Wolf Heart

Chapter 66

Tick. Tick.

Tick. Tick.

RAYAN

Blood splattered across concrete with each fallen life. He called over the sirens and flames, "We've got people trapped in buildings! Has Aaron started the evac process?"

"We're trying!" an Insurgent responded through the smoke. "We're surrounded! We can't do anything!"

Flames billowed out pillars of destruction to block the beauty of the painted stars. Rayan scowled. "They're trying to drown us out!" he explained when the Insurgent blocked their brow from a breath of debris from a falling building and the screech of artillery almost smothered his voice, but he refused to go quiet into the night. "They're going to try to force us into the center!"

Sanctum Titan's stormed the last bastion of the First Insurgency. But why have they brought so much force? Was Seeto that much of a threat? He's dead. Rayan tested the option of diverting their attention to stop the attack, but something in the air caught his attention. "Do what you can!" he yelled over the screams which merged with Eastpoint when he turned his back on them. "Don't leave anyone behind, understand?"

He led the way through the ember rain with the Insurgency racing to keep his pace across the burning streets.

A flash from a nearby generator tower caught his eye.

Frozen moments stretched around him and never gave him time to react with the click.

The ground quaked beneath his feet and silenced the world.

Fire tore through his shoulder blade, and he screamed when he tumbled to the ground when it chewed through his plastered shirt. It washed through the rest of his body when he rolled across the concrete, where the stars fell through the smoke and crashed into his head.

"Falae!" the Insurgent snapped and switched their path to rush for him.

Everything blurred when he raised his hand to his shoulder. Blood oozed between his fingers. His blood. It bloomed over his arm while the world crackled in his vision. He groaned, and rolled onto his stomach.

They missed... they didn't even get me in the head.

His ears rang, and he winced when someone dragged him behind a crumbled alley. Rayan snapped his head up when the building next to them cracked and sent debris into the air.

I...

The world snapped back into focus when pieces of wiring and foundation snapped apart on its own supports. He squirmed onto his feet and shoved the Insurgent out of the killer waterfall. Debris lodged into his arm, and he gasped when his blood slicked across his boots. "Fuck!" He bit down on his tongue, he settled himself on his knees and rested against the broken wall.

Crimson clouds danced on the edge of his vision while smoke and ash burned his lungs. Blood stuck his shirt against his chest, and he rested his head against the wall to hold on.

So much for that perfect world...

He lost his voice to the searing pain in his shoulder. Blood ran down his arm until his skin stained red. Ashen landscape covered everything and anything in the colour of soot. He pressed himself deeper into the steady force, his last stand against the desolation before it crumbled. Questions danced around his mind, but the world darkened.

Why did they miss?

Tick. Tick.

He heard the SAI call the time of the end.

Sanctum ships roared and spun his mind into the drain with the gravitational pull of the black hole. He sucked in a breath and tugged out his absorption rod. His strength sucked out to his fingertips, and the rod rolled out of his limp hand.