Planet: Eteran
RAYAN
No...
Sirens wailed with his heart as he dragged himself off the floor of uselessness, where Ava shut the door on him while ash fell in blanketed sheets, crawling through the clouds to spread the torment around the county. On his feet, he pushed into the door to free himself of his inability to catch her before she rushed into the fire. "I promised," he pleaded as he fought with the door handles. "I said..."
He let it go to rush over to the metal shutters to peek through them, to catch a glimpse. Flames danced within the cloud of smoke strangling Eastpoint, and Ava hauled herself over the gate and disappeared around the hedges without a second glance.
Out of sight once more.
He rushed back to the door to send his foot into it, but it pulsed while the SAI locked him in a prison. He pressed his shoulder against the door, fighting for freedom as he pressed his feet into the welcoming mat while fire chewed what he had come to call home. From all the times he hung out with those who embraced him with open minds and hearts. Full of life and happiness. He pressed his brow against the door, pushing for change, fighting for something to break. The handle reached the end of its turn, but he fought for it to keep moving. His heart squeezed against his ribcage while the sirens screamed with the artillery.
It never bent for his weakness.
Come on. Rayan bit on his tongue. Come on. I have to do something!
I have to.
He pressed his knuckle into the door frame and took a single breath for his last rest. Embers licked at his blood as he focused hard on nothing but the blood in his ears. Campfires spit out light, warmth, and something he should've done differently. He dug closer to the edge, where the barrier popped bit by bit, inch by inch, he stepped forward while the wave of brimstone licked at his knees, and he grunted when the barrier sprinkled into dust, with the door swinging on its hinges and sending his face into the front porch.
Ow. Rayan rolled off the steps and landed on his feet while embers danced along his yard. Eastpoint screamed out in terror while the ships continued to send endless edevic lazers through the roads leading out of it and the forests which curdled into nothing. He stood there while shadows loomed, and he clenched his fists at the no longer Sanctum dominated skies he grew too used to in Odaport, for who cared about a town in the middle of nowhere?
Rayan jumped when a fireball exploded from one of the ship's cannons, bouncing along the forest to come to a stop.
But they have to come.
Fiery irritation sent him back into movement, but not to chase Ava. He rushed to the small garage, where Mom's car and hoverbike remained. He stumbled to the hoverbike, swinging himself over the seat to lock himself in, with no time to grab Mom's safety gear, he placed her helmet over his head. Temperature and time flitted across the helmet's visor, but he brushed them off to find the starter. Without her keys, his only hope was a stroke of luck. He found the small panel of smooth edevium wires, slipping his fingers into them to disconnect the keypods protection. It hissed in response, and he straightened himself out to push the throttle.
It rumbled between his thighs, and he kicked his feet up while the sirens pounded in his ears.
I have to get to Roxton. Fast.
He sped out of the garage with the hoverbike's roar, where the gate opened at the sense of the hoverbike. Out of the cage, he swallowed on ashen dust and found the road out of Eastpoint, where patches of flames danced along the trees. Branches fell to the ground and a haze of smoke blocked his view, but the helmet investigated every obstacle in split second timing, and he drove through the death mist. His skin burned while he fought out of the ocean of flames, until it broke in a single sweep of cold air. Out of the bubble, he sped along the empty stretch of road, where the forest died into endless plains and rocky, shrubby cliffs. He stopped at the highest point, taking off the helmet for his breath, twisting around at the distant crying.
No... No...
Hands against his ash-soaked hair, he groaned while the pirate titans continued their assault. Ava was right... the Sanctum's defences didn't activate early enough... Embers burned along his chest and tore through the fabric of his shirt. He released a sob into his hands, where his tears warmed with the heat in the air. Danger bit at his feet, but he found himself out of range of the exploding fireballs as a few struck the forest in violent bursts.
Rayan returned to the hoverbike to shove his hand into the carapace. His fingers wound around a wired bulb, and he tore it off. It sprinkled light across the road, and he tossed it to the ground, stomping on it for good measure. He sat back down, biting on his knuckles while the sirens continued to wail for him to return and fight.
I don't know what else I can do... He looked down at the tracker he tore off the motorcycle. I'm... I'm sorry, Mom. Helmet back on his head, he climbed back onto the hoverbike and sped the rest of the way to Roxton. Several crowds stood at the outer buildings, pointing at the cloud of smoke into Eastpoint. None of them knew. None of them comprehended the hell he left behind him. Rayan sped into the city, where the alarms followed his route. Others went about their days, unaware of the danger present across from them. There has to be Sanctum here. There has to be. Rayan traced the roads. Holoboards glowed red as he rolled past a group of people, also staring back at the columns of fiery smoke, and drove around a corner as a pair of boys stepped onto the civilian intersection.
"Wait! Stop!" he gasped a warning, almost losing control of the bike with his ungraceful turn. In an instant, the boy around his age scooped the younger one off the road with inhuman levels of reaction time. He slowed the hoverbike to check on them, but both stood, uninjured, with the younger one pressed against their companion in shock.
Rayan spared a peek at the other one, who smoothed out their dark curly hair with a scoff twisting their lips, while their green eyes studied him. His panic drove him to a complete stop. "I-I'm sorry!"
The older boy ignored him, putting his hand on the younger one's shoulder to pull him to the other end. Rayan shook his head, and flew through the city. He checked back one, but someone shouted at him when he passed a group. He came to a stop to investigate, where two men broke off from the group who examined the smoke clouds in the air.
"Kid, hold on!" the burlier young man called. "Did you just come off the Eastpoint-Roxton road?"
Rayan nodded as a leaner man followed behind him. "Please," he begged and hopped off his bike. "Can you take me to someone who can help? Eastpoint is under attack." He crept closer to them. "Our defenses didn't activate and the town is on fire." He caught his breath. "Please, this is bad. It's bad! People are dying," he rasped, causing the burly man to frown. "You have to help."
He shuddered when the entirety of Roxton's skyline went red.
"ALERT:" a disembodied voice roiled over his bones, and the leaner man urged him to come back with them as the burly man grabbed the hoverbike to pull it along. Back onto the main street, holoboards lit with live footage. "ATTACK AT — EASTPOINT. FOLLOW DIRECTIVES."
"I thought it was some sort of generator explosion," a woman whispered as the leaner man nudged him along and came to a stop at the main square of Roxton.
Anxiety and panic filled the air while crowds gathered, Rayan spotted the two boys he almost ran over at a different holoboard, with the main one across the largest building lighting up in pitch and sparked flames. Rayan stared up at it with the city-goers. No one reported, but the damage and scale rolled across the screen. Number by number, it rose.
"Stars," someone else rasped through the roar of the crowd as a larger explosion rocked the screen. "Oh my stars..."
Rayan covered his mouth while Eastpoint turned to ash at his fingertips.
"He's not answering me," another man rasped as he tapped his compearl. "Terrin, he went over there this morning," he said to his companion. "He was supposed to be back by now."
Rayan kept his attention on the smaller holoboard, where the young boy clung onto his older companion with a shaken word of a different language. The other one nodded, and they wandered into an alley, and left the damage bare to see while they walked away from it.
People cried, screamed, and called out.
"Aaron," the burly man said. "We need to get off the streets if Sanctum is going to roll through here."
"They're late for it, Garcy, they've basically abandoned Eastpoint," the leaner man, Aaron, mumbled. "You're right. We're going to need to send a message to Seeto as well if this is going the way I think it's going to go. Kid." Rayan jumped when he poked him. "We can see how we'll help, what's your name?"
"R-Rayan," he rasped out.
"We need to get off the streets, alright?" Aaron asked.
Rayan nodded, and grabbed onto his hoverbike while Aaron and Garcy led him back to the group, nudging him into the club, where silence instead of music reigned. Hoverbike into the hands of Garcy, Rayan followed Aaron through the crowds.
"Aaron, what's going on out there?"
"Bad attack," Aaron replied. "Sanctum isn't doing much about it, it seems, but they'll come out eventually."
'Eventually?" Rayan rasped. "It's going to be too late!"
"I know," Aaron said through his teeth. "I know that, kid." He wandered through the club, where people took shelter by tables. Into the back rooms, Aaron sat him down on a couch. "Stay here while I get in contact with my boss — we'll see if we can't do anything, alright?"
"Where'd you take my hoverbike?" he asked.
"Garcy is going to put it in the nearby garage," Aaron explained. "You're safe here, okay?" He raised his hands in placation. "Wait here. I'm going to see if we can't do anything." He rushed out of the door, closing it behind him as Rayan listened to the screaming sirens which hounded him.
He sat there on the couch, squirming in discomfort at his mistakes. I should've gone after. Oh stars, what if... Rayan rocked on his hips and held his stomach while people whispered through the other side of the door. Bile crawled through his nose while he waited for Aaron to return for answers, for help.
They weren't coming...
Aaron came back with Garcy after an hour. "We apologize it took so long, our communications are on the fritz and the Sanctum was speeding their way over there."
Rayan lifted his head to the I-Screen when it popped up a new update of Eastpoint after another hour of loneliness, where Aaron and Garcy stood guard in the room. Big large letters layered around clear, watery mist while the rains came, and revealed the destruction in a single, long hour of nothing, and the final death toll rolled across the screen, compared to Eastpoint's current population.
From an entire town full of life, love, and warmth. As the minutes, hours passed on, it came to a single count.
Nothing at all.
No one.
No one.
Rayan stared at the numbers as Garcy and Aaron glanced at each other with harried expressions.
No one?
"What the fuck?" Garcy whispered. "Are they serious? The entire town?"
In a single night.
In a single night, he lost everything.
Rayan sank to his knees at the endlessness of what he lost, left behind, and screamed with the crowds above his head. He closed his eyes and hit his head against the floor where two shadows rushed to him. Water slicked down his cheeks as he dug his fingers into his hair, the last survivor of Eastpoint — because he ran out of danger and sought help coming too late.
And Ava had not, and ran for her family, straight into the flames.
Everyone was gone, nothing more than a number on a screen.
No... no...
Rayan longed to rip out his throat.
I promised...
Let me go back. Let me be able to make someone stay...
Let me go back and go after her.
Let me go back and make him stay.
He sobbed into the carpet and longed for a frozen moment, captured when James focused on it, and turned to him with a curious smile which brightened the air and lifted a weight on his heart, then shattered it all at once.