The Farm

Chapter 8

Quill was coaxed to consciousness by the faint sound of tears. He opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings. There to his left across the opening to the watery chamber was Kiran sobbing into her hands. She sat with her knees tucked into her chest.

"Kiran what's wrong?"

She didn't even look up, "They said-," her words were slow and broken through her sobbing, " they said I...I have to kill you."

"What? What do you mean, Kiran?"

"The man on the intercom said that all the hunters are dead, but that four of "us prey" are still alive. Apparently he can only have a max of three walk out of here which means whoever hasn't killed yet has no choice but to kill one of the other contenders."

In that moment it dawned on Quill what that meant. They were the only two who hadn't killed yet. Meaning, if one of them wanted to make it out of there they would have kill the other.

"Quill, I'm not a killer," she was beginning to sob again.

"Wait, but it doesn't make sense. If all three hunters are dead wouldn't that mean at least three of us killed already?"

"Unless of course a hunter killed a contender that that had already killed a hunter" She managed to eke out, still sniffling.

Quill sighed heavily, upset with the fact that he'd have to disappoint her "Kiran, I really am sorry, but I plan on making it out of here alive." Kiran looked up to find Quill pulling one of the spines from his arm and throwing it at her. She didn't even bother trying to move out of the way, the quill struck the skin of her neck and rebounded into the air before falling to the dirt.

Kiran was done crying. She wanted to know if he would honestly try it. A part of her was hoping she wouldn't have to fight him, that they could just sit here and enjoy the rest of the time they had left together, maybe going out by the hands of "The Doctor's" poison wouldn't be all that bad. At least it meant she would no longer be subject to their abuse, but she refused to just sit there and allowed herself to be killed by the hands of someone else.

"You can't break my skin, Quill. It becomes denser in response to any impact." Kiran got to her feet, but with no motivation. She really didn't want to do this but she would if she had to.

"It's fine. I'll find another way to kill you." Quill responded calmly as he approached her. He balled his fist and swung at her landing a blow to her cheek all the raised quills on his arm scratched against her face as he continued the motion, but none of it affected Kiran. A simple punch couldn't do her any harm. That was one of "The Doctor's" many method of testing her skin's strength.

As Quill completed the motion of his punch Kiran delivered a kick to his stomach. Quill landed on his back.

"I was wondering if you were going to join in or just stand there." Kiran heard Quill's words but they didn't register. She was trying desperately to push all feelings and thoughts from her mind, trying to make this all easier. She began walking towards him, ready to kick him again.

Quill, anticipating this, grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her to the ground in response. Climbing on top of her he began to strike. Kiran simply grabbed his head and swung her forehead towards his nose. She felt her skin tighten right before the impact and heard his nose crack from the force. He stumbled off and Kiran got to her feet. His nose was bleeding profusely, but he channeled the pain from the blow into anger, and the anger into determination.

Quill bolted towards Kiran. Kiran braced for the impact ready to be tackled, but Quill bounded over her head twisting and raining all the spines from his back down on her in a midair barrage.

Kiran felt her skin trying to tighten in response to all of them but it was too much to defend against at once. She felt her skin tearing in the spots that had become too thin.

"Ah. Seems your skin can only handle so much. If it has to stretch too far to defend one area it begin to tear in another."

'Shit.' She thought, 'Seems like there's still more to my powers than I thought.'

Quill walked over and kicked her down pulling numerous spines from his head and jamming them through an open wound in her leg before getting up and beginning to walk away.

"It's not like that's really going to do much." She muttered.

"Each quill has a small sack of poison it. Alone they're not strong enough to do much but in a cluster they will kill." And with that he continued walking away.

Kiran pulled the spines from her leg and noticed the skin around them was already starting to close up.

'Of course.' She thought. She had been poked, prodded, and stabbed all the time by "The Doctors" but she never left her test room with a scar. She got up again still feeling the pain were Quill had driven his quills in even though the skin was fully healed now. 'Come on. Block it out, Kiran.' she mentally urged herself.

Kiran sprinted after Quill. He heard her coming up behind him but responded too late. Kiran tackled him down put he was already poised to kick her off. She landed against a wall. He came back swinging a punch at her connecting yet again but still doing nothing.

"Kiran, just stay down. You're already dead."

Kiran honestly had no idea what had come over her, but she wasn't going to die like this. She swung right back. Hitting Quill square in the jaw. Her fists, becoming denser with the impact, hit Quill like a brick. He stumbled backwards. Kiran saw her opening and threw a punch at his chin. Quill fell back hitting the wall, listlessly sliding towards the ground. He didn't get back up.

There was a chime in the corridor, "Damn! That was fucking intense! I loved it!" It was the intercom voice again. Kiran could hear it but it was faint and distant, her vision was beginning to blur. "Well, looks like we have our final three. So, unless you don't want out, you all can start making your way back to th-," His voice cut out and the world went dark. She felt herself helplessly hurdling towards the ground, and then nothing.