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Gianna sighed with relief when Cody opened his eyes. She didn't say anything, not sure of what she could in this situation. She glanced around the room, looking for any signs of their friends. She looked back at Cody in time to get kissed and thanked.
"You would've, but okay... No problem," she said, allowing Cody to lead her from the rubble to her feet. She looked around, the movement making her a bit dizzy. She held on to Cody's hand tightly, letting him lead her around. As noise began to fill her ears, she looked forward and saw Keith sitting up in a pile of debris. The noise however, became too much for even her to handle and she pulled back, trying to bring Cody with her. She stood by his side outside the seeming noise bubble around Keith. As Cody called to him, Gianna looked around for Lys and the others. It wasn't like Lys to be far from Keith, and CJ would be by her, and Aia by her.
"Lys?! Courtney?!" she called.

Lys tried to move but there was something heavy on top of her, she didn't dare open her eyes, she could already feel the familiar throbbing of her knees that told her that she would barely be able to walk if she tried to stand. Fatigue was building inside her, even though she had been passed out for hours more than likely. She moved an arm and more things fell so she froze and started a self check. there was something really heavy pinning her to the ground, and something on her was bleeding but she wasn't sure what. She took a deep breath, grateful that there was nothing on top of her chest but broken pieces....
The cold material near her hands was immediately recongnizable as metal, and probably dangerous... so she resigned herself to needing help. Finally she opened her eyes, and realized that there was indeed something on top of her, and it was her luck agian that saved her. She was in between shelves satill connected to the back metal brackets.
"Keith? Cj? Help. guys?"

Cody dashed over, the sound bubble gone at last. He grabbed the side of the shelf, and heaved it off of Keith's leg, adrenaline lending him strength. It flopped on its side, and settled in a puff of dust. Cody looked at Gianna and tapped Keith's shoulder.

"Gi, stay with him. I'm gonna go find everybody. That shelf hit him pretty hard, so I think it hurt him. Please make sure he's alright? I'll be back soon."

He heard a voice, and immediately heard CJ shout. Cody shouted back.

"WE'RE OVER HERE! I'VE FOUND GI AND KEITH, AND I'M LOOKING FOR LYS! CAN YOU SEE HER ANYWHERE?"

(( Penguin had been heading home from work that afternoon when on the drive home he felt like doing something with his friends. He wanted to go see that new movie The Watchman, that was supposed to be coming out and decided to call up a few people and see if they wanted to go. While coming up to a stop light he quickly pulled out his phone and cycled through the list of contacts till he finally stopped at Switch's. After a quick conversation he found out that she wasn't able to go out that night cause of homework stuff. Over the conversation he asked if she thought anyone else might be interested and was suggested to give CJ a try, which had mentioned to here that a few of their friends were going to meijer's that day. Seeing as how he was close by he decided to give it a shot on the off chance that they might actually be there. That and there was something that he wanted to pick up for himself. After parking the car and walking into the store he immediately proceeded to ask one of the people at the check out counters where he could find the lighters. Spring was starting to set back in. . although a little late. . and he was already thinking about blasting off a few of the left over fire works from the previous year. When he arrived at the aisle near the front of the store he browsed their inventory checking over a bunch of the cheap value pack plastic lighters. You know the ones that come in the entire rainbow of colors? Anyway it was during this brief skimming when he saw it. A jet-black metallic zippo lighter. . he looked it over and tossed it around a bit and felt the weight. . it was almost full but then, why did someone leave it on the ground? It had to belong to somebody considering there was no price sticker, and the fact that it had this cool Obsidian black color kind of differentiated itself from the other lighters. Penguin began to flick the lighter again and again, getting the sparks but no lite just yet. After a few tries he kind of thought that it was a bummer that he couldn't lite it yet but then reminded himself that he just got something that he was gonna buy anyway for FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! He looked around to see if anyone was coming and decided to walk away from the aisle in case the owner came looking for it.

He had made his way over to the kitchen section of the store, all the while continuing to try and get a flame going from his newly acquired lighter when the lights suddenly started to dim. After which all the lights in the store suddenly went out. Penguin looked up and then looked back at the lighter, "oh come on. Now you have to work" he thought to himself. He tried one more time and finally began to see the hint of a flame when a large blast sent him hurtling into one of the nearby shelves. "Oh son of a Bi-" But his sentence was cut short as another nearby shelf came crashing down overhead, the the loud boom drowning out his words. Penguin tried to struggle but started feeling increadibly sleepy. . He knew that wasn't good cause the combined weight of the shelves could have possibly given him a concusion. As he fought to try and stay awake he felt himself losing to growing drakness infront of him as he eyelids grew heavier and heavier, till he layed their, unconcious and still grasping the lighter that would not burn. . ))

{{WHOO!! Wow that was a good one! I did it all in one sitting too!! YAY!! Oh hey is there a way to subscribe to this topic? I can't seem to find a button to do it with so it'll pop up in the My Gaia page when ever some one posts on it? Oh dont worry Ill probably be finding you guys soon in the store so don't you fret. ^.^ }}

LYs heard CJ yell for Cody and immediately knew that someone had found her, but the weight of the shelf on her body and the broken metal was wearing into her pain tolerance. Tears stung in her eyes as she tried to yell again. She stayed as still as she could... praying that everyone was okay, needing a hand to hold, and fighting back the tears that stung in her eyes. All she could think about now was where Keith was. She didn't know why but she had a feeling that he was hurt.
Lys spoke again, "Guys? Help, god it hurts. I don't even know what hurts, or what's on top of me."
She hoped they would hear, and as soon as she got out, she was finding keith.

Lys did what Cody asked, using all the last of her strength to push on the heavy metal. As she pushed though she found a whole new round of injuries, one in her arm, specifically her wrist. But she pushed past the pain and let the frustration and the pain come out her mouth in a groan. She felt CJ's hands reach for her, and knew that they had seconds to get her out, She reached for CJ and her vision clouded. Pain was ebbing into her consciousness no matter how hard she tried to push it out.
She chanted her father's words, "Pain means you are alive..." to herself and wished it would end soon, and when she thought she couldn't do it anymore she heard Codys grunt and felt CJ pulled her body out from under the metal.
Immediately upon looking at CJ's face Lys knew that it was bad, but she didn't give Cj the time to tell her anything about it. Instead she found new focus.
"Where is everyone, are they okay? Where is Keith, was he hurt."
But even as she demanded the information CJ was holding her up, and Lys was thankful that CJ didn't mention how she could see the pain etched in Lys's face. She knew the look of Lys's painful limp....

Keith's vision blurred a bit from the pain, making his vision seem like it was going in and out of what was normal. His contacts had definitely moved around in his eyes, but he could still see as they slid in and out of place. He looked around at the wreck that was Meijer and saw Cody run over to a pile where he called for CJ. Keith figured that someone was under that pile, but when he heard Cody say "Lys", Keith had a flicker. He had to get over there, he had to help. Without thinking about it, he stood up on his legs, including the bad one, and felt his knee buckle as he went down in a tumble.
"Son of a...that really effing hurts!" Keith knew that he would have to go the doctor, the ER, or something, but right now, he had to get to Lys. He cried out as he tried to put pressure on his leg, but that failed again. He crashed down and cried out in pain again.
He cried out loud, screaming, wishing that his leg hadn't been hurt so that he could get to her.
"Well I really am worthless right now, aren't I? Son of a b***h!"
Keith then pulled himself up and sat down on a shelving unit, waiting for them to bring her to him, because as he had proved, he certainly couldn't go to her.

Cody murmured softly.

"Well s**t... I guess I'm not as bad off as I thought..."

He glanced over to Lys and Keith, and smile broke his face. Even though they were both hurt, they were alive. So was CJ, and so was Gianna, and he was sure that Aia and Jason were too. He decided that he would stay positive, and help out all he could, considering that he was one of the lucky few who was unharmed. He set about gathering some materials from the sections nearby, and soon had enough to put together a rudimentary splint, but then realized that he had no idea what to do with it. He knew that Jason would know what to do, and set out to look for him. He found Jason lying flat on his face, a lighter still in his hand. Cody sucked in a breath, and nudged him slightly, trying to rouse a response.

"Hey, Penguin, wake up man! We need your expertise, and we need it BAD!"

When no response came at first, an idea popped into Cody's head.

"If you fix Lys and Keith, I'm fairly certain that they'd be obliged to take you out for food..."

He enunciated "food", knowing that if anything would return Jason to the waking world, it was the mention of food...