Page 61 of The Not So Super Hero

Bailey bit his bottom lip, puzzled by what he meant. They couldn’t discuss either, because Antoine broke through the shield. Small pieces of it shattered like glass, falling to the floor in wisps of smoke.

“Get moving,” Zane ordered, the shield around them morphing to circle Zane like long tentacles. There was an opening behind them, allowing Bailey to do exactly as Zane instructed.

It hurt, and he was in no way quick, but Bailey used all the strength left in his arms to crawl.

His nails dug into the tiled floors, propelling him forward, although each push and tug hurt a little more than the last. The only thing that was helping was the fact that Bailey could see the exit.

A ladder, go fucking figure, but it was there clear as day at the end of the hall.

Zane didn’t allow Antoine to go after Bailey.

The shadows shot forward, pointed as spears.

Antoine deflected the spears with creations of his own.

When he tried to send any past Zane, he conjured another shield at his back.

The confined space of the halls was actually working in Zane’s favor even if said halls were shaking with the desire to cave in around them.

Zane and Antoine were at a standstill, neither able to move further than where they were.

Both had their feet firmly on the ground, attacking with everything they had, regardless of the crumbling world around them.

Suddenly, Zane was grateful for the training because he knew he would have dropped by now if not for the practice.

Every hit Antoine gave was strong, reminding Zane why he never wanted to battle against him in the first place.

Growing annoyed with his lack of progress, Antoine formed a fist and sent it at Zane.

Though he defended, Zane’s heels were pressed back.

When Zane lowered his shield, he found Antoine pulling yet another of his crazy stunts.

The surrounding shadows tore furiously above him, bringing down the walls.

He was trying to bring the whole place down on top of them.

“Are you fucking insane?!” Zane hollered.

Antoine didn’t respond, only continued ripping apart the walls. In a panic, Zane turned to find Bailey had made it to the ladder, but the walls around him were bending inwards.

“Shit!” Zane hissed, running for Bailey. Putting his back to Antoine was a mistake. Before he reached Bailey, a sharp pain pierced his abdomen. He peered down at the dark spear that had impaled him. Blood stained the tip, which retreated in a second, knocking the very air out of his lungs.

Even through the pain, Zane moved forward, dropping to his knees to grab Bailey. Bailey shouted when a shield formed around, then the walls caved in around them. The earth beat against the walls. Bailey clenched his eyes, listening to the crunching collapse.

When the noise ceased, Bailey opened his eyes to meet pure darkness.

Zane’s shield remained up and blocked all possible light.

Bailey couldn’t see a thing, but he felt Zane’s weight on him.

He rested on top of Bailey with his arms wrapped around his waist. Bailey’s leg screamed with pain, though at this point he may have gotten accustomed to it.

“Zane,” Bailey whispered, heart beating so loudly he barely heard himself speak. The boy coughed from the dirt clinging to his throat and tongue. “Can we get out?”

Everything happened so fast that the only thing Bailey knew for sure was that the walls collapsed. He hadn’t seen anything else, but they couldn’t be too far underground. The ladder wasn’t high. Hopefully, Zane could dig them out somehow. Except Zane didn’t answer.

“Zane?” Bailey asked, reaching for the warm skin around his waist. He rubbed Zane’s arm, which was shaking and tense. “Hey, are you ok? Zane?”

A moment of silence passed between them before Zane groaned, “Sorry. I, uh, I’m just...tired.”

He sounded in pain, which had Bailey in a panic.

The boy tried to turn in Zane’s arms, but upon doing so, he felt something warm and wet seeping through his clothes.

He quickly realized his back was covered in whatever it was.

Touching it, it almost felt like water, but it took all of a second for Bailey to realize what it really was.

“Zane, you’re bleeding. Holy shit!” Bailey slipped out of Zane’s weakening grasp. He sat up, grasping through the darkness for Zane. He clutched a damp shirt, feeling a hole, then a puncture wound. Zane hissed the moment Bailey’s hand came in contact with it.

“We...we need to get you to a hospital. Fuck, I can’t see anything!”

“Everyone should be here soon,” Zane’s voice sounded so far away, soft and unlike anything he heard before and desperately wished to never hear again. “It’ll be ok.”

Except it wasn’t ok, and Bailey wished he could think that it eventually would be, but all he could imagine was the worst-case scenario.

He couldn’t breathe. The darkness was going to swallow him whole.

Bailey had no idea if the wound went straight through Zane.

He couldn’t turn him over, nor could he see what the hell he was doing.

Bailey tried to keep pressure on the wound, wondering if he was doing any good.

Zane groaned, his body shaking and the shield with him.

“Stay awake!” Bailey shouted, his voice cracking with each word. Tears brimmed his eyes. He told himself to stay calm, take a breath, but he never quite listened to himself. “Don’t you dare fall asleep!”

“I’m awake,” Zane spoke, sounding out of it.

The blood wouldn’t end. It slipped through Bailey’s fingers, hearing the almost lifelessness to Zane’s voice.

It was far more terrifying than anything he had ever been through.

Bailey hated how powerless he was, how all he could was a shout, hoping someone would find them.

He prayed Natalia, Nate, Chris, somebody would hear them and pull them out in time.

Sadly, someone heard them.

The shield shattered, dirt and rocks piling in to crush them moments before a dark hand encircled them both.

They were ripped out of the dirt; the shadows gripping both of them so tight that Bailey couldn’t even work out a scream.

When the shadows let up, and light poured in, Bailey found that he and Zane were outside.

They sat away from the collapsed building but nowhere near safe.

Antoine stood behind them, smiling at the pure fear etched across Bailey’s face.

“I thought I would have to search for hours to find you two,” he said, passing Zane a glance. “Good thing you started shouting, any longer and Zane would have left us, you along with him.”

Bailey crawled over top of Zane, pressing one hand on his side while using his body as a shield. Antoine laughed like it was all a game, waving his hand at Bailey’s futile attempt to protect Zane.

“You’re joking, right?” Antoine stepped forward.

Bailey’s shaking hand searched for something on the ground, anything to use.

Once again, he was reminded of how weak he really was.

If he had something, any form of mutation, like Antoine had said, maybe he could have saved his sister, and maybe now he could have saved them.

Instead, he was left cowering before a man who could destroy him in an instant, but that didn’t mean Bailey wasn’t at least going to try.

When Antoine got close enough, he leaned forward so close that his breath fanned against Bailey’s cheeks. “What are you going to—"

Bailey slammed a rock against the side of Antoine’s head.

Antoine stumbled away, cursing. Blood seeped through the open wound.

His eyes darkened pitch black, glaring at Bailey and the bloodied rock in his hand.

For a brief moment Bailey expected that his life would end instantly, but a tower of fire shot through the sky, signaling just how close Natalia was.

Antoine looked at it, scowling when he felt a chilly wind in the air. Nate wasn’t too far, either. His gaze landed on Bailey, noticing who stood behind them with a pointed gun.

Antoine formed a shield in time for the bullet to be consumed by darkness. The sound echoed through the trees, causing Bailey to press his hands against his ears. Chris approached, firing a second and third time.

“I’m assuming you ran out of time or that bullet would have been in my skull already,” Antoine spoke after Chris finally let up, although his gun remained raised. Chris didn’t respond, leaving Bailey in confusion, but Antoine didn’t seem to want to stick around to continue the conversation.

Fire crackled in the distance, a welcome and fearsome sound. Bailey tried to focus on the fact that it was Natalia, to not be scared. Antoine took that as a time to leave. Rather than attack, the shadows twisted and turned at such speeds that the very wind around them picked up.

“Do make sure my son survives,” Antoine spoke, his voice somehow carrying over the wind. “I’m not done with him yet.”

Chris fired another round that disappeared in the wind. Then the darkness faded and Antoine was gone. He didn’t take the fear with him.

Bailey looked at Zane. His eyes were closed, breathing slowly while the ground was stained red.

“Zane?” Bailey called, pressing his hand to the man’s cold cheek.

Chris dropped beside him, brows furrowed in worry.

“Tell me there…that there’s an ambulance on its way.

He lost way too much blood. He’s going to bleed out!

” Bailey screamed, yet his voice ceased to function.

It kept cutting in and out, his throat so dry that it resembled a desert.

“There’s an ambulance down the road,” Chris explained, his voice calm, but his eyes practically screamed that he was equally scared. “Listen, you need to take a breath. You’ve been through a lot. We all need to try to remain calm, ok?”

Bailey couldn’t do calm. He was freaking the fuck out.

The blood stains on his hands didn’t help.

To know it was Zane’s, his life slipping away, staining his shirt and beneath his fingernails, Bailey couldn’t breathe.

The world spun. His mind reeled. He couldn’t focus, unsure of when Natalia arrived.

He simply heard her panicked voice. His leg throbbed, and he released a last whimper before the world went black.

The last thought on his mind was that he hoped when he woke up, Zane would be ok.