Chapter 2

Anastasius, Shiva, and Proteus stood in the doorway with looks of awe on their faces. The world around them had changed, causing some buildings to completely collapse while others stood with leaves and moss wrapping around them.

The road in front of them had also changed from before. Moss and grass covered most of the street with flowers blooming out of small barely visible cracks in the asphalt.

Suddenly out of the house, a couple of meters down the road rubble shifted slightly as if something was moving beneath it.

Anastasius was the first to react to the slight movement.

Anastasius started running towards the building and said:

"There is someone trapped under the building."

Proteus and Shiva were still taken aback by the sudden change in the town they grew up in. They were just outside a few hours ago and everything was normal but now everything is collapsing or already collapsed as if years had gone by while they were in Anastasius's house.

Looking back at the boys still in shock Anastasius added:

"Get out of your head! There's someone stuck. They need help!"

Finally realizing the situation the two boys suddenly ran forward, Shiva stumbled a bit still slightly affected by the pain from earlier.

As Anastasius arrived at the crumbling building he jumped over a piece of the broken wall.

As he arrived he heard someone groaning in pain and a kid crying.

Rushing towards the cries of a kid and coughs of an adult, There, a grown man grunting as if exerting force was In a squatting position trying to lift a piece of cement off what looked like a little girl.

By now Proteus had arrived with Shiva a bit behind him.

Stuck in his thoughts trying to analyze the situation Anastasius thought to himself:

'Why the hell did this building suddenly collapse? What is going on right now?'

Suddenly a rough deep voice came from the man. He sounded like he was holding back tears a bit.

"Please help! My daughter is stuck and I'm not strong enough to lift this rubble!"

Coming to his senses Anastasius rushed and squatted next to the man, Proteus, and Shiva followed after.

They struggled at first but with 4 people the girl would eventually be able to get out.

'That should be enough why isn't she crawling out?'

The father yelled out to his daughter.

"Come on Gina, crawl out I'm right here!"

The little girl cried out in a high-pitched voice:

"I can't my foot is stuck!"

'Damnit! That's why she didn't crawl out when she had the chance'

An idea popped into Anastasius's head.

"Guys hold the rubble I'll try to get her foot out."

The 3 of them looked at him like he was crazy but what other choice did they have?

The 3 of them had to put in more force now that they were missing a member which meant less time for Anastasius to figure something out.

Anastasius crawled under not wasting any time, understanding that the 3 of them couldn't hold for too long.

Getting closer to the little girl Anastasius noticed that she looked no older than 12. Had short curly brown hair and was balling her eyes out from the pain.

'Dammit there's a vine wrapped around her leg what do I do?'

The vine was as thick as a little kid's forearm.

Shiva called out to him:

"Hurry we can't hold longer"

Hearing this Anastasius gripped the vine and struggled with everything he had.

'Come on rip'

No matter what he did the vine didn't budge.

'Please! Please, just move!"

Then as if hearing his thoughts the vine slowly started unraveling off the girl's foot.

Anastasius noticed this but had no time to think about it.

Anastasius grabbed the girl by her small hand and helped her crawl out.

The 3 of them immediately dropped the rubble.

The father rushed to his daughter and held her tight with his bloody hands crying.

The little girl shortly after started crying and hugged her father back.

Anastasius sat down coughing a bit from breathing in some debris.

'Dammit a little more and we would've been crushed.'

The daughter let go of her father for a moment and ran to Anastasius to give him a hug.

"Thank you, sir."

This shocked him a bit but he didn't mind.

Later the father came to him.

"Thank you guys if it wasnt for you my daughter might not have been here."

He then added:

"Whats your names?"

The three boys looked at him and said at once:

"Shiva."

"Proteus."

"Anasatsius but Stasius for short."

The father then said:

"Thank you."

***

The three of them ended up back at Stasius's house trying to recover and recollect their thoughts.