A doomsday scenario before them, burning trash cans, cars destroyed, and ruined stores and buildings. Sadly, the bodies of some people there. 'They weren't there…'
When he entered the park, those weren't there. They must have died after… K.J shakes his head, clearing his mind of any stray thoughts besides what needs to be done. Sadly, no car is left in a usable state, and even if one was left intact, it couldn't be used anyway.
No tools or anyone who knows hot wiring among their quartet. 'If only Elliot was there…' Ahead, a pack of strange and big dogs, almost the size of wolves… "You fuck, get out of my way!"
Some dogs don't obey him, while others somehow heed his orders and words. The dogs hear his words, and run away, reeking of fear. 'Must be something related to this Skoll.' One less fight for them.
Behind them, the faint red light of the sun starts to dim even more— Night will come earlier today, who knows what may happen. 'Three Miles. Can we make it in time before night falls?' With their strange powers, James and he could make it, maybe Cain too, but Spencer won't be able to keep up with them.
Suddenly, a call to his cellphone. 'Who could be at this hour and time?!' It may be important… "Guys! Stop for a second, someone is calling me!" This brings a sudden halt to their pace, but his friends don't look discontent, not too much either way.
Picking up his phone, the screen is filthy with blood, despite being in his pocket for hours… trying to clear it up a little with his fingers, it shows enough to display who is calling: His uncle. Without a second thought, he answers the call. "Uncle?"
"Hello, boy. Good to see you are in good shape. Hear me, and hear me well: Where are you? We can send someone to extract you and bring you back to the Holy Oak school. Can't say more or why." Well, if he can send people to get them out…
"I'm at the west entrance of the Blue Evening Park, and I have three of my friends with me. We all have powers." Even if his uncle is high in the military— there shouldn't be a rhyme or reason for why they would waste resources to get them. Yet, when he entered the school, he already had his powers.
The soldiers saw the strange sword, and he survived a blow from the big goblins. They must know they have powers, and this is why they are taking the risk to take them to the extraction point. "Stay there. We will send a car to get your bunch out. Five minutes."
Things turned out better this time around. "Five minutes. Rescue will come in five minutes. We have to hold out for five minutes." Despite no hostile being near them, as of now, things wouldn't change much so shortly.
A wave of silence washes over them, with Spencer raising an eyebrow. "With whom you were talking, Kyrie?" He asks with an inquisitive and annoying voice…
"My uncle… I said he was in the military before, didn't I? He is sending help to extract us." Spencer's eyebrow stays arched. With a tired sigh, he shrugs his shoulders, choosing to not chase after the topic.
The metalhead sits on the ground, to catch his breath. With him, James and Cain stand on guard. "I have to ask this… but how did you guys fight off so many of these goblins, anyway? You two did a massacre there!"
In a giggly tone, his fellow "canid" asks excitedly, the happiness overflowing from his words… "I got here a good three hours before everyone else, James arrived a couple of minutes after me. We just killed every monster that got near the park." Simple as that, no fancy truth.
They just killed and killed. "Then why did you guys pile them over?" For someone who wasn't there, it would look like they were playing a competition, or something like that. The truth couldn't be farther from it.
"The bodies were blocking our path, we swiped them over." The park was getting too many monsters for some reason, but they were all taken care of. However, it didn't seem to play any part in stopping monsters from appearing again on it, or the rest of the city for that matter.
Cain whistles, as they wait for the rescue to come. Would it be a helicopter? No, it couldn't be, there was a dragon in the skies hours ago… "Do you guys know what happened to that dragon? I didn't see it after the first time in the morning…"
Even if it was just a few hours ago, the morning felt like a memory of a distant past… this day was hell, in many senses. Truth be told, it was like the gates of hell had been opened. Despite the monster corpses, the bodies of people are still there.
Mangled, broken, some even half-eaten too… maybe if they went to this part of the park, or fought to protect It's outside too… could they be saved? If they were better? If he could just conjure the black flames like earlier?
Even with these powers, the powers he used to get leverage for his friends, he couldn't protect anyone. Those people died so close to them, yet he and James didn't hear them, their screams…
A bitter taste spread through his mouth, the bitterest it had ever been. Even after all these years, he is such a failure. 'No, don't think this way. I saved Lily.' K.J wasn't fast enough to save her friend, nor avoid her eye being wounded, although this one was impossible for him to stop.
Lily was safe, he saved her. At this point, she was evacuated and is in a safe place away from all the pandemonium. Out of the blue, something hits his shoulder. "What?" Looking behind him, Spencer, with a serious face.
"Look. I can feel your gloominess. You did your best. You made the park safe for us. We are humans, not God." On the other hand, a can of energy drink. "I was saving this one for myself, got it from one of the park machines, it still is cold."
For Spencer to offer something he saved for himself, then the feeling must be showing on more than K.J's face— "Wait, where did you hide this?" He didn't notice him sneaking anything into his backpack earlier, so how—
"Did you seriously think I would hide something like an energy drink where you and the others could see?" A fair point, yet to hide it beside everyone else… is Susanoo a master of stealing too?
Besides him, Cain and James laugh faintly. "Well, thanks." Raising his hand, Spencer passed up the can. It is cold, like he said. Sadly, it is the original flavor, not the orange one, but beggars can't be choosers.
Opening the can, Kyrie drinks its contents slowly, trying to forget what happened there. To just focus on what type of transport can come their way to drag them out of this place and city. "Lo there! There are two Humvees!" Jumping out of the ground, his fellow "canid" points towards two heavy armored cars quickly approaching.
They were fast. Getting up, K.J finishes quickly the energy drink, throwing the can on the ground. The armored cars stop before them, a soldier opening the window and peeking through them. "You guys are the load, right? Get inside, and you, sword guy, throw the sword in the trunk."
Another soldier exits from one of the cars, going to open the trunk. Convenient. Walking towards the car's trunk, he throws the sword inside it, with the soldier closing the trunk. His friends enter the cars. Cain and James in one, Spencer stopping by the opposite door of the same car he is going in.
Opening the door, the soldier steps back, entering the car by the second front seat. "Get inside the car, boy. Things are going to look ugly soon." Following the "sound advice", K.J enters the car, with Spencer on the side, staring at the window.
Turning away, the cars run through devastated city blocks, now desolated. 'People probably run away already…' A good thing if the tide of monsters coming that way is a sign of what will come later on.
"So, how did you survive so long out there? Monsters are roaming around." This isn't true, K.J is sure he should've died at least once this day. At least once…
"Got powers— can kill these things barehanded if needed. Although the bigger ones, I need the sword." The soldier driving lets out a whistle in a tone of admiration… he is nothing, James has been killing monsters, the small ones, the bigger ones, hounds, and anything that comes his way, bare-handed. His strength is on a whole nother level of power.
"Can shoot electricity, excellent at frying the small goblins, but the big ones are resistant." A small, barely audible snort comes from Spencer's voice. He somehow didn't fight a bigger goblin.
The red ones are even more resilient. 'Anything that can have their skin melt and chest pierced and still have strength for a last hit is not going to be brought down with some electricity, Spencer.'
"Cool shit. Got something but is just a slight strength boost, I think." The soldier driving comments, strangely at ease with them, despite the fact of one of them being drenched in blood, and the other having slightly burned and torn clothes.
'They are soldiers… they must have seen worse than this.' They are soldiers, they fight wars. What are a bunch of ragged and bloodied teenagers to the stuff that happens in wars? Is it naive to think they would be shocked…
"Did your powers come with the sword? It isn't like any sword or knife I saw." Kyrie stops looking out the window to look at the soldier driving the car. Metal getting transmuted into a sword… it appears so much like something out of an anime.
"I don't know, one moment I was holding a metal bat, in the other a sword appeared." The truth. There is no rhyme or reason to it. One moment, nothing, in the other, a sword the size of a person appeared.
"So, it did come with the powers. Hah, my old man would like that. Would say you are straight from old cartoons." A bit of emotion cracks up in the soldier's voice, longing, sorrow, happiness, and acceptance. Their old man must be dead then. On the other front seat, a small laugh comes from the other soldier.
Even in the dawn of chaos, people still will have humor. "Hey, I'm not a himbo." The second soldier laughs a little louder, looking at the window's reflection, even Spencer has a smile on his face. A few minutes pass, and the car stops. It went without a hitch, no problems or monsters.
A damn silver lining in comparison to everything else. "You guys, get out…" The driver says, gesturing to them to get out of the Humvee. Opening the doors, both friends exit the car. "Will the blood stench ever go away? I think we will need a new seat." Whispers the driver, thinking he couldn't hear them.