When Earth Stopped Moving

Chapter 1 : COUNTDOWN / Part 14 : Prison

For a moment , everything around me got pitch black and I felt completely paralyzed. Nick was strongly holding his hand against my mouth and nose, not allowing a single molecule of air go through. My inevitable death would be a matter of some minutes if he keeps up.

I had to do something . But all I could think of in such a weakened position is randomly kicking the air , which I did , praying god one of my punches would reach him. Hopefully , I had enough time and energy to jump out of his emprise right when I felt my wrist getting in contact with his unusually cold skin.

-"YOU BASTARD ! I screamed getting up as fast as possible to avoid another attack . WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL ARE YOU DOING !

Those words I've just said were just as meaningless to him as the sound of the wind in the room .He , indeed , strangely seemed like he wasn't hearing me anything all . His eyes were austere-to say the least. They were giving a seemingly lost look , as if he was possessed by an exterior entity.
That said , it took me several minutes to realize that his presence here didn't make any sense , as the first chock provoked by his sudden attack slowly started fading away. As if it wasn't enough information for me to assimilate , he didn't seem like himself anymore. And just in the moment where I thought of trying to re-ask about the reasons he's here for , he run towards me like a furious bull and hit me with his head in the stomach so violently that I completely lost my balance and fell on the ground again .
-"WE ALL MUST COLONIZE THE KINGDOM ! He said repeteadly in a tone that was in the middle of surprise and anger.

-"What ? Which kindgom ? Nick are you all okay ? I desperately asked , moving backward as fast as I could .

-"THE LAST ONE MUST BE BROUGHT TO AZARAT ! He yelled all over again as if I did not ask anything .

The situation was getting more and more confusing. I couldn't possibly understand what he was doing here , neither how he is still alive, speaking to me . We all thought he was dead. Did the blood we saw in the rocket earlier even belong to him?

Everything was, starting from the answer to that question , a complete mystery.. But I didn't really have enough time to think of it. I had to find a solution to get myself out of here.

The dilemna , however , was hard to deal with : Nick wasn't himself anymore. The probability of him previously getting brainwashed was the most rational explanation. But I was open to any other crazy suggestions: it wouldn't indeed surprise me if this was some sort of mind control.
Never the less , he still was one of my comrades. He was from afar , the only chance for me to understand what happened here , and to get to know more about this place.
However , just at the moment where I thought about saving him , flashbacks popped up in my mind...

I remembered how awful was his attitude towards us...how he willingly sent his little twin-sister to her inevitable fate and how poorly it affected him when she was struggling to get off the two guard's- who were bringing her outside- emprise .

I remembered everything he said and did and how much he pissed everyone off . I had to be honest with myself , if I had the choice , he 'd be the last one I'll save.

-"NICK ANSWER ME ! I angrily shouted breaking the silence after getting up while shaking him so hard , deciding that only mutual violence would solve this problem with him.
But he wasn't in a state to understand me. I had to admit : he was just an obstacle for me now. I didn't have the choice .

I had to keep him here and go back to him later because he might be my last chance to find the others.

-"THE LAST ONE MUST BE ...

I didn't even let him finish his sentence I punched him with all the energy and hate I'v got in the stomach and made sure he fell on the ground .

Surprisingly , that did not seem to hurt him at all , in the opposite of any decent human being who would have felt intense pain with a punch that powerful.