The Chapters

Chapter Ninteen

Zahara's eyes widen as they - presumably, from my restricted vision - lock on the uncovered head injury. Her hand is still on the Omega, tightening it's grip with every passing second. It suddenly occurs to me that I'd never dwelled on Zahara's ability - enhanced strength.

You just happened to forget to mention that.

I've been a bit preoccupied as of late. If you haven't noticed.

The Omega's finger is still in my shoulder, but with Zahara's force on it, it's stopped putting whatever toxin it has into me. I'm still paralyzed and still at risk of going under, though, and with other Death Towers around, the rest of Good Freedom must be busy.

I can make out the Omega lift their spare hand to make a swipe at the girl, but Zahara looks away from my head long enough to intercept them and apply more pressure to both arms. Then she looks at me again.

"M-mica?" She starts cautiously. "W-what's that?"

She's talking about my sliced head. At this proximity, there's no doubt she can see it pulsing and moving, something that creeped out even Ruka and Keon. I want to say something, even if I don't know what, but my lips won't move. My teeth are too heavy to part. All I can move now are my eyes, though they can't see much.

Zahara looks back at the Omega and slowly bends their arm back, pulling the claw out of my shoulder. I start falling back as she does so, a dead weight unable to support myself. With both of her hands still on the Omega, there's no chance of Zahara catching me, so I brace myself to land right back on the dirt.

I'm almost able to make a noise when I land on something much softer than the ground. It moves when I fall on top of it, or maybe it was moving before. Considering the hands the turn me over, I can guess someone caught me before I fell completely.

"What the hell did they do?" I hear a voice mutter quietly, before another one, farther away, call out.

"Ivo! What are you doing? You need to pr-"

"I'll grow them a whole damn tree!" The voice above me snaps. "We've got Mica fucking paralyzed! Don't you think that takes priority? Where's Isak?"

The voices are getting duller every second, like things are happening under water. By now, I can't see anything, but I can hear that Omega's voice, as pained as it might be.

"What do you think you can do?" The Death Tower asks. "The Carcia has less than a minute until the venom gets into his bloodstream, and from there, thirty seconds until he dies. I'm the only one who can construct an antidote. Without me, your fri-"

The furious voice cuts the Omega off. "Snap his neck. Where the hell is Isak?"

Oh hell. Ivo thinks Zahara, a girl who's too timid to even stand in front of a group of more than twenty people, is able to snap this Omega's neck? Of course she is, physically, but I don't think she could handle the personal effects of the action. Mentally, that is. I'm not sure I'd be able to snap a person's neck without some mental effects either.

My chest feels tighter with every breath I'm trying to take, and slowly, I start to go numb, almost not feeling anything at all. My ears have gone way underwater now. All I can tell is that people are talking, or rather shouting, not what they're saying. I feel an intense pressure on my shoulder, two hands, see a flash of light through the dark spots, and then I'm gone.

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It's something small falling on my face that wakes me up. My eyes open first, followed by my hand, which goes immediately to my head. My fingers graze the strip of cloth that's now wrapped around my head, hiding the pulsing injury, but that's not what's on my face. I pick up the leaf under my eye instead, and hold it up. Staring upwards, I can see a whole canopy of vines stretching above, some leaves wilting, some just budding.