The Marked

Chapter 8: End

When I wake up, I struggle onto my hands and knees and start to crawl. There is dirt and tiny rocks everywhere that keep stabbing my hands and knees. I feel my way around the room and to the door. I don't need light because I know this place like the back of my hand. It is a maze but I know every cavern and every tunnel. I start working my way to the secret cave when I hear footsteps. I press myself against the wall and try not to make any noise. Two people pass by me as if I wasn't even there. I continue but I find is not easy to get around with a broken ankle.

I finally squeeze my way into the cave to find that no one is there. Great. Just fantastic. They are either in Lisa's or Aaron's room. Or somewhere else hiding from me. I start to make my way to Lisa's room when I find myself in the main cavern, the heart of the volcano. Just as I pass through it on my way to the tunnel that will lead me to Lisa's room, I am knocked over as someone trips over me. It is Aaron. He was running the opposite way and knocked me over.

"Have..to..get away..," he manages to say.

"Shhh, what is it? What is wrong?" I ask.

"Lisa...is...crazy," he stammers.

"Tell me about it. You should have heard what she said to me last night."

"She is crazy," he continues. "She told me to call her Char."

"What? I have to find her!" I am utterly disgusted and humiliated.

"Found her," Aaron says as he lifts his hand and points to the opposite side of the main room. I look up to find Lisa staring right at us. Wide eyed, lips pursed in anger, her eyebrows are knitted together, and she is staring with rage. Suddenly a shot was fired. My eyes shoot up toward the hole in the top of the volcano and find a human staring back at me. It wasn't just any human. It was one with a fask. You can tell when someone has a fask versus someone who has a brain by just looking at their face. One with a fask has no emotion whatsoever. They are brain dead. They don't think, they do. They do everything the government wants them to do. If they have no feelings or thoughts are they even human at all? What has happened to the human race? Then I remember that the only human race that exists now are the marked and they won't last long now that they have found us. I hear Lisa scream and out of the corner of my eye I see Lisa fall to the floor.

"LISA!" Aaron cries. He gets up and tries to run to her, but I jump up and tackle him. I cover his mouth.

"Shut up, get off your ass and follow me. Fast," I whisper in terror.

I start to hobble and expect Aaron to follow but he is still on the floor. I limp back just in time to see ropes being thrown down into the main room. Fasks are climbing down, not one by one but all at once. I think Aaron is in shock so I punch him in the face and my right hand goes numb.

"Aaron listen to me. They are going to reach the ground and when they do they are going to kill us." My punch worked because he jumps up and knocks me over. He picks me up off the ground and starts to run. He makes his way instinctively, as if on autopilot, and suddenly I know where he is taking me. We are headed for our cave. It is the only place that is safe.

We finally make it into the last tunnel when we run into a patroller. We run right into him and blow him off of his feet. He scrambled to his feet but just stood there. He didn't try to kill or come after us. His lifeless eyes started right into mine. There was no emotion in his face but there was something that was telling me that he was alive, that he still had some form of a brain in his tiny head. Maybe the human race will survive. I don't know what will happen next. Either the fask will win and we will die here and now or he will let us go.

"Go now!" the patroller says to our shock. Aaron reaches down, grabbing the patroller's gun in one hand and me in the other and we take off running.

I dive into the cave first and Aaron follows. We lean against the wall to the right as far away from the entrance as we can get without falling into the river. Aaron has one arm around me and the other is holding the gun aiming at the little hole in the wall. His hand is shaking from exhaustion and terror.

My whole world is coming crashing down and just when I don't think it can get any worse, the firing begins. We hear the first shot followed by screaming. Then five more shots. The screaming continues even louder. The river is loud but the cave is filling with the screams from the outside. I plug my ears and replay what I just witnessed....my former best friend being murdered. I keep playing it over and over. Her lifeless body hitting the cold, hard mountain floor.

I can't believe they found us. So far there have been 49 shots fired. I am morbidly keeping count as if to occupy my mind and shield myself from the gruesome reality I know that exists. We sit in silence, listening to our friends being murdered. The shots and screams are even louder than the roaring river which is running faster than ever.

"I have to go out there and help them," says Aaron insistingly.

"Aaron, I am not letting you go out there, you will die," I said with anger giving way to panic.

"Well, we are going to die in here anyways. There is nothing to eat. Or worse yet, they will find us before we die of starvation. Char, we can't live in here. I have to go out and fight them. We can't just let our friends die out there while we sit in hiding"

"You don't have to do anything!"

"I don't have, I want to!" he exclaims.

"Then I am going with you," I protest. I will not leave his side.

"No you can't come, you will just slow me down. Stay here. I will be back in 10 minutes," he promised not really believing his own words.

He hugs me tightly, more tightly than ever before, with finality and expression that makes me forgot for a fleeting instant the death and destruction around us. Then he quickly stands up and is gone. I reach for him to pull him back but all I grab is emptiness. There have now been 67 shots fired and before I can even comprehend what I am doing, I am already out of the cave. I can see a shadow moving down the hall fast and I know it is Aaron. His dark silky hair flows in every direction while he runs. I can't see the face nor the color of his hair but I know it is him. So I follow him. I counted 99 shots. Either everyone is dead or the fasks overshoot their prey.

I am risking my life to follow him. I know I have the possibility of getting shot but I need to be with him. I turn the corner as I hear a gunshot. When I turn I see his body begin to fall. He stumbles backwards and hits the ground with a thud .

"No!" I scream. I know it will attract attention but something inside me died. I rush to his side only to find he is already gone. "Don't leave me! Don't die on me! Aaron I need you!" But I am too late. I grab his hand and I look up at the fask that killed him. I wonder why he is waiting this long to kill me. There have been 100 shots now and there were 101 marked ones left. Then the last shot is fired. It is aimed at me.

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