11.
Drake followed the pair. They were two or three full heads taller and just as wide. The first a powerhouse whereas the other was just a house. Both Arabic.
Who were they?
The frozen trick wouldn't work twice, meaning his life was all about ducking and weaving and keeping pace. Neither turned, but he gave no reason.
It was a game he'd played with Jin, a street-based hide and seek that was better than any video game. The game had more to it, but that involved breaking into a building without setting off an alarm.
The two picked up the pace.
Jin!
He was leaning over something in the road. Whatever it was, was either really small or really flat, Drake had never been so glad to see the rugged bastard. He wanted to tell him that he believed, whole heartedly. To tell him of those headed his way. He wanted more than anything to shout. It was more likely they were more foe than friend. It was written in the way they sped up upon seeing Jin.
Fortunately, he was still far.
To Drake's relief Jin looked up. They were two blocks away. Jin was fast, if he ran they'd never catch him. The relief was so strong Drake slowed to take a breather.
Jin's hand sunk under the tar and it splashed up as if a mine had gone off, swallowing him. Drake's heart stopped, stomach lurching.
"Jin… no…"
He stared for the longest time before the two jumped right in.
"Shit! What's going on?" Drake shouted at the sky.
He sprinted to the spot, held his breath, pinched his nose and jumped. Pain screamed into his brain, flesh scraping as if naked, he buckled on the tar.
He ignored it, what hurt was nothing happening. Dumbstruck, Drake watched the world start to move.
================
Chaos tears through the city, and Naya's trapped in the middle of it—clutching a steering wheel she doesn't know how to use, as physics turns traitor and the ground disappears beneath her.
"Her checklists of solutions floated as if caught in space, floating, single file, out an open window."
Just when the fall seems certain, a unicorn crashes the scene, biting through blazer and fate itself.
But explosions only mark beginnings in this world. What happens next might not be a rescue—it might be the ignition of something far stranger.
💥 wait for the next episode because when the bus goes airborne, reality gets rearranged.