Rory Montgomery is a lot of things to a lot of people:
Queen. Revolutionary. Real. Killer. Free. Survivor.
After crash landing on Earth with 99 other juvenile delinquents and reuniting with lost friends, Rory Montgomery learnt that Earth wasn't quit...
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When Rory opens her eyes, she can't see a thing. The smoke from the explosion, the dust from the debris, it blurs her vision and fills her lungs. A wave of relief floods her when she feels Nova and Orion beneath her, still wrapped tightly in her arms. She lifts her head and, the second she does, she feels a rain of rubble falling down onto them. She ducks back down, protecting the backs of the children's heads with her hands. Once it stops, she slowly pushes herself up.
As she kneels back, her head reels. An ear piercing ringing noise echoes through her ear and, she quickly realises she can't hear anything at all. She checks herself over quickly, before clenching and unclenching her jaw, trying to get the momentary deafness out of her system. It starts to work, quiet noises starting to slip through the cracks, one being the cries of Nova and Orion.
"You're ok, you're both ok." Rory soothes, crawling over to them as they start to move. She places a hand on their shoulders to try to keep them still, to try to let them know she's there. As the smoke starts to clear, she sees the two of them staring back at her, covered in dust and dirt with eyes full of tears. "It's your ears," she says, pointing to her own, "that's what happens when you're near an explosion, do you understand? It'll pass just stay calm. Take some deep breaths, ok?" She breathes with them, in and out. Slowly, they start to calm down and, in turn, their hearing comes back just as quickly as Rory's. "Let me see you both, let me check you're not hurt." She starts with Nova, looking her over for any sign of injury, then checks Orion. "It's all going to be ok, do you hear me? Nothing bad is going to happen to you on my watch. I'm going to keep you safe."
"I can't see, Aurora." Orion whimpers, lifting his hands to his face. "My glasses, I can't find them."
"It's ok, I'll find them for you." Rory tells him. She pushes herself to her feet and, despite not wanting to, she forces herself to turn around and look at TonDC. As soon as she does, she wishes she didn't. "Oh my god." She gasps.
It's chaos. Utter chaos. She wasn't alive when the bombs that ended the world dropped but, seeing TonDC after just one, she can see why humanity had to fight to survive and most lost the battle. Smoke is pouring out of the village, hiding the worst of the damage from her but, it does nothing to hide the screams. The screams of pain, of fear, of loss. Through the gaps in the smoke, she sees some survivors running around the village, trying to help the injured, locating the dead. There's nothing left. The once beautiful village, the village they'd all been in less than ten minutes ago, is gone. All that Rory can see is broken concrete and rubble, and a crater left by the missile spreading the length of the village. Flickers of flames catch her attention, small fires popping up throughout the fallout zone but the survivors do nothing to extinguish them, their focus remaining solely on rescuing as many people as they can.
Just when she thinks it can't get any more horrifying than it is, the woods in front of them rustle. A woman stumbles out from the tree line and towards them. She stumbles, unsteady on her feet and, when the smoke leaves, Rory sees blood pouring from the woman's mouth. She goes to move, to help her but, she's frozen to the spot when the woman drops the thing she's carrying. The woman's right arm clatters to the ground in front of Rory, and a few seconds later the woman joins it, succumbing to her injuries.
