The Eden Projects (FINAL EDITING)

Chapter 62. Weapons.

- Zak -

It was a story of puppets, strings, and wrong answers.

For every part of Zak that loved, an equal portion doubted.

He was all emotions.

Only now, he felt nothing.

He stood as still as a tree, covered in bloody viscera like some nightmarish painting.

Not his own bloody life force.

He would never have cared if it was.

It was all Kasper's and he never thought someone could have bled as much as he did.

There was no one to blame.

Not anymore.

So he stood.

Staring.

With each breath, he felt his clothes cling and release against his chest reminding him it was real. It was all happening. The smell of moistened dirt and drying blood stung like hot iron in his eyes. Burnt flesh had a smell unlike anything. It was unforgettable. It was always this way. Others hurt or dead while he was just fine. Until he wasn't. Then the world was ending and the sky had fallen.

But he wasn't fine, and the world had ended.

Now he waited for the sky.

He covered his ears slowly. Blocking out the screaming. Changing the riotous shouts to muffled cries.

Topher was on the ground, held down by Rook who struggled to keep him from attacking Ace, Riley was somewhere, hunting down a trauma kit, and Ace was at the sink. Unable to catch his breath-

And there he was.

Staring at the end.

Things were happening, but nothing was actually changing. Things were moving, and he was still standing. Everywhere and nowhere all at once.

He had done the most, and nothing at all.

Kasper, was dead.

At least in the human sense. He was dead, though the thing in his chest still writhed. No heart remained to keep him alive. He hung over the edge, suspended by the very thing he hated most.

They were all praying it would save him.

Ace righted himself and strode to the door. Shoving out of it.

"HEY-" Zak followed, holding the door for Riley who came back with the treasures from her search. It was a fruitless effort, there was nothing they could do even with ample equipment.

You couldn't patch or sew something that had nothing to be sewn to. Kasper was mangled and still. So very still. Like an animal eviscerated by the teeth of a hunter's trap. In ways they had never seen before.

So Zak followed Ace.

"Where are you going-" Zak's voice still stung with the bitterness of alcohol and he couldn't imagine ever drinking it again. It tasted like blood and dirt. "Don't you dare run out on us-"

Ace said nothing, and walked briskly up the hall, through the doors, and out into the base. It was all bustling. The last stragglers were fortifying, others were crying, and all of them were terrified.

He followed. "Ace! I swear to God if you run-"

"I have to go to the Tower. Or what's left of it. I have to see it." His voice was shaking.

"Ark is out there- why the hell would seeing it matter!" Zak tried to reason him to stay, he knew it wouldn't do a thing. "We need to go."

"I have to know." Ace climbed the steps to his tower.