BSB Broken Bonds Part 2 Title: New Worlds
In what seemed almost like an eternity lying in the darkness, the Backstreet Boys painfully picked themselves up from the floor amidst cold steel and shattered concrete debris.
"Are...are you guys alright?" Kevin groaned as he brushed himself clean of the dust that had covered him from head to toe. "Are...are we dead?"
"I don't think so..." Brian pulled himself up from under thick black soot and joined his cousin where he stood next to the surprisingly sealed, but battered elevator doors. "Aj...Howie...Nick...you guys alright?" Brian panted heavily in disbelief that his heart hadn't given out on him as they plummeted to their doom.
"I'm alive...."
"Yea...me to.." Aj broke into coughs. Sending dust flying everywhere around him.
"Where's Aaron?!?" Nick panically regained his bearings as he went rummaging through debris and dust frantically searching for his brother. "Aaron! Where are you?!?" Nick's voice strained with his efforts of locating his brother. His heart pumped a million times faster as tears slowly rolled down his eyes, fearing for his brother's life.
"Ni...Ni..Nick...I'm okay..." Aaron's soot covered slim arm burst from under a bed of dust and made to grab for his older brother.
"Oh thank God!" Nick quickly pulled him to his feet and wrapped his arms thankfully and lovingly around his younger brother.
Nick took a close look at his soot covered younger brother. When he was finally satisfied that Aaron was still intact, a little battered and bruise, but he was intact, Nick started to brush soot and dirt and debris off of his little brother.
"What do you think happened?" Brian softly asked as he got off his knees and sat back down against the burnt and broken mirrors. "You guys think this was caused by an earthquake?" Brian turned while running his hands gingerly -- almost caressingly -- over the broken glass and twisted metal.
"F*ck! All, I remember is that loud explosion...some sort of earthquake maybe?" Kevin made a stab at pushing against the elevator doors, but his efforts were clearly in vain. "Seems like we're going to be stuck here for a while though." Kevin sighed loud and sat next to Brian. Kevin tried to smooth the lines and wrinkles in his new pants, but gave up trying when he ended up making things worse.
"We can't possibly wait in here forever. We'll suffocate in here!" Howie got to his feet and tried where Kevin failed at opening the doors. "Help us! Anybody out there?! Someone, please get us out of here!" It was in vain. Howie collapsed to his knees whispering his valiant effort for rescue.
Suddenly, the elevator cab shook violently as explosion after blood curdling explosion rocked the dust, boys, and debris where they rested.
"What the hell is that?!?" Aj, clung to the wall of the elevator cab, holding on for dear life. Another explosion shook the cab of the elevator, almost sending Aj across the tiny space.
"I don't know. But the doors are giving!" Howie and Nick rushed at the quivering elevator doors. Sending the top half crashing through loose dirt and rocks that had apparently burried it.
"Guys, push!" Kevin encouraged the other boyz as they pushed and pushed at the now half opened elevator doors.
More explosions rocked their little steel tomb, sending dust and particles raining down around them even as soot mushroomed underneath their straining feet. Together they pushed while a thick moist mist seeped in from all the openings of the elevator.
"C'mon guys, we can do it! One more time; PUSH!" Kevin rallied his bandmates and little Aaron, all the while choking in the moist mist that now enveloped and shadowed their every movement. After struggling with the rising sand and the thickening mist, they finally managed to wrench the doors open halfway which only led to more dirt to come pouring in.
"What the hell?!" Aj jumped back in surprise as the level of sand, soil, and soot rose at a constant rate.
After the initial shocked reaction to the dirt, the boys began to put their backs into their struggle against the door; as the level of sand continued to grow rapidly in the elevator. The boyz struggled to get the doors opened enough for them to escape. Their bodies trembled with the effort they put into it, while the sand grew and poured in around them.
Just when everybody thought that they were done for, one of the elevator doors finally gave out and collapsed slightly away from the pressure they had put into it. The mist grew thicker and thicker around them, faster even than the level of sand and stone.
"Everybody, get out, now!" Kevin ordered as he hoisted Aaron, Nick, and Brian out of the opening that they had.
Kevin raced with the rising sand and the enveloping mist, trying his best to get his brothers out of the doomed metal mousoleum.
Kevin boosted all his Backstreet Brothers out of the half burried elevator coffin until he himself was half burried. With the help of the other guys, Kevin was able to pull himself free from the sinking sacophagus just in time. Screaming in loud metallic agony, the elevator cab collapsed within itself in one loud primal growl of crushed steel and broken glass.
"Thanks..." Kevin muttured as he laid on the ground gasping for air despite the knee deep sea of mist around him. The others gasped and coughed with exhaustion and the choking cold mist that seeped into everything.
"What in the hell..." Kevin was dumbstrucked where he lied on the ground, opening his eyes to the strange world that surrounded them. Everything around him was not the world they had left behind.
"Whoa..." The other boys took a collective gasp as they stood up gazing around them at the remnants of New York City. There were no clear signs of the tall gargantuan buildings that once characterized New York City. A barren landscape, stained with the blood of what was once in there place, stared back at them. Jagged remnants of the toppled behemoths jutted out of the red earth like half burried bleached bones of long dead animals. The air was hot and dry, despite the absence of the once bright sun. Above them, a thick covering screamed it's fury in it's thickening red puffs. The sun was no where in sight.
The five men cringed inside, unknowing how to feel right at that moment. They had all experienced the most hair raising event in their entire lives a mere few hours ago, but this was different. Having survive from the very jaws of death, they had been ecstatic to have gotten through it alive. But as they looked around at what apparently was the ruins of New York City, they couldn't help but feel like they were boyz again.
Another grueling explosion shattered the empty silence of the empty landscape. Similar to the ones that they had heard earlier, the terrible, bone jarring explosion ripped through the eerie calm of the darkened day; followed by a searing hot wind swept through across the barren landscape, casting aside everything that stood in it's way like paper dolls in the wind. Kevin, Aj, and Howie hurled themselves down flat on the ground, while Nick and Brian sought shelter behind an outcrop of jagged concrete.
"Aaron." Nick grunted as he hit the burning cold concrete slad. "A-Aaron! Where is he?!" Nick's voice trembled with the wind, panic striking deep into the very core of his being. "Aaron!" Nick was slapped aside by the force of the angry wind. "oh...God..." Nick struggled to breathe as he laid on his side, still in disbelief and despair as to where his beloved little brother had gone to.
"AARON!" Brian screamed at the top of his lungs while pulling Nick back behind their sanctuary rock. "AARON!" Brian tried again, this time with the strong echoing voice of the others finally regaining their bearings.
"There he is!" Howie called out from under another explosion followed by a thick blast of scalding air.
About 50 yards away was Aaron Carter. He had failed to duck in time after the first blast, he had been mercilessly tossed aside by the angry wind. His clothes were torn here and there, but still caught by the shock of the first blast, Aaron was struggling to get to his feet.
"Oh God." Brian gasped as he heard another blast, knowing full well what it would do to Aaron's fragile little body. "AARON, STAY DOWN!" Brian, Nick and the others cried out in vain, their voices lost in the swirling fury of sand and stone.
50 yards away, Aaron was strove to get back to his feet. He had heard the first explosion, but wasn't fast enough to move out of the way. He had been tossed against a thick dune of red gravel and sand, while his clothes were almost ripped from his body.
"N-Nick?" Aaron fought to regain his breath as another explosion jarred him back into the ground. Aaron coughed up blood and spit, again trying to get to his feet.
"no..." Brian whispered in dismay as he watched Aaron's frail body struggle to his feet once again.
"AARON, NO!" Nick cried out in desperation while Brian held him back from doing anything irrational. But even so, he couldn't just watch his brother get ravaged by the angry wind. But as he was about to hurl himself away from Brian to try and save his little brother, a quick blurr of motion errupted from his peripheral vision and hurled itself on top of Aaron's trembling form.
The unknown blurr, finally took shape of that of a shirtless man as he pulled Aaron behind the dune that had earlier been used to batter Aaron's young body.
100 yards south of the panic stricken friends.
"Eh, what's that over there?" A tall darkly handsome man overheard the commotion. He yanked back on his demonic mount's reigns to investigate the ancient ruins of Old New York. Just as his mount started to spiral down on thermals, barbed bolas came whizzing passed him, barely missing his head by a few hairs' width.
End of Part 2