Shards (Transformers Prime, Shattered Glass)

Chapter 24

Vincent woke up with stinging pains all across his face and a massive bone deep ache in his right shoulder.

Oh right. Car accident.

What had he hit again? Or had he lost control going around that corner? It was pretty blurry.

But was he still in the car? He hurt, sure, but not that bad.

He wasn't...he couldn't...not a hospital. They couldn't have caught him!

At the startling thought his eyes flicked open and dazedly he stared around at was most definitly not a hospital room.

The ceiling was too far away.

"Hey, wakey wakey."

Vince nearly punched the kid when he spoke. Owlish eyes blinked down at the spot Vince had been lying on, then up at Vince who was standing now, arm half raised.

"Woah."

"Hey wait a second," Vince lowered his arm, mainly because of the overwhelming jolt of pain that ran through him "You're dead."

"No, I'm Raf," the younger boy held out plastic carton "Blueberry?"

Vince stared at it, then shook his head.

"You sure? Last one."

"No, no thank you," Vince thought about Persephone and the pomegrante seeds and this couldn't possible be the underworld could it? He couldn't be dead. He could still feel pain. Although, how exactly did anyone know that pain wasn't as much a part of death as it was life.

"Where are we?"

"Spaceship," Rafael replied unhelpfully.

"Uh huh, right," Vince ran his fingers through his hair. If this was death he regretted ever living.

"Raf! Your dog ate my granola bars again!"

Someone he couldn't see shouted and he turned to see Sierra stomping towards them.

"You're dead too!" He burst out before he could think.

"Raf! You were supposed to tell us if he woke up!" Sierra paused midstep and redirected her attention to Vince "Wait, dead?"

He nodded.

"How?"

"W-what?"

"How are they telling people I died?"

It took Vince a moment to process. He hadn't been too focused on other peoples' problems lately "You jumped off a bridge or something."

She flicked her shoulder in a shrug and he was pretty sure her eye twitched "Close enough."

"What I want to know is how you ended up in the middle of Texas," Raf broke in around a mouthful of blueberries.

"I was having a very nice drive until I hit something."

"Knockout."

"Yeah," Vince couldn't help rolling his eyes "I know I got knocked out."

"No, that's who you hit, Knockout."

"You didn't explain anything to him at all did you?"

Raf shrugged "He literally just woke up."

"Okay, explain what? What is going on? Where even are we?"

"Good questions. Sit," Sierra jabbed at the pile of blankets around Vince's feet, which he realized he must have been laying on before he woke up.

He sat.