The Ultimates (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 11

He walked slowly towards me, the dust circling around him. He gripped his gun firmly in his hand. He stood over me like a statue and pointed his gun at me while he smiled.

“I think I already said goodbye,” Seth said. He pulled the trigger and the bullet landed an inch away from my arm. I looked at Seth; he didn’t see what happened. I knew what I had to do.

I turned over onto my stomach and rolled for about five seconds and then stopped moving. I slowly got my knife and held it in a way that Seth wouldn’t see and cut a circular hole in my shirt. I then stabbed myself in the chest. I just hoped the blood would start flowing fast enough.

Luckily, it did. Seth picked up my seemingly limp body from the ground and observed the blood stain. Not bothering to check my pulse he left, heading for the helicopter in the distance.

When he was out of sight, I got up quickly and rushed over to Andrew. The bullet did hit him and he was losing blood fast. I ripped my shirt to try to get something to cover the wound. I kept trying to console him, yet I got the feeling that the person I really was trying to console was myself. Andrew dying would have been a devastating blow to me; I had already lost Seth. I didn’t want to lose another friend.

Tears dripped from my eyes. Andrew slipped into unconsciousness and I was completely shirtless; I kept ripping up new parts of my shirt to cover his wound. But the blood kept seeping out. I had realised the inevitability of our fate. We were going to die in the middle of nowhere. But the n something gave me hope. I heard, in the distance, the sound of propellers.

Three helicopters came in the distance. I was overjoyed. I stood up and shouted ‘help’ repeatedly. The helicopters descended and I fell to my knees crying tears of joy.

When the helicopters landed, I saw Ashley rush out of the one in the middle. I rushed to hug her tightly.

“I saw the helicopter go down from base, what-” Ashley said.

“Andrew, he’s, he’s,” I struggled to say.

“Andrew!”

She ran to Andrew and fell onto him. She cried and I walked up to her. I tried to help.

“Ash, we have to get him back or he’ll bleed out. He’s not dead, yet,” I told her.

“Yeah, yeah you’re right,” she responded.

We both lifted up his limp body ad carried him to the helicopter. Ashley told the pilot that we could go and he piloted the helicopter away, the other helicopters following behind. Andrew was tended to by a doctor in the helicopter. They, of course, prepared for the worst. He seemed to be getting better because he was receiving some of the best medical service that the Ultimates could provide at the time. After about half an hour I began to talk to Ashley.

“He’s gone Ash.”

“Seth?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t think it could happen. I couldn’t expect that anyone could do it, let alone Seth. To think he’s working for-”

“It’s not the Revolutionaries Ash.”

“What? Then, what is it?”

“I don’t really know. He said it’s a power ‘beyond the Ultimates’ comprehension.’”

“Beyond our comprehension? That could be anything.”

“I know. But speaking of traitors, we have one. I had a little…encounter with Fershi. It wasn’t very…enjoyable. But the point is that he told me that he had a spy implanted in the Ultimates. A certain German. That’s right, it’s James.”

“James? But…that’s impossible. He’s too nice.”

“Nice? Wow, haven’t you learned from being an Ultimate that you can’t trust anyone? The ones that seem to be exceptionally nice may be the most suspicious. I never really trusted him, but working for the Revolutionaries did come as a shock to me.”

“Yeah.”

“We have to kill him.”

“What? Can’t we just arrest him?”

“And what do we tell the jailers, or the prisoners? That he just got in for nothing? He will tell them, you know. And then what will happen? Riots, possible anarchy. That’s what will happen. Plus, if he happens to escape, all the valuable information that he hasn’t already leaked to the Revolutionaries will be leaked.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“And there’s one more thing. Something happened after we escaped from Fershi…”

I told her what happened with the ‘alien race.’ I knew she would believe me; she knew I wouldn’t lie. Yet, she still looked at me with a shocked and unbelieving expression.

“Do you believe me?”

“Yeah but…it just seems so strange.”

“Of course it would seem strange. It would seem strange to anyone. An alien race. Unbelievable. I didn’t believe it until I saw what they did, what they had. They had a pill that completely restored my health somehow. They had some sort of transport device that was completely unbeknownst to me. I had never seen anything even remotely close to it.”