The Games for Gaiathal (Part 3 of 'A Tale of People and Apples Trilogy')

Chapter 23: Mayhem and Mercy

Luka gasped to the real world.

His chest burst and teemed with pain as the cold wood struck through his chest bone and into his beating heart.

Solan collapsed behind him, floundering to the forest floor and convulsing, black fluid dripping from his mouth as his physical body withered away and rotted from within after his soul and mind was drowned by Luka.

With a final raspy breath, the Scientist drifted into the death he never thought would come for him.

While Talia, Rosaya, Signey, Goddard, Eeva, and even Julien sprinted to Luka as the Golden Dagger lodged at his chest and he fell to the grass, Maeve remained by her vehicle, her head hung, as she circled it to the back hatch, watching the commotion behind the shelter of her vehicle.

"Luka," His friends gasped as they got to him, unsure what to do, unsure what was happening, unsure why nothing appeared to make sense in the insane moment.

Eeva pushed them all aside to reach him, frantically, frightened, horrified, Luka limp and laying upon the dark red and green ground and his very life leaving him, Eeva kicking Solan's lifeless body further away from her love.

While she knew not to remove blades from stab wounds, she knew the Golden Dagger had hit Luka's heart, and his only chance at survival was to let his Gift function unimpeded. She had heard of some cases where Wolves survived such injuries, but she had always thought they were myths to scare their enemies.

Now, she prayed it was the rule, and not the exception.

She hastily removed the sharp wood with a decisive yank which made Luka grunt in pain, but the grunt gave her hope, that there was hope, that a sliver of life lingered within him that his Gift could cling to and build upon.

She put her shaking fingers to his red and slick neck, searching for a pulse, finding none, searching again, nothing there, gripping tighter, inspecting his fading eyes.

Thump... thump... thump.

Her eyes lit up in elation, frightened and hopeful tears at them and rolling to her cheeks. His heart was somehow trying to pump, his pulse unbelievably weak but unmistakably present.

It needed something to pump. An engine with no fuel would seize.

"Water! I need water!"

Talia sprinted to the passenger seat of Maeve's vehicle, as Maeve continued to look on, unmoving from behind it, her eyes as still as stone. Talia opened the door frantically and collected jugs of water she brought back to Eeva, as Rosaya and Signey pressed upon Luka's wound in a feeble attempt to help his healing and slow the leaking.

Talia calmly replaced Eeva with a kind and delicate hand to her back who was going into shock, her hands shaking too much for her to guide the fluid into Luka's mouth. She had seen Luka unconscious, seemingly drowned, and beaten to a pulp, but a dagger to the heart by the devil himself was an entirely different beast.

"Maeve, what are you doing? Help him! Help us!" Eeva screamed as she saw her, not understanding why she didn't move a muscle, why she lingered at her vehicle and unbelievably was doing nothing to help the boy who somehow killed Solan.

To add even more confusion to the madness which ensued, Eeva watched as the back hatch of Maeve's mighty machine opened, but Maeve wasn't the culprit.

Calysa stumbled out of the machine, alive, stiff, her legs having difficulty remembering how to stand or walk or brace. She fell into Maeve's arms, feeling for her chest where Solan's blade stabbed through, gasping, feeling at a scar and hole at her uniform which told her that her death was all too real, not understanding what was happening, wrapping her arms around the first being she encountered.