The Awakened World

Part 3: Fugitive

When Brian finally came to, he noticed that he wasn't alone. Much to his surprise, Susan Abbot was dashing around the apartment, collecting clothing and other equipment. Brian then remembered what had happened before he had passed out. He saw that the door was still blown out, and what remained of Scott Thompson was still hunched over in the corner of the room. As soon as he saw the corpse Brian felt nauseous and vomited again. "Ah, I see you've come around. Now, I know that whatever happened was tough for you, but we need to act quickly," Susan said as threw Brian's backpack at him. "We cannot stay here, the officials have noticed the clash of powers you just had for sure," she continued while starting to walk to the door, or what remained of it, anyway. "H-hang on. Clash of powers? The officials? Would you mind elaborating a bit?" Brian stuttered as he struggled to stand up. "The long and short of it is that you have just become an enemy of the state. Killing Awakened is an extremely heavy offense. As such we need to escape before the militia reach here. Come on, hurry!" Susan said while gesturing towards the door. Brian grabbed the back and they headed outside in silence. Brian's mind was overflowing with questions, but he decided not to ask anything before they had reached a distance Susan deemed safe.

"Alright then, I'm sure you have a massive amount of questions, and I'll try to explain your situation to you. Before that though, I'd like for you to go over the events from your viewpoint," Susan said as they had reached a nearby park. Since it was still very early, no one else was around. Brian collected his thoughts and started to try and make sense of the events that had unfolded. "Very well. Now then: Scott woke me up by knocking on my door, and when I went to open it, he blew the door open, and sent it and me into the ground," Brian started and took a breath. "Then he started to ramble something about you treating him poorly and tried to kick me. Somehow, I could block it, and when he then shot his energy at me I was able to block that too. For some reason my energy reached him and burned him alive, even if I didn't intend to do it" Brian said with a wavering voice, as images of Scott's burned corpse flashed in his mind. "Calm down. He was the attacker, and you did what you could. It isn't your fault," Susan said with a comforting smile. "So, you were asleep before? Tell me, did anything seem different when you woke up? This is very important, so try to remember," Susan implored and looked Brian straight in the eye. "Not straight away, but when he started to prepare for his kick I started to see, no, understand a flow of some kind of energy around me," Brian said, and his eyes widened, "You don't mean that I've...?" "That would seem to be the only sensible explanation. You have Awakened, Brian," Susan said with a serious look on her face.

"I had that thought, but how could that possibly be? I've never heard anyone awakening after that time five years ago," Brian muttered. But when he thought about it himself, he, too, became convinced. There simply was no other answer. "That isn't the only thing that puzzles me though," Susan said, "Because you can understand the energy you can manipulate it to a degree, correct? Would you try to levitate that rock over there for me?" Brian looked at his hands, and at the small rock few meters away. "I can do this," he thought as he prepared to exert his energy. "As I understand it, I need only to visualize the rock flying, and the rest will be done unconsciously." With that, Brian raised his hand and concentrated. Again green "flames" engulfed his hand, as Susan watched on with a surprised look. The rock began to levitate, but soon it shot up to the sky with incredible speed, as Brian watched with his mouth open in surprise. "It's just as I thought," Susan said, "You have poor control over the amount of energy you use. What's more, you seem to have an enormous amount of it. This would explain why Scott ended up as he did; his total energy was much smaller than yours, and when you clashed your energy simply surpassed his, with unfortunate results." "What I'm surprised by is the fact that your energy signature is somewhat different than that of other Awakened. Even the colour of your manifestation is different," Susan said as she looked to be deep in thought. "The certain thing is that you're something new; I've never seen or heard of anything like this before."

"Now then, I'll explain the situation to you. You have killed an Awakened, even if by accident and in self-defence. This is a grave offense, and if you get caught you'll be headed for death row for sure. In addition, you seem to belong to a new breed of the Awakened, and would likely become a test subject." Susan paused, and her expression softened. "That is if you get caught. When you were passed out I took the liberty of gathering clothes and other necessities for you. I suggest that you stay at my families' cottage out in the countryside. You remember the place, right?" "I do remember. I have to ask, though: why are you helping me? I'm sure that even if you're an Awakened you'd be in trouble if you get caught helping me," Brian asked. "I won't be caught, since I'm nothing if not thorough: I made sure that there is no proof of me ever entering your apartment. As for why? Well, we've been friends for a long, long time, haven't we? Besides, I'm partly to blame for this happening," she said with a friendly smile. "Now get going. The bus we used to take to get to the cottage leaves shortly. I'll visit as soon as I can without raising suspicion, and we'll figure out what to do next." Brian smiled weakly, thanked Susan, and started to head for a nearby bus station, but he stopped and turned around with a pained expression. "I have to ask this before I leave. How are you so calm after seeing Scott's corpse? I'm feeling incredibly anxious, and whenever I close my eyes, I can see him." "Let's just say that Scott's corpse wasn't the first or worst I've seen, and leave it at that," Susan said with a blank expression. However, Brian saw her eyes and knew that she had had to experience something he couldn't even fathom. Brian turned around and headed for the bus station. Susan stood there for a moment, gazing at the sky before she headed home.

The bus ride to the countryside was uneventful. Brian was worried that at any point an official could pop up and take him in, but no one paid any mind to him at the bus station or the bus itself. When he reached his destination, Brian left the bus and started to walk the familiar path. Brian soon got absorbed in his thoughts. "My life has ended in a sense, hasn't it? I will never be able to continue my normal day-to-day life, and as squalid it could be, I must admit that I already miss it," he thought. "Now I have powers that possibly rival those of the Awakened, but I can't do anything with them. Curse you, Scott, for ruining my life!" As Brian thought this, he once again saw the burned corpse in his mind's eye. "No, I suppose it was I who ruined his life." With these depressing thoughts, Brian reached the small cottage, found the key under the same old rock, and entered. Looking around the cottage Brian found that it was full of canned food, as always. After eating some cold soup, Brian laid on a bed, thinking that he couldn't possibly catch sleep. This wasn't true; Brian soon fell asleep but suffered of nightmares about Scott walking up to him and then burning up in front of him while cursing Brian between his screams off pain. Brian woke up in cold sweat, still trembling from the nightmare. However, he soon started to tremble for another reason. While he "awakened" during his fight with Scott, he also learned to sense other Awakened. And right now, someone he hadn't sensed before was standing outside the cottage.