Chapter 2

Darius stood in what he could only describe as a gray box. Four walls, a floor, and ceiling with no doors or windows. The only light that he could see was from a shining little orb on a wall to his left. It was a bit strange as it was not centered but was slightly on the right side of the wall and a little low. He looked around again. Nothing on the other walls, ceiling or floor. The surfaces were all smooth, like polished glass. He turned back to the small light and walked towards it. He could feel a strange coldness coming off of it. He waved his hand in front of it and laughed a bit.
 “Where the fuck am I?” He asked himself as he scratched his cheek.
 He tapped the orb and watched it sink into the wall a little and then bounce back up.
 “What the…” Darius said as began to rub his cheek as it was starting to sting a little.
 Darius reached for the orb again, His fingers sinking into the wall around the orb as if it was simply the surface of the water. And as he tried pulling it out, he heard a loud, booming voice.
 “Hey!” The man that had been holding the pipe earlier yelled at Darius while giving him a small slap on his face.
 Darius’ eyes fluttered open and stared up at a blob of shapes that was hunched over him. He blinked and the shapes came a little more into focus. He blinked once more and he could finally define edges. Darius took a deep breath and raised his hand to touch his forehead that was aching. It felt like the morning after he had first turned 21.
 “Ohhhh… The… The fuck happened?” Darius moaned out.
 “Not sure… Looking like you had some sort of seizure.” The man said to him.
 “What?” Darius asked as he tried to sit up.
 “Whoa… Slow down. Do you have a history of this? Seizures?” He asked him.
 “What? No… Fuck my head…” Darius said as he managed to get into a sitting position.
 Darius massaged his forehead and slowly felt the pain recede. He looked up at the man and then to the side. There was a tarp laying on the ground, a misshapen lump was poking up in the middle of it. An adult sized lump. The man looked over his shoulder and sighed.
 “He didn’t make it. One of his legs was completely severed. The concrete was sort of acting like a tunicate. He uh… He bled out pretty quickly after we pulled him free.” The man said.
 “When we pulled… When we pulled him free?” Darius asked.
 “Hey, It’s not your fault. He would have died if he stayed under there for much longer. It’s just… It was just a lose/lose situation. Shit like this just happens.” The man said.
 Darius looked over at the tarp and then nodded his head. He took a deep breath and began to stand up.
 “Hey, Maybe you shouldn't move.” He said to him.
 “I’m fine. My head doesn't hurt anymore.” Darius said as he got the man to help him up.
 It was true too that he felt fine. No pain or dizziness. He thought maybe he had just fainted from all the blood that he had seen. He actually felt a bit embarrassed about it. He never saw himself as being squeamish. The sight of blood had never fazed him before, but he guessed that the sheer amount that was covering the man and then the warm feeling of it on his hands must have been too much for him to handle. As he got to his feet he began to dust off his clothes only to realize that his hands were still covered in blood and it was now beginning to dry with a dark brown hue. He sighed and looked at the bandage on his hand. It felt as if it bonded with the blood and was slightly glued to his skin. With a grimace, he slowly pulled it off and threw it away.
 “Do you have any water? I need to clean...” Darius started asking him but then stopped and looked at his hand, his mouth still midway open.
 “Just this bottle I’ve been drinking from. Don’t think it's a good idea to use it to clean any wounds though. Did ya cut your hand?” He asked as he reached into his coat pocket and brought out a water bottle.
 Darius stared at his hand and then clenched his fist. He slowly relaxed his hand and looked at it again. The open blister was gone, not even a scar was left behind.
 “I… I had a popped blister. It's gone now.” Darius said to the man.
 “Uh… Okay? Well, the guy was with the UHA. Maybe he was a healer?” The man said to him as he looked back at the tarp.
 “What? He was a hero? How do you know?” Darius asked.
 “He had a patch on the shoulder of his uniform. Poor guy.” He said to him.
 Darius blinked as it dawned on him. The now deceased man had been wearing a uniform. He had noticed that right before he blacked out.
 “I guess he healed my hand by accident as he was dying.” Darius said.
 “Uh, anyway. Thanks for helping out. I’ll try to flag down any passing UHA members and show them the body. You don’t have to hang around.” The man said to Darius.
 “Okay… Uh, yeah okay..” Darius said to him as he slowly began to walk away.
 He began to clench his hand and then open it as wide as he could in order to make sure it was really healed. After a block he looked at his hand again, the blood now completely dried on. His hands were so covered it looked as if he had dipped his hands into rust-colored paint.
 “Fuck… Should have taken that bottle of water.” He said as he looked back and sighed.
 He didn’t feel like walking back. That would be too awkward, so he just kept walking and looking down at his hands. He checked the street signs to see where he was and noticed that he was really close to Caster Park. He knew there was a duck pond there that he could clean up in.
 “Perfect!” He said to himself as he began walking in that direction.
 As Darius passed through the gate of the park he immediately noticed makeshift tents, hundreds of them. He walked through the shantytown, looking at all the people that had been displaced. He tried to ignore the stares at him, as it was pretty understandable. He had quite a bit blood on his hands after all. He finally found himself at the pond. He bent down and began to clean his hands thoroughly.
 “You uh… Covering up a murder?” He heard someone ask behind him.
 Darius looked back at a dark-skinned man. He looked younger than himself, perhaps 25 if he had to guess. His hair was cut short and was edged neatly, He was wearing a leather jacket and Darius could tell the guy must regularly go to the gym.
 “Uh… No, I tried to help save this guy but… Couldn’t.” Darius said.
 “I see… Sorry if they were close to you.” He said.
 “Oh no. I didn’t know him.” Darius said back.
 “I was just making sure no one suspicious was coming into the campgrounds. We had trouble last night with people mugging and stealing from others.” The man said.
 Darius stood back up and wiped his hands on whatever clean patch of clothes he could find and turned to the man.
 “That sucks… Have you tried the shelters?” Darius asked him.
 “Yeah, most of them filled up last night. Whatever ones that still had room are probably filled by now.” He said.
 “What about Wallers Avenue?” Darius asked.
 “Yeah, that filled up yesterday.” He said.
 “Shit… Damnit…” Darius said to himself.
 “Hey, look… If you got no other place to go you can stay here. Most of us are looking out for each other.” He said.
 Darius looked at him and sighed. He ran his hands through his hair and nodded.
 “Sure, Sounds like a plan to me. The only plan really...” Darius said to him.
 “My names Trevor by the way.” He said.
 “Darius Grey.” Darius said and held out his hand.
 “You uh… Still got blood under your nails.” He said.
 “Shit.” Darius said and bent back down and began scrubbing his hands once more.
 “So, how bad was your place hit?” Trevor asked him.
 “Huh? You mean my apartment? My building collapsed.” Darius said.
 “Shit… I had my roof cave in. Might still be salvageable but I gotta feeling my insurance doesn't cover alien attacks.” He said.
 “That sucks. You here with family?” Darius asked as he stood back up and inspected his hands carefully.
 “No, my family lives out in the countryside. You have anyone with you?” Trevor asked.
 “Nah, my Mom and Dad live in another city. My Sister is in Texas.” Darius said.
 “Well, I hope they're alright.” Trevor said.
 “Yeah, same to you... You don’t have a working phone do you?” Darius asked.
 “Nope. I’m pretty sure E.T. is the reason we all can’t phone home. I think they knocked all the satellites out or something.” Trevor said to him.
 “Huh, you know I didn’t think of that. I still have a hard time processing that there was an alien invasion and stuff.” Darius said as he thought.
 “Yeah, wild right?” Trevor said with a small chuckle.
 They both looked out over the pond. A slight breeze sent ripples over its surface. They watched as a family of ducks floated out there, seemingly oblivious to everything that had happened in the last few days. Darius began to grab hold of a thought that he had forgotten about earlier in the hustle and bustle of helping save a life. The sudden deep realization that he was truly and unmistakably homeless.
 “Mother fucking aliens! My Apartment! All my stuff! God dammit! ” Darius suddenly yelled.
 “Whoa...What… You're just now realizing this?” Trevor asked taking a small step back.
 “I- Yeah, I mean no... I- I mean yeah I knew but it just now sunk in…” Darius said running his hands through his hair a little wildly.
 “You uh... You okay?” Trevor asked.
 “Y-Yeah. I guess I’m as okay as a person could be after losing everything he ever owned. Correction!” Darius said and pulled out his phone.
 “I do have a nice paperweight!” He said as he pondered whether or not to just throw it in the pond.
 Darius sighed and looked at the phone with a fake sentimentality. It was the last thing he owned, other than the dirty and bloodied clothes on his back. He flipped it over in his hand, looked at the pond than shoved back into his pocket. Trevor watched him and then sighed himself.
 “Hey, you hungry? We’re actually cooking some hot dogs and we have more then we will probably eat ourselves.” Trevor said to him.
 “Yeah… I think hot dogs sounds good right about now. Thanks.” Darius said back.
 Trevor motioned to Darius to follow him. They walked up to a group of tents. Although they would call them tents, they were little more than sheets being poorly suspended by ropes hanging from branches of nearby trees. A small fire was burning in the middle of them all, a metal grill was standing over it. Hot dogs and what looked like slices of Spam were sizzling over the flames. It was the best smelling thing he had experienced in the past few days. A young woman was turning the hot dogs over to make sure they wouldn’t burn on one side. She looked up at the approaching pair.
 “Bringing another stray home?” She asked Trevor.
 “I guess you can say that.” He said back.
 “Uh, It’s a nice to meet you. Your boyfriend has been kind enough to offer me some food.” Darius said.
 The woman looked at him with a confused look on her face and then over to Trevor. She blushed and laughed, shaking her head.
 “Trevor is not my boyfriend. I only just met him yesterday.” She said to him.
 “Oh! Sorry, I thought… Never mind.” Darius said somewhat embarrassed.
 “It’s okay. Have a seat. They’re almost done.” She said to him.
 “Thank you.” Darius said as he sat down on the grass.
 After a few minutes, two other people walked up to the fire. An elderly man hauled a folding chair and sat opposite from Darius. He rubbed his knee, seemingly trying to chase the pain of his arthritis away. A younger man sat down to the left of the woman that was cooking, as he looked at him and her side by side he could see a resemblance. They were definitely related. Trevor sat down to the right of Darius and handed him a paper plate with a slice of bread. Darius looked at it then to the young woman to his right and handed it to her. She thanked him and received another plate from Trevor. After everyone had a plate, he began to hand out the actual hotdogs. He gave the first to the old man.
 “Steak, rare.” The man said to him.
 “Got it.” Trevor said and waved his hand over the hotdog and then placed it on the bread on his plate.
 Trevor then stuck the fork into another hotdog and looked over to Darius.
 “What flavor do you want it to be?” Trevor asked.
 “What?” Darius asked a bit confused.
 “Trevor’s a Metahuman. He can control taste.” The younger man said to him.
 “Well, It’s a little more complicated than that, but yeah. I can change the way things taste and smell. So, what you hungry for?” Trevor asked him.
 “Uh… How about… Umm, Pizza?” He asked still not really sure if that was what he really wanted to eat, It was just the first thing he thought of.
 “Sure!” Trevor said and waved his hand over the hotdog and placed it on his bread.
 Darius looked at the hotdog and then brought it up to his nose and smelled it. His eyes widened at the aroma of mozzarella, tomato sauce and a hint of buttery garlic. His mouth began to water as he picked it up and took a bite.
 “H-Hory mit…” Darius said with his mouth full.
 “Glad you like it!” Trevor said with a laugh as he finished serving everyone.
 “This… This is Giovanni’s Pizza!” Darius said after swallowing.
 “Of course! They serve the best slice in Carver.” Trevor said as if it had been paid advertisement.
 “This is pretty crazy! Do you work as a cook?” He asked.
 “Yeah, well sort of... I’m more of a Sous Chef. I work at Laguna Grove, over on Tillerson. I just manage the kitchen and fix up the flavor of dishes. My ability is useful but It can’t alter texture or appearance. You need actual skill for that.” He said.
 “You’re selling yourself short. This is amazing!” Darius said to him, taking another bite and savoring it.
 “So what do you do for a living?” Trevor asked him.
 “I’m a bus driver for the city. I wonder when they will clear the roads so I can get back to work.” Darius said.
 “Oh! You don’t know?…” The older gentleman asked.
 “Don’t know what?” Darius asked.
 “I use to live next to the Transit Center. It and the bus barns were wiped out. The Center got hit with one of those alien beams and caught fire. I watched it as it spread to the bus barn and well… I don’t think you're going back to work any time soon kiddo.” He said as he leaned back in his chair.
 Darius stared at him in disbelief. He let the information sink in and then looked over at Trevor who was trying to think of something to cheer him up. He looked over to his left at the younger pair.
 “Hey, think of it as a long vacation!” the younger man said with a smile before being jabbed in the side by the woman.
 “He means we're sorry about you losing your job.” She said in a somewhat harsh tone directed at her sibling.
 “Here.” He heard Trevor say and looked over to him.
 Trevor held out another plate with another pizza dog. Darius looked at it, then took it graciously. He ate it quickly and then muttered under his breath.
 “Damned aliens…”
 “Well, like I said you're welcome to set up a tent here till things get sorted out. I think we might have an extra sheet and pillow you can sleep on.” Trevor said.
 “Thanks again, you guys have been really generous.” Darius said.
 “It’s alright! When shit happens, it’s okay to rely on others.” Trevor said to him.
 The group talked, introduced themselves, and told stories and then began to turn in for the night as the skies darkened. Darius spread out the sheet he got and began to lay down. His camping spot wasn’t too far from the fire but wasn’t close enough to hear anyone else if they had been talking. While he liked the others, he kinda needed a bit of time to himself. He looked up at the sky, at all the stars. Without the lights of the city, it was as he could see the infinite. The moon looked large and he could not stop looking at it. He blinked at what looked like small black specks floating over it. His first thought was that birds were just flying by but then thought about if it was something to do with the alien ships. He sighed and finally closed his eyes.
 He awoke again in the gray room. He was already standing looking at the wall with the glowing orb. He looked around real quick and then back to the orb.
 “I forgot about this place… Fuck! Did I have another seizure?” He said to himself and then sighed.
 He tapped the orb and watched it sink into the wall again and then bob back upwards as if it was floating in water. He touched a different part of the wall but it was completely solid and had a cold metallic feel to it. He looked at the orb once more and then let his finger clasp around it. Yet again his finger sank into the wall surrounding the orb, he then grabbed it and pulled it free. He looked around to make sure the walls weren't caving in on him like some sort of adventure movie and then turned his attention to the orb.
 “What is this? It’s… Cold and moist… “ He said as he stared into the orb.
 He looked deep into the orb. He could see a swirling flame, no, not a flame but more of a liquid. Strange information began to flood his mind, like whispers from a language he has heard before but didn’t know exactly where from.
 “P-Passive…” He whispered and watched as the liquid in the orb turned into a gas.
 “Active?” He said a little louder and watched as the gas re-solidified into a liquid.
 He felt something brush his thigh causing him to drop the orb out of surprise. The orb hit the ground and sank in all the way only to float back up as the room began to fade away. His eyes slowly opened to a figure of someone hunched over him. He blinked once more and felt the person had his hand in his pocket.
 “The fuck you doing?” Darius asked out causing the man to jump back.
 The man looked at him then reached into his own pocket and pulled out something and pointed it at him. Darius blinked and sat up. As his eyes focused he realized the situation he was in.
 “Wh-Hey! L-Look man… Don't do anything hasty.” Darius said to him as he held his hands up and slowly and got to his feet.
 “Stop moving!” The man said in a hushed shout as he pointed the gun in his hand towards Darius’ head.
 “I-I’m just standing here!” He said back a bit loud hoping others would hear him.
 “Shut up! Give me your wallet!” The man said.
 “I don’t have one on me.” Darius said to him.
 “Bullshit! I felt it in your pocket!” He yelled back clearly not thinking that others were nearby.
 “That’s my phone. It’s all I have.” Darius said.
 “Then fucking give me it, dumb ass!” He yelled and pointed the gun at his leg, where his phone was.
 “What's going on out here?” They both heard as other people woke up at the commotion.
 “N-Nothing! Everything's fine!” Darius yelled out to them and then looked back to the man.
 “I’m going to reach in and pull out my phone, you can take it. Just don’t shoot…” He said to him in as calm a voice as he could muster.
 Darius slowly reached in his pocket, never taking his eyes off the gun. He could see the man’s hand shaking, his finger on the trigger. Darius only hoped that his out of shape body would react in time if he could see his finger move. The fading light of the fire wasn’t helping much with this though.
 “What the hell is going on?!” He heard Trevor yell as he had gotten closer.
 The man spun and pointed the gun at Trevor. Trevor seeing the situation put his hands up quickly.
 “Whoa! Hold on! Don’t-” Trevor started to say until Darius spoke up.
 “Hey! Here it is! Look!” He said holding his phone out.
 “You- You fuckers…” The man said pointing the gun back and forth.
 “Look! He just came to see what the noise was. We don’t want any trouble. Please take my phone and just forget about us.” Darius said.
 “You both seen my face!” The man who was becoming increasingly clear that he was on some sort of drugs yelled.
 “So what? It’s not like we can tell the police with the city like this right? You can totally rob me and get away scott-free.” Darius said to him trying to install some reason into the man.
 The man thought about this and then pointed the gun at Trevor. Trevor looked at Darius. He could tell that Trevor didn’t know what to do in this situation.
 “Hey, look you fucking retarded piece of shit! I told you can just take the goddamn phone!” Darius yelled at him in order to get the gun pointing back at him.
 At that moment, Darius felt a tensing of the muscles in his outstretched arm. As if a rope had been tied to his wrist had been tugged viciously backward. Darius spun around on his heels. He lost his balance and fell to the ground. Darius laid there staring up at the sky. He felt a coldness wash over his hand and down his arm.
 “He- He shot me in the hand…” Darius thought to himself waiting for a surge of pain that he was sure coming at any second.
 When no real pain came he clenched his hand and opened it. He looked over at his hand, noticing that it glistened in the firelight. He raised it to his face, he winced a little at the soreness in his muscles and looked at his hand. It was perfectly fine. He slowly sat up as Trevor ran over to him.
 “You okay man!? Shit… I thought he shot you. What did you do to him?” Trevor asked him somewhat panicking.
 “What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.” He said to him and looked over to the man that had the gun.
 He was sprawled out on the ground. His nose looked as if it had glued to his cheek. Blood was gushing from his nostrils and his front teeth were nowhere to be seen. He saw his phone to the side of his head. It looked as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. The ground around both of them was wet as if he had just rained.
 “What?” Darius asked out.
 “It looked like you launched your phone out of your hand like a rocket or something.” Trevor said.
 “Out of my hand?” Darius asked as he raised his hand and thought about what that would look like.
 Suddenly a jet of water shot from his palm straight upwards. The force pushed his hand down to the ground.
 “FUCK! STOP! STOP!” Darius shouted and the water’s flow slowed to a halt as if he had just turned off a faucet.
 Trevor had fallen back on his ass when the water had erupted from his hand. They both just sat there looking at his hand then back at each other.
 “You… You didn’t tell us you were a Meta too.” Trevor said.
 “I’m not…” He said back.