Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

24 - Collapse

Fischer's ears rang like a gong as dust filled his lungs. His whole body ached and moving felt like he was dragging a truck through a swamp with the handbrake on. His lungs burnt from the amount of dust and sand in the air seeping in with every breath and breathing was getting harder and harder by the minute. 

The first distinguishable though he could make out was that of Ko. Was she ok? Were was she? Was she injured?

With weary arms he slowly pushed himself off the ground and onto his wobbly knees. Looking around he could barely see even a metre in front of him. He held up his hands to try and make sense of his surroundings when he realised that they were covered in scratches and bruises. As soon as he noticed that, he realised vision in his left eye was very blurry and had a red tint to it.

He wiped his forehead with one of his hands and was slightly shocked to see his fingers covered in fresh warm blood. But he could worry about that later. 

"Ko? Ko!" He yelled trying to figure out where everyone was. The ringing in his ears refused to go away and any sounds he heard were drowned out by the high pitched wail screaming at him. 

As he frantically looked around, he caught a glimpse of a faint blue aura a few meters away. Knowing exactly what that was, he quickly stumbled towards it and found himself almost falling into a very bloodied Ko. 

His heart sank as he took in the sight of her. There were scratches on almost every part of her body and a large gash was embedded on her trembling right hand. Without hesitation Fischer reached out and grabbed hold of her hand to let her know he was there.

"Ko," he coughed, hurling up blood as well as dust with each retch.

The dust slowly started to settle and his vision began to clear slightly, Ko's fearful blue eyes becoming all too apparent. 

"Oh my god," she whimpered as she held her hand out to his head. With her thumb she wiped away some of the blood that was pouring from his wound.

"You're hurt bad, are you ok?" He asked her.

"Me? Fischer you're bleeding really badly! Don't worry about me!" She worried.

"Is. . . is everyone ok?" Spatch's voice cut its way through the dust and both Fischer and Ko turned to find him stumbling his way through the confusion towards them. 

"Spatch!" Fischer called. The veranah whipped around and caught sight of them, waving away some of the dust from his face. 

"Thank the stars, you two alright?" He asked, kneeling down next to them. 

"Fischer's hurt badl-" 

"I'm fine, really, where's Quin and Kori?" He cut Ko off and brushed her hand off his forehead, much to her dismay. 

A gut wrenching cry suddenly filled the air and the three of them immediately spun around. It was unmistakably Quin's voice and it was filled with pain.

As the haze cleared Fischer was able to make out the silhouette of Quin kneeling by a huge mound of rubble. She was frantically clawing at the dirt like she was trying to get to something behind it. 

Her eyes were filled with fear and pain and a waterfall of dust-filled tears flowed from them. Her bio lights were a deep black. As the dust almost completely cleared, Fischer saw why she was scratching away at the rubble.

A dull orange hand stuck out from beneath the rocks.

"Oh no. . ." he whispered as he realised what had happened. Ko had seen it too, but she made no noise. She only stared on in horror at the scene.