Licensed Apocalypse

*fourteen* At Long Last

Eric snapped wake, panting. Sweat drenched his face and his pupils were dilated. He calmed his breath and looked over at Lucis who was still fast asleep. Eric turned over and fell asleep. Sound asleep. The next morning Lucis was up before Eric. Eric yawned, stretched, and met Lucis' gaze.

"Breakfast." Was all Lucis said before turning back into the dining room. Eric got up, yawned again, and followed his friend into the kitchen.

"Thanks." Eric said, collapsing into a chair. Lucis nodded and indicated to dig in.

**

January 16, 1991

"Let's go. Fire up the theory."

"But sir, it's just a theory."

"What's wrong with a theory? Einstein had a theory! Darwin and Wallace have a theory!"

The man nodded.

"Get to work. Now. I want to see this theory work."

The sounds of work, yells, and movement shuffled around the man as his eyes flitted through the scene, watching. A small smile of triumph flitted across his face. We're actually doing this. He thought. That's when it all went wrong.

**

Eric had finally matured out of single moving target practice. The next stage, in Lucis' book at least, was multiple targets. Not moving. Eric raised his gun as Lucis instructed him.

"You're getting better that you may actually get to train yourself." Lucis said. "But for now, listen to me. Hit those targets as fast as you can. Preferably bullseye but anything close around it is good. Anything on the edges is a wound. Go." Lucis stepped back. Eric took a deep breath. The sound of firing broke through the silence. Lucis' eyes darted through the targets and it even seemed like he was watching the bullets. When Eric lowered his gun Lucis nodded. "You did well but you still can improve in a lot of areas. Again?" Eric nodded. "Go."

**

Lucis was sleeping. He had had night duty the previous night and he was exhausted. Eric was outside practicing his shooting. Suddenly both of their heads shot up. There was a sound that wasn't Eric's gun. Lucis ran outside, jumping the traps, and skipping the brick stairs. He followed Eric's eyes to where the sound had come from. It looked like something was coming. Something big. Lucis stepped back, his hand moving to the gun at his side. The thing moved closer at a terrifying speed.

"What is that?" Eric asked.

"Get inside." Lucis said, brushing Eric's question away. "Now." Eric didn't need to be told twice. Lucis locked the door once they both were inside. "We need to hide somewhere safe." Lucis said. "We don't know what that is or what it can do." Eric nodded. "We need to do it quickly." They both jumped into work.

Soon they were lying in a hole in the floor with things covering them. The hole was small because they didn't have enough time. They could hear the thing getting closer by the second. They both held their breath and gripped their weapons. The thing was upon them.

Lucis was underwater in a pool. He was close to the top but not at it entirely. He dove down with a swift powerful kick. When he looked up for air the water was too dark to see the surface. The water was pitch black all around him. And he was losing air fast.

Lucis watched as his body was dragged from the ocean by men in wetsuits who had big oxygen tanks on their backs. Lucis tilted his head as the men failed at CPR even though they knew it wouldn't work. The men were frantically looking around but for some reason they couldn't see Lucis on top of the small green hill. Lucis stepped forward but his foot sunk into the ground. Seconds after he was falling through darkness. The falling sensation was ominous and large and a cold sensation started clawing itself up Lucis as he plummeted.

Lucis sat up gasping. The room around him was pitch black. As he began to look around the room began to shake like an earthquake was happening. What sounded like thunder boomed outside. Lucis grabbed for something, anything, to hold on to but his hands found nothing. As his eyes adjusted to the dark he found that the room was empty. He slid to the wall of the room and hit it hard. He yelled out in pain from the impact. The shaking continued, possibly worse and so did the thunder. Lucis yelled out Eric's name even though he knew it was useless.

"ERIC!"

The thunder stopped abruptly but the shaking continued. Lucis was panicking as he was jostled around the wall by the earthquake's rumbling. Lucis glanced frantically around the room.

Lucis stood in a grassy clearing next to a lake. The lake's water was clean and reflected the snow-capped mountains guarding its east end. The forest smell was sweet and Lucis' could hear birds chirping in the distance. Lucis smiled, drinking in the sun and the beauty of what surrounded him.

"Lucis?"

Lucis turned at the sound of his name and his smile dropped.

"You."

Lucis was falling again. The gut wrenching sensation was back as Lucis' screams were suppressed. Lucis' hands grabbed for something to hold onto but nothing came. Finally, Lucis' scream came.

Lucis jolted awake, almost hitting his head on the make-shift roof he and Eric had made to protect themselves from the thing. He was drenched in sweat.

"Are you okay?" Eric asked. "I think the thing's gone."

"What happened?" Lucis asked.

"Once the thing hit us you were out like a stone." Eric explained. "I've been trying to wake you up for 20 minutes." 

"It's been that long?" Lucis asked, mouth agape. "It felt like at least five minutes!"

"What happened?" Eric asked. "You had me worried!"

"I had a weird dream." Lucis said. "Let's get the stuff off us." Eric nodded and moved to help his friend push the stuff off them. When they walked out of the house they could see the giant dust cloud that held the thing in its grasp moving away into the distance. "Phew." Lucis said. "At least that's over." Eric nodded in agreement.

"What was that?" Eric asked after a few seconds of silence.

Lucis shrugged, "I don't know." The dust cloud stopped and both faces paled. "Inside, now." As they turned to run back into the house the dust cloud surrounding the thing began racing towards them, this time much faster than it had been before. They barely had time to get the stuff over them.

Lucis was back in the forest clearing, staring at the person who had spoken his name. The word 'you' still fresh on his tongue. Venom laced it like poison. Lucis didn't want to see this person. Lucis didn't want to talk to this person. He wanted to forget about this person. This crazy person. But this person had dangerous people hunting him. And he was all alone. As of their own accord, Lucis' legs brought him back a step. His face was still pale. The person took a step towards him as he took the step back.

"Lucis?" He said his name again. Lucis finally gave in.

"Oliver?"