Melissa hung on to her giant friend as he sprinted toward the factory, slipping on the lose ground. She watched in horrified amazement as the building succumbed to the deadly wall of sand, disappearing in the resulting dust cloud thrown up by the factory’s own defenses. Michael slid to a stop before the wreckage, expression frozen in fright.
The Pegasus was thrown off when Michael threw himself to the ground, but she recovered quickly, flying down beside him. “Michael…” she said.
Her friend began to dig, frantically moving aside large handfuls of sand. He almost buried Melissa in the process. “Sorry!” he said, but he didn’t stop. “Anyone hear me?” he called. Melissa flew a little ways over and also began to search through the sand, her progress nowhere near as fast as the Risso’s, but determination equal.
“Hello?” she called, as well. But they received the same amount of attention.
Michael gritted his teeth. “No, don’t do this!” He shook his head. “There’s gotta be someone! Please!” By now he could see some of the factory wall, warped metal, crumbled brick, and what was unmistakably someone’s foot. He focused more attention on that one. “Melissa! Someone’s here!” She didn’t respond right away. “Melissa!” The electric dragon was unearthed soon enough.
“Hey, you alright?” he asked the dragoness. Unfortunately, she didn’t respond. Michael tried to help her up, but the dragoness moved limply, with no force behind her actions. Startled and afraid, Michael jumped back.
The Pegasus flew over to the electric dragon and checked for a pulse, a sign of breathing, anything. She looked up at her friend and shook her head, eyes glistening with tears. “She’s…dead…”
The ground shook when Michael collapsed, Melissa having to jump and stay airborne so she wouldn’t lose her balance. Head in his hands, the giant began to cry. “Why...?” he whispered. “It never happened before…damn it!” His friend reached up and put a hand on his leg.
“There might be survivors, Michael. Maybe she wasn’t in a good spot.” Michael moved his leg out of her reach.
“No…I did this…I killed her!”
Melissa frowned. “Michael!” she snapped. “It was an accident. Now help me look for some more people, okay?”
Michael reluctantly began searching again, not wanting to find another body. He heard a sound in the distance. “Huh?” His question was answered soon. In a matter of minutes, rescue workers were at the scene, an elderly Poseidon’s monster named Brett McGan (according to his name-plate) leading them.
“Okay, people, you know what to do!” he shouted. He strode toward the giant. “You! What happened here?” he demanded. His voice wasn’t accusatory, but at the same time, it wasn’t the nicest tone on Little Island.
“I-uh…there was an accident! The hill over there collapsed, and…” he thought anyone could figure out what he was saying.
“A landslide, eh?” He eyed Michael with suspicion. “It’s been wet, but not that much.” The sun had set, only a faint glow left, and the rescue workers had flooded the area with light so they could continue their search. It was by this light that Michael saw the frown playing across the older one’s features.
“Excuse me, sir,” said Melissa. “Can I talk with you for a minute?” She grabbed him by the arm and began to walk away from the factory. They didn’t go far, though; McGan needed to stay close to his workers, after all. “I’m Melissa, by the way.”
“Hello, Melissa,” he said. “What was it you wanted to tell me?” he asked. He tipped the hat on his head back a little bit—out of habit, Melissa assumed. It certainly wasn’t accomplishing anything.
“Well, for starters, Michael found a body. He and I are afraid there might be more,” she explained. “I think it scared him. Hell, it’d scare me, too.”
McGan nodded. “Right…I know the feeling. But when you’ve been doing this as long as I have…” he reached in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, not lighting it but sucking on it nonetheless. “Don’t ask,” he said, biting down on the stick. “Anyway, yeah, it can be tough the first time. But tell me, what happened?” He started to walk back.
“Hey, where are you going?” Melissa asked him.
He shrugged. “Well, now that you’ve gotten the embarrassing stuff out of the way, your friend over there can hear the rest, right?” He faced the destruction. “So, what happened?”
“Why don’t you ask Michael?” she asked.
“I did, remember? I didn’t like his answer, so I want to hear it from someone else.” He crossed his arms. “What happened?”
“Well, we—” She hesitated and bit her lip. If he was doing what she thought he was doing… She sighed, trying to find a way to keep her friend out of trouble. “Like he said, it was an accident.”
“Accidents don’t cause landslides, Melissa,” he replied. “I’m going to have to report this anyway, but…”
“It wasn’t his fault!” she objected. McGan was about to speak, but she cut him off. “I know that’s what you’re trying to say.”
“Don’t make it worse for you, now,” he cautioned. By this time they were back on-site. “Find anyone?” he asked to anyone who would answer.
“So far, we’ve got three dead and one
seriously injured,” one of them reported. Melissa couldn’t identify him,
though. It might have come from the
McGan nodded and tipped his hat again. “I see. Keep looking!” To Melissa, he said, “This is going to take days to clean out. Oh, and don’t go anywhere. The police should be here soon.” He scowled. “Actually they should have already been here…incompetent bastards.”
Michael tried to help the workers clear out
the sand and debris, but by the fifth reprimand, he realized he wasn’t wanted.
Sulking, he walked away and sat facing the hill, back to the factory. “I just
want to help…” he said to no one. “Dad…Mom…what can I do?” Even though he
didn’t live with his parents (for obvious reasons), he shared the same bond
that any other child had with his or her own parents. And he knew that Henry
and Sandra Chapman had only adopted him; but what difference did that make? None. He remembered the times he had looked across the water
to the other island. “Do I even belong here?” But I can’t go there...