Burning Slow

Let's not wipe out the human kind

Kenneth's eyes fluttered open but all he saw was darkness. He moved his arms, trying to feel something other than the cold wet snow. His body ached even more at every movement that he attempted to do, add to that an overwhelming burning sensation in his left thigh.

"Nathan! Astraea! Kenneth! Ember! Jacob!" He heard a muffled voice from above.

Even though he could barely move and his throat felt as dry as a desert, he tried to do everything he could for them to be able to find him.

"I'm here..." He rasped as he dug above his head, trying to reach the surface.

After what felt like decades, his hands were gripped by another pair of hands.

"s**t, he's also injured." A blurry figure blocked Kenneth's view of the sun.

"What happened?" He rasped.

"Has anyone seen Astraea?"

"Keep on looking for them. I'll take care of Kenneth." Nick and Rocco nodded at James before they went separate ways, calling out for their missing friends.

"James, where's Grace?" Kenneth asked as James tied a piece of cloth from his jacket on Kenneth's open wound.

"She blasted us, Ken. Didn't you see? She was the cause that we all fell off the cliff. And now Jacob, Nathan, Astraea and Ember are still missing." James explained and it was then that Kenneth noticed how James was barely able to move his left arm.

"How's Nathan going to react?" Kenneth mumbled to himself.

"Did the bomb explode?" James froze before slowly nodding, tying another layer of cloth on Kenneth's wound.

"Can you stand?" James stood up, dusting off his pants before offering his hand to Kenneth. "We have to find the others."

"I found Nathan and Jacob!" Rocco yelled a few meters from them.

Nick dashed to where Rocco was while James helped Kenneth walked to them.

"They're unconscious but they have a pulse. I can't see any injuries on both of them though." Rocco told everyone, clutching his abdomen.

"Gee, it would be nice if Grace hadn't turned on us." Kenneth sarcastically spoke as James helped him kneel down in the middle of Nathan and Jacob, trying to wake them up.

"The girls are still missing." Nick coughed, his eyes roaming around the area.

"Look for them, now. Especially Ember, she might be bleeding again for all we know." James instructed. Nick nodded and went off to look for them.

"We need to find her." Rocco hastily stood up from his sitting position, only to fall on his butt again.

"No. You stay here. You're already bleeding too much." James ordered Rocco.

"But Ember-"

"Will be fine. You stay here." James finalized before following after Nick.

The next few minutes were spent in silence as Rocco and Kenneth still tried to process what the hell just happened while both of them tried to figure out how to wake up their two unconscious friends and James and Nick were off looking for the girls.

"I got Astraea!" James yelled from afar, bringing Kenneth and Rocco out of their trances.

"I'm coming!" Nick yelled back, reappearing with James and Astraea in a couple of seconds in front of Rocco.

She was shivering like a lost puppy, her head bleeding and her blue eyes had fear and confusion swirling in them.

Nick immediately took off his jacket and placed it on Astraea but that revealed the huge gash that he had on his side.

"Nick! What the hell. Why didn't you tell us?" James scolded, checking out the gash.

"I'm fine. Just go find Ember." Nick replied, wiping the blood away on Astraea's forehead.

"She landed the furthest from us."

"How do you know that?"

"I can just feel her now for some reason. I couldn't earlier but I can now. I know it's her. I can get her." Rocco announced as he tried to stand up only to be pushed down by Nick.

"Oh, no. You can't get up." Nick deadpanned.

"Yes, I can-" Rocco tried to stand up again but Nick only pushed him down again.

"Oh, no you can't. I'll get Ember. Where is she?"

"Or I can just summon a spirit."

"And lose more blood? Hell, no."

"Nick's right, Rocco." James piped up.

"Can't you feel Nick's container? Not only is he losing blood, but he's also losing power!"

"We don't have time for this! Where's Ember?" Nick snapped.

"Eighty-nine meters, northwest of me." Rocco answered, defeated.

"Weak pulse." Nick announced, Ember in his arms.

"We have to go back home first so we can properly treat all our injuries." Rocco advised.

"Alright, grab onto me."

-

Alex and Greyson were alerted when they heard a loud thud from the second floor, followed by a chorus of teenagers calling out Nick's name.

The two dashed up the stairs only to be met by a group of bleeding teenagers that looked like they've been chewed up by hell.

"What the hell happened? Where's Grace?" Greyson asked approaching Nick who was coughing up blood and clutching his bleeding side.

"Grace turned on us." James answered in a whisper.

"What?!" Alex exclaimed, accidentally poking Rocco's abdomen.

"Ow!" Rocco hissed.

"s**t, sorry. What the hell happened?" Alex repeated Greyson's question.

"Can we fix our injuries first? In case the two of you haven't noticed, all of us look like we've been run over."

"Nah, you guys looks worse than that." Alex remarked, helping Rocco to the guest room where they were all staying at.

*****

"Again, what the hell happened?" Greyson asked as he and Alex finished with tending to the injuries of the teens.

James broke his left arm and a not so deep cut on his left shoulder blade, Kenneth must've been cut by some sharp rock to have a deep nasty gash on his left thigh, Astraea hit her head when she was falling, Rocco has a similar cut like Ember's on his abdomen, Nathan also had a deep gash like Kenneth's but it was on his arm, Ember had another gash on her back, deep but not as deep as the gash that she had healing on her stomach. But Jacob and Nick's huge deep gashes on their sides were unexplainable. Nick had it on his right and Jacob on his left.

Right now, Ember, Nathan Jacob and Nick were unconscious from too much power consumption and no one knew when and if they would wake up.

"Let's with the words we failed." Rocco started, adding air quotations around the words we failed. "I'm pretty sure that the bomb exploding is already on the news."

"Correction, it was on the news and the human population is already down by five percent."

"What?!" The conscious teenagers roared.

"It's November 2nd now, kids." Greyson informed.

"We were unconscious for two days..." James trailed off. "Oh my god."

"We have to warn the people."

"Not to worry, we already did. While you were out training and Ember had no choice but to stay here, we talked about what to do if everything goes sideways. It had already been broadcasted after the bomb exploded that everybody should stay in their homes at all costs- 'course there were those people that didn't follow that- and factories are now manufacturing masks and air filter devices that Ember had explained. With all those measures, I seriously doubt that the human kind would go extinct."

"But how?" Kenneth asked.

"I have connections, son. Don't worry about it."

"So what did go down while you guys were in Greenland?" Alex asked,

So then the conscious teenagers proceeded to explain what happened.

"What do we do now?" James asked, throwing a worried glance at his twin.

"We have to wait." Astraea answered as she brushed a loose strand of curly hair away from Nick's face.

"While we wait, I want to know," Alex stood up from his chair, "what is the relationships in this room, currently?"

At this, Greyson jumped in his chair. "Rocco, aren't you with my daughter?"

"Unfortunately, not. She turned me down." Rocco smiled sadly, sitting up on the bed and leaning on the wall, clutching his abdomen as he did.

"What, really?"

"Yeah. I kissed her then I pulled away 'cause I wasn't sure if she was good with it but then she kissed me back and when we pulled away, both of us stayed silent. Then she suddenly pushed me away and told me that saving humanity is our priority then she retreated to her room."

"So that explains why you were the only one who came down the stairs." Rocco only nodded at Alex.

"Well, how about you two?" Kenneth faced Astraea and the unconscious Nick.

"That's none of your business." Astraea quickly answered.

"Oh it is our business, Sister. We're a family here. Now tell us." James sassily ordered.

"Should I, Icky?" She whispered.

"Well, we're waiting."

"Alright, fine." She huffed. "Nick and I were together before all of this even happened. We live in the same town."

"Shut the front door. Really?" James leaned closer.

"Yeah, we were together for like five years? Then we broke up a week before Greyson called us which explains the tension between us on the first meeting."

"Five years? So you got together when you guys were fourteen?" Rocco sat properly, his interest peaked.

"And the first meeting that Nick was referring to back at the amusement park wasn't the day when we met you?" Alex asked next.

"Yes to both questions."

"So why did you guys break up?"

"To be honest, I don't know. We were just at each other's necks for a couple of weeks and we decided to break it off. Turns out, we really needed the cool off. We got back together on the 19th."

"Well, s**t. Nick didn't even bother to tell us. I really want to punch him for that." Kenneth muttered the last part.

"What about Nathan and Grace?" Greyson asked.

"We don't really know but they were acting all lovey-dovey like until we lost Grace." James answered. "I can't imagine how Nathan will react when he wakes up."

"Yeah, but..." Rocco trailed off. "Will they even wake up?"

"Of course they will. Don't be so negative, bro."

"I'm sorry. I'm just really worried. I can barely feel any pull from their powers."

"But it's still there." James argued.

"We all are worried." Greyson stated, standing up. "Now all of you need to rest. I'll wake you all up when lunch is ready."

"Even me?" Alex asked, his eyes sparkling.

"No, i***t. You're going to help me, Jacob is unconscious and Kenneth needs to rest." Alex pouted at this but followed Greyson nonetheless.