Luke’s eyes darted instinctively to the elementary school’s building, he was met with the dusty sight of heavy concrete slabs, a fallen roof and broken wood all clamped into one place.
’They must be choking, barely holding on.’ Luke thought to himself, worried. There was no sight of heavy machinery or rescuers nearby, it was either they were dead, starting to survive or already safe, without hesitation Luke moved towards the bus in hurried strides.
As he glanced at the various children sitting in the bus, he searched around, and in that instant he knew Selene wasn’t amongst them as her signature silver hair was recognizable anywhere.
Luke, half expecting this outcome, immediately rushed towards the collapsed building. Behind him, the official watched him with a confused expression wondering how he was going to pull the heavy debris within the span of five minutes.
"Aurthur spark." Luke muttered with disgust, his heart racing with restrained rage, he could have at least given a warning, unless there’s something deeper tied to all of this.
The once towering elemental school had now crumbled into a pile of rubble, Luke charged into the entrance. He turned to the right immediately hurrying towards the part of the rubble that was closest to Selene’s class.
As he sprinted further, the air was thick with white chalk dust, reducing visibility to mere meters. Bright plastic chairs, torn textbooks, and colorful backpacks peeked out from under gray concrete slabs. On getting closer to the class, Luke could hear high-pitched, frightened whimpers emerge from deep beneath the rubble.
Meanwhile Selene*
Inside the dark, cramped pocket beneath the collapsed roof of the elementary school, the air was thick with dust, but the atmosphere was split perfectly between terror and pure innocence.
Directly above their heads, a massive concrete slab cracked down the middle, groaning loudly and dropping chunks of plaster every few seconds. Miss Stacy held it up with her bare hands, her arms shaking violently as she strained against the weight.
Five crying children were holding onto the denim of her jacket.
Across from miss stacy, selene and her best friend pippa satcrossed leg under the large oak table, meticulously unbothered about the ongoing chaos.
Selene braided her glistening silver hair that drifted to the side.
"You should have been there pippa, i tried to tell Clara that the cow really knocked on the door. "
"It said moo, but it was a fancy moo, like it wanted some queen tea?!
Selene spoke her expression convincing.
"Don’t be absolutely mental, Selene. Cows don’t drink tea. They haven’t got the thumbs for a teacup." said pippa, brow raised.
Meanwhile Miss Stacy, teeth gritted, muscles snapping, voice strained to the absolute limit, forced a sentence, "Girls... please... keep your... heads down..."
Selene, ignoring the teacher, leaned closer to Pippa "No, listen! It looked right at me. It said, ’Good evening, Selene.’ It had a top hat, Pippa. I swear on my sparkly shoes.
Pippa sighed, completely unimpressed by the looming threat of the ceiling "Well, if it hadn’t a waistcoat, I simply refuse to believe it."
Another loud CRACK echoed from the ceiling. A basketball sized chunk of concrete smashed into the floor right next to them. The other children shrieked. Miss Selene let out a painful sob, her knees buckling slightly under the pressure.
Pippa Looking up, felt slightly annoyed. "I do wish that ceiling would stop making such a dreadful racket. It’s terribly rude while we’re speaking.
"Selene, smiling brightly, completely unfazed. "Don’t worry about it. My big brother Luke is probably outside.
"Is he? Pippa asked, adjusting her glasses. "Can he make it stop?"
Selene nodded confidently "Oh, definitely. Luke is super strong. He opened three pickle jars Clara couldn’t once."
He’s probably going to throw the whole school into the sky so we can go get ice cream. He promised to always come get me after school."
Luke had finally arrived at Selene’s location, class Two B, he could already hear the muffled cries of little children. A smile curved up his lips.
’There are still alive. ’ he thought as he released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
Laid before him was a pile of multi jagged concrete, broken roof top and some school supplies.
His eyes narrowed as he took hold of the nearest crumbled wall, he pulled with all his strength, however the wall did not move an inch. Instead the rubble crumbled piling unto itself.
"Not good."
Luke muttered as he analysed the situation from a new perspective. He realized if he pulled from the sides that would cause the rubble to loosen and crash onto itself; however , trying from above would be more of uprooting it.
And so he approached the top slowly, with the hope of pulling the rocks out. Once on top, he spotted a jagged rocky outcrop jutting out of the rubble.
"arggh. "
He yelled as he pulled with all of his might again, however it was all to no avail as the jugged outcrop didn’t move an inch.
But at that moment, a strange thing occurred, the air around Luke warped, the area around him distorting. He felt his body ache, the boulder he was trying to lift suddenly felt a hundred times lighter than before.
"What’s going on?! "
Luke thought bewildered as he felt his body was being lifted up from the ground slowly. He pulled and with less effort, the jutting outcrop began to move.
Meters away, the official watched Luke toss chunk by chunk calmly. "So the gravity distortions have begun to take place, we must get to safety quickly."
Luke stared down at the wide gap that was once the ceiling of class two B, inside were sobbing children holding onto a teacher that laid one the ground, fingers bleeding, while under two tables were two familiar children, chatting with each other seemingly oblivious of the chaos going on.
Luke smiled, his eyes glinting in hope,
The debris beneath him began moving upwards and Luke knew that was his cue to jump.
The silhouette of Luke slowly descended into the class, some children stopped crying, surprised at the sudden appearance of a figure with glowing white hair.
Luke did not waste time as immediately his feet touched the ground, he immediately punched the slightly crumbled wall at the side. Gravity distortions took effect, the room was immediately illuminated in red scorching light.
Miss stacy was the first to run out, as she didn’t bother thanking Luke for saving her or the children. The children who had stopped crying earlier began crying again, wondering why their teacher had suddenly left them behind.
Luke’s expression turned stern, there was a whole elementary school, lots of children and teachers, and there was space for them, but how was he supposed to get them out?
"Brother Luke?!" Selene’s voice echoed as she peeped from under the table.
"You made it!"