Chapter 2

"Ugh" Cole groaned, "What the hell?" Cole lay there, face down on the ground. He reached out, and felt the cold of metal.

He opened his eyes, and the sight that greeted him was devastating. Quite literally. The City Center, was gone. He sat up, "What the hell happened here?" He asked himself. The park part of the center was completely obliterated. The buildings were opened up from one side. Around where Cole sat there was a crater. Spanning the entire center and then some. He looked around and saw the Center of the Universe. The metal was somehow was not affected at all. Cole tried to stand up and go to it, to have some sort of solid ground, but he just collapsed.

He took one look at his legs and knew he wasn't standing on his right one anytime soon. It was completely torn open, with the bone sticking out of his knee.

"Ooooooh damn." Cole said, "Wait, why doesn't this hurt?" He moved his leg. "Ok, so I'm not paralyzed, that's good I guess."

He had to drag himself onto the Center.

His first assumption that the center was entirely unaffected was wrong, Cole saw some cracks around the edges and could tell that whatever happened here, damaged it. He could feel that it was weakened, after all, he could actually hear the wind instead of just feel it.

He took another look around the devastation that was around him, "My God, what happened?" Cole asked himself. He saw his backpack and remembered.

The orb, that was the only explanation Cole could think of at the moment. Cole reached for his bag and pulled out his broken phone.

"Ah, I didn't figure it would have survived, but it was worth a shot." Cole said. "Wonder how long I've been here." He asked aloud. Fires were still running rampant, so it couldn't have been too long.

Cole touched his bone that was sticking out his knee.

"God this looks horrible." He said in disgust. And worry. "What am I supposed to do? I can't walk, but I can't just sit here." He said, matter of factly.

"Hey, I think someone alive down here!" Cole heard a very quiet voice. "It must be the Center." He thought. "I better get out of here." He started to crawl away from the center. "Oh wait, my bag." He remembered his bag and got it. After about a minute of dragging, he finally got out of the Center.

"Is anyone there?" Cole asked. Right after, he stuck his head out of the Center again, and heard it. The sound of air being pushed down with extreme force and speed. A helicopter.

He looked around and caught a glimpse of it. The black flying machine didn't look to great. Beat up and one of its step ladder thingies were torn off. It turned and shined its light on him.

"Hey, you there, can you stand?" The voice in the helicopter asked. Cole shook his head massively to make sure they could see him.

"Alright, well we can't land the helicopter in there, so we'll send in a team, all right? Just hang on. We'll get ya." They said.

Cole lay there waiting, wondering what that mysterious man gave him. It must have been some kind of bomb.

His phone rang, "huh? I thought it was gone. Oh wait, I forgot the Center does things like that." He thought as he reached over and grabbed it.

It was his best friend Aaron. "Aaron, hey." He said. "Cole? No shit, your ok?" He asked him. "Yeah man I'm good, more or less. Got a dead leg, but otherwise I'm pretty much fine." He responded. "Good, that's better than dead. Unlike a lot of people. Anyway, I'm at the bridge that connects the center district to the New Mane district, you comin?" Aaron asked. "Maybe, but I can't walk, so a copter landed and is sending a team in to get me, since tech is useless in the Center. You can meet me at the copter and ride to the hospital though." He told Aaron. "Alright, will do, I'll see you in a few minutes. Man it's good to hear your voice." He said and hung up.

About 15 minutes later, the copter team came in with a stretcher. They got Cole situated on the stretcher and set out to the helicopter.

Cole thought that the destruction would get better, but it didn't much better at all, almost all of the buildings were never going to be inhabited again. Except some of the smaller buildings on the outskirts of the district.

"Man, what the hell happened?" Cole asked one of the medical team. She told him that a bomb had almost wiped out the entire district, and that he was the only survivor found.

It was almost too much. Was it the orb? Was it me? He asked himself. But before he could think about it too much, they stuck him with a needle, and the world went black again.

"Cole? Cole? Hey, Cole, wake up brother." Cole opened his eyes and saw the blonde haired Aaron.

"Aaron?" Cole asked. "Yeah brother, it's me." Aaron responded. "Heh, nice scruff." Cole said. "Haha, thanks, that four days without a shave for ya." He said. "Wait, four days? How long was I out?" "Heh, let's just say long enough. They fixed your leg too." Aaron said.

That's when Cole looked around the room. It looked like a makeshift hospital, several beds. A case with some syringes, a couple windows scattered along the yellowish walls. Cole sat up just as a nurse came in.

"Mr. Wood?" She asked. "Oh come on, this isn't a professional place, Cole is fine." He said. "Alright, Cole. Well good new, you are good, great actually. But before you say anything, we found something in your blood." She said. "Well what is it?" Aaron asked for Cole. "Well, that's the thing... we don't know. When we ran your blood to test if any bomb particulate was in your blood, because if there was any your blood would have been poisoned. But anyhow, when we tested it we found an electrical anomaly." She finally said. "Wait so your telling me, that I have electricity stored in my blood?" Cole asked. "Not only your blood, but every cell in your body, especially your brain, we brought in the last expert in the city and you brain has at least thirty thousand times the amount of electricity a normal human does." She said. "Thirty thousand?" Cole and Aaron said together.

After a lengthy conversation with Aaron about what happened, Cole was released from the makeshift hospital.

"Ugh. Man my leg is sore." Cole moaned. "Yeah I'd bet, they had to push your bone back in and weld it to the rest of the bone. Your pretty damn lucky your walking." Aaron said. "Yeah." Cole said. "Well, let's go home yeah?" Cole said.

As Cole walked down the short hallway of the building, Aaron said, "Hey, I want you to be prepared, this isn't the city you remember." "What do you mean?" Asked Cole. "You'll see" he said.

Aaron reached the door and hesitated. He looked at Cole with a worried expression on his face and said, "Be prepared." And he opened the door.

"Woah." Cole said very surprised. The city was devastated. Trash was everywhere, all the people were either gone or dead. And those few who stayed and survived were mostly in what was left of their homes. Most of the cars were completely looted for gas and parts. Probably for some looters looking to forward themselves and make a gang. The buildings were almost all broken into, not one had been left alone. Some were definitely less damaged than others, but still looted.

"All this happened, from one bomb?" Cole asked. "No, but it was because of it." Aaron said. "What do you mean?" Cole asked. "I mean that gangs and looters are now running rampant. And a group called the "Trashers" did a lot of not most of what you see here." Aaron said, bleakly. "Wow, and how long did you say it's been again?" "It's been ten days after today." Aaron responded. "Ten days?! Holy shit. How is this done in ten days?!"

They start walking down the street heading towards Aaron's house, the only place of safety that he's experienced recently. Aaron waited a long time before responding to Cole previous question.

"You'd be surprised what people can do when they want it really bad."

They walked in silence down the street. As it started curving, Cole saw a lot of sparks fly in their direction.

"Woah! What was that?" Cole yelled. A power line came down and flew in their direction. "That was random." Aaron said, annoyed, "Now we've got to find a way around." "We do?" Cole asked. "Why not just go over it, it's easy enough to step over." Cole said as he walked over to the line. "Yeah I guess so. Hey look out, that lines still sparking!" Aaron hollered and pulled him away. "No need to kill yourself bro, just got you back." Aaron said. Cole could see the stress and worry from the past days in his face. This was really weighing on him.

Cole looked at him. Really looked at him, for the first time in awhile. His blonde caesars cut looked just like Coles, except for the fact that it was blonde and Coles was brown. His brown eyes didn't match his hair, or his face for that matter, his white skin seemed to pale in comparison to his hair, which almost seemed white even in the musky daylight. His eyebrows creased with worry. His nose was pretty big for his face. And his ears were pretty normal for ears.

"It's gonna be alright man, I promise." Cole said, with a slight smile on his face. "I don't have any plans on killing myself. If that makes you feel any better." He could see Aaron's face relax quite a bit. "Now, let's go home." Cole said.

Cole stepped over the power line and told Aaron to come on. Cole noticed that he dropped his phone somehow, next to the sparking power line.

"Hey Aaron I'll be right there, I dropped my phone." Cole said as he stepped back over the power line. He reached for his phone. *zap* The power line had shocked him.

"Ow." Cole said as he reached for his phone again, and again. But the power line kept zapping him.

"Damnit! Alright, I'm just gonna get it real fast this time. In and out" Cole thought to himself as he prepared to go back in.

Fast as he could, he went to grab his phone from the ground. But he never got there. The electricity did. And as soon as he reached his phone all the electricity that was in the power line arced through the air and into Cole.

"Aaaaah!" Cole yelled in pain. The electricity kept coming and coming.

"Cole!" Aaron hopped over the power line and tried to get Cole out from the electricity. But he just got blasted away by it as soon as he touched Cole.

Finally it stopped. The electricity was gone. Or was it? Cole looked down and saw it in his hands. Just swirling over his hands and arms. Waiting to be expelled.

"What the hell?"