Chapter 11: No more Vaughie

Ryan's heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. He could feel something flowing from his ear. The sharp cone barely missed his head and managed to penetrate the wall behind him. The knife on the other hand was lodged into the cranonian's chest.

The cranonian collapsed onto the floor with it's arm hanging on the wall. Ryan pulled the knife out and went towards Wikkie. He circled around the fight until he faced the leader's back. He slowly moved forward and jumped at the leader.

Ryan quickly stabbed the knife into the leader's shoulder and Wikkie took this chance to stab it in the stomach. The staff fell from the leader's hand to the ground. Ryan removed the knife and Wikkie took out the lighter.

"Quickly destroy the engine. I will go help Cassidy," Ryan said and rushed off towards Cassidy and the lion. Wikkie placed the three bottles next to each other and lit the bandages. He picked up the bottles and threw it at the engine.

"Oh, you're done," Cassidy said as she saw Ryan approaching. She looked over her shoulder at the lion running behind her and did a backflip. She landed on the lion's back and stabbed it in the neck. The lion tried getting her off but it soon collapsed.

BOOM!! An explosion came from the engine. Ryan looked over and saw it was on fire. Energy Core has been severely damaged. Self-destruct sequence activated. Ryan, Wikkie and Cassidy ran out of the room and moved to the exit.

Thirty seconds left. Wikkie was at the front, followed by Cassidy and Ryan at the back. They were by the exit when something grabbed Ryan's arm and threw him on the ground. His body smashed into the ground and he spit up blood.

A cranonian was about to stab him with it's claw when a sword penetrated it's body and it got kicked off of Ryan. Vaughie pulled Ryan to his feet and shoved him towards the exit. "Move. I got your back," Vaughie said as he looked on at another cranonian rushing to them.

Ryan quickly got out of the spaceship and moved to the place he saw Wikkie at. Five seconds…four…three…Vaughie got to the exit and rushed out. Ryan looked back and saw a hand appearing from the ship and grabbing Vaughie's arm.

Ryan saw the face of the cranonian leader that was supposed to be dead. It pulled Vaughie back into the ship just as the countdown ended. KABOOM!!! The explosion caused Ryan to fly backwards before crashing into the ground again.

Ryan looked at the flames inside and outside of the ship. "VAUGHIE!!!" Willy's voice echoed through the silence followed by the others'. Ryan slowly got to his feet and looked to the others. Willy and The Ai was crying. Wikkie and Clifford looked lost. Dawg was on his knees with his hands in the dirt.

The three girls also had tears in their eyes. There were a lot of kids too. They were also crying. Ryan didn't know what to feel. He was the one that made the plan. There were other ways but he thought it would be an adventure.

A sense of guilt overcame Ryan as he looked at everyone. He was thinking of what to do in this situation when the pain in his chest started acting up. He tried calling out to Wikkie but his eyes could only see darkness.

***

Ryan could feel the presence of people around him. He couldn't see clearly but he could hear a few sentences. "Is he still in the red zone, doc?" a guy Ryan could see wearing black asked. He tried looking to the other person.

"Barely. He is lucky that the broken bones didn't enter his heart or lungs," a man with an old voice, wearing something white answered. Ryan tried to listen more but his head started ringing and his eyes automatically closed.

***

"Oh! You're finally awake," Ryan looked at the girl holding a bunch of flowers. Ryan had no idea what type of flowers it was but he knew who the girl was. "Hey Rebecca," Ryan replied. He didn't know what to say and then he remembered the explosion.

"Vaughie! What happened to Vaughie?!" Ryan tried to sit up. Rebecca placed the flowers on a table and pushed him back down. She then started explaining what happened after he collapsed and unfortunately, Vaughie wasn't alive.

The explosion caused the cranonians to flock to the ship. The cranonians surrounded them and they had a hard time trying to keep the kids safe. Just when the cranonians attacked, armored trucks with military men appeared and killed all of them.

They were then taken to a stronghold. Ryan was sent to the nearest clinic and the others were sent to a stronghold in Caledonia since their families were there. The kids were also sent to their different families. Vaughie's funeral was a week ago.

Ryan was asleep for two weeks. In this time there has been no signs of things going back to the way they were. "I should probably let the doctor know you're awake," Rebecca said before leaving Ryan in the room with his thoughts.

What now? Willy's little sister is saved and Vaughie is dead. On top of that, what is the new normal? Just before Ryan could think anything else, a guy in a white lab coat entered the room. He looked at a clipboard in his hands before looking at Ryan.

"So our little miracle is awake. You know, anyone else who had the same injury as you would have died. That makes you quite interesting," the doctor's eyes were a shade of red, like someone that hasn't slept in a while.

Three nurses came into the room with a lot of medical tools. Ryan could feel his stomach churning. He has seen movies where the person gets 'examined' by the crazy doctor. It usually ends up with a lot of blood everywhere.

"Don't worry. I just want to make sure that your body is fully healed," the doctor said as his eyes became a bit redder.