Last Life Part 1: Homecoming

Bleeding and Broken

Saul

With set determination the great boar spoke, but what resembled English came out as a slurred and distorted growl. In frustration, he roared, slamming the ground with his sharp hooves and cracking the concrete.

"Woah there! It's okay shhh-shhh." I held my hands out, pressing his snout down, though I knew it was a useless move against the goliath. Gaining my breath back I asked, "You speak?"

Deliberately he articulated "One." One. Binary huh? I breathed a sigh of relief, checking him over again. He was a touch calmer now.

"Can you tell me your name? Mine is Saul."

He snorted and stepped out of my home. Well alright then. I followed him out and stepped through the new doorway he had created out of a former reinforced concrete wall. The storm! It had dissipated over the night, but left the land anew. It was if I was transported from this earth entirely. The one I knew at least.

The ground was bone white and wiped smooth, and washed away to fine silt and gravel. All traces of plant life had been swept away with any irregularities. My home was now at the top of a barren hill, with a flat, dead plain to the East. And to the West, where the woods once stood, was an infinite lake, with only the tallest branches reaching up to the sky like the clawing arms of skeletons. The waters were completely still. Cadavers and hides washed from the bodies that had sunken below drifted on the oily coal black surface of the liquid. I walked down to the water, carefully dipping my fingertip into the water, only to pull it back out blackened and covered in grit and slime.

The silence that had taken over the air was painful, there was no rustling grass, the screeching of cicadas and crickets was entirely absent, not even the familiar creaking of the collapsing forest could be heard. Overwhelmed with the desire to scream, to break the silence with something, anything, I merely fell to my knees. What could be done. It was all gone. Just me... and this boar.

After what felt to be an eternity staring at the perfect reflections of the branches, ashen grey and bone white against the impossibly dark waters, I heard a sound. Turning, I found the boar rising and slowly walking over to me. The inorganic eye set in the left side of his skull darted about whilst his right was open wide, taking in the insane scenery. He got to the lake's edge, no longer looking at me or the horizon, but his reflection in the dark sludge. A low growl built up from within him, and he reared backwards roaring. When he slammed his front hooves back into the earth, he let loose an anguished howl, sending ripples through the water. His eye blazed vermillion, as it had when I first saw him, and with the expression of a beast possessed, he made his way into the water.

I gave a squeak of surprise, then shouted, "STOP! What the hell are you doing?! You'll kill yourself! Don't go in the water! Please! STOP!"

Without thinking, I bolted forward and grabbed onto the gear that was exposed on his damaged hind hock. But he kept going, and when he moved his ankle, the catch moved down the gear and caught my right hand. A terrible crunch filled the air. I caught the scream on my tongue, standing my ground as the blood started to ooze from my hand and drip onto the light sand.

"Stop..." I snarled, and then gasped, still weakly clinging to his ankle, trapped under the catch. For a moment, the boar froze and his ears flicked backwards. "Please... Stop..." Carefully, he took a step backwards causing the catch to go up a notch and free my hand. I immediately fell over and rolled onto my side, staunching the blood by pressing my hand into my gut. My vision failed.

I awoke, I presume seconds later, to the boar's snout above me. He looked at me with an expression akin to that of human sorrow, eyebrows drooped and eyes concerned. His eye was blue once more, the same pale color as the midday sky. Smiling weakly, I sat up and by holding onto his tusk I pulled myself up.

"Thank you. Now, please... please stay alive. Stay alive for me. Don't you dare die, not now." I said to the boar. But why did I speak such words to a beast, as if he were human? I must be going damn insane aha. Or it's the blood loss. I hope it's the blood loss.

I slowly made my way back to the house and collapsed against my bed, panting. Ashamed, the boar trailed behind me slowly and stayed back. When I finally managed to catch my breath I took a quick glance at my hand. What was left of it. For a few moments I wretched in place before settling my stomach. The boar looked on silently as I struggled to bandage the end of my arm. What should've been my hand, and what I wish was my hand.

Using metal filaments and bones from small animals as braces along my own in my fingers. I wrapped each individually and bound my whole hand. The bleeding stopped with the tight bandage. But I knew that it was only because I was cutting off blood flow. I can't take care of this myself, I need treatment and I need it fast. Or I'll be dead of infection, blood loss or animals.

I packed my bag with my bruised, but otherwise fine left hand, remembering to bring water, food, blanket, flint and steel, knife and a lamp. I took both of my swords and put them in my belt. Done, I murmured "Hey..." The boar looked up, casting a tired gaze through his rheumy gaze over me. "I think it would be a good idea if you came with me. This place will kill us both." I continued, stepping over him.

Headed East would be my best bet at finding people. Over the mountains and then some lay the city of Blackhill, the second Capital of the Plagued Empire. It, like many others, now rotted away, slowly crumbling into the landscape. But I knew Blackhill would be my last chance, there may not be many, but there were people there... Last time I checked. Maybe, just maybe they wouldn't kill me at first glance, and then heal my wounds. If not, it's where I deserve to die, not this damned place.