The Fallen {Jason X Salim}

I'll Be Fine

We pushed forwards into the strange landscape, keeping our eyes peeled, and our weapons raised at all times. We were on high alert. If anything so much as shifted an inch, we'd be prepared to defend ourselves.

We rounded a corner of the ledge, and found a corpse lying against the side of a wall. His armour was old. Ancient, in fact. His body was covered in some sort of slime like excretion, which caused half of his face and torso to remain looking as it once did. The other half of him was bone and ragged armour.

Jason knelt down on knee to get a closer look. "Holy shit..." he whispered, turning his head towards me.

"Look at him!" I said in awe, kneeling beside, Jason.

"Check out that armour. The man's goddamn Biblical." Jason said, nodding towards the body.

I leant forwards, striking my lighter so that I could get a better look at the Soldier. A moment passed where nothing happened, but then suddenly, the Soldiers eye twitched from the bright light.

I jumped away, shrieking a rather indignant, "Shit!" as I did.

"Did you see that?" I asked Jason, who was glancing between me and the ancient Soldier. He didn't say anything in response, but he certainly looked on edge, like the corpse was a ticking time bomb, and he was prepared to sprint at any second.

"I think he's still alive." I said, letting out a shaky breath.

Jason raised an eyebrow at me, like I had finally gone insane. "That's impossible!"

I gripped my weapon tighter, giving him a defiant look, "In this place... Everything's possible!" I pointed out, and Jason couldn't argue with that.

As if right on queue, the ancient Soldier blinked, and made a strangled groaning noise, which made Jason flinch.

"Holy shit! Fuckers been down here this whole time!? Just sitting there with half a head?" Jason asked, in utter disbelief.

I let out a slight scoff. Yes, now was the perfect time to be taking the piss of an Ancient Soldier missing half of his body, with such profanities.

"Fluid. It must have preserved him. His brain." I explained, turning to face the marine, "What should we do? We can't just leave him here!"

"Well, shit... He's had enough time to get use to it." Jason replied. I noticed the slight shake of hands, and the uncertainty in his eyes. It was truly intriguing to see the American so rattled by something that wasn't trying to kill us. He was human, after all.

"I'm serious!" I stated, and as if picking up on what I meant, Jason lifted his rifle to aim it at the ancient Soldiers head.

I quickly pushed his rifle away, "No!" I whisper-shouted. "The noise will attract the vampires! I'll do it." I explained, and with that, Jason moved further down the trail, clearly not wanting to see.

I lifted my rusted pipe up into the air, with closed eyes, as I said a silent prayer. "The time has come for you to rest, warrior!" and with one swift motion, the Soldier was dead. Peacefully resting, I hoped.

We continued along the path, Jason leading the way, like he usually did.

After much walking, and admiring the sights, we came to a rather high ledge. Jason gave me a hoist up, and I grabbed the crumbling rock at the top, just barely managing to lift myself up onto the flat terrain.

I leant over the side, as Jason jumped, and grabbed one of my hands. I tried lifting him up, thinking he'd grab the edge of the stone for support, and pull himself up, but he didn't. In fact, he looked as though he was struggling, do I offered him my other hand as well, which he happily accepted.
With quite a lot of effort and strength, on my part, I managed to pull Jason to the top, despite him feeling like a dead weight in my arms.