The Last Stand Part 1

### **Sydney**

When I open my eyes, I'm on the ground, so I turn my head to see a huge crater. I look at it again, and notice the shapes of Ectonurite hybrids littering it. People are running around, check that each one is completely still, and a red-haired woman eventually comes up to me. “Are you OK? There was a massive explosion and some people were caught in it. We've counted only seven causalities so far, but the Ectonurites suffered almost all of them. The stray ones have already retreated.”

”Thanks...” I groan, and she helps me up. My stomach is in knots because of the explosion, but not for the same reason as everyone else. The casualties, and all the people injured are because of me, because of my transformation into Mr. Opposite. It doesn't matter if I meant to or not, I am the cause of this. She begins listing off the casualties, but I don't recognise any of the names, and look around at the scene of destruction before me.

People are helping others get up, and looking at their surroundings too. Some, however, are looking up at something. I do too, and the sun hurts my eyes. There's no roof; the surface is exposed. “...Pryde.” I turn back to the woman.

”What?”

”Zoe Pryde. Anyway, that's it.”

I'm confused. Hannah and her mom were caught in the eye of the explosion, so they should be dead. There's no way they're alive.

“Boo!” Someone shouts from behind me, and I jump.

I turn around - ”This isn't the time for ga—“ - and see Hannah, her skin red and her clothed charred.

”It's never the time for games for you. It's always so serious, but since that's never gonna change, why not spice things up? You know what I say, when life gives you lemons, start a food fight with the nearest person.”

”How did you-?”

”Not get exploded into oblivion? I grabbed my mom and we turned intangible. Most of the explosion just passed through us. Not the heat, of course, which is why I'm fried bacon.

”Oh. The casualties say-“

”Zoe Pryde? I don't know who that is, they just happen to have the same last name as me. The only one any of us knew was Anna Hoyen, who my mom knew from her term as a Crusader.”

I suddenly notice the crowds of people all moving left. “Come on, we're moving to the new base. It already has most of our personal items.” The red-haired woman tells us, and Hannah's about to go when I pull on her shirt.

”We can't go. The Ectonurites are weakened and this is our chance to wipe them out for good.” I urge her.

”No, this is our chance to escape from the danger and live normal lives.”

”We've been doing this for all our lives! You've always said you wanted to see the surface, so why give it up now?”

She looks directly at me. “There's a good chance we'll die doing this, and we might not see our families again. I'm coming, but only if you promise we'll come back safely.”

”I promise.”

### **Hannah**

Sydney turns into a mole creature and I still manage to be surprised. In the last 24 hours, my best friend disappeared and came back with two missing Crusaders and a device that turns her into creatures. I still don't understand it fully.

I get on her back and we burrow upwards through the edges of the crater, reaching the top in less than a minute. Sydney immediately turns back and starts walking off, but I stop her.

"Do you know where we're going?" I ask.

Sydney turns around. “No, where actually IS the compound?”

“I don't know either. Wanna play I Spy?” I look around, just in case, but the compound is nowhere near here. “Actually, scratch that, I have a better idea.”

I feel a buzz spread across my body, and pass through the ground, taking Sydney with me. We move through layers of dirt before finally ending up in a room with pipes stretching everywhere. This was a room I always used to go to when I was young, hiding from my father whenever he took out his belt. I only stopped when he saw me phasing, became convinced that I was Satan and ran off. Since then the room was just a bad memory.

Now that I've come back, the fear of his wrath comes back too and I have to take a moment to process it while Sydney looks around. “What is this place?”

“I'd rather not say. I assumed it would still be here after the explosion because it's outside of the area we used to count as base. These pipes go on for miles, and they must be coming from *somewhere*, but our base is the only building around here, meaning there's a good chance that these belong to the Ectonurites.”