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“Yea, I get that Wilbur. But I’m nowhere near the house right now. So you’re gonna have to deal with it for like, five minutes.”
Tommy held his cell phone close to his ear. The thing had remained there so long on a call, that it was starting to warm up the side of his face. With one arm occupying a heavy bag of groceries, and the other holding up the phone, Tommy was promptly distracted from the crowd of people around him. He could only throw a soft apology every time the bag knocked against someone.
“ Are you at least almost done with the groceries?” Wilbur begged from the phone, stress lacing his voice, “ Dad’s getting restless without his beer.”
Tommy sneered at the statement. He could hear the bottles of beer clink together inside of the bag he was holding. He doesn’t understand why the man couldn’t have brought his own. Sure, he was the guest, but he was also the adult .
Tommy had tried to voice that to his brother, but he just admonished him, and told him that if they can make the man as happy as possible, the weekend would be less miserable for everybody.
“Yea, I have about everything. I just need to get out of here. The crowds are fuckin’ crazy,” He commented, thought said crowds were lessening up now.
That was odd. Wasn’t there a lot more people around himt the last time he checked?
That, and the mall was always busy at this time of day. With four floors of clothes and food stores, it was the perfect draw for the entire eastern district of the city. Hell, even all over. It wasn’t uncommon for people to visit this place just for the size of it. Even though it made locals like Tommy- who just wanted to get their groceries from the small store on the first floor- exasperated at best.
Someone else was talking to Wilbur through the phone. Tommy could tell by the monotone mumbling, and the vague replies that Wilbur gave before returning his attention to the line.
“ Tommy, if you don’t get here this instant, I’m gonna kick your ass!”
Tommy knew that his brother would never, especially with the past the two of them had. But he also couldn’t help but chuckle at Wilbur’s horrible social skills.
“Alright, isn’t there a tin of biscuits in the fridge that we never used?” He asked, “Cook those up so they’re ready by the time I get there.”
“ Are you sure those things aren’t expired?”
“I dunno. Does it matter?”
Maybe, if their parents got food poisoning, they would leave sooner.
“ Alright,” Wilbur started mumbling to himself as he sorted through the fridge. The thing wasn’t the cleanest in the world. Usually they would just stuff food in there, and leave the important stuff at the front.
The lull in conversation allowed Tommy to finally tune back into his surroundings.
He stopped in his tracks.
No one was around him.
Which. . .wasn’t horrible in theory. But he was in the middle of the city, at one of their most popular destination points. And there was no other breathing soul around him. It was like every person in the crowd he just saw poofed into thin air.
It would have been dead quiet too, if it weren’t for an odd rumbling sound somewhere in the distance. Crashing every now and then to accompany it.
“What the fuck?” He murmured more to himself than to anyone else. He gripped the plastic grocery bag closer to him as he inspected every inch of what lay in front of him. Nothing seemed inherently off. Maybe the walls were vibrating a little? But earthquakes weren’t that uncommon.
“ What’s going on?” Wilbur asked through the phone, not sounding panicked just yet, but Tommy knew just how much of a worrywart he could be.
“I don’t know,” Tommy replied. He did not know what was going on, but if everyone else was evacuating, then it wasn’t a bad idea for him to do so as well. Now, he wasn’t a coward , but he was smart . And staying here any longer did not sound like a smart idea.
Taking that as an answer enough, Wilbur continued to talk as Tommy walked down the mall.
“ I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t find any biscuits anywhere. ”
“Shit, did we eat them?”
“ I don’t remember. But they’re not here now. Is there any way you could run back real quick and grab some?”
Tommy groaned, long and drawn out.
“Dude, it’s literally so-”
Suddenly, there was a cracking noise above him. It was loud, echoing across the entire floor. This time, Tommy dropped the grocery bag. Something inside of it cracked.
Finally, Tommy could see another person. They were far away, and hard to gauge, but they were there.
Something was off, though.
They were looking at something Tommy couldn’t see. And they were running towards him. As far as he knew, there were no exits Tommy’s way. They were only going to get themselves trapped if they kept going in this direction.
As they got closer and closer, Tommy could make out their outfit. Red with a mix of white. It was odd, not like someone would wear on a normal day.
A normal person also wouldn’t be shooting fire from their hands, and-
Oh.
Oh-
“Oh fuck!”
“ Tommy?”
“Will, there’s a Super fight!” he gasped, watching as the battle got closer and closer to where he stood.
“ What?!”
Living in the city and Super fights went hand in hand. If you lived here, you were bound to experience one eventually. Yet, no matter how many times he had been prepared for one, he never actually thought it would happen.
The fights- usually between a handful of heroes and villains- were flashy, grandiose, and most of all, destructive. Even if those participating in the fight didn’t realize it, the citizens did. Every time a powered foe went head to head, homes, schools, cars, structures of all sorts were bound to be destroyed.
It was pretty easy to tell who was a part of this one.
The Dream Team : a hero group of three that, though golden hearted, were reckless, and only really defended the central part of the city- where all of the wealthy people lived. It was surprising to see them this far east.
Which could only mean one thing.
The Brothers of the Emerald were here.
A duo of unstoppable villains. Bloodthirsty, merciless, spiteful. No kid could go to bed at night without fears of the Angel of Death and the Blood God.
If the five of them were fighting, Tommy had to get out of here now.
Or, he would have, if something had not crashed into him from behind.
Tommy’s entire body fell forward, slamming against the shiny tile. His phone flew out of his hand and skidded across the ground, the voice of Wilbur going with it.
He only spared a single look behind him, seeing a flash of yellow hair before reasoning that it was a person that crashed into him, before turning back and crawling towards his phone, one hand reaching out.
The cracking noise above him had at some point delved into a metal screeching that wouldn’t stop, like the entire building was having a hard time holding itself up.
By the time the squealing support beams couldn’t take it anymore, Tommy had finally gotten his hand on his phone, grasping desperately onto this end.
“Will-”
With one final crack, louder than anything he had ever heard before, the entire building screamed, and collapsed in on itself, starting with the middle and moving outwards. Tommy barely had time to realize that the ceiling was moving down on him before everything went terribly black.
The phone call ended with a crunch .
◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈
It was hard to gauge pretty much anything around him, but Tommy was sure that his body let out a groan before he woke up. His own throat was vibrating with pain as his eyes peeled open. The act in and of itself was difficult.
And did nothing to help his situation whatsoever.
He couldn’t see anything. Either that, or it was pitch black around him. Not a single sliver of light allowed itself to be seen from wherever he found himself.
Where was he exactly?
He tried to stand up, to see if maybe he could find a light switch to fight this darkness, but he immediately found that to be a bad idea.
He screeched as pain flooded through his abdomen as the very movement.
Something was pinning him down, digging into his back.
So, he would have to assess the situation from where he was laying.
After a moment, this is what he knew.
His left arm was pinned underneath his chest. It didn’t seem broken, but certainly wasn’t unharmed either. Some tendon in his shoulder burned. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t free the arm.
Something was pinning his back down, some type of rubble or debris. From the stiffness, it felt like a pole that was digging dangerously close to his spine.
Which leads to his most worrisome discovery. He couldn’t feel his legs.
Which, in theory, should be a good thing. In a situation like this, it would be great that his legs weren’t injured or in pain. But with all the rubble crushing him, he should be feeling something. He couldn’t even move them.
He was stuck in his uncomfortable position with no way to escape. His face was smushed against the ground, which feels like tile, but a thick layer of dust makes it hard to say for certain. With every breath, more dirt flew up into his nose.
The building had collapsed.
And he was on the first floor.
“Help!” He yelled. No one would be able to hear him. Even if the search and rescue team had already made it, there were piles and piles of rubble above him, “Help! Someone help, please!”
The only response he got was another groan from the building, as the rubble settled. The act alone caused another set of crippling pain through his back.
Oh god, the rubble was unstable. Any wrong move and he would be crushed
“ Oh god .”
What was he supposed to do? He didn’t want to die! Wilbur was waiting for him back home, and the guy had to clue how to host a gathering, especially with their family. They were all probably waiting for him to come with the food, complaining about him taking so long.
How long has it been since the collapse? How long was he unconscious for?
Was there even any air down here?
He needed to calm down.
In the case that there wasn’t an air source down here, he needed to save all that he could. Hyperventilating wouldn’t help that.
Something else groaned, but it wasn’t the building this time.
It was- it was a person?
It sounded like they were mumbling, but maybe they were just far away.
“- Techno? Techno! Techno, where are you?!” Or maybe not.
Tommy flinched as the person’s voice pierced through his ears. Before he could say something to them, more rubble shifted as the person tried to move. More pain blossomed.
“Stop! Stop!” he shouted, “Stop moving or you’ll crush us!”
The person paused.
“Hello?”
. . .
“Hey.”
Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best reply, but the man wasn’t giving him a lot.
“It looks like the building collapsed. We need to get out of here,” The man stated, like it wasn’t pretty obvious.
“Yea, but the rubble above us is unstable. We can’t afford to move it,” He shot back.
“So what do we do?”
“Wait, I guess. Until search and rescue, or one of the heroes finds us.”
The man swore, but other than that, Tommy couldn’t see what he was doing.
“Can you feel an air source?” Tommy decided to ask.
“What?”
“Like, wind or something.”
There was a moment of silence while the man seemingly searched for what Tommy told him to look for.
“I- I think so. I feel a soft breeze up near my head.”
“Good. That means we won’t suffocate.”
He checked that off of his mental list of things that could kill them down here. Suffocation definitely didn’t sound very pleasant. Slow. Slow was never good.
The man paused before asking, “How do you know about all this?”
“They teach it in school? Were you never taught it in school?” He asked.
“No,” The man replied, “They must have started that after my time. There wasn’t a lot of villain activity when I was a kid.”
Tommy huffed, “What? In the stone age?”
“ You little shit ,” The man laughed, “I’m forty. That’s not that old.”
“That’s like- so old! Are you kidding me? I thought my brother was old and he’s twenty four.”
“How old are you then? Twelve?” The man dared.
“Twelve?” Tommy spluttered, suddenly offended despite the situation, “I’m seventeen . Basically an adult!”
He thought that the man would continue the joke, but instead he just sobered, “Oh god. You’re just a kid. A kid shouldn’t be stuck down here.”
Tommy didn’t know how to reply to that.
Whatever was pinning his back down was pinching against his skin. It was uncomfortable and irritating. Using his free hand, he maneuvered it back as best as he could to try and alleviate some of the pain.
But when his fingers met the skin of the spot, it hurt too much to handle. Defeated, he brought his hand back down.
Except-
There was something sticky on his fingers now, dripping down onto the ground.
He was bleeding.
He decided not to voice this to the other man, and instead decided to distract himself.
“So, you were calling for someone. Who was that?”
The man stuttered for a moment, as if trying to figure out what to say.
“My son. He’s in this building somewhere.”
“Oh shit. How old is he?” Tommy couldn’t imagine a young child being trapped down here. Though their tiny bodies might make it easier for them to survive.
“Twenty one,” Or, the man was just really, really old, “Last that I knew, he was near the mall centre.”
“Well that’s good, at least,” The mall centre was a small clearing in the middle of the mall with a water fountain and a glass skylight at the very top. Sure, the glass may have shattered during the collapse, but chances are, if you were there, the other floors didn’t collapse on you, and you’re able to get out easily enough.
“I still can’t help but worry.”
“He’s an adult, I’m sure he can handle himself,” Tommy tried to comfort.
“Yea, but I’m his parent. It’s my job to worry,” The man shot back.
“My parents didn’t,” He said without thinking. The man hummed curiously, urging him to go on.
Well, he had all the time in the world down here.
“There’s-uh- there’s not much to it. They were shitty, so when my brother turned eighteen, he situated the emancipation papers and got both of us out of there. Hell, he didn’t even have to ask them to sign it, they just looked at the papers and did it.”
“That’s horrible,” The man commented, “No parent should treat their children like that.”
“Yea, well. Not everyone is up for the job of parenting. That’s just how the wind blows,” He sniffed, “They’re over our house for the weekend. They do that sometimes. Just- show up. I was here getting groceries so we could make them dinner.”
“Is that what is here with me?” The man asked, “There’s a bag of sorts that I fell on, but I can’t really see inside of it.”
“Oi! You better not eat any of that! I paid for that with my hard earned money.”
The man chuckled.
“Don’t worry, I won't touch any of your groceries.”
It was there that their conversation died down for a moment. Tommy couldn’t tell if it was because they had run out of things to say, or if the man was distracted by something.
“I was. . .I was a young parent,” He said softly, “Nineteen. Almost twenty, but still a teen parent with no one to help me. Those first couple of years were the hardest of my life, but I never thought of just ditching my son.”
Maybe it was stupid of him to ask, but, “Your parents weren’t around to help you?”
There was a long silence.
“Have you ever heard of the South Side Train tragedy?”
Tommy wasn’t alive when it happened, but he was vaguely aware of it. A major train system on the south side of the city was in dire need of renovation. There had been a big voting ballot in favor of funding it, but in the end, the money went into building the new and improved hero tower.
With no funds there to fix it, one of the trains stopped moving on the tracks. It wasn’t long before another train came up behind it. It had no time to break, and- well.
They never taught kids about it in school because it didn’t paint heroes in a great light. But his friend, Tubbo, had done a project on it in middle school.
“Your parents were on the train, weren’t they,” He said quietly, knowingly.
. . .
“I was around your age when it happened.”
“Oh god. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if I lost Wilbur like that.”
Isn’t the vise versa happening right now? Does Wilbur know that he’s trapped under the rubble yet? Is he blowing up Tommy’s phone? Waiting anxiously in the hospital? Running to the scene of the collapse? Wilbur always got so worried.
“All I had was the house they left me, a minimum wage job at the grocery store, and my son. He was there through it all. The good, the struggle, the anger. I did some really shitty things as a parent.”
“Well, you stuck around. That’s more than a lot of people can admit.”
“Maybe,” The man agreed, “I just really hope he’s okay.”
“Maybe. . .maybe he also had to go through those stupid seminars at school.”
“He never told me about them if he did. . .What were they like?”
“Well, every year, at the beginning of school, they’d drag all the kids to the gym and stuff them on the bleachers. They’d get this speaker to come in and tell us how to survive in case of a villain attack,” Tommy described, “He’d- like- get kids to volunteer and come down to try some self defense moves. I used to like them at first, because it would be an easy excuse to skip class. But now they’re so boring .”
“Well, looks like they’re being put to good use now.”
“They didn’t really go over being in a building collapse,” He mourned, “More like, what to do if the Angel attacked you.”
“. . .Is that. . .a common occurrence?” The man asked, his voice sounding weird.
Tommy hummed, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the guy just outright attack a civilian. But in the chance he does, hit him in the nose and run.”
The man chuckled, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Suddenly, more debris moved, something falling over to the side of him. The end of it hit his side, eliciting a pained shout without him even thinking about it. The pain lingered this time, horribly reminding him that he was still injured, and trapped underneath a building.
“Shit, are you okay?” The man asked, sounding closer than before.
“I told you not to move the rubble! Fuck!” He winced.
There were more shuffling noises from his left, and suddenly, something warm was enveloping his hand, holding it.
“There you are,” The man grunted. Tommy flipped his hand around and held it back, easily taking the only comfort he could, “You need to tell me where you’re hurt, kid. I used to be an EMT, I can try and help in any way I can.”
Tommy didn’t know how he was going to help when they were both crushed down here, but he named his injuries nonetheless.
“My arm’s injured, something is stabbing into my back, and- and I can’t feel my legs.”
The man swore underneath his breath, “That’s not great.”
Tommy scoffed.
“Can you feel if you’re bleeding? If the stab wound has an exit wound?”
“I don’t think it went all the way through. It’s bleeding a little I think,” He replied.
“Okay, okay. I can only assume that whatever’s in there is staunching the blood flow. I know it sounds uncomfortable, but we have to keep it in there for now,” The man sounded apologetic.
“Are you hurt?” Tommy asked instead.
“No, I don’t think I am. I must have been underneath a support beam.”
His hand was squeezed again.
“What time do you think it is?”
The man stopped to think.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“I’m tired,” His hand was squeezed tighter, “Not like that! Like, I think the shock is wearing off, and now I’m just tired. Do you think I can just sleep until this nightmare is over?” He dared to ask.
“I think you should be fine enough,” The man commented, “We should both try and get some sleep.”
Tommy could not agree with anything more. Something heavy was pulling at the back of his eyes, and the drowsiness became too tantalizing to ignore. But before he could allow his eyes to fully close, he asked one last question.
“Wait, I don’t think I ever caught your name.”
The man laughed, “I don’t think I got yours either.”
After all that they talked about, neither of them had even thought to ask about names. Tommy thought that was funny, at least a little bit.
“Tommy. My name’s Tommy.”
Even though he couldn’t see it, he could tell that the man had smiled.
“Phil.”
◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈
When Tommy woke up, he thought that for a moment, he hadn’t woken up just yet. Everything was pitch black around him.
But then the feeling of his body came flooding back in, the stabbing in his back, the strain on his arm, the pinching on his wrist, and he was promptly reminded of where he was.
He was still underneath the rubble.
And he was feeling worse than ever. Like sleeping had just made him sicker. Even though he hadn’t eaten in what felt like days, he was nauseous, and his stomach was cramping up. The arm that was trapped underneath his arm was throbbing with radiating pain. And he was so, so hot. Not to the point of sweating just yet, but he certainly felt flushed.
And something was pinching against his right wrist, which didn’t hurt necessarily, but it was definitely going to bruise.
“ Nnngh,” Was the only way he could describe how he felt. He barely even realized that he had groaned that out loud when Phil perked up from wherever he was.
“You awake?” He asked.
“We’re still down here,” Tommy replied instead, complaint overtaking his tone.
Phil chuckled, “Yea. Yea we are.”
It was then that the pinching feeling disappeared from his wrist, the same one that was the sole contact between him and Phil.
“What were you doing?” He asked.
“Checking your pulse,” Phil replied simply.
Oh.
“Are you a hypochondriac?” Tommy asked instead of confronting the dawning horror that that action gave him.
“What? No?”
“It’s okay if you are. My brother is.”
“Checking if you’re alive after a building fell on you is not hypochondriac, it’s called having basic human decency.”
“Alright Phil. Whatever you say,” Tommy paused, “Did you get any sleep?”
“Not a wink.”
Tommy huffed, “Well how long was I out?”
“It’s hard to tell time down here. But after a while I got bored and started counting the seconds.”
“How many seconds did you get to?”
“. . .Twenty one thousand, five hundred and eighty eight seconds. Give or take the couple of hours I was awake before that.”
“Jesus.”
“ Yeah. ”
Tommy took the pause in conversation to catch his breath. Even laying there was taking a lot out of him now.
How long would it take for anybody to find them? It was clear that they were getting restless.
“You know what’s funny?” Phil said out of nowhere.
Tommy hummed to urge him on.
“From what I saw, when the heroes were fighting, they refused to leave the centre,” The centre. The only part of the mall that was safe from the collapse.
“They knew this place was going to go down, and they saved their own asses,” Tommy finished, contempted.
“And now we’re stuck down here.”
“Do you think the heroes are part of the search team? Or did they just fuck off back to their tower?”
It was clear that Phil wanted to say something more, but was holding it back. Instead he sighed.
“There’s. . .there’s no use worrying ourselves into a corner.”
. . .
“Hey Phil?”
“Yea?”
“How long can someone go without water?”
. . .
“Let’s not worry about that, okay? They’ll find us before we have to worry about that.”
Tommy started fidgeting with one of Phil’s fingers, twisting it around. It took him a moment to realize that he was doing it, but the older man didn’t seem to mind.
“I should have beer in that grocery bag.”
“I am not letting you drink beer.”
“ Okay , well, it was just a suggestion.”
“Beer would just dehydrate you more anyway.”
“Really? Then why do people drink it?”
“What? To get drunk,” He could hear the warmth in Phil’s voice.
“I guess. But there’s much better drinks you could get drunk off of,” Tommy mumbled.
“How would you know that?”
“. . .My dad made me drink one once.”
“Oh,” He replied softly.
“I was ten when it happened. Back then there was still a big debate about whether Wilbur would take me with him when he left or not.”
“He questioned it?” Phil asked.
“Well I mean, he was still young. And raising a child is a big responsibility. Time, money. Basically, it was either me or college. And Will really wanted to go to college and start well off.”
“I can understand that.”
Tommy smiled, even though Phil couldn’t see, “One day while Will was out of the house, our dad got really mad that I didn’t clean up his trash. He made me drink a bottle as a punishment. It was all gross and it hurt my stomach. By the time Wilbur got home, I threw up on the carpet.”
“Jesus, Tommy.”
“That was what made Wilbur decide that he couldn’t leave me there,” He faltered, “But that was pretty much as bad as it got, though. I wasn’t like, abused or something. They were just shitty.”
“That sounds like abuse to me.”
“You would be surprised how many people have told me that.”
A hand squeezed his tighter.
“But you wanna know something? I can’t find it in myself to care anymore,” He revealed, “Sure, it was bad when it happened. But it’s over now. It’s been seven years, and when I think back on it, I just can’t give feeling anything important towards them any effort anymore.”
“You said they were at your house for the weekend?”
“Yea, they should be. But they have to have found out about the collapse by now, so I don’t know if they left or not.”
“Do you want them to be out there?” Phil dared to ask.
Tommy scoffed, “Not really. They should just turn tail and leave if they know what’s best for them,” He thought for a moment before saying, “If I make it out of this, I’m gonna tell them to fuck off and never come back. Screw what Wilbur says.”
“You’re gonna make it out of this, mate,” Phil said, something strange in his voice. Tommy didn’t know if he believed him or not. The throbbing pain in his back was becoming harder and harder to ignore.
“Please say it,” Phil begged.
“I- I’m gonna make it out of this,” Tommy repeated. He needed to guide the both of them away from this conversation, “So, what were your parents like? Is that bad to ask?”
“They died twenty four years ago, it’s fine,” Phil reassured, “They were great, though. They were great. My mother was a hairdresser and my father was this big, hot-shot business man. They both had this passion project of building this big family home from the ground up. That was the home I grew up in my entire life.”
“Like, out in the suburbs?” Tommy asked.
“Yea, it had to be. They both had work in the city,” Phil answered before continuing, “They had made the main extension by the time I was born, but they wanted to keep adding on bits as they grew a bigger family.
“I ended up being their only child, but that didn’t stop them from bugging me about grandchildren,” He chuckled.
“And that was where you raised your son?” Tommy asked another question, thinking about what the house could look like. Did they paint the walls vibrant colors? Was there a big backyard?
“Yeah,” Phil replied, “It was hard to pay for, but I managed to keep us there. I think it was good for the both of us to be in a place connected to our family,” For a moment, he sounded hesitant in his words, and then added, “Though sometimes, it felt like I wasn’t worthy of the home they had built for us.”
Tommy didn’t really know how to reply to that. The only place he had ever really called home was the place Wilbur had bought. And even though it was nice and safe, there was always something they needed to worry about. Whether that be a leaky pipe, or a broken oven.
He could relate to struggling financially though. He would start from there.
“Wilbur really struggled too, to pay the bills,” He spoke, “I felt really bad about it all the time, but he would never let me get a job because he wanted me to ‘enjoy my teenage years’. But I’ve- uh- I got a job a couple months ago. And I’ve been hiding it from him; slipping my paychecks into our savings fund without him noticing.”
“That’s really sweet of you, mate.”
“I just worry sometimes that he’s over working himself.”
Maybe, what Phil said next was out of a place of relation, “It sounds to me that he does all this because he cares about you. I think it’s great that you have someone that cares about you a whole lot.”
Tommy hummed. His breath was slowing down.
“How long do you think it’s been?”
“A couple of hours maybe?” Phil replied, “Why? Are you getting tired?”
Tommy smiled a little, “Yeah.”
“Promise you’ll wake up?”
It was quite a heavy thing to promise, but he could feel it in him that he would wake up. It wasn’t his time yet.
“Yea, I promise.”
◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈
When Tommy woke up, he felt ten times worse. His skin was flushed, so hot that he was shivering at the sensation. His stomach was both clenching in hunger and rolling in nausea. The tendons in his left arm felt like a string pulled far too strained. And his back.
It was like static bubbling through his spine.
Sweat was dripping down his face, and something more. Was he crying? His eyes certainly burned with the sensation.
All in all, he was so frustrated. He couldn’t take this anymore. He needed to get out of here. He needed it. He needed it so bad, his lungs heaved with emotional exertion.
“Are you awake, mate?” Phil said from his right.
“Why haven’t they saved us?” He sobbed, mouth brushing against the dirty ground.
“Tommy?”
“ Why haven’t they saved us? Why haven’t the heroes saved us yet? We need help! Please- plea- please, we need help!” His hysterics delved into manic whispers and mumbles. Nothing that the search and rescue teams could hear. Only him and Phil.
Were they even searching anymore?
“Tom-”
“They have to know we’re down here! Please, we’re down here!” His entire body shivered ferociously.
“Tommy, you need to calm down,” Phil instructed anxiously.
Tommy just sobbed.
“Tommy, squeeze my hand,” Tommy did, surely crushing the man’s hand in his grip. But if he was, Phil didn’t say anything about it, “Now breathe in.”
Recognition flashed through him.
Sometimes, Wilbur would get stressed. He got it, he really did. Owning a home, and a kid, and all that responsibility could be a lot. And sometimes all of that got to his brother. Whenever that happened, Tommy would always help him breathe.
Tommy did what he could, following Phil’s instructions until his breathing got back into order. He didn’t feel any better, physically or mentally, but at least he wasn’t as panicked.
“Are you feeling a little better?” Phil asked. Tommy noted how he said ‘a little’, acknowledging that there was only so well they could be feeling down here.
“Phil?” Tommy breathed, closing his eyes, “How long does it take for a wound to get infected?”
There was a long moment of silence as Phil let the question settle in, and then-
“ Fuck. ”
Miserably, Tommy laughed at that.
Neither of them could find the words to continue from there. And without the distraction of conversation, Tommy could feel the familiar call of exhaustion dragging him down. He was getting tired quicker and quicker.
He wished that he was in his bed. His nice, comfortable bed with that quilt that his grandmother made. In the house that Wilbur provided him. In the neighborhood his friends lived in. He took it all for granted before, but he wanted it all back.
He wanted to go home, one last time at least. But the longer he spent down here, the more he started to doubt that he would.
“Do you think Wilbur would forgive me if I died down here?” He whispered, unsure of whether that was intended for Phil to hear. Either way, he did.
“Please don’t die Tommy,” Phil replied, delicate and resigned.
“What if that’s for the best?” He could tell that Phil was about to say something, but he cut him off before he could, “Will- he’s been struggling to take care of the both of us for so long. Sure, we’re comfortable sometimes, but it’s hard.
“And I’m- I’m really hurt. The hospital bill would destroy him. He would- would work himself to death just to make sure I stay alive. Miserable and in pain, but alive. Is that really worth it?”
“Tommy, I haven’t met your brother, but I promise from what I’ve heard, that he would much, much rather be in debt if that means you’re alive. Your brother loves you. A lot of people do. You can’t give up now,” Phil replied, and Tommy could hear the devastation.
“I don’t want to die,” He admitted, “I don’t want to live in pain.”
“I know. I know.”
“Is there- hah- is there anything you want to get off your chest. If I really am dying, there won’t be any consequences.”
Phil didn’t say anything.
“I promise I won’t tell,” Tommy added, “Just- I need something to listen to; something to distract me.”
“I,” Phil started, “I did do something once. That I’ve never told anyone before.”
Tommy hummed to urge him on.
“This was back when I was younger, trying to raise my son. Things had gotten really bad. We had no food, no power, I was gonna be evicted if I couldn’t pay the bills by the end of the week.
“So I took my father’s old gun from his safe, and went to the local gas station. An old man worked there, he used to be a family friend when we were younger and I figured that it would be easy enough to get the money I needed.”
Tommy gnawed on the side of his mouth. He could already tell where this story was going.
“It didn’t go as well as I was expecting.”
“You were committing an armed robbery. How well did you anticipate it going?”
Phil chuckled sadly at that, “He had recognized me, and I panicked, and I- um- I shot him.”
“ Oh .”
“Not deadly; it was in the arm. But I still hurt him. And while he was down, I took the money and I ran.”
. . .
“My toddler was in the car.”
“Oh,” He repeated. Because really, what else could he say?
“And I’m ashamed to admit that my life only got better from there. I was put in a world where I had to steal to survive and so I did,” Phil said lightly, “But sometimes I think about the life I gave my son. If maybe I forced him into the life of crime.”
Phil continued, “Tommy, whatever person you think I am, I’m not as good as you think.”
. . .
“Well, you’re down here with me.”
“Mate, I don’t think I really had a choice.”
“Yea, but you kept me company,” His voice was getting light with exhaustion, “You coulda ignored me, or ate all my groceries, or whatever. But you talked to me, and you cheered me up. And- I dunno, maybe I wouldn’t have made it that long if someone else wasn’t here with me.”
“You’re, uh,” Phil sniffed, “You’re not so bad yourself, kid.”
Tommy smiled, an action that was getting harder and harder to do.
“I’m really tired, Phil.”
Phil squeezed his hand.
And maybe what Phil said next was a culmination of things. Maybe he believed that the search parties had given up on finding them, maybe he was tired of seeing Tommy in pain, maybe he knew it was a fruitless battle. Tommy would never know. Because Phil was his own man, and they had only known each other for however long they were down here. There were a lot of things he didn’t know about him.
“Okay,” Phil said, softly.
“I don’t know if I’m gonna wake up this time,” He admitted. He couldn’t feel his left arm anymore.
“That’s okay,” Phil whispers, “I’ll still be here. I won’t leave you alone.”
I won’t let you die alone. That was what he meant.
Tommy appreciated it.
And maybe there was a relief that Phil was accepting this. That both of them had made a somewhat reluctant peace. Because without the guilt of unwillingly leaving Phil down here, he could rest without worry.
Tommy closed his eyes. And like a lock without a key, he was unsure if he could open them again if he could.
“I know I’m not your son,” He said, “But could you tell me a story?”
Phil exhaled, and for a moment Tommy thought it sounded like he was crying.
“Yeah, of course.”
In his last moments, Tommy listened to Phil’s gentile voice as he told some complicated Greek myth. He latched onto the now only source of warmth that was their hands. And he cleared his head of any thoughts or worries.
The black around him somehow got darker, and with one last exhale, Tommy fell asleep.
◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈
When Tommy woke up again, he thought he was in heaven.
And by that, he was surrounded at every angle by blinding lights. And his body didn’t feel quite real. He felt like the ocean, fuzzy and heavy and boneless. Every time he tried to gain some semblance of consciousness, another wave crashed over him.
Someone was crying next to him.
He wanted so desperately to see who it was, but his eyes could not focus no matter how hard he tried. All he could see was a brown and yellow amorphous blob leaned over him to his right.
“ Phil?” He tried to ask, wondering about the whereabouts of the man. Was he okay?
But like the ocean that he was, there must have been water in his mouth, because he could not speak at all.
Whoever was crying next to him jumped at the noise, and immediately zeroed in on him.
“Tommy?” They spoke desperately, “Do you need more? Do you need me to push the button?”
There was a click, and the biggest wave yet crashed over him, taking him helplessly with it. His brain turned to mush, and he fell back asleep.
◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈
The next time Tommy woke up, he was a lot more coherent. Coherent enough to gather that he was in a hospital room. It was small, and dimly lit, and there was a television in the top corner that was displaying some sort of news broadcast.
Like before, he went through a mental check of his body. His legs were underneath stacks and stacks of hospital blankets, but from the outline he could see, there was no cast on them. So they weren’t broken, or paralysed, which was good, but they felt bruised to all hell.
His arm didn’t face the same luck, as a cast and a sling hung heavily across his chest.
He could feel itchy bandages across his torso, but other than that, he was in the dark.
The lady on the news broadcast was speaking urgently about the events of the mall collapse. Talk of how, after days, they were finally finishing up their search parties. How the heroes were trying their best to figure out how it all went wrong. How the two villains Angel and Blood God were still at large.
That was when it hit him.
He made it out alive.
His brother was sitting on an uncomfortable looking chair right next to him, looking at the television.
And now, Tommy had seen his brother exhausted before, after long days of work, after weekends with their parents, after Tommy gets in trouble. But never like this. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. He looked like stress was this close to killing him.
“Will?” He mumbled from his place in the bed.
Wilbur turned to look at Tommy impossibly fast, looking at him like he wasn’t real.
“Tommy!” He moved erratically, like he wanted to tackle Tommy in a hug, but didn’t want to hurt him. Finally, he settled on bending down awkwardly and burying his head in Tommy’s collarbone, and hugging onto his head. Tommy- the best he could- lifted up his right arm and hugged back as Wilbur sobbed.
“I-I’m out?” He asked in disbelief, “They found me? They saved me? I’m out of there?”
“You’re out of there,” Wilbur promised, “You’re safe. You’re here. You’re alive. Oh my god .”
“Oh my god,” Tommy repeated, crying with him.
And that was how they stayed. Crying in each other’s arms.
Later, Tommy would return home- no parents to be found- to his friends awaiting his return. Later, Tommy would learn to live again, therapies upon therapies, all for different purposes. Later, Tommy would find out that someone had paid for all of his hospital bills on an anonymous account.
Later, Tommy would wonder of what happened to the man he was trapped underneath a building with. Whether they would ever see each other again.
But for now, Tommy was alive, in the arms of his brother. Two people whose lives collapsed with that building. They had a long way to go to get better. But for now.
This was the start.