Dance or Die: a Fanfiction

Chapter 3 - Coming to Terms

The game had been changed. The extent of what happened to Derek was, in his own thoughts, overly supernatural. Suddenly gaining alien powers was not a feasible event. Was he dreaming? He felt even more lightheaded than when he came back into consciousness. As a child, he played pretend with his parents as if he had superpowers, defeating imaginary foes. How envious his younger self would be-

"DEREK!" Najat shouted into his face, bringing him out of his trance, stumbling into Tephe as a result. Incoherent pleas to stay standing up flooded Derek's ears as he pushed himself away from Tephe and the others. Face in hands, he simply didn't know how to cope. He walked aimlessly around the empty warehouse, contemplating himself. For one of the only times in his life, he didn't know how to respond to a situation. He hadn't imagined something so odd and unbelievable to happen.

"It's gonna be alright, you're not gonna die from that. At least I hope not," Tephe said anxiously, coming near with the three others, placing his hand lightly on Derek's shoulder. He flinched at the touch, uncovering his face in the process. There was a thick silence as a lone tear dribbled down his cheek and off his chin.

"What did you do!" Derek shouted unexpectedly, swiftly making a point-turn. The four others jumped at the outburst from such an unassuming person, and simply stared while he continued, "I'm gonna be some outcast now, because of that energy stuff! I wanted a life, a normal life! And then this- WHY?! I can't hide this!"

His knees began to buckle as he blinked a couple big tears from his angry eyes. He finally sank to the floor, giving in to hopelessness and racking sobs. Tephe and Siron immediately came to his comfort, the other two coming closer and saying a few words of encouragement.

Derek remained inconsolable for a day or two inside the warehouse.

A fear of starvation soon came to mind among the five. Luckily, there was a small food store hidden in a cramped closet, so they subsided on the simple rations for about four days. Rulefe didn't care much for the dry bread in the ration pack and instead gave it out to whomever desired it. On the third day, Siron spoke up about it while they sat and ate.

"Quit being so picky, Ru," he griped to his younger brother, "I know food over here is different, but you don't refuse something given to you."

"Siron, we took these out of a room in an abandoned building. That's not really being given something," Tephe said. Siron paused, then shrugged off his mistake. Derek sat cross-legged, the fluffy hood of his jacket covering his head, meekly nibbling at some of his rations. He had been thinking about a lot the past few days in the place where they temporarily resided.

"I'm still not sure what to think about everything," he mumbled while Tephe rolled his eyes at what Siron said.

"What did you say?" Najat inquired a little louder than he wanted to say, Derek giving a start at his words. Najat looked at Derek with an apology obvious in his brown eyes.

"I'm not sure what to think about the weird powers and all," he spoke up, "but I think I'll stay with you four while this lasts."

He looked around at the men, and his eyes fell on Rulefe giving him a friendly smirk.