Metal doors creaked and slammed against their respective walls as Zack father was wheeled through the A&E corridor by a fair skinned doctor, wearing a large white coat and despite wheeling in a hurt man, had a rather optimistic disposition. Zack ran alongside the wheelchair as a woman with skin as pale as Zack and red hair that trailed past her waist before tinting a shade of black before the tips. Leonardo trailed behind with a petit girl with long, blue hair and these burning gem eyes who could have been Leonardo's sister had she not been his romantic partner.

"Nurse! Prep a table in the biotech unit. We have a complex orthopedic issue with the right joint in his ankle."

With that a woman in a blue uniform walked off for what could have only been the better part of five seconds before coming back with a clipboard.

"Room three eighty-one in the seventh wing off the west reception."

When all was said and done both Zack and Leonardo were behind a glass wall overlooking the operating table. All was deathly as each of the machines performing the operation moved with lightening reflex yet mastered precision as tools were passed to and fro. Zack had never endorsed in the automation of clinics but who can argue the facts of them not getting tired, bored or even worry about the responsibility of opening up different models of the same species until their motors and processors gave out afterwards.

"So… Zack, what is your opinion of Bell sitting in the car while the man she cares about needs her most."

Zack sighed as his friend left the question to mix with the stale, disinfectant smells.

"She'll be fine. I rolled the window down a little. No, in all honesty, I don't think it was him talking y'know. I feel as if… he secretly holds back his feeling and I don't blame him."

Sarah looked up from her gaze. Zack and his father always seemed to dwell over the true reason for both of their reluctance for a new member to the family that would fill two roles.

"Zack. I was wondering…"

Zack had turned to Sarah but he already knew the question. Leonardo had also figured it out and was silently waving behind Zack that Sarah should drop the subject… She didn't.

"…What happened to… your…"

Sarah swallowed as Zack's face instantly fell to look at the floor. A tear hit the polished floor as Zack stood perfectly silent. Sarah's face contorted into worry and fear as she wondered if she had gone too far. Should she comfort him?

"…Mother?"

The last word slipped out of Sarah's mouth without command as another droplet of pain slammed against the floor. Zack sniffed in through a blocked nose as he broke out into sobbing.

"S-she…"

Zack couldn't face up to the accident. The tragedy that tore Zack away from his mother. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to say but then… and…

He ran out of the room, bursting through door after door as he attempted to run from his problems. He couldn't face up to the truth. It just wasn't fair. Why Kayla?

Zack ran up a flight of stairs as he tried to escape past misty eyes and clenched fists. He focused on nothing as the world swayed to and fro like his mother had once done.

Sarah ran after Zack. Clutching her chest as she gasped for breaths. Zack had never run like this. He felt no pain from his body but he could feel his emotions shattering like sugar glass between his sweaty palms. Zack turned another corner before rising to the top floor and along to the only door on that level.

The door crunched like it had the first time he had come up here. The cool air felt like a blade in his lungs as he exposed himself to the rainy skies that poured down in thick droplets to pelt anyone who dare get in their path. Zack cried and yelled out into the evening air as he searched for the missing sign.

"MOM! WHERE ARE YOU?! PLE-E-EASE! ANSWER ME! I'M BEGGING YOU?!"

Zack continued to call out to no one. He stopped his incessant howling and rambling as he felt his body become heavy and weak as the adrenalin high wore off. Zack keeled down on the roof while staring at his now bleeding palms. He had cut into his own hands throughout his strike of anger but he didn't care. He continued to weep pathetically as the cold rain took its toll on Zack as he rolled up into the fetal position where he knelt.

The rain soaked her hair as she emerged from the protection of the building. Sarah closed her eyes as one got pelted. She trudged on towards Zack's position, each step taking more and more effort than the last as Sarah could feel pain and disinclination as she got closer to Zack.

Zack let out but a few raspy breaths as he remembered his past. The passing. And the post accidental destruction that the tsunami of his mother death had dealt on everyone who loved her. Drowning out the truth that was left and lingered on.

Kayla was dead.

There was nothing he could do to change anything. The once charismatic and controlled person he once was, the person that could put a smile on anyone's face just by the mentioning of his name was dead as well. Now the anger and pain and fear…

Warmth covered Zack's back as he felt not smooth skin but the warm fur of the grey illusion fox. Sarah wrapped her hands around Zack as he bawled his eyes out into the puddle of rain and washed blood.

"It was a cra-a-ash…"

Zack sputtered out past his sorrow. Sarah just exchanged a queried

"Mmm?"

Zack continued as he stayed in the one spot. Sarah's hair now shielded them both as Sarah continued to hug him. The Zoroark ran her claws along Zack's front before interlocking them across his torso, squeezing lightly to let him know that she was there for him.

"It was a cra-ash that killed her."

Flash back

The autumn air swirled as a leaf fell. Ir rolled in the wind before circling around a blue ford as it sped across the road. The speedometers needle crept along the display as the sports car bound across the highway. The smooth road whizzed under the car as the paving approached and them receded.

Zack swiped his phone as he looked around a website. He picked a fanatical literature to read and so clicked the link to begin the pages loading. The page displayed as Zack tweaked the volume on his mobile down while also pulling off his headphones. The air felt crisp against his ears as he got up from under the tree he had been sat against.

A bump in the road was no competition for the soft suspension of the motor vehicle. It hurdled over the road without second though. The wind rippled as the car continued forth. relentless.

Zack strolled over to a small wicker basket, the sand mixing and moulding under his feet. He pulled up the lid and picked out a foil package from the abundance. He unwrapped it. Zack mentally cursed.

'I told mom not to make cheese sandwiches. How many times do I have to say that I don't like cheese?'

Zack placed the sandwich back, taking another and repeating the process.

'I can deal with ham I suppose.'

Zack bit into the bread as the moist taste of meat began to fill his mouth. Zack nodded to himself in satisfaction as he walked back to his position under the shade of the tree, sitting back down and looking back to his phone.

The sun beat down on the road. A small humming accompanied the silent buzz of the engine as it on no account had to struggle to produce more power, the driveshaft could be heard whining under the sheer friction that it had against its bearings. Trees were just a blur for the blue automobile.

Zack heard someone call out his name. It was faint and indistinguishable from any select person. He looked around to see his mother. Kayla. She stood with her hands on her lean figure, annoyed look plastered across her dark brown eyes. She pushed some hair from her face.

"Zack we are going. Can you grab whatever is left and get your butt in the car please?"

Zack rolled his eyes but did as he was told. He strolled back down the sand to the basket, picked it and and began strolling to the car parked by the roadside.

The blue dynamics of the car speed quietly onwards. The car continued to accelerate. Three hundred and fifty… Three hundred and sixty… The meter piling on more miles per hour as the rattling of the car was increasing, the framework stressed against the late afternoon air.

Zack looked left across the horizon… Nothing. He placed the first sandal onto the road and then the next. Striding over, his father hopped out the car to help.

"Zack, take your time and hurry up."

His father took the basket out of Zack's hands but Zack's headphones cable was wrapped awkwardly into the handle.

"Hang on dad…"

Both men began the arduous task of untangling the wire. Weaving and moving around each other in a comically spoofed fashion.

"No… Hold still Dad… Now turn clockwise… You're other clockwise."

The evening air had settled into a light breeze. The engine of the blue car was now at it's limit. The deuterium couldn't react fast enough to propel the car faster than this gear would allow. It maxed out at four hundred miles per hour. A display on the dashboard warning of people on the road up ahead. The driver never heeded the warning from his position slumped over the wheel.

The car slowly guided itself along the lane. It couldn't slow down. It wasn't allowed to. Doomed to follow the commands of nothing other than a floored accelerator pedal. The automatic vehicle whined for a short period, slowing down as the gearbox shifted up once more. It now whirred even faster, the humming of the engine grew. A small temperature light appearing, warning that the car's core was dangerously hot. Four hundred and twenty. It continued onwards, adding more to the already insane total.

Zack plucked the cable's end from within the basket handle.

"God. Finally, Now we should…"

Zack never finished, his fathers Qashqai was crushed as the blue sports car smashed through the front of the family car. Both cars meshing into one lump of metal as they span in an awkward direction. The blue blur was flung upwards as it detached from the mess, the sports car flying almost perfectly upwards. The Qashqai screeched and span as the contorted frame screeched across the road, tire marks lay across were it had been, leaving a perfect mark of destruction as it came to a halt.

Zack watched as the second car slammed down on the hood of the family car. His father quickly scooped Zack into his clutches before placing his own back in the direction of the wreaks that were coming together. Zack couldn't see what happened but could hear everything.

The first blast was epic as the overheated, damaged car burst open. The nuclear engines strongbox had crippled too badly to be able to stop the detonation. The second blast happened not a second later as the family car went up in a massive cloud of fire and flames as its reactor gave out too. Zack's father yelled out in pain as a piece of metal was lodged into the left shoulder blade. Zack could feel the heat from where they were and once the wreckage settled, Zack and his father hesitantly moved their gazes toward the mess.

Molten metals laden with fire and charred remains of whatever wasn't obliterated. Both gawked at the leftover mess and debris.

"M-mom?"

Zack called out a feeble cry as he realised that Kayla had been in his father's truck. He waited but got nothing. Zack was about to call out but soon a sickening smell invaded his nostrils. It was the smell of burning and plastic and flesh.

Zack fell forwards onto his hands and was sick on the ground in front of himself. Where was Kayla? There was no way that she was actually in the truck. Right?

Zack brought himself up on shaky knees as he waddled towards the still melting mesh of metal and bone. After just two steps, Zack felt a weak but firm hand on his shoulder. Zack's father said nothing as he dragged Zack away from the crash. Zack tried to call out one more time.

"M-mom?... please answer me?"

Zack's father continued to drag Zack away from the crash site. Zack wasn't thinking as he mindlessly hoped for an answer to such a cruel question.

Once both guys had gone far enough from the site, they both stopped to cooperate their thought.

"Kayla. NO DAMNIT FUCK NO!"

Zack's father had started rambling his own aggression of swears.

"W-where's mom? Dad, where is Kayla?"

Zack stared up through eyes filled with pain as his mother was ripped away from him. Zack's father said nothing more as he stood there. The front of the t-shirt on Zack's father's back fell off to expose the back to have been completely burned off and blistered skin now riddled his back.

Zack watched as his father raised a single finger and pointed at the scrapheap.

"Heaven."

End of flashback

Zack was now standing on the edge of the roof with Sarah right beside him. He stared at the distant clouds as a huge weight was lifted off his back. He thought that bringing up the accident would cause him to lose himself but he stayed in control. Zack had won over the internal mayhem that ruled him.

"The next car my father got was the truck we came here in. It runs off of ethanol so… no more bomb in the bonnet? Who in the fuck am I fooling? It doesn't matter what the bloody engine ran on. The speed of the car was enough to kill her instantly… or that's at least what the doctors said the crash showed. Fuck. I wouldn't trust those guys as far as I can throw them. The… look on their faces… I think they just told me what I wanted to hear. The tow man in charge said that he couldn't recognise how many people were in the crash. It was just a pile of… god knows what."

Sarah just looked on. What do you say to the one you love the most about the worst thing that's happened to them? That sad? Cruel? Impossible?

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright Sarah… but it's not your fault. What's happened has happened and… I'm just glad that I could talk to you about this and not feel like a burden, I… Thank you."

Zack leaned into Sarah's shoulder for a hug. It took her no time at all to mirror his in an embrace as the final tears left his eyes. Zack ran his hands along the small of Sarah's back, the fur was soaked but still felt nice to touch.

"We could go back inside Sarah… if you want to?"

Sarah nodded as she held on to his torso.

They needed to say nothing as they made their way inside the hospital. Zack felt as if a fog had been lifted. No longer did he have to run from his past. One thing still remained though. Zack may have finally moved on, maybe, but his father wasn't. Zack knew the man had feelings but now he would have sort out what he started…

But not after him and Sarah had dried themselves and rested. Zack was tired and by the looks of it so was Sarah. Maybe they could find a hotel nearby or even some free room in the hospital? Maybe… things would get better?

Techz: There we are with a… rather disturbing but enlightening chapter. *exhales* I will have things pick up in the next chapters so as to not be all doom and gloom. Please leave your thoughts on this chapter and if you want to you could comment it or PM it if it's something personal. I'm sorry if this chapter depresses anyone but with that I wish you a good day or evening (depending where you are). See you next time.

~Techz out