Chapter 28: Chapter 28
A loud, crackling sound tore through the air, drawing Eric’s attention. The wreckage of the train was sparking, and from the look of it, the power core was still active.
Jimmy had reached it, now crouched near the base of the massive energy unit that powered the train’s enormous engines.
"Come on, come on," Jimmy muttered, his hands working with frantic precision, trying to manipulate the exposed wiring of the core.
A blast of raw energy shot out from the core, illuminating the scene in a brief flash of blinding light visible from outside the train. Eric squinted, his stomach twisting with dread.
"Jimmy!" Eric shouted again, but his voice was drowned out by the growing roar of the black hole, which was now pulling everything in its vicinity with terrifying force.
The ground beneath his feet trembled as if the planet itself was protesting the destruction.
The train’s reactor core hummed louder, electricity crackling through the air like a living entity, arcing dangerously close.
It was a desperate gamble. Would the power core hold? Would it even work as a countermeasure? Or would they all be swallowed by the growing void in the sky? Eric felt his heart race as he moved forward. There was no time left.
"Jimmy, I’m coming!" Eric screamed, but his voice was swallowed by the loud roar of the black hole.
Jimmy was already locked in place, his hands gripping the power core’s exposed wiring. He knew the situation was dire, but there was no other choice.
"You can do this, Jimmy," he encouraged himself, operating with a concentration so intense he was ignorant to the sparks and abnormal events around him.
Suddenly, he began to feel weightless. He started to levitate, along with the train’s power core. The black hole’s pull had reached him.
"Jimmy!" Eric yelled, struggling to keep himself upright as he watched the train car, with Jimmy in it, being pulled into the vortex.
A determined Jimmy pushed himself back toward the power core, gliding through the air as he approached it and resumed his work.
Time was running out at a critical rate, and Jimmy was beginning to feel his body stretch in an abnormal way.
He was experiencing the Spaghettification process, and it was becoming harder to continue, but he pushed through, trying his very best to make ends meet.
A few seconds later, the power core began to vibrate at an intense and abnormal rate, giving off a powerful humming sound.
The rewiring worked. A wave of relief washed over Jimmy, but the feeling was cut short as his levitation speed toward the black hole increased drastically.
With no further time to waste, he hurried to the entrance of the train car, a window that had been expanded by the Yagan.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Jimmy said loudly to himself, shocked by his situation. He was already one hundred and eighty feet above the ground, about ten stories high.
"Jimmy!" Eric yelled, his voice a mix of excitement and fear.
"Eric, I did it! I reversed the polarization!" Jimmy yelled back, holding on tightly to the metal.
"To hell with the bloody polarization! I couldn’t give two shit about that right now! Find a way down now, jump!" Eric replied, finding strength within his lungs to yell, his face a mask of worry.
"I... I can’t," Jimmy stammered, his determination and courage fading.
"The black hole’ll just pull me back!" Tears welled up in his eyes as he held on tightly.
"We’ll just have to try, Jimmy," Eric responded.
Eric could see the hopelessness in Jimmy’s eyes as he closed them and held on tightly.
"Kid, open your eyes and listen to me," Eric said, his voice flowing perfectly with the wind, a calm and consoling tone.
"You’re a tough kid, I’ll give you that. And, since we’ve been stuck together this past week, I’ve realized you’re not the type to just roll over and quit. I can respect that."
"You’ve got a bad habit you know, always wanting to help, always wanting to find a solution, no matter how deep in the mess you find yourself in," he added.
"So far, you’ve stared down every bloody nightmare thrown at you and come out swinging. Just a few minutes ago, we were on that damn speeding train, dodging Yagans and those blasted towers trying to kill us both, and somehow, you’re still kickin. That’s no small feat"
"You’re up there ’cause you jumped headfirst without a second thought. All because you wanted to help, wanted to fix the damn mess" Eric continued.
"Yeah, I know I’ve been a proper bastard to you, kid. But you’ve got a big heart under all that. You never gave up on me. hell, you never gave up on anything. So why start now? Why now, Jimmy?" Eric’s voice was calm and steady.
Jimmy stood still, looking deeply at Eric below, touched by his words. He was surprised by how much Eric had noticed, how much he had come to understand him.
Their relationship had always been filled with banter and arguments, but now he saw that underneath Eric’s rough exterior, he cared. He had always looked out for him and encouraged him.
This new realization placed a warm feeling in Jimmy’s heart. He summoned his courage once again, pulling himself slightly outward in preparation to jump.
"But if I jump, it won’t be a nice landing for me!" Jimmy yelled, feeling a spark of life.
"Look, use whatever crap’s nearby to slow yourself down with each jump. You don’t want to splatter on the ground, do you?" Eric yelled back, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice as audible as possible.
Jimmy looked around. He could see walls and vehicles floating far around him, all being pulled upward.
"Here goes," he said to himself, taking a deep breath and preparing to jump onto a floating car below him.
A loud crackling roar erupted from the black hole, sending a shockwave that shattered nearby glass and caused Jimmy to lose his balance.
The force of the black hole suddenly increased, pulling objects toward it faster and faster while increasing its range.
Jimmy could feel his movement accelerate toward the black hole.
"Jimmy, jump!" Eric yelled, his heart racing.
Jimmy summoned his courage and leaped out of the train car, aiming downward at the car below him. Eric watched from below, but what happened next filled his heart with fear.
Jimmy wasn’t heading down toward him. He was instead being pulled strongly by the black hole, accelerating further upwards.
"Jimmy!" Eric yelled, his voice a mix of terror and disbelief.