Waking(10)

I closed my eyes, bracing for the impact. I felt the energy rush into me.

My eyes shot back open as I willed the chittering noise into existence and for the second that energy passed through me, I wasn't human, I wasn't alive. I had become lightning. The energy could do nothing to me in this state. I had the upper hand and I would destroy this energy. I willed the energy outwards.

BZZZZTTTT

CHITTER 

CHITTTER

My lightning branched out trying to eviscerate the green energy wave. Its destructive power evident. Radiating enough heat to burn through anything in its path. A pure, unadulterated force of nature.

Nothing could stand its wrath.

My wrath.

The web of lightning had reached the green wave the same instant as when it had left my body.

And it just passed through.

My lightning just branched past the wave and crashed into the office wall blasting a huge wall into it and melted the metal supports in the building.

How? How had I failed in destroying it? Was it impossible to destroy?

THUD

CLINK

CLANK

My heart dropped. My mind went blank as I felt completely human again, completely drained.

Drunk on my new found power, I failed to notice the children. My family. I wanted to look downwards. Toward the sound of things falling. But my body would not listen.

I was holding onto some of the kids. I tried to feel for their warmth. There was nothing. I wasn't even holding a person. 

My eyes slowly fell. 

My hands just held clothes.

THUD

CLINK

CLANK

There were just clothes on the ground, coin pendants and a 3 crystals on the ground. 

I frantically looked under the clothes for anyone. I knew there could be no one there. They were probably teleported somewhere. That would make sense. That's why they didn't leave behind any physical parts of their body.

My eyes fell on the crystals. I reached out to them. They were green, grey and silver. Woken crystals. 

And my hopes shattered and I fell to my knees.

Woken crystals were vestiges of power from the Waking left behind when they died.

They were all dead. 

I failed once again.

My tears fell on the crystals. 

My grip on them loosened as they fell to the ground. 

I felt dead inside. 

Why had I not died alongside them? Why had I survived? What could I achieve? I had no one now. No family, no home, no one to care about or care for. 

I cried staring at the ceiling. I had no one to hide my tears from. The knot in my throat was painful. It hurt, I clawed at my throat. I let out minimal sounds. Saliva filling up my mouth. I stayed in the same position for hours.

I kept crying until tears stopped falling. The knot stayed.

I looked down now and I choked up again.

Spiel's clothes were on the ground.

Spiel. The poor baby. He didn't even understand what was going on. He never got to the point where he could think for himself, he couldn't even have a chance at Waking. He could have achieved so much. I loved him. My little brother.

I teared up again and the knot grew.

The green crystal.

James. His barrier hadn't worked either. My brother, my friend, my family. He would have had a better life than me. He was ambitious and smart. 

The tears came again. The knot grew more.

The grey crystal.

Stark. 

He looked upto me. My little brother. He worked extremely hard to reach me. I wasn't even a Physical. He truly believed me and I betrayed him.

The knot grew more bigger.

The silver crystal.

Zen.

He resembled me in thinking, he was smart and resourceful to survive himself. The world loved people like that. They were always successful.

The knot in my throat hurt even more now.

I looked at all the clothes around me. All my family. I had a connection to each of them. I loved all of them.

Memoried gushed as I saw their clothes.

Shen, he was supposed to go to central. He had everything cut out for him. Why had they not tried to save him at least?

The other babies, they were the littlest of us, barely able to form proper sentences, why did they not get a chance.

It was all my fault. I couldn't protect them. Instead of protecting them, I tried to destroy the energy. I could have helped them survive.

The knot in my throat was too painful to bare and soon I couldn't breathe. I gasped for air. My nose now blocked. My mouth taking in air, but I couldn't feel anything. My eyes widened and I felt my ears pop. My heartbeat had become extremely fast as I started hyperventilating. I had started sweating heavily now. My hands reached toward my throat, pressing it. An attempt at releasing the knot, or an attempt at ending my life.

Then I blacked out.

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I did not know when I woke up. I knew a part of me died alongside them. My goal throughout my entire life was to be truly happy. That wasn't the case now. That dream died with them. I knew I could never be happy after this. That emotion would never return. Anger and hate is all that could replace them, anger and hate toward the world... and toward me.

I got up and picked up everyone's clothes. Their pendants fell. And I noticed something. There was something stuck to some of the pendants. I dropped the clothes and picked them up. Skin, Flesh and blood was stuck to it. Everyone who had the pendants inside their clothes had not been fully evaporated. I collected all the pendants and peeled off the flesh and skin from whichever had them.

I grabbed all the clothes along with the flesh and walked outside the office. I saw Mama's and Jackal's bodies there. 

I walked past them and into the courtyard outside. I knelt and started digging with my hands. The sun was back up now. Its heat, now uncompletely ineffective. I dug until a sizable hole formed. The flesh went in first and the clothes followed. I filled the hole back up.

Then I made my way to the front of the orphanage. I grabbed the signboard and yanked it out. I place the signboard in behind the hole in which I buried the remains of my family.

I sat and stared at the board, my outward appearance was calm but my thoughts were a mess.

I stared back up at the sun. It didn't hurt at all now. Tears didn't come. I had nothing left to cry about. I don't think I would ever cry again. Nothing was worth crying about now.

The orphanage didn't seem like home anymore, that was all I could think about as I walked back in.

Both Mama's and Jackal's bodies were still there. The energy didn't evaporate them. It made sense how I alone survived. It only targeted those who were alive. Mama and Jackal had died before the wave and hence their bodies remained intact. I turned into lightning and in technicality was not alive. 

I tooks Mama's handheld device and unlocked it using her biometrics and changed it to mine. I then switched off all connections from and to the device.

Even then, how did I turn into pure energy and survive? If I did not have a brain to conciously make decisions, how did I think of destroying the wave and attempt to do it. The laws of physics would not allow me to do that. Well, generally thinking, the laws of physics should have been in play when we fought Jackal but he was still able to create massive amount of bones and continually manipulate them.

This had gotten me thinking now, even James, how could he create barriers. He was a Mat but that didn't answer the question of 'How'. Maybe the fundamental force behind the Waking for different and could not be quantified using traditional thinking.

I kept thinking about this as I lifted Mama's body and buried her next to the others. 

"I failed again Mama. I couldn't get them out in time. I promise I will take revenge on everyone responsible for what happened. Just wait and see." I apologized to her one last time. I won't sit around and feel bad for myself. I had a new goal to achieve. One that did not involve protection. One where I could only prioritize destroying everyone and everything involved in the deaths of my family.

Walking into the underground room, I found a couple displays and a large truck. I checked out the truck. It was a large one. A Jager vehicle. Jager was the largest Millican corporation. It was the largest because, like the Cataclysm, the "Evolved" Jager Flogassen created it. The Evolved was one of the strongest alongside the Cataclysm. A peek inside it revealed a fully movable home, a form of an recreational vehicle. It could have fit all twenty of us.

I looked at the GPS in it and set it to the Desolate lands. Mama had told us to go there and just survive. The desolate lands was just a jungle. Contrary to its name, it was lush and beautiful. The reason it was called the desolate lands was simple, humans could never occupy it. It was basically a kingdom of animals, monsters and beasts. Mama probably wanted us to make a living on the outskirts of the lands but I would go further, I would get stronger.

I put the displays and some of the spare large batteries and fuel into the Jager. I did not need the batteries, since I could charge anything with my ability but just to be safe I brought a few.

Before leaving I just had one more thing to do. I needed to start investigating the project that had caused this disaster. I needed to go to the centre of the town and do some searching. People usually took videos of things like statue reveals and there is bound to be a few phones left there. I could even get security footage.

Thinking further, I shouldn't get caught by any cameras in town. That would be painting a target on my back. As far as the authorities know, everyone in this town is dead and moving in open view might be the biggest mistake I could make.

Considering that fact that I wasn't a Physical now, I did not know what I would be classified as, I showed properties of both Mods and Mats. Anyway, I can just use electricity to short out the cameras in the entire town and then I could move in the open.

And I did just that. As I got to closer to the centre, I saw all the clothes littered across the ground. There were a couple personal devices but they were all locked. I couldn't check for videos if they weren't open. I walked and the open box came into my view. It was completely empty. No statue. That meant that the wave was probably released by the box itself. I still needed to confirm this assumption. I went through all the clothes around me. Surprisingly, there were no Woken crystals. 

"Suspicious..." I muttered.

Even though they were quite rare, It didn't make sense for there to be none when so many people died. That wasn't statistically possible.

I found a few phones without passcodes and checked them for videos. There was one. It showed the person inside. A boy my age, pale green hair, large headset and sunglasses. 

[[

"Hello!!" He said as he got up and stretched. "I am here with a gift for you. Be excited. Central wants you all to.... any guesses?"

"Wants us to move to Central?"

"No.."

"Wants us to receive more supplies?"

"No... They want you all to DIE. So, goodbye everyone."

]]

The video continued for a little longer but it just showed the ground after its owner died.

This was my enemy. A Waking one. I would make sure he suffered as he died. I would avenge not only the orphans but everyone in this town. They were nice to us, most of them anyway. They didn't deserve to go out this way.

I took a photo or my enemy on Mama's device and deleted the video on this phone. I couldn't take any chances.

The clothes litered the way back. I looked around me, taking in this environment for possibly the last time before I left. I packed my clothes into a suitcase and carried it down to the Jager. I then brought food from the fridge and whatever edible item lasted longer than a week. I ransacked the place for money and took everything from Mama's safe and whatever the orphans had collected and hid in various corners of the place. Finally, I collected all the pendants and put them into a little box and carried it into the Jager and set the destination to the desolate lands.

I brought the pendants and the ladle Mama used to launch at us, with me as keepsakes of my family. A way to remember them as I started my journey.

I pressed the button in front of the vehicle,

RUMBLE

The massive doors in front of the Jager opened and I saw a tunnel that led to a ramp that would take me outside.

I started the Jager and I left.

The tunnel led me right outside the town. I kept staring back at the town.

"I'm sorry." I whispered one last time.