The Day of Reckoning (Prototype)

Chapter 9: Savior

Alfie climbs onto my finger, chirping and smiling. "I've never seen a blue tailed skink so cute before." I say, rubbing his head with my finger. "Hell, I've never seen a blue tailed skink at all before." I look out the window. The sun is beggining to go down, and Ramil still isn't back yet. "I told that fucker to be back here before dusk." I say to myself. Alfie chirps, twisting his head.

"Yeah, I know it's not dusk yet. I'm just worried. The guy is so damn small!" I explain to an actual lizard, who listens closely. He chirps and smile again. I'm pretty sure it's his way of telling me to trust Ramil. "Fine. But if I have to find his scrawny ass, I'll be livid." I say. I finish the grapefruit I've been sharing with the lizard. I get to my feet and walk over to the bench. "Its boring as fuuuuck." I groan. "I wanna fuckin' dismember something!" I hear a cat mew and look up, watching Ell walk over to me.

"Hey." I say. He stares at me, not even mewing in response. "Wanna come up here?" I ask him. He licks his paw and leaps onto my chest. I pet him gently as he begins to purr. "You're so damn cute, y'know? What made Ramil give you that ugly ass name?" I joke. He purrs harder as I scratch him behind his ear. He moves closer to my head before laying down. He falls asleep on my chest. Without a damn thing better to do, I decide to take a nap with him. It can't hurt.

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I wake up at dusk. The clouds are beggining to turn pink, the sun is starting to set, and Ramil isn't home yet. Ell wakes up and stretches, yawns, and jumps off my chest. My blood begins to boil as Alfie chirps. "Don't worry." I say. "I'll find his ass. He's prolly in deep shit right now." I get off the wooden bench and pick Alfie up, sticking him in the chest pocket of my shirt. I head to a destroyed CKS, grabbing two light headbands for when it gets dark.

"I know you're no dog," I begin, looking down to Alfie in my pocket. "But can you smell Ramil?" Alfie smiles and chirps. He jumps out my pocket and onto the ground, sniffing it. It begins getting dark as fuck, so I turn on the light as Alfie begins walking forward, nose pointed to the ground. After a bit of walking, he leads me to the plaza and climbs back into my pocket, chirping. "Good job, little guy." I say, petting him. I look around before hearing grunting.

"Shit!!" the voice calls out. It's Ramil. I knew he was in deep shit. Without any type of weapon, I can't do jack shit to help him out. I run into Stallmart and dash for the hardware section, where I spot it. The precious.

"A fuckin' sledgehammer." I say, smirking. Alfie looks up at me and makes a confused chirp. I grab my weapon, running out of the store and to the battle in the road. Ramil sees my head light as I run up to him. "Rory..?" He questions. I jump up high, swinging my sledgehammer into a Reaper's head, startling the surrounding monsters. "No, I'm fucking Santa Claus." I say sarcastically. "Put this on." I say, handing him a light headband.

"Than--" He begins before I cut him off.

"Shut the hell up and fight." I say, swinging my hammer into a Reaper's stomach. I kick it into another one as Ramil says "What's your problem!?"

"I told you to get your ass back to the treehouse before dusk!" I shout, pissed. "I also told you to not give me a reason to save your sorry ass, and yet here we are!!" He shoves his tree branch down a Reaper's throat and shouts "Lemme remind you, I saved your sorry ass 4 times already!! Plus, I would've gotten back if that jackass Eldritch didn't attack me in the restroom and break my spear!!!"

"Why the FUCK were you on this side of town, anyways???" I ask, whacking a Reaper before it attacks Ramil.

"You needed a new shirt!!" He informs me, smacking a Reaper in the eye. "Your injury was exposed, it could've been hit again!!" We smack a Reaper on the head at the same time.

"Well, thanks for caring, but don't fucking concern yourself with me!! I don't need the help!!" I insist, snapping a Reaper's neck. "I was alone for 4 months, I don't need someone carrying me like a baby!!" A Reaper scratches my arm, but Ramil stabs it before it can do anything else.

"I'm not treating you like a damn baby!!" He shouts as I bash a Reaper's skull in. "I'm just helping out!! Cut the loner shit, you came with me on your own!!" As he whacks a Reaper, another one attacks his leg, fucking him up real bad. "SHIT!!" He shouts, falling to the ground. I get pissed, and with only 4 left, I go all out, killing them in record time. "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO DUMB SHIT, RAMIL!! USE YOUR FUCKIN' BRAIN, MAN!! THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?!" I yell at him, finishing the last Reaper off.

Alfie crawls out of my pocket and over to Ramil, who's clutching his injured leg. I exhale and walk over to him, holding my hand out to help him up. "Can you walk?" He hesitates for a minute, staring at his open leg. His voice quivers as he says "No, I don't think I can..."

A tear rolls down his face. Alfie catches it on his tounge, chirping. I crouch down next to Ramil, who's beggining to cry. "I wasn't trying to be an idiot. I was just thinking about you." He wipes one of the tears and continues. "You're the first living human I've seen in the last four months. The same day we meet, you almost die. Same for the next." I scratch my neck, feeling bad for yelling at him.

"I don't wanna see another person die. I watched my parents, my brother, my girlfriend, all get mutilated by Eldritch. I never wanna witness that again." He cries some more, and Alfie makes a sad chirp. I take a deep breath, taking in what he said. I never had to watch a family member of mine die. I can't even begin to fathom how fucked up that must've been. I rub his back as he stares at the slices in his leg, letting tears fall into them.

"I broke my spear. I almost died tonight. All because of a stupid shirt. And then you got roped into this. I'm sorry, Rory.."

It's too dark. If we're attacked by more Eldritch, we'll be killed for sure. With Ramil unable to walk, I put my hammer in my belt and pick him up in my arms. "Its okay. We'll get you a new spear." I say. He closes his eyes and loosens his muscles, leaning his head into my arm. "Thanks.." he says, dropping the branch.

His blood leaks onto my arm, but that's the least of my worries right now. All I'm focused on is getting Ramil home.

It's been years since someone opened up to me like that. Most people usually avoid me because of my size, so to have Ramil trust me with that info makes me kind of happy. He falls asleep as I make it to our base. I can't climb the fence while holding Ramil, so I use the broken car in the driveway to get into one of the upstairs rooms. I carry Ramil downstairs and into the backyard, using the pulley system to get us into the base.

I light the oil lamp and gently lay him down on the floor. I pull the shirts he got me out his bag, grabbing the extra large and putting it on. I take off his bookbag, spear strap, and coat, grabbing a roll of bandages and wrapping them around the large cuts, keeping him from bleeding out. Blowing out the lamp, I lay down next to him, too exhausted to lay anywhere else. As I stare at the pitch black treehouse roof, I drift off to sleep.

It's been a really, really long day.