Young Writers Society

Blake was going to be honest with himself. He was totally lost.

The city was large, confusing, and quiet. Three things you never wanted when you were out in the world. The streets were filled with old rusting cars and long vines, overgrown bushes and trees, and grass that hid away hard and broken concrete.

And Blake was lost in this.

He'd only been here for a couple days. After a week or so of traversing across wilderness and desert, he chose a random direction on his compass in an attempt to find civilization. Blake had gotten lucky, it seems, cause he quickly came upon a city so old it's only standing sign was for a McDonalds.

Food, of course, was sparse. A city like this no doubt had a massive riot and looting problem during the Grim Invasion. Enough of one that most stores and every building he came across had either broken glass, old rust-colored stains, and countless bullet casings on the floor.

It also meant that the only food he was able to find belonged to zoo animals and some truly nonperishable food. Canned peaches are a godsend. So were elk.

But cities were dangerous for a reason. Impossibly large, nearly endless, it had an uncomfortable amount of hiding spots, ambush points, and deep dark holes that he couldn't risk traversing.

Sure, the beds of certain apartments were nice, but when night time came, it was too easy to stay up all night waiting, listening for something to pop out. Blake was sure he had gotten better sleep in a tree rather than a bedroom that he broke into.

But leaving this place was much more difficult than he thought. Sure, every street had signs, but those signs were coated in enough vines or so eroded over time he could hardly read them. He wished he paid attention better when he actually walked in here, if only so that he made markers wherever he went rather than keep walking.

Unfortunately, it seems that 'keep walking' was his only plan. For a brief moment, Blake considered using his power and jumping off a building to figure out where he was and which way was the fastest exit. Then Blake looked up. And up. And up.

And then he tripped, and spewed fire from his wrists when he realized that it wasn't a curb he was about to fall on, but a deep ravine that cracked down the street like a scar on the world.

Blake landed on his butt with an oomph. "Oh... oh. Oh holy shit!" Blake ignored that massive crack that seemed deeper than the buildings around him were tall, and quickly pulled down the sleeves of his jacket to check out his wrists.

Large yet sleek gauntlets decorated his arms from wrist to elbow. Bronze and crimson painted metal made up the individual plates that seemed to fold outwards. They opened when Blake flexed his gloved fingers in a pattern, and revealed two long vials. One was a stark red liquid, with a tube that connected itself to an emitter that still looked hot to the touch. it was low on the liquid, as more than half of it was simply empty space. The other was a dim glowing purple, not nearly as empty as the red vial, but clearly connected to the same tube and emitter as the red vial.

Blake cursed himself. Then he turned his head, his eyes jerking left and right in an attempt to see everything behind him.

There was nothing but concrete, cars, and grass life. Blake's chest rose and fell quickly, and Blake scrunched his eyes shut. "Don't panic, Blake, don't panic. It's fine, you're okay, there's nothing there," he whispered to himself as he slowly stood back up. "There's nothing there, nothing there, nothing there."

Minutes passed. An hour. When Blake looked up, the sun was gone, disappeared behind dark clouds. The air felt misty. He could very clearly smell every flower around him, and he knew instinctively that meant a storm was coming.

At least that meant the grimbeasts would be too busy cursing the lightning rather than hunting him.

Looking back at the ravine that forced him to waste his fuel, Blake looked across it to find that if he took a running start, he could probably make it. Maybe.

Blake flipped a mental switch, the little nub between the hemispheres of his brain, and a corona of blue grew from his skin. It washed over his clothes, gauntlets, and his backpack like water, and pulsed in time with the lightning strike in the distance. It faded back into nothing, but Blake knew that if he did end up falling, it wouldn't hurt as much.

He walked backwards and braced himself against a broken wall, and when the thunder reached his ears, and took off in a sprint. His heart beat in his ears, and his feet hurt as they dug into the concrete before he reached the edge and leaped.

The ground exploded under his feet, and he flew across the wide ravine. His limbs flailed aimlessly in the air, and lighting lit up the sky in place of the sun while he threw himself across. And thunder sounded when he landed, concrete shattering under his body as he fell in a roll and stilled himself in a pose.

A look behind him revealed footprints in the concrete on the other side, and crumbling pieces of where he just landed. Blake breathed deeply as he stood up, and then turned to run.

It was never good to be where grimbeasts were bound to converge on. They were more than likely to have heard and smelt his panic. That was only going to grow more as the day progressed, and his dwindling fuel was already concerning enough.

Blake checked both gauntlets as he ran. Yup, still half-empty. He'd need more, and to find more, he'd have to either leave the city or-

Blake's thoughts paused with his body when his eyes suddenly spotted the stairs in the sidewalk, leading themselves more and more downwards into darkness.

-or that. Blake's face scrunched up as he groaned. "Dammit."

He looked behind him. He walked to the edge of the crosswalk and looked both ways. He looked forward.

They all posed the same thing. Endless and full of more confusing pathways of buildings and cars and concrete. Blake looked again at the subway entrance, and then he looked up.

The clouds were dark and plentiful. Water fell onto his face, and his skin glowed in the same blue light where the water touched him. It dripped off his body, leaving him dry, and Blake made his decision.

He tightened the straps on his backpack, zipped up his jacket, pulled up his face cloth over his mouth and nose, and walked down the steps into the subway.

-

It was as empty and dark as he thought. But as he walked into the ticket booths, he was glad that whoever once sat here opted for a wooden chair with a cushion rather than the metal and plastic seats the others contained.

Wrapping the cushion's fabric around the broken chair leg and trying it down with twine was easy. The will to use the last of his left gauntlet's red fuel to light it on fire was significantly more difficult to conjure, but he did it anyway. He would just have to hope to the dear sky that nothing would happen that required him to punch something with his left fist.

He kept the blue though. When he stepped onto the empty train cars and was forced to drag himself through the shattered glass doors, it was the blue that prevented the glass from carving him like he did the deer he hunted.

It also let him breathe easier in the enclosed space with his improvised torch. Smoke was dangerous, he knew, but letting down the only shield he had against any surprise grimbeast was even more so.

The walk across the train cars to the back car was thankfully uneventful. Oh, there was that rat that made a left behind bag of luggage fall on Blake, but he broke a door in half outrunning it. So he was fine. Safe.

And then he reached the end car and opened the door, and suddenly he wasn't so sure.

Long and thick strands of white, almost transparent web covered the train tunnels floor to ceiling. In the flames of Blake's torch, they seemed infinite, and if Blake strained his eyes, he could see the creature responsible for the death trap.

From here, it looked asleep. Almost human too, if you ignore it's bone white skin. It was curled up in a ball. Four long ivory colored limbs sprouted from it's back, all of them deeply embedded into the top of the train tunnel to allow it to hang from the ceiling in an insidious pose. Blake was entirely still, and his thoughts ran rampant in his mind.

Oh dear sky, dear time, dear mother and father in the ground, shit, shit, why, why, why, why, fuckshitwhyfuckwhyaspiderdammitofalltheunholythingswhywhy, why!?

The grimbeast in front of Blake twitched in its sleep, and then Blake stopped thinking and simply watched the monster react. It sensed the disturbance of Blake's panic disappear, and shuffled in it's curled up position to something possibly more comfortable. Blake didn't know, didn't care, and most definitely didn't want to be here to find out.

Slowly, with no thought in his mind aside from escape, Blake turned around.

And then the rat from before scurried by his feet and made him trip on nothing. His torch left his hand, and Blake yelled "FUCK!" as he fell out of the train car and onto the rails of a loud clang.

Blake hurried to his feet and grabbed at his torch on the floor, but the damage was already done. The monster in the web twitched, and slowly, it's head rose from it's crossed arms. It looked left, and kept twisting until it was entirely backwards and facing Blake.

Two inky black eyes opened slowly. Then two more, and two more, and two more on its face opened to lock on to Blake on the floor. It's mouth opened, four enormous fangs that totally split it's bottom face open to reveal more teeth down it's throat that pulsed with saliva and deep growl.

Blake stood slowly as it unraveled, it's head totally unmoving as the rest of its body unlocked itself from the concrete it embedded itself in. The four long, ivory colored legs on it's back ended in shredded points, like teeth on a saw. Blake stared unblinking at the monster, and mentally, his finger was pressed against a button.

Only when he had blue could his mind mentally press the button. Only when he had that blue that his body would begin to build the charge. Blue covered his body head to toe, showering itself over his clothes and skin like lightning.

The glow of his blue brightened greatly, to the point that it rivaled his torch, and Blake knew he couldn't move. He didn't, couldn't, trigger it too early.

The grimbeast stood proudly and unwrapped its arms from it's too-human torso. The arms didn't end in hands, but rather similarly toothed blades as its long legs. It didn't seem to have proper legs to it's human torso. In fact, it looked like it was cut in half, as a large and disgusting scar was all that was left of its bottom half.

Blake kept still, his metaphorical finger still on that mental button. His blue glowed even brighter than his torch now, and he knew that his power was fully charged when lightning began to sprout from his body.

The spider in front of him twisted until it was fully facing Blake, and didn't blink. Blake didn't blink either. The spider let a sound loose from it's malformed mouth. A gurgle gave way to a scream, which gave way to a snarl. Blake didn't move.

The spider settled itself in a way that had it's arms acting like it's legs. If it were still human, Blake would say it looked like a man on all fours.

The spider did not move. Blake did not move. The flames of his torch danced, and slowly, they shrank. And shrank.

The spider did not move. Blake didn't move either, even when there was nothing but smoke at the end of his now burnt chair leg.

Then the spider blinked all eight of it's disgusting eyes, and Blake moved.

Blake felt his body compress. He felt his skin tighten, felt his bones pop and his muscles strain as suddenly, he was no longer here. He felt fire burn within his heart, felt lightning strike every cell in his now non-existent body and then, with no warning, he didn't feel at all.

The spider, on the other hand, finally felt what terror was like when it's prey suddenly flashed, and bolt of lightning as thick as it was tall burned through it's webs and it's body, leaving nothing of itself behind aside from the burning remains of it's legs in the walls.

The enormous bolt of lightning curved across the train tunnels like it were a train itself, burning a path through the air, no matter what monster stood in its path. Then it collided with a train engine with thunder, and Blake felt again.

The train engine crumpled like a paper ball, with Blake's body stuck halfway inside. The blue of his body dimmed until it disappeared under his skin, and Blake pulled himself from the destroyed train and onto the platform.

He laid there for a minute, and his gasps came out in breathless laughter. "Ha... I did it... ha..." For the first time in a while, Blake smiled for something that wasn't food. Holy skies above, I haven't seen a spider in a while. Good thing I didn't miss.

Blake laid there for a minute more, drawing more breath into his lungs and clearing his mind when suddenly, he heard it. Screams and screeches of more of them, echoing down the tunnels of the subway like a chorus of rage.

The blue sprung back to life on Blake's skin, turning invisible by the time he stood up and was sprinting for the nearest staircase.

Blake sprung up the stairs like a rabbit, dodging more than half the steps in effort to just get away from the chorus below him. And Blake didn't stop running down the streets of this old, concrete city, hopping and sliding over old and overturned cars like he'd been doing it all his life.

Only when he couldn't hear the chorus did he begin to slow. Only when the blue fell beneath his skin did he decide to break open a window of the nearest car and sit inside of it to dodge the rain now soaking him to the bone.

Blake felt his heart in his throat, and pulled off his backpack in the car seat. He gingerly opened it, and looked inside.

His food didn't look damaged. His fresh water was thankfully still closed tightly, and his extra clothes underneath those were dry still. Then Blake looked inside another pocket of his backpack, and he smiled.

There sat a scarred black case, and when Blake opened it there were four more vials, all full, and four empty vials. While there were only four vials full, they were duplicates of the same two colors; two were softly glowing white and two were dark yellow. Bringing his gauntlets to the forefront, Blake opened his left gauntlet and replaced the now empty red vial with a yellow one. His right red vial still had a little left, but if he were to enter combat, it was unlikely he could do anything with it. He overdid it trying to keep himself from falling to his death.

He ended up replacing it with the white vial. I've got Stone and Repulsion, and Construct and Repulsion. That'll have to do for now. With that done, he replaced the empty vials into the beaten black case, and slid the near empty red into his front pocket. Fire is still useful in a pinch though.

With his gauntlets replenished, and a quick bite from his leftover deer meat and water, Blake tore the fabric from the seat next to him and used it to cover the broken window he had made to get in. Then he locked the doors, and made the seat drop down as the dark clouds outside drifted away to reveal an equally dark sky and the moon glowing high above it all.

"Goodnight, moon," Blake whispered, and he closed his eyes and slept.

-

Blake awoke to dull skies and the sound of razors dragging themselves against concrete. He kept silent, and he slowly raised his chair to look out the windshield.

The grimbeast's anatomy was significantly different from the spider in the subway. Instead of pitch white skin, shadow black fur covered it from head to toe, alongside a multitude of bone spikes that sprouted from it's spine.

Blake could hardly see it's front, but he didn't need to in order to know that it, like the spider, had too many teeth in it's mouth, and just as many eyes.

It walked farther and farther away, until it turned the corner and Blake couldn't see it anymore.

It was then that Blake pulled his backpack against himself tightly, and exited the car as quietly as he could. Blue invisible to any eye covered his skin and clothes again, and he turned the opposite way to run as quickly as he could.

And he stopped, as he found four more wolves in front of him.

Black fur and bone spikes. Like the spider, there were the barest hints of humanity in them. The way they stood upright instead of all fours. The way their arms were structured more like Blake's than like true wolves. And the way they seemed to almost smile as they surrounded their prey.

Of course, unlike Blake, their arms were nearly as long as their bodies, ending not in fingers but in a multitude of blades of bone. They were long enough to drag across the concrete streets, leaving deep divots and scars across its face.

Blake's hands closed into fists. His thumbs spun something, a button sewn into the finger of his gloves, and a klunk was heard in his gauntlets. Slowly, he pulled up his sleeves. His left gauntlet, in between the sheets of metal, glowed a dark yellow. From his right, a lightly glowing purple.

Then the wolf to his left struck. Blake, empowered by his blue, ducked as quickly as the elongated arm swung, and the wolf from behind him dove at him with both savage claws forward. Blake acted, his thumb pressing down on his left glove button. His gauntlet surged with yellow glow through his blue, and Blake thought, Fist.

The wolf's claws struck him, but Blake was unmoved and unharmed as rock and dirt and stone grew from his left arm like grass. The beast's mutant jaw hung in either amazement or stupidity, and Blake leaned over the stone fist and smiled with his teeth. "Hi."

Then he swung, and the wolf's teeth broke under his strength as it flew back at it's brethren. The other wolves dropped to all fours and bared their teeth at Blake, ignoring their fallen ally as it crumpled itself against a light pole.

One.

Blake bared his teeth back. "Come on. You wanna kill me, kill me! COME ON!" He shouted. Purple glowed around his right fist in rings, and he sprung forward. Two wolves sprung forward to meet him. They attacked both at once. A thought sent through Blake's blue made the stone on his fist unwrap from his hand and form into a rough circle. The wolves dragged their claws into it, and Blake struck the ground with right hand. The purple rippled, and the rings left his arm to bounce against the concrete. Blake, like a spring, bounced over the wolves' heads and thought fist once again.

With force, Blake broke the third' wolf's skull. With a twist, he splattered it's brains against the ground.

Two.

Blake stood and turned to face the last two wolves. The grimbeasts somehow looked... apprehensive. At least, as apprehensive a human face twisted into the vague facsimile of a wolf could look.

They both threw themselves to all fours. They growled with anger, and Blake growled back. And then they both turned around, and ran.

Blake blinked. That couldn't be it, could it?

Then something roared behind Blake, and he cursed.

He didn't bother with facing the newest grimbeast, and instead followed the other wolves and began running. But it was too late, as something struck him hard in the ribs and sent him flying away into a car.

It crumpled under him, and Blake fell to his knees with his stone fist broken, and his blue flashing brightly before fading back to invisibleness. He looked up.

It was a bear. Like the wolves, with shadow black fur and horrible bones poking from its body. But it was bigger. Ugly. Fat, pretty much. And it's fur didn't cover all of it. Patches of pale white skin showed off blood-red veins and stretch marks, like this thing was filled and deflated and filled again.

It roared into the air, and Blake stood. Blade, he thought, and the purple of his right gauntlet turned white before it suddenly sprung out from his fist. A solid, footlong blade of thin, transparent white centered on between his knuckles.

The bear blinked at Blake, and somehow grinned.

Blake pulled back his bladed fist, and re-summoned his stone fist.

Neither figure moved, and suddenly the bear sprung forward. Blake jumped, letting the bear's face meet the car that it threw him into, and he stabbed his blade into the bear's back. It roared, and it jerked as Blake stabbed twice more before he jumped off. The bear stood on its hind legs in preparation to cleave Blake in two, and Blake ducked before jumping up and clocking the bear in it's disgusting snout. Blake made to stab it in the gut, but it fell and carved it's claws into Blake's blue. Blake recovered, and rolled away from its flail again, slashing as he moved.

The bear roared at Blake's successful strike. "KILL ME THEN! COME ON, YOU UGLY BASTARD!" Blake roared back, rearing his fists to punch and stab again.

The bear roared and prepared to charge when Blake heard it. It wasn't a popular sound when people were more scarce than gold, but it's one that Blake has taken constant care to avoid.

The sound of a roaring engine.

As the bear charged, Blake quickly switched his stone fist and blade for purple ringed light. The bear met Blake, and Blake jumped over it, slamming both hands into the bear's back. The bear fell, pinned by the force of Repulsion fuel while Blake sprung high into the air. And Blake was glad he did, because as the grimbeast bear flattened itself against the ground, a speeding car rammed it's front spikes deep into its body.

Blake landed on the side of the street in a roll and a crouch, and he didn't rise even after the bear stopped struggling. The car's engine roared once more, and it rolled a little more forward, slowly turning towards Blake with the bear's corpse still hanging on to it.

Blake stood by the side and let it roll until the driver's side door faced him. The window rolled down, and out popped the face of another human being.

"Hey there! We noticed you had your hands full, so we thought we'd help take the load off, so to speak." She spoke with a deep voice. With short yet wild hair colored like a lilac, bronze brown skin, and clearly defined muscle on her exposed arms, the woman stared at Blake with almost golden colored eyes.

"Hey, get in the car man! Revving this thing up woke, like, four more packs of these things!" Blake leaned slightly to look at the passenger beside the woman. He wore a stylish jacket, one that didn't cover his midriff and had a fur trim on the hood. His hair was short and a startling pink, with the barest brown roots, and he had enough of a worried look on his face that even his dark skin looked pale.

Then Blake heard the roars, and he thumbed the buttons in his gloves to turn off the purple rings still covering his arms and climbed into the backseat. The moment he closed the door, the golden-eyed woman revved the engine, and he lurched.

"Usually the seat belt helps." A voice said beside him. Blake looked at the short girl, who had similar, but not quite the same long pink hair as the man in the passenger's seat. It didn't look dyed, but somehow more natural, and brighter too. Her eyes were hidden behind glasses, but Blake could see that they were a similar pink to her hair.

He also listened to her advice, placing his backpack at his feet while he did his seatbelt.

The man in the passenger seat turned to face him. "Yo. I'm Jay, nice to meet you. The little girl beside you is Chrysie, and the amazon trying to kill us with her driving is Zeva."

Said girl, Chrysie, sparked pink bolts from her hair as she glared at Jay. "I'm just short, you ass!" She faced Blake. "And it's just Chrys. Please."

Blake stared again at her hair. "You... spark." Chrys raised a brow, then looked at her hair. "Oh. Hehe, yeah. That happens sometimes." She said with a nervous smile.

Blake blinked at her for a moment, and then mentally tapped his blue switch. Lightning curled off his body for a moment before letting it dissipate back under his skin. Chrys' eyes widened, and she smiled.

"Excuse me, what the fuck!?" Jay exclaimed. "Hot damn, and I thought we were lucky with three of us!"

Blake turned to him. "Three? You mean all three of you..." Jay smiled wide, his earlier panic gone. Then a neon green glow swelled from his skin before disappearing. "Hell yeah, man. How you feeling? Not so alone anymore, right?"

Alone? Blake's been alone for a while. It's not really something he disliked. Blake wasn't allowed to disappear into his thoughts as Zeva spoke up. "Jay, don't be rude. Ask him his name, like a normal person."

Jay flinched a little. "Okay, yeah, my bad, man. What is your name anyway?"

Blake couldn't remember the last time he said it out loud. He swallowed. "...Blake. Just Blake."

Jay nodded. "Not bad, B, not bad at all."

Chrys nodded. "It is a very nice name."

Zeva didn't answer, as she was still driving.

Chrys hummed, and he looked at her. She blinked under his gaze and looked away. "Uh, sorry, I don't mean to insult you, but you, uh..." She paused for a moment, clearing her throat. "You have pretty eyes. Like, a steel gray, you know?"

"Sorry to say, Chrysie, but your eyesight is worse than I thought. They're very clearly blue." Jay said.

Chrys glared again at Jay. "I know what I see, Jacob. They're gray."

Jay gasped dramatically. "Okay, first of all, that was uncalled for. Second of all, they are blue, short stuff."

"They're gray!"

"Blue, pipsqueak!"

"Gray, you copycat hair stylist wannabe!"

"Oh, now you wanna go-!"

The two nearly started a slap fight, and Zeva finally spoke out. "You two, shut it!" They did. Then Zeva looked at Blake through the backseat mirror. "Blake, what color are your eyes?"

"Uh..." Blake cleared his throat. "They are gray..." Chrys crossed her arms with a huff and a smile. "But whenever I looked in a mirror, they always had a bit of blue in them. My mom used to say it looked like I had a lightning storm in my head."

Jay pointed at Blake while staring at Chrys. "See! Told you. Gray and blue!"

Chrys' mouth gaped open. "But- you- I said-!" Instead Chrys just shut her mouth, crossed her arms, and looked out the window, avoiding everyone's eyes.

Blake didn't mind. Jay turned back into the front seat, smiling happily and humming some sort of song that Blake had never heard.

Hours passed, and so did the buildings of the old city. Blake was glad. The highway was mostly empty space, and while it made him anxious to think about traversing it alone, at least he'd be able to see whatever would be coming for him. Chrys and Jay had fallen asleep already.

By the time the moon was high in the sky and all Blake could see around him were trees, he tapped Zeva on the shoulder. "You can stop here."

Zeva's twirled to face Blake, and the car began to roll to a stop. "Excuse me?"

Blake took off his seatbelt and grabbed his backpack without a word. He reached for the car door, and Zeva's hand grabbed his wrist. "Hold on, kid, wait up.”

Blake didn’t wait up, shrugging off Zeva’s hand and opening the car door. He hopped out of the vehicle, and starting walking towards the trees when he felt something brush against his hair, and a bladed disk stuck itself into a tree.

Blake turned around to see that Zeva had another circle blade in her hands, ready to throw again. Blue pulsed around his body, and he spoke. “Don’t do that again.”

“Why?” Zeva asked. “So you can go get eviscerated by one of the hundreds of grimbeast that are stalking these woods?”

“I’m fine on my own. Thank you for getting me this far, but this is where our paths separate.” Blake made to turn, but Zeva suddenly flashed a yellow gold, and she leaped to grab Blake’s shoulder.

“Kid, trust me when I say you don’t wanna do that.”

Blake stared Zeva in the eyes. “Are you going to explain why, or just stay vague?”

“You’re smart. You know there are grimbeast in these woods, and you know you’re not gonna get far this late at night.”

Blake raised a brow, and then pulled up his sleeves to reveal his gauntlets. “I’ll be okay.” He didn’t get to turn, as Zeva suddenly pivoted to stand in Blake’s path.

“As impressive as those are, you won’t be.”

Blake knocked Zeva’s hand from his shoulder. “You say that like it’s a fact. I’ve spent nights in forests before. I was fine then, and I’ll be fine now. You and the others will be too.”

Zeva put a hand on Blake’s chest. “Wait, is that why you wanna just leap headfirst into the trees? What, you think we can’t handle ourselves? That we'll just hold you back?” Zeva pulled her hand away and crossed her arms. “We’ve survived just as long as you have, and we’ve only done that because we’re together. Yes, I know you’re alone right now, but that couldn’t have always been the case.”

Blake’s jaw clenched. “In the beginning, yeah.”

Zeva unwrapped her arms and placed her hands on her hips. “See? It’s because of that beginning that you’ve lasted this long. And I’m telling you the truth, Blake. I’ve never met anyone other than you who has survived on their own. You’re the oldest, of that I have no doubt. But that won’t last.”

“So what if it doesn’t last?” Blake shot at Zeva. Her mouth hung open in a small gasp, and he continued. “That’s how it is. It’s how it’s always been. We survive. Day to day, we fight, we eat, we sleep, and we survive. And eventually, we stop. Either that’s by raiders, grimbeast, or ourselves, we eventually stop.”

“Blake,” Zeva said. “Surviving isn’t the same as living.” She shuffled in place, biting her lip and looking at the car before looking back at Blake. “Listen. How about you just stay with us for a week or two, at least? We’ve three have known each other for at least a year now, and you’re the only face we’ve seen that isn’t a monster, human or not. Please?”

Zeva grasped Blake’s shoulders, and led his face with her hand to look her in the eye. “We do stop, sure. Survival isn’t an infinite thing. But alone, it’s a terrible hell. Please, stay with us.”

Zeva’s eyes shone for the briefest moment. Her pupils became pale while the gold of her eyes blackened, and then they returned to normal so fast Blake wasn’t sure it was real.

Eventually, Blake sighed, and he pulled his sleeves back over his gauntlets. “A week. Sure.”

Zeva’s face broke out in a smile. “Thank you, Blake.” Blake shook his head, and walked back to the car. Zeva got in at the same time, and soon the car was back to accelerating on the highway.

Blake then leaned forward to Zeva’s seat. “So… your glow lets you see the future or something?”

Zeva laughed under her breath. “Heh. Yeah. Or something. You?”

Blake leaned back in his seat. “I turn into a lightning bolt.”

He saw through the rearview mirror Zeva smiling. Then he shut his eyes, and slept.