The Earth After Rebirth

Now that Jin was faced with a possible death, he wanted to live. He\'d been reminded of his family and he wanted to do anything to reach them, he could spend his entire life making amends for the souls he\'d took.

He had shame before of how he could go back with all the blood on his hands but his son somehow got through to him, not with words but the goals he was working towards to achieve a better world for everyone in their society.

The roof started collapsing as they sprinted on, at first it was small stones but they got bigger by the minute. The tunnels seemed to be getting longer they farther they ran, the dust and ruble was right on their tails. Discover exclusive tales on мѵʟ

"Come Ishaan, this is nothing." Kiro was right behind him, he was slowing down by the second and he tried to encourage him.

Ishaan was simply tired, fighting and now being forced to run all the way out was wearing him down. He felt a very sharp pain coursing through his chest, he kept blinking more than usual. He thought if he didn\'t, he may just pass out.

As much as he trained, his body was still adjusting to its new weight and height, he had never stretched it to these kinds of limits before and it showed.

"Don\'t make me come back there and carry you." Felix shouted from the front, the noise surrounding them wasn\'t enough to completely keep them from hearing their voices.

It wasn\'t rare to see the two of them at odds with each other, so Ishaan did what he always did, tried to prove Felix wrong whenever he said something against him. He ran faster than he had been, desperately trying to pass him.

Kiro smiled at their little rivalry, in his past life he didn\'t have people like them. Friends who would push you to do better, so for a moment, he appreciated them just a little more.

Their escape wasn\'t entirely uneventful, they had to dodge some big rocks, as even the tunnels were starting to collapse. There were some that couldn\'t be dodged, so nobody was getting out unscathed.

The falling roof started catching up to them rather fast. At a close distance they could see their hope at last, reaching it they leapt out as the whole thing collapsed behind them.

Breathing heavily on the ground they noticed all the kids they rescued waiting for their saviours, they looked bony, even though they were no longer imprisoned, their eyes were very dead. They didn\'t look at all like people who\'d just been rescued, it was as though it made no difference to them.

"Did everyone make it out okay?" James cried from the ground, he was exhausted aswell, he\'d been just a cook until recently so he was relatively unfit.

It wasn\'t long after James had said that, they heard an earpiercing scream, accompanied by yells.

"Dad!!!" Hiro sobbed, desperately shaking his father.

Jin laid between the entrance and the outside, his lower part from the chest completely under the roof of the tunnels. Kiro instinctively ran to his side, seeing him, be knew he was done for.

He coughed, blood splattered from his mouth, he almost choked on it too considering he was lying on his back.

"Dad, please, dad." Hiro pleaded but Kiro knew it was in vain.

"Don\'t cry," he forced himself to say and continued coughing, "I\'m just glad I got to see you one last time."

"If I had been faster, if only I had been faster, you wouldn\'t have needed to push me out, it\'s my fault, dad..." He lowered his head to meet his, his eyes shut, blaming himself to the core.

Jin managed to get his one hand free from small ruble that covered it. He touched Hiro\'s cheek with great difficulty.

"Nonsense, you\'re my son. I should protect you, my last act was a noble one, I\'m happy." He tried to smile but another set of coughs interrupted him.

"Don\'t speak like that! You aren\'t going anywhere, you\'ll be fine, the hospital, yes, the hospital."

Kiro didn\'t know what to say, he simply shook his head. He was almost in tears himself, he couldn\'t hope to imagine what his friend was going through.

"I love you Hiroto, more than you know." He managed a smile this time. "Waynworth kid, I\'m the one who took your grandfather\'s life, I\'m very sorry."

His confession was his last words. Life disappeared completely from his eyes, but he was still smiling. Hiro couldn\'t accept that, he shook him, beating him with his fists hoping that would jolt him awake.

But no matter what he did, no words could come out of Jin\'s mouth. He shrieked like an animal for slaughter, his heart was completely cold and broken.

Kiro on the other hand was still hung up on what Jin said. While it surprised him, he was even more shocked to find that his heart wasn\'t enraged by the confession.

He simply walked closer to Hiro and held him back from damaging his father\'s corpse. It was very difficult separating the two of them, Hiro stopped to look at Kiro for a second.

He could see so much rage in his eyes, he just leaned on him and cried. Kiro embraced him, patting him on the back, telling him he understood his rage without saying anything.

"We can\'t just leave him here." He finally said.

"I know." Kiro continued caressing his back, hoping it helped.

Lil and Zak started removing some of the rocks. They too didn\'t like the sound of just leaving him there, knowing the people that imprisoned them, they could make him the scapegoat.

The others got up to help too, that\'s also when suspicious buses that were usually used by a very few delivery companies showed up to the site.

"Hey, hey, you\'re okay. We\'ll figure this out." He told his friend forcing him to look him in the eye.

Hiro just nodded with a defeated look on his face.