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When Adrienne and I arrived at the scene of the accident it almost made me lose my focus. I had been to crashes before but nothing like this. It appeared that an eighteen wheeler had tried to swerve out of the way of a car that had pulled out without really looking but in the attempt to avoid the car the semi had run into a school bus. The bus had rolled over onto its side and that had thrown everyone inside around.
If that wasn't enough, in trying to keep from slamming into the bus or semi several cars had run off the road—some had even rolled over—and a few had crashed into the vehicles in front of them.
There was no time for small talk or to discuss some sort of plan. It was rather likely that Resurrectors would be coming, especially with the bus full of children. Even a couple months ago I would have struggled with reaping the souls of any of the children, yet now that was the first place I went to. The Resurrectors would fight so much harder for the lives of children and I knew that. It would be a great victory to take the souls before the Resurrectors had a chance.
A part of me felt that thinking more about the war with the Resurrectors than the souls I was reaping said a lot about how I was changing. What happened to the girl who had been so upset about having to take the soul of a premature baby? I really had to admit to myself that she was gone.
As I started the Reaping process with the bus load of children my thoughts flashed back to a conversation with Thanos. "There is something you need to understand about how a person steps into the role you now find yourself occupying. For you to become the Angel of Death I was supposed to kill you." The Angel of Death was supposed to be detached, uncaring towards the people he or she was sent to Reap.
I didn't think as I pulled soul after soul out of the bodies and sent them on to the next stage of existence. Then there were the few that were not fated to die. Seeing that they would be fine until the Resurrectors arrived, I passed by them and continued with my job.
It took a few minutes before Adrienne came over to me. She had reaped several people in the cars and had just finished with the semi driver. "Tamesis, the Resurrectors are here. It would be best if we got out of here. We would not want to get into another battle with them here. Thanos would not want you to get entangled with them again."
I shook my head. "No, we still have work to do here. I am not going to allow the Resurrectors to save a soul that should pass on. We have to maintain the Balance. That is what is important."
She grabbed my arm and turned me around to face her. "Trust me, the souls left here are not ones that will affect the Balance of everything. In fact, there are some souls that could still have the opportunity to live." Then she pulled out her scroll and opened it in front of my face. "Look, even now some of the names are fading. In a matter of minutes they will be off our list and have another chance at life."
As far as work matters went I had to listen to her. It was entirely possible that she was speaking complete truths and I had to admit that if I had not changed then I would want to leave some of the children to be saved. I let out a deep breath. "Fine. Let's get out of here."
I went to look around at the scene of the accident one more time and that was when I saw Sitara, Alaula, and Damir arriving and setting to work on the survivors. Certainly they would take this as a small victory. They did not understand the nature of what Fate wanted or why some death was necessary. Right now I simply did not have the time to try and convince them to see the truth of matters.
Project Death: Resurrection Page 39