Alex was watching the people around, while Dana was trying to talk to the vendor into giving her two Hot Dogs. It was so...domestic. So normal.
He didn't like this idle life one bit. He was a weapon, he craved action, he craved something to stave off the boredom.
He knew whatever he wished for was not what Dana deserved or wanted, but he couldn't help it. Hunting for criminals only gave him so much exercise, and it became old very fast. Also, the longer nothing happened, the more and more his natural paranoia was beginning to root deep into his subconsciousness. The guy over there, with the sunglasses? Was he just a jerk in flashy clothes or was he a Blackwatch sleeper agent? One that found them?
He shuffled his feet and huffed out, tearing his attention away from the guy. No. He couldn't think like that. Cross said Blackwatch had no idea where they were, right?
Still, he glanced around, watching for eventual threats. So far, nobody looked suspicious. He also couldn't pick up the scent of gun oil or- God have mercy on whoever did- Bloodtox on the people that just passed by. He did get a few people with too much perfume, and some with pepper spray, but nothing immediately threatening.
"...!" He flinched slightly when a sausage was dangled in front of his face. Dana held a bun with onions and another sausage, offering a Hot Dog without a bun to him with her free hand. He didn't like bread for some reason, though it was all Biomass in the end.
"I know there's some weird shit in it", she explained, "But it's good. You can try it."
Alex glanced at her before he took the thing. Dana smiled, and nodded to the vendor before they walked to the side and plopped down on a park bench, eating in silence.
"It's a nice day, isn't it?" Dana asked around a mouthful of onions and processed meat. Alex snorted in reply, chewing carefully. Though he had to admit, that it was indeed a 'nice' day. The sun was shining, birds were tweeting, children were playing in the park nearby, parents were around, people chatted. It was incredible how Dana's mere presence managed to banish his paranoia and made him see things like normal people did.
He liked that about her, and no matter what he thought about leading a domestic life, as long Dana wanted it, he was going to play along. When they sat together in their apartment, playing games or solving crossword puzzles, nothing really mattered. Not that they were on the run, not that nobody asides from them knew their real names or real faces, not that one of them was a thing that shouldn't even exist, not that they weren't actually siblings- they were just Alex and Dana, who were doing mundane every-day things.
He glanced at the neon signs around, the cars driving past, the few street artists doing their thing, and couldn't help but remember Manhattan. Empire's buildings weren't as tall as most of Manhattan's had been, but the amount of billboards and advertisements was roughly the same. The Neon was probably his favorite district, mostly because it was so much like Manhattan, just without the entire infected mass covering most of it. It reminded him of the first three days, after he woke up in that morgue and before he freed Greene- the time he would just run through the city to explore his new abilities and enjoy the freedom they brought. It had been the happiest time he had. Before he realized the truth. Before Blackwatch hunted him like a rabid animal, before all the fast-paced battles for survival, before he slaughtered scores upon scores of enemies.
His body flinched, making him jerk upright. His eyes narrowed.
Something was not right. Not. At. All.
The air shook, drawing an enrage growl from him, seconds before a shockwave raced overhead. Every electrical appliance around fizzled out in a glorious amount of sparks rushing across their frames. Dana had jumped to her feet, Hot Dog dropping to the floor.
"What- what's going on?!"
A deafening explosion drowned out every sound around them. People started screaming, Dana backed away fearfully.
But Alex only stared at the dome of light that rose into the sky. Nononono. Not again. His brain lurched. Not this again.
He remembered the last blast. When Blackwatch's nuke exploded behind him and tore him to pieces.
He could survive it. He had done so before- but Dana couldn't.
Burning debris rained down around them in a nightmarish display. The dome collapsed into a massive field of sparking electricity. Alex didn't take any chances.
He whirled around, shifting back into his usual appearance, ignoring the people's outcries around them. He lunged at Dana, arms wrapping around her to lift her up.
The ground shook with tremors when the explosion tore through the gas lines.
Alex ran.
The asphalt beneath caved in under his feet, but the light was too close. Fire was raining down all around them, hitting people and the area around them and rendering them to nothing more than ashes.
Dana screamed, he swore. He threw his body to the side, avoiding the burning remains of a bus that crashed into the ground in front of them, and continued to race towards the closest building. He had to get away.
Behind him, the dome of light and electricity began to grow again, swallowing up whatever was in its way.
Alex snarled, thousands of survival ideas rushing through his mind as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, trying to get as much distance between Dana and the explosion as he could manage. All of the ideas that flashed into his brain were perfect for him to survive, but Dana was not like him. He couldn't leave her behind.
He threw a glance over his shoulder, realizing with a start that the dome was too close. No matter how fast he was, he could not outrun this.
Screw this. Alex leapt off the roof he was on and headed downwards. There was a quadrangle in front of him, encased by tall apartment buildings. He hit the ground hard, then hurried into the driveway that allowed access to the courtyard.
Dana made a startled noise when Alex pressed her closer to his body, and crouched low. Alex hissed, pushing her against a wall. His Biomass twisted and flared out, changing into massive chitinous plates that grew from his back.
"Alex?!" Dana screamed before the plates closed them off from the area around them and dropped them both into total darkness.
The explosion shockwave reached the apartment complex and tore it to pieces. Alex snarled against the white-hot pain that raced through his body when the outer layers of his shell were eaten away, forcing him to regenerate them and increase the density and toughness of those beneath.
The entire world was drowned out in a wordless roar of superheated air, static crackle and white light.
-----------
"Activation plus six minutes. Pulse is forty-five. Respiration is ten. Looking good, Cole."
His body hurt. Hell, hurting wasn't even close to describe it- it was pure agony that raced through his system. But it was the only thing he could feel, neither his legs nor his arms seemed to be present. Hell, he couldn't be sure he had a throat at the moment.
He could hear, though. Heard the screams of thousands of dying people.
What had happened? What was going on?
His limbs felt like lead and his head threatened to crack open. He just wanted to sleep. Sleep it all off- but somehow he knew he shouldn't.
He knew he had to get up. He had to get away.
Cole's body jerked once, and he took his first breath in what felt like an eternity.
His lungs burned, his nose picked up only the smell of burnt flesh- but he was alive. With a start, his eyes flew open. The agony flared back up, rushing into his toes and fingers like a static burn, so he squeezed his eyes shut again.
"What the Hell happened?" He groaned. His body was screaming in protest as he struggled, trying to find some semblance of balance. His clothes chaffed against his skin, tearing it open with every movement. He didn't know what had transpired, or why he was in so much pain.
Eventually, however, he managed to stand upright. His insides sloshed around as if he was drunk, but he remained in that position.
Then, he took notice of his surroundings and his eyes widened in horror. "Oh God..."
He had been in the Historic District. Now he was in what looked like Hell. The sky was red from the ash and smoke, buildings all around had either been completely flattened, or were damaged and burnt-out shells of what they've been.
Cole saw cars, half-melted into the ground, buses torn to pieces, remains of street lights scattered around. His bike was gone, too, torn to pieces.
The asphalt beneath him was badly cracked and shredded, but it was still, ironically, the only piece of street that was still noticeably a street.
Everything else was burning. More even, much of his immediate surrounding had melted. It wasn't so much asphalt and stone, it was glowing lava in some parts. Fires were still burning, sending plumes of foul black smoke into the dark sky. Cole swallowed, finally becoming aware of the raging heat that enveloped him. His skin felt brittle, every movement he did ripped it open, sending new shocks of pain racing through his system.
He had to get away.
"Someone alive down there?" Somebody asked. Cole was unable to turn, but he heard the sound of engines roaring above him, identifying itself as a helicopter.
"Hey!" The pilot must've noticed him. "If you can walk, head to the bridge!" The helicopter pulled to the side, searchlight moving across a building to Cole's far left. "Hey, you there! In the garage!" So there were others, huh? "Get out of there! Whole thing is coming down!"
Cole groaned as he watched a car tip over the side and fall into the inferno below, turning into a fireball when its gas ignited. Then he realized that he didn't see anybody else. He was alone here.
Shouldn't there be more around? Or, in the very least, bodies?
No, he couldn't take care of that. He had to get away.
"Come on Cole, move", He grunted, taking an agonizing step to the front. He nearly toppled from the effort. "Move" He took another step, this time a jolt of pain raced up his leg, but he managed to keep his balance. The piece of street he was on sloped downwards, ground having caved in beneath the remaining area. A broken high voltage cable sparked dangerously as he passed, so Cole jerked to the side, just in time to end up too close to the exploding remains of a car.
The shockwave threw him flat on his back, making his ears ring. Ow.
He couldn't remain here. It was too dangerous.
Cole grunted and struggled to his feet, then hastily limped along the only solid ground inside the inferno. Another explosion rocked the area, but it was luckily far away from him. He still felt the superheated air rush over his body, and forced himself to move faster. His leg felt like it was on fire every time he tried to move it, but for the time being, he couldn't really pay any attention to it. He hurried along, hissing in pain from the hot air at every breath he took. His phone chimed. Of course, everything went to shit, but that thing survived.
"Cole!" Zeke. He sounded worried. "Cole, man! You there?! Pick up!"
"Zek?" Cole ground out as soon he switched it on, gasping in pain when he headed up a makeshift ramp made of the collapsed remains of a building that crushed a bus beneath. "What the Hell is going on?" He hissed, dragging himself to the top of the slope. "I-I think there was an explosion." No shit, Sherlock. The bus ended, forcing him to drop down on top of a wrecked car. The motion shot through his body in a wave of agony, but it didn't drop him. Good.
"No shit there was an explosion!" Zeke yelled, "TV says terrorists are blowing stuff up all over the city!" Terrorists. America's favorite word since the whole shit started in September ten years ago. Crap. Cole groaned and focused on staying upright. His leg was still hurting, but somehow he had managed to pick up some speed to get some distance between himself and the inferno.
"Meet me at the Fremont Bridge", Zeke said, "We'll get Trish and find someplace to hunker down."
Trish! Hopefully she was okay. Cole moaned in reply and limped up the ramp into the garage from before. It was dangerous, sure, but it was the shortest way to Fremont Bridge. He wouldn't want to test his luck in how far he could still move before he passed out.
A damaged array of electrical high-voltage outlets sat against the left wall. Cole grunted and was about to pass it, when the transformers exploded. A massive bolt of lightning hit him straight in the chest, violently electrocuting him. Cole screamed in pain and staggered back, but just as the bolt subsided, he was still standing. He blinked with wide eyes, staring at his hands as the last sparks still bounced off his body. "What the Hell?!" He gasped. "I should be dead?!"
He wasn't dead, and when he took another step, his leg wasn't hurting as bad anymore. Cole furrowed his brows, staring at the sparking remains of the outlet and shook his head. Whatever this was, he wasn't keen on repeating it.
He limped across the parking deck, eying the wall of fire at the furthest side and just barely noticed the hollow crash as a part of the ceiling gave in. With a swear, he flung himself to the side, avoiding an exploding police cruiser.
Okay, he had to get out of here. Not longer wasting any time, he hurried to the exit ramp, only for it to collapse before he could get near it.
Shit.
A massive pipe jutted out of the rubble, and after a quick glance, Cole realized that it lead across the gap. He turned towards it, grunting in exertion as he pulled himself up on it and made haste to cross it as the one besides it crumpled and broke away. This time, he was lucky, and the thing held beneath him, so he actually managed to get to the other side.
Small fortunes, eh?
Cole limped across the second half of the parking deck, panting in pain and exertion. He just wanted to give up and lie down, but he couldn't leave Trish or Zeke alone. He had to get back to them. To the Fremont Bridge.
He ground his teeth together and hobbled towards the broken end of the lot, hoping to find a way down.
Failing to notice a broken high voltage wire.
Just like the outlet before, a massive bolt of lightning slammed out of it and into him, frying every cell of his body. However, this time, some of the electricity bounced off him and arched out of his chest and arms, slamming into a pair of lamps and cars. The car alarm went off for several seconds, before it and the lamps exploded, causing a part of the deck to collapse and create a ramp.
"Whoa" Cole blinked in confusion. Okay, whatever that just was, it just opened an escape route. But it had been a second lethal electrocution he survived, and- as he shifted his foot- seemingly repaired his injured leg some more. "What's happening to me?"
Damn it. He could figure that out later when he wasn't in lethal danger anymore. He grit his teeth and limped down the ramp, reaching the other side of the garage without any problems.
"If you're able to walk, please evacuate across the bridge to the Neon", the emergency broadcast reminded him via loudspeaker. "Remain calm, emergency personnel are en route."
Remain calm? That guy had it easy. He didn't get electrocuted twice. Cole groaned and quickly hurried towards the Fremont Bridge. It was strewn with debris and wrecked vehicles, but seemed to be in good condition at total.
Moaning filled his ears, drawing his attention to the many people sitting on the sidewalk. Police and ambulance were there, taking care of them to help them cross over to the Neon. An EMT noticed Cole and the state he was in, and hurried towards him. "Sir", he called out, "Can you still walk?"
"I can", Cole grunted, as if it wasn't obvious.
"Please hurry", the man told him, "The bridge isn't passable for the cars anymore, but on foot it is still possible."
"Thanks" He limped towards the ambulance and police cruisers that stood along the street.
"Cole!" He stopped and looked up, noticing Zeke standing on the sidewalk at the other side. "Over here man! We gotta go!" It was crazy how perfectly well he could hear him, even over the roar of blood in his own ears and the overall chaos. He grunted and was about to head over, when lightning snapped out of his body and slammed into the supports of the bridge on either side. Pain raced through Cole's entire body. "God, no!" His body was hurting so bad and lightning raced across his entire frame. "No! No!" He shouted, "Stop it!"
A massive lightning bolt hit the street on his left side, turning a police cruiser into little more than a burnt-out wreck. A second bolt slammed into the ground behind him, tearing a hole.
Bolts rained down all around him, tearing through metal, asphalt and people, frying everything.
"Oh no!" Zeke shouted in alarm. "It's the terrorists! Run for the bridge, Cole!"
Cole did. He was panicking, his heart slammed hard against his ribs and every intake of air hurt. He ran, tried to get away, but wherever he ran, the lightning was following him.
It was like a bad dream, like a nightmare- and he couldn't outrun it.
He saw in terror how the people on the bridge where hit and burnt to crisps within the blink of an eye. He saw in horror how more lightning arched around his arms before it snapped out, tearing metal to shreds. 'This couldn't be happening! This wasn't real!'
"Move your ass Cole!" Zeke yelled, "This whole bridge is coming down!" No shitting. He heard metal shriek as it burst, he saw the supports crack and shatter under the assault of the lightning. He noticed people die on this bridge, but he couldn't stop. He was afraid for his life, running across in panic. He didn't want to die, but he felt his body shutting down. The pain was too much, the injuries had opened again and his system collapsed.
With the last ounce of his strength, with the blood roaring in his ears and his world turning gray, he just barely managed to reach the other side. His injured leg finally snapped under his weight, sending him tumbling down. But he was on the other side, wasn't he? He had done it.
Zeke ran towards him, yelling something. There was Trish too, who rushed into his direction with a panicked expression. Cole whimpered softly, knowing that they were both okay. He tried to turn his attention on them, but he couldn't make out what they were saying, nor could he keep his eyes from slipping out of focus.
Ah. Didn't matter. He was so tired and could no longer care about what was happening. He heard the screaming in his head again, but he was too exhausted to do something about it. His eyes slipped close and his consciousness escaped into complete darkness.
--------------
It was dark. No light managed to get through to them. It wasn't a problem to him, but she was close to a full-blown panic attack. He felt it, felt her heart hammer against her ribs, even through their clothes. He could hear the sharp edge in her all too rapid breathing and the little whimpers she uttered.
It was frightfully easy to ignore, he'd heard and felt it all before. Even Dana wasn't so different from every other human alive. But because she was Dana, she deserved better.
Alex huffed out and slowly let his hold on her up, she responded with a pitched inhale of breath.
"I don't hear any tremors anymore", Alex muttered, his voice low and hopefully soothing. "I think the explosion's over."
"What was it anyways?" Dana asked with a slightly pitched voice, "A nuclear strike?"
"I don't think so." He shook his head, unseen in the darkness that surrounded them. "It was hot, yes, but not hot enough." He frowned, "Also, it was kind of electrical."
"Maybe something of an EMP?" Dana suggested, squirming beneath him.
"Maybe, but it caused quite some destruction", Alex replied, remembering what had happened before. He shifted his body in an attempt to remove the shell that covered them.
Above him, he heard tremors and the hollow crack of stone and mortar, but nothing moved.
"Alex?"
"Figures", he grumbled annoyed, "I guess the building collapsed on us."
"What?!" Dana's voice quickly changed to hysteria. Alex cringed at the volume, but remained calm. Unlike her. "Oh fuck!"
"Don't worry", he said, "I could try to lift it."
There was a heavy silence for some time, until Dana snorted. "Right. You can lift an entire building."
Alex shrugged. "Should be possible", he explained, "I have enough strength to pick up an A1 Abrams Tank and throw it over a distance of two hundred meters with enough force and speed to take down a flying Apache." He grunted, placing both palms flat against the floor on either side of Dana. "A tank like that weighs around sixty tons. And the building will be mostly rubble too. Makes it easier to get out."
He dug both knees into the ground, then shifted to the Musclemass, increasing his overall body strength.
He heaved against the massive weight on his back. Nothing happened at first. Alex snarled and pushed harder, until something cracked.
The building was shifting, even if only a little bit. But it wasn't enough.
He growled, then slammed both hands with a resounding crack deep into the floor, ignoring Dana's startled yelp, and focused. Channeling Biomass through the ground.
The rubble buckled and warped, groaning like a wounded animal, seconds before massive black spikes erupted all around the dark shell Alex had grown to protect himself and Dana. Rubble was crushed to the side, concrete was torn to pieces, the entire ground was dug up. Alex snarled again and heaved against the weight on his back as more spikes and tentacles snapped out of his body. He felt light-headed, a clear sign that he stretched his Biomass too far, but he wouldn't have to remain like this for very long. The wreck above them shifted. Alex threw his body back, shifting his mass throughout the entire net of tentacles and spike he had grown, before he finally stood up.
Lifting an entire building off the ground.
"Holy shit", Dana gasped, craning her neck to see a tiny crack opening a bit to their left. "You can really do this!"
Alex grunted, then pushed his legs straight, pushing the rubble up even further. With the light now filtering in, the amount of Biomass weaved through the mess above became visible. With a mental command, Alex shifted his Biomass in a way that the wreck above slipped off on either side, rolling to the floor in a cacophony of breaking brick and mortar.
Dana gasped and held her breath from the dust whirling up, but when it finally settled, she and Alex sat in a small cleared space, surrounded by tons and tons of broken building all around them.
"Holy shit", Dana gasped, "This is unreal!"
"Nothing about me is 'real'" Alex grunted with no small amount of self-satisfaction. He went to dust himself off, when Dana's terrified outcry stopped him. "HOLY FUCK!"
He lifted his head to see what she meant, only to be faced with the red sky and countless black smoke plumes. Unlike his sister, however, he met it with apathy. So what? Humans went to murder and bomb each other all the time, why should it bother him? If anything, it did bother him that it happened here, directly in Dana's vicinity and it could have gotten her killed.
"Shit", Dana groaned, "What has happened?"
"Probably somebody trying to blame AlQuaeda or whatever 'evil' organization the government pulls out of its ass this time to wage even more war", Alex shrugged. "Come. We should go. It's not safe here."
Dana muttered something under her breath, but let Alex pull her away from the collapsed building.
But once they were outside, they had to realize that this was only the beginning of something big. Everything was destroyed. Hollowed-out wrecks of car littered the streets, lamp posts and trees had been snapped like twigs. Bodies littered the streets. They haven't been in the epicenter of the blast, but they had still been pretty close.
"Holy shit", Dana gasped again. "Are you sure this wasn't nuclear?"
"Pretty sure." Alex frowned at the cracked and melted ground a bit further away. He slowly moved towards the closest corpse, frowning at it. It used to be a man, but he couldn't tell what he died from. It could have been the severe burns, the inhalation of super-heated air, a heart attack...He knew how easy humans broke. He assumed that any closer to the center of the explosion, they would have literally turned to ash or evaporated through the intense heat.
"This can't be happening", Dana moaned. "Oh fuck."
Alex glanced at her worried. He walked back to her and placed one hand on her shoulder. "Dana. Whatever is going on- it has nothing to do with either of us. We were just unlucky." Dana sniffed. Alex turned his head to look along the boulevard. "We have to get to a safe place. We need to lie low."
"We can't", Dana suddenly said, "Alex- something is going on. We need to figure out what."
He was about to answer, when suddenly his back went ramrod straight. He whipped around, eyes narrowing on the helicopter that just headed towards them. He scowled, then quickly shifted into his disguised form, growling at the helicopter. If anybody saw him in his natural appearance near the scene of a seemingly act of terrorism, Blackwatch would be on them faster than they could blink. So he had no choice but to take another shape.
"If there is anybody here", the voice from inside the helicopter claimed, "Head to the Fremont Bridge. I repeat: Head to the Fremont Bridge to evacuate into the Neon! Help is en route!"
"Come on. We worry about what happened later on", Alex grunted, "We better hurry. The Neon should be safe enough. I'll go back and get our stuff from the apartment later on."
Dana sniffled again, then nodded. "Okay. Let's get out of here."
Alex turned and started to move along the destroyed city. The Fremont Bridge was close-by, but they couldn't waste any time gawking. They wasted enough time breaking out of the cave-in.
Foul black smoke formed massive walls in front of them. Dana gagged, while Alex subtly shifted his vision into the thermal range, watching for anything colder than the inferno. Only him and Dana, so he proceeded with breaking through the burning wreckages to clear a way for his sister. She was silent when following him, whimpering whenever they passed the remains of a person. Alex was worried for her. She tried to look tough, but she was just human. Not like him. She couldn't just look away from carnage, not like he could. To him, it was just natural, but to her it was horror. He slowed down to walk besides her, leaning into her side. Dana sobbed and reached her arm out, curling her fingers into his hair, silently thanking him for his support.
In a way, Alex suspected, they were lucky they just needed to pass along the shore of the Historic District and wouldn't have to walk through the center of the blast crater. He had seen the unnatural heat radiating off there, so he assumed that the insides of Ground Zero would look even more terrible than what they saw here. Too much for Dana to bear.
What she needed now was a safe place to lie low and recover from the shock of the explosion and his rather rough handling when he dragged her away. And maybe psychological help so she wouldn't develop claustrophobia atop of all things.
He flinched slightly at the sound of helicopters circling the area, reminding himself that Blackwatch wasn't here and those were civilian choppers, not military ones. Still, the latent urge to pick them out of the sky was still there, still thrumming at the back of his mind. He had learnt early on that helicopters were a bad sign, and this training never went away. A little bit like Pavlov's dogs, he thought.
From afar they could already see the lights of ambulance and police cars flash through the smoke and ashes. Alex nudged Dana gently. "Come. Almost there." She nodded, and together they moved through the debris and towards the bridge. A few EMTs took notice of them, but once they realized that they seemed to be in good condition, they just told them to hurry and notify those at the other side.
They made it over the bridge, where an Ambulance driver called them closer. Dana went on to answer his questions, while Alex watched the bridge. He noticed an overweight man with slicked-back hair and sunglasses hurry to stand on the sidewalk, looking for something. Or someone. A woman was nearby, and Alex recognized her as a nurse who worked at the Bayview Hospital. He's seen her a few times when she was outside for a break during the night shift and he happened to pass by. She did remind him of Dana a little, so he usually stuck around to make sure nothing happened to her until she walked back inside.
"Cole!" The fat man shouted, waving his arms like mad. "Over here! We gotta go!"
Alex's attention snapped to the other side, where a badly burnt man appeared. He recognized the yellow-and-black jacket. It was the courier, the nurse's boyfriend.
But then, as the courier stepped on the bridge, lightning bolts smashed into the floor around him. Dana and the EMT both jerked back in shock, as did a lot of the people present. The fat man was yelling at the courier to hurry, and he did. But more lightning bolts began to obliterate the entire bridge, even as the man tried to cross it. They watched in horror as the burnt man just barely managed to reach the other side before collapsing, while everything and everybody else that had been on the bridge were rendered to ashes and dust.
"Holy Fuck!" Dana swore, ducking back. "What's going on?!"
Alex had no idea, but as the bridge began to break away and sink to the ground of the bay, he realized one thing. The lightning strikes hadn't started randomly- they have started when the courier stepped on the bridge- and they have ended when he fainted. And more even, much of the destructive energy that had obliterated everything around them originated from the man's own body.
His eyes narrowed. 'Interesting'.
---------------
Amy was dead. Trish could only stare numbly at the torn picture in her hand while tears spilled across her cheeks.
Helpers had dragged her body from the remains of their apartment building the day before, and called her. Now, Trish couldn't even say good-bye. The Fremont Bridge was gone, the Stone Canal Bridge and the 19th Street Drawbridge had both been raised by somebody. Nobody could cross over, trapping them in the districts they were in.
Worse even, nobody would let them go outside either- the Stampton Bridge had been closed off within hours after the blast. In one fell swoop, their lives had fallen into ruins.
The police was trying to keep the situation under control, but they were losing ground fast. Trish had never seen violence escalate that quickly. It was a nightmare for everybody included.
She sobbed once, and wiped her face with the back of her hand. Amy was dead, and Cole nearly too. She hoped she could help him. She couldn't lose him too.
He's been out cold ever since he collapsed at the Fremont Bridge two days ago. There had been barely a change about him, his pulse and respiration had been too low for her liking. But it was still there, he was still there, still fighting. She couldn't give up.
However, even if he survived, what would the price be? His leg was the least of her concerns- it had been broken, but a splint would suffice for it. His body however had been badly damaged, with vast amounts of second-and-third-degree burns covering most of him. When they removed his clothes, they had to remove skin too that had melted with the fabric from the sheer amount of heat of the explosion. If he lived, scars would remain. And, to make matters worse, he had broken out in a high fever, though his skin was almost ice-like to the touch. The clinic they were in was hilariously understocked for injuries like he had. But they couldn't transfer him into Bayview.
Trish sobbed again, gently lowering a wet cloth against his forehead to try to keep his temperature down. It was about the only thing she could do, because supplies were rapidly vanishing with the sheer amount of injured people requiring medical help. Nobody knew where that bomb had been, where it came from- or how many people were dead. Most of what had been in the center of the crater had quite literally evaporated, leaving nothing behind. Sometimes, they would find a tooth. If they were lucky.
The door was opened, revealing a tired-looking Zeke. He glanced at his best friend in silence, before he turned to her. "How's he doin'?" He asked.
Trish choked back a sob. "Still running a high fever."
"Want me to try nine-one-one again?" Zeke offered.
Trish shook her head. "At this point, he's better off here", she said. Not to mention they wouldn't even manage to get any other help. The Bayview was cut off from them. "Besides", she added, "The streets are too dangerous." That was one way to say it. With the lockdown, the lawless subjects have started taking over. And they were violent. Nights were dangerous, but even during the day there were many places one should not go.
Trish sobbed again and cradled Cole's head, crying silently against his cheek. She had been here in the clinic most of the time, but Zeke had told her that she was always welcome in their apartment.
Zeke shuffled his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. "Did you know?" He suddenly asked, "A year or so before he met you, Cole got hit by a truck."
"I know", she replied. She had heard that story before. On a tour he got hit by a drunk driver, but the truck wasn't going very fast and he was lucky enough to be flung away from it, so he ended with some minor bruises. "He told me."
Zeke shook his head. "Nah. He only told you what he tells everyone. Makes it sound like it was no big deal." He slowly stepped closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Truth is", he continued, "He shoulda been killed." Trish blinked away the tears, glancing at Zeke with a confused expression. That was the first time she heard that part of the story.
"The front of the truck hits him square in the chest", Zeke continued, "Whips him around and then he rolls under the tires. Both of his legs get run over." Trish's eyes widened. From her experience, she could tell the results of such an accident. But Zeke was telling the truth. She knew him well enough to figure out when he was exaggerating and when not- which was not at the moment.
Zeke shrugged one shoulder, while his fingers squeeze her shoulder in a reassuring manner. "I hear what happened and figure he's dead and buried." He paused for a moment. "Or at the very least crippled." He shook his head. "He wasn't. He spends the night in hospital for observation or whatever, but he walks out of there with nothing more than a couple of bruises the next day." He nodded to the burns. "Compared to that, this is nothing. He'll be fine."
Trish wasn't sure, but Zeke seemed to be so certain. She wished she had his optimism. Because she couldn't believe that Cole'd ever wake up again. Her tears were starting to flow stronger again, and she wrapped her arms around Zeke, crying into his shirt. "I love him so much", she sobbed, "I don't-don't know what I'd do if-if-" She couldn't speak any further as her voice was drowned out by wordless crying. Zeke flinched slightly before he gently stroke her hair. "Don't worry about it", he said, "Because it ain't gonna happen. He'll pull through, Trish. You wait and see." Trish was crying only harder, and Zeke pulled her closer, just hugging her to tell her she was in good hands. He glanced at the still form of his best friend. "Just wait and see..."
-------------
Empire City was dying. Just like Manhattan had.
Alex stood atop the remains of the Stanton building, watching the still-smoldering fires. Three days later, and they were still burning.
He scowled deeply. Thousands had died, crushed by burning buildings or burnt alive. Hundreds more suddenly got sick and perished within a very short amount of time. Alex had first believed that Redlight was somehow still there, but it wasn't. He couldn't find a trace of disease. There was nothing that could jump from person to person, there was nothing that would infect them.
But the people didn't know this. They were afraid. And this fear quickly changed into violence. Riots broke out over the smallest disturbance. People stole. People murdered. People raped. Civilization was committing suicide.
He'd seen it before. He'd seen it in Manhattan. And Detroit. As soon something turns ugly, mankind's true face becomes obvious. Humans are selfish, caring only about themselves.
They will happily kick the one they had been friends with before into the fire to survive.
He couldn't understand how people- humans- could do this to their own species. They, who were so far above their own instincts, who had the understanding, morale and ethics animals lacked. They should behave differently. They should stand together, help each other- but instead they tried to harm those weaker than themselves just to be better off.
He hated them, loathed the very idea of ever trying to be like them.
At times like those, he was actually glad he wasn't like them, wasn't human. He was an artificial predator, something unnatural- but they were the true monsters.
A gunshot broke the silence, making his head snap up. He knew those sounds. Assault rifles. He knew the bite of their bullets- had been bitten countless times.
He knew they shouldn't be here either. He knew their make, and he knew those weren't meant for normal people to have.
Alex jumped off the building without looking for witnesses. It was dark anyways, and nobody was around Ground Zero anymore. He soared through the night sky, heading to where he'd heard the gunshot.
He only found the body of a young woman, younger even than Dana. A single shot had taken out most of her skull. And brain. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to get memories from her anymore. The ashes and smoke clogged up his nose too, making it impossible for him to follow any scent.
He growled, glancing from the body into the direction the bullet would have flown to. He found it buried into a wall. A normal bullet, from an assault rifle.
Weapons even criminals were not supposed to have.
His lips peeled away from his teeth in a feral snarl. How could this be? How could they get such weapons? He had hunted them for so long already, and they never had anything bigger than a hunting rifle. But now? Where did those guns come from?
He turned to glare to the south. To where the Stampton Bridge was.
Where the government sealed off the only escape route from the city. As soon the news of this 'plague' made its round, the people in charge sealed off Empire City. Sealed nearly ten million people inside without any help.
Locking them in with the criminals. The police was long gone by now, either too cowardly or dead already. Nobody was taking care of the people anymore.
This was too much like Manhattan. Too much.
But this time, there were no infected. No monsters bursting from corrupted flesh that grew from buildings, no Elizabeth Greene to control them. Now the only monsters that stalked the streets were the human ones.
And somebody supplied them with serious firepower, even through the lockdown.
Despite that, Dana had wrenched the promise from him to not do anything hasty. To not engage them. Not that he could- they vanished before he could get a reading on them, hiding in the sewers of the city where even his sense of smell could not find them.
However, with each passing hour, Alex found himself more and more tempted to tear through the city in attempts to stop them. Stop them like he did Greene.
But then Blackwatch would come here. And they would murder everybody.
Alex didn't give a shit about anybody in the city, but Dana was here too. For her sake, he had to lie low. Had to keep to the night time or those areas nobody paid him any attention. To prevent being seen.
He snarled and swung himself back upwards. He needed to maim something. Someone. Someone who deserved it.
Tonight, somebody was going to die.
--------------
Trish glanced out of the window worried. Chaos was reigning outside. Just four days, and Empire was no longer safe. Now it was a cesspool of violence. She didn't dare leave the clinic anymore, not without Zeke around. The night before, he told her, they have found several gang members on the streets. Dead. Really dead.
Someone had murdered them in a fit of rage. Trish had a good idea who it could have been- those gang members with the red hoodies were starting to turn into a real threat. Here in the Neon, anyways. She had no idea how it looked like in the other districts. The news were pretty much dead anyways, and she didn't know anybody over in the other districts who answered their phones. At least electricity and water were still working- or else Empire would have collapsed almost instantly.
Zeke was present most of the time, sitting with her and Cole for the entire day, working on his laptop, telling her the names of missed or dead people. Too many people had been lost. Too many good people, even seeing some who she believed to be dead barely managed to raise her spirits. She'd seen Billy from the EMTs, Christine, Ned the janitor and a few others from the Historic. Those that had managed to escape the district.
But too many had been injured, and they needed help.
She glanced at Cole's figure in the bed with furrowed brows.
It should have been impossible, but within those four days he'd been in coma, his wounds had healed. Not just healed- they were gone. The burns had vanished, leaving unmarked skin behind. His broken leg had knitted itself back together. Zeke had told her he survived being hit by a truck with nothing more than a few bruises- and she started to believe it.
At any rate- Cole's body was fully repaired again, as if he'd never been in that explosion that killed Amy.
Zeke sighed and stretched his body. "Hey", he said, "It's gettin' late. Let's go home."
Trish tore her gaze away from her comatose boyfriend and nodded wordlessly. Home was no longer in the Historic- it was now here in the Neon. Zeke had offered her to stay with him in his apartment, had even wordlessly given her his room to sleep in. Trish had declined, however, and taken to sleep on the couch, unwilling to intrude into their territory any more than she already did (even when Zeke claimed it was no big deal, and she was part of the family anyways).
She glanced back at Cole, watched how his chest rose and fell.
In, out
In, out
In, out
In, in, out.
Trish froze at the irregularity. Cole's hand twitched. He groaned. She was back at his side immediately. "Cole? Cole!"
Cole groaned again, this time louder that even Zeke noticed it, so he hurried back over as well.
"Can you hear me?"
Cole twitched, grunted as if in pain.
And suddenly the heart monitor flat-lined, just in time for Cole to jerk upright with a hoarse shout. His hands flew against his temples, clawing at them in panic.
The heart monitor beeped, before it fizzled out. The lights flickered, just as Cole held one hand in front of his face, staring at it.
Sparks flickered across his skin, seconds before lightning arched from his fingers over his arm, making him flinch back in panic. Trish and Zeke both jumped away when Cole's other arm started sparking as well. Lightning rushed all over his body as he flailed, trying to escape it.
He couldn't get away from it, but the static electricity was starting to wane slightly. Cole's hands shook when he carefully held them to the front, watching how the lightning bounced off his skin and arched between his hands.
He blinked, turning confused and terrified eyes to her and Zeke. "Trish?" He asked and his voice was rough from not using it. "What's happening to me?"