LEVI, WHAT THE FUCK ARE?—
—here, I’m right here.
No. I’m not seventeen...I’m almost thirty-three. I’m a grown man who once had to choose to leave his best friend behind for his own sake.
Was it his sake...or yours?
His.
Okay, I mean, you’ve been telling yourself that lie for years, why stop now, right?
No, I just?—
LEVI
I was?—
I’m just?—
“LEVI!”
“M’awake,” I said, hearing the thickness in my voice as I tried to roll over and then remembered that...something had happened. I was?—
Where was I?
It felt like an eternity, but I finally began to piece together what was going on around me. I was staring down at the cracked asphalt of the parking lot, the smell filling my nostrils was smoke and something...sharp and acrid, and I dully realized it was probably the smell of gas or something similar. Debris, some of it smoking, but most just chunks of wood and plaster,was littered on the ground around me. Wincing, I pushed myself upright and looked around, trying to figure out more of what was happening.
Check yourself, then your safety, then everyone else.
She was just a voice I’d made up in a moment of loneliness years ago...but she wasn’t wrong. Taking her advice, I checked myself out, and although I couldn’t know the full extent at the moment, I could at least be sure I had all my limbs, and nothing was broken. I had already moved everything I could to sit up, but I still made sure to pat myself, to check for anything sticking out or missing. I definitely had plenty of adrenaline pumping through my veins, so I wasn’t going to be able to measure what damage had been done based on pain, but I could figure out if I could still move.
Okay, all the limbs and fingers were there, and unless my toes had disintegrated without my shoes being destroyed, I assumed those were there as well. I had also seen Los Muertos take off moments before the explosion, so clearly they weren’t going to stick around. There was always the chance they could come back, though, and I made sure to look around for any approaching vehicles as I got to my feet and checked myself over one last time. I’d confirmed that I was more or less in one piece and began scanning for the others.
“LEVI.”
I jerked at the sudden bellow in my ear, hand flying to the side of my head and grasping...plastic? Oh shit. “God, am I still on the phone?”
“What theFUCKwas that?” Dom demanded.
“Ergh, what did it sound like?” I asked as I scanned, taking in the scene of destruction scattered all around me, like the world’s worst ticker-tape parade.
“Like something blew up,” he continued to yell in my ear. “Fucking...did something blow up?”
“Sure did,” I said with a groan when I went to brush something off my face and realized my left arm felt like it was on fire. It wasn’t. I definitely would have noticed that, but apparently, I hadn’t gotten away with only a couple of bumps and bruises. At least the fucker still moved, and the fact that I felt pain meant I wasn’tthathopped up on my body’s own juices. “Oh shit...Will.”
“Will?” Dom asked, almost hilarious in how bewildered he sounded while trying to sound pissed and worried.
The younger man was sprawled on his stomach. I ran up to him, grabbed him by the shoulder, and gently rolled him enough to look at him. I let out a sigh of relief when his eyes fluttered open and peered up at me in confusion and fear. Consciousness so soon after getting knocked out was one of the best signs to show you weren’t suffering from a serious brain injury. Of course, there was still the possibility of other injuries, but he was definitely coherent, picking himself up as I looked him over and saw a few scrapes, but the biggest thing was the rebar sticking out of his forearm.
“Oh God,” Will said in a whimper as he reached for the rebar before I slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch it,” I said, thinking that in his altered state and his high levels of stress, he would try to take the thing out, which was the last thing we needed. I was no medical expert, but I knew full well that you don’t take something out if it was stuck in your body; leave that to the professionals.
“Oh God,” he repeated as he looked around. “The others?—”
I looked up and grimaced. “They’re...just get up. We have to get out of here before those bastards decide to come back and?—”
“Levi, I swear to God, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’ll?—”
