0006 At the Last Moment

...

"... I don't know if our Henry here told you all that he got a letter to report for his withdrawal this morning, right?
... By the way, not only him, but his three friends who are here with us, right guys?".

Hearing the bearded policeman's words, something made Lucius' mind float with thoughts, remembering a news item he'd heard almost an hour ago...

^"It can't be that... 
... Couldn't be that shit, right?"^.

"Wake up man!
The motherfucker over there is trying to hide Nathan's cell phone!
Look there!"

Alex pointed out the thinner, mohawk-haired policeman's discreet movement as he used a low voice so as not to draw unwanted attention, Lucius, who had been snapped out of his mind, acted quickly as he watched the eye blinks happening.

"Alex, I think I understand the situation... 
Try to take down the skinny guy and get the cell phone...
... I'm going to try to take down the blond guy who is slowly turning his body, see he's got his hand on his waist near the gun...".

^"I hope I'm not being paranoid."^.

"Did you understand the situation? ... Alright, let's go!".

Looking at Lucius, he frowned for a second and nodded, starting with a few steps as if he was walking normally to the side, and then he suddenly ran. 

Lucius who saw the man unbuttoning his gun holster, bent down to pick up a rebar that was next to his foot, pretending to tie his shoelaces, picked up momentum and ran too.

They both took off running in opposite directions, Alex going right and Lucius going left.

The man took a good look at each of his colleagues, worried that one of them was watching him, stopped his gaze for a few seconds on the bearded policeman, extended the gun pointing at the teenager ready to fire.

"Watch out! The boy is armed!".

But at the moment of firing, his revolver was hit by Lucius' rebar.

Dropping the revolver from his hand because of the strong impact near his fingers, he widened his eyes in disbelief at the boldness of the young man who appeared in front of him, standing still and not knowing what to do or how to react.  

But not just him, everyone stopped to look with surprise at the action of the two young men who sprang into action for seemingly no reason, but soon afterwards, they noticed in the hand of one of them, the cell phone that was the cause of the problem, being taken out of the pocket of the man lying next to him.

And to complete the twist, the other young man raised his voice.

"This morning's news!
About the death of the two young black men, the cell phone that recorded and posted the video that unmasks the police!".

^"Damn, whether I'm right or wrong, I hope this helps stop all this shit."^.

Lucius watching the man in front of him bend down to pick up the dropped revolver, he looked away in anticipation of an answer that would alleviate the situation, but he was surprised by the facial expressions of the bearded man and the fat man.

^"Don't tell me I was right?"^.

Just thinking about the possibility of what kind of shit he got himself into today, he couldn't believe it when the situation completely lost its way.

"No witnesses...".

Pah! Pah! Pah!

Everyone started to run and hide from the shots, sounds of gunfire along with screams drowned out the rain.

Lucius remained standing there without reaction for the first time, he felt his body heat up but didn't notice anything else, maybe it was the adrenaline of the moment, and his body was all wet from the rain, but when he tried to walk, he felt a slight weakness in his legs that led him to kneel.

Kneeling, he looked down where he saw his blood running along with the rain on the floor, mixing with sand and mud, pulling his jacket open, there he found two red springs making him sit down.

E assim que sentou, ele apenas deitou no chão completamente.

^"Fuck everything!
What am I doing?
What am I doing in my life?"^.

Bruumm!!!

The black streaks began to dance through the air, the rain followed the movements as if it were all one big act, but the phenomenon that would make him arouse interest and desire to learn and understand what was happening, it only drew his mind briefly and then he focused his vision on what was farther away.

With the rain falling on his body, looking at the clouds covering the morning sky, he could only think about what he had done and not done in his entire life, soon the pain began to take over his body.

^"I don't know if I'll be rescued in time..."^.

He struggled to his feet, his dripping blood no longer mattered, the shots flying through the air no longer mattered.

Picking up the rebar he dropped into the pool of his own blood, he got to his feet, took the mask off his face so he could breathe better, assumed a straight posture, looked up and opened his arms to embrace the world one last time, her face smeared with mud and sand, her hair disheveled, her clothes wet with mud and blood.

All lost in their fears, panic and desillusion, and he, making his contemplative gesture, said goodbye to himself.

^"At least at the last moment...
... I'm going to be what I hate and take one of these motherfuckers with me..."^.

Looking around, he saw Alex with Helena looking at the sky watching the strange phenomenon, farther away on the other side, Julia and Nathan sat and hugged each other still in despair.

The fanatical man kneeling in prayer, the drunk man passed out or asleep, the driver leaning on his bus, the new couple hiding inside a car looking out the window at the sky around them.

People crouched on all sides and in all ways, the bearded policeman hiding using the bus as protection, that Henry running to another car, the police were scattered because of the shooting, and in a corner using cinder blocks as a barricade, the blond cop who shot him.

Finding his target, he walked crookedly while holding his stomach with one hand and the rebar with the other.

The man had his back to him worried about a possible attack from the other police group that was hiding behind a half-fallen wall as he watched the sky becoming blacker by the amount of scratches appearing.

Pinng!

Hearing loud footsteps approaching him, he turned and aimed his revolver, but again he was disarmed by Lucius' blow who, seeing his repeated success, displayed a smile that contrasted with his already sunken and pale eyes.

"Tsc...
A coward like you had to be unprepared too, right?".

"What you want?
Go away or I'll kill you!".

"Ooh, do not worry...
... Just for today, I don't care about anything else...".

He saw the blood running down the body of the young man in front of him, the ghostly smile on his face, maybe it was the unrealistic answer the young man gave him, or the strange phenomenon happening around everyone making the place darker and darker.

The set of all this, along with the wet body and the cold of the rainy morning made the man who was again unarmed shiver, he could have untied the shotgun he'd left stuck in his clothing, but the fear he felt now made the shiver last long enough for him to see the shadow of the rebar coming towards him and everything went dark.

Lucius used all the strength he had, at least what was left of him, in a total loss of control and sanity, or maybe he was sane?

Soon everything went dark around him, a floating sensation like a roller coaster descent washed over him, but he wasted no time trying to analyze it.

His eyes were wide open looking ahead where there was only darkness, in his mind, he remembered the dreams that plagued many of his nights, and continued swinging his arms fiercely forward, striking something he couldn't even see or know what it was.

And that lasted a second, or a day? One year?

His senses couldn't capture or decipher the passage of time until a bluish light began to pour out from various points of darkness, then the floating sensation became the falling sensation.

He saw people, buses, cars, floors, concrete, pieces of walls, everything was falling down while making all sorts of noises with the collapse.

The height of the fall was not high, but when everything came back into view, his feet that should have been pointing towards the ground, now pointed towards the horizon, causing him to hit his face on the ground with the fall.

And as soon as all the pain returned to his body, his hands and feet went numb enough that he didn't feel the feel of dry earth being squeezed by his hand.

Now with a clear mind, Lucius struggled until he managed to turn his body onto its side, but the jumble of fallen and destroyed things along with his ground-level vision made it difficult to understand what his current situation was.

"Luciuuss!
Where are you, man?
Talk to me!".

Alex's screams reached his ears, but between the two of them, the jumble of cinder blocks that were now scattered blocked the view of the fallen Lucius preventing him from finding him any faster.

As for Lucius, he didn't have any strength to speak, much less to scream for help, and after another minute of effort, he turned his body completely towards the sky, he could no longer breathe properly, but his eyes caught a pair of unknown moons illuminating the night in which he was.

"Hah ha ha ha ha coof coof...".

^"... I can't believe I'm going to miss this..."^.

He was laughing at himself, for he realized that he was facing something completely new and unknown, and he might not have the chance to participate in any research or discovery about whatever place he was.

The screams and cries were getting more and more distant, his vision contemplating the starry sky was getting blurry little by little, he didn't think about anything else, he was just there.

The last gleam passed through his eyes as he saw his body ascend as if on fire, but the fire was like a floating fluid, and had a gray color, and that was the last thing his senses could grasp.

**************************************************

Alex got up from the ground, and the first thing he did was look for Lucius who should have been within a dozen meters of him, but the space phenomenon apparently scattered everyone from their original positions making it difficult to find the people who were still down.

"... There's a lot of hurting people, look...".

Helena at his side, put her hand on his shoulder and they both looked at some people nearby who were crying while holding their arms or legs that had cuts or small pieces of masonry puncturing the skin.

Apparently some people were buried under rubble, or fell from very high heights during the black phenomenon, causing fatalities, but for the most part everyone seemed fine.

"Go, look for him...
... I will help people here in the meantime...".

Alex didn't say anything else as he looked into her eyes, he just took a direction and followed while calling out to Lucius.

On the other side, some of the scattered police were already on their feet helping injured people while sending out commando shouts to communicate in cases where brute force was needed to remove large pieces of rubble trapping some people.

**************************************************

Now with his clothes all dirty and torn but apparently unharmed, the man dropped his holy book from his hand for the first time letting it fall to the floor. 

In the depth of the blue eyes between the black hair and messy over his face, the brightness of the moons and stars in the sky made whoever looked at him enchanted.

"Everyone come!
Let's pray to our Exalted One and thank him for bringing us here in his kingdom!".

Gradually, people began to gather around the man, helping each other, hugging and praying for the man in front of him who climbed on top of one of the cars and stood there looking at everyone, as he stretched one hand towards them and turned his body to look at everyone there, the other hand held his own chest in emotion.

"Triumph to the Exalted!"
"Triumph to the Exalted!"
**************************************************

"Shit, I should stop drinking all night, I'm even hallucinating today...".

The old drunk was lying looking at a half-destroyed shed, hanging from one of the walls standing, pieces of swords and armor, and that was a completely crazy sight for him.

Determined, he got up in one piece, and approached the wall of the shed with the armor pieces in samples, and as he approached, he tripped over a wooden box knocking over one of the lids that was already open.

A strong smell of alcohol rose from one of the boxes making him widen his eyes in interest, it didn't take long to open one and another box, finding pocket watches that he threw out, something like an old victrola was thrown to the other side .

And there at the bottom of the box, some browned bottles were within reach of his hands, the smell of alcohol was coming from one of them that was broken, so it didn't take long for him to open one and take a big gulp.

"Ooh...
This one is good!".

"Uhmm... Uhmm... Uhmm..."

"Uhmm... Uhmm..."

After two more swigs of the drink, he heard strange murmurs coming from behind the crates which he rummaged with, curiously, walked around the crates and was once again surprised.