Zeus

Seeing grave look on her brother's face Sofi nodded without hesitation. "Un. But why we have not met any other people, except for those above?"

"Most people must have run away at the first sight of something bad happening. Either that or they locked themselves up in their apartments. I was not hurrying you too much because I didn't want to run into crazed people swarm."

Lian answered, while walking through the ground floor hallway to the door. After opening it they saw a scene from an apocalyptic movie. A 300-meter-long side-street was full of cars going in the same direction – out of the city. Some cars had dents here or there. Some – broken windows or windshield. Some were even missing doors.

And at the intersection in front of this messy traffic jam was one hell of a gridlock. Big trucks, small cars with only two seats, ordinary family cars and a luxurious Mercedes created one big accident, that looked like a barricade that no car can pass through. One could only pray for the people in those cars. But the most eerie thing about this whole situation was that there were no people on the street.

'Is it really some sort of an end of the world? All those people… No time to be sorry for them. Better call uncle Don. Hope parents and lil' bro are alright.' Lian thought, becoming a bit pale. He shook his head, took out phone and began searching for the number. "Well, we are lucky. There are no people here. Let's continue moving, we have no time for sightseeing, sis." He tried being cheerful, then tugged his sister with a free hand and they sped up, running in direction, where all the cars came from.

When they ran 50 meters, they heard sound of a door opening. Turning their heads around to take a look, Lian and his sister saw three man standing in front of a door, dumbfounded by the scene. They had ordinary features and they seemed to be of similar age, 30 or so. They had backpacks and two of them had kitchen knives in their hands. A few seconds later they came back to their senses and looked around. One of them immediately spotted Lian and Sofi and pointed them out to his companions. But after short discussion they turned around and ran in opposite direction.

'Quite cautious, aren't you? Still it's better for both of us this way.' Lian sent best wishes to the trio and made a call.

Beep. Beep. Beep. The subscriber is currently busy. Please wait for an answer or call back later.

'Looks like he is talking to somebody… Damn, I had not thought what to do if the mobile communication was shut down. Still, it is on, so all is good.'

It's the end of the world as we know it…

"Yes, Hello? Uncle Don?" Hearing his phone ringing Lian answered the call, inwardly thinking 'I better change my ringtone'

"Lian, is that you? I'm busy right now, so please be quick. What have you called me for?" He heard a familiar raspy voice. Now, though, this usually kind and teasing voice sounded impatient.

"Uncle Don, I have a hypothesis about all this stuff happening to people. And also, I…" Lian abruptly stopped mid-sentence. And started thinking. 'Wait, it's army. If I say that I have acquired some sort of ability, it will be very difficult to stop them from making me a laboratory rat. Especially if my ability is very different from others.'

"Why did you stop? Is that all? If you can make your way to my residence in under an hour, I can spare some time to listen to you. Otherwise, I'll move out… beep…beep…beep…" He hung up the phone.

"Lian, how did it go?" Sofi asked with concern written over her face.

"It went better then I thought. I can think over the situation on our way. And we potentially have a hidden card to play. So, no need to worry, we'd better just hurry up." Said Lian smiling. 'I hope that card won't backfire on us.'

Putting away his phone Lian looked up what time it is. '14:46, we've got time.'

"Sis, follow me. We need to cross that bridge to the other side of the river." He instructed his sister on a run. They already ran to a T-shaped intersection on the other side of the street. On the left and right they saw a lot of cars jammed tightly together. Who even cares about road rules at such times? In front of them, on the other side of the road, was a 20-meter-wide river flowing along the canal. 50 metes to the right from the intersection there stood a bridge, wide enough for 2 people to walk side-by-side. That was the bridge Lian was talking about.

While making their way to the bridge Lian was looking around. He saw some people on the street running around, as well as some people coming from mini marts and corner shops with hands full of food. In the distance he saw two young men pushing a middle-aged one on the ground and kicking with their feet. They then took his briefcase and ran off.

'Animals' was the only thought in Lian's head. Then he looked at the other side of the shore. There he saw a middle-aged man, who was running towards the same bridge. 'Hope he is not going to do anything funny. Otherwise we will give a test to the Sofi's ability.'

Coincidentally, both parties put their feet on the bridge at the same time. And after few steps they were only 5 meters apart.

This man was obviously not in his best condition, with bruises over his body and in rugged clothes he looked like a typical ruffian. This image instantly solidified after his first words.

"So, kids. Give me money, your backpack and I'll let you go." He said with a smile, that looked really unnerving on his beaten face. He then took out a foot-long knife and pointed it at Lian, as if to make them believe, that they would not be able to leave otherwise.

Adrenalin started pumping up in Lian's head as he began quickly thinking about what the best course of actions will be. In a second he came to a conclusion. Never, before this day, had he thought that he will have to give such command.

"Sis, strike him with a lightning and let's get moving. Show me the strongest lightning you can muster." Lian said quietly.

Sofi quietly nodded and continued standing there, looking at the man.

'Should not she rise her hand up and point it at him? Or at least…' Just as Lian thought up to here a subtle change happened to the scenery. The sky right over the bridge suddenly darkened and a few lightning snakes began spinning there in a chaotic dance. As people rose their head to look at this strange phenomenon, they saw those lightning bolts merging together and falling down at a speed, that is impossible to see with a naked eye. Just a second ago a crown made of lightning was majestically hovering in the sky, and now it has become a white sword of judgement, falling from the sky and severing life of that greedy opportunist and making him a charred dried-up corpse.

As people were still in awe and shock in the face of strength of nature, a loud thunderclap woke them from their stupor. Frightened by an idea of what would happen to them if they were hit by the lightning, everybody in the nearest vicinity started to run away from that place. Who know what the hell is happening there. After today's events nobody will be surprised if that was Zeus himself descending from Mount Olympus.

While people were struggling to understand what had happened so was Lian. He was suddenly felt his heaviness in his stomach. He slowly came to a realization, that a life was taken because of his order. But he quickly discarded those thoughts, not wanting to think about it.

"Sis, are you alright?" He asked turning around and sizing his sister up and down to see if there is anything wrong with her.

"I'm alright" She answered in a hoarse voice. Looking at the charred body of that man she asked with her eyebrows slightly raised and eyes wide open "Have I… killed a person just now?"

Lian was at a loss of what to say at the moment. Still, collecting himself he tried to somehow smooth things out, before anything happened. "No, you have cleaned our path from some trash."

"Is it then the reason why I don't feel bad or guilty about killing someone?" She continued asking in a softer tone.

"…" For the first time Lian really had no words to say.

"Is it even normal, not to feel anything?" She asked even quieter than before.

"I don't know" Lian answered in a same quiet tone. He knew nothing about it himself. He was, after all, just a 20-year-old guy, who enjoyed reading books and playing games. Not some sort of life-and-death battle veteran. And even those have problems adjusting to the feeling of taking a life.

"At first, I was scared. It is human's life we are talking about, after all. Then I pacified my mind by saying, that I can do it, if the need arises. And now…" Her voice trailed off and nobody could hear what she said at the end.

Next few seconds brother and sister duo stood in silence, thinking about what had happened on the bridge while breathing rich ozone-filled air.

"Sis, we need to go. We have less than an hour left." Lian ended silence in a gentle voice and put his hand on her shoulder in a show of support.

"Sure" she slowly nodded and then continued forward, stepping over the corpse as if it was not there.

"How many more times can you use your ability to this degree of power?" Lian asked, still looking at his sister. After they walked off the bridge. "I think that your strike just now scared most people, but there might be some hotheads that can come our way."

"I think I can use it twice more. But you will have to carry me after that." Was the answer he got. His sister didn't even move her head, always looking straight.

"I see… Next time, if it happens, use quarter of the power you used now. This time it was too much an overkill. It is also possible that we attracted attention from the armed forces, so let's speed up." Lian began giving commands again, as if noting had happened. But he was screaming inside

'Three times? In a row? Can it be any more overpowered? You can, probably, destroy a tank with that hit. Needless to say, a person. Did she see those scorched marks on the concrete bridge? It even started crumbling. And those iron railings? Electricity had not dissipated from them even after we walked off the bridge. Sis, you have not been reborn as Zeus's avatar, have you?'

"Okay." This simple answer interrupted his thoughts, that began to trail off in a wrong direction. Lian looked at her one last time, nodded, turned around and started running in a certain alley, while gesturing to her to follow him.