ragnarok - rim of the world

Into the chaos

After finding a fresh change of clothes and giving Alex some confidence, we got ready to teach him how to ride a bike.

"Alright, you get on one side of Alex, and you get on the other, and we'll get him up to speed," Gabriel instructed. I stood on one side of Alex and Zhenzhen on the other. We halted in front of a sign that pointed right for Los Angeles and left for the High Desert. We all turned right except for Dariush, who hesitated. I noticed and slugged behind to tease him.

"Don't be scared. I'll protect you, Dardar." I smiled at him.

"I'm not scared, and I told you to stop calling me that," he huffed, before turning right. I chuckled and quickly caught up with everyone else.

After walking a bit more and coming up on a straight enough road, we all put on our helmets.

Zhenzhen and I held onto Alex as he started to get used to the bike, making sure he wouldn't fall; while Gabriel and Dariush tagged behind.

"You got this," I encouraged, "Put your feet back on the pedal."

"The key is to get moving," Gabriel informed, "The faster you go, the easier it is to get balanced."

"Are you sure about this?" Alex inquired, obviously nervous.

"No," replied Gabriel. I turned my head to face him with a 'really?' look plastered on my face.

"You're good. Just keep doing that," Dariush commented from behind.

He seemed to get the hang of it more as our grip on him loosened, and we let go.

"I don't...I don't know if I can do this."

"Alex. You're already doing it," Zhenzhen commented. We all started high-fiving each other, proud of Alex. Now we were all riding down the mountain, having a fun time. This was nice; no arguments or disagreements, just us having fun.

"You're doing it!"

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God, you guys, I'm doing it!" 

However, our excitement didn't last long before Alex fell off his bike and tumbled to the ground.

"Alex!" I called out as we ran over to his motionless body.

"Are you okay?" Zhenzhen asked him, crouching over him.

"Yo, is he dead?" 

"Alex?"

"You okay?"

He started to sit up. Good, he wasn't dead. However, he was staring at something. 

"Holy shit." he gaped.

"Yeah, like holy..." Dariush started before he turned to see what Alex was looking at, "...shit." I turned around to see Los Angeles, going up in smoke and multiple jets zooming around, shooting at each other. To think, we were going straight into all that chaos.

"We have to go into all that?" I asked.

We walked through the streets of Los Angeles. It was bleak, abandoned, and littered with debris. Many unrecognizable things were englufed in flames as smoke enveloped the air.

"There!" Dariush called out. In front of us stood the sheriff's station, "Man, this place is trashed. Looks empty."

"Guys, I don't...Nobody's, uh..." Gabriel hesitated.

"What?"

"You guys go ahead. I'll just stay back and watch our bikes," he said. He seemed a little nervous.

"What? Oh, yeah because the aliens wanna jack our mountain bikes."

Alex seemed to take notice of Gabriel's uncomfortable demeanor, "Yeah, looters could take them."

"Yeah, someone should stay and watch. I'll wait here with him, just in case," I added on.

"Hope-" Dariush spoke, about to protest, "Ugh, whatever, man." They walked off into the station, leaving Gabriel and me alone.

I took my helmet off and laid my bike on the ground, propping myself on a nearby tree. I needed a rest. 

"You okay?" I asked Gabriel, he glanced at me with a nervous look.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Something seems to be troubling you," I noted. He snapped his head around as if I figured out something I shouldn't have.

"It's...I'm fine." I couldn't tell whether he was trying to convince himself or me more. I could tell he wasn't exactly being truthful but didn't want to push it any further.

I patted the ground next to me, for him to come and sit down. After a couple of seconds, he sat down beside me.

"Oh, by the way, sorry about Dariush; he can be a handful sometimes." I chuckled.

"It's not your fault, it's fine. How do you even put up with him?"

"Well, sometimes he's cocky and annoying Dariush, but sometimes he's...my brother if that makes sense. Like actually a decent human being."

"Really?" he inquired, his voice laced woth disbelief.

"Yeah. As hard as it is to believe, he can be caring and loving once you get to know him."

"I'd prefer that Dariush to be honest."

"Don't worry, I prefer that one too. Seriously though, I know he can be a real pain in the ass so on his behalf; I apologize."

"Seriously, it's okay. It's not your fault he's like that."

A comfortable silence enveloped us for a couple of seconds before I decided to speak up.

"You're pretty selfless, you know. You're always willing to help someone."

"You think?"

"Yeah. You care about others, even if you don't know them. I...like that about you." We both stared into each other's eyes. The light danced in his eyes. I could get lost in them. Well, I did.

My eyes darted to his lips. Did I just-?

But then his lips darted to mine. DID HE JUST-?

Our faces inched closer and closer to each other. My heart was practically leaping inside of my chest. 

But of course, our 'almost kiss' was interrupted by Alex, Zhenzhen, and Dariush exiting the building.

We quickly stood up, taking a couple of steps away from each other, looking at anything but each other.