Sea of Embers

Rain

Skylight by Andy Leech

Better to fight for something than to live for nothing

-George S. Patton

How did she get this far out here? I wondered, taking a slight step forward into the brightness of the evening sun. Although, I still hung back in the shadows just enough to stay out of sight.

Enzo's conscious swirled with mine in an electric fire. I don't know, he paused, But it seems the forest gave her a hard time. She looks half dead.

He was right. What was left of her once white jumpsuit was tattered. No white remained in the fabric, only smudged brown, green, and grey stains. The sleeve that had been on her right arm had ripped off in what seemed a horrifying encounter with a second or maybe even a third generation mutation. I didn't think the government continued to experiment on animals as well, and maybe they didn't. It was possible that the creatures, once set free, had reproduced at a rapid rate.

See her arm?

Yeah.

Third gen?

I couldn't help but wonder, after all, Enzo had been in the service a full year before me. He knew more than me on an array of things, he even taught me new moves in combat. We had both been sent to the gated science center at the same time, though.

Yeah, see her torso? I felt the callused pads of his fingers as they gently gripped my jaw, turning my head slightly. I noticed what he was referring too and responded,

That large gash on her side, it looks infected. It's what, two days old? And untreated at that... she's dying.

She's dangerous. He responded a wave of protectiveness washed over me, causing shivers to wrack my body. He only became super protective when something wasn't right.

We cannot just wait here for her to die.

She's already dead, Denahi.

It seems the infection was passed to her. She's already started the transition, I realized.

Within seconds my bow was in my hand, an arrow propped on the string, taut and ready to fire. I didn't take long to zero in on my target, a headshot would be quick. Merciful. She wouldn't feel anything, if she could still feel, of course. I did not know if she lost any of her senses yet. Although from the way she stumbled around, bits of hair still left on her scalp falling out and into the grass, she lost depth perception.

When infected from a mutated creature, people seem to lose all senses before gaining some back at full force. It was sight they got back first, then smell. Both ten times better than the normal person. For the first time, I thanked the heavens that I wasn't a normal person. Now I just questioned if heaven was real. And if it was, should I be thanking it?

With a silent exhale, my index finger relaxed. The arrow whipped through the air with a piercing whistle. It wasn't till the sickening crunch of the arrow breaking bone, and the soft thud of a falling body, coming to rest in the field, that I inhaled a much-needed breath.

I relaxed my hold on the bow, letting my arm come to a rest at my side. The silence of the forest around Enzo and I seemed to close around me, suffocate me. I hated the silence. I loathed it. It always meant the end of another life or the beginning of a brutal storm.

Think it could have been anyone we knew?
I reached over, my fingers grasping air till they caught the sleeve of Enzo's sweatshirt.

His deep voice both comforted and calmed me as he replied.

Most likely. I doubt they were 'them' anymore, though, so it wasn't a friend you killed, but a monster that merely stole their mind.

I didn't answer immediately, nor did I need to. Lorenzo understood. He always did.

Leaning over, I rested my head on his shoulder, watching the clouds gather in the evening sky. Little drops of water splattered across my brow. Using the sleeve of my own jacket, I wiped away the droplets before they could run down my face.

The sky seemed upset, not entirely angry, but not calm either.

I can feel it too. Enzo's calm presence washed over my mind. He reached for my hand, grasping it in his larger, callused one. It's time.