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Grace was looking up at the sky. It was like he was a child again, looking up at the sky and the stars. Wondering if there was any other life out there. There was some kind of alarm going off near him as it was all he could hear around him. He watched the clouds going over him. His brain was screaming at him that something was wrong, but he just didn’t know what it was.
When has it become so hot outside? He was wearing his beanie, scarf, and raincoat. Why the heck was he wearing those when it was so warm? Although there were a few dark clouds above him, maybe the weather was meant to take a bad turn? And what was that smell? It was like a bonfire but mixed with the worst possible accelerants. It smelt like when they burnt Astrophage for the first time—
Grace blinked a couple of times. It was only then that he noticed his glasses weren’t on his face properly. He was only looking through one lens of his glasses. He could just make out the line of the bridge and nose pads. They were sitting away from his nose and pointed upward.
Grace wanted to lift his hands to fix them but his arms were so heavy. Why were they so heavy? His whole body was heavy actually, now that he thinks about it.
Had he laid down on the grass to meditate or something? Did he pass out? Why can’t he remember what he was just doing? Grace screwed his eyes shut as he tried to recall what the heck he had been doing.
He remembered going to the café on site and getting two large coffees. He took his with sugar and creamer whereas Stratt — Stratt! He had been with Stratt. He had got them both large coffees to their liking. He had strolled down the steps of the science building, clocking Stratt standing near the launch site.
He had walked over to her, and they’d discussed the mission together. Grace had tried to compliment her. It was not his strong suit to say the least. She had given him a compliment too, not that he had taken it very well. Even when he ordered her to do so. He could practically hear her voice in his head.
“Grace!” She was shouting at him. What had he done this time? Grace tried to sit up. It would not look good to the lead of the project for him to be laying on the grass just three days before the launch of the mission.
“Grace, stop! Don’t move!” Stratt’s face was above him now. Her hair cascading down to his face like a weird rose gold waterfall. It was only then that he noticed how blurry his vision was at the edges. Stratt readjusted his glasses for him, and he could truly see the concern carved into her features now. Grace laid back, the blades of dried grass cutting at the skin at the back of his neck as he did.
“What— What’s wrong? Has something happened?” Stratt just looked at him with even more concern and — fear. It was fear on her face. Grace had barely seen the woman smile let alone show any kind of concern or fear. Especially toward him.
“Just— Just stay still alright. Don’t move.” Grace was even more confused now. Why couldn’t he move? What else had he been doing before all of this? There was something else he had been doing, he knows it, but he just can not remember it. He closed his eyes again, blocking out Stratt as she made a panicked phone call to someone. He thought back to the conversation he was having with Stratt.
She had mentioned DuBois and Shapiro were conducting experiments with the Astrophage together. He wanted to see what they were up to and if there was anything else he could teach them. He was fairly certain that he had taught them everything he knew and everything there was to know about Astrophage, but it was never too late to—
The lab had exploded. It had exploded in his face. He wasn’t close to the building, but he also wasn’t far from the blast itself. That explained the heat he had felt, the smell, the sound — it was his ears ringing, why he was looking up at the sky instead of the building. Or whatever was left of it.
It also explained why he was so confused. How the heck did he just forget that he was almost killed by an explosion? The human brain was both a blessing and a curse.
Grace looked back up at Stratt, but she was down by his leg now, doing… something? Grace strained his neck to see what she was doing. When had he put on red pants— When had he bought red pants? Grace looked at his other leg, the pant leg wasn’t red?
Grace’s brain was too frazzled to figure out what was going on. Before he could ask Stratt again, searing white pain emanated from his right thigh. He couldn’t stop the scream that ripped from his throat.
“I know. I know. I am afraid it’s necessary Grace. I have to stem the blood loss.” Blood loss? He was losing blood? His head became too heavy for him to hold up anymore so he lowered it back to the grass.
The ground around his head vibrated. Vehicles shot past the pair of them as more and more teams responded to the explosion. One came close to the pair, Grace’s head fell sideways as he tried to look at it. To him, the world was upside down. A figure got out of the car.
“Carl—?” Carl looked at Grace with the same amount of horror as Stratt did.
“Jesus Christ. The medical team is on its way now. What can I do—” It was the last thing Grace remembered before unconsciousness finally took him.