There's a things about when the world ends… no one ever notices until it's too late

There's a things about when the world ends… no one ever notices until it's too late.

……………

"Adie!!" shrieked a young teen. His dark hair still wet from the rinse down their teacher required before their gym class. "Don't leave me!" he hopped into the direction of his friend, a smiling redhead called Adrian, as he attempter to put on his second shoe.

"Isaiah, hurry up, or Walker's gonna give us laps." He replied lightheartedly.

"Adie!!" he whined, straightening and jogging the last few steps.

Adrian grinned, walking out of the locker room. Isaiah followed grumbling under his breath.

"Took you two long enough," stated Isaiah's twin, Chase. He was leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Izzard couldn't find his shoe," Adrian explained, over a clamor of "It's not my fault!" from Isaiah.

"Hurry up. Walker was just by, said we had three minutes to be at the JV practice field." Chase sigh, quickening his pace to a light jog.

They emerged into a field surrounded by greenhouses, with a step hill leading up to the football field, and next to it an old baseball diamond. It was a clear day, only a few puffy clouds shining through, overall the perfect spring morning. As the trio neared the field they spotted a waving girl.

"'Lexis!" chirped Isaiah, "What're you doin' 'ere?"

"Please speak in English Mr. Indian," she teased, "My class is playing yours in softball." She grinned, showing off her recently braces-free teeth.

"Cool," Adrian smiled, Chase nodding in agreement.

"Class!" called a man, obviously Walker, in his early thirties and balding prematurely. "Out field, now!"

Waving to Alexis the three teen jogged out to the field, taking positions along the right side of the field, Adrian in the back with Chase playing center field. Isaiah was playing first base.

The game went on nicely, the girls scoring only one run before they switched. The boys got in three runs before the girls manage to turn the tide once more, sending them into the outfield for the second inning. Smacking his mitt against his hip Adrian crouched, preparing to react to the pitch. Then he heard the crack, and saw the ball coming towards him. Running backwards he tripped, and felt a horrible pain in he chest before falling to his knees then fell facedown. His last memory before being passing out was screams.

…………….

Groggily he opened his eyes, staring up at a white ceiling, which was wrong. His ceiling was blue. He turned his head to look at the wall, and saw his father asleep in a char next to him. Then heard the beeping and it all came back. Baseball. Running. Pain. He gasped, feeling the pain in his chest again, the bandages restricting his breathing. Tears came to his eyes and he whimpered slightly, and that was all it took for his father to wake up.

"Adie!" he cried, and for the first time that Adrian could remember, he saw his father cry, "They said you probably wouldn't wake up!" he whimpered, taking Adrian's hand in his, "But you did, you're so strong, Adie! You're so strong," he whispered.

"Dad," Adrian whispered, his voice scratchy, "Where's Kyle and Ella?"

"Ella's at home and we finally got Kyle to go back to school," His dad said, smiling tightly.

"Finally?" Adrian asked, cocking his head slightly.

"It's been five months, Adie. You where shot, it took them most of two days just to get you stable enough to send you here. Then the doctors spent three weeks doing reparative surgeries on you. You woke up once, for five minutes. You turned to your brother and told him goodbye. Then" he choked, "Then you stopped breathing." He then started to sob, calling attention from a passing nurse.

"Sir, are you- He woke up!" she gasped, hurrying to Adrian's bedside. "can you speak?"

"Yeah," Adrian sighed, swallowing hard.

"Tell me your name, age and the date." She ordered, checking his vital signs.

"Adrian Carr. Uh…13, and I don't know, last I remember it was May." He said, biting hit bottom lip.

"Almost," she smiled; she turned to his father, "Mr. Carr, Adrian seems to be fine, but we will need to run some tests and he will definitely be here for at least another week. If you want to call your wife, and have her come, that would be good. I'm sure Adrian would love to see his mother." She smiled.

"She is not my mom…"Adrian whispered heatedly.

"I will call Ella, thank you nurse." Mr. Carr nodded and the woman left the room. "Adie, please, I know you like Ella."

"I do, but she is not my mother." Adrian argued before dissolving into a coughing fit. He brought his arms up to his face, touching his face, and noticing a tube in his nose for the first time. "Dad… what's this?" he asked, as he tugged on it. It hurt.

"Don't, that's a feeding tube, they put it in a few days after your…..accident. You weren't getting enough nutrients and you lost a lot of weight at first." Mr. Carr, gently touching his sons face, "but you're going to be okay. I promise."

"What happened after I died?" Adrian asked, deftly changing the subject.

"They spent three minutes getting you to breath again, and then you where hooked up to a breathing machine for the better part of three months before," he swallowed, "Before Ella and I decided to pull you from the life support. We thought you would…you know, die, but you didn't. You started to breath, on your own, without the machines. It… it gave us so much hope, but then you just slept on in this, what did they call it? Healing coma, yes, that's it. Ella and Kyle went back to Charlotte in the middle of August. School started three weeks ago, you know."

"You where going to-to kill me?" Adrian whimpered.

"No! We where going to let you go on. My old school master called it the next great adventure, and said that we would understand when we needed to either let someone go on it, or take the path ourselves. I didn't understand until then. We thought that your spirit had moved on, and that only your body was left, so we where going to give you your rights, so you could move on to the next life. But you proved us wrong." He smiled, "then, three weeks ago, your lungs started to be strange, the doctors said they where filling with blood. They did another small surgery, and that's why you're all bandaged up."

"Who?" the question seemed to echo in the room.

"Why don't we call Ella and Kyle to come visit?" Mr. Carr diverted.

"No Dad, really, who? Who wants me dead? You know besides the usual suspects." Adrian asked, a cold expression etching its way into his boyish face.

"We don't know, Adie." Mr. Carr picked up the phone and dialed.

………………….

Done! Ike has given me a chance to finish this. Oh, if you didn't notice I expanded the prologue, so go read it again! This will be the last update until probably October, but I may update sooner if I get flooded in again. (I hope not). As such, I do not have classes for the next day or so, so I may get the chance to begin another chapter.

Hope you liked it, nest time will be more entertaining, as the plot picks up and all the background stuff will be done in the first 1/3 to ½ of it.

Kait1991 9:48 P September 14.

Heh internets back!! 9-21-08