Within minutes, Lebreau had appeared down the connecting roadway. A man had his arm slung over her shoulder for support.

"We have wounded!" She shouted to the others, kicking them into initiative as several ran forward to take those who couldn't walk or be carried by others. Many had surivived the fall, but not without minor injury or concussion. They were lain on the road side, each with a NORA member or someone medically trained from the civilians to look at their wounds. The panic over what had happened was channeled into trying to save those who had made it. The entire group slowly migrated over the debris to where the others couldn't go any further.

Leanna felt useless. She had slumped to the floor, legs bent and splayed beneath her as she stared at the ground.

This was horrible. What she was feeling was horrible. She wanted it to stop. She wanted all this to be over. To be a bad dream. She wanted to wake up. She wanted to cry but nothing was coming out. Her body didn't know what it wanted to feel anymore and just felt everything. Then there was something bright in her vision, white, with dozens of lights all over the surface. It was the puzzle sphere, held in the hand of the boy she had given it to. He was looking at her with a sullen expression, offering it to her. He didn't say anything, but his expression made her feel like the same scenario that had happened before was happening again in reverse. Leanna smiled and took the sphere. For him, for now, she would try to smile. If he could be brave, so could she. The boy had left, off to join a group of similar aged children where they'd been ushered, away from the all the tragedy.

Desdon had returned to her side with a bottle of water. He shared it with her, for which Leanna was grateful. She was hungry, tired, thirsty and had a very strong headache coming on. She rummaged in her bag and found her small medicine pouch. She popped a pain reliever into her mouth and drowned it down with water.

She heaved a heavy sigh and asked in a hoarse but bemused tone.

"If I tell my guardian what happened here, do you think he'll be less angry with me?"

Desdon only grinned. "I think he'd have a heart attack, actually."

"Really?"
"He was really worried about where you'd gone. In his strange way of showing it."

Leanna thought this over. Her guardian worried about where she was? He hardly knew where she was most of the time. She looked down at her puzzle sphere and began moving several pannels around until it lit up half the puzzle.

"You can solve it that fast?"

Leanna gave a nod. "I do a lot of puzzles in my free time." The puzzle was a good distraction. If she just focused on the colors, nothing else, her mind became blank again.

"Lee! I mean-" Leanna looked up. Only one person ever did that with her name.

"Maqui!" Leanna smiled, slow to get to her feet as the boy ran over.

"You okay?" He asked.

Leanna nodded. Once again, with him around, it was hard to feel anything but the emotion he was. Either he was contagious or she was too empathetic. He scratched the back of his head. He hadn't gotten out of the explosion unscathed either. He had a bruise along his face with signs of road burn and his pant leg and sleeve were torn and dirtied.

"I should be asking you if you're okay. " Leanna replied.

"Ah, just a little shell shock." Maqui brushed away her concern. "It's mostly worn off now. We're starting to mobilize to get out of here once Gadot and Snow come back. Before... anything else happens."

Anything else meaning...

Leanna pushed the thought from her mind. "Oh, this is Desdon." She pointed to the man sitting beside her. "He's my friend from Eden. He got caught up int he Purge with me."

"Hey! Nice to meet ya! I mean...if we weren't ... ya know, in this whole situation."

Desdon smiled and returned the greeting with a nod. It felt strange, and Leanna could sense it as well, that in the mix of all this there was still time for pleasantries.

"You're meeting everyone I know." Leanna mused as Maqui was ordered by Lebreau to tend to someone. "Let's see, there's still Gadot. He's hard to miss. And Snow, he's even harder to miss. You won't believe how tall he is." She sat back down beside Desdon. Her mind thankfully latched onto her topic of describing and mentioning the other NORA members and the strange quirks she found out about them.

A short while later, there was a sound of air bikes nearing them. A pair of standard miltiary aircrafts streaked through the air and landed on the end of the broken bridge.

"Hey!" Someone called out.

Several NORA members jumped to defensive positions, but they were surprised and lowered their weapons when their leader pleaded. "H-hey! It's us! It's us!" Snow shouted over the sound of the engine. The bikes lowered and powered down. "Don't shoot!" The main members of NORA quickly went to greet the return of their leader.

Leanna watched from where she sat. Once again she felt better, but it was probably only matter of time before something else happened. She took a moment to look around those who had joined them. Some of them were kids, but most were adults. There were two standing just to the middle of the roadway. A girl in an outfit Leanna couldn't guess was a signature of. And a boy wearing something that was certainly eye catching, but in a startling sort of way.

"I'm gonna go see if I can help with anything. Ya gonna be all right?" Desdon asked.

Leanna nodded her head and watched him leave. She was starving, but had no appetite. She wondered how long she could hold out with it. She stood up, not wanting to feel so out of place sitting alone and walked, crossing to the other side of the road. She couldn't resist. She had to look down. Beneath Hanging Edge there was nothing but blackness. This was a weird place. Since it was hard to see how they entered, Leanna wondered if Hanging Edge had been built in some sort of cavern. With the green spotted ceiling above, and something down below. Something where all of those people...

She heard a pair of voices say in unison. "The army's no match for NORA!" And she glanced over her shoulder to see Lebreau smacking Maqui and Yuj on the head. They could be so lighthearted in light of what had happened, what was happening. Were they brave? Was that what bravery was?

An engine revved back up, peircing the air with its engine. It wasn't like the ones Maqui had modified, although those were here as well parked down on the other side, but they were still loud. Leanna watched Snow had a few last sentences with the group as the bike lifted, turned, and streamed away.

Leanna turned back, glad that her hood gave her some anonimity. She was tired of talking to everyone. She was tired of trying to look happy. Forcing a smile. It felt wrong. Bad things had happened in so little time, she felt like she wouldn't smile for days.

Without realizing it, she'd spoken something out loud.

"I think I'd rather have died with everyone else."

She heard foot steps behind her, and she realized she had been overheard. She looked over her shoulder to find the boy from before. His light colored eyes were giving her an almost empathetic look. As if he felt the same way but he had something on his mind right now. Their contact only lasted for a second before he turned away and continued running.

Another bike was revved. Someone else was leaving. Gadot, who had been searching for ammo, weapons and able bodied people, shouted at whoever was manning the airbike. But it was too late. Leanna was able to catch sight of them before they sped of. The same two from before; the tribal girl and the boy who had overheard her. They hijacked an airbike and flew almost uncontrollably away from the bridge. Gadot's commands to return went unheeded.

"What was that all about?" Someone asked.

"Geeze. Those kids-" Gadot almost swore but stopped himself. "They're on their own now..."

7/25/14

*Insane cackling as I sit here at 3 am still typing* And I'm not even close to being done.

Are any of you liking it so far? You know I'd love to hear from you guys! Comments, favorites. Comments...I love comments. Oh and if any of you wanna talk to Leanna she does have a blog on tumblr~! Edenslostwallflower. Yay! Go bug her! She's lonely!