“Put your hands up and drop the sword!” The guard demanded as he approached me, his flashlight on the rifle making me squint my eyes. I complied, dropping the sword to the ground near Slinca’s head, making a bit of a splash as it hit the pool of blood already forming around her. The guards picked me up by my shoulders as they pushed me out of the room, leading me outside into the white fluorescent lights of the Yurinami school.
Once I placed my right foot on the ground, the pain from Slinca’s stab spiked through my whole body and I gave a huge grunt while clenching my teeth and fell to the ground. A guard came over to me and told me to relax as he held a syringe in his hands, he gave me a cloth rag and told me to bite down on it to deal with the pain. I did what he said as he punctured my foot with the syringe, it was even more painful than the initial stab itself. I bit down on the cloth so hard that I thought I was gonna break my teeth. The initial shock stopped and my leg went limp, and I looked down at it. The hole in my foot was slowly healing itself at a very rapid rate. In only about a minute, my foot was fully healed. I was astonished to say the least, I never saw or even heard of any type of medicine that could instantly heal a wound like that. It had to be a piece of secret government technology that hasn’t been shown to the public before. I had so many questions but no opportunity to ask them as the guard pulled the cloth from my mouth and walked away. I suppressed them into the back of my mind and looked to my right to see who else was victorious in their battles, though I didn't want to know. No matter who won, they wouldn’t really feel the rush they usually get from a victory, more of a sense of defeat and despair than basking in the glory.
Jesse was sitting down, her legs stained with blood, but only her legs. She looked out of it, like she was having an outer body experience. Completely zoned out from reality, that also meant that Penny was dead. I didn’t know how to feel about that revelation that hit me, it seems that's how I feel for a lot of things now.
The guards were just opening the door to Fred and Ian’s room. Now I couldn’t know who would have won that fight, they’ve been equally matched each time they fought. The guard said the same thing to me when they entered the room, but this time, whoever was alive was putting up more of a struggle. The person was thrown out of the room and onto the ground. It was Fred, he had won the fight. He was completely freaking out, kept yelling swears at the guards and going on insane rambles about something I couldn’t quite make out, I couldn’t even hear him half the time. Eventually they were able to calm him down, as he sat in the corner of the room facing the wall. I understood how he felt, if I was my old self that’s exactly how I’ll react to killing a friend.
All of the doors to the little rooms closed, and they were dragged away on pulleys into a little warehouse area they had closed off. Yurinami stepped forward and onto the stage with a microphone, multiple guards surrounding him.
“Hello surviving graduates!” He opened with, giving a little bow. “I know that last challenge was the hardest you faced in your whole life. I’d say, all of the struggles you faced during it is all worth it to achieve this honor.” A guard came up with a metal briefcase, and gave it to Yurinami. “I would like to commemorate these medals as a reward and as a sort of certificate of the first class to pass Yurinami Fighting School.” He grabbed three gold medals, each one engraved with our name on it. “Now, when I call your name, please come up and accept this certificate.” He said it like we were gonna completely comply after forcing us to kill our friends. Jesse and Fred were thinking the same thing, looking up at him in such disgust and unbridled rage.
“Jesse Daster.” He called. Jesse took a while to get up off the ground and begrudgingly got up and walked up to the stage. “You were always a really great fighter, even before we started our lessons together. Always surpassing everyone, you were and still are, the best student I’ve ever had the pleasure to teach.” Yurinami held out the gold medal to her, and she snatched it from his hand aggressively. Not wanting to deal with his bullshit anymore and just wanted to go home and leave this place behind. "I know that you're going to have a bright future ahead of you." She quickly walked away, not even batting a single eye as she went directly to the front door of the school and walked out.
“That could’ve gone worse.” He said as a sad attempt at a joke. He cleared his throat and grabbed another medal from the case. “Fred Purpintine.” Fred just sat in his corner and refused to even walk over to the stage. Yurinami ordered some guards to drag him towards him. The guards walked over there and grabbed him by the shoulders. He squirmed around and kept yelling at them to stop and put him down, but to no use. When they got him to the stage the guards had to hold him down, like a dog getting its shot at the vet. “You went through multiple ups and downs during your time here, especially in the beginning. But, you’ve exceeded my expectations and continued to grow better and stronger with each passing day. I have high hopes for your future endeavors.” He put the medal around Fred’s neck as he squirmed around so much that the guard had to sit on his back to keep him still. “You can let him go now.” He said as he got the medal around his neck. As soon as the guards got off of him, Fred jumped to his feet and took the medal off of him and threw it at Yurinami’s face.
“Take this shit back you fucking monster!” He shouted at him as Yurinami hit the floor. The guards drew their guns on him, ready to fire. I closed my eyes and expected them to do the job, except Yurinami put his hand in the air and signaled them to stop.
“Let him go boys, I’m alright.” He got to his feet. Fred snarled at him as he stormed out the front door, leaving me all alone. “Last, but not least.” He grabbed another medal. “Lee Pulpis.”
I got up from the ground and walked up there, just wanted to get through it and leave just like the others. It made me physically sick to my stomach as I walked up to him, his smiling mask he had on hiding the expression of complete malice and coldness in his heart. He handed out the medal towards me and I just nonchalantly took it from his hands and dangled it off my index finger.
“Where do I even start with you?” He started in his annoyingly over positive voice. “Ever since the first day I knew that you were gonna be a great student. Even with those expectations set higher than any others, you pulled off the greatest stunt in human history.” When he said that, it seemed like he dropped his tone for a little bit. Like he wasn’t really proud of me at all, and everything he was saying was a nonstop stream of deceit and lies. “And with that, I feel like I have succeeded as your mentor, not to mention as your teacher.” I clenched my fists, it was obvious that he was saying that to piss me off. “I know that you will have a great life ahead of you.”
I couldn’t hold back any comments I wanted to make and slipped one out. “I hope you burn in hell.”
“Well if I’m going to hell, guess you’ll join it with me.”
I dropped the medal on the wood stage and walked away from him, putting my complete focus on getting out of there.
“I’ll be rooting for you.” He said right before I reached the door.
I ignored his comment and shoved the door open to the outside, where I saw the usual empty street, the light breeze passing through, and the manhole cover, a sign of my home. To the side were Jesse and Fred sitting on the ground together, both of them in the same state. I’ve seen Jesse cry before, but never be in a complete state of blankness, like a soldier giving a thousand yard stare. I walked over to them, sitting right next to her. It was an uncomfortable amount of silence as we just sat there, sulking in the events of the day.
Six walked in, three walked out.
“Fuck dude.” I heard Fred whimpering. “What the actual fuck dude.” I heard him sniffle as he let out a tear. “Why? Why? Fucking why?” I reached out and patted him on the back, his teary eyed face snapped towards me. He didn’t say it, but it looked like it comforted him. “I wish we could just fucking kill him, rip out his fucking heart and stop on it until it’s nothing but paste.”
“Nothing would be better but to watch that guy suffer.” Jesse said. “Even if I'm not the one to do it, it would still bring me satisfaction.”
After those words, we didn’t speak to each other for a while. It must have been around twenty minutes. Then, I broke the silence and said. “What were their last words?” After saying it, I realized that no one was in the state to talk about that yet.
Jesse looked at me, and I was expecting her to berate me or just not answer the question at all. But I was surprised when she said, “She really didn’t have any final words.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “When the fight started, she was having a mental breakdown. She kept screaming at me, not even screaming any words, she just screamed.” She paused. “While she was screaming, she kept attacking me with her sword. It was obvious she didn’t have any sort of tactic or plan.” I put my hand on her knee, it was pretty clear it was getting harder for her to tell the story. She continued, “I tried to reason with her, but no matter what I said, she wouldn’t listen to me. Her mind went into full panic mode.” She held her hand to her mouth. “I didn’t want to kill her but,” She started crying. “I had no other choice.” She sniffled. “So I made it a quick death for her. I slit her throat.”
“Holy shit.” Fred said in shock.
“When her body fell to the ground, she was holding her neck as she bled out.” She grabbed me and pulled me close to her. “She didn’t deserve to die!” She cried into my chest. I felt really bad, I shouldn’t have brought up the subject in the first place. I hugged her back as she continued to cry.
“Ian was the complete opposite.” Fred said. “When the fight started, none of us lunged at each other.” I looked up at him as Jesse continued to cry. “We sat down on the floor and talked. He told me all he wanted in life was for him and his sister to live in a house and be happy. He knew it was a long shot to even get there, but he wanted to work towards it.” He sank lower into his sitting position and started talking softer. “He knew that his sister wasn’t going to survive the fight with you Jesse. Then, he asked me to kill him and join her.” He tilted his head fully down to hide his face from us. “So, I stabbed him in the heart, and soon after that. He died.” I heard little sniffles coming from him as he kept his head down.
“What about Slinca’s?” Jesse tilted her head up. “What was hers?”
“It was…” I paused, trying to reflect on the whole fight. “It was, ‘I love you.’ After when I-when I…” I took another moment to think. “When I impaled her.”
“You impaled her?” She questioned me.
“It was a pretty intense fight, we both got really good hits on each other. Unfortunately, I was the one who got the lucky hit on her.”
“God, I can’t imagine the pain she was in.”
“Yeah. I couldn’t” I looked down at the pavement.
We sat there again, none of us building up the courage to speak up. Then a thought crossed my mind, we have to tell Nancy, William, and Alice about what happened here. There was no doubt that one of us had to, but who was going to tell them? I don’t know if I have the courage to, and I definitely know neither of them have it either.
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Another twenty minutes passed as we let our emotions out, or the ones we have left. After that, we headed back to camp. Lifting the manhole cover and climbing down into the depths below. Walking through the mushy pathway, none of us said a word to each other. The usual campfire glow greeted us as we turned the corner to see the casual scene, people sitting around and talking. Alice was the first one that spotted us as she came up and hugged me.
“I missed you very much!” She said, “How was the last day?” She looked past me and saw Fred and Jesse. “Where’s everyone else?”
There it was, the question I didn’t want her to ask. “They’re, um…” I started to get nervous, my legs were shaking as I looked back at them, both giving me a nervous look. I had to suck it up and give it to her straight, no beating around the bush. “They’re dead.”
“What?” She gasped. “Stop lying.”
“I wish I was Alice, I wish I was.”
“There’s no way, you guys were just-I don’t understand.” She started to cry and I kneeled down and hugged her.
Nancy came running over. “What happened?” Jesse came in and told her, and she put her hands to her face. “No fucking way.” She came from behind Alice and started hugging her as well, sandwiching Alice between us.
William also came over, and Fred told him what happened. We all participated in a group hug after that.
Once the whole initial shock of the revelation settled down, we sat down and explained the whole situation to them. Yurinami setting up the final exam to be one of the most cruel things we’d ever experienced.
Alice came up with an idea that we should hold a funeral for them and everyone agreed. We came together and gathered stones that were laying around the sewer. We made three separate piles for them, and placed their belongings they brought with them beside them. We all held a moment of silence for them as we mourned. Nancy and William were the first to leave, not in a disrespectful way, they had to do their daily scavenge on the city above. Alice, Fred, Jesse, and I all sat around their piles.
Alice rested her head on my shoulder and sobbed. “When does it ever stop Lee?” She continued to sob. “First Eric, then mom and dad and now this. I just want it to stop.”
“I don’t think it’ll ever stop.” I said as I coarse my fingers through her hair. “No matter where you go, you will always run the risk of dying. This world is very cruel and unforgiving. You just need to learn and accept that.”
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I woke up in a flower bed, covered by all sorts of tulips, poppies, the many beautiful colors soaking into the bright sunset. It was a very pretty sight to behold as my soft body was being touched by the delicate feel of the flowers. The earth beneath me became the catalyst to the still bliss that I basked in for the brief moment I could finally relax. I rolled over on my stomach and enjoyed the wind breezing through. I was completely nude, it felt like I was in the Garden of Eden. I closed my eyes and sat up as the wind began to pick up, my hair flowing like a flag at the top of its mast.
I opened my eyes and looked across the field of flowers, and saw a very strange sight. Another nude boy like me, standing on the very far end of the field. Though, something was different. The flowers over there were completely dead or were dried up, like it hasn’t been watered in hundreds of years. I got up on my feet and felt the strange urge to walk towards there. My body basically took control of itself as my legs started to move. I was taking a light jog over, the closer I got to him the more I recognized him. He had the same hair as me, short cut and brown, though his was way more messed up than mine.
I was now really close that I could get a better glance at his body more. He looked to be the same height as me, and the same weight as me. It felt like this guy was an exact copy. My suspicions were confirmed true as he turned around and faced me. His eyes, nose, and mouth, all proportionally identical to mine. His red eyes like mine, staring me down with a cold and bitter look. I basically froze in fear as I was confronted with him, neither of us saying a word.
“Why hello there.” The guy said in the same voice as mine, tone and everything. “Didn’t expect you to show up here this early.”
“What the-” I started to say but was immediately interrupted by him.
“Oh yeah that's right, you’re not really used to this huh?”
“Who are you?” I stumbled back a little.
“Me? Who the fuck else do I look like dumbass.” The sudden hostility caught me off guard and made me back off even more.
“But, I’m me as well. This doesn’t make sense.”
“Dude, I’m gonna tell you right now. Trying to make sense of this isn’t going to do any good for you. You’re just gonna be running around in circles inside your head, so stop while you’re at it.” He had a very cynical tone to his voice, it sounded the exact same as I did, back when Eric died.
“Do you know what's going on?”
“Of course not, I just woke up here like you.” The guy, or should I say ‘other me.’ Bent down and picked up a dead flower from his side of the field. “These poor little things, wondered what happened to them.”
“Do you want a live one?” I asked him.
“Sure.”
I bent down and picked up a flower and handed it over to him. As soon as my hand crossed the invisible barrier, the flower in my hand started to quickly dry out and crumble apart.
Other me sighed and said, “Guess everything that's over here dies.”
“But you’re still fine right?”
“I don’t feel fine.” He looked past me at the beautiful scenery. “What’s it like on your side?”
“Oh well it’s um…” I looked behind me and saw how incredibly small it was. “It’s nice. I haven’t been here for long so I can’t really tell.”
“Fairly small though, compared to my side.”
I looked past him and saw that the dead field expanded for what seemed like miles and miles. While mine seems to go at least an acre or two before it ended with a cliffside that led to an expansive ocean. “That’s weird huh?” I remarked.
“Very.” He said, examining me with his eyes.
“Is it at least nice over there?”
He looked behind him and slowly tilted his head back towards me. “What the fuck do you think?”
“Sorry.” I scratched my head. “If it’s that bad, then why don’t you come over here?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
He reached his hand out and tried to touch me. The literal millisecond his finger crossed the line, it immediately started to crack up and disintegrate. I saw him close his eyes and bite his lip as he pulled his hand back to his side. The finger started to heal right back like nothing happened. “That’s why.” He said.
“Holy shit.” Is all I could say.
“I’m pretty sure the same thing happens to you, but you can try.”
“No thanks.” I tried to play the whole situation off as a joke, giving a little chuckle. I looked down at the line that divided us and noticed it slightly moved an inch closer to me, the grass decaying as it did, almost touching my toes. I quickly stepped back.
“That’s been happening for a good hour now.” He said as he kneeled down and watched as the lively grass soon turned disheveled. “It’s been slowly moving towards your side. Figures why your’s is small compared to mine.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know.”
“Well it has to be caused by something.”
“You act like i’m the creator of this fucking place, stop asking stupid questions.”
“Can you do something to stop it?”
“What did I just fucking say!?”
“Gosh I’m sorry, I’m just freaked out.” The line was probably moving an inch a minute, somewhere along there.
I looked back at the other me and he looked at me right back. “What happens when my side is completely gone?”
“I guess I have full control over everything here.” He said back. “Unless you do something about it.”
“Huh?”
“I think I know why this is happening.”
“You know? Then tell me.”
“I’m sorry but you’ll have to find that out for yourself.”
“What!?”
“Look Lee, you don’t have much time but let me give you this. You're the only person that can stop this from spreading, you understand?” He took me by my shoulders, even though his arm was decaying by the second. “Everything else can wait! What’s most important, is to not let your side succumb to this.” His arms were now just old rusted bones. He pulled his arm back to his side and they started to quickly grow back. “I’m counting on you.”
“Wait! I need more of a-” My vision went black.
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My eyes opened to the familiar sight of the roof of the tent and the feeling of Jesse’s arm resting gently on my chest. I was sweating profusely as I sat up, her arm sliding down on my legs. I looked at her peacefully sleeping and that calmed me down, but didn’t completely erase the memory of that weird dream I had. It almost didn’t feel like a dream, more like it was legitimately happening. Guess that's how all dreams feel before you wake up. Though it was still strange, I’ve never had a dream like that. The worst dream I had was on the second day I stayed here, that feels so long ago.
I slowly got up and rolled up the sleeping bag and left the tent, and nobody was outside yet. Guess I woke up early, I thought to myself. My eyes caught a glance at the graves we made, it made me forget that three days have passed since that happened. I said that I’ll move out of here and the city once the whole Yurinami thing was done and over with. Now I just don’t want to leave, this place feels more like a home than my original one did.
I decided to get the day started right and make myself some breakfast. I started up the campfire and put some leftover meat that William got from above ground on a stick, cooking it up on a campfire. I grabbed a pot of water and hung it up over the fire to get it boiling. Dipping the meat into the water and letting it sizzle. The meat was already precooked, it was all about just heating it up.
It was ready to eat, taking it out of the water and putting it on a plate. While waiting for it to cool down, I put all of the materials needed to cook away. We didn’t have any utensils so I ate with my bare hands, the meat grease getting all over my fingers. I finished and wiped my hands off with a towel.
William got out of his tent as I was putting the plate down. He looked at me shocked, like he saw a ghost. “Didn’t expect you to be up at this hour.”
“Neither did I.” I said back as I wiped my mouth.
“You already had breakfast?”
“Yeah.”
He grabbed a plate and some meat as he sat down next to me. “Nothing beats a good breakfast to start the day.”
I didn’t respond, only stood up and walked over to my tent as William started cooking. I lifted up the flap to see Nancy waking up and trying to fix her messy red hair. She looked at me with her squinted eyes. “I expected you to be asleep with the rest.” She yawned. “Though it’s great that you are.” She got up and basically pushed me out of the tent. “We need to talk.”
She grabbed my hand and we walked around the corner, the same place where we talked about how I even got here. “I don’t want to worry you, but this is very important.” I wondered what it was, maybe it was about the plan to leave this place again. “It’s about Alice.”
My eyes widened with shock and concern. “Did something happen?” I asked kind of frantically.
“No, nothing serious! I told you it’s nothing really to be worried about, kinda.”
“Saying that makes me worry more.”
“Sorry, let me get to it.” She gave a big sigh and patted me on the shoulder. “I know that you’re a really good brother to her and I’m very happy to be her, sort of a new mother figure.”
“And I thank you for looking after her, a lot of shit has happened.”
“Heh, tell me about it.” She crossed her arms. “I only say that because I think you see it like I do. She’s only fourteen and you’re only sixteen. You’ve already proven that you can handle yourself out there perfectly fine. Even though she is roughly close to your age, she acts like she’s eight years old. I think you know why that is.”
I’ve noticed that for a good while now, I just never had the time or even knew how to approach her about it. Now seems like a good time, since I’m basically doing nothing around here.
“She can barely handle herself like you can, all she can do is read a book in silence when I’m with her.”
“I think I know what you’re getting at here.” I looked behind us at the camp. “You want me to help her right?”
“Yes! I would do it myself, but I think it would be better if you were the one. You are her brother after all.”
“I understand.”
“She’s a good kid, and I don’t want her to die. She may not be of legal age to kill, but I’ve seen too many like her die out there, and I’m not gonna sit by as it happens again.”
“I promise that’ll never happen.” I said with hard determination. “I’ll teach her how to survive and everything.”
“Thank you.” She walked away and over to the campfire to cook some breakfast,
I looked over at our tent and took a big breath. I needed to talk to Alice about it. The conversation I dreaded having with her but it needs to be done, it’ll be the least tough thing I’ve done in my life so far.
I built up the courage and started walking around the corner, but I got grabbed by my arm by someone. I turned to face who it was, but the person also grabbed my face and dragged me by my arm and slammed me against a wall. They were covering my mouth and pulled out a pistol, pointing it at my head. They were wearing a ski mask, not allowing me to get a good look at them, only their green eyes looking straight into me.
“Don’t make any sudden movements or I’ll pop you here right here and now.” It was a female voice. “Now listen to me carefully and clearly, you give me all of your shit you have in that camp, I let you and everyone go.”
“Everything?” I asked.
She responded by whipping me with the but of the pistol. “Yes.” She adementally confirmed.
“You got a hostage?” I heard a male voice to the left of me ask the girl.
“Yes, a young one.”
“Even better.”
My eyes glared over to him, he was also wearing a ski mask.
“Let’s go already, I’m starving.” There was another female voice, another woman with a ski mask. “I think we should waste them, why even hold a hostage.”
“We’re criminals on the run Jackie! If the government detects that we killed a person they’ll know our location in a second. It’s the whole reason we’re in the sewers in the first place.”
“But didn’t we tear those trackers out?”
“No, we only cut the transmission to their feed. Do you even know how the system even works?”
“Not a clue.”
“There’s not only a camera in your eyes, but also sensors in your nerves as well. They know what you’re holding, touching, eating, smelling, and hearing. The only thing they can’t track is what you’re thinking, that’s why I tell you to shut your mouth about our location.”
I couldn’t understand what I was hearing, this is the first time I have heard about the government putting sensors in your body. I always wondered how they do it, I didn't expect this is how I figured it out. Though, I’m not sure what she’s saying is even true, it could be another crazy person coming up with a conspiracy theory. Also, I have never ever heard anything of that sort from any of my teachers, hell even my own parents who were alive before the new laws. Wait, if the government can hear what they’re hearing, does that mean if I call for help, will they come for me? I have already confirmed that Runasi is protecting me at all costs.
“And don’t you get any ideas kid about telling me who you are, if you even say the first initial of your name, I will kill you and everyone else in that camp.” The woman threatened. I know she doesn’t want to kill, but I also don’t want anyone to die, all we can do is comply. “Can’t risk anyone listening knowing who you are and popping up your location. If that happens were basically fucked.”
“You ok over there!?” Nancy called out to me.
“It’s time.” The woman said. “Don’t you say or do anything.”
She turned me around and had me facing forward, keeping my right arm against my back. She covered my mouth and pointed the gun at my head. The other people she was with come around the corner before her.
I heard Nancy gasp and scream as the two people pointed their guns at them. “All of you calm down and give us everything you have in your camp and nobody will get hurt!”
The woman holding me came around the corner, showing full front that I was the hostage. “If any one of you tries to do anything slick, I’ll kill this motherfucker right here.”
Nancy and William put their hands up in the air, some of the other campers with us got out of their tents and also complied with their demand.
The other two people went and searched our tents one by one, while the woman stayed outside. They first went through the other campers' tents, picking up their clothing, food, water bottles, and even their weapons that they had. Once they were done with that, they started moving on to our tents. They first checked William’s, almost taking everything inside.
Out of nowhere, Jesse broke out of the tent, with a knife in her hands. “What the fuck is going on!?” She yelled out pointing the knife at the raiders.
“Drop the weapon, crazy bitch!” The woman didn’t need to point the gun at Jesse, but pressed it deeper into my cheek.
She saw this and immediately dropped it, her face filling up with concerne instead of the fierce anger she had only moments ago. She raised her hands and joined the others.
Alice slowly peaked her head out of the tent. “Jesse? Lee?”
“Dammit!” The guy said, pointing the gun at her.
Alice screamed as she crawled back into the tent.
“Get out her girl!” He lunged after her, getting on his hands and knees.
I couldn’t see anything but I heard the rustling around and the struggle that she was putting it up. I tried to get out of this raider’s grasp but she grabbed onto me tighter and told me to never do that again. The guy came out of the tent with Alice squirming in his hands. He threw her to the ground as she was crying.
“This little bitch fucking bit me!” He was holding his thumb.
“What do you want me to do about it!? Get their shit and let’s bounce!” The woman commanded.
“Lee!” She came running to me.
“Stay back!”
Alice was about to reach me but Nancy came in and swooped her up as she rushed over to the wall to calm her down.
“Fuck, now we even have less time! Hurry the fuck up now!”
Alice kept resisting Nancy’s efforts. “Are we really gonna sit around and let them take our stuff! We’ll be left with nothing.”
“We have no choice Alice! They’ll kill Lee if you don’t stop!” She still kept resisting, it was clear that she was in full hysterics.
They rummaged through our tent while we all watched, the only thing left was Fred’s tent. He hasn’t shown himself yet, and I pray to god that he doesn’t do anything stupid. The past few days he’s been a social recluse, we try to talk to him but he’ll shut down and won’t speak to us. I need to warn him not to do anything, but I can’t. Please! Jesse, Nancy, William, any other camper here with us. Say something!
The guy placed his hand on the zipper to the entrance, opening it up. I closed my eyes and hoped he was still asleep. But, my prayers fell on deaf ears.
Fred came charging out of the tent, ramming into the guy. He went flying back on the ground. Fred had a knife with him, pointing it at all of the raiders.
“Who wants a piece of me!?” He shouted out like he was a warrior in the middle of the coliseum.
“How many crazy fuckers are here!?” The woman said. “Drop that knife or we will kill your friend here!”
Fred looked at me, but instead of dropping it. He raised it up at her.
“I’ll fucking slit your throat.” He said with absolute malice.
“I will shoot him!”
“I don’t give a shit, shoot him right now.”
“Fred!” Jesse shouted at him. “Stop it!”
“Fuck you Jesse! Fuck you Lee! Fuck everyone here! I don’t want to hear it from any of you!”
The two other raiders backed up from him as he kept swinging around the knife at all of us.
“I’m tired of all of your fucking dumb talk about a brighter future! Nothing is getting better yet all of you refuse to accept that!” He was swinging the knife around more, not even pointing it at the raiders. “Everyday I have to live with the burden that the only reason I’m alive right now is because someone sacrificed themself for me! I’ll never be strong like that, ever.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way Fred, but now is not the fucking time to lay that out on us!” Jesse said.
He directly pointed the knife into her face. “Yet again I’m ignored! Even though I’m at the center of all of this shit that’s going on. I don’t even know what’s happening and I don’t give a shit.”
“You get that out of my face right now!”
“You wanna fight Jesse, come on then. Let’s go, me and you!”
“Calm down, you’ll get us all killed.”
“Oh that’s great, I can take you all down with me, that’ll be even better.” He then pointed the knife at the male raider. “You can even give me your gun, I’ll do it myself.”
“Drop that knife now or we’ll shoot you, we won’t warn you again!” The raider said.
“Do it! Please! I’m asking you please! I’ve been asking for this the past few days!” He got on his knees, pleading to the guy to kill him.
“Drop the knife!”
“Not gonna kill me?” He got up on his feet again. “I’ll give you a reason to.”
“Fred, don't!” Jesse and Nancy both cried out.
He stepped one foot, getting ready to lunge at the guy. This was now my only opportunity, no matter if I get shot or not, I need to save him. The woman holding me loosened her grip and pointed the gun at Fred. I took my free arm and grabbed her gun, pointing it at the raider. I took control over her index finger and pulled the trigger of the gun, shooting it directly at the guy. The bang went off and the guy dropped dead, blood splattering onto Fred as he stopped completely in his tracks.
The girl tried to take control of the gun, but I elbowed her in the stomach, making her lose her breath. She resorted to grabbing a bowie knife, holstered on her waistband and stabbed at me. I bent my waist so she missed. Still holding her arm, I chopped down on it, forcing her to drop the gun. The gun clanged on the ground and I bent down to pick it up, but she kicked me to the floor. She had the knife up in the air and was ready to stab down on me. The gun was underneath my back and I couldn’t get to it, so I rolled over so she missed, stabbing the ground below.
I got up, and she had the gun pointed at me very quickly. I dived behind the tent as she unloaded the whole clip into it. Luckily, none of the bullets hit me, but the tent was looking like shredded cheese afterwards.
The other girl turned around to shoot at me, but Jesse tackled her to the ground, making her drop the gun and it slid all the way to the other raider. She took the knife she dropped earlier, and rammed it through the raider’s skull.
The last remaining girl, reloaded her magazine and completely changed her attention on everyone else. Jesse saw this and immediately went to cover, grabbing Fred’s arm and pulling him with her. Nancy picked up Alice and ran around the corner as William hid behind his tent. There were hotshots taken at all of them, but none of them were hit. Except for this camper named Derek, he was shot two times in the chest, he stumbled a little bit before dropping dead. Elayna, another camper, was also unfortunate as a bullet came towards her head, killing her instantly.
The girl swore under her breath and backed off from everyone. She picked up the gun from her fallen brethren.
“That’s it. My final option.” She reached in her back waistband and pulled out a grenade. She pulled the pin and threw it in the middle of the campsite. She ran away around the corner.
“Run away, get out of here!” William screamed.
In the brief five seconds we got, all of us ran away to the other side of the campsite. But Fred was still standing in shock, Jesse left him there.
I looked over and noticed him. “Fred!” I yelled out hoping he would listen. “Move!” I need to run over to him, and get him over here. Even with his big freakout, I still want him to live.
I started my run, which quickly grew into a sprint. In a second I reached him and grabbed him by his shirt and basically threw him over to the side. I didn’t have long, only milliseconds, I jumped up from the ground, hoping I got at least a little bit out of the blast radius.
The grenade went off and it chain reacted with a leftover gas canister, making an even bigger explosion. The blast from it sent me flying into a wall. I was able to take all of the impact on my arms. The whole campsite was burnt to a crisp and the smoke quickly started to spread.
William came over to me and helped me to my feet. “You ok?”
“Yes, let’s get out of here before we inhale this smoke.” I said, motioning him to move.
“My book! The graves! We can’t leave!” Alice was being carried by Nancy.
“We have to go Alice!” She said as they started to head out. “Cover your nose, don’t inhale the smoke.”
Fred stood looking at the carnage and Jesse grabbed him and slapped him.
“I could hit you so hard right now, but we have to leave! Snap the fuck out of it and let’s go!” Jesse shook him.
He didn’t respond and only took tiny steps forward until he started speed walking away, Jesse following right behind him.
William and I were leading the group and I was able to look back at the huge fire that started to spread.
Another home was destroyed, but no matter what. I need to keep moving forward.127Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBcOKqautZv
