Regret

My lips curved into a smile as I admired my gains from the small scuffle only for it to vanish as the youngest boy stormed up to me in a huff. He grabbed me by the front of my shirt and tried to shake me as he berated me: "Why! Why did you kill him! That's not what we do!"

Gripping his hands, I forcefully separated him from me using my newfound strength. I made sure to control my power though, wouldn't want to break the kid's hand. Even if he was being annoying, I'm not some brute who'd hurt children. Even I have standards, however small they may be...

"In case you hadn't noticed kid, he wasn't a good person; scratch that, he wasn't even a person," I said dismissively to him while getting used to the sensation of my neuron's firing faster than ever before. It wasn't like in the movies where time slows down, it was more like there was just "more". I was able to think more and a lot faster; if before my mouth moved faster than my brain, now it was the other way around.

Before the kid could keep trying to lecture me, an explosion rocked the building, eliciting a small cascade of dust to fall from the ceiling.

A loud robotic voice echoed down the halls of the underground lab, "Attention all personnel, the self-destruct sequence has been activated. T-minus 5 minutes until detonation."

"Shit," I swore, "We need to leave. Where's the exit?" I asked the group of teens.

"Follow me," the dark-skinned teen said gruffly before dashing down the hallway, his two compatriots already on his tail.

Not waiting for him to elaborate, I raced after them.

Running through the winding hallways, zigging and zagging past abominations of all shapes and sizes, I felt free. I don't think I can think of another moment in my nineteen years of life where I've experienced anything as exhilarating as this.

After an adrenaline-filled race to the exit, we finally saw it: a single door at the top of a staircase.

"There it is! Go! Go! Go!" the leader of the teens shouted as he ran full-speed towards the exit.

Not thinking twice, the red-head disappeared in the blink of an eye and he suddenly at the top of the stairs, holding the door open.

"Hurry!" he shouted at us.

As if to echo his sentiments, the floor beneath us began to rumble and crack, the sound of explosions drawing ever closer. The rest of us ran as fast as we could up the stairs, the noise growing from a soft hum to a loud roar. The first to cross the threshold was the tanned boy, but as he reached the top of the stairs he turned around and a look of horror spread across his face.

Following his gaze with my enhanced reaction time, I noticed that the young boy was about to step on a crumbling section of the stairs that would send him plummeting to his death. Inwardly cursing my self, I leapt toward him, knocking him out of harm's way at the cost of myself. My actions pushed him past the threshold while my body landed on the crumbling floor, sending me tumbling down to the section of staircases below me.

As my body impacted the ground, the wind was knocked out of my lungs and I struggled to breathe. Just as I managed to catch my breath, I saw rubble come crashing down on me and instinctively coated my body in void energy. Acting as a shield and insulant, it kept the larger pieces of concrete from crushing my body and the smaller pieces from getting in my eyes or in my mouth. Although I was safe, I was stuck. No matter how much I strained my arms or legs, nothing happened. I could still wiggle my limbs a little, but my arms and legs were pinned by large blocks of concrete.

Looking on the bright-side, now I had some time to think about what happened to me. It all happened so fast, that I was never given time to process any of it. So... a tentacle monster gave me superpowers. Huh. I thought there would be more to think about, but no. I never really had any friends or family on Earth, so it makes sense that I wouldn't feel very attached. But damn, I'm going to miss wasting hours of my life in front of my pc.

Thinking about my current situation, there's not much I can do now besides waiting for someone to rescue me. So I slept, for hours, for days, I didn't know. I only felt my body growing weaker as my hunger and dehydration kept growing. It seemed that my abilities didn't make me immortal, just sturdier than the average man, a lesson I wish I could have learned some other way.

With my mouth drier than the Sahara, I let out a throaty chuckle that quickly became a series of dry coughs.

"So this is how I die, again that is. I know I'm supposed to have no regrets or something, but fuck that. I'm pissed! I got a new lease on life only to lose it to a building of all things!"

With my pent-up anger finally released, I felt my body begin to relax as I drifted off into the land of slumber.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ayo, it's me ya boi back with another chapter after... a while. I was on spring break for the past week or two just having a good time, but I'm back and ready to resume releases!