The Protector and the Peacemaker

Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Five

(Sarah)

Sarah gasped in horror when she saw the town.

At first glance, everything seemed normal— exactly as she'd left the last time she'd been here. Upon closer inspection, though, she realized that something was wrong. Very wrong. Smoke drifted lazily into the air from several of the buildings, and an even larger plume rose from the center of town. Streets and sidewalks that had once been alive with people were now empty. The entire town seemed deserted.

"Watch your step," Azkular warned them, carefully picking his way around the broken glass that littered the streets.

"It's like somebody made an effort to break every window they saw," Faska chimed in, taking in the scene with calm, calculating eyes.

Across the street, Sarah saw Porter poke his head into one of the shattered windows.

"How is it?" she asked over their new telepathic connection.

"Horrible," he answered, and she could feel the wave of dread building up in his stomach. "Everything is destroyed."

He paused, and then shot her an anxious look. "I guess the storm could have done this."

Sarah shook her head, her stomach tying itself in fearful knots.

"No," she said back. "We both know what happened here."

Porter's face fell, and he nodded solemnly. Moving away from the window, he made his way over to where she was standing and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Be strong for them," he told her, though she could feel how close he was to breaking down himself. She nodded, and he turned to face the others.

"We're too late," he announced, emotion making his voice crack. "The Mythics got here first."

Sarah could tell from the looks on her friends' faces that they'd already figured this out. The tension between them grew so thick that Sarah could feel it almost as strongly as her connection with Porter.

"Where are all the bodies?" asked Manchi, breaking the silence.

Sarah looked up at her, and then frowned.

"I don't..." she turned to the others, but Azkular cut her off before she could say anything.

"Don't ask," he said, grimly, and then cast a glare at the thick plume of smoke rising from the center of town.

Sarah's stomach did a flip.

Oh... oh no...

Porter squeezed her shoulder. "Don't think about it."

"They can't have gotten everyone," he said out loud, and then headed for the nearest building. "Split up and look for survivors!"

Sarah followed him, trying to keep her eyes off the bonfire in the middle of town. It must have been huge to not have been put out by the storm...

"Don't think about it!" Porter said again as he stepped through a broken window and offered a hand to help Sarah through. She accepted it, and crossed into the dilapidated room on the other side.

It had been a knickknack shop, she realized as she tried to avoid stepping on one of the dozens of items that littered the floor. Small, useless, but charming nonetheless, Sarah couldn't help but sigh at the way they had been scattered around the store, the shelves they had once sat on lying like fallen dominoes.