Brecken's head swam as he opened his eyes. His ears rang and his side ached worse than any pain he had ever known. He could feel his fingers in something soft. Dirt, damp dirt. Blackness surrounded him, pressed upon him from every angle. His hands where flesh, for some reason that knowledge put him into a panic. His side hurt too much to think about anything in detail.
Somewhere in the distance he could hear screams. Calls of death from every angle. Wherever he was, things were bad, very bad. Panic was setting in. Everything felt like it was in a haze. An arm reached through the black and pulled him out of the dark.
In a rush, the scene in front of him reconciled with his mind. The King had punched him clear across the crater. He could see the large divot in the ground where the King stopped to hit him. Without Lucas's ward, as the King called it, he would have been obliterated. Somehow, he was surprised he hadn't been, even with it.
The King, and Lucas were nowhere in sight. The man who pulled him out shook his shoulder, causing Brecken to look at him. In his shock he had forgotten someone was next to him. Hurin yelled something to him, but whatever it was, the words didn't form in a way he could understand. Blood streaked down the man's face. The pain in Brecken's side and the ringing in his ears made it hard to focus.
Something shook the ground around them, and they both instinctively ducked. A loud cracking sound ripped through the air, drowning out the cries of pain and agony. It snapped Brecken out of his trance. The world around him became clearer. His side still burned with pain, and his ears still rang, but Hurin's voice became understandable.
"We have to go! This is our only chance! Ezra and the others are waiting for us! Thank the Creator I found you, I've been searching since the King chased Lucas across the camp! We have to move, now!" He pulled Brecken to his feet and threw an arm over his shoulder. Together they climbed the slope, stumbling with every other step. Brecken did everything he could to stay straight, but the pain in his side caused him to wince every time his foot hit the ground.
Over the crest of the crater, the sounds of turmoil got louder. The camp was in complete ruin. Fires burned everywhere. Men and women ran back and forth, looking for an enemy, but there was no army to fight back against. There was no force to battle. It was only the King. He had decimated the camp without any help at all.
Hurin pulled Brecken through the burning camp. After what felt like hours, they made it to the edge. They left the fires far behind them, but the screams still echoed over the cracked earth. In the distance lightning streaked to the ground. The earth shook with sounds of explosions. Lucas was fighting the King, and from the sound of it, he was at least holding his own.
A group of people huddled behind a small, cracked hill. Anai, Ezra and Cain sat waiting for them. Anai had blood streaked across her face, and Cain's right arm was crudely bandaged, blood seeping through the dirty cloth. Ezra had black soot on his arms and face, and blood on his clothes, but Brecken couldn't tell whose it was. They each looked exhausted and terrified.
"Thank the Creator," Anai said as they approached. "It's time to go, we have to get out of here. Simonville isn't too far away."
"We can't leave him," Brecken croaked. His voice came out strained and the words led him into a cough. Talking was more difficult than he thought it would be. The pain in his side ached with every word.
"I know how you feel Brecken, but there's nothing we could do. We can't help him now. We would just get in his way," Cain responded. The others averted their eyes. He what they all knew, but no one liked the reality of it any more than Brecken did. Leaving Lucas to fight that monster alone didn't feel right, but they had no other choice.
