Suppression

Prologue

  I'm pushing my legs as hard as they'll go. Fire is consuming what I am leaving behind me. Shots are fired. Men yelling at each other. I look down, sweat rolling off my face onto his.

  I will never regret saving you, Ethan. His words reverberate through my skull like a bullet.

  I'm carrying him in my arms, running as fast as I can. He saved me once, I can't let him die here, I think to myself. He's bleeding heavily from his leg, and he's passed out from the pain. My vision is starting to blacken at the sides, my heads pounding, my chest is burning. All I can think about his saving him. Maybe he's the only one I could have ever actually saved. That's what he would have said.

  Fate is fate, the big moments happen how they're supposed to, and fuck to the rest. It's how he described him finding me, saving me, training me. Fate is fate, fuck the rest.

  His words are the only things keeping me running, keeping me from falling down to the ground because of the faults in my current vision, keeping me from stopping to sooth the burning in my chest.

  This is all we are, Ethan, we have to fight. We can save ourselves, Ethan.

  We can save ourselves.

  I had to keep going. I had to. We needed Daniel. He was the backbone of this enterprise. They needed him. Me? I was just another fighter who joined the cause. I made no real impact. I wasn't special. I wasn't supremely stoic, my intellect matched everyone else's, and my combat skills were subpar at best.

  You fight, you're special, Ethan.

  My thoughts started to fade, and I could feel my conscious slipping from me. No, I have to keep going. I have to save you.

  I heard then the last things Daniel said to me. When I don't make this, you're all they have.

  You are all they have.

  I can't be all they have, Daniel.

  You can, and you might have to be.

  Daniel, I'm not-

  Yes, you are.

  It was then that I felt the warmth of his hand on my face come back. I looked down, only to realize it was still just a memory. A powerful thought that drove me faster. I let out a scream and ran harder than I ever had before. I knew that I was going to save him. I had to. If that's all I could ever do, I had to save him.

  It was right then that the bullet ripped through my left shoulder, then another just grazing the side of my head. I felt my legs fail me. No, no, no, NO! I yelled to my body. I wrapped my arms hard around Daniel, pressing him against me, and gave my body just enough torque to fall on my back. The impact knocked the wind out of me, and I began to feel the bullet wound to my shoulder. My vision faded even faster now, and I knew this was it. I didn't make it out. I heard the hustle of boots around me and the men surround, their automatic rifles securely pointed at me and Daniel. A horse whinnied as it made a stop. I turned my head just enough and saw him. The Protector of Justice.

  "Don't kill them," he said, ordering his men to drop arms. "The Head Protector will want to see to them. Personally."

  Good, I thought, they won't kill Daniel, then. I felt a pressure be put on my arm where I had been shot, just to stop the bleeding. Men picked Daniel from me, and I raised my voice to protest, but no noise escaped me. They placed us both on separate stretchers. My vision became completely compromised now, and all I saw was the darkness.

  I'm sorry, Daniel.