The Next Generation (FIRST DRAFT)

Chapter 35

     As Matthew and Lucy reached the place where Lizzie and the class were hiding, Matthew carefully picked up Ben, holding him bridal style and carrying him off the board, Without the metal, he was surprisingly light, having a very thin build to begin with and then the times of starvation and malnutrition adding to his lean body mass. 

    When they landed, Lizzie immediately ran out to greet them. 

    “Lizzie!” Lucy hissed. “I told you to stay inside until you are sure we aren’t a threat.”

    “But you aren’t,” she grinned. 

    “What if a super was using mind control on us like that Dylan creep I told you about?”

    “Well, then, I’d fight you off.”

    Lucy rolled her eyes. “I’d like to see you try,” she joked, her voice faltering to the end. 

    Lizzie looked around. “Is Ben still fighting?”

    “No,” Lucy said, glancing between Lizzie’s face and the ground, not wanting to meet her eyes. 

    “Then where is he?” Lizzie asked, worry edging in her voice. She glanced back at Matthew and stopped, confused. “Who’s that?” she asked, referring to the body in his arms. 

    “Lizzie,” Lucy breathed. “That’s Ben. That’s what he really looks like.”

    Lizzie cautiously walked over to Matthew as he set Ben down on the ground. She collapsed next to him, scared to look at his blank and expressionless face. She covered her mouth in horror. 

    “No…,” she whispered, repeating it under her breath. “It can’t be.”

    She tried to deny it, but the face of this boy, metal or not, was that of Ben. This really was him, and he really was gone. 

    Tears streamed down her face as she looked at him. She was speechless, grief having taken all words from her. She sat silently sobbing by his side as her classmates came up to her to help comfort her. Canyon knelt down next to her and pulled her into a tight hug. 

    Feeling awkward and useless, Lucy stood off to the side. She didn’t know what she could do to help comfort them. 

    Lizzie looked over to Lucy and Matthew. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For bringing him back.”

    Lucy smiled weakly at the girl as she got up and went back into the training station they had been sheltering at. Matthew looked at Lucy and then went to scoop Ben back up and bring them in with them, setting him on a bench near where the class was. Lucy and Matthew kept their distance from the group as everyone tried to comfort Lizze. She was sobbing, not knowing how to deal with her grief. 

    Canyon turned back to face Lucy and Matthew, waving them over. “Tell us what happened.” 

    Lucy sighed and walked over to the group, Matthew in tow. When she got over there, she tried to briefly explain what happened, her voice breaking. Eventually, it got to be too much and Matthew had to take over. After they finished, Canyon turned to them to speak. 

    “What are you going to do next?” he asked. “Nox and Eyra are still rampant. How are you going to defeat them?”

    “Our best beat is to let them tire each other out first,” Matthew responded. “Then I was thinking, if Lucy is okay with it, she could try to make a cage of sorts of them that could contain them separately.”

    “Is that really smart, though?” Darren, Ben’s old roommate, piped up. “Wouldn’t it be smarter to trap them together to maintain the balance?”