Story B

Genre: I have no idea, Fantasy? Disaster?

Rating: T

TWs: Mild Dismemberment

By J Wolf Silver

It started small at first. Some fire here, some weapons from the museum changed it strange ways. Then there was s pause for s few years, then people kept teleporting to different parts of the world. Food appearing out of nowhere.

Then, there were castles. So many castles and royalty. The government had a hard time maintaining control. People's debt started to clear really fast as gemstones started to appear.

Charlie was only 10 when it started getting...bad. Weird and bad. He and his parents had lived next to the same couple for his entire life. One day, his parents had been talking to a couple and they just...dropped dead. As did 126 thousand other people.

Entire contents just..burned to ash.

Now 16, the year 3764 A.C., After Change, Charlie slid down the slide from his room to the ground. His bedroom was at the highest point of the tree that had popped up when he was seven and his entire neighborhood became a forest. With the influx of wealth back in 3087, their king kept a wealth of money for victims of the changes.

Still people drop, move and change everyday. Even him. He was lucky that he still had two parents. He was pretty sure they didn't look the same when he was born but neither did he. There were photos of him with blonde hair, red hair but now his hair was black at night.

He grabbed an apple peach from the kitchen, his mom kissed him on the head as he headed off to school.

He looked up at a couple people flying overhead, one with a set of wings. Some students on raptors waved as they raced past. He'd always wanted to ride one but it wasn't in his ancestral wishes. He didn't have a power or cool ability yet. Were-Creatures even started to show up a few months ago. A kid in his class suddenly had training in vampire slaying with silver bullets and stakes she started carrying.

He wanted a cool ability but nothing had happened.

He got to school and waved at his friends gathered in front of the gates, Amy had her eagle wings folded on her back, the twins, Tom and Mitchel, were patting their twin tigers. Tara didn't look like anything special but she kept her pirate's sword on her hip and she definitely knew how to use it.

They didn't chat much before they headed inside and found their class paddock. Little did they know. They would never meet here again.

The disaster came at noon. Charlie and his friends were sitting on the roof of the nocturnal classroom, watching a few giants and dinosaurs climb the mountain to the city in the distance.

The siren blared.

"What? There hasn't been a shift in like ten years!" Tom said.

"Yeah not since the forest." Charlie said as he stood and looked around.

The steeds in the pens were going crazy.

Amy flew upwards and looked around.

"Guys this is bad." She said, landing, "We need to get to a pod!"

The group moved quickly to their paddock were giant metal pods that were tested to float and protect a group of ten from nuclear fallout. Their class was already rushing to theirs as water started to pour in.

"A flood?" Tom questioned.

A giant crash sounded and there was a sound of screams. Charlie looked in the direction and saw a meteor about his size crushed a pod in the next paddock. A boy had his leg pinned bit the amount of blood outside of the crash told him that there were students inside. A few students tried to pull them free but he scrambled as his leg was pulled right off.

Charlie starred in complete horror.

"Charlie!" Mitchel said, shaking his shoulders, "Hurry! Let's go!"

The water was rising quickly now. Mitchel and Charlie made it to the pod, their friends waiting and helped them inside. They went to close the door but Devan, a young weretiger in their class frantically tried to climb inside as a large wave crashed into him and lifted the pod off the ground.

Devan held on and looked relieved until a meteor, the size of a watermelon took the entire door off Devan with it.

The pod did as it was designed to. It rotated so the new opening was facing the sky.

Tara looked at her waterproofed phone, "My dad's riding the waves towards us."

She climbed over her friends and grabbed the box with the flare gun and shot it off. It exploded into purple and yellow smoke.

They were hit with another wave and a few inches of water poured in.

"This is bad." Tom said, "This is really bad."

Charlie agreed and stood to look over the top. Hundreds, maybe thousands of meteors fell into the now flooded landscape.

"What do we do?" Mitchel asked.

"We wait for Tara's dad." Charlie said, "The feets are out best chance."

"A ship can't stop a meteor, Charlie!" Tom growled

"Neither can these stupid shift pods!" Charlie yelled, "At Least with more surface area we have a chance not to be crushed or eaten by sharks or sea monsters."

"He's not wrong." Mitchel said, nudging Charlie in the shoulder with a smile.

A fog horn sounded and the group tried to peak over the edge but Charlie and Tom were the only ones just tall enough to see. It was a ship.

"Tara, flare!" Tom said, "It's your dad."

Tara shot another one and a few moments later, a grappling hook got a hold of the pod and pulled them until they bumped into the haul of a massive ship.

"Tara!" a man with a beard called. "Come on up!"

Tara went first, then tom.

When Amy was on her way up a large meteor landed in the water next to them. The pod was knocked away from the ship as it knocked and Amy lost her grip and fell into the water. She surfaced, however, still holding to the rope ladder.

Mitchel and Charlie were pulled back in as Amy climbed up. Mitchel opted to climb the rope attached to the pod. Once Amy was up, Charlie grabbed the ladder. He was half way up when a loud crunch caused the ship to sway.

Charlie looked to his left and saw that a meteor had fallen right through the sid of the ship.

In his head he could swear that he could hear a little, girl with an odd accent say the words ; Starlight, star bright

The crew scrambled for lifeboats, Charlie forgotten. Mitchel, however, stuck by his friend. It was pointless though cause a moment later, the mas snapped, knocking Mitchel off the side of the boat. Charlie wasn't too far behind as the boat began to tip over on top of him.

First star I see tonight.

He sank. Charlie tried to swim out of the way but a broken beam caught him in the chest and made him sink faster. Water was filling his lungs, fast. Sharks that swam in form the ocean began swimming around him, sinking debris blocking their way to him.

I wish I may.

He always heard drowning was one of the worst ways to die and as his lungs burned as they forced him to inhale, he felt like he was suffocating as he struggled to push the water out of his lungs.

I wish I might.

He hit the ground and continued to struggle weakly, until he couldn't move anymore. The edges of his vision were turning black. He could hear his heart slowing down as the voice surrounded him

Have this wish...

It wasn't painful anymore.

I wish tonight.

His vision went black and felt like he was drifting to sleep.

I wish I could breathe underwater so I could see daddy again.

What an odd thought to have, Charlie thought. He wondered if everyone dreamed as they died. This was more sound though. It was black and he could feel the weight of the beam on his chest.

Wait.

Charlie inhaled deeply and opened his eyes. He panted, looking around frantically. He was alive. He couldn't help but laugh as bubbles burst from his mouth. He'd heard of people hearing who made a wish before but he hadn't expected it to be so clear.

He struggled to move but managed the shimmy to one side and eventually slipped out from the beam. He looked around and got his bearings and began swimming to the surface. There was a lot of screaming and chaos when he surfaced. The sunken ship in ruins but a fleet just beside it. He could just make out one of Amy's wings on another ship. There was someone screaming on it while being held back, gesturing wildly to the ship wreck.

Charlie swam closer and could make out Mitchel's voice.

"You just left him there!" He cried, "He was right there and you killed him!"

Tara's dad was looking at him solemnly, allowing Mitchel to hit at his chest, "He was caught in the chest and sinking too fast. I'm sorry, lad."

"Hello?" Charlie called from next to the ship. But he was too low down and a little out of breath. With Mitchel's yelling and everyone talking, no one would be able to hear him. The ladder was a few feet up so Charlie tried to jump in the water to get to it.

It took one try, surprisingly, but he didn't get the ladder. He screamed as he was launched right over the side of the boat and crashed into the mast, knocking the wind out of his chest.

The yelling stopped.

"Holy shit." Tom said.

Mitchel looked towards him, "Charlie?"

"I heard a wish." He satiated.

Mitchel ran over and helped him up, enveloping him in a hug. So did Charlie's friends. Amy was in a sling and Tom had a nice set of crutches. But everyone looked fine.

"Well." Tara's dad said, "Let's go find your parents and figure out what's next."

Charlie sighed and let himself fall backwards on the deck. He got extremely lucky, he knew that. He just hoped there wouldn't be another shift like that. He hated wishes.

Starlight, Starbright..

"God Damn it."