The Meta Corps - Dream of the Youth

by ToGard

Chapter 25

  “Okay, Anne, how’s that for an idea?” Tench shouted. Anne giggled.

  “That’s cool! I wish I had thought of that! Here!”

  Anne projected a cupcake for Tench, which he knew that he could not interact with, and playfully bit at it. He saw the imagined treat vanish and heard Anne gasp. Tench turned around to see Jack smack him upside the head. Tench lulled for a moment, trying to clear the stars from his eyes, the sick from his stomach and the pain from his head as Jack made off with Anne.

  Down below, Lora hovered over the ruined buildings at the water’s edge. Her bloodied and crusted shoulder was starting to come out of shock and realize that it had a wound. It felt less like a blackened welt and more like uncooked filet mignon. A dagger of pain struck her arm, and she almost buckled over. Lora looked up with a pained gasp and saw Jack disappear behind a tanker ship with Sarra closing in from behind. Lora held her arm and sniffed hard. She figured that she was alone, and bobbed over to meet with Sarra. She landed in the debris, rubbing her arm and hissing. The area was disserted; the only sounds that she could hear were coming from the sea, and the cloud that Levan had overtaken.

  “I hope this isn’t infected… or broken, eww…” She looked at her pink hand darkened by the blood. Lora figured that it was better to swallow the pain and try to win rather than waste time by wishing for the second time that Bronson had applied the coding properly. She wasn’t sure how well she would be able to fight with an arm that she couldn’t raise higher than her belly button.

  Lora hovered across the plot, checking behind pieces of wall, chunks of rubble, and other assorted mismatches that had fallen from the vortex. As she started to call for Sarra, she heard a scream. She flew over to peek behind a mound of rubble and saw Jack carrying Anne into a cave. Lora studied the cave. She was puzzled by its building materials; bits of rubble, rebar, cars, oil drums, and the like were held together by what looked like spider webs of melted solder. Lora didn’t worry about the construction and headed for the aperture, her mind focused on the little girl.

  Lora flew in and yellow, blue, and red sprites materialized and danced before her. They made her instantly lightheaded.

  “Oh…”

  Lora fell to the ground.