to see if the orb she trapped that fly man in was still in her pocket, she jogged back to get her metal bat. She slipped her hand into the sleeve of her hoodie, her fingers disappearing into the soft fabric. With a quick motion, Sunshine reached down, using the hidden hand to scoop her weapon up. She took one last look at the wrestling charms she showed her dad and then tossed the bat over the edge. Finding a new weapon these days wasn’t hard, and she had something else important she needed to carry with her.
“Hey, Benji,” she called out, walking back to him. “Were you serious about wanting to die here?”
“Damn right I’m serious. If I have to live like this because some incompetent child can’t use her power correctly, then I’d rather-”
Before he could finish his sentence, the grip of Sunshine had taken him off the ground and falling off the mountain completely. His screams of terror were no match for the howling the winds battering their bodies. They would have spiraled uncontrollably if not for Sunshine's defensive aura, which kept her body steady... for the most part.
Sunshine leaned toward his ear and yelled, “Benji, are you still sure about wanting to die!?”
“You’re fucking insane! All you did was speed up the process!”
“You’re right! I sped up the process… of our survival!”