Two Hands On A Clock

Chapter Two

-17 Years Ago-

Fire. Ruins. Complete desolation of everything he had known. That was all Five had seen for almost a week now; six days, nine hours and 27 minutes, according to his log. 'Log' was a generous word for the crude tallies he had scratched into the side of his radio flyer wagon, determined to not lose track, determined to find a way home. He wiped off his goggles with his sleeve, struggling to see through all the ashes and dirt that littered the air. After a few days, the crumbling of buildings had ceased, every last one destroyed, which left an eerie kind of quiet.

 The boy continued to trudge along, despite having no clear destination, he followed the road in front of him like a religion. Eventually, Fives path was blocked by a massive pile of rubble; what appeared to have been an old office building, now a mountain of junk in front of him. With a groan of annoyance, the boy gathered up his wagon, took a quick swig of water, and began his detour around the heap of concrete. As he walked past, he took in the whole of it: smashed furniture, burning computers, and shredded office supplies all serving as reminders that just a few mere days ago, people were living here, working here.

 Though not usually the sentimental type, Five felt an overwhelming surge of loneliness come over him, causing him to delay his journey. Dropping his wagon handle, he took a tentative step into the mess, carefully walking over all the broken glass. It wasn't till he sat down on an abandoned office chair that he noticed a hand, sticking out from under some rocks. It wasn't as if this was the first body he had seen in the apocalypse, they were kind of everywhere. But something drew him to stand, moving towards it. The closer he got, he began to see more of the body; it was a girl, seemingly around his age, pinned down by debris. Kneeling down next to her, Five let out a shaky breath, moving some of the pebbles covering her frame. His fingers grazed her arm, his eyes still locked on her hand, reaching out from the rubble, as if reaching for help. 

Her hands were small, with slender fingers and skin pale enough that you could see the blue veins underneath.  Five shook his head, sitting  back on his heels and sighing with defeat. Although he considered himself a solitary being, he was finding that even for him, being the only person on earth wasn't too fun. And then he saw it. The girls hand moved.

---Present Day---

"Five what the hell is going on? Its been 17 years!" Luther barked, storming into the kitchen, followed by the rest of their siblings.

"Keep it down, would you?" Five retorted, currently making two sandwiches on a plate, blinking around the kitchen in search of peanut butter. Seated next to him was the girl, who the family finally took a thorough look at. She had strikingly pale skin, a grey undertone showing through, and dark, almost dull eyes. With blunt bangs across her forehead, her raven hair was pleated into two short braids, reaching just above her collar bones. She sat silently, as close to Five as she could be, not bothering to acknowledge the rest of the family.

"Keep it dow- Five!" Diego snapped. "you disappeared ages ago, then fall from the fucking sky with some girl, and you still look like you sleep in the nursery. I think we deserve at least some kind of summary?" He growled, storming towards his little brother and taking the sandwich knife from his hands, throwing it across the room.

With an un-amused glance towards his vigilante brother, Five blinked across the room , calmly yanked the knife from the wall, and just as quickly appeared back where he was before, finishing the sandwiches and taking a bite, placing the other in front of the girl.  

"Summary?" Five began, eyes squinting at Diego, annoyed. "I was stuck in the future for 45 years, became a magical assassin, I saw all of you dead, and the entire world destroyed in an apocalypse. Which we have a week to stop, by the way." He snapped out, peeved with his family's questioning.

This was met with blank stares from his siblings, and a long pause of baffled silence.

"Also," The boy chimed, "some girls name is G."