8.
Sunlight penetrated the gaps between buildings before surrounding their patch of highway. Every burnt and broken window disappeared as if never there. The light became a tidal wave of healing, washing away the hellish earth.
After a month of hell, Japan was the disorientating new land.
Somehow the sun had brought the people back.
Him, Aramas and Paige were surrounded by thousands, all moving on with their lives. The skeletal dragon's body clicked, clacked, dropped and rose, it looked up to roar at the sky The roar hollow and visceral, disrupting the flight of a thousand birds. Some dropped like a log producing a reaction that their presence couldn't. The visceral sound had came from no lungs but the air had sharpened and compressed enough to produce noise. How could so many not see?
Head still bobbing, bones cringing, it swayed and bounced.
The whole form swung back like a fold table pushed in the wrong direction before it pounced and slammed into Jin, he gasped as it disintegrated into his chest. A chill hit before it vanished.
Aramas stayed, grunting and politely, slamming its fists into the tar.
It was hard to tell if they were visible. Everyone looked through them, but still turned and angled away. They were definitely there.
Paige patted Aramas fast. The beast's grunt was of relief before its massive fingers grabbed their waists, all delicacy cheaped out on for speed. They were tossed on his shoulders. He jumped three blocks in seconds. Every action rushed but practised. Not a soul gave an indication of seeing them, yet crowds shifted, vehicles slowed and turned.
Jin's spine was moments from popping before Aramas landed on Paige's window, not breaking a frame, throwing them both in before disintegrating into the thinnest of sands. It splashed into Paige and disappeared. She crumpled on her stomach, snoring.
It… was… absurd.
People didn't do that, they couldn't. From racing in the middle of the city to snoring on white carpet. Everything had an explanation.
And that was bullshit.
What were the variables? Cities had more answers than the world had questions. But now? The little he'd seen was the tip of some galactic iceberg.
Which didn't help.
Feelings were useful for remembering, not processing. His mind was smothered in running, hiding, shooting, killing, yelling, death and, of course, the bullshit sensation that it wasn't over. That it was all some boot camp. Even soldiers had answers and purpose, even the drafted. Why was he the one with so many blank spaces?
Why had everything come back as if nothing had happened? At least he had an idea why the charges left. They were forbidden to go out into the sun or something stupid like that, okay. But Aramas had stayed to drop Paige off. Was Aramas the exception? Forbidden by whom? And if Aramas could stay how strict were the rules?
Questions wracked his brain so hard it hurt. Paige snorted and wrinkled her nose against the carpet before relaxing. A snore so heavy it needed its own trucker hat rumbled out of her tiny form.
There were a mountain of questions for her too. His mind shot back to the Dragon's first burst of flame. She'd extended her arms and it'd simply been shoved away.
Why? Why? WHY?
It was impossible.
Jin grunted like an old man while dropping to his knees, he started with Paige's legs, scooping, they dangled, lifeless, he lifted and stumbled. What muscles existed in him that prevented love handles screamed. The beast's roar drowned it out and he hefted her up. Paige twisted to him and pressed against his chest like a child, a big sweaty, smoked meat and charcoal smelling child. His muscles shut up, muted by her softness. It was like she was made of cream.
He stumbled his way to the bed and groaned in a way that, seen in the wrong context, could have gotten him arrested before laying her down, she spread like a burst water balloon and snored, loud and hilarious. He smiled and stretched. She was heavier than she used to be.
No that wasn't it.
He was tired, fatigued. Trying not to get shot, stomped, burned, and beaten did that.
He wrestled her ever shifting body until he managed to get the sheet from under to over her and took off her shoes before taking his chair. He tried to ignore the stiffness, wondering 'what it all meant' and what to do if it all kept happening. Just how was he supposed to keep from dying let alone keep others alive? Sleep snuck up and took hold.
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