*Haru Henka*
I put on my jacket and went outside, it was around 9 pm and only a few people were outside. The cloudy sky hindered us from seeing Salan in the sky, so most people watched the live footage from the TV.
My intuition told me that Salan would hit the earth. It was absurd and even if I didn't want to, I would've to agree with Niam. It was highly unlikely that the billions of credits used to calculate an asteroids trajectory were wasted.
I made my way to the slums where members of my gang would usually hang out. No matter what time it was, somebody was always outside.
When I entered the dirty and narrow streets of the slum, I saw Mul-Soo and Dom smoking a joint.
"If it isn't 'Mister Daddy Issues', what brings you here?" Dom asked.
As a response he got my fist to his ribs. He coughed and the joint he was holding fell down, I picked it up and puffed it 2 times before giving it to Mul-Soo.
"Not cool, man. That shit hurt like a motherfucker." Dom complained.
"That's what punching someone on the ribs does, not my fault." I said and laughed.
Mul-Soo and Dom laughed too.
"You think Salan will hit the earth somehow?" I asked.
"Shit, man! Only 2 puffs and you're already high?" Mul-Soo laughed.
"Nah, I'm for real. I have a feeling about this, Mul-Soo."
"Man, if you say so."
***
2 joints and a bottle of vodka later, we felt the ground shaking.
Seconds after this earthquake, we heard screams from around the slum.
But before I could find a reason for this chaos, a shockwave blasted us a few meters back. I lost my consciousness.
***
When I woke up, it was still dark, but the darkness was flooded with strange blue lights. They were comforting and seemingly dancing around me.
"Haru!" Mul-Soo yelled.
My focus on these blue lights was interrupted. I looked over to Mul-Soo.
"Dom isn't breathing anymore!" He yelled.
When I looked at the lifeless Dom, I could immediately tell he was dead. The blue light was nowhere in his body, giving me the reason to believe he was dead.
"We can't help him anymore. Let's go to the nearest hospital."
"But what about Dom? Will you just leave him here?"
"He's dead weight. We don't know what caused all of this. Look around, there are cracks on the ground, buildings have partially collapsed and a shockwave knocked us the fuck out."
Mul-Soo didn't respond, he only looked at Dom and then stood up.
"Okay, let's go. We'll get him later."
We made our way through the streets of the slums. In every street and corner laid lifeless bodies devoid of this strange blue light.
'Am I hallucinating?' I wondered.
***
We arrived at the nearest hospital which had partially collapsed. Most likely due to an earthquake.
We saw men in military equipment escorting someone we knew too well. Declan Wise, the richest man alive. He owned the land of Central Superio. He was in his mid forties, had a long black beard and middle-long grey hair that was combed back. He was about 190 centimeters tall and had a strong build. His cold-blue eyes radiated worry for whoever he was bringing to the hospital.
"He probably knows what happened, let's go and ask him." I suggested.
"Do you think the armed men will let us even look at him?"
"We'll find out."
We entered the hospital, and what we saw there didn't look different from what we saw outside. Lifeless bodies in body-bags stacked on one-another in multiple corners. When we entered, a nurse in her early twenties approached us with a worried look.
"We don't know what happened, but we think that Salan hit the earth and caused a shockwave that killed hundreds, thousands or millions of people. If you are not hurt, please go and look for survivors." The nurse said.
When I heard her say that Salan may have hit the earth, something in me changed. The blue light danced and flew around me, making me feel even more intoxicated than I was before.
Seconds later, my head started to hurt, it hurt so much that it felt like I was being beaten with a baseball-bat. I fell down in pain, holding my head as if I was trying to prevent my head from splitting open. I lost consciousness.
***
I saw a strange place. It was fiery-orange and seemingly endless no matter where I looked. I noticed then that my body was missing, and that only my consciousness was in this place. The blue light started to appear one by one, filling the infinite orangeness.
The blue light started to come closer and closer until it disappeared into what I assume is my brain. I felt like I was one with the blue light. I felt powerful and confident, and I trusted this blue light with every inch of my body.
I swam in the infinite orangeness with the help of the blue light. I felt satisfied, like I had everything the universe had to offer right here. But it didn't last long.
I woke up in a hospital bed, near the windows. On my left was another patient and a man I'd seen earlier. Declan Wise was sitting next to a girl that seemed to be the same age as Niam. He was holding her hand and resting his head on her bed.
„Mister Wise, what happened to the earth?" I asked , the headache still bothering me.
He looked up at me, his facial expression looked completely professional, no emotions were visible on his face.
He opened his mouth to speak. „When Salan was passing earth, it suddenly came to a halt, its speed and momentum suddenly disappeared. When that happened, it was right above The Ancient Storm. It seems to have hit the earth, causing calamities such as earthquakes and tsunamis around the world. That's not all, something was in that asteroid. We think it's unknown hazardous material that killed millions of humans… Only humans. Plants and animals were spared of this blue thing."
My eyes were wide in shock, not from hearing about the deaths and calamities Salan caused, but from hearing about this blue hazardous material.
„I can see and sense that blue light around me." I revealed.
Declan Wise's eyes widened. „You see it too? I can only see it when I concentrate hard enough." He said.
I looked at the girl next to him. Something that felt like an instinct told me to look for this blue light in her body.
I concentrated and saw the blue light fading from her heart. I got the feeling that if all the blue light were to come out of her heart, she would die.
„Mister Wise, I can see the blue light in the girl's heart, and I have a feeling that if it diminishes, she will die."
Declan Wise looked at me skeptically. His fear for the girl's life was overcome by a faint hope that somehow I would be able to help her.
„Do you think you can help my daughter?" He asked, not sure what to expect.
„I can try." I said while moving to his daughter.
I placed a hand above her chest and closed my eyes, the pain in my head replaced by the feeling I had in the infinite orangeness. The blue light started to fill her heart and seconds later she opened her eyes.
‚How did I do that? What..' My thoughts were interrupted by Declan Wise yelling his daughter's name in relieve.
„Briony, thank god you woke up!"
„A good way to discredit my achievement, Mister Wise. She has enough of the blue light in her heart, it won't decrease anymore." I said.