Chapter 15

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The end of the world up close looks like Hell.

After escaping the mutant Rebels with the help of the MDOs sworn to protect them, Felix's second round of birds drop them on a street that might have looked familiar once upon a time, any of them might have stopped at the deli shop on the corner, or peeked into the bookshop across the way. Now it looks like some giant had stomped on the tiny brick buildings. The street light bent and sparking, the buildings reduced to piles of rock, and glass shards sunken in pool of water and oil leaking from unidentifiable sources. A child's doll rests in the middle of the street just feet from a mountain of crushed concrete, with no sign of it's owner anywhere.

Felix grips Jax's hand, and even if he can't see the nightmare in front of them, he can smell the acrid stench of smoke, and hear the sickly wails of humans taking their last breaths. Ash stumbles when her feet touch the ground, overwhelmed by the flood of red and grey emotions in her vision.

Jax, alone, faces the shock of seeing bodies in the middle of the street-- normal people who had been doing normal things. Now dead. Becuase of a ginger haired scientist and an alien with an ego. Smoke burns his eyes, and it's hard to imagine anyone surviving any of it. They'll have have to get over the shock fast and move faster if they have any chance at saving anyone at all.

At some hundred over head, the second group, consisting of Noah, Jack, Ivan, Xeno, and Sapphire face an equally disastrous problem. Xerxes power of influence has settled over Sapphire, turning her painfully into one of his Hive Mind minions. Knocking her unconscious is only a temporary solution as they stumble down passages that no one seems to have trespass in decades. Their only chance to find the power source might be hidden in the link between Sapphire and Oliver, but even with her blatant refusal to give in completely, Sapphire will kill them if they aren't careful.

Not to mention, Xerxes has yet to regard them as anything more than a minor pest. Does he have a plan? Are they moving right into another twisted trap of his or is it all just a mind game?

Whatever it is, both groups are about to find themselves seriously out of time.

***

Ship group starts here!

City group starts here!

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