“Nellie, hold on,” Raul began, but she was already gone. “Nellie!”
Max and Yuève followed after her, sprinting out the door. And as other families, diners, and employees gawked at the night, Raul and Tei left the booth as well, “Nellie!”
She circumvented everyone in the parking lot and made her way north, darting from intersection to intersection with her eyes up to the sky. The meteor’s trail was beginning to fade, she was almost to the freeway and there was still no sign of an impact or crater. But then she saw it, a beacon of light, rising into the night like a green sentinel guiding her to an other-worldly scene.
At the freeway off-ramp, a large freight truck had crashed through the barricades and landed in a canal near the port. Onlookers and a handful of parked cars had gathered around the area, unsure if the truck had been on autopilot or if there had been someone inside. Nellie didn't stop to catch her breath. As she parted the crowd she looked towards the cabin and caught sight of a low green luminance fading as the eighteen-wheeler sank further into the dark waters. She reached the canal's bank and dove in without a second thought.
The cold hit her like a brick, followed by the stench of sea salt as she came up for air. The current fought her as well, but Nellie reached the truck in less than a minute and immediately threw the cabin's driver-side door open. Water rushed inside. She found a nest of leafy vines wrapped around the steering wheel and a man with wild overgrown eyebrows strapped onto the seat. He was unconscious and had a soft green glow about him that seemed to be seeping into the individual strands of his close-cropped hair. The meteor was nowhere to be seen. It was all his.
A shiver ran through her. “What now?”
She wasn’t sure why she'd ran after the meteor. Did she really think she’d be able to catch up to it? Did she think she'd be able to help herself to some of its power? Each meteor could only be absorbed by one person, she knew this. But the truck was sinking fast, and now that she was here she had to do something to help.
Nellie caught sight of a long handle behind the driver's seat and pulled out the sharp blade of a small hatchet. Perfect. She allowed herself a long breath, then began hacking at the vines. Water splashed in her face with every blow but the overgrown tendrils proved to be more resilient than they seemed at first, made of pure musae energy. They must’ve appeared in response to the crash, right as the meteor struck.
The onlookers called out to her, telling her not to be reckless but she ignored them as the last of the vines came free. She undid the driver’s seatbelt and pulled with all her might to haul the man out of his seat. But he was too heavy, and she quickly realized that she couldn’t thread water and carry him at the same time.
The chorus of voices behind her began to call her name then and she turned to find Yuè standing at the water’s edge, eyes wide with worry as Raul jumped into the canal to go after the sinking freight truck. Once he reached her, Raul wasted no time with words. They pulled the driver out together and shared his weight as they began the tedious swim back. Nellie couldn't say how much water she swallowed along the way, every stroke drew her to another gasp of air but it didn't seem like they were getting any closer to the edge of the canal. Exhaustion, the tides, and a lack of adrenaline were slowing her down.
“Take my hand!”
Yuève waited above the trio in the water, stretching an arm out with Tei and a group of other bystanders at her side. They hoisted the truck driver up first, followed by Raul, and finally Nellie. With solid ground beneath her, Nellie’s body gave out, taking in huge desperate gulps of air. She didn't even notice as the crowd erupted into cheers or when someone wrapped a blanket around her.
Max appeared moments later, dragging a man in scrubs towards the scene. They knelt down next to the trucker, who's hair was now a brilliant shade of emerald, and tilted his head up to perform CPR. They beat at his chest and fed him air until a slew of water surged from his lungs. The medic let out a breath, wiping his brow once the trucker was breathing again, and addressed the crowd around them, “He'll live, but he shouldn't have been on the road this late. The meteors will knock you out for about an hour or so as the body adapts to their musae energies. You all need to get home now, I'll stay here with him.”
Nellie sighed, relieved, and felt a tremendous weight fall off her shoulders.
“Are you okay?” Raul asked, helping her to her feet after the bystanders had all shared their gratitude and praise for the freckled girl's bravery.
“Yeah,” Nellie's voice was blurry with fatigue. She pulled the blanket tight around her arms, shivering down to her bones. “But getting soaked like this wasn't in my plans for the night.”
“We should all jump in!” Tei suggested, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a runner waiting for the countdown to set him free.
“Hold on.” Yuève grabbed the back of his sweater. “I'm not helping anyone else out of there.”
Max had gone on his phone to tell Arashi where they were, but got distracted as his friends from school bombarded him with messages and video links of Meteora’s arrival. “Guys, we're all over social media,” he cried, “Check it out!”
He flashed the device for the others to see and pulled up a series of recordings, all from different angles, of Nellie with the axe and the truck in the canal and of the Sorairos helping the driver onto dry land. Seeing the reactions, Yuè's eyes shone brighter than the reflection of the phone on Max's glasses.
“No way…” She gasped, and a devilish grin spread across her roster. “Tei come here, I'll push you in after all.”
The Tennkā child yelped, and it seemed as if everyone but Nellie burst out in laughter. And as Tei ran into his arms, Raul said, “Mom will grab the hatchet herself if she sees you doing that.”
Rolling her eyes, Yuève waved him off and continued pestering her youngest sibling. Nellie however, couldn't get the trucker out of her mind. For so long now, she had dreamed of a world with all kinds of musae, she had survived all of the worst moments and all of her dark thoughts by imagining a life with supernatural powers around her. But now, as she looked upon the trucker she didn't get the feeling she'd always thought she'd get from the night of Meteora. Her stomach knotted, staring at him, jealousy coursing through her at the mere fact that he'd become this generation's first meteor-born muse. The envy ran so deep that she couldn't even feel it as her nails dug into her fists. Would the Instruments still be her escape?
The trucker gave a rough, hearty cough that jolted the medic to attention, but the unconscious man's breath quickly settled back into a steady rhythm. Nellie sighed and uncurled her fists. There were going to be other musae. An estimated ten percent of the population would end up with powers before Meteora disappeared in twenty-four hours. There was no point in holding on to such toxic sentiments. With one last look at the earth musae on the ground, she left him with the words Andrew Erra had shared all those years ago. You're a guardian of nature now, a responsibility unlike any other. Have heart for yourself and those around you.
Headlights flooded the scene then. Arashi had found them and was driving her silver pickup right up to the edge of the canal. The Sorairos turned in her direction as the Tennkā woman stepped out of her seat and surveyed her children. Panic flashed in her eyes when she caught sight of Raul and Nellie drenched and wrapped in blankets but when she saw the eighteen-wheeler in the water and its driver resting beside a medic, the nerves cleared from her expression. She met Nellie’s gaze with a fierce pride behind her smile and gave the freckled girl a nod of approval.
And then, it began.
The sky cracked with a burst of light unlike anything they’d seen before. Azures, magentas, tungstens, lilacs, and viridians shone in the atmosphere, streaks of their luminance appearing and disappearing as fast as they'd come. They weren’t anything significant at first, and if one were to blink they would miss them. But a moment later the lights had already spread across the sky, flowing north to south, concentrated into a single stream and forming a shimmering veil that slowly emerged over the Thalatchee mountains. Meteora had blanketed The Pharum and was beginning its slow crawl east over the rest of the planet. Nellie and her friends cheered in delight as a blue streak hurtled high above them and landed somewhere far within the city with a resounding Boom!
“Wow…” Tei gaped, dazzled by the sight.
Yuève could hardly contain her excitement as the downpour neared, “Here it comes!”
“The aurora…” said Raul with an intake of breath. He had stopped in his tracks, trying his best to commit the plethora of colors to memory. “It's endless.”
“Stretches from pole to pole,” replied Max, satisfied that the accounts of the once in a lifetime event had all proven true.
Nellie, mesmerized like all the rest, noticed a small ring-sized planet behind the Meteora and all its streaking meteorites when something within her clicked. “We can’t stay here,” she said, “We need to be higher.”
Arashi agreed. “Do you trust me?” She asked.
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