hyperion: death thralls

not a burden...

I keep walking as my legs, feet, back, and arms are screaming in pain. It's hard to keep my grunts down every time I step. How did we end up like this? Yeah we got what we needed but I don't know if it was worth it. I nearly got grabbed by the hoard in the mall and ghost nearly fucking died trying to sacrifice himself to let us escape. Echo's one hellva kid for pulling off the stunts he did. He's alive but....I don't know for how long if we don't get back right now. I can see the gate but it it feels like it's getting futher with every step I take. Echo moves around a little bit. He keeps peatering in and out. He hasn't made a single sound even when he pushed away all of those infested. He's been dead silent. I don't even know what he could be thinking. I've been guessing and thankfully, keeping him in the loop and slowing him down is how he's alive right now. I can tell he doesn't trust any of us and after this...I don't know if he will. He may saved our lives a few times already but it doesn't mean he likes us. He's a good kid but I took advantage of him and now he's bearly holding on. Echo shifts again as he gets lighter. There no way he has his strangth back. He's not even able to move. "Whoever you are, identify yourselves now." Stone. "Stone. It's me." There's a long pouse. "What the fuck happened?" He's not happy. "It was a trap. The mall...we found survivers but..." How do I explain this shit? How can I explain how I got ghost hurt and echo's bearly breathing with littarly no blood left to lose. "D-d-damn. What about the k-k-kid?" Fuck me. "Echos down. He's down and out." Another long pouse. I look up and see the gate opening as I see a group rushing out. "Than I'm afraid your days just started. We were attacked shortly after you left and we've got alot of wounded." What? "How many died?" I whatch as the group bolts to us. Alot of them are covered in blood. "Thankfully it's just cuts and gashes. Nothing we can't handle but with the storm comming...im afraid we'll have a hard time getting out again." Fuck sake. How can this get any worse? "Will we manage?"
"ECHO!" Why do I even open my fuckin mouth? "Hold on! We haven't cleared the walls yet!" Korra...she rushes up to us as she looks at echo and freezes. "What..." She's frozen. "I'm sorry." She snaps back. "How is he doing?" I don't know how to awnser that. "He's breathing but he lost a little bit of blood." Echo moves as I see his arms lift up. "O-okey okey." He's lifted off of my back as I let my arms fall as the raleaf is immediate. "Hey. How are you feeling?" I'm held up as my lefts give out. "Holy shit. Dulis. What the fuck happened out there?" I look up and see that the group is a scout team. They must have gotten back after we left. "The mall...it was a trap." I take in a few deep breaths as I straighten up. "We saw. Whatever happened over there, we saw the explosion from here." I look back and see korra holding echo us as she cradles him like a baby. "Yeah. The kid saved our asses." Everyone looks at echo. "Fucking hybrids are full of surprises. Glad to see you all came back in one piece at least." I feel pressure on my arm. I look down and see one of the hybrids holding onto my arm. She terrified. "What's up?" She's look into the forest. She slowly lifts her hand and points. "M-m-monster." I look up and see a deer. It's eyes are pitch black. Fuck! It's infested! "Run." I grab my axe and grip the handle tightly. "What?" I see three more walk out as all of them are staring at us. One of them opens it's mouth as I see the black and clumped blood conming out of its mouth. It's jaw splits as it's eyes turn blood red and glow. The others open thier mouths as thier eyes turn blood red to. "Run." I get a chill down my spine. There's more. Alot more. "What do you mean 'run'?" I push the hybrid twords Jericho. The first infested deer roars as it echos throughout the forest. Everyone looks to see the infested deer as more infested come out of the forest. More than any of us can handle right now. I turn and take in a deep breath. "RUN!" I turn and pick up the hybrid as I bolt for Jericho. Everyone quickly catches up as I manage to get behind the gate. I turn and see korra and echo struggling to get back as korra I struggling. "For...fuck sake!" I set the hybrid as I bolt back out and grab korra. I turn and bolt back as I let korra go and get ready to fight with what little strangth I have left. "Don't let them through! Keep those dead bastered out!" I lift my axe as I see scouts rush past me as the start beating the infested with their bear fists. "Keep your fucking undead asses out of our city!" I bring my axe down onto one of the infested deers as it instantly goes limp. I look up and see the gate close as the rest of the infested start banging on it. The others took out the ones that got through already. They quickly recover as I see a few people still beating the corpses. "Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!" I turn and see korra frozen in place. She's holding onto echo tightly. "You alright there ghost?" I look and see ghost on his hands and knees. "Ghost?" One of the scouts kneels down and places his hand on his back. Ghost is hurting right now. "My...fucking foot. I done for today." The scout helps ghost up. "Let's get you to the infirmary. I think we all need a break from today." I look around and see the scouts helping the hybrids. Their all terrified. Thankfully some of the hybrids in Jericho are already here to help out. I look down and see I'm sweating profusely. Man I fucking stink to. "Uhh..." I look up and see the hybrid I carried in. "A-are you okey?" She's keeping her ears down. Fuck me. We actually made it back. "Well..." I take in a deep luagh and finally process the fact echo saves my ass three times today. "I could use a good shower." I can't help but luagh. The hybrid losens up a little bit. "What about you?" She freezes again. She looks away as it's clear she's afraid. "Hey. You don't have to worry so much anymore." I gently lay my hand on her shoulder. "Hey. It's okey." She slowly moves her head to look at me. "There you go." I gives her a smile as she losens up more. "Come on. Let's see it." I pulls her in a little bit as she starts to freak out a little bit. "Come on. Let's see that smile." I pat her head a little bit as she starts to smile a little bit. "There it is. Come on. We managed to get what we needed and we got you guys back in piece. You know what I call that?" She looks up at me as she smiles. "A really good day." She starts to chuckle as I pat her back. "Now go with one of the others. Go and get something to eat and get plenty of rest. We want you to be comfortable before you start to figure out what you want to do." I slowly let her go as she starts to get excited. "Thank you." Her ears perk up as I see her tail waging around a little bit. "Thank me by getting some rest. We might want you to work but we won't let you after all the shit you've been through." She tenses up a little bit. I give her another smile and pat her head again. "Don't worry kid. We won't force you to work. Take your time and explore. We want you to do what you want to do to help. Anything you do to help will be more than enough." She losens up again. "There you go." She looks up at me with confusion. "Dont worry about anyone trying to hurt you here." I move my hand as I pull her in a little bit. "To be honsist." I look at the gathering crowd. "Some of our people get a little excited when they see a hybrid." I look back at her. "They won't hurt you but they'll pamper you and treat you well." She's still confused. I pull back as I can't help but luagh. "Don't worry kid. You'll fit right in." I luagh again as she chuckles. "Now get going. We don't want you getting sick now, do we?" She shakes her head. "Then get your friends and get cleaned up. Eat and get some sleep." Her smile gets bigger. "And as a little hint." She tilts her head. "There's a little place called 'gesters' near the city center. It's got the best rations you've ever had." Her eyes starts to glow. "Really?" I chuckle more. "Why don't you go try. Just make sure you have a one of these guys around. They'll show you around and teach you how you can start working and get tradables so you can start taking care of yourself." Her ears quickly fall. "Hey. We won't leave you alone. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask. We don't let our people struggle just to survive. We take care of eachother." Her ears perk up a little bit again. "Now get going. We'll make sure you guys are taken care of." She returns the smile. She rushes to get her friends as they run off. More survivers. "Dulis. You read me?" Stone? Right..."I'm here. What's going on, stone?" I look at korra as she's moving around again. Good. "First off, I'm glad to see you guys made it back in one piece. I can assume you managed to grab a few things?" He knows me to well. "Yeah. We got more than enough. Hell...the fact I managed to get this much was a fucking mericle." I sit down as my legs are killing me. I take off my backpack and pulls out a water bottle as I open it and quickly take a drink. "You've always been the best of us. I for one am not supprised." Asshole. "Either way, you earned your rapreave. The storm won't hit for another few hours and I've already gotten Jericho prepared. Good news is all the scout teams made it back to the along with the outpost teams that didn't have EMF shields. The fact they got back and helped defend Jericho from that hoard was a god damn sigh for sore eyes." Shit. At least it wasn't one of the other groups who attacked. "Good shit. What about the wounded? Are they alright?" There's a pouse. "Honistly, it could have been worse. The few injuries that could be bad are already taken care of. Now it's just waiting out the storm." At least we got lucky. "But after the storm, we don't know how hard it will be to get back out there. The infested will be hiding in every nook and cranny and we can't afford to lose anymore people." Damn straight. "We'll figure something out. We always do." Stone chuckles. "We do...don't we." Somethings wrong. "What's going on stone?" There's a pouse. "It almost sounds like something happened and it spooked you." No awnser. "Oh shit." What. The. Fuck. What could have possibly happen that would spook stone? That guys a fucking stone wall. Nothing fazes him unless it's the Oh shit to the Oh shit. "One of the slavers contacted me." Oh fuck no. "They want to try and negotiate. Apparently the last fight caused some problems and with the hybrids we managed to bring in, it sounded like their getting desporate." Really? We know of sevral camps they still have of enslaved hybrids. "Your fucking with me right?"
"I'm not." He's serius. Holy shit he's serous. "You can NOT be thinking about actually talking with those basterds." Be knows better. "I already have a plan." Mother fucker. "Stone. You know for a fact their going to attacked Jericho while we're talking." He chuckles. "That's why we're going to do this on our terms." What? "I'll go over it with you when you've recovered. For now, just know that we're going to hit them where it hurts. Those basterds have tormented those hybrids for long enough and I'm inclined to speed up our plans a little bit." Stone you rat basterd. "As long as we can protect Jericho at the same time, I'm game. Hell, I lead the attacks myself." Stone chuckles. "Oh no. I've got something else planned for you. We just need to let echo recover." Oh shit. If echo's invlaved...this plan better be fucking amazing. "For now, just make sure you rest up. The storm will last a few days so we need to take as much time to recover and get our strangth back before we even think about opening the gates again." That's the best think I've heard all day. "Damn straight. I'll make sure the kid'll be okey." I look at korra as she's gone. Great. "Don't worry about him. Korra always told me everything. He's going to be down and out for a while. She's not happy with us but she's already prepared so let make sure we do our part." No wonder she kept her cool. "Alright. Then it looks like I'm heading home." Time for this old dog to get some sleep. "Same thing as always. If something happens, let me know. Knowing you, you'll get it figured out before you tell me." I can't help but luagh. "I'll talk to you later stone." I drink the rest of my water as I already feel alot better now that I've taken a little while to hydrate and slow down. Guess it's time to start getting everything squared away. I'm going to be sore as a mother fucker tommorow. Damn it echo. You put me through the wringer today. Guess he got his revenge already. Fuck my feet hurt. At least I'll be able to see him floughting around again. Seeing him the way he is...it's been a very long time. Like stone said. It's a sight for sore eyes and I'll be damned if I let something happen to that kid again.