Gear: New World

RUN.

The next day our school had an assembly to mourn Jalen and Darnell's death. We were all packed into the gymnasium while the principal gave a speech about how great of students and athletes they were, and while I was thankful for all of that, I couldn't focus on anything but what happened last night. We were filed out into our respective classrooms and the day went on as usual.

At the end of the day, the somber energy from the assembly still hung over our school. Kids walked up to me throughout the day, offering their condolences, and after a while, it seemed to be only empty words with no meaning, just things they would say in replace of any real meaning words.

"Hey Ethan, I'm sorry about Jalen and Darnell. I know you were close with them so if you ever need anything, just let me know and I'm there."

At the end of a day that seemed to last forever, I was sick of all the false remorse. As I'm taking things out of my locker and getting ready to head home, there she was, Julia. Undoubtedly the prettiest girl in our school and my opinion, all of Meadow City. Soon realizing she was walking my way, I quickly packed my bag but it wasn't in time before she got next to me.

"Hey Ethan, I know you're probably tired of all these sorries, but I am sorry for your loss."

Hearing it from her didn't seem so bad as from others. I didn't realize it until she coughed a bit as if to get my attention that I was just staring.

"Yes sorry, thank you. I'll be okay, they were great people so I'll do my job in honoring them during games by winning."

"Oh okay, that's nice." She looked at me a bit as if she wanted to ask a question, but before she could utter the next word, the whole building shook, and down the hall, an explosion went off blowing open the wall. Kids started screaming, faculty tried to keep the situation under control, but they too were freaked out about what just happened. To make matters worse, a man walked through the newly formed hole in the wall.

"Well isn't THIS a cozy place? BiGear, I know you're here SOMEWHERE. The 'Boss' doesn't like to be kept waiting and neither does Hitch. Come out before I start killing your classmates like flies" the man says before grabbing a girl who was running by to escape. He clenched his hand around her skull, lifted her off the ground, and started to vibrate her head. She was screaming, thrashing around begging him to let her go and not her before her head popped, blood and brain matter went flying everywhere. This caused even more hysterics and panics.

"Well isn't that just messy? You see what I can do, one of these scattering kids is next. So be a good boy and come forth."

Realizing he just mentioned himself in the third person, I already knew this guy was crazy. Amongst all the panic, I completely forgot Julia was with me. I looked over and she wasn't screaming like a lot of other students were, but instead of running at the first sound of the explosion, she just stood there, petrified as if she didn't know how to process fear like she didn't know what was going on. I knew, however. He was a Gear user, most likely working for the "Boss."

"Julia look at me" as I grabbed her by the shoulder, snapping her out of her state. "You need to get out of here, NOW. Take the back exit and get help. Go with the others, go."

She seemed to still be in her state of shock, but she started to comply when she snapped back into reality.

"Wait, what about you? You need to come with me as well."

"I can't there is something I need to take care of, but I promise I'll be right behind you once you get outside, trust me."

She seemed to not believe me still and so I ran up to her half sweaty and half covered in rubble powder, grabbed her by the back of her head with my right hand, using my left hand to pull her in by the waist, and kissed her on the lips. As I pulled apart I looked at her with intent and said