For the Greater Good

Chapter 13

It was dangerous to drift off so close to the sight where they had almost died, but for most of them they didn't have a choice.

Zara left Andrea in peace, instead taking on the role of watching over her surviving MDO soldiers. Only a couple had been successfully dug out from the underground base; they all stared dejectedly at the ground, mourning, until Zara had come through like a thundering storm. Her words were soft, her tone commanding. Whatever she said left them with sparks in their eyes.

They put together a camp by the pale moon light. Someone found clothes for Xeno and Sapphire, an MDO with a medical degree looked at Felix's eyes and determined that he was lucky to be alive. Food was savaged from the ruins, but everything tasted like mortar, and bottled water lived in a short supply for a couple hours.

Despite the rotation of sleeping shifts, at one point it seemed that everyone had dozed off. Sapphire pressed against Xeno and both finding comfortable familiarity in each other. Ivan laid down with no intention of sleeping but passed out anyway. Ash let the grief of the people around her wash over her until she could slowly, cautiously, spread a thin feeling of ease over them. The hues of light in her vision died down when most of them had fallen asleep, and she closed her eyes as well.

Jack awoke but only stayed up enough to re-position herself, just a few feet away from where Felix and Jax had made a fort of ripped up grass and talked about nothing in particular for several hours. One of them drifted off first, but not even they knew which it had been.

Noah's arm was set and luckily someone found enough Advil that he managed to slip into a restless sleep before the pain came back like a knife digging into his shoulder. A sling would have been better but with limited resources, duck tape and a tree branch would have to do.

The morning came slowly, the sun glistening red and orange and--

"Is that a spaceship?" Chance coughed weakly to the rest of the group. His voice was small but it carried enough to wake even Zara from her nap, "Someone tell me that's not a spaceship."

In response, the sky was filled with a bright Cyan Blue and the city, which poked it's skyscrapers out of the far distant trees, exploded entirely.

***

Start Main Chain here :)