V1-031

Unsurprisingly, I heard some shuffling behind, followed by a couple of strained grunts, which brought a thin smile to my lips.

There was no way our old man would leave Renton and Me alone at this time, so the moment we left, he followed the two of us outside.

"You boys are idiots sometimes, you know that, right?" Dad complained as he pulled himself through the shattered window and joined us outside in the middle of the road.

"I'd rather meet death head-on than cower in a boarded-up apartment waiting for who knows how many bombs to rain down from above," I said while looking from my watch, which read 01:45, to the sky, where I could see multiple trails of smoke off in the distance, along with a pinprick sized fireball.

To my right, Renton grunted in agreement with my statement.

"As is the Fairaday way, I suppose." Dad Chimed in as he stepped between Renton and me and placed an arm around both of our shoulders.

The three of us together had seen enough in the past day to make just about any average person go crazy, yet here we were, standing in the middle of the road, looking up at the sky the same way we used to when the space Shuttles launched back when we were kids.

"You know, I was just thinking this is what I used to do with you boys back when the shuttles would launch, remember?" Renton and I laughed, acknowledging we were thinking the same thing.

"You know, I was just thinking this is what I used to do with you boys back when the shuttles would launch, remember?" Renton and I laughed, acknowledging we were thinking the same thing.

"Don't worry; I'm not gunna say any sappy shit right now; there's no need for it anymore, and it would only serve to cause unnecessary emotions."

"However, I will say that I'm pissed about the house; come on, guys, did you have to have a full-blown firefight at home? You should have gone next door maybe that damn dog that always barks would have been shut up after all these years." Dad said while leaning forward and shooting the two of us a fake glare, causing Renton and me to laugh.

Here we were, about to be hit by a ballistic missile, and he was still scolding us for trivial things like the apartment being a mess.

Unfortunately, our moment of peace was shattered by an annoying high-pitched beeping, as my watch indicated there was only one minute left on the timer.

"Do you guys think it's too much to believe this whole thing is just a bad prank?" Renton asked with a weak hope in his heart.

"You know, at this point, I'd be a little disappointed, all this hype and build-up with nothing to show for it, well, except for the body count we racked up earlier," I pointed towards the mound of corpses hidden under what used to be clean white linens, something either Chase or Tristian had done after I went inside.

Furrowing his eyebrows, my Dad upturned his nose and sniffed the air.

"I was wondering what that smell was, Jesus; how many did you drop?" he asked us.

"I'm going to ignore that we are all taking this so lightly. We killed people, and here we are talking about it so casually," Renton interjected with a cough of embarrassment.

"Let's be honest with ourselves here, Ren; we may very well be standing on the place that will become our future grave, so how about we not think about that kinda thing right now," Dad said, smacking me in the back of the head for even bringing the topic up.

"I love how casual we are right now; you'd figure we would all be huddled on the floor hugging each other and crying, but no, we are just sitting here talking about whatever comes to mind." Rubbing the back of my head, where Dad had smacked, I looked at my watch for twenty seconds and then returned to the sky.

It had finally come into view, dashing all hopes of all this being a horrible prank. They both saw it when I did, and their faces got serious, ad the reality of our situation finally set in.

That was about the time that my silly side came out; after all, even with death approaching, I had to be my weirdo self in that final moment,

"Oi, little brother, I can still rep more than you; it looks like I finally get to keep my title unchallenged. Hehe, and STILL, THE UNDISPUTED!" I said with a bit of theatrics, drawing an instant reaction from Renton.

"BULL SHIT, I can bench three times more than those pitiful numbers you put up last week! Renton shouted while getting in my face.

Flabbergasted by the antics we were showcasing, our Dad, like he had a million times over the years, grabbed us both by the back of the neck and forced us to go stiff.

"ARE YOU TWO SERIOUSLY ARGUING RIGHT NOW? EVEN AT THE WORLD'S END, I CANT GET A MOMENT OF GODDAMN PEACE AROUND HERE!" He yelled as the missile's fire trail came fully into sight.

"Hahaha, come off it, Dad; at the end of the day, we will always act like this; why would the end of the world make our attitudes any different!" I said, falling into a fit of laughter.

Joining me in my laughter, Renton and I grabbed each other's forearms, placed our free hand on our Dad's shoulder, and grinned cockily.

Meanwhile, Dad gave us a confused look, but half a second later, he realized what we were about to say, and even though he wasn't a Marine like the two of us, he still joined in one last time.

"Hah, you Marines and your fucking catchphrase, I am getting too old for this shit." With a grumble and palming his face, my Dad shot us a cheesy smile and hugged Renton and Me to his sides.

"The three of us are meeting Death head-on, sigh; why the hell not?" With a shrug of his shoulders, Dad allowed me to kick things off.

"ONWARD TO VALHALLA, LITTLE BROTHER, FATHER, FAIRADAY'S OUT, OO-RAH!" I chanted loudly as Renton and Dad responded with Fairaday's out, Oo-rah.

As we finished our little moment, the weapon of mass destruction approached and lined up in the sky for its final destination, the heart, and Center of our metropolitan city.

The Three of us watched silently as the ball of fire with a smoke trail rapidly sped forward at a downward angle before; eventually, it disappeared behind one of the skyscrapers dotting the horizon.

Part of me expected to hear a boom or even feel a shock wave, but that didn't happen.

No, all we saw at first was the trailing cloud descending, and all we heard was an eerie silence; then…instead of an expected explosion, we were greeted with a massive flash of rainbow-colored light.

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