The Lost Civilization

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟶: 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙿𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚝

  I rolled down the hill, hitting trees, rocks, and rolling through shrubbery my whole quick tumble down. My body came to a rest at the bottom of the hill in a surplus of leaves and tree limbs. I was within two feet of a stream and I only knew that because I could very slightly hear the water rushing by. As I landed at the bottom and lied on my back, I stared at the sky wondering how I am still alive. To be quite frank, at this point I would have thought I'd be dead by now too. My hearing was muffled and a high pitched noise was blowing through my ears. As the high pitched noise began to fade away and my hearing was coming back to normal, I could faintly hear Serenity's voice. Then it slowly became louder and I directed my attention to the top of the hill to Serenity standing and yelling, "You made it, Aldin! You're alive! Now it's a straight shot through flat ground forest out! We're going to be saved, Aldin!"

  I struggled to speak, probably from the breath being knocked out of me and still hadn't full caught it back. I mumbled out, trying to yell loudly, "We're going to make it!" I smiled up at her, knowing in the back of my head that we were closer to being out, but we still had a little ways to go. With the addition of the fact that he is still not too far behind us, if he is alive that is. Maybe Serenity stabbing him twice killed him, especially the stab to the stomach. Where we home free?

  She began scaling her way down the side of the moderately sized steep mountain side, with a tiny bit more pep in her step than before. Pain surged through my entire body, even finding it hard to catch a breath at the moment. I had a bit more hope now internally. Hope that we were going to make it out alive.

  I turned my head quickly as I heard and saw Serenity lose her grip on the mountain side. I watched intently as, luckily, she caught herself quickly and only slid down a couple of inches.
She looked down the hill at me with wide eyes and exclaiming, "That was a close one!" I let out a deep breath, lying my head to the side looking towards the stream I could now see vividly. I looked back over to Serenity, seeing that she was still very close to the top of the mountainside.

  Panic overtook my entire mind and body when Maxwell appeared at the top of the hill, blood soaked and angry. He appeared like he was out of thin air. I screamed as loudly as I possibly could, "NO!" My attempts failed as within that same second, I watched Serenity glance up at him as he forcefully shoved her backwards from the side of the hillside. She tumbled for just a moment before leaving the side of the hillside and falling through the air. Within a split second, her body was lying within feet of mine at the bottom of the hill. "Serenity?" I muttered out, my mind completely directed from Maxwell being at the top of the hill. "Serenity?!" I muttered out again. I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate with the low level of oxygen I was already able to breathe, having to force myself to calm down and try to breathe slowly. There was no way Serenity was dead. No, it couldn't have happened that way. We were going to make it. She practically saved me. She can't be dead. No, no, no. I repeated over and over in my head.

  I struggled to push myself up to a sitting position with my arms. It felt so difficult to take a breath in. I raised up, not only to see that my foot had now completely snapped from the bone and was no longer attached to my leg, but Serenity was lying feet away on her stomach with no movement. One of her arms was lying out beside of her, with the other under her. I could see from where I was sitting that one of her legs were broken, as it was completely flipped the opposite way upside down with her foot pointing at the sky. I felt sick. I felt like I wanted to scream and completely lose it. I wanted blood. I wanted him f——ing dead.

  I felt a feeling of nausea before leaning to my side and vomiting. After vomiting, I sit there staring at the ground and began to sob. I used all of the strength I had to drag myself with my arms over to Serenity. Making it over to her, I tapped on her shoulder, begging her to please just raise up and be alive. Still no movement or sound came from Serenity. "Serenity?!" I screamed hysterically while forcing her body over onto her back. After flipping her onto her back, I looked away and covered my mouth. The tears were impossible to stop and the screams left my mouth without me trying to. Her face was completely mutilated. One eye was bulging out of its socket and her nose was completely broken, bones in it pointing in all directions beneath the skin. Multiple of her teeth were now broken, scattered along this hopeless g——mn mountainside. A couple of her ribs had no punctured through the skin and were pet riding through her shirt. Splattered and smeared blood covered a quarter of her face, neck, and shirt.

  I looked up at the top of the mountain, still seeing Maxwell standing at the top. He had a sinister smile on his face. It was the realest f——ing form of evil I had seen in my entire life. The embodiment of evil stood above the hill from me. Anger, panic, frustration, rage, and hopelessness coursed through me. I scooted myself up the best I could, sitting on my butt and holding myself up with my hands placed slightly behind me. I screamed with every bit of emotion I had in me, hysterically crying, "What the f—k do you want from us, Max?! What is it? What do you f——ing want? Why do you want us dead, Max?! What the f—k did we ever do to you other than support you and be your g——mn best friends you filthy piece of shit? You're nothing, Max! Whatever power trip you are getting from this, I hope you f——king enjoy it when you're burning in hell where you belong you f——ing bastard! You killed Vic and Serenity you sick f—k!! Our g——mn best friends and you killed them you narcissistic animal!" I would have continued, but he held up his hand and gave a small wave and grin before turning around and walking out of view from the top of the hillside, "Max?! What are you doing?!"

  I paused for a moment with nothing but the sound of his footsteps fading further away, "Are you just going to leave me here to die you p—-y?! You're nothing but a coward and piece of shit, Max! F—k you! F—k you, Max!" My screams echoed off of the sides of the mountains surrounding me..