Steven

"Markus, what in the world happened?" I reached out to help him, but was too afraid that I'd do more harm. His eye was most concerning, the blood that oozed out of it near his nose looked to be a different consistency than the blood that ran down the rest of his face.

Ian picked up his radio from the floor. "Everyone pull out. We're done at the Docks."

"What do you mean?" I said to him, "Cory and Miles are still in there!"

"I know."

Markus, weak and bloodied as he was, stood firm to block the doorway, shoving Ian back with one hand while his other cupped his face. "You're not leaving until they're out safely," he said.

"Don't you ever touch me." Ian narrowed his eyes.

"I just did," Markus said. "What are you going to do about it?" He lifted his chin up to show his confidence, but his body was shaking--not from fear, I don't think, but from the injuries he had already endured. It was only his determination that kept him standing there.

"Wait, hold on." I stepped between the two of them and held my hands out. "You two are not about to fight right here. There is a war going on. Now, look..." I turned to face Ian, shaking a finger at him like the matrons used to do to me when I misbehaved. "That shooter in there is distracted. There are gunshots going off inside the building, which means that Miles and probably Cory are keeping them occupied. Why can't you just send in some back up and secure the whole building. You can't come this far and then just walk away before it's over!" Somewhere toward the end of that little speech, I realized that I was trying to tell off a high-ranking member of the Serpent society, an armed and angry one at that. My posture waned. I dropped my finger and softened my voice on the last sentence to make it sound less accusative and a little more... inspiring?

Ian looked like he was about to pounce on me. He leaned toward me, using his height to loom. With the back light from the window casting dark shadows over his face, he looked like a nightmare from my childhood.

But I couldn't back down. Not now. I had just watched Miles go running fearlessly in to save Cory and now I had a bleeding and possibly blinded Markus standing behind me, fearlessly ready to take on the Serpent army to save Miles and Cory. I couldn't just stand by and watch.

"Get out out of my way," Ian said slowly.

"I can't do that." I started to say more, but couldn't think of anything worth saying, so I left it at that.

Ian didn't bother to stay and argue. Instead he shoved me aside and and walked up to Markus, who still stood defiant, yet trembling in the door. "Get out of my way before I tear out your other eye."

Markus gave that a short thought. Then he dropped his hand away from his face and, with a little effort, balled up both fists. He swallowed whatever fear was building up and said, "Try it."

Ian started reaching for the knife on his belt, but I grabbed both of his arms like I was going to arrest him. He wasn't that much bigger than me, and strength-wise we seemed to be about even. However, it became very obvious that he had a few skills that I didn't because somehow I ended up on the floor staring up at him. And then the pain and tingling sensation set in, letting me know that I had landed there rather hard.

Another Serpent soldier came running into the room to find out what was going on, pushing his way past Markus, who moved like parted grass. "Sir," he said, and then stopped to take in the scene. "I... uh..."

"Let's go," Ian said and once again took a step to the door.

"You're not leaving until my family is out of there!" Markus yelled in his face, his voice echoing off the empty walls of the room.

By that point, I had picked myself off the floor and pulled out my handcuffs, though I didn't have a plan. Ian didn't see them, but the other soldier did. He grew wide-eyed and shook his head as a warning to me. But instead of saying anything about them, he turned to Ian and said, "Sir, there's smoke coming out of the Docks building now. I think Miles actually succeeded in burning it."

"Good," Ian said. He used his elbow to shove Markus hard into the door frame, cracking his head against the wood. Markus slumped to the floor as Ian walked past. "Then, like I said, we're done with the Docks."

I ran to Markus to pick him up, but by that point he was barely conscious and in no condition to stand. "Help me get him to a doctor," I said to the Serpent soldier who followed behind Ian.

The soldier stopped and turned toward us, but Ian put his hand on his shoulder and said, "He's not worth the effort. He's already dead."

"No, he's not!" I said. "He's just a little torn up. He needs a doctor!"

The soldier had a look on his face like he was struggling with the decision. Ian didn't take his hand off his shoulder, instead he shifted it to rest on the man's neck, like he was threatening him without words. He didn't say anything more, but the soldier seemed to understand and shook his head at me in a helpless manner. Then they both walked out.

It took me quite a while to get Markus down the stairs and into the street. By the time I made it off the porch, the entire Serpent army was gone and the top floor of the Docks was burning fiercely and crumbling into the Marsh piece by piece. There was no sign of Cory or Miles. I called out their names, hoping that maybe they had already run out of the building and were somewhere on the street. But there was no answer.

I laid Markus out on the middle of the road where nothing could fall on him, and maybe someone would see him and help. Then I ran toward the Docks, not knowing what to do. The entrance was still intact, so I went in as far as I could before it became perilous.

The building had once been a shopping center full of fishing and boating supplies. The old signs in front of the doors still showed their faded store names in peeling paint and rusted metal. The levels above the stores, however, had been added on later, the materials scavenged from other structures in town. And it was there, at the bottom of the crudely built staircase that I stopped, too afraid for my own life to go any further.

"Cory!" I called out. "Miles!" I half expected a surviving Jaggar to jump out at me, and kept turning myself around to watch for such an attack. But no one came out. And no one answered my call.

Down the hallway, behind the stairs, a puddle of blood formed, dripping down from the level above. Through the cracks in the wood, I saw the outline of bodies, but couldn't tell whose they were. "Cory!" I called again, hoping they were just unconscious. "Miles!"

The floors above that were on fire started to groan the kind of groan that told me they were going to collapse at any moment. My first instinct was to run out of there. At least Markus was safe, I just needed to get him to a doctor. But the thought of leaving Cory and Miles behind, not knowing if they were still alive or not, was too terrible for me to consider. So I shook off all my fears and ran up the stairs to see whose body was lying above me.

There were several of them, but Miles was one. He lay on top of two others, bleeding from his head. I didn't bother to check the wound. Instead I picked him up, fireman style, and carried him down the steps and out to the entrance of the Docks.

Then I went back in for Cory, but couldn't find her anywhere. At least not on the second floor. I looked up to the third floor and saw her arm hanging off the ledge, just under the bottom rail. "Cory!" I said, hoping to God, she'd wake up.

Fire rained down in hot ash and burning wood chips. I didn't even know if I would make it up the stairs before the whole place fell on top of us both. But I couldn't stand to live with myself if I ran away when I was this close to helping her. So I charged up the next flight of stairs and ducked under a burning support beam that had already fallen at one end.

I didn't bother to check if Cory was alive or dead. I grabbed her under her arms and dragged her under the burning beam and to the stairs. Once there, I picked her up properly and carried her out.

One by one, I managed to get all three of the Rea Estate family laying out next to each other in the street. But from there, I didn't know what to do, and the exhaustion from the ordeal pulled me to the ground until I collapsed on the road right next to them and watched the top floor of the Docks collapse, shattering the second floor beneath it.

After taking a moment to collect myself, I looked over the three and began to consider who I needed to take back to the bridge first. Markus was my initial thought, since his injuries were the most obvious and appeared to be the most severe, but I hadn't yet checked to see what condition the other two were in, so I picked myself up and started looking over Miles. When I reached out to check his pulse, I realized that my hands were covered in fresh blood. It was the first time I had noticed. I looked up at all three teenagers laying out before me, trying to figure out where the blood had come from. It was impossible to tell; all three of them were bleeding somewhere. But that's when I noticed a sizable puddle forming under Cory.

"Oh no," I said under my breath and rushed to her to find the source of the bleeding. "Cory! Can you hear me?" She was bleeding from her rib cage. The dark color of her shirt masked the blood, but after I found it, I couldn't believe I had ever missed it. "Cory, I'm going to get you to the bridge, okay?" She showed no sign of consciousness.

But Miles did. He rolled over on his side and sat up carefully, holding his head.

"Miles!"

"Steven?" It took him a moment to open his eyes, but when he did, Markus was the first thing he saw. "What! No! What happened? Why is Markus here?" He jumped to his knees and leaned over Markus's face to get a closer look. Then he looked up at me. Understanding clicked in his mind, his sudden realization that we were in the street, that there were no Serpents, and that Cory lay on the other side of Markus. There were no questions to ask, no answers relevant to the situation. His wide eyes darted between Markus and Cory in a frantic, but silent kind of panic. He shook his head like he was going to will the situation to be different. But when that didn't work, he reached out, first to Markus, to feel for a pulse, then to Cory to do the same.

I watched him, forgetting why I was kneeling next to Cory--that is, until he moved himself closer to her and saw the pool of blood beneath her. "No! The stab wound!" He shoved me aside and pulled up her shirt to find the source of the blood at her rib cage. It was hard to tell how deep the gash went between her ribs, but the steady stream of blood drained me of hope. "Go get help, Steven," Miles said without looking. "Run! And bring back bandages and food."

"Food?"

"Go!"

So I ran. Through smoke and fire and screams of little monsters, I ran all the way back to the bridge. There were no sign of the gatekeepers, of course, but I hoped they were still there to stop the little beasts that were surely on my trail. On the other side, I expected to run into the same crowd as before, but they were gone. A few journalists remained, interviewing eyewitnesses and filming the continual stream of smoke that had begun to spread over the center city. But the medics and the crowd were gone, leaving me feeling more alone than I had ever felt before.

"Ah, sir! Can I have a word with you about what's happening over there?" A journalist stepped in front of me, paper and pen ready to take down everything I said.

"No," I said. "I have to go." I pushed him out of my way and ran to my car.

"Can I come with?" he said, following close behind me and running to the passenger side door.

I didn't answer, which he took for a "yes" and got in the car with me.

"You're covered in blood," he said. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." My patience for him was wearing thin, and I wished he'd shut up, but I didn't have time to fight with him or shove him out of the car. I had to get back to Cory and Markus before both their lives expired.

We raced back over the bridge and through the crumbling streets, hitting potholes at speeds that made my car's shocks groan. I think I even nicked a monster along the way. The journalist remained silent, but I could hear him gasp and wince at every hole in the road and every shocking sight. Luckily, it was a short distance by car and we arrived quickly back where I had left only a quarter of an hour prior.

I jumped out of the car and grabbed the first aid kit from my trunk. The journalist moved much slower, scribbling down notes about the scene and keeping a respectful distance from us as Miles and I did what we could to patch up Cory and Markus.

"Help me with her," Miles said. "Did you bring food?"

"How is food going to help?"

"Never mind. How about water? You must have water in your car."

I jumped back up and ran to grab a bottle of water.

"Help me sit her up," Miles said. He had already patched up the hole in her side, but she was bleeding through the bandage and her face grew white.

"Are you sure?" I didn't want to question him, but I couldn't understand his logic. "Maybe we should get her in the car and to a hospital."

"Yes, but give her water first. She needs it to heal, she hasn't had any food or water today."

It didn't make sense to me, but there was no use in arguing. I propped her limp form up against my chest and tried to pour water in her mouth. Miles scooted in so close that his breath blew her hair. He touched her neck like he was feeling for a pulse, but his fingers were in the wrong place.

The water only spilled out of her mouth and onto her shirt. After using a fourth of the bottle, I stopped and sat back on my haunches. But Miles didn't move. He kept his face close to hers and his hand on her neck like he was waiting for her to wake up at any moment and wanted to see her pupils adjust. It became uncomfortable--not just because of how Miles was acting, but because of her awkward weight slipping through my arm.

"How about Markus?" I said. "Is Markus okay?"

"Markus..." Miles flickered his eyes over at Markus's torn up face still laying on the road next to us. "He... he can wait. His pulse was strong. Cory is losing more blood than he. She..." He grew quiet and stopped breathing. "No," he whispered. Then he spoke out loud, "Put her down!"

I didn't know why until he began resuscitating her. "Oh, no." I don't know if anyone heard me say it over the sounds of the fire and the second floor of the Docks buckling and collapsing on the first floor.

The journalist knelt down beside us, but he didn't say or do anything, not even write. At least not until Miles gave up and sat down on the road. Tears made tracks through the mud, blood and grime on his face, but he made no sound. "This is the Smoke Angel girl, isn't it?" the journalist asked in a voice just loud enough for me to hear.

I nodded, too stunned to cry, and too devastated to talk. I reached out to touch her face. Her features had barely changed at all from that ten year old miscreant that ran away with Wesley all those years ago. She still looked so young and so helpless. And as the last of the color went from her lips, all I could think about was how I thought she had already died before she showed up at the police station, but why did God find it so important to make sure I was here to see her death? Why did I have to be a part of her life for such a short time? Selfish, I know.

These thoughts about my own life swallowed my attention whole until Miles's silent crying broke into a scream of frustration that echoed off the fire around us. He grabbed a chunk of road that had broken off in a pothole and threw it as far as he could, but that wasn't enough to give him relief. He pulled his knees in and balled himself up, pulling on his hair with fingers so bent with anger that they looked more like claws. He punched the ground and rocked himself back and forth with tense energy until his body finally buckled under the weight of his emotions and he fell on top of Cory's bloody ribs and shook his head "no."

We only stared at him--the journalist and I--with no idea what to do. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Markus, still in bad shape, but completely ignored by all. He still had a hope of life and he desperately needed to go to the hospital, but I couldn't just leave Miles there like that.

I didn't want to interrupt his mourning, but I had to if we were going to save Markus. "Miles," I said gently. "We--"

Miles sat up so fast it cut off my sentence. He didn't say anything, but his eyes were wide with a new idea. He jumped to his knees and scooted closer to Cory's face, giving her a look like he was going to force her back to life. He put his hands on her cheeks and stared at her for a short time. Then, he shook his head and grabbed her neck instead with both hands, looking like he was trying to strangle her.

"What are you doing?" I said moving in to try to get him off of her.

"She can do this," he said, more to himself than anyone else. "She's done it before. She can come back from the dead."

"What?"

He leaned in close to her face. I thought maybe he was trying to listen for breathing, but then he put his lips on hers in something that looked less like CPR and more like a very awkward kind of kiss--the kind that reminded me of my first time kissing Amanda.

I thought he had lost his mind. The boy had jumped from anger to denial in less time than it took for Cory's body to go cold. "Miles," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. "She's dead."

But Miles didn't stop until something stirred in Cory.

There was a visible, electric spark where Miles's hand touched her neck. Then her eyes snapped open.

Miles sat back on his haunches and breathed a sigh of relief.

Cory was alive, but she didn't have strength to move, and she was still losing blood. She tried to sit up, but winced in pain and laid back down again.

"It's okay, Cory, just rest," Miles said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You're okay now. We'll get you to the hospital in just a minute. "

The journalist, who had been so respectfully quiet that I forgot he was even there, spoke up. "Did you... Did you just bring her back to life with a kiss? What was that?"

Cory mouthed the word, "what?"

"Nothing," Miles said, "I just resuscitated you, that's all. It wasn't a kiss."

"Uh... that wasn't resuscitation." I didn't want to ruin the moment, but I couldn't make sense of what I had just seen and I, like the journalist, was starting to wonder if I had just witnessed some strange miracle. "I mean... I'm not trying to doubt the doctor's assistant or anything, but... resuscitation takes breathing. That wasn't breathing. That looked a lot more like a kiss."

"You kissed me?" Cory tried again to sit up, but it was obvious that even breathing was painful for her. "You gave me my first kiss and I wasn't even alive for it?"

Miles blushed a soft pink color. "It wasn't romantic," he said, "I was just trying to revive your nerves. That's all. But you're alive now, so... Let's get you into the car and to a hospital."

But Cory wasn't going to let it go. "I've been waiting years for you to kiss me and you finally do it while I'm dead?" she said. She held her bleeding side with her hand and forced herself up. "Kiss me again!" She puckered her lips and grabbed his shirt with a bloody hand to pull him near her.

"No!" Miles said. "I mean... This isn't really a good time, right? I mean, you just came back to life, you need to rest and... do you see what a mess I am? I need a shower!"

"Kiss me or I'll die right here and stay dead this time!"

"What? How can you even joke about that?"

"I'll do it! If death is what it takes for you to kiss me, I'll do it!"

"Fine! But--"

Cory didn't wait for him to finish. She pulled him into a kiss that was just about as awkward as the last, but much more sweet. It didn't end until she finally let go of his shirt, leaving a bloody stain on his collar and freeing him to pull away from her. Then she laid carefully back down on the ground and put both hands on her bleeding side, but with a smile said, "Can we go home now?" Only then did she notice Markus beside her and sat back up in shock.

"Yes, let's get you two into the car and go to the hospital," Miles said, standing himself up.

"Markus? How? What happened? He was supposed to stay home!"

"I don't know. But he needs a doctor, Steven, help me get Markus and I'll take Cory."