Bryan rolled on the ground, moaning and mumbling, slowly regaining consciousness.

The ground beneath him was still shaking like an old wooden roller coaster.

What the hell is going on? Slowly he managed to open his eyes, and turned his head to see the cityscape off the ledge of the lookout.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

The city was pitch black, except for the fires. Whole skyscrapers were bent over at ninety degree angles, only held up by the buildings they had landed on with fire pouring out clearly shattered windows.

All along the sprawling city scape was the same dark view. Fires, some taking up whole blocks, reaching high in the night air. Smoke towering into the night sky. The green glow that had been so prevalent had almost faded from the horizon, but the meteor was still visible far to the east. It looked even larger than before, with the tail now the only thing lighting the sky other than the raging inferno all through the city.

The sounds around him brought his focus back to his immediate area.

People all around him where slowly coming to as well.

The screaming started.

It was like something out of a nightmare. Bryan saw groups of people that had woken up stumbling around looking for other members of their group while the earth seemingly tried to shake them back to the ground. If Bryan had had the presence of mind to notice, there were a lot fewer people stiring then were still on the ground...

Slowly a steady stream of people were heading to the trail leading back to the avenue of cars.

The mob that had been chasing Bryan was nowhere to be found. He spotted two or three girls that where standing in place screaming out names of their friends, unable to deal with what was happening.

As people started realizing that the people still on the ground were not getting up, they finally noticed the blood. Leaking from every opening of the head, some even from their eyes. It was a gruesome sight. A sight that no one there was prepared for. With hundreds of bodies that just minutes ago were living breathing people scattered around, slowly cooling in the night air, it was more than enough to spark a panic in the survivors.

Everywhere Bryan looked was a frantic jumble of people trying to leave. His head spun in the chaos that surrounded him. The first thought he managed to actually process was Jack!

Bryan scrambled, trying to stand while the ground was still shaking. It was far harder then he thought it was going to be. Instead he pulled his way to the rock next to Jack in a half crawl.

His eyes were closed, still passed out cold but he was still breathing. No blood visible on his face.

Bryan slumped against the nearest boulder and exhaled, releasing some of his anxiety knowing at least his brother was still alive.

After gathering his thoughts, Bryan tried to wake him.

He shook him, bouncing his head off the ground. Realizing that would be making it worse he stopped and tried slapping him as hard as he could. He still didn’t wake up.

So he sat and waited, hovering over his unconscious body, praying he would wake soon.

Looking back to the chaos, the majority of people that lived had already left towards the cars. A few people were left struggling, carrying family members or friends that still hadn’t woken up.

Even fewer where wandering the now almost empty lookout, still search for friends and loved ones. How they managed to even stand as the ground was shaking, Bryan couldn’t even fathom.

Off to the side he saw the largest group still present and couldn’t help but over hear the caterwauling and clamor coming from the group. Even from the distance, he could hear their cries, a number of their friends had died. The bodies they were crowded around could still be seen from Bryan’s angle in the light of the bonfire. A chill ran down his spine. He had never been in the presence of death before. This whole scene was just to much.

Looking away he scanned the ground of the lookout, still barely believing what he was seeing. When his eyes fell on the girl Jack had been talking to, Sara, he jumped.

She looked quite a bit like the one he had spilled beer all over. Reaching over Jack, Bryan grabbed her outstretched wrist and checked her pulse. She is alive, maybe more were.. Bryan only hoped. Leaning back against the rock, he spotted his and Jacks backpacks a few feet away on the ground. Not wanting to stand up with the ground still rumbling away, he leaned on his side trying to reach. They were just barely out of reach. Leaning further put him in quite an awkward position, he was straining his legs out behind him at an awkward angle, toes pointed like a ballerina. His torso was twisted at an angle that not only looked highly uncomfortable but a bit unnatural. From the corner of his eye he caught movement towards Jack and the girl, adding a twist of his head to his contortions. Standing there, braced against the rocks, was the girl he had spilled the beer on and dragged to the mud with him.

She barely noticed him as she bent down to check the pulse of the girl next to jack. “O thank god.” She exclaimed, in the same moment collapsing next to the still body. Tears streaming down her face, crying hard.

Bryan was at a loss in what to do, he wanted to help her, to say something to make her feel better but had no clue what to say, for the first time he could remember he was without words.

Like she could sense what he was thinking, still crying she tilted her head up and looked at Bryan for the first time since she had arrived at the group.

Bryan froze, and tried to smile.

Through her tears she started giggling, which soon turned to full on laughter. It sounded so out of place on the lookout that it almost had an echo that reverberated across the lookout. “You have no idea how funny you look,” with that she laughed harder.

Bryan shrunk back embarrassed, forgetting about the bags. He managed to pull himself to a sitting position and realized just how splayed out he must have been.

Picturing himself there like that from her point of view he let the embarrassment and annoyance fade into a light laugh of his own.

Like that, his mind seemed to thaw, from the freeze of embarrassment. "Yea, that was a bad idea,” he admitted with embarrassment showing in his voice, “I don’t think we were properly introduced before, I’m Bryan.” He offered out his hand.

“Rachel” she replied giggling, taking the offered hand shake. “This by no means mean I’m not still mad at you for earlier, you ruined these cloths and embarrassed me in front of everyone,” she added with all seriousness.

“That’s Fair enough” Bryan agreed, smiling as he looked into her big blue eyes.

Rachel Smiled back but looked away toward Sara laying on the ground and it faded. “Do you think they will be ok?”

Bryan looked at his brother as he replied, “I hope so.”

“But everyone else has already woken up, well everyone who is still…” she trailed off, starting to sob uncontrollably again.

Still caught in the moment, Bryans brow lowered in confusion, “Still what?” As he said it, it all came back.

Bryan was sent reeling. His mind was finally processing what He had been look at before Rachel came over. He looked at all the people still on the ground littering the lookout. They were dead, all of them. How could people have just left them there? Where these just the people that came alone? The crying people flashed back in his mind carrying people that he thought where passed out over their shoulder.

Could they really have been carrying their dead friends? Had this happened everywhere? No, it’s not possible he told himself. He reached out for Jack, again checking his pulse. Still alive, but why hadn’t he woken up yet? Why had the other girl not woken either?

Rachel and Bryan sat there with the unconscious pair for what felt like hours. The shaking had slowed to a far off rumble but Bryan still had crawled to the backpacks and pulled out some chips to share. He wasn’t sure how, but he was hungry. They adjusted their body’s to make them more comfortable, lying them flat on the ground, with one arm to the side, the other across their chests for periodic pulse checks.

Bryan came to learn that, Rachel and Sara where cousins. He found that uncanny, seeing as how much they looked alike, other than their height, they could have been sisters.

Rachel had convinced Sara to come to this so she could hang out with jimmy and his friends.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Bryan pulled away at that, how could someone hang out with guys like that?

“They’re not so bad once you get to know them.” Rachel implored.

“Sure, one almost attacked us for standing next to his truck, then tried to beat the hell out of me over an accident. They are just great people. ” Bryan sarcastically retorted.

Speaking of the accident reminded him though. “Sorry about the beer and everything though.” Bryan sheepishly apologized.

“O its ok, I’ve got cloths in the car.” She replied in turn hoping he wouldn’t ask more.

At that moment a catch of breath came from Sara as her eyes fluttered open. She immediately sat forward coughing and sputtering, trying to catch her breath like she just ran a mile.

Rachel let out a noise that almost classified as a squeal. Rushing forward to hug Sara.

“What… What happened?” Sara asked, exasperated. Trying to get her bearings she took in her surroundings.

They were all but alone on the lookout now, the bonfire had burned down significantly. She saw someone huddled in the far corner crying over someone.

Then came the bodies, people sprawled on the ground as she had been, but motionless, she somehow knew that they were all dead. She cried, she cried for them, people that had just been having the time of their life, gone. Gone forever. She had seen her grandma pass away when she was younger, but this was on a massive scale in comparison.

She looked down at Jack, “O no!” she flung herself on his chest, wailing and crying even harder.

Jack and Rachel both looked at each other taken aback a little. They had known that she and Jack had been talking but she already apparently showed surprisingly strong feelings for him.

Rachel grabbed her shoulders gently and pulled her back to her, “He’s still alive, just passed out like you had been.”

Sara Looked back towards Jack as he lay peacefully on the ground. She could see it, he was still alive. She didn’t know how but she could see it, his whole body was pulsing in her sight, like a light was trying to shine through from inside him.

This however scared her even more and she turned to her cousin and buried her head in her chest sobbing, “What’s happened to me?”

Rachel pulled Sara’s chin up to look her in the eye. “What do you mean?” She asked, now totally confused by her cousin.

Sara looked up and opened her crying eyes, look right in to Rachel’s big blues for the first time since she woke up.

“O my Gosh! Your eyes!” Rachel exclaimed, pulling Sara directly in front of her so she could get a better look.

“What?” Sara asked

“WHAT IS IT?” she screamed through new tears.

Rachel jumped at her cousins’ change in demeanor. “They have changed color, there is a bright gold around them now!” Rachel then fumbled for her purse, looking for a mirror to show her.

Taking the mirror from Rachel, Sara turned to catch some of the remaining fire light in the mirror.

What she saw amazed her. Her pupils where the same and she still had a ring of brown surrounding it, but around the brown there was now a band of shining gold.

“Holy Crap!”

Bryan laughed at that, “Not exactly the words I would use but same sentiment none the less” as he chuckled.

Both girls turned and gave him a glare that he thought would eat right through him. His mind froze again in what to say.

Jack moaned and reached for his head. “What the hell...”

In that moment the girls gaze at Bryan melted away and both went to Jacks side. Bryan took a mental note to thank Jack for that later.

Maybe.

“You’re awake!” Sara yelped and hugged Jack’s prone body. Snapping back she hit him across the chest so hard he started coughing.

“Never scare me like that again!”

Rachel reached out to Sara and pulled her closer again, for jacks’ sake this time.

Hacking and coughing, Jack started to sit up but quickly laid back. “What in the world happened? My head feels like it’s about to explode.” He felt the back of his head, eyes scrunched in pain. “Is my head bleeding?”

Bryan blushed at that, he hadn’t realized how hard he must have been shaking him to wake him up.

Glancing over, the girls started eyeing him with a knowing look.

“Must have been the fall from the rocks!” He blustered, trying to cover his tracks.

“But my face feels like it took the brunt of the fall too.” Jack mumbled while working his jaw up and down and rubbing the side of his face.

The girls where now glowering at Bryan.

“Ok, so I tried to wake you up!” Bryan gave in. “I wanted to make sure you where ok.”

At that the girls faces softened a bit and both went back to smiling.

Jack opened his eyes wide, blinking trying to get them to focus.

Everyone’s jovial mood fell crashing back to the ground as they stared at Jack. His eyes, had turned completely gold except for his pupils.

Jack’s world spun, giving his headache fuel for the fire. Bright light filled his vision like he was staring at the sun.

He blinked furiously trying to remedy it, the blur slowly faded but the light remained. He stopped his blinking, realizing it wasn’t doing him any good at all. Staring up at the night sky he started noticing the colors in the light. The burning tail of the meteor still shone brightly in the sky for him, twinkling like Christmas lights.

His gaze fell to Sara who was crouched over him still with a face of pure shock. But there was more to her now, to jacks eyes she was radiant.

She had a core of silver with a swirl of magenta and turquoise, branching out to a brilliant silver, shining bright as a star. An aura of gold light danced around the edges, making her already pretty face look like that of an angle.

Jacks jaw dropped in aww of her. “You look like an angel!” he stammered.

Sara blushed so hard she thought she would burst and pulled back from Jack going from staring in his eyes to the ground in an instant.

Bryan laughed quietly, earning himself a side look from Rachel.

Jack clinched his eyes shut again in pain in his head, blasting away like a canon. “Jesus Bryan, you couldn’t have taken the extra second to raise my head a bit more? How hard did you shake me?” Turning his head to his brother, he finally noticed him glowing as well.

To Jack, Bryan was almost as bright as Sara but a total different color scheme. His core was a much more pewter grey then silver, with dueling bands of blue and red striking out at random.

Bryan knew he was right, but couldn’t think of a smart remark for once so kept it simple “sorry about that, I just wanted to make sure you where ok.”

Jack smiled at his brothers’ candidness, not being able to think of a time where his brother had ever spoken to him like this other than at the start of the party.

The world started spinning again so jack starred back to the stars. “It’s ok, I...” but he didn’t finish his sentence.

Jack passed back into unconsciousness.

Bryan shot forward to Jacks side, checking his pulse again. Sitting back with a sigh he looked toward Sara and Rachel. “Should I try and wake him again? What if he has a concussion?”

Rachel Laughed “Unless you’re trying to kill him yourself I’d say let him be, he came to once, and He’ll come to again.”

Sara stared at Jack in earnest, now that she was focused, she could see the pulsing of Jacks energy. It looked different this time, slower than before. She watched his chest and he was breathing deeper.

She looked up at the others with concern, “I don’t know, it’s different this time. I can’t tell why but his light...”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence. Jack let out a long low snore, and almost whistled as he exhaled.

Everyone froze, staring at each other. Collectively they let out a gut wrenching laugh.

The girls where wiping away tears, this time of joy from laughing so hard. Bryan had fallen over sideways on the ground next to the bags.

With the laughs settling, Rachel glanced again at the field as the wind shifted. The smell the wind brought with it was horrifying.

Catching Rachel by surprise, she covered het mouth and nose and took a deep breath to settle herself. Immediately, she turned and retched.

Bryan and Sara turned to her with concern, but were also taken over by the revolting stink coming off the top of the hill.

Reality set back in for the trio realizing that the smell was from the now long dead people strewn across the field.

First to get their stomach under control, Bryan spoke up. “We have got to get out of here. Do you guys live close?”

Sara shook her head, hand still clamped over her mouth. “No, we’re staying about two hours from here.”

Bryan, surprised at that, figured he would ask later. They had to get out of here before the sun came up and made things a lot worse.

Looking to the sky, he figured they had at least a two maybe three hours until that happened. Just now realizing how long they had waited for Jack. Looks like they would be heading back to the rat hole of a motel after all.

“We have a hotel room back in Whittier, its only 15 miles or so from here. Do you two have a car?” questioned Bryan.

Rachel looked a bit sheepish at that, “No we came with some of the frat guys.” She frowned at that, now realizing how they had picked up disappeared without an ounce of concern for her. Maybe it was time to find a new crowd, she thought to herself.

Gathering what possessions they had, everyone stood and stretched, they had been sitting for quite a while and had quite a walk ahead of them.

Sara stood on the rock she had been sitting on, peering around for anything she might have left. As she prepared to jump down, she turned back one more time towards the devastated cityscape. Some of the fires had burned down to spires of smoke, but others raged on, swallowing up even more of the urban landscape.

“What do you think it’s going to be like out there now? Do you think it’s safe?” Obvious fear that had snuck up on her rang out with her words.

Bryan walked carefully to the edge, looking out over what was left of the city. The devastation was complete that’s for sure.

Questions rang through his head. How where they going to get home? Surely the airport of in ruins as much as the city. Did they have a home to go back to? He turned from the girls as panic creped to his face.

Their parents. Where they still alive? No, he can’t think like that. Of course they are ok.

The foul wind kicked up again snapping him out of his fearful stupor.

He steeled himself, he had to take care of jack first. He can’t do anything without doing that first. Turning towards the girls, he realized how long he’d been staring off the cliff.

Both girls where eyeing him expectantly. “Look” he said, “Who knows what is going on out there. But right now all we know is that we can’t stay here. All we have is each other.” He fumbled at that realizing he sounded like some idiot in a movie but he pressed on, “What I mean is we need to stick together, for safety and survival. I’ll do my best to protect you...”

Rachel was glaring like she wanted his head on a platter “Let me stop your big speech there mister, who says we need protecting at all? Who says we are going with you at all?”

“I do.” Sara cut in, receiving such a surprised look from Rachel, Sara thought her eyebrows might become her new hairline.

“Look, stupid speech aside, none of us know what’s going on. I like Jack, and I don’t want to leave his side. It just feels... Right.”

Noticing how crazy she herself was starting to sound, she changed tactics. “Rachel, if movies have taught us anything, it’s crazy down their right now. I trust Jack, and besides ruining your outfit what has Bryan done to harm either of us? We’ve been sitting here together for hours. I think we can trust him yea?”

That worked.

Rachel nodded in agreement, “Your right, it’s smart.”

Wheeling back to Bryan though, “You still owe me an outfit by the, I’m not going to forget it!” As if that settled everything she grabbed her purse and went to put in one of the backpacks.

“What’s this?” she question as she pulled a red leather wrapped handle out of the bag. She pulled it put and the sheath fell off. She looked at it questioningly, raising an eyebrow and looking to Bryan.

Bryan crossed to her and she handed it to him, laughing to himself “And here I made fun of him for this, I can’t believe he brought it here though.” Looking over to Jack, he pointed with the dagger “he bought it at Gamecon, looks like he’s not such a geek after all."

Sheathing the blade, he attached it to his belt like a work knife. Glancing to the girls he grinned, “So who wants to carry Jack?”