Free the End

65 [Withering Heights]

TW // blood, slight gore, bad thoughts relating to death

I shouted, "Get in the water! Everyone! Follow me!"

The murky ocean seemed like our only escape from everything suddenly trying to kill us. Some of the guys heard me and rushed down the hill, but I saw one kneeling motionless.

I was about to leave him and save myself, but a picture flashed in my head of me and G somewhere covered in red like a bloodbath, he was curled up on the ground, and I was offering a hand to help him up. I felt... loss, and unbearable pain that came with it.

It evaporated as suddenly as it came, and it was blurry, but the emotion weighed on me. My feet dragged to a stop and I turned around with a groan.

"Hey!" I caught him by the shoulders next to the crater. "Come on- we have to go- move, dumbass!"

The monsters were closing in; I ducked under an arrow.

The guy, I honestly forgot his name, D? Whatever, the guy lifted his head a little. "Sap."

"Yeah- I know- hurry-" I pulled his arm over my shoulders and lifted him up, stumbling toward the water. My bicep seared with pain from the arrow-hole bleeding everywhere.

I glanced back and shoved us down as arrows flew over our heads; a creepy exploding-thingy was getting closer. I got up and yanked D's arm. He barely moved.

"Sap... I can't.. I'm useless. Again and again."

"You'll be a lot more useless DEAD!" I pulled him up as an arrow hit the ground next to his leg. "Come on!!" I gripped his wrist and ran, forcing him to follow.

He finally stirred and his stumble changed into a sprint. "What- what do we do?"

The other three stood waist-deep in the water, dodging arrows and backing away slowly from the monsters swimming towards them. The guy in black was chucking arrows, which uselessly bounced off and floated in the water.

AH FUUUUUUCK

It was freezing as D and I got half-submerged in the dark, reflective water.

I let him go and ignored my shivering, jumping as fast as I could away from land. "Everyone to the edge!"

I stepped down into deeper water, and my head went under. Ice jolted through my nerves. I swung my arms and breathed air again, figuring out how to keep my head over the surface. "Guys, c- come on!" It was so cold.

I swam until my feet couldn't brush the ground and waited. They had followed me out of the shallows one by one, except for the guy in black. He shivered and watched, petrified as monsters got closer.

"Hey!"

Fuck this stupid not-knowing-anyone's-names thing. "Come on! It's your only chance!"

"I have- I am afraid!"

I went back towards him. "Just look at me- copy what I'm doing!"

He locked eyes with me and jumped forward with a scream, but instincts took over and he started swimming like the rest of us. Someone else had turned around but I yelled at him, "No, keep going away!"

Some of the monsters were floating, but others sank past the edge. I realized we were faster than them and felt a spark of hope.

The land shrunk and disappeared, but nothing followed us.

This was the most miserable thing yet; the water was cold and pitch black under the surface, so we had no idea what lurked beneath us. The moon hung over our heads and made vision hazy after staring at the bright, shifting reflections. It was like being caught in a nightmare, swimming tiredly through an endless sky or floating on black-and-white waves into oblivion.