The Fall of Honolulu

Mr. Zackson sat in his high room with a bill from the hospital charging for the implantation of nanodevices on a patent.

"He's going to owe me for this one," he smiled before signing the papers. "Ruby, I'm going to the pool. Care to join me?"

Mr. Zackson got up out of his chair and headed towards the door.

Ruby stood in shock to the side before making eye contact with Mr. Zackson.

"Um, I'd be glad to," she began to speed walk towards the door, holding a big grin on his face.

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Once out of the hospital and in the cabin, Jacob explained what happened in the recent events.

"So you're saying that Tiresias got captured by some slave traders, and you guys rescued him?"

We sat on the couch as I asked him.

"Yeah, Joseph was the one who found Tiresias," he clarified, "and got us all there."

"I see," I leaned back on the couch, turning my head and spotting Frenda hiding by the kitchen.

"Hey," I waved over with a smile. "I'm back; sorry if I worried you."

"Yeah," Jacob paused, "but where did you go? You were gone for a while. Some of us through you may have died on the other side."

Do I even tell him what I went through? Trying to explain it would be like describing something elaborate.

"I had to hunt some small creatures down, so it wasn't that big of a deal," I lied before looking back at Frenda, seeing that she hadn't moved an inch from where she stood, "it just took a long time."

"As long as you're alright, that's all that matters." Jacob finished before hearing a knock at the door.

"Hey, Frenda?" Her behavior began to weird me out, "are you ok?"

She slowly backed up as I approached her.

"Why do you smell like one of them?" Her voice quaked when saying that.

I paused for a moment.

What kind of smell do I have on me? Do I smell bad or something?

"Why is that smell on you?" She repeated, shifting her feet back with fear slowly growing on her face.

Is she talking about Vala? I still smell like Vala? She was strong, so could she have met someone like her before?

"What smell is she talking about?" Stella snuck up behind me and began sniffing me.

"You're a bit sweaty," she continued as she sniffed my neck a bit closer, pulling the back of my shirt to see if I still had the mark on my back. "But other than that, you smell alright."

"You... you smell like one of the monsters that look human but aren't," her voice quaked again as Stella approached her.

"Maybe," Stella struggled to keep herself from laughing, "Maybe she just doesn't like you anymore."

Stella picked up Frenda and carried her past me with a dumb grin on her face.

When I turned to look at Stella, I could see Frenda looking back at me with the same expression.

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Far off in the mountains of Honolulu, a deep violet portal slowly opened up, throwing the wind around and scattering any animals nearby.

One feminine hand poked out, then a whole person covered in a cloak, followed by four more behind her.

They all had the same outer light brown cloak and hoodie, covering everything but their hands and shoes.

Even with the sun out, the small shadows formed by their hoodies gave a glow to their different colored eyes.

"Remember the plan," A masculine voice said as the 4 of them turned to the figure with brown eyes. "We have a quota for 100 humans, 20 for each of us, but getting more is great."

"You got it, boss man," the first one that stepped out of the portal said, looking at him with her deep purple eyes.

"Please don't call me that," calmly replied brown eyes.

"Your lack of fight doesn't even make me want to go back and forth with you," she shot back, "so tragically boring."

She turned to another, seeing that they were staring off in the distance away from the group.

"Hey, Aviana," the purple eyes said as she wrapped her arms around her shoulder. "We should team up for this."

"N... No, my vines would only get in your way," her response was lethargic before turning to look at her.

"But then I wouldn't get to look into your pretty red eyes while we work." Purple eyes sounded happy before hearing another one of their teammate's shout.

"You two brace yourselves," they heard coming from blue eyes covered in a hoodie as they saw brown eyes ascending into the sky.

Without warning, Aviana summoned grape vines from the ground that restricted the movement of the four others.

"You could be a little less rough with that, Aviana," purple eyes said before getting herself comfortable.

Brown eyes took a moment to observe everything around him, and then it happened.

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A few fishermen stood on their boat, looking into the water, seeing all the tropical fish they could find as the current and wind slowly moved them.

"Huh," one of them shot out at the sudden calmness in the water and air.

"Hey, look at this one with the blue and yellow stripes."

"BOOM!!!"

A shockwave knocked the men off their feet, pushing them farther from the island. Even from a long distance away, they could see the island breaking apart, with new caverns forming that reached into the earth.

Pieces of the mountain rushed down the sides of it, some hitting homes, restaurants, hotels, bouncing down roadways, and making cars swerve out of the way and onto the sidewalks.

In the short moments after the initial boom, those on foot who weren't crushed, fallen into the many land holes, paralyzed by shock, or stood over the corpses of their loved ones, ran down towards the beach.

People in working cars could barely move as the people and holes created by the disaster made it impossible for them to move.

The metallic smell of blood mixed with the earthy air and burning gasoline filled the lungs of everyone around.

Kids, adults, the elderly, and babies screamed and cried, only occasionally getting muffled by the collapsing building around them.

Some of the larger land animals joined the rush down, ignoring the people around them as the danger faced by the land had completely blurred their thoughts.

Nature's and humanity's infrastructure were being tested.

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My vision was blurry for a few moments, ears filled with the sounds of rock crashing and breaking, followed by the cabin wood creaking and crashing in on itself.

I was on the ground. I could see the broken planks around me. My face felt wet and warm in parts, with red flakes falling off them with every move I made.

I looked around while only getting up to my knees.

I saw Ophelia struggling to crawl over to Jacob. Planks covered him up to his shoulders.

I saw a faint shutter in the plank pile in front of me.

"STELLA, FRENDA," I cried out, rushing to my feet before stumbling back down and frantically removing the planks with my whole arms.

I dragged out Stella, shaking shoulders, waking her up as she coughed out the dust she had inhaled.

Before saying anything else, I rushed back to the pile, digging and digging until I pulled out Frenda.

"What the hell is going on?" Stella's voice sounded raspy before coughing again.

I turned to see her eyes widen at the condition of Jacob and Ophelia.

She struggled to get up but began walking over to help both of them on the ground.

I shook Frenda over and over before feeling a boost in my energy.

Frenda woke up moments later coughing as Stella had.

I carried her out of the cabin through a big hole that ran through it all.

"C'mon, let's get outside of here," I told them as I saw them helping Jacob up as he grunted.

Once outside, I saw all the other homes going down towards the beach in shambles. Fires had started around them. Some remaining walls splattered with blood.

Some people were too shocked to move. Others cried over the crushed bodies of their loved ones. Few put every ounce of their strength into running away from all the chaos.

I froze, observing it all.

My breath deepened as I briefly smelled the wood, grass, dirt, and even a hint of the salty sea before the irritating smoke filled my lungs.

"MAX!"

Jacob shouted from the big gaping hole in the side of our cabin supported by Stella and Ophelia.

He limped on one leg while the other entirely was exposed with many fresh scars.

"Snap out of it!"

He slowly turned his head to the sight as I watched his eyes freakishly widen.

"Dear God..." Stella replied after turning her head as well.

Ophelia remained silent. She looked like she was ready to pass out at any moment.

She must have spent all of her mana healing all of us.

Jacob shook his head before clicking his tongue. "Let's get to safety first."

As the three of them passed me, I felt watched.

Not the kind of feeling that was only a hunch, but one that made it clear I was supposed to know that someone was watching.

Something or someone wanted my attention.

I set Frenda down as she coughed.

"What? Where are you going?" I heard her say as I turned to the forest behind me.

There it was, the thing staring me down with its two shiny red iris', fully covered by a light brown cloak.