𝐬𝐤𝐲𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 - gabriel [rim of the world]

∣ 010; r e u n i t e

. *. ⋆

They had been picked up about twenty minutes later-- the General had lied, though. They had all been picked up by one helicopter, and it had taken about an hour to get to one of the safety areas, where thousands of people were saying.

Again, as Athena had said earlier, she didn't understand how that was safe, but it was whatever because no one had died in those safety zones.

Right as they had been picked up by the giant helicopter-- it was gigantic-- a group of people came out and shook hands with the five teens, thanking them for their service.

Athena felt like Maverick in Top Gun after he shot down the enemy planes-- she and the rest were being bombarded with thank you's, high fives, fistbumps, and some people even hugged them.

Dariush had accepted them gratefully, basking in all of the gratitude from everyone around them.

"All right-- let's get you heroes home."

They got onto the helicopter, each taking a seat-- Dariush, ZhenZhen, and Alex was on one side, while Gabriel and Athena sat across from them.

Two men crouched in front of Dariush, tending to his wounds, while one man in front of Athena and Gabriel worked on patching up her gashes.

She had her head resting on Gabriel's shoulder-- she was exhausted, shaky, starving, severely dehydrated, and was pretty sure she had gained some type of trauma after being thrown around non-stop these last 24 hours.

Gabriel was resting his head on top of Athena's, his hand tightly gripping onto hers subconsciously-- he had gotten hold of it after their kiss and hadn't let go of it since.

"What caused this," the man asked Athena, cleaning the wound on her cheek.

She winced harshly, the sting hurting worse than she had originally suspected.

"An alien-- it got Dariush and me when we got the key for the coordinates."

"Damn-- those things had some nails on them, huh."

"You don't even know," Athena mumbled, closing her eyes, pictures of the aliens flashing through her mind-- she decided keeping her eyes open would be better.

He then rolled up the sleeve of her sweatshirt after she had told him about her other injuries-- he widened his eyes, looking up at her.

"How many times did these things attack you?"

"Uh--" Athena looked up at Gabriel, who began to take count of the times the alien had targeted them.

He hadn't answered, as Dariush-- who was listening in to the conversation-- spoke up.

"The answer is too many times-- we could've used your damn help out there! Did you know that my man Alex and ZhenZhen had to hide in shit and piss! Yeah-- and Athena almost got exploded in a bus!"

"Shit--"

"That's not even half of it!" Dariush ranted. "We got attacked by a diddler and his friends because someone-- "

"I said I was sorry!"

"-- decided we should let the man out of his jail cell since he was 'human.' Who gives a fuck! Anyway, they took hostage of Athena and kind of almost shot her in the head-- she's good, though! She stabbed the asshole in the leg when the alien attacked us again. And, dude, don't trust the dogs-- they are not like puppies."

"Sounds like you five went through hell."

"NASA's paying for my therapy. I also demand to see the Queen of England-- is she even alive anymore?"