Dead Days

Chapter 19

     Time slammed to a halt. Was this really happening? Or is it me hallucinating due to lack of food and water?

    Devin came in tight, and fast, really fucking fast. Faster than he should've been, hell, faster than he was.

    The gears of time flung themselves back into motion and he was winding back for blow in less than a second, a blow that would've taken my head off.

    I ducked, the wind off of his swing sliced the air just a few inches above my head.

    I came up with a strong uppercut, strong enough to crush his entire bottom jaw.

    But he slipped it.

    He used my upwards momentum against me. He grabbed my wrist and twisted his body, my arm over his shoulder now, he pulled down and bucked with his hip.

    I slammed onto my back with a thud. Air slipped from my lungs and black spots burst in my eyes. He lifted his heel high above my head, preparing for an axe kick.

    Rain fell into my face and eyes, making my vision blurry. My entire body was soaked and the weight of my wet clothes was dragging me down.

    He brought down his heel with insane strength. You don't get that strength from being a construction worker. No way in hell.

    I rolled out of the way in the last second, his heel dug into the dirt where my head had been.

    I jumped to feet and he charged me. I side stepped, dropped to a knee and as he passed me I chopped into his ACL as hard as I could. No matter how strong you are, the knee will always buckle.

    He fell to the ground, but was up in seconds. I fell into a fighters stance and let the warrior take full control.

    Devin stood there, smiling. "It was so fucking easy. Just pretend I know jack shit about shooting and close quarters combat." His smile grew broader, "and you fucking believed it."

    The realization hit me like a train. "Terry trusted you, you piece of shit." Devin continued smiling.

     "Terry was weak, all I did was exploit his weakness."

    Anger roared like a lion inside of me. "You sorry sack of shit. You killed him in cold blood." That was all I was going to say, but the warrior chimed in. "And I'm going to enjoy hearing you scream."

    A smile, the smile of a killer, crossed my lips. Devin charged once again. I prepped myself, digging my back foot into the dirt. I met his charge by ducking into his knees. I rammed my body into them, and one hyperextended, tearing the ACL and bringing a sharp yelp from his lips.

    He flew over me, landing hard on his stomach. I was up before he knew what was happening. I grabbed one of his feet and twisted it as hard as I could. His ankle exploded as his toes now pointed to the sky.

    He grabbed clumps of dirt, but didn't scream, which pissed me off even more. I kicked hard into the side of his already weak knee. It snapped outwards, the jagged edge of the femur tearing through his skin.

He sucked in air through his teeth. The warrior drooled as I dropped the leg and grabbed the other one.

I lifted the leg as high as it could go and brought the front of his knee down on mine. A joint can only bend so far in the wrong direction, after seconds it snapped.

That wrenched a scream from his lips. Almost similar to the one he made Cassie make, but it still wasn't enough.

I smiled as the warrior whispered what to do.

I walked beside him, he stared me in my eyes, terror flooding his vision. I hopped in the air and brought my entire weight down onto the center of his back. His spine snapped like a twig, the brain stem severed by the jagged edges of bone. Whatever pain he felt in his legs was gone now.

I rolled him over, the smile of a killer still plastered on my lips. I straddled his chest and laid my knees on his arms. I unsheathed my knife and laid the sharp side of the blade on his forehead.

"You see Devin, you betrayed my trust." I dug the blade into his skin and he bite down on his tongue. I drew the blade down at an angle.

"You betrayed Terry's trust." I lifted the blade, blood dripping on him from the tip. I placed it opposite the cut I just made and brought it down and across it, making an X.

"You killed him in cold blood, nearly killed Cassie." I put the tip of the blade in the middle of the X, where the lines met. And pushed only a little bit, the blade bit into his skin.

He exhaled, expressing the pain that ran through what he could feel of his body. The rain made the blood run down his face in pink lines.

The warrior added a final piece. "There are times when killing breaks the soul, shatters it, and that shattered piece dies with the life you took. But there are also times when killing is good, feels good, makes you happy. Like right now." I pushed down harder.

    "PLEA..." He began to scream, tearing his vocal cords bloody, just as he did to Cassie, but the knife tore through his frontal lobe and destroyed him. He ceased to live. The warrior laughed maniacally at the blood on his hands.

    I pulled the knife out and left him there, he didn't deserve to be buried. I walked over Cassie and helped her up, and together we continued the walk, not saying a word to each other for miles.