Final Crisis

Chapter 38

They made it to the neighborhood in record time, chatting casually along the way. No one was exactly 'okay' after everything that had just happened, but they ended up with an unspoken agreement; they wouldn't talk about it, not for now anyway.

Bruce stayed mostly silent on the way, only giving one word responses if he was ever spoken to.

He simply peered out the window, staring at the meringue colored clouds scattered about the light pink and orange sky, intertwined with one another like a network of rivers.

Once they arrived there, they saw several people loitering about in the middle of the street. They appeared to be organizing tables with food and games.

Most of them were unarmed, except for eight people who approached the truck.

"Who are you!?" A man asked, at the forefront of the group. Bill surmised that he was their leader.

Bill went to grab his gun, but Bruce stopped him.

"I can handle this. These are good people."

He noticed that the man peered over to Bruce's side with a look of confusion on his face. His eyes were squinted from the headlights shining on him.

"...Bruce?" The man said, his face softening.

"It's me, Clark," Bruce announced, exiting the truck with his hands up. "Reese is dead! The warehouse has fallen."

Clark lowered his gun. "Shit…really? What the hell happened?"

The other members all murmured as well, lowering their weapons. Only they had heard what Bruce said, the other civilians were too far back to hear.

"It's a long story…I'll explain to you soon. For now, the group I'm with will be residing in one of these houses…is that okay?"

"Yeah, sure man. It's good to see you."

"Good to see you too."

He gave the truck a thumbs up and Bill drove through at a glacial pace, the crowd of people making a path for the car to pass.

He rolled into Finn's driveway, shutting off the car and stepping out. The others followed suit.

"I never thought I'd see this again!" Raphael whooped and sat down on the pavement.

Finn scanned the street, recognizing most of the people from his visit to the warehouse yesterday. He was a bit confused, wondering why they were all here, but he ignored it for now. He also spotted a few of his neighbors intermixed in the crowd.

Huh. So some of them did stay put.

"It's been a while since I've seen so many…uhh…living people," Merin mumbled, staring in awe.

Most of the people paid no mind to Finn's group, continuing about their duties as Clark reassured them. Some were setting up Christmas lights around their houses, as a way of marking which houses were occupied.

A young voice spoke out to them. "Uriel! Is that you?"

A kid walked up to them, with an arm in a sling.

"Oh! Buddy! How are you?" Uriel asked, giving Buddy a half hug.

"Doing good, actually!" He smiled, then it dropped and was replaced with a puzzled look. "What happened to your face? And who are they?"

"It's a lot."

"Right."

"Woah, what happened to your arm?" Merin pointed a finger at him.