S-K-Y-L-I-G-H-T - 4. Skylight 4

Click Eight: "Aftermath"

There were no words to describe the moment of collision. It was like nothing the modern world had ever witnessed before. People in other States felt the tremors And they were strong enough to set off car alarms and shatter windows for hundreds of miles around. To think, this was just a piece of the original 'Houdini 3' comet. Had it been the entire mass, it would have meant the end of life on Earth. And yet...to say that 'life' got lucky...would be a mistake.

The chunk of rock and ice that slammed into the ground was easily bigger than most apartment complexes. It's weight was enough to level an entire neighborhood on its own...but the speed at which it was traveling was the 'real' tragedy. It made the damage infinitely worse, burying it deep into the Earth's crust, and creating a crater the size of a small town. The wreckage it caused was nothing short of catastrophic. Not to mention the damage created by the lightning fast falling debris of the smaller chunks of rock and ice that came before it. Spread out over a much larger area, the tiny 'bullets' ripped through everything they touched. Nothing could stop them. It rained down from the heavens without mercy, and by the time the warnings began, by the time the sirens went off...it was too late to save the unfortunate civilians in its destructive path. The alerts concerning this unpredictable tragedy...came way too late to save much of anyone.

The actual collision site, ground zero, was approximately a mile and a half away from the high school, sparing it from total annihilation. But the rather large chunks that fell before it, and the debris that resulted upon impact...left the large academic building in bad shape. Large pieces had fallen through the roof, crashed into the track and soccer fields, and one especially large fragment had slammed right in to the main courtyard, located in the very center of the school. The people inside felt the brutal impact shake the planet from under their feet. They were 'bounced' high into the air when the largest piece fell...as though a heavy weight had been suddenly dropped on the other end of a trampoline. Some were thrown from one end of the room to the other. Others were trapped under the debris of the collapsing roof. How the building managed to hold itself together is a mystery. But one thing is clear...

...Those who survived...their worries were just beginning.

Dorian...who had been springboarded high enough to literally be slammed into the ceiling, was just now retuning to consciousness. Disoriented and alone...he allowed his eyes to slowly flutter open. He found himself, still lying naked on the shower floor, with the spray of water still falling gently across his shoulders. It took a moment or two to realize where he was, and it pained him to move. His head was swelling with a pounding headache, and his eyes were still a little blurry. He hadn't even become aware of the bleeding wound at the top of his forehead yet, but he tried desperately to get his eyes to focus. And it was then that the sight in front of him sparked a chain reaction of memories that gave him a hint as to what had just happened.

Steaming, in the center of the shower room floor, was a giant hole. There was barely enough room at the edges of the room for Dorian's slim body to fit before being pulled into the pit below him. There were small bursts of flame coming from the center of it, and the almost suffocating smell of sulfur. Dorian stared at it for a moment, trying to hold on to the memory of this giant...'thing'....as it came crashing through the ceiling and lodging itself in the floor right there in front of him. But his thought process was hazy at best. His cheek still pressed to the floor, all Dorian wanted to do was sleep. Just....drift back off...for a little while...

...And sleep...

Both Kyle and Rusty were seriously banged up from the impact, but relatively alright. There was a somewhat stable foundation in the school's basement that hadn't been destroyed. For the most part, the boiler room remained in tact.

Kyle was holding his head, attempting to brush himself off. "Rusty? Dude...where you at?"

"I'm over here." He answered. Rusty had been tossed against a wall, nearly dislocating his shoulder. "Ahhh, fuck! My arm is killing me." The boys stumbled over and met in the middle of the room.

"What the hell HAPPENED?" Kyle asked, patting his pockets. "And where's the rest of my weed?"

Rusty bent over and picked up the smashed radio. Shouting at it. "THANKS FOR THE 'WARNING', ASSHOLES!!!" And he dropped it back down to the floor. "Dude, I don't know what the hell hit us, but it must have been pretty fucking big."

"Dude...were you holding the weed last, or was I?" Rusty gave Kyle a look. "WHAT?"

"Will you FORGET about the smoke, dude???"

"Well I could USE a little herbal relaxation right now, Rusty! In case you haven't noticed...I'm a little bit stressed here!"

Rusty stepped over some of the old pipes and turned over cabinets that had fallen over during the destruction. "Shit...this is CRAZY, man! I can't imagine what it looks like outside." It was then that Rusty's foot kicked something metallic, and looked down to see a silver flask at his feet. "Whoah...Foley." He called out to him. "Foley? You down here? Foley?" The dust was still thick in the air, and the lack of windows made the place even darker than usual. Luckily a few dim emergency lights were still flickering in the corners of the room.

Kyle was shaking some of the dust out of his blond hair, and stood in awe at the maze like wreckage the basement had been converted to in that one short moment. "Dude...this has GOT to be Donald Trump's fault. I don't know how...but I'll just bet he fucking did it."

"Kyle! Come here! I think it's Foley!" Rusty said urgently, and Kyle balanced himself as he stepped over the dark basement ruins to join his friend at the other end of the room.

Sure enough, half covered in rubble and metal pipes...was Janitor Melvin Foley. Half of his face was covered in dried blood, and one of his shoulders had been speared clear through with a metal spike. He didn't seem to be breathing at all. "Shit dude...is it him?" Kyle asked, and Rusty hit him.

"Is it him? Of COURSE it's him! Who ELSE was down here in the basement with us, dork!" Rusty moved a bit closer, trying to get a closer look, and Kyle reluctantly followed him.

"Is he dead?" Kyle asked.

"Umm...I don't know."

"Check his pulse."

"Uh...right. Yeah. Check his pulse." Rusty agreed, and climbed up on top of the rubble to get closer. It was hard for him to get a solid foothold, but eventually, he got close enough to reach out a hand towards Foley's neck. He couldn't quite touch it though, so Rusty struggled to get a better footing, and finally found something to put his weight on.

"AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Foley screamed, and both boys shouted out in terror as Rusty jumped back and went rolling back down to the floor! The boys could barely keep their hearts from leaping out of their throats, and tried to force themselves to breathe again as they heard Foley coughing up the rocks and dust that he had swallowed and inhaled during the devastation.

"You're a fucking FREAK, Foley!!! What the fuck are you SCARING us for????" Rusty shouted.

"You...were standing on my leg...you little BRAT!" He wheezed. Foley looked down and saw himself pinned down and unable to move anything below the waist The pain in his shoulder was intense, and he knew it would be a lot worse once the shock wore off. He struggled a bit to move the load off of him, but couldn't. He then looked at the two boys who were watching with a certain fascination. "Well?" He said, and they didn't seem to catch his hint. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE!!! Get me OUT of here!"

"Oh shit, yeah. Right." The boys said, and climbed back up to see if they could help.

Out in one of the first floor hallways, Darwin found himself laying face down with some bricks and light fixtures on top of him. It took him a while to regain full consciousness, but when he did, he pushed as hard as his wiry arms would allow, and was able to at least rise to a kneeling position. When he looked around, he saw some of the walls on fire, and sparks from electrical wires in what was left of the ceiling. He wasn't sure where his backpack was at that moment. The last thing he remembered was seeing that giant mountain of jagged rock in the sky as it headed straight for the Earth at top speed. He remembered running down the hall and away from the window...and thinking how pointless it was to even try to outrun such a thing.

He tried to brush himself off and get to his feet, but he had twisted his ankle something awful when he was knocked off of his feet. He had never heard such a thunderous roar in the skies overhead. He had never felt the ground drop out from underneath him with such a violent tremor. He yelped out in pain, his young voice cracking in agony, and he hopped over to the nearest wall to balance himself. He could put very little weight on his left foot, but with the sparks cracking louder by the minute, and the flames spreading rapidly to the many paper bulletin boards and banners in the hall...he knew that he didn't want to stay still for long. Besides, he had to find out where his backpack went. He needed it. He needed what was 'in' it.

The second level of the school was in shambles. Caught between collapsing ceilings and unstable floors, it was quite possibly the worst place for any survivors to stay. When Jennifer Goodwin came to her senses, the first thing she felt was the heat of the fire, scorching her from all sides of the room. She was sweating uncontrollably, and was quick to sit up as she saw every single shelf in the large library burning around her. Giant walls of flame that painted every wall the color orange with its vengeful flickering light. The scene looked like the fiery gates of Hell itself, and her first instinct was to scream!

It was then that she saw a bruised and battered Mrs. Ruschek rush over to grab a hold of her shoulders. "Jenny! Jenny, are you alright?"

"What's happening??? What's going on???" Jenny shrieked, tears pouring out of her eyes.

Mrs. Ruschek shook her gently, hoping that she could keep Jennifer's panic to a minimum. "I need you to focus, Jenny, ok? Stay with me."

"Wh-what?"

"Look at me. Right here." She got Jenny to make eye contact, and asked her, "Are you hurt?"

"Am I....Am I...." Jenny couldn't answer, and when her eyes wandered to the other side of the library she saw...bodies. Some of them burned to a crisp, their fingers still curled up in agony as the flames devoured them alive. "Omigod!!! OMIGOD!!!!"

"JENNY!!! I don't need you to freak out on me, do you understand! Look at ME!" The teacher demanded. "Are you HURT?"

Trying hard to breathe, Jenny attempted to think straight for a moment or two, and replied, "No...no, I..I don't think so."

"Can you walk?"

Jenny nodded, and Mrs. Ruschek helped her to her feet. But the teenager's eyes couldn't help but to take small glances at the bodies surrounding her. Some of them...the corpses of people she used to see every day. The pain of it ripped through her heart, and she was almost too weak to stand as the tears poured out of her eyes nonstop. "I can't...I can't do this....I can't..."

"Jenny...I need you to be brave for me right now, ok? I need you to help me. Can you do that?" Mrs. Ruschek asked. But she got no answer, and had to physically turn Jenny's head to face her again. "I need you to see if there are any other survivors in this room. Do you understand? I need you to help me get them to safety. Alright?" Jenny nodded, but she was practically numb from the sensation of waking up to such horror. "I'm going to get the fire extinguisher from the front desk and see if I can save any of the equipment in the media room. If we can get a TV that works and find a reliable outlet, we might be able to catch a few stations and find out what happened. Remember to stay away from the walls, and low to the ground. If it start getting hard for you to breathe, I want you to go out into the hallway, and WAIT for me there! Ok?" Mrs. Ruschek was sure that she had Jenny's attention, but didn't know how long that was going to last. It was best to just use the extinguisher, save as much equipment as she could, and get out of that place before the shelves started coming down, bringing the murderous inferno with them.

The third, and top, level of the school was missing giant pieces of the roof, and probably suffered more damage to its frame than the levels below it. Only certain secure parts of the upper level maintained their stability from the first wave of meteorites that crashed through it. One of them...being the computer lab.

Jason Riley awoke in the corner, almost as if in a dream. He had his head laying so peacefully on Jake Gordon's shoulder, feeling the warmth of his body heat, enjoying the slow rise and fall of his chest as he struggled to breathe. He had waited sooo long to be in this position. To wrap himself in Jake's embrace and let the angelic sweetness of his lips touch his own. But then..once his ears stopped ringing, he began to remember that this was no dream. And Jake's struggle to breathe...was much more serious than he had anticipated.

There were big holes in the ceiling above them, and outside, instead of a bright afternoon sky, there were giant swirling blossoms of thick black smoke and dust. Mixed with the putrid fumes of what must be a million neighborhood fires burning out of control. Jason remembers running away from the windows as the assault began. He remembers seeing brief streaks of light as miniature stones tore through the ceiling and went through the floor below. He remembers seeing the cars in the parking lot being turned to scrap metal by the unforgivable rain of ice rock. And while the entire class scattered to different parts of the room, Jason followed Jake towards the teacher's desk. When the final impact hit, both students were thrown against the wall, and the desk topped over on top of them both. And now...while it partially held Jason's leg in an awkward position, it was laying across Jake's stomach, and he was almost turning blue in the face as he fought to gasp for air.

"Shit! JAKE! JAKE!" Jason fought to get up, but he was in such a position that he couldn't get any leverage. "SOMEBODY HELP!!! HE CAN'T BREATHE!!! HELP US!!!" He was desperate, almost ready to break his own leg to get up and save his dream boy from suffocation. Thankfully, he heard some footsteps behind him, and his best friend Martin, along with two or three other kids from the computer lab worked together to lift the heavy teacher's desk off of them. Jake instantly started coughing, his lungs inflating fully with oxygen for the first time in almost 6 minutes. Jason wiggled over, sore leg and all, and patted Jake on the back as the color returned to his face. Thank God, he was alright. Thank God.

Downstairs...Dorian wasn't certain of how much time had passed...but when he opened his eyes again, it looked like the hole had gotten slightly bigger than before. He rubbed his eyes slightly, and looked closer. The hole hadn't actually gotten 'bigger'...but there was some kind of...'something' that seemed to be growing around the edges. Dorian's vision was still blurry, but it almost looked like some kind of...'moss' or 'mold' or something. Jet black in color, and most concentrated in places where the shower water was running down the concaved shower room tiles and into the pit below. And before he could really find the energy to attempt getting up again...he felt his body drifting back off to sleep...for just a little bit longer.

Upstairs, Martin was frantically pounding away on one computer after another. Trying to get one of them to work. While Jason tended to Jake's cuts and scrapes as best as he could. "Dammit!!!" Martin yelled. "They're fucked! They're ALL fucked! The computers are either totally shredded, or can't connect for shit!"

"What was that?" One of the girls in the room asked.

"That...ladies and gentlemen...was the 'Houdini 3' sticking its FIST right up our collective asses, is what it was." Martin answered.

"It hit us??? The comet HIT us?!?!?!" She shouted.

"Not the whole thing. Not even a third of it." Martin said, still checking for computers that might be able to log on. "If it had been the whole comet, we'd all be at the Heavenly gates right now asking for a halo and a set of wings. We're talking a million nuclear bombs going off at once, setting the whole planet on fire, and leaving any survivors to freeze and starve to death later."

"So what happened then?" Another boy asked.

"I can't be sure. But the comet was swiftly being thrown off course. Like it was spinning out of control. The sun's radiation was burning off more ice than anybody could have predicted. You add that to the fact that our little 'global warming' effects have probably heated up our atmosphere to a boiling point...and the damn thing probably started breaking up. Tossing great big 'snowballs' right at the rest of us."

Some of the surviving students looked out of the shattered windows..and saw what looked like the end of the whole world. With small shooting stars still streaking calmly across the blackened sky. There were giant rocks lodged in the baseball diamond and soccer field, and large chunks of clear blue ice crystals making the most amazing jagged 'coral reef' type designs in every direction...even amongst the flames. The sky was burning. Billowing smoke spreading all the way out until only a sliver of the horizon could be seen. And...to those who looked closely enough...dead bodies. For as far as the eye could see.

Coughing up blood was NOT how Dino expected to wake up, his Mustang now toppled over, upside down, in the middle of somebody's house. He wasn't actually IN the school when the meteor hit, but he was certainly close enough to feel the impact. As the blood rushed to his head, he cursed himself to pick today of all days to wear his seatbelt. While it may have saved his life, it was now holding him upside down in a crushed car. "Ahh...shit." Dino looked at the roof of his car, and saw his drugs all puddled there in one big pile. "Well, Dino, my boy...this is officially...the worst day of your life so far." He mumbled, and tried to get himself free so he could at least stop the blood from rushing to his head. He struggled with the seatbelt, but the harder he pulled at it, the harder it worked to hold him in place. And just as he thought he might be making some progress...he heard something moving outside of his car.

He stopped everything and tried to stretch his hearing out to see if he could place the sound. Nothing. Okaaaay...so now his mind was playing tricks on him. He began to fumble with the seatbelt again...when he heard another noise. This time, he knew that it was real, because he heard something 'fall' in the background. Something was definitely moving around in that house. He looked both ways, and paused for a moment, but then started to harshly tug and yank at the strap holding him in place. He heard more movements outside, and didn't bother to wait for them to get closer. He began reaching for his glove compartment. He knew that he kept a utility knife inside, and was hoping to get a hold of it fast. He had to really stretch for his hand to touch the latch that held the glove compartment together...but when he finally did, it didn't open. The smashed up condition of the car was keeping it closed. But there WAS a small crack in the door, and he forced his fingers inside, trying hard to pull it open by force. The sounds outside his car got closer, and he heard something else fall in the room he was in. But he didn't stop. He HAD to get to that knife! Not only to cut himself free, but to protect himself from whatever was coming! He pulled, and pulled, grunting as his fingers worked as hard as they could to pry that damn compartment door open! And then, just as Dino felt something creeping slowly up behind him...he forced the door open and the knife and a bunch of papers came falling out. Landing in a pile next to the drugs on his rooftop. He quickly rummaged through it all, and grabbed a hold of the knife, extracting the blade and shouting out as he turned his head to see what the fuck had just crawled into the car with him!!!

"Yaahhhh!!!" He screamed, and then let out a sigh of relief as he saw a simple house cat jump back from him. Giving him a look as though he was just plum crazy for overreacting like that. "Jesus..." Dino sighed to himself. And then looked to see two or three more cats in the background, equally confused as he was, trying to figure out what the hell hit them so hard and so fast without warning. "I could have crashed my car into a porno star's house, or a locker room full of cheerleaders. But noooo...I had to end up being stuck at the local 'cat lady's' house. Wonderful." He reached for the knife, and started cutting himself loose. But it was mostly just to get himself right side up again. It's not like he had anywhere to go. Anywhere at all.

Rusty and Kyle remained in the basement, still trying to pry some of the rubble off of Janitor Foley, but they weren't strong enough to do much good. Not even with Foley pushing up along with them. Not to mention that their feet kept slipping every time they tried to get any kind of stable footing. "Dammit...I thought you kids were supposed to be strong. Can't even lift a few slabs of bricks." Foley grumbled.

"Gee, I thought you ADULTS were supposed to be smart. Smart enough to not be standing under a slab of bricks when it falls over." Rusty sneered back at him. He turned to Kyle and said, "Look, we gotta get out of here. Maybe we can find somebody to help."

Kyle hurried up to the door and tried to open it, but it felt like it was stuck. He yanked a bit harder, and got it open a little bit...about ten inches. But when he looked through the sliver of space between the door and the frame, all he could see were flames. LOTS of flames! Smoke began to pour into the room, and Kyle was startled to hear some unsettling creaking noises coming from above him. He looked up to see a 'sag' in the burning door frame, and realized that that closed door was the only thing keeping that ceiling from caving in on their only entrance and exit out of that boiler room. "Shit!" He said, and started trying to push the door closed again. It wouldn't move, and the sag got worse. "Uhhh...Rusty. Dude...I think I need some help here!"

"Why, what's wrong?"

"Um...well, the first thing that's wrong....the hallway is on fire."

"On...on FIRE???" Rusty said, and it was about then that the smoke got even heavier in the room. "Close the door! What are you trying to DO! Choke us both to death! Shut the door!"

"Yeah...which kinda brings me to the second thing..." Kyle answered, now butting the door with his shoulder. Rusty climbed down from the rubble and looked at the sagging doorway, seeing it beginning to give way. He knew right away...that if that small door frame collapsed, they were not only looking at the problem of being trapped down there permanently, but fire and smoke and a possible 'total' cave in of the entire ceiling as the school came tumbling down on top of them.

He bolted up to the door, both boys now pushing and shoving to get the door closed. Taking turns ramming it as hard as they could, now coughing from the smell of the smoke. Finally...the door began to budge, and with just a few more synchronized slams of their bodies up against it...it finally snapped closed, and the sag was further braced by the door's position. Rusty and Kyle were out of breath, and wandered back down the stairs to sit and think of a new plan.

Foley saw the boys lounging around and snapped, "I thought you were going to get HELP. Where's my HELP?"

"We can't." Kyle answered.

"CAN'T? What the hell do you MEAN you CAN'T?"

"I mean...it's like...a lot of...everything is on fucking FIRE, dude! Like...the whole school."

Foley chuckled to himself sarcastically. "Heh heh...brilliant. Just brilliant. The whole fucking world is coming to an end...and I'm stuck down here with YOU two brainiacs."

"Why are we trying to 'save' him, again?" Rusty asked.

Upstairs, still trying to avoid the fiery aftermath surrounding him, Darwin continued to limp along, putting as little pressure on his sore ankle as possible. He could barely walk more than a few steps at a time without somehow making the pain worse though. Often whimpering out like a small wounded animal. He was able to balance himself a bit better by holding on to the walls whenever he could. But soon he had to rest. He found a garbage can in the hall, and turned it on its side to sit on it. He took a breather, his light brown hair now darkened with sweat, and matted down on the sides of his face. He was breathing hard, and just now feeling the soreness in his neck and elbow from being thrown against a wall when the comet hit. He had never seen anything like this. The entire building was literally crumbling down around him. And after all that anger...all that despair...now all he could think about was getting out of that place alive.

But a few dark thoughts returned when he saw a black backpack in the distance. His black backpack. He almost didn't want to get back up on his feet. It hurt too much to stand, and he was too fatigued to deal with it at that particular moment. But his eyes remained fixed on it. He remembered. He thought about Mitch and all of the horrible bullshit he put him through. He thought about all of devastating, heartbreaking, socially humiliating, torture that he had smashed into his face time and time again And he wondered if maybe...just MAYBE...the son of a bitch was lying underneath some of the wreckage in this place...DEAD!

The strange thing is, Darwin couldn't really figure out how he felt about that. Was he...relieved that the worst influence on his life was gone? Was he sad that a human life, even one as worthless as Mitch Campinini's, had been snuffed out by such an unthinkable tragedy? Or....was he angry....

...That he was the unfairly denied the opportunity to do it himself?

A few minutes passed, and Darwin just rested his eyes for a second or two, feeling them burn from stress and exhaustion. But then he looked at the backpack again, and decided to go and pick it up again. It took some effort, but Darwin managed to get up on his one good foot, and limp painfully over to where his bag was laying. It must have been thrown an awfully long way from where he was during impact, geez. He moved slowly, trying hard not to hurt himself any more than he already had. And as he got closer, he just picked his other foot up and hopped the rest of the way to save some time. He grabbed the backpack and instantly unzipped it to look inside. There it was. The gun was still there. Still loaded. Still had Mitch's name on every bullet but one.

He stared at it in silence for a moment or two...but looked up when he heard a sound coming from not far away. It was soft, and it was muffled...but he knew that he heard it. He looked around for a few moments, trying to figure out where it was coming from...and it led him to a nearby bathroom.

He listened at the door, and it sounded a little bit like...crying. Intrigued, he opened the bathroom door, and hobbled his way inside. There were a few sniffles, but they stopped the second he opened that door. Darwin proceeded carefully, letting the door close quietly behind him. The bathroom seemed empty enough, but then he looked over at the stalls, and saw one of them shut. He held on to the sink, and bent down to see if he could see a pair of feet in there...but whoever it was must have them pulled up to his chin to better hide himself.

Darwin took a chance, and with his already delicate voice, he said, "H-H-Hello?" He got no answer. So he tried again. "Hello? I'm...I'm not here to hurt you. I'm just..." He was at a loss for words, and moved closer to the stall as he heard more sniffling. "...Are you hurt in there?" He asked. Still no answer. But the stall door was unlocked, so Darwin took a deep breath and slowly pushed it open.

Inside, he saw a small boy that he didn't recognize, younger than the others that went to this high school. His face was a deep red from crying so much, and a look of utter terror was permanently attached to his frightened stare. "Go...go away..." He sobbed.

"Are you ok?" Darwin asked. He stepped forward, but the boy curled up into an even tighter ball and held his breath as though Darwin were suddenly going to attack him or something. "Listen...I'm not gonna hurt you, ok? I promise." The boy didn't seem to calm down any, so Darwin tried something else. "My name's Darwin. Ok? Darwin Kelly. What's yours?"

"G-G-Geo...." The boy said, his whole body trembling with fear until he almost couldn't stand still.

"Geo? Ok...that's cool." Darwin told him. He was sure not to make any sudden moves as the boy was almost sick with fright. But he definitely wanted him to put some faith in him. If for no other reason than to have some kind of companionship through all of this until he found out what was going on. "Geo...? Why don't you...come out of there for a second? Come on out here with me, ok?"

He reached out a hand, and Geo cringed instantly. "NO!!! No no no no no no no no no...." Geo began to sob again, and he held on to the back of the toilet as though it were the only thing anchoring him to this world.

"It's ok. It's ok, I promise."

"DON'T!!!" He screamed.

"Ok...alright..." Darwin said softly, putting his hands up. "...I'm not...I'm not gonna touch you. Just...we shouldn't stay in here. We should...try to get someplace more stable. Like..like one of the stairwells or something. Alright?"

The boy was still shaking so helplessly that Darwin instantly felt sorry for him. "They were coming...th-th-through the ceiling. I SAW them! They...they went right through her! They went right THROUGH her!!!" He cried. "If I leave...they'll come down on me too. They'll kill me and you and EVERYBODY!" Darwin reached out again, and Geo shrieked, "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!!"

"Ok! Ok! I'm...I just...I don't wanna be alone right now." Darwin said, and he hopped a few feet back to lean against the bathroom counter. "Let's just...let's just sit here and...'not be alone' together for a few minutes, alright? I just...need to get off of my feet for a while."

Darwin eventually slid down further to sit on the floor, resting in silence, and looking over at Geo, who had NO plans of coming out of that stall whatsoever for a while. The boys just..clinged to their safety for as long as they could. After all, a journey anywhere outside of that room meant possible danger. And neither one of them had the strength to deal with it at that moment.

Maybe...some quiet time was all they needed to figure out what to do. And how to further navigate their way out of this mess. If there even IS a way out.