She sat silently on an old oak stump just off to the side of the road, she was looking intently up towards the sky, the year's first snow was just starting to gently float down from the heavens. As she was looking towards the grey canvas above her a large flake landed upon her nose and stuck there. She dropped her head down and blinked cross-eyed, confused at the white tuff on the tip of her nose. As she stared closely she watched as the crystalline structure of the flake start to break down and tun to water from the heat of her body.
Once the flake had turned entirely to water and dripped from her nose the almost oblong triangular antenna's on temples of her head twitched inquisitively. She laid her antenna straight back the way a bunny would their ears as she squatted down and inspected the dark spot in the dirt the droplet had landed. Her antennas popped up and twitched slightly as she heard a rumbling noise coming towards her from down the big black line to her left. She stood and walked over to the center of the line and looked in the direction of the rumbling noise. As a large rounded rectangular object crested a hill about 1000 meters down the road she cocked her head to the right and stared at it intently wanting to find out what this thing that was rushing towards her was. The snow was still falling all over her and was now coming down even thicker.
He sat in silence in the middle back seat of his fathers old beat up car as it skated down the road. He was exhausted as his father had just taken him out for his 12th birthday. He looked down at his lap at the board his father had bought for him. It was a about 4 ft long and the shape of a coffin with a flare at the back end that swept up. There was a navy-blue border around the whole thing and a HN stylized logo on center of it. On the underside of the board at the front there was a large circle with a smaller circle that served as the main Wave Conversion Drive for the board that function off the zealot radiation waves that were spread all over the world's skies. On the rear of the board were two fins that canted out towards the rear and in between them was a smaller WCD that helped counter the force of the front WCD. He rubbed the board gingerly. His dad couldn't afford much, but he had saved enough to buy him a board of his very own. Yes, it may have been a full-size board, but that just allowed him to grow into it over time. His father looked in the mirror at him and smiled happy that his song looked so happy.
"Did you enjoy today Finn?" he asked hopefully.
Finn nodded enthusiastically he was quite exhausted they had been out on the hill for most of the day even eating lunch out there because they didn't want to head home just yet. Finn had done a really good job for his first time. Although he thought to give most of the props for such a smooth time to his dad who had been riding the radiation waves for nearly 20 years and had even competed in some competitions. He wanted to be as good as his dad was to make him proud; he only wished his dad had given him lessons when he was younger, but for some reason his dad had refused to teach him until now even though he started around the age of 10.
"Thanks for finally taking me out today dad! You even got me my own board for my birthday! This has been a great birthday!" he said with every ounce of enthusiasm as he had in him. "Are we still going to visit mom today?" he said hopefully he only got to visit his mom once a year on his birthday. It was usually to painful for his dad to take him out to his mom's grave.
His dad looked back at him again through the mirror with a little hidden sadness but smiled at Finn anyways.
"Of course, bud! We will go visit mom today just for you!" he said with a big smile on his face. He was still looking at Finn as they started to crest a hill towards the grave yard that was the next right turn.
"DAD WATCH OUT!" Finn screamed at his dad as he saw something in the middle of the road right in front of them.
Finn's dad whipped his head to the front and just caught a glimpse of the small human in front of his car who was impossibly close to the car. Without even thinking he grabbed the steering and threw it to the left much to hard in an effort to avoid the little girl. The tires lost traction for a split second and only caught traction once again when the tires were fully turned left, which caused the tires to seize and stopped the front end of the vehicle on a dime. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that the rear of the car wanted stopped as well, rather it did quite the opposite. The rear of the car went up and over sending the car flipping through the air.
As Finns entire world turned upside down time seemed to slow down b. He held onto the board in his lap but, everything else started to slowly fly around the car's interior. Juice flew from its holder across his face and smashed into the window. The few tools that were in the back of the car flew up and bounced off the roof and around the cabin a couple other places. There were coins and toys, and trash flying slowly about him but, his head was looking towards the sunroof which was now facing towards the ground. His eyes met the eyes of a girl about the same age as him. The eyes he saw were grey like the morning dawn. Not completely colorless but they lacked any sort of feeling or humanity. After he lost contact with the eyes of the girl every seemed to speed up to catch up to the normal time until his dads board form the rear of the car came flying forward and smashed into his head. Everything went black.
The car rolled multiples times flipping different directions from a barrel rolls, to end over end, diagonal and spinning. Every window on the car was smashed in and there wasn't a smooth point on the entire car. It rolled for a solid 100 meters and eventually slammed into a tree front first. Everything was quiet after that. There were no birds, the insects were quiet all was still. Finn laid unconscious for a long while. He was awakened by a poking on his nose, he noticed at first as he slept it was like a tiny nudge at the back of his mind, and eventually it moved to the for front and started to annoy him. Again, and again he was poked. He swatted at the feeling a couple of time until he finally forced his eyes open and looked up at the pestering poke.
He squinted and strained as his eyes opened, he was immediately greeted by a throbbing headache. He reached up to his head to rub it and felt warm fluid on his scalp. As he pulled his hand from his head and looked at it he saw that his hand was covered in a sticky red fluid. Blood, he thought. He felt queasy for a moment but managed to swallow it down and started to look around. He noticed that was lying flat on his back. As he turned to his right to get up his eyes met once more with the grey eyes of the girl that had caused the car to take that awful tumble. He stared into the eyes intently for a minute getting a good look at them. They were like no other eyes he had ever seen, to most people who looked into her eyes they would just see an exotic eye of a strange looking girl. However, as Finn laid there and stared up into them he started to notice that they were not all that natural but, synthetic. For starters instead of having just the white of the sclera, iris and pupil she had a fourth section in the very interior of iris that emitted a very soft blue glow. It wasn't large, nor was it particularly bright, but if someone looked deeply into her eyes it was visible. He also noticed that the pupil wasn't a perfect circle. Rather it was gear shaped with 6 distinct teeth and there were lines cutting it apart very similar to that of a cameras shutter. It was very subtle almost unnoticeable. In the space between the pupil and the iris there was a fifth color, a darker grey then that of the iris, but not quite as dark as the pupil. Finn was locked into the eyes, he felt unable to break away from how beautiful and complicated they were. Only when the girl cocked her head to the right did he break eye contact and look at the rest of her.
She was kneeling next to and leaning over him, just watching curiously yet she had a bored look on her face. She cocked her head to the left now, much like a dog would when trying to understand what a certain noise was. As he stared at her he noticed a few things, first off, she couldn't be any older then he was although she stood probably just under his chin based off her proportions. He also noticed that she was covered head to toes in freckles with and extra-large contingency of freckles resting on the bridge of her nose and down her checks. It took him a minute to notice but once he did he became very rigid and his face started to become very flush red. She was wearing almost no clothing what so ever. All she had on was a pair of short black spandex shorts made of a strange fabric he hadn't seen before. They extended just below the crease of her hip. Over her chest were two black equilateral triangles that were about 4 inches on each side. They covered up her chest and seemed to be made of the same material as the shorts she was wearing. How they were being held on was far beyond him. He shot up and twisted at the same time slipping out from under her. She sat back on her on her heels now still watching him as if he was a strange new animal.
Finn had sat up a little to fast as he became very nauseous and his head became very dizzy. He propped himself up with his arms out stretched behind him and swallowed very hard this time, trying to keep his lunch down in the pits of his stomach. He had closed his eyes waiting for his head to clear up and the nausea to pass him by.
When he opened his eyes again he had forgotten that she was mostly naked and so his face became bright red once more and he looked away from her. He sat there a moment and when she didn't move or speak he turned his head back towards her and looked at her closely once more. The first thing he noticed was her hair. It was a bright turquoise color, almost the same color of that of the light in her eyes only a little brighter in shade. Her hair was so long that as she was kneeling there before him the ends were resting on the ground. It was all loose with a large stand coming over her shoulder and hanging down the front of her torso. On either side of her head there were two egg shaped mounds. The mounds hidden amongst the mass of hair. The smaller end towards the rear with a glowing blue line. On the larger end of the mound there was an almost complete circle with a line entering it very similar to that of a power button, both of these, the lines and the circle were glowing softly with the same blue that was in her eyes. Connected to the mounds was something a little more interesting to him, on either side of her head were two large trapezoids that had a larger end and a smaller end they are about 10 inches long, three inches wide near the base and tapered down to about an inch at the tip. The larger end was connected at the corner to the mound at some sort of rotating joint. At the smaller end there were two diagonal lines that again shared that same soft glow of blue. The points twitched often as if looking for a sound, or a signal of some sort. They reminded him a lot of bunny ears and he laughed slightly at this strange girl. The last thing he noticed was a large black cable that was coming out from under her rear-end. It had a silver tip about 2 inches long that seemed to be a connection point of some kind. As he was staring at the cord it twitched a little as if it were a tail. He blinked shocked and confused at what was going on.
The snow was still falling, it had picked up slightly and Finn started to notice that he was cold and that if he was cold this girl must have been freezing he pulled himself onto his feet and walked over to her. He pulled off his outer jacket, a simple black over coat with a 3-inch red stripe bisecting the jacket just under the armpit and held it out for her. She didn't move to grab it though she just rocked her head the other way once more and stared up at his eyes.
"Take it." He said a little as shook it out to her to grab. Still she didn't make a move to grab it from him. He let out a heavy sigh and walked over to her and threw the jacket around her shoulders gently. She made a confused face and once she felt the warmth that resided in it form Finn she quickly stuck her arms through the holes, wrapped her arms around herself and snuggled into it. It almost seemed to Finn that she was smelling it. He reached out and took her hand in his to help her to his feet; as their hands touched for the first time a shock like static electricity but it was warming and explosive. It was a sort of feeling that shot straight to his heart, it shot through him. Finn looked at the girl and she stared at him not showing any emotion in the slightest. Not even the little bit of curiosity that had been present earlier.
He had expected her hand to be freezing, but to his surprise her hand was very warm as if she had just pulled them back from a fire. He held it for a moment and felt the warmth spread through him as if he was a flower bursting through the snow in early spring as it drank in the sun for the first time after a long winter. Finn then pulled off a black, grey, and white striped scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around her. It as a lot of fabric around this small girl's frame. He couldn't help but smile at her, she stared at him and blinked awkwardly for a moment and then tried to reproduce the smile. It was a very unnatural smile and seemed slightly forced and a little painful. Finn laughed out loud and the girl dropped her smile and went back to her straight expressionless face. He had never seen such an awkward girl in his life. As he turned around he was greeted by the display of a crumpled and crippled car. He squeezed the girl's hand tight as if for support as he remembered what had happened.
"DAD!" he screamed as he ran over to the wrecked car to look for his dad, he still held onto the girl's hand and she followed him without question. The car was still on all four tires by some miracle. The front end of the vehicle was U-ed around the large oak tree before him. The right-hand rear passenger's door was gone and when he turned to look for it, it was sticking vertically out of the ground about 300 feet from the car
How the… he wondered to himself. The driver's door was missing too and was about 100 feet to the right of the first door. It looked as if the doors had been ripped from the hinges. The connection points were looked snarled and ad they ripped tissue paper it was strange.
He ran up to the driver's side opening and looked for his dad. He was not in the car and there was no indication that he had been thrown from the car. He dropped the girls hand as he crawled inside to double check that his dad was not there. As he entered the vehicle he saw his board sitting under the dashboard in the front passenger's seat. He reached over and grabbed it attempting to pull it out. It snagged on something and he had to readjust himself to pull with a little bit more force. Finn had overestimated how hard it had been stuck and as he gave a quick tug on the board it quickly became unstuck and he flew backwards out of the car and landed upside down in a crumpled heap of boy with the board resting on top of him like some sort of modern art piece.
"Owwie" he said as he tried to untangle the pile of himself and stand up straight again tucking the board under his arm. He walked around the other side of the car and that's when he found his dad. "Dad…" he whispered with tears coming to his eyes.
Before him was his idol, his dad, the strongest man in the world, laying supine before him on the other side of the tree. There was a lot of blood coming from cuts all over his face and arms with a very large cut oozing glistening red fluid down his right forearm. It wasn't spurting, nor was it leaking super heavily, but it was enough that if it wasn't taken care of soon his dad would bleed out. He dropped his board and ran over to his dad and immediately started to apply as much pressure to the wound as he could think of. His mom had been a nurse and had taught him the basics of first aid before she had passed away. He felt a slimy pulse of blood beat once every 2 seconds or so. He was scared he didn't know what to do and he was having trouble seeing as tears started to flow from his eyes onto his dad's arm.
"Dad! Wake up. You gotta wake up and tell me what to do. I can't save you myself I don't know how. Please WAKE UP!" he yelled with all his might as the tears continued to stream down his cheeks. He was trying so hard to put as much pressure on the arm as possible, but it just didn't seem to be enough to stop the constant flow of blood.
Suddenly he felt a thrill in his heart and a warmth on his hands that calmed him at once. He looked up with the last of the tears dripping from his lashes and down his cheeks. His eyes met the girl's eyes once more and all his fear left him. Her face was soft and plain it showed nothing but curiosity, her ears were laid back as if there was concern as well, but her right eyebrow was raised in curiosity. She took her eyes from his and looked down at Finn's hands over the wound. She pulled them up and inspected the wound closely. She bit her lip and furrowed her brow concentrating very heavily on what was in front of her. Her eyes opened wide as if she had just spotted what she was looking for. She looked up to him and nodded at him. After that she placed her hands on his dad's arm, the right hand over the wound and the left on his elbow joint. Finn had fallen back onto his heels and watched her closely as she pressed down with her left-hand fingers into the joint. Little did he know she was only pressing lightly, however, as she pressed down on the join the blood started to slow and then stopped. Once the blood had stopped flowing out of the wound she looked up at Finn to see what he was doing. When she saw that he was awestruck just watching her work. She closed her eyes and cocked her head to the right, laid her antenna back and smiled, it was still an awkward and forced smile, but it gave him confidence in her abilities to save his dads life. His heart started to slow, and his breathing started to return to normal.
The girl let go with her right hand and reached back behind her searching for something. She struggled for a moment and pinned her ears back as if in annoyance, but her face didn't change much. As she brought her hand forward it was holding onto her tail and her ears returned to their normal 45-degree angle. She held it up in front of her towards the arm and then looked Finn in the eye and shook the tail end in her hand.
"Dad… Save…" she said in a very quiet and soft voice that was, to Finn's ears he imagined an angel would sound like that. It had a hint of uncertainty to it, not a lack confidence in her abilities, but in a lack of confidence that the words she was using were the correct ones. However, something in Finn told him to trust her and he nodded towards her as she wiggled the tail in front of the arm again.
"Do it… please save him." He said closing his eyes and lowering his head to her. She nodded towards him even though he couldn't see her any more. She turned towards the arm once more and Finn looked back up at her to see what she was going to do. She bit the right side of her lip, this exposed a single canine tooth that seemed to be much larger than that of the average human's. He looked away from her face and down at his dad's arm. As if on que the girl plunged the tip of her tail into the upper portion of the wound towards the elbow joint
"Hey! What are you…" he started to say moving a hand to stop her.
"Shhh…. Save… Trust…" she replied in a soft very calm voice, not looking up from her work. She was very focused on the arm and was sliding the tail deep into the wound. It looked gross as if a giant worm, or perhaps a snake was slithering up his father's arm. Her pupils kept changing size, going from large to small and back, and the tiny blue light at the center of them became much brighter to the point that it would have easily been noticed by anyone.
Finn watched her as she strained her eyes heavily. She started to sweat as she dropped her head closer to the arm and stared that much more intently. She narrowed her eyes and then nodded as if in confirmation to herself. She closed her eye, she was concentrating harder now then when she had been looking at the arm. Finn heard a small hum it sounds as if it was coming from her belly and then started to radiate down the tail and into the arm. Suddenly he saw a bright flash of blue light from inside the arm and heard a muted sizzle sound. Like that of a steak being placed on a super-heated frying pan for the first time. Finn looked at the girl for a minute and then at his dad's wound and then back at the girl just in time to notice that her eyes had rolled back into her head and she was falling face forward on top of his dad's chest. Finn reached out to grab her, she was surprisingly heavy for her size and so he failed to keep her up and she rested onto of his dad.
Finn moved closer to his dad and looked at his arm. The bleeding had all but stopped there may have been a slight leak but nothing that wouldn't seal its self in a few minutes. He reached down and softly grabbed her by the shoulders. He rolled her off his dad and laid her down next to him, as he rolled her the jacket opened a little. When he went to close the jacket again his knuckles against the skin of her stomach. He pulled his hand away quickly in surprise, for she was burning up. Her skin temperature was way hotter than any person he had ever touched, it was akin to that of a mug of hot chocolate. He quickly looked at her, she was still breathing and seemed to be sleeping peacefully, without a single care in the world. In fact, she seemed to be smiling in her sleep with a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth and the right-hand canine tooth sticking closely out between her lips. Her ears twitched occasionally as if she was dreaming of something, that or she was hearing something. Finn watched her sleep for a little longer and once he again noticed the cool nip in the air and the soft flakes that were still falling from the sky. He then proceeded to run over to the wrecked car.
Inside the car he searched for the few emergency blankets and the extra coat that was still in the trunk. He had to struggle slightly as the trunk was being stubborn due to it being crumbled. He finally forced it open and quickly found what he was looking for. He ran back to the girl and his dad; the snow had slowed a little so only a few flakes were falling now. He folded one of the blankets up and placed it under the girl's head and then threw the jacket and a second blanket over the girl to keep her warm. He laughed at this idea as she was burning up but, he left them over her anyways. He grabbed the last blanket and threw it over his dad to keep him warm. Finn inspected the arm once more and to his glee the bleeding had completely stopped and had started to clot. Finn did notice something that grossed him out slightly. The girl's tail was still inside the wound. He sighed deeply, took a large breath, held it and yanked on the tail. It slid out of the wound without a problem but, it made a very gross slimy sound that caused his stomach to turn over, it was covered in dark blood, so Finn wiped it off on his jacket. Once he was satisfied with how clean it was he placed it under the blanket next to the girl and squatted down next to her. Finn balled his hands into half fists and tapped the second knuckles on each hand together thinking of what he should do next. He couldn't go back the way they had come there was nothing but open hills and lots of cliffs that only his dad knew of as a good boarding spot. He turned and looked up the road and saw a house in the distance it was maybe 2 or 3 miles out from him an easy distance to ride on his board. He nodded to himself confirming the plan in his own mind.
Finn ran over and grabbed his board from where he had dropped it when he had first found his dad. He picked it up and inspected it carefully. There was no major damage to the board itself and the WCD's seemed to be intact and functioning properly. The only problem with the board was a rather larger gouge that cut through the HN logo in the middle of the board, but that wouldn't affect the functionality of the board itself.
Finn was a little nervous he had only used the board for the first time today and if he was honest with himself he wasn't the most skilled rider. He had fallen off a couple of time and it had hurt a little not much sense he had been in an open field with a hill that was covered in soft grass. He had also only been a few feet from the ground.
NO! you can do this. You have to do this. He thought to himself shaking his head and along with it any doubts that lingered in his mind. He stood up and started to walk towards the road, once he reached it he started to jog. He pumped himself up by taking in a few quick breaths and pressed the button on the under side of the board near the larger WCD this turned on the board with a deep whir of it awakening and then a soft low hum as it stabilized. He sped up slightly and then with both hands on the board he placed the board bottom down and jumped onto it in a single move. It was a little awkward, he definitely wasn't a natural on the board like his dad had been at his age, but he was on it and still moving down the road. He wasn't going very fast maybe 5 miles per hour, but he wanted to get comfortable first. After about a minute or so he leaned his weight forward on the board which caused the forward WDC to produce more thrust and that sped the board up quite a bit. He was now cruising comfortably at around 15 miles per hour. There was a little bit of vibration every now and then from the WCD trying to convert the radiation that was available into thrust for the board. It made his heart speed up a little and he was scared of falling, however whenever he was scared and wanted to slow down his mind went to the unconscious girl and his dad that were behind him and he steeled himself and leaned slightly forward gaining more speed.
It didn't take him long to reach the house up the road, perhaps about 5 minutes. Now came the part that was the hardest for him. Stopping. He tried to lean backwards to slow the board down, this however failed, and he ended up leaning back a little bit to far which effectively slammed on the breaks of the board and that pitched him forward over the board. He screamed as he flew through the air and braced himself to slam into the cold hard surface. However, he must have had something looking out for him that day because instead of hitting the hard ground he flew and landed into a soft hay pile that cushioned his fall to a comfortable thump. He was upside down and his board softly smacked into the same bale just next to his vertical feet.
I really need to get the hang of that he sighed to himself. As he summersaulted over his head on to his feet. He grabbed his board and poked the off switch and ran to the door of the house that was about 200 feet from him. He rang the door bell rapidly and knocked on the door calling for help.
"I need help" he yelled as he continued to pound on the door hoping someone would come to his aid "Please my dad is seriously hurt! He needs a doctor!" he started to cry fearing no one was home and there were no other house that he could see around him. After a brief moment of panic, he heard footsteps coming down a set of stairs towards the door. "Please hurry" he cried out tears starting to form in his eyes as much from relief as form distress and exhaustion.
A young woman about 30 answered the door as Finn continued to knock even after the door was open. She was caught off guard at the look of this boy. He had patches of hair plastered to his head with a thick red coat of god knew what. There were three streaks of dry blood that ran down his face one directly over his left eye and one on either side of same eye. There was a large cut that came down from his eye brow and onto his cheek bone, but it had stopped bleeding. He had beautiful walnut colored hair, his eyes through the tears were a beautiful soft forest green that was full of life and fire. The poor thing looked exhausted and extremely stressed out.
"What happened sweetheart?" she asked him in a concerned voice.
"It's my dad!" he replied pointing in the direction of the crashed car. "We were driving to go visit my mom and we lost control of the car and crashed into a tree! Please call help. I think he's hurt pretty bad, he lost quite a bit of blood!" with that she noticed the bloody hand prints all over the boys WindCall Board, his hands were still covered in the sticky red fluid. She quickly nodded at him and ushered him into the house, however he refused shaking his head at her.
"No, I need to get back to them. Please call for help!" he said to the woman as he turned and ran towards the road. He punched the on switch and heard the already familiar hum of the board coming to life. He quickly jumped onto the board, this time the mount was smooth and easy. He quickly sped down the road having great confidence in his ability, he was going about 25 miles per hour the entire way back to the car. It only took him 3 minutes to get back to the car. His heart sank as he knew he would need to stop, however he prepared himself this time. He crouched low on the board and leaned back hard. The board slid hard slowing down rapidly instead of throwing him this time he grabbed the nose of the board for support and stabilized himself at the board came to a complete halt. He jumped off the board and grabbed it under his arm, slapping the off switch once more, he ran over to where he had left the two bodies.
He ran around the car and was greeted by one body instead of two he was confused and terrified for a moment. His dad was still there, but the girl was nowhere to be seen. He looked around frantically hoping he had forgotten where she was laying.
I left her right there not 10 minutes ago, had she woken up and ran off, had someone come and taken her? He was very worried, and his mind was focusing on that someone had taken her, had stolen her. He was lost in his mind when an acorn bounced off the top of his head.
"Ow! What the heck!" he looked up one of the branches about 15 feet above his head. Above him was the girl sitting on a 6-inch-thick branch with her legs crossed and swinging them back and forth looking down at him with that sweet plain blank face. She waved at him playfully and let a small smile creep onto her face. It was a more natural smile it only curled up at the corners of her mouth and her canine was poking out. She still had his outer jacket on and even had it zipped all the way up. She leaned backwards off the branch as if she was going to fall backwards off the branch but instead she locked her legs around the branch and hung upside down for a brief minute and then she let go, contorted her body and twisted and landed on her feet and hands. Like a cat would she jumped up quickly and stuck her arms out to the side like a gymnast would after landing a complicated bit of acrobatics.
"Tada…" she said in the same quiet voice she had used earlier she wore a shy smile that was very natural this time. She ran up to him and grabbed his hand her face returning to that calm relaxed style. When her hand met his, he got the same electrifying feeling shoot through his body as her hand slipped into his. It set his heart and his mind at ease to have her near him. She tugged on his hand and led him to the towards his dad. He had almost forgotten his dad was hurt and so he ran over to him bringing her with him. His dad was still unconscious, but the bleeding had completely stopped, and he was breathing calmly. He squatted beside his dad and grabbed the arm that wasn't cut up and grabbed his wrist. His mom had showed him how to take basic vital signs before she had passed away. He half smiled to himself as he used that very skill to check on his hurt dad.
Thanks mom. He said to himself he really missed her, it had been about a year since she had passed away. Finn didn't understand the whole story; his dad hadn't wanted to talk about the last few months of her life. Finn remember the conversation his dad had with the doctor. It was a very rare and aggressive form of cancer that came from the Zealot radiation waves. It effectively dissolved certain organs and replaced them with a strange organ like tumor that didn't appear to have any function. It had started with the nonvital organs the doctor had said, the appendix, gall bladder, moving into area of the skin, taking over the ovaries, then the stomach, lungs, heart, and finally brain. Some how she had lived through it all until the brain was infected and eventually shut off. The doctor had said at the end of it that she had never been in any pain because the cancer had effectively killed her peripheral nervous system. His dad hadn't seemed convinced however, he had shut down until recently.
Pulling himself out of his memory he focused once more on the wrist in between his thumb and first to fingers. The thump thump-thump of the heartbeat he felt wasn't as strong as it normally was, his dad had let him practice on him when he was younger, but it was constant, and it was about the right frequency to maintain his life. He sighed deeply and sat back on to his rump and started to cry. He was so exhausted he just let it out they were big tears that ran down his face in large trails and plopped heavily onto the ground leaving a little puddle. He cried for a good 10 minutes while he waited for someone to show up to help him. The girl walked over to him and sat crossed legged across from him and stared at him as he cried. Her ears twitched periodically taking in everything that was in front of her. She could not for the life of her figure out what this boy was doing his eyes were leaking fluid, but he didn't seem concerned about the fluid, but he was definitely under some sort of distress.
Why is he crying she thought to herself, and this surprised her, she had never had words come to mind when she thought things before, most of the time it was either pictures, colors or just an impulse in her mind. She didn't know where these words were coming from and how she knew their meanings. What should I do? Should I reach out to him? No, whatever he's doing he probably wants to be left alone.
He dried his tears when he heard the sirens sounding off down the road. He looked up and his eyes met with the girls once more. The grey seemed to not be as dull as it had been the first time he looked into them, there was a small tinge of, blue? Purple? He couldn't tell, he wasn't even sure if he was seeing it correctly it could have just been the tears that were left in his eyes. She sat there, her face still plain, but it now seemed to be slightly less sharp and a little softer and friendlier.
"Who are you?" he asked out right just wanting a straight answer from her. All he got from her however was that confused look that she used, her ears dipped down slightly, and her right eyebrow raised. "Who are you from, where did you come from, why are you naked?" he asked a little more forcefully. This time her ears laid all the way down and her eyes looked around as if she was trying to find something.
"M… r..?" she looked frustrated, she clearly wanted to say something to him, but for some reason her words were escaping her now, or so Finn thought. In reality, this was only the third time she had ever tried to speak and the times previous she hadn't thought about speaking it had just happened. She scrunched her face up and was making shapes with her mouth as it trying to find the right shape. Finally, she spoke although it wasn't a word it was a name.
"Me Ru…?" she said with a confused look on her face.
"Miru? Miru! Is that your name!" Finn asked her excitedly for confirmation? She nodded at him with her blank face and blinking. "Where did you come from Miru?" he asked but before she could answer the big white and red ambulance slid to a stop next to the wrecked car. He hadn't realized that the sound had gotten so close. Two men in dark blue cargo pants filled with medical equipment and white button up shirts with a shining silver badge on the left chest pocket jumped out of the cab of the truck and ran over to the car.
"My god Frank. Look at this thing its trashed, they said a kid walked away from this." The first one said to the second shaking his head while the second pulled the stretcher from the back of the vehicle. "I think this is the most trashed car I've ever seen."
At that moment they caught a glimpse of movement from over the top of the collapsed roof as Finn stood up to beckon them to come over to his dad. The two men rushed over to him, dragging the stretcher behind them.
"What happened lil' man." The second one said to Finn as the first knelt down by his dad to look him over.
"My dad…" Finn started "he lost control of the car, it flipped and we crashed into the tree." Finn stated as he pointed over at the crumpled car. The medic noticed the dry blood on Finn's head and beckoned him to sit down on top of a rock.
"It's okay now buddy. Your sister and you are in safe hands, it's gonna be okay. Now let me check your head to make sure it's not to hurt." Said the medic. Finn complied sat down on the rock. The medic pulled his hair apart and Finn winced in pain as the medic touched the cut on his head and then moved to check out the large cut on his eye. "I know it hurts bud, but I need to get a good look at these cuts. They don't look to bad, you may need a stitch or two just to ensure they don't reopen, but I think you'll live." The medic said with a smile that made Finn feel good. His head still hurt, until he felt a small hand slide under and into his own. He looked over and Miru was kneeling on both knees leaning back on her heels, like a samurai would. She looked him in the eyes and gave him a half warm smile that faded back into her blank face she normally wore. Finn smiled back at her happy to have the warm feeling in the palm of his hand, the pain in his head dissipated and he was at ease. The medic turned to her now.
"Hello there," he said nicely "you look completely fine, do you want me to check you out just to be safe." He asked her, but she shook her head no with much vigor. She obviously didn't want to be inspected by this man. The medic shrugged and nodded at her. "So, what are your guys names?"
"My name is Finn, and this is Miru." Finn said to the man.
"Nice to meet you two, my name is Frank. How long ago was the accident?" replied the medic.
"I… I'm not sure I was unconscious for a little bit." Answered Finn. The medic turned to Miru.
"Do you know how long ago it happened?" she contorted her face thinking and then pointed up at the sky at about 60-degree angle towards the west. The sun was setting now it was only a few inches above the west horizon now. The medic nodded understanding what she had meant. At that moment the second medic walked up to Frank and whispered to him. Frank nodded confirmation, his professionalism not letting him show any sense of urgency or fear show on his face. "Alright you two go ahead and crawl up into the ambulance okay, were gonna load your dad into the back and take you guys to the hospital. Sound good?"
Finn looked towards Miru as she nodded at him, and then Finn reproduced the nod to the medic. Frank nodded in reply and then walked over to Finn's dad, Finn stayed and watched him for a minute till he had walked around the car to his dad. He let out a sigh and shook his head as he stood up to head towards the rear of the ambulance. He was still holding onto Miru's hand and she stood up alongside him and followed along with him. The rear doors of the ambulance were still open and so as they neared it he offered to help her step into the rear of the vehicle. She looked at him blankly and let go of his hand and just stepping into the vehicle with what seemed to be no conscious effort what so ever.
Finn shook his head laughing a little bit as he remembered that she had not 15 minutes ago basically done a back flip out of a tree and landed it with little effort. He crawled up behind her, he was not nearly as atoned with is body as she was as he struggled to stay up right and had to grab the door handle as he took the first large step.
Once he was inside he saw her sitting on the bench seat next to a window off to the side of where the stretcher would be placed when it was replaced. She tapped the cushion next to her offering it to him. He walked the two steps to her and jumped up onto the small bench seat next to her. He sat there and looked over to Miru sitting next to him. She was sitting very upright in almost perfect posture. He was kind of impressed by how excellent her posture was and he was in the middle of readjusting his posture to match hers when the doors opened again, making him slightly jump in surprise. It was the two medics, they were loading up his dad into the back of the ambulance. Once his dad was in and the stretcher was locked in place the medic, known as Frank, crawled into the back and sat at his dad's head, in the captains seat. He swiveled the chair to the front.
"Were good to go Mike" Frank called with a thumbs up.
"Sure, thing boss." Mike replied as he started the vehicle and headed off down the road.
Frank turned back around towards the two kids sitting next to each other looking at him. The boy, who still had some dried blood on his face looked very tired, while the girl to his surprise looked as if she was right as rain and nothing had happened at all today.
"How are you two holding up" Frank asked the two children before him. Finn looked at him with a weary smile.
"I'm doing okay, how's my dad." Finn asked with a little concern in his voice.
"He's surprisingly stable," Said Frank, "He has a really bad cut on his arm, that should normally be bleeding pretty heavily, but for some reason there is no blood and no internal bleeding. It's very strange, I've never seen something like it before."
Finn looked over to Miru who was just sitting next to him acting as if there was no conversation going on between the two males. When she noticed Finn starting at her she turned her head and smiled at him sweetly. This caused Finn to smile and blush slightly and look back at the EMT.
"I'm glad" replied Finn with visible relief, "So, you think he'll be fine then?" he asked
"I'm no doctor son, but from what I can see your dad should be alright, he'll probably be in the hospital for a bit, but I've seen people recover from much worse. You guys are very lucky to escape with so little injury."
The rest of the ride to the hospital was quiet and took about an hour. About half way to the hospital Finn became very sleepy and leaned against the side of the cabinets next to him. He was about to close his eyes when he felt something rest on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and realized it was Miru, she had fallen asleep and was using his shoulder as a pillow. At first it was uncomfortable with her ears pushing into the bone, however, after a minute her ears twitched and moved enough to where it no longer hurt. Finn stared down at her happily, she looked so peaceful. He snuggled down into the corner of the cabinet and fell asleep, he awoke not much later to a large hang on his shoulder and a small shake.
"We're here son" Said the EMT. Finn felt the ambulance slow to stop after going backwards, a second later the back doors opened and the stretcher holding his dad was pulled from the ambulance and taken through a set of double doors leading inside a large building that was brightly lighted now. Finn noticed that the sky was now dark and that snow lined the ground about an inch deep. Miru was awake now and was waiting for Finn to stand up and follow his dad inside. He stood up and took Miru by the hand and hopped out of the ambulance and followed his dad. Finn noticed that Miru wasn't wearing any shoes and that as she stepped down into the snow, quite a bit more of it melted then the times he used to walk bare foot through the snow. He shrugged it off and moved for the door, Miru reached out as well.
As they pushed the doors open to the emergency room they were greeted with a bright light and the sound of hurrying feet and quick speech. Finn led Miru deeper into the hustle of the hospital. They walked to the center of a cross roads and stood there for a moment, people were rushing passed them not paying them any attention. Finn had lost his dad's stretcher in the confusion and so they stood there for a moment. Finn looked over to Miru to ask if she had seen where his dad had gone, but she was looking intently in a couple of different direction her ears pinned back in concentration. Her ears perked up and she pointed in a direction to the right of them, Finn nodded, understanding her. he started down the hall his hand still holding Miru's, the warmth giving him comfort and strength. They were about half way to a room when they were stopped by a woman in a set of bright pink scrubs, the name plate on her left breast pocket read
"St. Dante's Healing
Scarr, Jackie
Registered Nurse"
"Hello honey, can you come with me I want to clean you up and check out that nasty cut on your eyebrow." She said in a very sweet year firm voice.
"I can't" Responded Finn "I have to find out where they took my dad."
"Are you two the children of the man who just came in from the car crash?" She asked bending over and placing her hands on her knees so that she could more easily look Finn in the eye's. Finn nodded a confirmation.
"Okay Hun" the nurse replied, "he's in good hands right now, the doctors are taking care of him and making sure that nothing worse will happen to him, okay?" she said, "But let's get you checked out yeah?" Finn looked over to Miru who nodded for him at the nurse. The nurse smiled at them and turned down the hallway beckoning them to follow. Finn and Miru followed her to a room with an examination table with a small window about it near the roof and a holocomputer in the corner on top of a counter which had a line of glass cabinets above it filled with assorted medical equipment.
"Please take a seat on the exam table" She waved her hand at the examination table while she walked over to the counter and gathered a few things.
Finn climbed up onto the table and sat the waiting for her. Miru took a small chair off to the side and sat down in her normal fashion where she had perfect posture and placed her hands open on top of her knees and watched the room intently observing all that was going on, her ears twitching intently. The jacket Finn had loaned her had raised slightly and was revealing more of her thigh. It was at that point that he noticed that her tail was wrapped around her leg once and then wrapped around itself. It looked like a thigh holster of some kind. He was staring at Miru when the nurse walked back up to him.
"Okay hun, this is going to sting a little bit, but I need to clean the blood off so that I can see what I am working with." Said the nurse as she dabbed a rag into a bowl of water and soap mixture. She started to wipe Finn's face clear, he winced in pain only once as she continued to clean his face off. It didn't take long, and it felt refreshing to have all the sticky red stuff off his face. As she was dabbing at Finns face she turned to Miru.
"That's a really cute head band your wearing." She said smiling, Miru however, just stared at her and cocked her head to the side the nurse was about to stare a little closer at Miru when spoke up pulling her attention towards him.
"I'm sorry mama' she's not very talkative it's been a really long day. That head band was a gift from our mom." Finn lied. The nurse smiled accepting the answer at face value.
"Your mother must have had beautiful hair to have been able to give her such a beautiful head of blue hair." The nurse replied. Finn just shrugged. "Okay, there we go," She said with that last wipe, "All clean, now let's see what we have here." She said laying the bowl down and tilting his head back. She looked at him for a couple of seconds and then dropped his chin and pulled a butterfly shaped bandage out of a drawer from behind her. She put it on his eye and smiled happily inspecting her work. She proceeded to check his heart rate, breathe rate, blood pressure, and his eyes. She explained that this was all standard to make sure that there was nothing going on inside that she couldn't see on the surface. He nodded in understanding, his mom had taught this all to him before, making sure that he knew all the base line values for each and what to look for that was out of the normal, but he let the nurse tell him again.
"All done Hun," the nurse said with a smile on her face, "You can go to your dad now, he is still unconscious, okay. He's stable and should be just fine." She said. Finn slid off the table and grabbed Miru's hand as they trailed behind the nurse as she led the way for them towards a larger room with a gurney and a bunch of monitors that were all plugged into his dad. This reminded him a lot of the room that his mother was in before she had died. He stopped in the doorway nervous, shaking a little, he didn't want to lose another parent in this hospital, not so soon, not now. The nurse had left them, and his eyes started to feel moist and sting with tears. He started to get the hiccup sensation in his chest and to feel sick. Suddenly, he felt his had squeeze, it was a soft, yet very firm squeeze, one that calmed his soul, eased his chest, and dried his tears.
He looked over and Miru was looking into his eyes, her face was calm and emotionless, she wasn't afraid.
"Come with me… It will be okay" she said softly, struggling over the words as if they were new and unfamiliar. She tugged on his hand and led him into the room. There was a large chair that had been pushed up next to the bed for them. It was large enough that both of them were able to crawl into it. They sat there side by side squeezed into the large green arm chair. They peered over at his dad and watched him for a time. Finn's dad breathed in and out slowly and rhythmically, it was almost peaceful except for the constant beep every second. His dad was covered in bandages. There was nothing that could be done by either of them, and the night was getting very late. Finn gave a deep sigh and laid back in his chair relaxing his body and finally letting all the stress and pain in his body release. He felt a tinge of pain on his eye brow, but he was more exhausted then he was hurting so he didn't get up. His eyes grew heavy with sleep and exhaustion. He let his eye lids slide shut and his mind to start to wander, his breathe became natural and unconscious, his heartrate slowed and was at peace.
Finn's mind wandered for a while and he travelled between dimensions and saw many strange things. He was animals with these odd fluffy leaves covering their bodies, flying through the air in giant V formation. He saw these strange pink animals with curly tails and turned up noses. Then he saw a flash of bright light that blinded him for a brief second and then his vision was filled with a scene of cloud in the shape of a giant mushroom. He felt the ground shutter with such a violent force that he lost his footing and fell to his knees. He then hear the screams of billions of people cry out at once. The pain and suffering that he felt was insane and unbearable, it was so much that he couldn't bear it he wanted to scream but his voice was silent. He could scream in unison with eh pain that was all around him.