‘He promised me…’

  She saw nothing. Seeing nothing but black, only the sounds of gunshots bilstein her empty ears. The only saving grace being her eardrums, even they were beginning to fail.

  [Get back up! You can’t let men fight your own battles!]

  ‘But he promised me…’

  Like remembering a past that held her back, she pushed an empty hand into the empty darkness. Can she be saved? Can she move forward despite being on the brink of death?

  Can her promise be granted? Fix a past that needed fixing?

  [I think it’s best if you forget about me, can you promise me that?]

  ‘Why can’t you promise me one thing…’

  Her lungs collapsed, her heart stopped its beating. As if her whole body convulsed in a millisecond seizure, everything that played within her mind sped faster than a bluebird jet. Cold sweat, hot sweat, her whole body under the blanket of nothing and darkness began to wrap her in death. Feeling the imaginary scythe scraping the contents of her back—

  —[Please, Jenny, you have to go to bed. I have sparring tomorrow…]—

  ‘You liar…’

  She was pulled out of the world of nothingness.

  The dilation of her eyes returning to normal, her lungs inflating, her heart resuming, her brain restarting; everything within her body just snapped back into place.

  “Hey, are you ok!?”

  Flinching her body upward, all five of her senses returned. Glancing around the factory, she turned her attention to the shy soldier who looked ten years younger than her.

  “What happened?”

  “J-Just rest now … she’s gone.”

  “Oh…”

  Jenny began scratching her stomach, until she felt a burning itch settling in. Feeling a gush of warm liquid, it coated down her hand and palm …

  Sniffling the air around her, it was close, too close. Flaring her nostrils, her nose pointed downward—

  “Huh…”

  The hand that she used to scratch her face, was drenched in a liquid known to her. Her eyes widening, the smell was none other than manure.

  “Ha … Ha!”

  A roaring amount of blood etched onto her hand, leaving her no choice but to breathe quickly. Not only blood, but she saw two other things littering her fingers. First, she saw bits of pink inside her fingernails. Second, the tips of her fingers had brown pigments, leaving the soldier behind her to gag.

  “HA!!”

  Vocalizing a high pitched scream, Jenny arched her head back, and rolled her eyes into the back of her head. Having her body within his hands, and her back pressed onto his lap, he smelt the foul odor coming from her leaking intestines. Pinching his nose, and seeing shit and pinkish sausages wanting to escape from her stomach, he puffed his cheeks.

  ‘I should signal the others…’

  Using his other hand, he placed it on top of her forehead, his palm sweating from the high fever molesting her body. Unpinching his nose, he pulled out a walkie talkie from his pocket, and dialed in three numbers, pushing static to torment his eardrum.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Going to need the syringe! I know it’s illegal, but this is a serious case here!”

  ________________________________________________________________________

  (Quintiles 29, 59 / 8:05PM)

  “Are you guys ok? How’s Boris doing?”

  “Boris is doing okay! He just has weak lungs!”

  “For the last time … pants … I have small lungs … pants …”

  “Just breathe inside of your inhaler old man. Anyway, I don’t think I ended him, so he’s probably somewhere in the city.”

  David, Loraine, and Boris all sat together on tops of wood crates. Feeling their butts being pelt by the uncomfortable wood, they tried to ignore the stinging pain, but it left their legs to squeal and twitch.

  But despite feeling splinters edging into their butts, it was the only thing they had to worry about. Slowing down their breaths one second at a time, David looked around the quiet room, and noticed the hostages being set free by the small group of soldiers. And lastly, the sounds of fighting were stopped shortly after Pedro’s defeat.

  “Looks like that random lich girl was dealt with. But where’s Jerry and—”

  They all heard a squeal, a squeal that assaulted its way into their eardrums, along with every corner of the building. Widening their eyes, the three of them settled themselves off of the crates, as wooden splinters stuck to the bottom of their pants.

  “That sounds like Jenny!”

  “There’s no time! Let’s see if she’s alright!”

  Pushing their legs into motion, the three of them sprinted toward the direction of Jenny’s scream, while their faces plastered with sweat.

  David had a strong control of his breathing, despite exerting much of his strength in his fight with Pedro. Loraine’s breathing intensified, like a freight train that exerts too much of its weight on the tracks. Meanwhile, Boris wheezed through both his nostrils and his throat, and before he knew it … he collapsed onto the floor.

  Both David and Loraine stopped, and turned to look at him. Loraine giggled loudly, as she placed her hand to cover her mouth, but David put on a stern face. Folding his arms underneath his chest, he sighed an exhale.

  “Do you need to be carried?”

  “wheezes … yes …”

  Extending his hand out, he grabbed Boris’s hand, and pulled his chubby body up to his back. Once he settled on, David and Loraine continued along their sprint, even when David’s feet thudded the metallic floor by both his and Boris’ weights. Wobbling with every step, David pushed forward, and he didn’t even falter his breathing one bit.

  Reaching the area where Jenny was at, they all took in a skinny soldier wrapping a white bandage along her stomach. The woman being Jenny, a foul odor plunged up their noses, leaving them to pinch their nostrils shut.

  “gags … What the hell is that smell?!”

  “It’s coming from her sir… that girl lich did a number on her stomach, especially where her intestines are at.”

  Her head rested on his lap, her eyes were closed while her mouth was open. Loraine and David softly looked at the sleeping Jenny, while Boris settled his feet firm on the floor. Looking down at the ground, Boris scrunched up his eyes, and wrinkled his cheeks tenfold.

  “Is she going to live?” Questioned Boris.

  “I used a special type of injection to keep her alive, but she needs a professional medic. Either that or a person that deals with healing of some sort.”

  “Healing … healing … Boris! Get a call in on either Hope or Benn! Those two are together!” Yelled David.

  Pulling out a small phone from his pocket, which was created by Fred out of Jack’s idea. The phone looked to be similar to a Tician phone, but much smaller. With a single flip, the device unveiled a surging amount of keypads, and by pushing in some of the keys, the joints of the metal rang.

  Ringing loudly, he felt his palms reverberate.

  “Hello?”

  “Benn, this is Boris! Is Hope okay?!”

  “Partially. She’s alive, but she’s badly burnt.”

  ‘Just who did they battle against? Did they get ambushed as well? I’ve been held hostage for a while so I don’t know…’

  Boris tightened his grip on the small flip phone, as he let his fingers clench and twitch the black metal. Tilting his head down to the floor even more, he raised his other hand to scratch his neck, as his fingers scraped off countless batches of dead skin. Sucking in a huge breath of air, he straightened his back and loosened the grip on the phone.

  “I need you guys to meet us at the industrial complex. Jenny is badly wounded.”

  “I’ll let the platoon know.”

  Once he heard a blaring silence fill his earhole, he flipped the screen down, and jabbed the device into his pocket. Turning his attention toward Jenny, who was being comforted by David and Loraine, it made him push all the dirty air out of his lungs. Suddenly, his lungs began attacking, like someone was stabbing him with a burning knife.

  Feeling a warm liquid trickle out of his right lip, he swayed it with his right hand, as his coughing attack ceased. Holding up his body with just his other hand, he had his palm pushed onto his knee, as he tried to control his breathing yet again. Hunched down, he looked around the factory floor with narrowed eyes. Scanning the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling, he felt his breath wheeze relentlessly under the rustic air.

  ‘Wait … where’s Jerry …?’

  “Are you the overseer of those soldiers?”

  Glancing at the soldier in front of him, or rather the sergeant, he noticed that he already led the hostages out of the building. Since he finished his duty, it led Boris to stand up straight, and focus his eyes on the man.

  “Yes. Have anything to declare?”

  —”One of your soldiers, the tall elf with an eyepatch, was abducted by the enemy. They say they last saw him heading east…—”