Rules of Survival | afi

terminus

Life has many ways of
testing a person's will.
Either by having nothing
happen, or by having everything
happen all at once.

-Paulo Coelho

•••

The shock rattles me to my knees. My hands tighten in the dirt, shooting pangs of reality into my system. Dirt. Ground. Battle. Enemy.

"You didn't honestly think I would let my partner's weakness kill me, did you?" Luke starts, taking a step towards me. "I'm still kickin, baby."

"Not for long." I get out, pushing myself to my feet. I'm hyperaware of the weapon fuzed to his arm, a weapon that's a part of his body. After seeing what he can do with a gun, there's no doubt in my mind he's even more lethal with a blade. I'm so over this. I just want it all to end.

"Look around sweetheart." Luke laughs, gesturing to the radiation at our throats with his cyber band. "Your partner is dying as we speak. You can't fight, and the radiation prevents you from running away." He holds up the empty bottle of serum, dangling it tauntingly for a few seconds before throwing it into the radiation. "You're screwed."

"What the hell do you want, Luke?" I ask, my throat ragged. I stumble back a step, nearly gagging at the strong smell of Ashton's blood. I can't bring myself to look at him yet. Not until Luke is dead.. or I'm dying. "You can't win. You broke the rules. They'll kill you before you even get off the island."

"That's the point, hot stuff." Luke raises the blade, nicking it under my chin. "If I can't win, nobody can."

I could reach up, wrap my good hand around the machetes hilt, throw it to the side and roundhouse kick him in the temple. But my body hurts so bad, my knees are weak, and I'm done.

"God, I'm just so tired, Luke." I say, exasperated, stepping forward so that the tip of the blade digs into my skin, sending a trickle of blood down my neck. "If you're going to kill me... just do it."

He looks surprised, as he should be. I'm not myself anymore. All of my energy is gone. All of my fight is gone.

Luke licks his chapped lips, scoffing nervously. "Yeah, right. You think I'm stupid?"

I reach up, slowly, wrapping my fingers around the blade of the machete and pulling it down to my chest, the tip resting over my heart. My shoulder is still on fire from the bullet, but I don't care. I just stare at him, swallowing down exhausted tears. Ashton's bleeding out. He'll be dead in minutes, and then I will be too. Might as well get it over with. "One push. Straight through the heart."

Behind me, rustling sounds occur. Lukes eyes flicker to their source before training back on me, wide and confused. Sweat shines on his forehead, dripping down his face, his chest. The joint where the machete is fused to his arm is straining. Luke lips his chapped lips. "Alright then."

"L-L-Liza.." Ashton's voice sends a shock of pain through my system, and I bite the inside of my cheek. Any second now, any second..

Wet, slippery fingers grab my free wrist, forcing me to look down at their owner.

Ashton's teeth are red, blood trickling out of his mouth and down his chin. The wound on his chest runs deep, and he's heaving in breaths as the blood fills his lungs. Still, though, his eyes are bright with life. Determination. Pleading hope.

They say all the words he can't.

I look down at the red streaks his fingers are leaving on my arm, the pulsing vein in his wrist, and everything seems to just click into place.

I can still feel Lukes blade pressing into my chest, inches from my heart. I can still feel the exhaustion pulling at my bones. But my drive, my fight, is back. Even if only for a few seconds.

Luckily, that's all I need.

The next few moments seem to go in slow motion.

I look back at Luke, seeing the wild look in his eyes, registering the brief tension in his arm as he prepares to drive the blade through my heart. I'm suddenly hyperaware of my surroundings, the fact that I have no weapons, the decent sized rock a few feet from my boot. I suck in a breath, raise my good arm to shove the blade to the side, and slam my foot right into the center of Luke's chest.

He stumbles backwards, swearing profusely. I kick him again, this time in the knee, but he catches my foot and slams me to the ground.

My ears are ringing, but I can still pick up the warring sounds of the hovercraft a few miles off. It'll be here shortly. I don't have much time.

My fingers flail to the side until they find the rock and I snatch it up, getting to my feet.
Yelling through gritted teeth, pushing through the pain, I raise the thing to slam it into a kneeling Luke's skull.

Luke blocks it with his blade, and slices a clean line through my torso. I crumble to the ground again.

The hovercraft if only a mile off now.

I try to get up, but the pain is too much. Everything is too much. Luke gathers up the front of my shirt and lifts me up to face him, cutting off most of my air supply.

"It's over." He pants, his piercing eyes boring into mine. The blade is positioned over my heart. "Any last words?"

I start to open my mouth, to give up, to beg to be put out of my misery, and stop.

I'm inches from his neck, the vein pulsing under his skin with his heartbeat.

Without giving myself time to overthink it, my head lurches forward, sinking my teeth into the jugular vein and ripping straight through it. His blood filling my mouth, I bite down hard and rip my head back, taking a chunk of tissue with it.

For a few short seconds, Luke just stills in shock. Then the blood floods out of his neck, he coughs violently, and drops me.

I spit his flesh out of my mouth, tasting his blood on my tongue. I watch, satisfaction coursing through my veins, as he gives me one last horrifying look before collapsing.

I dig my nails into the dirt and drag myself over to Ashton, who's gone still. All of the blood, the pain, everything is pulling me under. The hovercraft settles above us as I wrap my arms around him, wanting nothing more than to be close to him in our final moments.

There's a commotion as the platform drops, footsteps heading for us. I'm slipping away. I barely stay conscious as hands fly all over me, all over Ashton, unlocking and removing the wristbands, putting us on a lift.

As the cables begin to pull us up, straight to the hovercraft, I imagine the beams of light shooting right through me. The white takes over, my eyelids drooping.

My last thought is of our victory, of what we could've been, before my entire body begins to shut down.

•••

wew sorry this is late guys but i worked rlly hard so i hope you liked it

just 2 chapters left! and they'll both be on time i promise

thx for being patient ilyall sm

see you soon and stay rad

xoxo

~Camryn