Chapter 14
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With a sudden charge you slammed into Pakari, knocking him into the monorail cart. You glared down at your helpless victim as you placed one foot on the lip of the cart, preparing to kick it down the path. Wild, taking a moment to process, flew into a maddening frenzy, but you easily picked his tiny flying form out of the air with your massive palm, squeezing your hand tight to keep him from slipping out.
“The game was fair.” You towered over Pakari, who was trying to determine if he still had any ribs. “You played poorly, and you lost. There’s a bunker on that central column. I think you can survive the blast in there,” You leaned back confidently, consciously aware of the awkward aura radiating off Winger. “But good luck outliving the radiation.”
You kicked the cart with all your might and sent it shooting down the rail. Seeing as your left hand was occupied with holding a flying, glowing particle of dust, you couldn’t grab Winger at the moment, so getting up in his face and forcing him into a wall would have to do. With that out of the way, you put in the necessary security keys and activated the detonation cycle.
“Winger, we need to get the heck out of here and lock that door.” You turned to face him. “As soon as that bomb goes off there won’t be anything left in this place, especially not living people. With any luck we’ll be- Gyaah!!”
Your left hand shot open and Wild, spouting incomprehensible vile words, darted out and began zipping around the room. Your left hand was charred and blackened on the inside, but hey, at least in the drama of the moment you forgot your ankles were killing you.
Actually, on that note… How did you run all the way over here if you couldn’t walk?
“ZZzzzr… NglakLyguk! Wrakco!” Wild began spewing, either inciting an ancient curse or having a stroke. Or, he had been playing World of Warcraft too much. “You wanna nuke Pakari, do ya? Well chew on THIS!!”
Winger had the good sense to duck behind one of the solid metal desks before you did, and as such only you were hit by the sudden blast of heat and light bright enough to instantly blind anyone with normal eyes and hot enough to peel the skin. Even as you scrambled behind cover you could feel the metal beginning to boil. You had severely underestimated Wild.
There were a couple things you could do in response to this sudden change of events and interruption of your egocentric 4D chess you were plotting.
Sit here and get nuked:
The least desirable option as you would probably be dead.
Bolt to the door:
Unlikely that you could outrace Wild to it, much less close it on him.
Winger is crying:
Wait why is Winger crying and going into shock? Oh… Right, because he was a human being and probably in a gigantic amount of pain. That sucks, most assuredly, but you really couldn’t care less. He made the dumb decision to attack you and got roped into this whole mess; he should have known better.
Look, Pakari was probably going to die as well, so it’s not that big of a deal. Stop getting emotional about it and focus on getting out alive. You’ve got more work to do.
C’mon, you literally killed people on the way over here! Why are you having some kind of major reaction to one kid you don’t even like biting the dust? Racie was more likeable than him and all she did was whine. So knock it off, suck up your little baby tears, and get the heck out.
…
FINE.
You smashed your fist into the desk, sending it directly into Wild, who had to deal with already hot metal now becoming molted, sticking to him, and blocking the heat from escaping. Rolling to Winger, you gripped him by the shoulders and shook him to the point of nearly getting whiplash to get him to refocus.
“Lock the door.”
Almost tossing him in the direction of the doors, you bolted after him, grabbing the doors and tugging hard on them. You had barely got them shut when Wild flew into your face and knocked you backwards and through the railing with a blast of heat and light. Iron bar instantly gave way under your weight, and you plummeted downwards towards the pit of bizarre, grey-ish bodies coating the floor.
Head-first, you had always thought. On a lethal fall, it will eliminate the most pain. Well… Now’s your chance to test it.
You closed your theoretical eyes and instantly noticed a green film over your blank vision. Was this a post-death sensation? You hadn’t exactly died before. Unless… Oh no.
Your fall had slowed dramatically, and by the time you reopened your theoretical eyes you could see the entire room upside-down. You were being carried by the ankle; only that could explain the intense pain you were feeling.
“RISEN,” A voice under - well, technically above you - boomed. “ALL IS AS ONCE WAS. WE ARE RISEN; WE ARE EILRACH!!”
The bizarre grey bodies were all floating on their own; their eyes glowing green, their extended jaws clattering. One thing was certain, beyond all else: They were not human. Probably closer to redditor.
Wild was having none of you returning. He immediately resumed the intense blast of heat, only to get dogpiled by hundreds of corpses, as more shot from around the room to replace the ones being burnt away. The countdown for the atomic blast had begun.
Pulling yourself onto the shoulders of the giant whatever-it-was dead thing holding you, you wrenched yourself free in time for it to go rocketing towards Wild. So glad you had a basic understanding of physics thanks to video games. Jumping off at the right time threw you into the door with all the momentum you had, flinging it open upon impact which meant WINGER DIDN’T LOCK IT.
He wasn’t here either, which meant he had found the strength to leave. The countdown had either jumped from ten to three in the span of… Look, it didn’t matter. Close and lock the door before you die; those were your priorities. Grabbing the doors and throwing them shut, you shoved your left hand in the lock to reach the mechanism, and…
…And you reached right past the mechanism, into the hole in the other door.
Up until that point you had given no verbal reaction to pain as none was necessary. But right now, in that moment, you had to let the world know just how much an atomic blast slamming into your arm and ripping it from the elbow hurt. Not that you could hear it over the eardrum-destroying noise of the blast right in front of your face, but it’s the thought that counts.
Your vision blurred for a moment, and you tumbled backwards. Going to sleep was such a nice concept right now… Even though you could feel the air in the room suddenly get much colder, and a hand grab you by the shoulder and drag you back into the lightest darkness you had ever seen…