The Fallen World

Chapter 11: A Good Wolf is a Dead Wolf

The flooded roads of the city started to fade away and are now replaced by overgrown as we travel farther. The sky turned gray and cloudy—all I can hear are our legs brushing the blades of grass and the humming of Kieran, his tail wags when he does that.

Cars are scattered all over the grass field, along with some street lights and apartments mixed with the overgrown environment. We approached a crumbled road, I can hear the rumbling of vehicles coming from the left side.

"Everyone, take cover!" I quietly alerted them, all of us hide ourselves behind a car covered with the tall grass surrounding us. "What is it?" Derek asked, I can see three RVs passing through, the first RV has a dead eagle tied-up on the front side. After the vehicles passed through and the rumbling faded, we cautiously get out of cover and stand up.

"They're here." Kieran warned, "What? Who are those guys?" Chase asked, "Fate Watch, remember the reindeer that hanged that poor fox a few months ago?" I said, "How'd they end up here with us?! We're miles away from that place and now they're here?" She asked. "Well, I don't know!" I replied.

"We should stay away from them, I don't wanna end up as a car decoration. Let's keep moving." I said. It's misty and gray in the middle of noon, I think it rained here a while ago. "Hey, Darwin?" Kieran asked anxiously, I turn my head to the right and look at him as we walk—he looks scared, his right paw's grabbing his left arm, his tail dropped unlike before—he was wagging, he's anxious about something...

"If we end up meeting those guys, are we going to kill them?" he asked, I then immediately nodded, "Obviously, if we don't... we'll be the ones who're gonna be dead." Kieran sighed. "It doesn't have to be that way." Kieran said in a lowered voice. It feels like I'm talking to Chase all over again, all naive and everything. I'm tired of that same bullshit...

I stopped walking, "Can you just stop actin' like good guys?!" I faced at Kieran—the other two on my left looks at me, confused. "W-What? I'm not. I-I just don't wanna hurt people anymore." he stammered. "Oh, so you did?" "What? I mean—no!" everyone stopped walking as they saw me approach him face to face, grabbed his shoulders and spoke: "C'mon, admit it, you did hurt someone." I made an unsettling grin.

Kieran's eyes got watery and sobbed, "Aww, are you gonna cry?" "Darwin! Stop it!" Chase shouted as she rushes in and push me away from him. "What the hell was that for?" Chase asked with a snarl, Derek's just standing there, away from this argument. He looks shameful as Kieran, looking at the ground.

"Why? If you guys keep actin' like this you're gonna get killed sooner or later! This is a merciless world we're living in and you kids act like you can just get away from violence!" "Can you just... stop?!" Chase yelled, "Stop what? From teaching you guys a lesson?" I slapped her. She then made an unexpected move, she punched my face—real hard. I touched my cheek and it stings, my throat aches—I try my best not to get my eyes watery.

Chase looks at me with clutched fists, "I'm...sorry." Keiran apologised. "It's not your fault, just don't cry, alright?" Chase approached to Keiran and hugged him with her right paw patting his shoulder.

"Chase, don't tell me you've never killed a single person before, I saw you did." Chase stopped hugging the sobbing fox and faced at me, "Yes, I've killed people! But that doesn't mean I have to act like am asshole! I've showed mercy a lot of times too, Darwin..."

"If you keep showing mercy, you'll end up like that fox those maniacs killed! Do you understand? Your enemies never show mercy, kid!" "Then why did you let Kieran and Derek live? So you can use them and prove me wrong?" Chase asked as she wrapped her arms.

"Oh, is that how it is then? So I guess I can just kill them right on the spot—let's see." I took out my pistol, everyone's alarmed as they saw it, cocked it and aimed at Derek, he gasped and took a step back. "Woah! What're you doing, man?!" Derek panicked with his hands in the air, "Darwin! Stop it!" Chase shouted.

My paws shakes as I aim my pistol at him, "Stop it!" she shouted, I stare at the shuddering falcon for a moment then stopped. I holster my pistol back and did a facepalm with a loud sigh. "You've never changed at all, do you? I thought you've changed but you didn't!"

I don't know why I did that, I almost shot him to prove that I've always been the same. I never changed at all do I? Why am I like this? I think that all I wanted to do is to prove them that I'm right about everything, I guess I'm the one who's wrong, or is it the way I say it? I don't even know... Fuck! Why do I keep messing things up?!

We ended the fight I started a few minutes later—and pretended we never had it, but their faces still tells me that they're still thinking about what I've done. We continue to walk, I knew I took that fight too far—I wanna forget about that.

Out of nowhere, we all heard a deafening gunshot that shot Keiran. He made a screaming moan and fell to the grass. He lies down with his paw resting on his chest and barely moves, he's dead. "No!" Derek screamed as he tried to reach Keiran but got shot in his shoulder and screamed—"Guys! I found them!" A voice shouted in the distance. "We have to get out of here!" "No! I'm not leaving him!" Derek shouted, "C'mon!" I yelled. There were no cars to take cover to, so we run towards an overgrown office building I pointed at, Derek and I quickly push the glass doors and grunted doing so, then we all ran inside.

It's dark and quiet, the glass entrance bring out a small amount of light showing dust particles floating around. The lobby has scattered sofas, fallen tables and the reception desk at the front.

We run to the corridor beside the reception desk and approach the fire exit stairs on the right side. Derek stopped running with us, "Hey, why'd you stop?!" I stopped and face at him, "Go! I'm coming back for him!" "He's dead, now let's go!" "I said go! I'll also buy you guys some time, now go!" I nodded and ran with Chase.

I grabbed Chase's paw as she look at Derek then entered the stairs, I don't know where we're going but I need to find a way out somehow.