He pushed Zeke, hard.
Towards the types.
And ran for his life, sprinting off to the right.
Still bound, hands behind his back, Zeke fell forward, his chin hitting an enormous chunk of granite.
The types swarmed him within a beat of Noah’s shattering heart.
He screamed. He open-fired, trying his best to hit only the types—who were frantically pawing at Zeke with their claws while their jaws snapped open and closed. He took two down, their lifeless forms burying Zeke with their torsos, while Wolf pinned down another, finishing it with a bite to the jugular. But not before it raked a large four-clawed hand down Wolf’s stomach, resulting in Wolf crying out in a pitiful whine of pain and falling to the ground.
There were just two left now.Two left, it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be—
A burst of agony rocketed through Noah’s leg, originating in his right calf. His legs betrayed him and he tumbled to the ground, blood pouring out of his injured limb, an inferno of fire devouring his every thought. From his position sideways on the ground, he saw Tobias in the distance, a silver pistol in his hand. He’d saved a bullet. Saved a bullet forhim.
Ignoring Tobias, Noah rolled over. He’ddraghimself over to Zeke if it was the last thing he did.
But he froze in his tracks. Because what he saw in front of him detonated a nail bomb in his chest, ripping his soul to smithereens.
A typeB, its green-grey jaw locked firmly into Zeke’s neck.
“No!” he screamed, or tried to scream, because he was no longer in his body. He was rising up, floating above everything, up with the gently falling snowflakes, almost as high as the nearby crane. Wolf dragged himself, whining, next to Noah’s stone-still body, as he put himself between the types and Noah, growling.
The other type hissed at its friend, pushing it off Zeke to reveal deep, angry, bleeding marks on his neck. Zeke was motionless—dead or unconscious—as the pair communicated in animalistic grunts. He could only watch as the duo lifted Zeke’s arms, as if he were a rag doll, and dragged him off into the forest, lightning-quick.
An eerie silence settled over the quarry, punctuated by Wolf’s laboured breaths.
Noah’s body shut down. First went his muscles, locking stone-still. Next went his brain and he floated in semi-consciousness, time expanding into seconds, minutes, eternity. His mind was completely absent of all thoughts and it was a beautiful place to be.
A tiny whine broke through his barrier, followed by a wet lick. A single tear escaped his eye, trickling down his face.
Noah wanted to continue to lie very still with his eyes closed forever. But he couldn’t. There was still something that needed to be done. He pulled himself to his feet, using tufts of Wolf’s thick fur to steady himself. His body was about to experience a lot of pain.
It. Would. Be. Worth. It.
He took one look in the forest’s direction, where they’d dragged Zeke off. If he hadn’t been shot, or if he hadn’t wasted minutes lying on the ground, he might have been able to catch up with them and put a bullet through Zeke’s brain.
No, Noah couldn’t help Zeke now, but there was something hecoulddo.
He started moving across the quarry towards where Tobias had shot him, each light step on his bleeding leg causing fresh waves of torment.
His efforts paid off. He found Tobias on the ground, a dead type nearby, a bloody dagger in his hand, the shallow rise and fall of his chest telling Noah everything he needed to know.
“Noah,” Tobias croaked out as he straddled him, unsheathing his own dagger from his belt.
“Newman!” Noah all but shouted. “You sadistic fuck. You fucking killed him. You killed so many people. How could you go along with this?”
Tobias’s face twisted. “Murphy said you were going to cause panic. That civilians would die. That it needed to be done.”
“So you didn’t blink an eye when she ordered the execution of twenty soldiers? Good people? Most of which weren’t even involved in Lowenna’s shit?”
“She didn’t know who knew what. I… was just following orders.”
Noah screamed, slamming the hilt of the dagger into Tobias’s chest.
“Noah, listen, please—”
He didn’t give him time to say anything else. He cut through the skin of Tobias’s neck, feeling no joy, no victory, only relief. The knife vibrated in his hand as he sawed in further and further. He shouted. He cried. He cut deeper and deeper into Tobias’s mangled neck.
