Shadows of a Dying Light

Chapter 13

"Crane..."

"Crane, wake up..."

"Hey, wake up bud."

Crane felt his senses start to come back to him, and he finally opened his eyes. His sights locked onto Brecken, who was crouching right next to him. Kyle began getting up, propping himself up using his arms. As he did so, his head was suddenly shot with intense pain.

He cringed and began gripping his head.

"Jesus... My fucking head." Groaned Crane. Brecken began talking again.

"You've been out cold for a while now." Stated Brecken. "Some of the scouts spotted you outside the Tower, unconscious, bloody, and bits of gore stuck to your hands and face. We also found a thug's half-eaten corpse nearby as well. The puzzle pieces were connected, and we took the hint that you... ate him."

Crane's eyes widened at hearing Brecken say that he had eaten flesh. Human flesh. His body began heaving, his stomach beginning to shoot its content back up. And in a few moments, Crane had gotten to his feet and rushed behind a car, where a pile of vomit began to collect on the floor. Unfortunately for Crane, he could still see the bits of flesh, and he felt himself grow sick, not physically, but mentally.

"Death, death, and more death!" Kyle mentally shouted at himself. "Everything I've done hasn't been making things better. Aside from killing innocent people for nothing, that fucking creature now resorts to eating away at its prize too. Fucking Christ!"

He paced around the street, cussing and arguing with himself, when he suddenly felt a hand plant itself into his shoulder. He stopped in his tracks and turned around, to find Brecken's face of sympathy.

"There's nothing you could have done to avoid doing this Kyle." The man told him, but Crane's face was still covered in self-anger. "You can't keep blaming yourself for every little bad thing that happens. Sometimes, you just have to accept what occurs in your life, be it good or bad." Brecken comforted Crane as best as he could. He heard the runner grunt in frustration, but a sigh of defeat was released soon after.

"You're right. I do blame myself for what has happened in here." Crane said. "I blamed myself for Jade's death, for the Mother's death, and I even blame myself for Rahim's death at times too. I can't accept that I failed to help them with their greatest problem."

"You've got to let that dead weight go Kyle." Brecken now grabbed both of the man's shoulders, trying to get the point across. "It wasn't your fault. Rahim sacrificed himself for you to destroy that hive. Jade let you take her Antizin for you to change the course of this city, to finally kill off this bloody virus. And the Mother, she had to be killed, or else we wouldn't be able to truly discover what this elixir does."

"Just understand Crane, that these people asked for your help, but they had to let themselves go for you to keep going, except for the Mother. I'm pretty sure she just didn't want you walking away from there with her supposed cures."

Kyle chuckled and gave the true answer to that.

"No, she didn't want to let me go because she didn't want anyone else to go through what she had to go through. Sometimes, I tell myself that perhaps I should have taken her advice, but then I stop thinking about that because she also wanted me to nuke the entire area."

"It's a good thing you didn't take that alternate route. God knows how many people would have been killed with that nuke."

Both men scoffed that thought away, and now stood in the middle of the street.

"There's something else we need to do, Brecken." Kyle said. "Before I killed the thug, I heard him talk to some other guy. They talked about bombing the Tower, in hopes of taking it down with all of us inside. Their leader wants revenge for us taking away his Antizin."

Brecken's eyebrows went down in confusion as he listened.

"Leader? I thought they didn't have one since Rais."

Crane shook his head. "This other guy in the Countryside called Kaan banded them back over there. He was the one who ordered those bandits to steal the elixirs."

"But that isn't the point though. This leader is different. He goes by the name of Hunter, and from what I hear, he doesn't like anyone else interfering with his group."

"And he wants to use me. I don't know for what, but that thug I killed kept on telling me that I was falling into Hunter's trap, and that he was finally going to get his new weapon."

Brecken nodded while listening intently. "When?"

"When what?"

"When is he going to bomb the Tower?"

"I have no clue. I want to say that he may strike today, or possibly tomorrow. The thug was talking with another guy, and from what it sounded like, they were prepared already."

"Then they'll do it today." Brecken said. "Hunter doesn't seem like the guy to ring something out as slow as possible. He probably just wants to take down the Tower as fast as possible, with hopes that we won't interfere with his plan."

Crane nodded I agreement.

"We have to gather up the remaining runners, have them help us stop the ambush." Kyle said. "The bad part is that this may have to be done tonight. I don't know how we're going to include me into this plan."

Brecken then included his own idea. "How long can you hold the infection down?"

Crane paused, trying to carefully understand his question.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how long can you keep yourself from being pushed away?"

He made a small, discomforting noise while trying to estimate how long. "I want to say about a couple minutes."

Brecken heard this and cursed under his breath.

"But in the light, I have a bit more control." Kyle included. "However, my infection is stronger than the Mother's, so I can't keep it down for long."

"That's fine, just as long as you're still able to keep yourself together."

The two men began walking back to the Tower, the wind caressing away at them, their clothes dancing with the breeze. Kyle then spoke once more.

"If something goes wrong with this plan Brecken, just know that I was glad to have helped the people in this place." He stated, his tone serious and distraught.

Brecken looked over and lightly punched the man on the arm. "Don't speak random crap like that; it doesn't suit you. You should be the one giving us all the hope to live another day."

Crane snickered and spoke. "That's not really my type of job, but if it helps the others, then I guess I'll do that."

Both men chuckled as they went in through the entrance of the Tower, Brecken patting Kyle on the back as a friendly gesture.

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"Bombs are ready to be planted, sir!"

He looked at the man who told him this, and nodded in delight.

"Good." Hunter said, his voice filled with excitement and pride. "Call the others. Tell them to report back here as soon as possible. We need to do this by nightfall."

The recruit shook his head and began heading away, broadcasting the news to all the other recruits in Hunter's new gang.

The leader watched as he walked away and looked up at the ceiling. He clapped both of his hands and laughed to himself.

"Your time is up Kyle Crane..."

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