We survived in a military bunker along with a few hundred others luckily enough to get there before the doors closed. There were other bunkers around the world, and they communicated, I think. When mother nature calmed herself, that’s when everyone went quiet.

Chapter 12 Atlas

              “Oh… great…” Atlas said gathering himself.

              He stood straighter and reactively summoned his sword. He looked around noticing that they had not landed on anyone. Straight ahead, around fifty feet away was a group of innocent looking people. There were maybe fifty of them, and they looked in bad shape, with tattered clothes and bodies more bone than anything else.

              To his right stood a kid no older than Charley. He was in armor that was much too large for him, and he fumbled with a sword his little arms could barely hold. The blade shook with both his anxiety and the weight of something he could not wield properly.

              “Don… Don’t move!” the boy stammered.

              Bane crouched and growled at him. Atlas raised his hand and rested on his snout.

              “Wait.”

              Bane stopped growling, but kept his aggressive stance, with his hair on his back standing up like a porcupine.

              Atlas looked around and could see some other people running up to them from a distance.

              “What’s your name?” Atlas asked.

              The boy was clearly untrained, and he seemed to know that Atlas knew that.

              “F… Friend.” He replied.

              “Okay Friend… F… wait… your name is Friend?” Atlas asked, lowering his sword.

              The boy exploded towards him. Suddenly that wavering grip was replaced with a firm grip and confident posture. He waved the blade to the left then to the right being trailed by purple haze. This boy could harness the arcane magics.

              The purple haze grew in an instant creating two clones of Bane. Before they finished forming, his blade fell towards Atlas. Last second, Atlas lifted his own blade, and the incredible force that the boy came down knocked Atlas back and he nearly lost his balance.

              There was a clang as Friend’s blade split in half when impacting Atlas’s own. When Atlas looked back up at the boy, he could see that the armor now seemed to fit him perfectly. He did not grow, he was still a youth, but the armor shrunk.

              Friend’s eyes went wide seeing his sword split. The two Bane clones jumped and attacked the real Bane. Atlas’s dog was smart, and knew he could not take them on, so he turned and ran, only stopping to attack the one who had turned to move at Atlas. He was able to take that one in the neck and snapped it with a loud crunch. It exploded in a purple haze giving the real bane the cover he needed to place himself between Atlas and the fake Bane. They crouched and growled at each other looking identical and sounding identical in every way.

              Friend recovered quickly and summoned a blade made from purple mist. Only a magical blade can stand up to a magical blade, and they traded blows. Two things were clear from the first few strikes; first was that the boy was very talented with a blade and second was that Atlas was better.

              Friend swiped down to the right, and Atlas stepped to the side, lowered his blade and landed a fist in his nose. The boy cried out and fell back. He growled sounding like the dogs, then jumped at Atlas again. He was angry now and angry people made mistakes. Atlas spun and stuck out a foot that caught Friend in the ankle. He fell in a heap, and before the boy could get himself situated, he froze as Atlas’s longsword rested on his neck.

              They stared at each other, Friend’s chest was heaving, his cheeks were flushed with anger and his eyes were on fire.

              “Your name is really Friend?”

              Atlas slowly moved his blade away and let his blade fall apart.

              A few more breaths, then the boy shook his head.

              “My parents sucked.” Friend replied.

              Atlas reached a hand down and after a moment, Friend grasped it and allowed himself to be pulled up. After another moment, his hand flicked, and the fake Bane puffed out of existence. Bane leaped into the smoke snapping at it and looking satisfied as he ran up to Atlas.

              Looking for gratification, Bane completely ignored Friend, until he didn’t. Bane turned, noticing Friend, then in an instant smacked him with the side of his snout, sending the boy flying back.

              “No!” Atlas ordered.

              Bane looked at him with his goofy smile expecting praise.

              “Bad dog!” Atlas scolded.

              The huge ears and tail tucked. He sat on back and looked down. This dog…

              “Stay here.”

              Atlas ran up to Friend to check on him, and when he got closer, he found the boy unconscious.

              “Well shit…”

              Atlas lifted him up and turned back towards the group now baring down on him. He had time to walk him up to Bane.

              “You will let him lay on your back! And not do anything stupid.” Atlas said.

              Bane kept his head down as Atlas strapped Friend on his back. That was when the other showed up. three men and two women, all brandishing swords but one, a man held a nasty looking bow that looked to be crawling with spiders, but he didn’t seem to care. The bow was drawn, and a green arrow fizzed into existence and pointed at his chest.

              “Hey… hey… hey…” Atlas said raising his hands. “I mean you all no harm.”

              “Yeah? Then why is Friend on the back of your dog?” the man with the bow spoke.

              His voice was super high pitched and nasally.

               “It was an accident.” Atlas turned and looked at Bane. “Well… it wasn’t, but he attacked me first. He is alright, just unconscious.”

              “Not a great way to prove that now, eh?” he replied.

              “I… don’t really know what to do right now.” Atlas replied.

              He didn’t want to antagonize these people, he just wanted to move on. That was hard to do when they were on the verge of attacking him.

              “Tell you what, how about I shoot you. We look over Friend and if he’s alive, then I’ll apologize.” He said with a wide grin.

              “How about you stop talking. Your voice is hurting my dog’s ears.” Atlas said looking at Bane who tucked his ears in. “He’s not going to be able to hear me when I tell him to stop ripping you apart.”

              The mans grin fell, then drew the bow tighter.

              Bane growled at him then everyone began to yell. Atlas was telling them to calm down, Bane was now barking, and the others were saying crap that made It to no one’s ears.

              “EVERYONE SHUT UP!”

              A voice shouted in the minds of everyone there but Bane. He continued to bark and growl, looking proud of himself, thinking that he had won the argument as everyone was now quiet.

              “Can… you… please… calm… him… down?” Friends exasperated voice broke through Banes barking.

              “My head is… killing me!” Friend shouted.

              “Bane! Quiet down boy.” Atlas said.

              Bane quieted, but he remained crouched and shuffled back behind Atlas. To the others, they presented quite the intimidating image, the massive black man standing there with an even larger dog looking more a monster than anything else, crouched and glaring around Atlas’s body.

              An hour later, Atlas found himself sitting around a fire, across from Friend and beside now twelve heavily armed people. They all glared at him except for Friend. They glared, but he had something they did not, Bane sitting behind him.

              “Now that everyone is calm… Who the hell are you?” Friend asked.