The entire world was shifting around her; that's what Jane felt before she could open her eyes. The grogginess and lightheadedness was a familiar tune. It felt like some powerful sedative affected every nerve in her body, making it harder to process a single thought just to move. When Jane didn't go anywhere, she opened her eyes, adjusting them to the different brightness level of the nearby environment.
As weak as she was, Jane figured things out immediately. Before studying the basement-like area of a place, Jane noticed turning her head that her arms were held up above her head in wall-mounted shackles sealed and locked around her wrists as tightly as possible, bolted on with screws, and her feet barely rested on the cold floor bare and dry. She could barely lift her leg, not that it would matter with her arms pinned to the wall like this. This was defiantly not some random coincidence. Somebody did this to her.
Jane noticed that while her shoes were missing from her body, she was still wearing the same outfit that she chose today. Other than having no belongings to lose, Jane remained a prisoner of her captors. One of those captors was standing arms crossed at the end of the wall, his hood masking his identity.
"She's awake!" he called.
Jane could hear the guy from here, when she realized the full size and area of this underground space. There were at least two different catacomb sections in opposite directions, and the stairs that supposedly head back outside far in the distance were chained shut to prevent Jane from escaping. Jane made out more details of the space, including the long table lit separately with LED strips on the sides to the center of the room. Other than that, the damp musty air with the old fashion light bulbs dangling from the ceiling brought to reminder for Jane that she was in a torture chamber of some kind, but the faint feeling she had remained strong, as did her restraints. Bound tightly to a wall, there was nothing she could do.
The other four members stepped from the corridors to the center of the basement, revealing their presence to the prisoner. "Morning!" The criminal unveiled his white hood, revealing his peach fuzzed face while standing two feet away from Jane. His pleasant sounding greeting didn't put any smile on the girl's face; Jane was naturally scared for her life. "You're Jane Venn."
Who cares about that? "Where are Danny and Taylor? My friends! What did you do with them?!" Jane had no way of knowing if they are alive or dead, but if these guys did anything to harm them...
The man without his hood grabbed Jane's cheeks with one hand, squeezing her face slightly for a closer examination. "Such hype and aggression for someone fully sedated." He then let go of Jane's face and paced around to and from Jane's location. "It doesn't surprise me though."
"Why me? Why are you doing this to me?" Jane saw no other choice than to figure out what was happening, and perhaps bargaining a way out of this situation. If only she could use magic... "You already took every credit I have!"
"My friends will be processing those credits in due time, but you're getting off topic." He stood still a few feet from Jane, staring her in the eyes as he prepared his interrogation. The people behind him were already hiding and holding all of the tools needed for this extraction. "You're probably wondering who we are, but that's not your concern. If you must, you may call me Berita. And don't bother introducing yourself. I already know enough."
It's just an alias. Jane caught on to that much already. Who are these criminals? Wait a minute. They know her? "Me?" That's impossible! The only people who could possibly know Jane by any indirect means are anyone from Sprawn Valley.
"February twelfth, nineteen seventy-two, Eldora Tower champion chambers, recorded live on ProCom news and other station networks. That was some stunt you pulled back there."
Oh shit! They know about the symbol crisis, that day Jane fought Danton in Eldora Tower!
The prisoner made a slightly elevated expression, proving that this is the right target, but Berita didn't change tactics or tone. "I love talking to people who are marked! But just to be sure, my men had to check you out with our compact symbol scanner; top notch equipment. I'm sure it will work better in the next Quad Scanner prototype being developed."
"What do you want?" Jane whined. "Just let me down!"
Berita continued on ignoring Jane's pleas. "Imagine our surprise when the scanner reported you as negative for any and all symbols. It got me thinking... You wouldn't have been allowed into Eldora Tower with an activated mark in the first place. Their symbol scanner isn't mobile, but it is more accurate than any of the gear we pack around. That must mean you were in the business of political persuasion through the use of a simple magic trick."
Jane didn't say any more, but it makes sense that these losers wouldn't know about her hidden symbol. It hides in plain sight beneath her skin, and somehow avoids scanner detection protocols. On top of that, her symbol can't activate at all outside the confines of Sprawn Valley's veil.
"Ha-ha! I'm sure you see the irony with that statement." Berita continued to pace around, giving the illusion that he was having fun so far. "It's gutsy and intelligent. You fake the use of a symbol to scare all of the higher-ups, and then leverage them in exchange for their lives. Isn't that what you did?" Jane remained totally silent, unwilling to risk as much as a simple bluff, but Berita didn't fret already having the information he needed. "There's just one problem with that whole set-up."
"Magic tricks too complicated for you?" Jane wanted Berita to inch closer, just so she could spit in his face. "Go on! Show everyone here how powerful you are. Just one spell..."
If this is Jane's way of joking around or bargaining for some respect, it has to be the worst of any Berita has ever seen in any of his previous prisoners. "There is nobody in this room who can demonstrate real magic outside of the veil, unless you were asking me to let you pick a card from my deck. But you have forgotten your place already. Agent Grey Nine?"
One of the cloaked strangers crept up to the side of Berita holding a long black case, opening the case to reveal a thick and black cable. Berita held it in his right hand; showing Jane that this cable is really a powerful human torture device, a whip made of thick material. Jane soon began making silent expressions of terror and regret while squirming her arms, something that made Berita grin while he tensed the muscles in his right arm. "I'll make this fun and simple for you Jane!" Berita hollered through his actions, whipping the cable to send the sharp end straight into Jane's stomach, while he wound it backwards to sling it forward again from another angle. Berita continued to whip Jane several times, creating large red cut marks on her face, arms, and a solid bruise line just below her chest, where the cable ripped through the front of her shirt. When he heard Jane crying out in agony and fear, Berita took a small break with the whip, to let this pain sink in longer.
"One of our spies caught you involving yourself in a battalion, the same military raid that was sent into Alpha Zero the same night to wipe out the foreign magical source. Surely those army heads must have learned that you were faking your symbol during that operation. That would be anyone's guess, since all eyes would be on you to see what you are really made of... But instead," Berita deduced, "they involved the mage council, and had the charges of your illegal marking dropped indefinitely by executive order of the champion."
Jane felt the stings everywhere as they lingered long after the cable left her skin. Her legs became wobbly with the trembling all the way up to her hands. At the same time, she desperately tried to build the story from everything these people were saying. It wasn't a fluke. Berita just said our spies while mentioning the sighting of Jane in Sprawn Valley. That can only mean one possible thing. The only criminal organization in Sprawn Valley around that time trying to stay out of sight, the only organization that would even require spies for any operation are the same ones Danton is after right now. These aren't random criminals Danny managed to find by accident. These are legit members of the official Sprawn Valley Scarlet Syndicate, more popularly known as the Scarlet Cult.
"If you were faking your powers by any means, surely those specific charges would have been pressed, and you would have paid a price, but they were dropped instead, something that has surprised the entire population of Sprawn Valley, us included. There is only one reason why anyone would ever do that for you, the only reason that Danton would ever let a danger like you continue." Berita held the whip up to Jane's neck in a threatening manner, his teeth nearly clenched to demonstrate how serious his threat is. "You are actually marked, marked in a way that shows as negative on our scanners, marked in a way that hides from every inch of your naked body."
They must know after all. Damn this! The Scarlet Cult know about her mark, and her involvement with Danton. If that weren't bad enough, they're gross, vile people. Jane never felt so violated.
"And with this special marking, you're actually making a deal to help Danton out with his campaigns and operations. That's why he must have cleared you. Then you made the mistake to travel here to America of all places, where any and all hope of ever using magic from any signet or crest would be completely disabled. Ring any bells to ya?"
Jane waited, waited, and waited some more, counting her breath every time. Berita was suddenly glancing behind him, where the other Scarlet members shrugged their shoulders.
"No? Well let's see if we can jog that loose memory of yours."
"No! Wait!" Jane was too late to stop Berita from continuing the torture from before, and she was again smacked around with the heavy whip, crying out from the pain and bleeding out from most of each strike.
Berita continued his whips from a distance, yelling out his demands to Jane over the sound of the cracking skin. "You're going to tell me what I want to know about invisible symbols! And you're going to show me, how to use them, for myself!"
"Stoooop!" With tears in her eyes, every spot on Jane's body stung with sensations worse than anything she had ever felt before, worse than any pain she experienced in Alpha Zero. Her heartfelt beg to be spared however was empty three seconds later in silence. Jane literally wouldn't be able to disclose the information to them. This symbol is the creation of the Scarlet Cult! Shouldn't they know how it works?!
"Hm. That's not what I wanted to hear," Berita warned. None of the others seemed to be bothered by this. That's good, since Agent Grey Seven is a medic for the team. If she isn't warning him about Jane's potential loss of life, it must be too early to put the toys away. "Very well." Berita slung the whip around again several more times, causing Jane to scream and cry in terror. Berita took two-minute breaks in between intervals to make sure she suffered over a longer duration, but after eight minutes, Jane was beginning to lose consciousness, after not giving up any information.
Berita sent Jane several more whips. Her vision blurred before her thoughts became foggy. The sound of ringing ears overcast everything else around her, until Jane finally relaxed all of her muscles. That's when everything went dark.
Berita had to stop when he realized that Jane finally fell unconscious. She must have fainted from the pain, but she'll wake up again to continue the fun. "Looks like our princess needs a nap." Berita was about to retire the whip and resign for the hour, but Jane's body suddenly twitched in front of him... "Or is our friend simply pretending to sleep?" Berita felt uncertain. The twitch could have been natural, but it wasn't likely. Instead of having the luxury to wait and find out, Berita was suddenly bombarded by the ear piercing sound of Jane's top-level scream, a breath she exhaled for over six seconds.
Chapter Theme Shift:
Stolen story; please report.
Berita tensed in confusion. How could she be in that much pain right now? That scream makes it sound like Jane could possibly experience something far worse than the cable. Suddenly, Berita stood stone still in shock when Jane opened her eyes and opened the palms to both of her hands. Obviously, she was faking being unconscious... But that's not what was scary. It's her eyes!
"No way. I'm stopping this now!" Unwilling to believe this was anything above an impressive magic trick, Berita slammed the cable whip one more time towards Jane, but even as it made contact, that didn't seem to change whatever was happening to the girl. Jane's hair was slightly blowing up from a breeze, which came from nowhere. The corneas of her eyes were glowing with a blue radiance, and there was also a slight glow growing in brightness from one of her arms. This has to be impossible. Jane must be a talented deceptionist, because this isn't possible!
"What's happening?!" "I don't know!" "Somebody inject her!"
Berita could hear all of the panicked voices of his colleges behind him, but all he could do was stop and stare at this most surprising sight before him. This isn't some pretty fake of a deceptionist. Though this also isn't possible, Jane Venn is exerting live magical energy right here in front of everyone! No matter how talented, none can't fake that.
While Jane continued to yell and holler in place, Berita noticed a change in light intensity on Jane's right hand, the top of her wrist. Though it was partially blocked in view by the angle with her arms up in the meat seals, Berita was clearly capable of distinguishing the glowing matrix of a magical symbol; a mark that suddenly began to appear and brighten. Its holographic texture became bright and less transparent, with Jane's eyes finally returning to their normal color... "Agent Grey Two! The scanner! Now!"
The sudden bursts of wind spread throughout the entire basement while the other Scarlet members rushed around to assemble all sorts of protocol plans, but Berita was growing evermore impatient. If Jane's eyes stopped glowing while that symbol is still active, it only means her energy is done charging into her unknown magical crest. While waiting on his trusted agent to use the long-range portable scanner on Jane, he soon was fed the report. "Scanner shows negative! This has to be something else!"
"Yoooou!" Jane scowled with her view fixed on Berita, her voice distorted by an unknown factor. "You wish to destroy Leray magic! Let's see if you can dominate its power first!"
There was something oddly demanding and unsettling by how Jane was talking, as if she wasn't her ordinary self. "Where's that injection?!" Berita didn't want to wait anymore, and his concerns were soon validated by Jane's next actions. Like something he'd only seen out of a super-hero movie, Jane shifted her arms forward, trying to rip through the metal cuffs holding her wrists back. Her attempt failed the first time, but her strength easily shook the entire foundation, putting cracks in the stone wall where the bolts were drilled into. Jane shoved her arms forward again, throwing a screw out from the holding device, and cutting slightly into her skin in the process. It's like she's become some other kind of beast! That symbol on her hand, it's still active, rotating in place like some type of support glyphring.
Berita turned around to find out why nobody was helping, and it's because the clumsy idiot dropped the glass syringe, only to step on and smash the material into the floor. Suddenly, Jane broke free of all her metal shackles, both of them at the same time. Berita's heart sank, while the whip simply dropped out of his hand to the floor. In a panic, he slowly crept backwards one step at a time, unable to comprehend how any of this is possible. His own prisoner is using magic without a veil, without a source! And now she looks really pissed off.
Jane held out her arm to aim and channel this energy through the open palm of her hand. Without ever needing to create a glyphring for magic, Jane unleashed amounts of her energy through her hand, shooting a fast comet shaped sphere of energy straight into Berita's chest. With a single hit, Berita was blasted backwards by a few feet, and fell unconscious immediately. Suddenly, every person in the general area froze in fear. With only a short pause, Jane unleashed another surge of energy, this time sending an invisible shockwave that blew back every person in the room, including the table, which became unhinged from the ground, shattered into several pieces, and impaled some of the hooded criminals in one telekinetic push.
One of the members, who wasn't affected dashed up the stairs and got the locks opened, leading straight to the outside area behind the building, level to the earth. Jane blasted that direction again, and from this distance sent the man flying far above the ground before he could leave the stairway. The kinetic push was powerful enough to bust out both hinged doors from the cellar and up in the air along with the person Jane targeted. Then another Scarlet member jumped up from the rubble besides Jane, trying to recover and find some way to detain her, but Jane simply blasted another comet-shaped bolt of energy with a sharp blue colored energy matrix straight into the woman's neck, sending her down to the ground. Her target became unconscious immediately, and Jane walked up the stairs with her right hand aimed out all the way the entire time.
Her footsteps were even and unchanged, and her aim using her arm was stiff in context. As Jane exited from the bottom reaches of the basement of an unmarked building of territory, she found herself in a small area with a poorly maintained wooden fence, and a section going out into an alleyway. As Jane shifted her direction towards the cement, two Scarlet members suddenly turned around that corner, holding knives and machetes.
"How did she escape?!"
Jane's symbol remained active while she aimed and channeled more energy through to the two soldiers in front of her. Jane simply shot two more energy bolts at her targets, bringing them down to the ground. This time however, they didn't completely lose consciousness, but as Jane continued to walk towards them slow and steady, she added an additional telekinetic blast wave in their direction, which sent them flying high into the air until they slammed their backs into the side of an adjacent structure, falling to the floor with no intention of ever getting back up.
Several minutes went by after Danny managed to wake Taylor and himself from that horrible attack he faced earlier. He and Taylor had their backs resting against old trash bins in an empty alleyway, but he focused on bringing Taylor back up to health and speed. All of his wounds and Taylor's were both non-fatal despite the bleeding, but they were painful in plenty of ways. Danny vouched to continue the search for Jane, but he had to carry Taylor's injured leg for the first ten minutes through.
After twenty minutes had gone by, Taylor was barely able to walk for herself. However, their search for Jane never found anything. Danny located the same area he remembered before, to where they took Jane, but it wasn't until enough time passed in the dark silence that something began happening near him.
Just past another corner in front of him, Danny and Taylor both heard a manly scream of terror, followed by the amazing sight of someone flying through the air ten feet off the ground, slamming into the back of the other building. This brought Danny and Taylor to attention immediately, both in question for what exactly was happening over that way.
Just as Danny and Taylor got close to the corner however, about a dozen more Scarlet soldiers wearing those cloaks rushed in from the front, two more from the same corner. They seemed to be confused, but the sighting of Danny and Taylor was very threatening. "We found them!"
"And we found you," a Scarlet replied.
Two of the soldiers that came from the other side appeared to be freaked out, giving no attention to Danny or Taylor. "Sir! We have to fallback! The subject is—" A sudden invisible force of wind blasted the two soldiers in the air again, just like it did with the last guy. Their sudden screams of surprise were short lived, when their impact into the wall knocked them out before anything else could be established.
With everyone now alert and spooked, the Scarlet soldiers all drew their weapons, aimed at the corner that Danny and Taylor couldn't see. So they rushed by everyone to see the person they've been looking for. Jane Venn, walking forward in a linear pattern with her arm aimed out and her symbol— "What?!" Danny suddenly freaked over the unexpected appearance of Jane's magical symbol, the fact that it was happening here and now, in the state of America! Not only that, but the look in Jane's eyes was disturbing. Her eyes never once glanced in his direction, nor did her stance change. Danny instinctively grabbed Taylor and shoved her and himself back behind the broken fence.
Upon their evasion, one of the Scarlet soldiers threw a large two-sided pole at Jane, something to bump her on the head. Jane caught it with her left hand, shot another telekinetic blast forward, and gripped the pole with both hands. Her first push only winded some of the enemies in front of her, so Jane used the pole to slash at their group, channeling her own energy through the device to generate an additional magical effect that catapulted three of the hit Scarlet soldiers several meters back to the right, as they all crashed into another pile of empty trash bins.
Danny and Taylor got to see the fight up close from a safer angle behind Jane's position, all while trying to contemplate how it was possible for her to be using magic outside of the veil. Danny also noticed all of the cuts, bruises, and whip scars all over parts of her body where her outfit was torn. They tortured her! No wonder she's upset.
"Ragh!" Jane raged further and further, pummeling every enemy in sight with her bare hands. Jane cycled between using her magic and using her punches to get the job done, but she was soon surrounded, forced to take a few hits herself. "I won't let any of you live!"
Taylor was shivering from the anticipation of this crazy moment, but Jane was still conscious in there; her words proved it so far. "We have to help her!" Taylor felt the sudden tug downwards from her left arm overpower her physical strength as she tried to rush in there and help Jane.
"I don't think so!" Danny forbid. "It's too dangerous for us."
Everyone was suddenly distracted once more by a sudden scream louder than anything they've heard to date, as Jane Venn fell to the floor on her hands and knees. Her eyes began to glow again with a bright blue radiance, while the symbol spinning on her hand grew in intensity. The magical build up inside her body simply multiplied, but it became very painful for Jane to keep it up.
Danny noticed sudden behavior changes in Jane, who was currently hinged to the ground like something horrible managed to get the best of her. Even from here, Danny could see the obvious increase of her magical energy through the glow on her hand and in her eyes. Jane stood back up like nothing happened, but she also didn't react to anything or fight back against the scared soldiers around her.
Danny was about to get in there himself since Jane wasn't responding anymore, when she suddenly woke back up, blasting everyone around her with a series of blue energy spheres mixed with telekinetic pushes that powerfully sent the criminals on their way in flight. The sight Jane was performing now was absolutely amazing, and it allowed Danny to pull Taylor away from the corner of the broken fence.
Jane noticed that all of her attackers were down. She shifted her feet with her head, and held out her arm again. Every body movement she made was completely stiff and binary. When she noticed two more standing further away in the alley section, Jane unleashed her energy.
"Wait a minute!" Danny noticed a moment too late that Jane's behavior changed radically. Jane was aiming that deadly weapon at himself and Taylor, as she fired another kinetic push of energy towards them indiscriminately. Danny and Taylor were thrown off their feet and thrown back into the cement of the floor, rolling back while trying to recover.
Taylor pulled herself back up, ignoring her injuries to learn why Jane would attack herself or Danny. Jane continued to walk in a straight line forward towards them, when suddenly a Scarlet soldier from behind tried to whack her in the head from behind. Jane however shifted around and blasted the soldier with a bolt of blue energy, causing him to fall to the ground. The soldier was either dead or unconscious; Taylor couldn't tell from this angle, but Jane turned around again, taking her aim back to Taylor and Danny.
Danny crawled backwards from Jane, who was approaching quickly for someone who wasn't in a hurry to blast himself or Taylor to death. What's wrong with her? Is she not in control anymore? "Taylor! I don't think Jane is conscious of what she's doing!"
"She was a minute ago!" Taylor and Danny were suddenly blasted backwards again by Jane's telekinetic blast, as they were shoved into a brick wall at the end of their flight. The smack to them both was painful and debilitating. If that weren't enough, Jane was still walking in the same direction, ready to blast anything that moved.
Luckily, another conscious Scarlet member jumped and tackled Jane from the side before she could get any closer. From here, Danny could make out Jane kicking the Scarlet member, only to blast him away as she did before. This time the soldier was sent flying over the wooden fence and long out of sight. Jane then turned again to take aim at him again. She really can't control herself! Jane isn't conscious right now! And now she has the power to kill anyone at range with a single bolt of magic. "Jane..."
Just as Jane was ready to blast her target another time, a sharp painful sensation sent her to the ground in agony, while her symbol flickered in and out of phase. The pain was everywhere, even in her head in the form of a migraine like none other. Jane could only think about her current objective; stopping everyone nearby. No other thought managed to get through. In her frustrating struggle to make this work, her symbol was suddenly failing, bringing her ability to sense anything down with her. Once the symbol finally faded away completely, the magical circuitry in her hands changed entirely.
Chapter Theme Shift:
Danny and Taylor took their time to get back up, prepared to help Jane escaper from the frenzy she was caught up in. Instead of finding themselves in any danger, they saw Jane on the ground struggling to remain conscious, while both the insides of her hands were arcing with magical electricity. It looked like an electrical effect, only isolated to both her hands, and it effectively stopped Jane from shooting any more energy blasts from either hand she aimed through. Even now, Jane was attempting to use magic against Danny and Taylor, but she couldn't fire anything off.
Danny also remembered something in this moment, that electrical sparking in Jane's hands; it's so similar to the same sight he and Taylor witness before shortly after Jane was initially marked to begin with, when she felt sick from an over-draw of MP energy. That must mean Jane is overexerting all of her power right now, or she's completely run out of it. Either way, it didn't matter a moment later, when Jane suddenly collapsed on the floor, this time completely unconscious. Danny crawled over to Jane quickly for help.
"Jane!" Taylor went in front of Danny despite tumbling over her injured leg. The sparking in Jane's hands only died down slightly since she went down; it wasn't stopping just because she passed out. Taylor held her hand to Jane's neck, confirming that there was still a pulse and plenty of breaths, but if Jane is down, any other surprise could finish all of them.
Danny caught up with Taylor, and realized how dire the situation was. They needed a ticket out of here; but without a cellphone, that isn't going to happen. "I'll search the goons for Jane's belongings. Take Jane and run if something happens."
"Don't you dare get captured by them!" Taylor's command was firm, and Danny nodded to approval. This just left Taylor to watch over Jane, who collapsed without any way to revive her immediately. When Nyar finds out what happens, he is going to be livid, but that doesn't matter right now. "Jane. How in the world did you pull that off?" The way Jane was blasting random energy at people was unforgetful as it played back in Taylor's mind. Jane didn't use a single official Leray command when attacking, but she also couldn't seem to tell her and Danny apart from the rest of them.
All of these marks on her body, still fresh with sealed blood... They tortured Jane nearly to death! And over what? What the hell did these guys want with her? All of this skin damage stood out without the view of Jane's symbol. When Taylor tried to touch one of Jane's hands, the electrical arcs zapped her fingers with about as much power as static electricity. It hurt just enough to dissuade Taylor from messing with them.
In another moment, Danny arrived back to the spot where Taylor and Jane was left; they were still there. Holding a borrowed cellphone in one hand, and Jane's license card in the other, he reassured Taylor that everything would be okay. "I've got Nyar on his way, but we should move ourselves and Jane closer to the open roads in the meantime." Danny felt lucky to have found this stuff on one of the random bodies that Jane left behind. Unfortunately, this also allowed Danny to check the life status on everybody he searched. Several of those criminals were simply unconscious, in a dead sleep, but two of them didn't have any breath or other life signs. That symbol actually killed some of those men. What did Jane do a minute ago? How?
"Help me move her."
Danny knelt down to help lift Jane, noticing immediately how badly injured she was from the face down. Expediting his pace, Danny managed to hold Jane in his arms, which was easier than letting Taylor try it with her injured leg. She was still limping slightly as she moved. Danny thus took the lead and headed for the path leading to the open road, praying not to run into any more of those hooded freaks. "We'll get with Nyar and get the help we need." Just then, Jane's hands returned to normal conditions, but it didn't stop or slow Danny down. It doesn't matter if Jane is awake or not. Getting back home is paramount.
"We're never gonna live this down."
Now Taylor is worried too. "Taylor," Danny called. "I'm sorry for all of this. I shouldn't have—"
"Apologize later! Right now we need to get out of here." Taylor almost had to push on Danny's back to get him focused on escaping again. Currently, there was nobody else trailing them, but that could change at any moment, and it's still so dark. At least there is light near the road. This is New York after all; they've always got running streetlights.
Danny kept his steady pace, ignoring any fatigue he felt from earlier. During his haul, he squinted his eyes shut halfway, and whispered quietly to the sky above him. "Thanks for keeping us all alive. We're all alive. We're alive. Please keep us alive longer."