Shattered Glass Chapter 9: Faith

Story by Namyrolis on SoFurry

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Faith

I swear I must have cleared the woods in record time and Alki was having no problems keeping up. We both knew the woods equally well apparently and we both had a good sense of direction. The direction we were going... was to school.

As we ran past streets and people in the down like lunatics we got a few glances from people who swore we might have been running away from death itself. In fact one guy we ran by said "Where's the fire" and with my quick wit, not to mention new found love, I pointed back to Alki's groin and retorted "In his pants, and he wants me to put it out". I honestly had no idea why I said that but the look on the guys face was so priceless it was well worth it, not to mention I got a "What the hell" reactions out of Alki's face as well.

The whole way to school was a steady sprint powered by what energy I don't know for myself, and I'm sure it was just a workout for Alki. Alki however wasn't as quick or nimble as I was however. The whole way I didn't stop for traffic, or obey any sort of laws. I ran past a two way stop with a car on a collision course with me. It would have hit me if I hadn't reacted and slid over the hood like something you see in a quick action movie. I did pay the driver my respect though by turning my head towards him with my tongue sticking out and a peace sign. Alki didn't say anything to the driver or me but I knew I would probably hear it later.

Coming to think of it Alki hadn't said anything the entire way. He didn't even say if it was a school day or not. The most out of him was a sigh when I ran down an alleyway in downtown to take a quick shortcut across two streets so I could avoid traffic. It wasn't until we neared the school ground that he put his paw on my shoulder and forced me to stop. I could run, and run fast, but he was overall stronger and heavier then I was. He turned me around to face him and gave me quizzical look, one that implies the meaning "Why was I going somewhere I rarely showed up to on my own accord?" but he didn't say anything.

As I looked back over to the school it was clearly a school day, and as my mind turned off its autopilot, my body did the favor of also reminding me that I was injured making me collapse onto the pavement and yelp in pain as spikes of pain from my leg shot up through my spine. Either Alki was playing the quiet game or he knew that saying the obvious to me wouldn't make me feel bad about what I just did, or teach me a lesson. "Oh you shouldn't have run you are still hurt" which my response would have been "Yea no shit, I can see that now. Thanks"

Alki stood over me with his eyes on the horizon above the school building as my body gathered enough bravery to allow me to stand again. If I keep it up though I might end up in a wheelchair, which would just give me another way to be cruel to all the people I didn't care about. I was just glad that Alki could not read minds though, because I'm sure that thought would have made him say something.

As I started walking slowly to school, Alki walked by my side and looked sort of fidgety. I didn't need him to explain to me why, I already knew. Big Bad Jock can't be found out as a queer, all his "friends" would leave him, and he must be some sort of pedophile. I knew he was going to have a hard time adapting to his new found ways, but I wasn't going to pressure him. It's his life; as far as I care he can deal with it whenever he wants. Just so happens I didn't have anything to really deal with, people knew I was gay, that I loved and fantasized about guys. They also knew that I didn't give a flying fuck about them or their opinion and that if they died tomorrow the most that would come out of my mouth would be something sarcastic like "Oh, that's really sad"

In general though I don't understand why people develop such care for other people they don't really know or even really care about. For example, last year the soccer captain, Keal, got into a wreck with a transport vehicle. His vehicle was crushed and he was so badly injured he had to stay in the hospital for a month and have several surgeries. A guy on the team, named Cody or something, hated him so much for stealing the captain position from him, and used to make him feel like shit. During the accident, he was given the position of captain again as a permanent solution seeing how Keal might never be able to play soccer again. However the doctors had managed to repair all of the damage that would have prevented him from playing soccer, and was allowed back on the team after 2 months, at which point in time Cody gave Keal the position of captain back without a word, no one telling him to, and never picked on him again. If it was me I would have kept the position and said something like "Maybe if you would take the extra precaution you wouldn't have been in that shit"

I approached the front entrance of the school and was stop by Alki who simply leaned over my shoulder and whispered into my ear "not a word... please". I knew he was going to do that, and I didn't turn back to face him when I replied "It's not my job. Plus you know how much I talk to these people". That sentence did carry meaning behind the sarcasm though; it wasn't just to be spiteful. It wasn't my job to tell people his business or anything about him, He would have to do that. He was the one that talked with all these people; it was him that was going to be doing the self-finding, no me. I knew who I was, sort of anyway, but I would like to think I knew myself better than he did at the moment.

As we split ways I walked my way to my math class like it was no big deal, like I have gone all 137 days that school has been in session. However my teacher wasn't in the same mindset and had to bring up that fact that I haven't been in her class for... well a long time.

"Oh look, it's... Well I can't remember you name cause you have refused to show up enough times for me to even talk to you" Ms. Cavelor said to me as I enter the door and took my seat.

" It's Serail, and I'm only here because someone actually expects me to. If you want I can leave but it would make that person oh so upset with me and causing me to miss another long period of your class again, not that being here will help any come to think about it. Last think I remember was how to distribute, and yes I do truly remember how to do that. So don't think I don't pay any attention because I do, even though at times it may seem like I am being a complete jackass who only wants to wither away under some old rock in the forest."

"Well then Mr. Xiaxel, why don't you show us your ever so amazing math skills" She said.

Snapping at her I retorted "Why? Why should I have to prove anything to you? You just can't trust me? Is that it? Am I to troublesome our something? Why can't just believe me?"

She didn't say anything for a few moments; all she did was look at me stunned like she just could not comprehend what I had just said. I didn't bother to say anything else to her; there would have been no point to. She was mind blown by something so simple. All I did was just sate some simple facts and just like that she was fried. After some minutes though she did manage to compose herself enough to be able to sit down in her chair.

For the rest of the class people talked since the teacher was obviously not doing anything. I just sat there and watched the clock as it slowly ticked each minute away, a minute of my life that I would never get back. it didn't bother me though since I didn't really care to often about my life. When you thought about it though, all the minutes wasted doing pointless stuff or just watching the clock tick minutes away, it is real sad. But that is what makes comedy, tragedy plus time, all comedy is. So I guess it is kind of funny when you think about it

Some fifty minutes later the bell rang for us to go to our second class of the day, which for me was economics. This school had a weird scheduling system where each class was about an hour and ten minutes long, and everyone only had four of their eight classes a day. It was ok but seemed a bit unneeded, though I guess it did give you an extra day to slack on all your homework, which is something I didn't really need to do since I hardly went to the classes enough for it to matter if I did it or not. I would have failing grades at this point no matter what I did, but somehow that didn't really make me feel like a failure. In a way it made me feel alive because I wasn't afraid of not being perfect, a Mr. Goody Two Shoes if you will.

That thought however made my mind switch over to what Alki would think if he knew I was failing through school. Hell he probably already did since he seemed to know so much. I mean he must know that I only show up to school when I have absolutely nothing better to do, which was maybe twice a week, maybe three. Somehow I am surprised the school didn't kick me out yet, but I guess they must have felt sorry for me or some shit and just let me come and go as I please hoping that in time I would get my shit together. Buy I must have turned out and still turning out to be one hell of a disappointment.

As I was making my way to "Econ" class, it registered through my head that Alki had that class with me. That is how he knew a bit about me, that's how he got some of his more basic information about who I was. Hell just by that he knew how often I was and was not in school. "Damn It" I whispered to myself as I turned around to the back door of the school and B-Lined my way through them.

I blasted my way through them and made my way to the track where some runners were jumping hurdles. It was well known by now that if they saw me coming out that door to move out of my way or that I would throw one of the damn things at the. It like Moses parting the Red sea, or just as good anyway.... To me anyhow. I'm sure other people wouldn't think so but in the end all that's matters is your opinion.

As I made my way to it one guy kept jumping the hurdles and made himself abundantly clear that he was new and did not know my bad temper. One of his track-mates tried to stop him from going into another pass but he just simply waved him off. As I was passing his lane on the track he "Politely" told me to get off because his team was practicing. I just stopped in his lane and look at him as he came down the lane. He merely said he wasn't going to stop and that if he had to he was going to hurdle of me. That was fine with me, sure he must have weighed 40 pound more and had momentum on his side, but the hurdles on weighed 10 pounds and could easily be kicked up. So I just waited for him to approach the hurdle right next to me and waiting for him to "Gazelle" over it. At the exact moment he was 1/3 over it I kicked it up right into his groin causing him to kiss the pavement with a passion. I simply looked down at him and said sternly with no emotion "Now you've learned the lesson" and simply walked away. I thought I heard some of his teammates laugh but I didn't bother to look back or focus on sounds coming from that direction.

As I made my way into the woods behind the school the ground beneath my footpaws began shacking violently and I fell on my ass shocked and confused. We didn't get planetary quakes on this part of the continent, and it plainly wasn't possible since this part was technically floating on the ocean on a bed of limestone. A loud high pitched scream penetrated my ears from above me and I flattened them against my head with my paws over them. As I looked up I saw a capital class battleship falling to the earth with white-blue flames coming from the engine area. It is then I realized it was going to crash right in the center of the town, and if the reactor failsafes failed and the reactor overheated and went critical everyone within 30 kilometers would die instantly, meaning the entire town would be a wasteland and inhabitable for decades if not a century. A ship of that size and class carried a reactor that had a max output of roughly 8000+ gigajoules, and I was well within the 30 kilometer range.

I watched in horror as I saw the engines desperately flaring and overloading themselves to angle the ship to cause as minimal damage as possible. The pilot obviously knew, as well as he should, that the ship could not be piloted in atmosphere due to its size and mass. The effect of gravity on those ships was so great that not even the mighty engines it was equipped with could deny it. It was essentially a helium balloon with lead weight in it, and we all know that doesn't go anywhere.

I watched in horror as the 840 meter long ship scraped its bow over buildings causing them to crumble and fall to the ground no doubt killing dozens of people and causing the ground to shake more. The pilot was doing the best he could keeping the part of the ship that housed the reactor from hitting anything. With no shields and as much damage to its armor plating and hull as it had, any wrong his or bump could cause the reactor to blow. Whatever had hit that ship had to have hit it hard and fast, not to mention be agile at the same time to avoid getting blown up itself.

The ship was 50 feet from the ground as it cleared the last part of the town and cut its engine power, and all anyone could hope for is that he did everything he could have to drain the reactor and the ships main power enough so if he did land wrong, not that there a right way to land of course, that it would not instantly kill everyone in a blue plasmic fireball.

I watch anxiously as the oddly water boat shaped ship lower itself past the tree line and hit the ground. It felt like the planet itself was being split apart with a force to violent that it could not possibly stay in one piece. I closed my eyes and counted silently to myself "3...2...1..." and waited, only to be saved of a fiery death.

As I opened my eyes I looked to where the ship landed and the town behind it. Both were in smoke and ruins. I'm sure there was plenty of stuff that could be salvaged from the ship, and well as the town, but for the moment the chaos and black and blue smoke in the atmosphere had everyone in horror. I only feel bad for the people who died simply because I witnessed and saw firsthand how their death occurred.

I got back onto my feet and ran back to the school as fast as possible in the search for Alki. I cleared the field and track in what the coach of the team would consider record timing to have a school that looked like it was hit with several wrecking balls come into view. Parts of the roof were collapsed in, walls crumbled and falling to pieces, light blinking and broken, and several other apparatuses including antennas and cameras sprawled across the ground.

I entered what was known and the 2500 building to find it a complete wreck. The hallway to the left of the door was on fire with electrical lines and water spurting everywhere, the one to the right was collapsed and falling in on itself with several of the I-beams already dislocated. I didn't know how long the building could stand for, but I needed to find Alki and get out and the choices were not the most generous. I had to choose the either be burned and electrocuted, or be crushed alive.