Average Joe (2018)

53

Bryan opened his dry eyes. Tori and Darwin stood above him. Tori's hand clutched a pistol and kept a finger on the trigger, but pointed it away from him. Bryan sat up and the two jumped back.

"What's going on?" He asked. Bryan's head throbbed in pain and everything seemed to hurt.

"It's him," Darwin sighed. Tori let out a sigh of relief and put the gun on the asphalt. Cora lay next to Bryan on the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" Bryan asked. Cora shot him a look that plainly said 'suck my dick.'

Behind Bryan the flames had sputtered to a halt, its destruction remaining a crisp black. In the remaining smoke, a shadowy figure dawned, stumbling towards them. Tori drew the gun again, as the figure fell to his knees.

"It's Mr. Knight!" Tori said in realization. Tori rushed to him and stopped him before he could fall again. "Are you okay?"

"No..." Mr. Knight nudged past her and sat on the curb of the street, sulking.

"Where's Miss Miller?" Darwin asked.

"I'm here." The group turned and saw her descending from the sky. She rubbed her temples. "What the hell just happened?"

Ka-Boom!

The group turned. In the Eastern direction, a large puff of smoke was rising, billowing like a mushroom.

"What was that?" Cora asked.

___

For a while, I thought I was dead. Everything was cold and dark. My lungs couldn't take in oxygen.

I wish I could say I thought about heroic things and say I laughed in the face of danger, that I had some life-changing revelation on the way down. But instead, I was just... drifting.

Suddenly everything wasn't so suppressed as I jumped from something thick and dark, and into something smooth and light. My skin was cold and the wind whipped against it. My wounds were hurting and my insides felt scorched. I also felt depleted like I gave everything I had to give.

Something was wrapped around my waist and I noticed I wasn't going down anymore, but going up. I opened my eyes and saw I was flying upward and there was an arm wrapped around me, preventing me from falling. Below I could see the entire electrical grid crumble and explode as it gently flew into the dark Hudson River.

I blinked and realized someone was carrying me. I looked up and into the eyes of Norman Knight the first.

"You're alive," I groaned. The man smiled.

"You're looking very undead yourself."

"You can fly?"

"I'm full of surprises."

We flew back to the Shadow Global tower. It hung in the sky defeated. Out front, rows of enforcers and employees were taken out in handcuffs. Towards the back, the building was crusted and burned from where Tori and the others threw grenades and Molotov cocktails at it.

We flew sharply around it and Uncle Norman laid me against the asphalt as we neared the ground. I heard yelling and suddenly a bunch of people were around me, and I found it hard to look at their faces. I almost punched one in the face until I realized it was Darwin.

It seemed like my friends were tackling me, even Cora and Bryan, who never seemed friendly. I was still half-conscious and very confused.

"Huh? What's happening?"

I stood wobbly and was almost immediately knocked off balance by my Dad's bear hug, which I thought was weird since my father usually never shows affection. Tori looked at my uncle.