From Dawn to Dusk

--Alexia's Perspective--

I was healing people in the bunker when Sky left, along with everybody else. Hiyochi was in dire need of assistance, as strands were the only thing healing people since all of her supplies were destroyed in the explosion.

Things were looking gloomy, and I wasn't sure what to do. I was a very capable fighter, especially with my ability, but I wanted to help keep people alive above all else.

As I spent about three more minutes administering whatever strands I could, I started to think about the fight between Carl and Cynthia. His skill has explosively improved... I never regarded him as somebody that capable, as the default thought was anybody that couldn't use strands would just die in the end, but Carl pushed back against that, and it felt like something was changing within me.

It gave me the motivation to push forward, to heal, and to use strands even when it hurts. I pushed more strands into patients, when finally, Fudo came up behind me.

"Alexia, I need help searching for people in destroyed buildings. The majority of Quake's fighting has been located outside of the city, so Alatus and I are moving to the rescue squad. Are you in?" Fudo asked. He held out his hand to me. It sounded like a rhetorical question, and that I should just take his hand... but at the same time, that was something I wanted to do after I healed everybody.

"Just let me get everybody here stable, then Hiyochi can handle the rest and I'll join you," I told him, only focusing on healing more people.

Sky could do this so much better than I could... if the wound wasn't visible on the outside, it took me three times as long to heal them, and it already took me around a minute to heal one person if there were just scrapes. I wondered, what was his secret?

Fudo and Alatus waited around for me, helping Hiyochi where they could by moving some things and setting up more stations. Eventually, Alatus even found extra supplies in the bunker left over from a long time ago. Nothing expired, so it was all thankfully put to use.

After about ten more minutes of healing and pure fatigue, I stood up, ready to go search for people in the buildings.

"What do you mean that Quake's fights are all outside of the city? Who's still fighting?" I asked Fudo.

"Well, we heard reports that Noboki is fighting Fico on her own, Sky and Dani are searching for Cole, and Illya is slowly regaining her stamina somewhere," He replied to me, adjusting his hair so it stayed out of his eye.

"What about my brother... Belle? Boo? Have they returned yet?" I asked him next. He unfortunately shook his head while looking at the ground.

"Not yet. I know, you've been asking for a while, but we have to have faith in them. They'll return, I know they will," Fudo replied. I found a new sense of motivation after that, and stood up, making my way to the door.

"I want to rescue everybody I can until they return. So, let's go. You're ready, right?" I asked both him and Alatus. They both nodded and we quickly left.

Our first stop was the collapsed landing pad for the ship that brought us here. The ship was destroyed so we couldn't evacuate in the case a small number of us needed to, so we were truly trapped in Zealous until everything came to an end. In this mess of stone, metal railings, and the broken pieces of the ship, there stood a lot of building materials still unscathed in the case they were needed.

No people were around, so we ignored that spot, and moved to the next.

The restaurant, which served all of the Arkians free food every day was next. It had a giant crater in the top from another collapsed building, and most of the windows had been shattered. I had no idea what ruined it like that other than the building, because the windows should've been intact.

Within the restaurant were two people, both trapped under the main pillar that spanned across the length to keep the supports stable and standing.

I shrunk the pillar with my ability, and both Fudo and Alatus helped them out.

"Are you okay? Any injuries? Where are you hurt?" They asked in tandem, seeing if the people were hiding a potentially fatal injury.

"They're good. Can you make it back fine?" Alatus asked next. The two people, a young man and an older woman, replied that they were fine, and started to limp back.

Why were they here, of all places? Everybody had so much time to evacuate, but a good ten percent of the people hid in their homes. Did they not believe the threat? Were they unfortunately unlucky, and missed their window of opportunity?

To me, it seemed wrong that their lives solely depended on luck, which was why I was out here in the first place. I wanted to make things right, and fixing what I can here is one way I saw fit.

I rose pillars and tried to clear the restaurant, creating small shelters out of the debris in case it was necessary.

"Ready to move to the next?" I asked Fudo.

I felt like we would be at this for a very long time.

The next building we checked was the collapsed one that fell on the restaurant. This one was simple to enter, as we just climbed the length of the building that fell into the restaurant, and then investigated the innards.

It seemed stable overall on the floors underneath the collapsed top, and it was protected from above, so overall trustworthy.

I climbed into a small, dark room to see a person hiding under a blanket. They were rocking back and forth, mumbling something. The voice seemed... masculine.

"Hey, I'm friendly, are you alright?" I asked it.