Four hours into what Rainey assured her was going to be a two hour hike, Quinn realized she was going to die. Which, she thought, was probably for the best considering if she managed to survive this hike, she was going to spend the rest of her life in prison for murdering her own sister.
Sitting awkwardly on a rock, panting and dripping with sweat despite the cool evening wind whistling through the alpines surrounding them, she took a greedy gulp of her water. Historically, Quinn knew better than to trust Rainey, but Rainey had insisted on taking Quinn up Mount Visage to see the stars for her birthday. Knowing her older sister had been between jobs since she was old enough to work, Quinn had been happy to let Rainey offer up a gift that didn't require anything but the usage of Quinn's car and two hours of her time.
But now that she and Rainey had been hiking for well over two hours while the sun set behind them, the dying orange light they were relying on to illuminate their route had given way entirely to night, rendering their path almost invisible. While Rainey tried to keep up a cheery spirit, Quinn's had disappeared with the sun, leaving Rainey feeling frozen out and grasping for any sort of positive to cling to.
Rainey threw her hands up defensively, reaching for the water only for Quinn to smack her hand away.
"Guess I should've remembered my own," Rainey muttered. Quinn rolled her eyes and handed her the bottle. When she was finished she handed it back( then exhaled loudly, poking her head around Quinn to take a look at what she hoped was the final incline to the summit.
"Come on," she tried, "this isn't worse than your thirteenth birthday when I convinced you that Mom was finally going to admit that you were adopted and made you cry in front of all your friends."
"Why would you bring that up now?" Quinn replied through gritted teeth. "Do you want me to leave your body in the woods?"
"Can you wait until we reach the top?" Rainey pleaded. "I'll even find a secluded patch of grass to lie in if you still think the hike isn't worth it then."
Quinn sighed, weighing her options. She checked her watch, grimacing. "Maybe we should just turn around," she told Rainey. "It's getting too dark to see the trail, and I made dinner reservations for us back in Ascension because I assumed you'd forget."
Rainey winced, confirming Quinn's suspicions. "I was, uh, a little more focused on the hike aspect of your birthday…"
"It's fine," Quinn waved her off, "I didn't mean it like that. You're always going somewhere and i just wanted to spend some time with you. Why don't we go to dinner and you can let me plan a day around this hike. I'll bring enough food and water to keep us alive in case we get lost again. It'll be even easier the second time.l
Rainey sighed, hanging her head for a moment, then walked over to Quinn, shaking her gently.
"Can we keep going? Please?" Rainey asked. She was met with a familiar wall of silence. She gestured to the incline. "We're almost there…I think. I know I messed up the distance and dinner, but if we don't keep going…then it's all been for nothing, and I can't make it up to you. Things are bad, no doubt, but can you give me the chance to make your birthday suck just a little less?"
Quinn sighed heavily, drawing her breath out. Rainey tossed her an apologetic smile, reaching her hand out.
"Well," Quinn grabbed her hand, pulling herself to standing, "you're lucky I didn't turn out to be adopted, or else I would've left you a long time ago."
"I know we got off to a late start-"
"Because you forgot to download directions and we got lost-"
"-but I still think this is going to be spectacular."
"Alright," Quinn took a deep breath, then set off, leaving Rainey to catch up, "let's see if these stars are cool enough to save your life."
After a quarter hour more, and with one final exhaustive push, the pair reached the summit, both exhaling in relief that their trek was finally over. The top of Mount Visage was a rocky, craggy mesa punctuated by a steep drop below. Miles away to the East, the city of Ascension glowed brightly, the skyscrapers and Ace's stadium illuminated in different shades of light on the warm summer night, all vying for attention.
However, tonight Quinn noticed something unusual in Ascension's skyline: notably, the one place that usually preferred to remain inconspicuous was also lit up tonight. Home to all of the company's top-secret research and application laboratories, the thirty story, pencil-shaped building comprising Apex Tower was nestled on the city's western edge. Its obsidian color and placement just in front of the rolling foothills meant the tower was normally hidden behind other skyscrapers in Ascension and shadowed by the mountains as soon as the sun dipped below them. However, for the first time since its construction a year ago, Apex sported industrial flood lights on the outside of the building aimed directly at the thick, plexiglass tubes snaking the outside of the tower, starting from the base and curling upwards until they merged with the sharp spire on top.
"What do they need those for?" Rainey asked. "It looks like a heavy duty silly straw wrapped around the tower."
"I'm not sure," Quinn demurred. "But that's…strange. The tower hasn't been lit up since they built it months ago."
"Well, at least it isn't blocking our view," Rainey said, turning Quinn around, pulling her view from the city. "Come on!"
Quinn gasped as Rainey pulled her to the middle of the field. Stopping in the center, she pointed above them, gazing upward at the unfettered view of the stars nestled in the night sky overhead. Quinn's annoyance over the past few hours melted away with the view, the entire galaxy seemingly within their reach.
"It's even better than you promised," she admitted, wrapping her arm over Rainey's shoulder.
"Happy birthday, Quinn," Rainey beamed, her stress of the last four hours, and of almost ruining Quinn's birthday (and not for the first time) melting away. "Hope you enjoy the…"
Her voice trailed off when she noticed a light moving towards them from the west where the Mountains were, growing brighter by the second like the coils on a stove starting black then glowing red hot. In the silence, they could hear a faint, low rumbling coming from underneath them, miles underground but growing louder, as if something was rushing to the surface.
"...view?"
"What the hell is happening?" Quinn asked, her heart rate quickening. "Is it an earthquake?"
Rainey took a few steps towards the western edge of the mesa, working to keep her balance as the rumbling grew stronger she faltered, nearly stumbling to the rocks until Quinn grabbed her arm.
"Rainey," Quinn's voice was urgent, her eyes darting back to Apex's Tower, "we need to go, this could be-"
Without warning, the mountains in front of them lit up with an iridescent shine as a tidal wave of energy surged upward like a geyser, ripping through the earth and knocking Quinn and Rainey back with a boom that sent them flying in opposite directions. Rainey shot towards the edge of the cliffside, tumbling on the rocks. She landed hard on her shoulder and felt a sharp pain when her ankle slammed into a jagged rock. She cried out in pain when she tried to stand, her eyes peering through the chaos for Quinn.
"Quinn?" she called out, realizing she could no longer see her sister, her eyes darting from tree line to tree line, looking for any signs of her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Her stomach dropped when she received no answer, but her frantic search led to a different realization: the light was no longer shooting into the air, but now it was leaking around the edges of the fissure it made, spreading over the grass. It illuminated the thin patches of grass in front of her just enough for her to realize that it was killing the grass as it spread like a slow-moving wave, leaving dark, charred bits in its wake. The energy was inching towards Rainey every second, leaching life from everything in its path, which would soon include her, if she couldn't find a way to escape.
Unfortunately, being on top of a mountain and with what as almost assuredly a broken ankle, Rainey's escape options were severely limited. With nowhere else to turn, Rainey put all her remaining energy into crawling away from the pulsating light, hands and knees digging into sharp stones, desperate to escape the encroaching radiation drifting towards her. Reaching the edge much faster than she'd like, she roared and wrapped her hands around the rocky outcropping, pulling herself to the edge of the cliff face as far as she could get away from her silent attacker. The entirety of Ascension was lying before her, help tantalizingly visible but ultimately out of reach. With nowhere left to go she threw one angry glance over her shoulder, watching the grass turn black just inches away from her boot, gritting her teeth.
"Come on, then," she yelled, pushing the fear down where it couldn't reach her.
While the energy swept ever closer to her, undeterred, she held her gaze a moment longer, then shut her eyes tightly just as it licked the sole of her boot, waiting for it to wash over her. When a moment passed and what she assumed death would feel like never came, she slowly opened her eyes. It took her a moment to realize what was happening behind her, but Rainey's eyes suddenly registered the light was fading, rushing away from her like a receding tide.
When the last of the light receded, Rainey collapsed onto the exposed rock, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. She laid there quietly as the wind whispered through the trees, her ankle screaming in pain. Quinn was still nowhere to be seen, and Rainey choked out a sob, tears streaking the dirt on her cheeks.
"You're such a…baby," Quinn said, her voice weak.
"Quinn?" Rainey cried, searching in the direction of her taunt. She crawled towards the cliff's edge, finding Quinn propped up on a rock, facing the city. She had a deep cut above her eye and her leg was definitely bruised, but she was alive.
"This is officially worse than the birthday where you made me cry in front of all my friends," Quinn whispered. "At least then…my leg wasn't broken."
"I'm so happy you're alive," Rainey squeezed Quinn tight, causing her to groan. "What the hell was that?"
"I'm not sure, but…it's getting worse."
Quinn pointed east, towards the city. They sat in stunned silence watching a scarlet glow rip through the ground at incredible speed heading directly towards Ascension. It took Rainey and Quinn two hours to reach the trailhead from Ascension; but it took the force less than a minute to reach the western edge of the city where something curious happened.
Instead of continuing to rip through the city, the ground stopped shaking, accompanied by an erie silence that scared Rainey even more. The light was slowly dimming, the last glow disappearing underground just like it had a moment ago before it overcame Rainey. For a moment, everything was quiet, and Rainey held her breath.
Then, Rainey gasped as the semi-truck wide plexiglass tube wrapped around Apex's tower lit up with the same rainbow colored glow, racing around the tower and bursting through the spire at the top, exploding into the night sky and lighting the city in an unnatural glow. The burst shot into the clouds above, cutting a hole straight through them, then began to disperse and blanket the city in a fine, unnaturally glowing mist.
Rainey managed to pull out her phone and clumsily dial for help just as the last sprinkle of the unknown energy's light fluttered down below the skyscrapers. Fire was growing behind her gray eyes, anger temporarily replacing the sensation of pain screaming from her legs as she looked down at her own twisted ankle and Quinn's battered leg. With the light dying over Ascension, darkness returned to reclaim the night, leaving the pair in silence until Rainey spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.
"They knew."