Chapter Forty-Seven: Turning Point
Theo could scarcely believe what was happening. His Subject Delta figurine had been combined with some sort of energy entity that had emerged from the cruxtruder…and now it was talking to him.
Theo was having a conversation with Subject Delta. He didn't think that anything could possibly top this.
"Couldn't Gwen pull some of her server application magic to do that?" Theo suggested. "She resized my room, somehow—I think making a ladder to the roof would be child's play."
"That duty falls to your server player, yes," Deltasprite agreed. He then hesitated for a moment, holding up the hand that wasn't a drill. "Excuse me for a moment…" As Theo watched, Deltasprite reached up and unsealed his diving helmet, removing it. The helmet dissolved into blue light, revealing an ordinary man's face. Long nose, bushy eyebrows, balding head. "That's better…can't believe the game designers wanted me to wear this for the rest of my life…"
"Okay, hold on." Theo held up his hands, still taking in the fact that he was now looking at a Big Daddy without a helmet. "What…what do you… How can I word this? Do you actually have memories of being in Rapture, fucking with Eleanor Lamb, and running around with Little Sisters? You have memories of that?"
"Yes, I do." Deltasprite nodded.
"So you have fictional memories from a fictional world; not from being created as a figurine in a factory?"
"All fictional characters have lives within the worlds they are created to be a part of…" Deltasprite blinked several times, hovering closer to Theo, a thoughtful expression creeping over his face. "Think of it this way. When you prototyped me…did you want to prototype a lifeless figurine, or did you want to prototype Subject Delta?"
"Well, Subject Delta-"
"Exactly." Deltasprite grinned. "You prototyped a figurine of me…and so you received me as a sprite; not a figurine. Skaia can be quite abstract and flexible in its mechanics—don't think about it too hard, or your brain will start to hurt. Only reason mine isn't throbbing is because it's the first time I've ever used it! I have to tell you; sentience is a wonderful thing."
Theo remembered that he was still holding his phone. There was a signal, somehow…but when Theo tried calling Gwen, the call would never go through. "Dunno what the hell's going on with this thing…" he muttered.
"You won't be able to contact your server player that way," Deltasprite informed Theo.
"Why not?"
Deltasprite arched an eyebrow. "Have you looked outside your window, Theo? You aren't on Earth, anymore! Cell phone service doesn't travel across dimensions, I'm afraid. You'll have to use PalHassle. Contact your server player and meet me up on the roof. I will explain more to you when you can see where you have ended up."
And with that, Deltasprite hovered over to the open window and slipped outside, flying up and out of view, leaving Theo alone in his bedroom. Theo let his phone slip from his ear, dropping it back into his pocket. He glanced up at his ceiling—there hadn't been any noise, so somehow his Gran was still sleeping. It was phenomenal, the old woman's ability to dream her way through any kind of catastrophe. Absolutely phenomenal.
Theo signed into PalHassle and was surprised to find several of his friends online. So he had no cellphone service, but PalHassle still worked… Maybe that was because PalHassle was Skaianet tech, and everything that had caused this had its roots in Skaianet. Theo still wasn't sure how that worked, but it kind of made sense.
Anyhow, it was time for him to reestablish contact with Gwen and make some progress. When he started messaging her, he noted that there was no longer a timestamp.
-turbulentGamer began hassling gamblingTheorist-
TG: Gwen
TG: Gwen you there
TG: Jesus Christmas
TG: Gwen please be there
GT: I'm here, I'm here
GT: Theo
GT: How are you alive right now
GT: What the fuck happened
TG: I was hoping you could tell me
TG: I broke the wishbone
TG: Then there was this bright blue light that surrounded my house
TG: Then all of a sudden
TG: My house ends up someplace else and Deltasprite starts freakin talking to me
TG: Yeah I just had a convo with a video game character
GT: Theo, we've progressed further in the game than any of the walkthroughs I've found
GT: We are in unknown territory right now
TG: Wait why'd you ask how I'm alive
TG: What happened
GT: Theo…
GT: Theo, you remember how we saw meteorites falling?
GT: You know
GT: Right before you broke the wishbone?
GT: That's what happened to your neighborhood
GT: It got hit by a meteor
TG: …
TG: You fucking with me?
GT: No!
GT: Honest to god I just saw it on the news
GT: Your entire neighborhood was annihilated
TG: It…
TG: It happened when the countdown hit zero, didn't it
GT: I think so
GT: From the time you told me the countdown was at to the time of impact…
GT: I think so
TG: Jesus
TG: How could this be possible
TG: What kind of fucked up game is this
GT: It gets worse
TG: Worse
TG: How could it possibly get any worse
GT: While I was being your server player on my desktop, I loaded the client application on my laptop
GT: And I connected with Gino
GT: He's loaded the server application
GT: And he dropped in the machines I gave you
GT: And…
TG: Your cruxtruder has a countdown too
TG: Doesn't it
GT: Yes
GT: I'm kind of scared, right now
GT: What if there's another meteorite that's heading for my neighborhood?
GT: You know, there have been reports of similar meteor impacts all over the world
GT: The game went out yesterday
GT: What if meteorites are hitting anyone who plays this game?
GT: That means Gino's marked, too
TG: I mean at least you know what to do
TG: How long until your countdown expires
GT: I have almost two hours
GT: Pressure isn't quite as bad as yours
GT: But there's nothing I can do to stop it
TG: Just get your artifact and progress to my stage
TG: Then you'll be safe
TG: Then I can connect to Gino and we can keep this contained
TG: Don't want anyone else's houses getting obliterated, you know
GT: Okay, uh…
GT: Okay sounds good…
GT: Sorry I'm just a little frazzled right now
TG: Can I point out how awesome it is that you just used the word frazzled in a sentence
GT: Haha, okay, Theo
GT: Stay in touch
GT: Tami will be contacting you soon
TG: Good luck
GT: Thanks
TG: OH
TG: Before you go
TG: Can you do me a solid and build a ladder to my roof?
TG: I need to meet my sprite up there
GT: Give me a sec…
GT: Okay, it's done
GT: Go to the top of your stairs
TG: Awesome thanks
-turbulentGamer is no longer hassling gamblingTheorist-
Theo signed out of PalHassle and got up from his desk. He sprinted upstairs to the third floor. Sure enough, there was now a metal ladder that had been built into the wall, leading up to a hole that extended up through the ceiling to the roof of the house. Theo grasped the rungs and pulled himself up.
Theo made it to the top and clambered out onto the roof, taking several deep breaths of fresh air. He was no longer in Liongate, obviously. And it hadn't been the entire row home which his house was a part of that had been transported into this world…it had just been his house. However, it wasn't like his house was just resting on a hill with an entire wall exposed to the elements—it was attached to the side of a cliff face, resting on top of a ledge.
Theo looked out at the landscape of the strange place his house had been transported to. The sky was gray with a veil of low-hanging fog, too dense to see through. There were thousands of tiny points of light twinkling in the sky. And below… The landscape comprised mostly of forest—massive, oversized trees, ridges and plateaus…as well as the occasional mountain. The cliff face that Theo's house was attached to towered over all the other mountains, however—it was like comparing a Himalaya to an Appalachian.
The forest below also seemed to have a faint glow to it…maybe there was bioluminescent flora underneath the canopy that Theo couldn't see from his roof.
And floating over the center of the roof was Deltasprite, as promised. The un-helmeted Big Daddy grinned at Theo as the teenager looked out over the land. "Interesting, isn't it? Being in a new world?" the sprite glided over to Theo's side. "This is your planet. The Land of Fog and Shadow."
Theo was finished with freaking out. He resolved now to try and take in everything with a sense of calm. What would Adam do, he thought to himself. Then he frowned, dismissing that thought. Adam, in his shoes, would probably devolve into fits of profanity and shouting as his way of coping with something crazy happening. That wasn't the best example to follow.
What would Cruz do? Theo nodded, satisfied with his second choice. Cruz would take everything in stride and not stress out about it, because he'd know there was nothing he could do to change it. All he could do was take in as much as he could and try to make the most of it. Sure, that was probably because he'd be blazed out of his mind throughout the whole ordeal, but that didn't make the core attitude any less worth emulating.
"Where are we, again?" Theo asked his spirit guide.
"The Land of Fog and-"
"Fog and Shadow, I got that part," Theo interrupted, getting right to the point. "Are we on another planet, or something? How did I end up here?"
Deltasprite reached up and scratched an itch behind his ear. "Oh, Theo… You've spent so much of your life trying to live an adventure through your games. How you would have loved Bioshock 2… But now, my friend, you're about to embark on a real adventure—the greatest one you will ever undertake. Possibly the greatest adventure any human has ever undertaken since the Europeans dared to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Look up."
Theo did as the sprite told him, looking straight up into the sky for the first time. Hanging in the air, about a hundred or so feet above Theo's roof, was a strange shape… It was a pattern of curved lines, identical to the spirograph-like symbol that Theo had seen during the installation phase of the Sburb client application. It was made of a glowing blue light—the same blue as the cruxite, as well as the energy which Deltasprite was made out of. It was a circular pattern, and it revolved slowly around its central axis. Then Theo looked up higher and saw that there was another pattern of blue light, identical to the first. It was directly above the first light by about another hundred feet. Theo assumed those objects were what the sprite was trying to direct his attention towards. "What are those things?"
"Those are the Seven Gates," Deltasprite replied. He then added, "Well…only the first and second gates, to be precise, but there are five more above them! You just can't see them because of all the fog. One way to win this game is to have your server player, after they enter the Medium after you, build up your house through use of the server application, and travel through the Seven Gates. You will journey to some of the other worlds in the Medium and gain the skills required for you to master your Aspect and fulfill your role as a Thane of Breath! Eventually, you will work your way up to the seventh and final gate—traveling through it will take you to the palace of Typheus, your Denizen, whom you must face in order to complete your quest on this planet."
Theo's brain was beginning to throb. He pressed his fingers to the sides of his head and started to massage his temples. "This is, uh… This is a lot to take in…" Theo decided to give his mind a temporary reprieve by changing the subject. He threw a quizzical glance over to his sprite. "You know, you sound pretty darn chipper for a Big Daddy from Bioshock. I mean, when I think of Big Daddies, I don't usually picture happy-go-lucky middle-aged men."
"Well, I certainly wasn't a happy-go-lucky person!" Subject Delta told Theo. "I wasn't even a person—I was a fictional character! Giving you a good answer to this quandary depends on how deeply you want to examine your definition of 'self'. Yes, I am Subject Delta. That is my identity…but the Subject Delta you're familiar with is a fictional character. I am no longer a fictional character, and therefore can no longer be held to the standards set for myself within the Bioshock universe. I have memories, but they are ones that were created for me, not ones I experienced—now, I can suddenly have my own thoughts, my own emotions… Now, I suddenly…am! You would feel pretty chipper, too, if you were just given sentience! I suppose some people, were they in my shoes, might feel profound bitterness at their lives being fabrications…but not me. Sure, perhaps what I thought my life was does not actually exist, but it does not matter, because now I have the chance to live! It's quite exhilarating, being alive, is it not?"
Theo stared at his sprite, his expression remaining static, his blue eyes starting to glaze over. "That… Wow, that just hurt my brain even more. Okay. Back to the game. You mentioned something called the Medium; what is that, exactly?"
The sprite still had an amused look on his face. After all, when one thought about what he said… To suddenly be able to exist as a sentient creature must have been wonderful, to say the least. It was no small wonder that he was in such a good mood. Deltasprite fired up his drill hand several times, getting a feel for his new body as he answered Theo's questions.
"The Medium is… How can I say this in a way you'll understand?" Deltasprite hesitated, searching for the best words. "Imagine the solar system. Right now, we have been transported into a dimension, a pocket within paradox space known as the 'incipisphere'. That is like a tiny, miniature universe, slightly larger than the size of our solar system. And the Medium is the solar system contained within the incipisphere! You mustn't consider this dimension to be a universe, however—incipispheres are quite different from actual universes. But enough on that…"
Deltasprite went on to describe a place called Skaia, which rested in the center of the Medium—the Medium's equivalent of the sun. Of course, Skaia was not a star. In his exact words, Deltasprite described it as a dormant crucible of unlimited creative potential, the vessel of the energy from which all things are made. And part of Theo's main objective would be to unlock that energy, though when Theo asked for more details, his sprite grew cagey with his informational word-vomit.
"Okay, I'm with you so far…" Theo gave up trying to pump his sprite for more information about Skaia, turned away from the edge of his roof, paced his way over to the cliff face, placed a hand on the stone. It was cold and damp to the touch, and there was moss that grew in the crevices. Theo decided it was time to change the subject, see if his sprite was willing to be more helpful with other topics of discussion. "You, uh… What did you mean when you said going through the gates was one way to win? Are there other ways to win?"
"There is another, more difficult method to complete your quest on this world, yes." Deltasprite nodded. "Inhabiting the Land of Fog and Shadow is a race of sentient creatures known as consorts. You will encounter them soon, and they will help you on your quest. The other method of victory involves convincing your consorts to march into battle behind you to defeat the underlings and face Typheus directly without having to travel through the gates. Traveling through the gates to attain victory is known as a Hero's Journey, while challenging your Denizen with your consorts is known as a Hero's Conquest."
"Which do you think I should do?"
"That, Theo, is entirely up to you," Deltasprite replied. "This is your quest. I cannot make any choices for you."
Theo looked back out at the sky, his eyes narrowing. He could've sworn he'd heard a noise, a faint screech. He didn't hear it a second time, however, so he dismissed it. "So, then… Okay. I'm not on Earth, anymore. Got it. Okay. How, uh…how do I get back? Do I get back home after winning the game?"
Deltasprite hesitated before answering that question. And when he finally answered, he did so delicately. "Theo… I am afraid that will not be possible. Earth, as you know it, is no more. You remember the meteorites, just before you broke the wishbone?"
"Yeah…"
"Those were only the first of thousands," Deltasprite continued. "The first…and the smallest. Earth is doomed, and there is nothing you can do to save it."
"But…" Theo gaped at the ghostly man in the diving suit. Now, he could understand exactly what his sprite was saying…but his mind was refusing to listen to it. It was simply too horrible to be true. "I… I don't understand... Where the fuck did all those meteorites come from?"
The world almost seemed to spin around Theo as Deltasprite continued to tell him that his home was gone. At first, Theo refused to listen. How could Earth be gone? That would mean that everyone was… That would mean that he was the last… That would mean that his friends were…
Panic began to flow into his body and mind like water from a broken dam when he felt his chest begin to seize up, preventing him from breathing. He was having another attack…and he'd left his inhalers in his room.
Theo turned from his sprite, staggering back to the ladder and sliding down into his house. His vision was beginning to grow blurry as he half-slid, half-clambered down the first flight of stairs to the landing, and his lungs felt like they were about to explode. He needed his inhaler, and he needed it now. He wasn't able to climb down the next flight of stairs to the second floor—he tripped in his haste and fell head over heels down the steps, ending up in a heap.
Theo crawled towards his bedroom door, gasping desperately for air, but he knew he would not make it in time. His lungs were burning, his vision fuzzy, his thoughts beginning to grow scattered and delirious.
Then the bedroom door opened and Deltasprite floated through, holding the inhaler in his hand. The sprite used his drill hand to prop Theo's head up, which was uncomfortable beyond belief, and held the inhaler up to his creator's lips. "Breathe, Theo. Breathe…" When Theo struggled to take another breath, Deltasprite released the inhaler's contents.
The relief was immediate.
The painful tightness in Theo's chest abated as his airway opened back up, allowing the air to rush back into his lungs like little kids onto a playground. This time, however, Theo's mind did not clear itself. If anything, his earlier panic had been intensified; and to top it all off, he now felt nauseous. Suddenly not wanting to be alone—and he was not currently counting Deltasprite as company—Theo scrambled back up to his feet and ran upstairs.
He ran down the tiny corridor that made up the entire third floor of his home, heading right for his Gran's door. Not even bothering to knock, he simply turned the handle and thrust it open…but, to his dismay, there was no one in the room. The bed was empty. Gran was gone.
For the first time in his life, Theo Gibbons felt truly alone.
Cass Galavis felt almost like Louis or Clark, when they traveled west and finally lost sight of St. Louis. Or maybe Bilbo Baggins when he took his first step out of the Shire. Sure, maybe she wasn't trying to explore the frontier until she hit the Pacific Ocean, nor was she traveling with a band of Dwarves to reclaim the Lonely Mountain…but, in a way, she was taking her metaphorical first step out of the Shire.
The boy she liked had just convinced her, during her study hall period in the auditorium, to cut school early and go out to lunch. Now, while this might not have sounded like a very noteworthy achievement per se, in the particular case of Cass Galavis it was certainly an eye-opener. She was the quiet, soft-spoken sort of straight-A student who actually did all of her homework, and would never be caught dead skipping a class.
But here she was, walking down towards Downingtown East's lower parking lot alongside Adam Tarrant, the boy who'd just asked her out. She'd spoken with him via text message the previous night, and they'd agreed to go out with each other sometime later in the week…but Adam's impatience seemed to have gotten the better of him. He wanted to cut school and take Cass out to Main Street—a small collection of shops and restaurants on the edge of Exton—to grab lunch.
Cass wondered why she'd allowed herself to be convinced to cut school. Why now? Maybe it was because of the spontaneity of the whole thing? Cass was many things, but she was never spontaneous. Maybe she was simply bored. She had considered going out with Adam several times, but had never been able to bring herself to ask him…and now that he'd gone and asked her, now that the opportunity had been served up to her on a platter…how could she turn it down?
Cass stole a glance at Adam out of the corner of her eye and nearly burst out laughing when she saw the grin that was on his face. He always made sure to conceal it, or at least lessen it, whenever he thought she was looking, but she was being stealthy this time. Boys are weird, she thought to herself.
As they approached Adam's car—a 2001 Ford Focus which he affectionately named 'Little Blue'—Adam stopped short, his hands whipping in and out of his pockets. He then pulled off his backpack and started rummaging through the zippers, muttering to himself.
"Hang on, Cass, I left the keys in my locker." He gave a sheepish grin, setting his backpack down on the trunk of his car, obviously not caring about the fact that it would get wet with all the rainfall.
Cass blinked once, giving Adam a look. "You left your keys in your locker?"
"Look, sorry! I put 'em down when I got my jacket!" Adam held up his hands, almost making Cass laugh at how defensive he'd just gotten. "Don't judge me! I'll be back in less than a minute…"
And with that, Adam was off across the parking lot, sprinting towards the steps that would take him up to the bus lane. Cass shook her head once, still smiling as she leaned against the car. To be honest, she was actually feeling pretty nervous. Not from cutting out of school…but from the whole possible 'relationship' thing. She'd never had a boyfriend, before, and she had no idea what to do…and she got the feeling that Adam was in a similar boat. Yes, she knew Adam had gone out with Anna not too long ago, but she also knew that it had been a very dysfunctional relationship, and that it had ended very badly.
And ultimately…she simply didn't know very much about Adam. She talked with Theo a lot, but Adam wasn't a person of very many words. She'd noticed that he tended to play the sarcastic, hard-shelled part whenever he was in public…but whenever he tried to talk to her, he could barely get out a full sentence without having his face go red.
My God, I think he might actually like me, Cass's internal monologue continued.
She did not have time to think of anything else, unfortunately. She'd barely finished that last thought when a massive streak of fire suddenly roared through the rainclouds. Cass only got a single glimpse at the fireball as it emerged from the clouds before the high school suddenly vanished in a wall of flame.
The last thing Cass saw was Adam on the steps leading up to the bus lane, silhouetted by the massive blast, sent flying high into the air. Then the shockwave threw Cass off her feet and to the ground, where she struck her head on the asphalt and immediately lost consciousness.
Cass woke up with a start, her heart pounding, bathed in a cold sweat. She had only hazy memories of what had just happened to her, further contributing to her disorientation. She was back in bed, and it was nighttime…but she was not in her room. Everything in this room seemed to exist only in shades of a muted yellow, and she was dressed in strange, purple pajamas that had a crescent moon symbol emblazoned on the shirt.
When Cass looked over to the window, she realized that she was very high up into the air—she could see an entire skyline of a city with a noticeable curve in the horizon, betraying the city's overall massive spherical shape. The city was made of purple material, too. Stone, bricks, metal—all various shades of violet, interspersed with decorative-looking pillars and slabs of black, shiny rock that was probably obsidian.
And in the sky, she could see something that resembled a giant, purple chain…connected to the planet that loomed over Cass's tower. Cass deduced that with a clearly larger planet hogging up such a large portion of the sky, she had to be located on some sort of moon. A lunar city-planet.
Cass could see a couple people in the city below, dark figures walking through the alleyways of the shadowy streets. The streets themselves, however, seemed to be deserted. For a while, Cass was unable to put her finger on what was so unusual about the city below, besides the fact that it was purple…until she realized that it was because it was silent. It was almost as if the city swallowed sound.
Cass was reminded of snowfall in the middle of a windless night. When Cass went outside at night during snowfall, especially when the snow was already covering everything, there was absolutely no noise to be heard. Not even the normal ambience of the outdoors—no insects, no wind, no cars, no rustling leaves…nothing. The only sound was that of her own breathing.
There was something calming about the silence. It was not a stifling or suffocating silence that rested over the city. It was a very soothing, relaxing quiescence, almost as if the purple city below were releasing a gentle sigh.
Cass floated up from her bed and toward another of the windows. She'd almost reached the window by the time she noticed that her feet were not touching the ground. A sense of giddiness filled Cass as she realized that she must have been dreaming. It had been a long time since she'd had a lucid dream.
It made sense…she had faint memories of something that had happened to her before she ended up here. She'd been at school…then outside in the rain…then there had been fire. An explosion. What had happened?
Cass gave a shrug, finding no real desire to worry about it. She felt incredibly laid-back and free-spirited at the moment. There was a massive city below, and she felt like seeing more of it…not worrying about the memories that haunted the edges of her mind.
"Might as well explore," she murmured to herself, sliding through the window and allowing herself to fall gently down towards the city below, the stones that made up her tower rushing by. When she reached the ground, she saw that all the streets were made of violet, dark gray, and black cobblestones.
When she set off down the nearest street, heading deeper into the city, she found she could propel herself many yards forward with each stride, almost like she were an astronaut bounding across the surface of the moon. Gravity simply didn't seem to have any hold over her, in this place. Cass laughed as she flew down the street, feeling the happiest she'd ever felt.
Finally, she came to a stop at a square of sorts, where several roads intersected. There were shadowy figures gathered at the sides of the streets, staring at Cass through partially-shuttered windows, whispering to one another. They were humanoid in appearance, but not actually human… Their skin was a glossy black, and Cass believed it to be more of an exoskeleton than actual flesh. Their eyes and teeth stood out in sharp contrast with the rest of their bodies.
"Hey!" Cass waved at one of the windows, trying to say hi to the people inside, but the window's shutters were immediately closed. Cass shrugged and started walking down a new road, taking in the sights.
That is, until she was suddenly seized by the arm and dragged off the street by an unseen assailant. Everything had happened so fast, Cass didn't even get a look at her assailant until she had already been pulled into a nearby tower. She threw her attacker's grip off and, instinct taking over, quickly accessed her strife specibus, retrieving an M16A4 assault rifle virtually out of thin air. She leveled the rifle at her attacker. "Okay, you have five seconds to either start talking or lose your head!"
As Cass's eyes adjusted to the dark interior of the tower, she could get a better look at her assailant. He was a shorter person, wearing a wide-brimmed fedora and a dark gray suit. He had large, white eyes, and nubby teeth, as well as an ugly scar that ran from below his right eye to the center of his chin. "It is night, and curfew is in effect. If the Enforcers were to find you on the streets… They would have thrown you to the dungeons, if you are lucky. Otherwise they would shoot you where you stood."
"Who are you?" Cass asked, still not lowering her assault rifle. Her dreamlike happiness had evaporated, and now she'd become much more lucid, like she'd just gotten splashed by cold water.
"They call me the Wrathful Veteran," the dark-shelled creature replied. "Little nickname I acquired from my protesting days… You could say I've calmed down a bit since then. But I am not what is important—you are. You are the Sylph."
Cass lowered her rifle a fraction, giving the alien a suspicious frown. "The who? What?"
"You are the Sylph," the dark-shelled alien repeated himself. "You are one of the eight heroes. And you are going to have to be much more careful in the future… The Black Queen may already know that you are awake, in which case she will most likely…"
Cass's eyes flew back open. She was expecting to be momentarily blinded by the daylight…but there were thick rainclouds hanging low to the ground, as well as a giant pillar of smoke gushing into the sky from the still-burning remains of Downingtown East High School. Sirens from emergency response vehicles could be heard in the near distance, rapidly approaching.
Everything came rushing back.
Cass picked herself up off the parking lot, ignoring the throbbing in her head. She frantically looked around for Adam for a second before remembering that he'd actually been blown into the air by the explosion. He'd probably landed a good distance away… Cass limped out of the parking lot, making her way down across the baseball fields towards Route 113. She'd been drawn in that direction by a section of the tall chain-link fence that surrounded home plate which had been torn down. Lying in the middle of the wreckage was Adam, unconscious, his clothes scorched and burned, but his skin was somehow unharmed.
Paramedics arrived and promptly loaded Adam onto a stretcher, taking him away in an ambulance. As for Cass, they made sure she didn't have a concussion before deciding she did not need to be hospitalized. Instead, a policeman arrived to take her home.
As Cass watched the burning inferno that had once been her high school fade away into the distance, she could not help but feel that a turning point had been reached. Though she would not understand why or how for a long time, she knew that nothing would ever be the same again.