Red Swan p2

Hours had past and twilight was already halfway over at this point. Yellow and his team, consisting of his friends and a group of shadows in their harnesses, were just one of many hunting down the confederation of remaining shadow nests in the forest. Every time they thought they were close they ran into another group from the grand nest. It was clear to Yellow they were all being led in circles around the forest, but he had yet to think of a way to outsmart the shadows, much less communicate this with the other hunting parties. As they followed the tracks into the river once more, they ran into Red and his party on the other side after crossing.

“Yellow, have you made any progress?”, asked Red, breathing heavily.

He was clearly annoyed, even tired looking, something Yellow hadn’t seen from him. He wondered if it was the sickness or just from sheer loss of stamina, unlike Yellow’s party which was taking breaks, it occurred to him that Red had probably been running at full speed the entire time.

“Not even close, we’ve been through the river three times now, running into different friendly groups each time.”, said Yellow.

“Dammit, I didn’t expect them to outsmart us this easily. Any ideas?”, asked Red.

“Not exactly, let me think for a minute.”, answered Yellow, starring at the dancing water.

Red snarled and gave everyone uneasy looks.

“Green Runner, let’s do a head count, make sure we haven’t lost anyone.”, instructed Red.

Green Runner counted her party for a moment.

“Everyone is here, us and this nest of shadows. You think they’re in cahoots, don’t you?”, she asked.

“I consider it a possibility, maybe they’re leaving messages behind while we’re running.”, said Red.

“That’s ridiculous. We joined you with no regrets, truly convinced of your cause after speaking with you. We haven’t spoken with the other nests in days, since we met up to discuss whether to join you or not.”, said the old shadow from the meeting in Red’s group.

“So, you do admit to meeting with them.”, said Red, flaring his teeth.

There was a silence for a moment, only the sound of running water cut through the tension the two of them were creating in their stare down.

“The water, they’re clearly losing their sent in it and diverging their paths. They’re probably also in several groups, due to their distrust of each other, and ability to lead us all around in different directions. We’ve been through this spot each time we’ve met another friendly party, which means the enemy will probably continue doing this. Afterall, this is the only water around big enough for us to lose their sent, and they can regain stamina by drifting downstream and letting another group take over. How would we set up an ambush here without them seeing us? How does one catch something drifting in the water?”, thought Yellow as Red and the old shadow began to raise their claws.

“Enough!”, yelled Yellow suddenly, staring them down.

Everyone turned to him, with looks of confusion. Red seemed dumbfounded while Brown and Green Runner began to giggle.

“Perhaps that was too far, but I think I’m on to something. What catches drifting prey in the water? The fanned backs. We can let our noses hang just above the water as they do and the dancing light will make us invisible.”, he thought.

“This is no time to argue amongst ourselves, that’s just what they want. If I were leading them, I would have made the same plan that they’re using now. I don’t believe we have spies among us just yet. Red, I think I found a way to catch them, but you’ll have to hear me out on this, I’ll need our shadows to remove their harnesses.”, explained Yellow.

“Remove them? You’re the one that came up with that brilliant idea.”, said Red.

“And now we must adapt to the enemy’s strategy. Has everyone here recognized our shadows by now?”, asked Yellow.

Everyone passed glances to each other before nodding.

“I believe we have brother.”, said Brown.

“Without a doubt.”, said Grey.

“Alright then, here’s the plan.”, said Yellow.

. . .

“How much longer?”, gurgled Green Runner through the current.

“Quiet.”, Yellow responded in the waves.

They had sat in the river for over half an hour, their noses barely peaking above the water. The shadows were in the front, in shallower water, water that was constantly splashing into all their noses as they tried to breathe. Everyone was periodically poking their heads up to shake out their sore necks and wet noses, but there wasn’t much anyone could do about their legs. The current wasn’t fast, but the same force after being applied long enough was beginning to make their legs buckle.

Yellow knew they would be tired when they began the fight, but he was counting on whatever group of friendlies that was following them to not be far behind. He just hoped that their enemy hadn’t noticed their absence or assumed some of the hunting parties had called it a day. Instead of being mad at Yellow for yelling like he feared, Red had given him much praise for his idea. He could tell by glancing over at him through the water that he was taking a great deal of pride in the discipline everyone was showing by remaining there for so long.

A smell drifted past them, seeping into their noses, driving them wild. It was blood, coming from close upstream. There isn’t much prey left in the forest, let alone during twilight, therefore, their prey must be injured and approaching them. Yellow glanced at the others from underwater, seeing them flaring their claws and shaking their hips. They were all ready to pounce when the enemy shadows reached the water. Yellow readied himself as well, although this would be his first real fight, he brushed aside his fear, knowing his friends were at his side.

The sound of feet hitting water was finally heard and everyone leapt towards it. Yellow jumped forward to find the friendly shadows pinning down the enemy while the larger raptors landed above them to keep them down. Yellow’s jump wasn’t as good as the others, and he had to dredge through the water for a moment before reaching the shore. Grey had quickly swam past him and was helping Patches hold down an enemy. Green Runner was holding one down as well as Red and Brown.

In an instant their party of two dozen had captured fourteen of the enemy, although many were still squirming. Three of the enemy’s in particular were being held down by friendly shadows and fighting back quite fiercely. With the effort little Grey and Patches were putting up for his plan, Yellow couldn’t just sit by. He began walking towards an enemy being held down by the old shadow Red had been arguing with, the one they followed during the meeting.

“Alright all of you, this is your one chance to surrender and your last chance to join us. If your still intent on fighting however, that’s fine too, we could always use more food after all.”, said Red, licking his lips.

Red’s voice sent chills up Yellow’s spine. Everyone froze in place, except the large shadow Yellow had been approaching.

“Blackhead, how could you betray us like this?”, he asked, biting at the old shadow’s face.

“It was your choice to fight old friend, I told you my decision at our meeting. I listened to Red’s offer and it actually sounded quite fair, I suggest you do the same.”, said Blackhead.

“Ridiculous, after all they’ve done to our kind, you would still trust them?”, asked the enemy shadow.

“As if we haven’t done the same, from stealing their eggs, to killing their young, sick, and wounded. We have taken enough from each other. It’s time to put the hate from old wounds aside and give peace a chance.”, said Blackhead.

“Old wounds? I’m sorry but I can’t view my children like that. My pack was doing fine until one winter a group of these big assholes came by and hunted over half of us down. It took us years to recover. I can’t speak for my pack anymore, I won’t ask them to throw their lives away, but more me, I can never forgive them. If that makes this the end, then so be it, but don’t expect me to go down without fighting old friend, even if its you.”, said the large shadow.

With everyone else still frozen in place, Red casually left the shadow he was holding down and walked past Yellow, to Blackhead. He and three others were struggling to hold down the enemy shadow which was nearly twice their size.

“Since he was your friend, if you want, I can take care of this.”, offered Red.

“No, we made a pact, I have to do this for my pack.”, said Blackhead.

Blackhead continued to struggle against the enemy for some time before managing to latch his teeth around his neck. The other friendly shadows were holding its limbs, and everyone, even the shadow Red had left, was simply watching in silence.

“Any last words old friend?”, grumbled Blackhead.

“Just one, Attack!”, yelled the large shadow.

A rustle in the tall grass further up the river bank alerted Yellow and the others to another pack of shadows emerging from it. As they serpentined towards them, a voice was heard from in the river.

“Watch your backs! We just saw their noses behind you!”, called out a raptor from one of the friendly hunting parties.

Yellow turned around to see them swimming towards them. He knew they must have followed a pack here and noticed it waiting in the water as they had, meaning they were being attacked from both sides. His breathing accelerated, his limbs loosened, and his muscles tightened as his predator instincts kicked in. Seeing Green Runner’s back still turned as she held down an enemy, he lunged behind her, hoping to defend her from whatever might come out of the waves.

“Listen up! If you’d like to surrender, put your hands in the air and gather to my left! Otherwise, any shadow I don’t recognize is getting killed!”, roared Red.

“I, I surrender!”, whined the shadow Green Runner was holding in a frightened tone.

Yellow heard the shadow run to the left of their formation, or what was now his right, along with over a dozen others. He glanced down, seeing friendly and enemy shadows both fleeing to the sidelines of the coming engagement. Patches ran in between Green Runner and him, along with Grey, who stopped between them. Green Runner stood up and gently headbutted him with the back of her head.

“Hey, this is your first fight, right? Are you sure your up for this? I can take them if you want.”, she said.

“Yellow, I’m here to assist as well!”, shouted Grey from their legs.

“It’s true this is my first real fight, but this isn’t something I can just walk away from, not while my friends and lover are involved. This is all because of my plan, this fight between us and the shadows. I knew this would happen, but I didn’t know I’d have someone I cared about other than Brown when it did. I can’t walk away now, not while Greener and Grey are getting pinched. The enemy in the water must be waiting for those coming from the grass to reach us before they make their move. Everyone knows their there now, but it will be hard to fight from two angles with friendly shadows mixed in. So, instead of relaying on Red and Brown like I always have, right now with my friends, I’ll face the consequences of my plans myself!”, thought Yellow.

“Greener watch my back and I’ll watch yours. Grey slide in between us and make finishing blows on our targets. We’ll be the horns and you’ll be our tail whip! Spiked back formation!”, commanded Yellow.

“Alright we’re all out of time dear, good luck.”, said Green Runner as the sound of the enemy’s footsteps neared.

“You too.”, said Yellow.

“Hey, don’t forget about me! I won’t let anyone get past your claws!”, shouted Grey.

“Mm, we’re counting on you Grey.”, said Yellow.

Green Runner slammed into his back as he heard her fending off multiple shadows and Grey ran out from under his legs. With his heart pounding and his eyes fixated on the river, he trusted his friends completely in that moment as he heard them snarl and bite. Shiny shadows flew out of the water like fish and began their attack, with three landing and running at him. Yellow braced his claws as they jumped at him, he was clearly going to catch two of them and hopefully throw them to the ground while impaling them, but the third was a problem. He threw out his head, hoping to block its attack for long enough to deal with the other two, knowing he would probably suffer severe facial wounds as a result.

Grey however sprinted under his legs and leapt at the third opponent. As Yellow caught two of them and slammed them into the ground he knew he could now duck, trusting Grey to not let the third hurt Green Runner. The two he caught pierced his hands and arms with their short claws and he wailed out in pain, but as his hands reached the ground with all his force behind them his mid claws shot threw their necks and into their mushy brains. He looked up as he shook their bodies of his hands to see Grey biting the tail of the enemy and whirling around with his feet, slapping his claws into the enemy’s head. They crashed into Green Runner, who didn’t even flinch, before tumbling to the ground.

Grey got up in an instant and began helping Green Runner with another batch of shadows. Yellow turned back around expecting more enemies as well, only to find that they had all attacked the rest of the party and that the other friendlies were exiting the river. Although he couldn’t feel the pain in his hands anymore his heart was trying to explode out of his chest. He wanted to continue to help like Grey, the enemies on his left were being thrashed, so he turned to his left only to find one of the friendlies from the river party walking slowly towards the surrendered.

“The hell’s he doing? They’ve clearly surrendered, and everyone should have heard Red’s order.”, he thought.

The large orange raptor walked right up to Patches, who still had her hands on her head and was sitting down and raised his claws.

“Shadow scum.”, he snarled.

The raptor raised his right claw even higher and Yellow knew what was about to happen, despite his disbelief.

“Patches run!”, he shouted.

Patches rolled out of the way as the raptor’s claws slashed the ground. She got up and ran towards Yellow, but the raptor threw his other hand and slashed the end of her tail clean off. She wailed out in agony as blood sprayed out of her backside and she tripped over her own feet. Yellow, without thinking, took a step towards her, about to run to her defense before Grey shot past him.

“Patches move! I’ll kill this vermin.”, yelled Grey, foaming at the mouth.

Green Runner stepped up next to Yellow, apparently done with her targets, but mirroring his battle stance.

“Let’s go!”, she said.

They both jolted forward, ready to tackle the raptor before it’s swinging hand hit Grey or Patches but froze as they heard a loud voice.

“Cease!”, it roared.

They turned around to see everyone had stopped moving, even the enemies. It was like the battle was frozen in time as the few remaining shadows either stood in place or hung from their enemies. The origin of the voice became obvious as Red marched past this moment in time and casually grabbed an enemy shadow from Browns side and gently placed it on the ground. It, along with everyone else but Red didn’t move after that as he continued to walk towards Yellow. He slowly came to within inches of Yellow’s face before swaying his head and looking past him, a signal to turn around.

“Is what I’m seeing here correct?”, he asked.

Yellow and Green Runner turned back around to see Grey holding the claw of the raptor, standing at over twice his size, with Patches right behind him. Their fight had frozen as well, along with all the shadows next to them. Yellow tried to find the words as his heart raced, only for air to wheeze out of his mouth. He had never heard Red yell like that, and he felt his blood swimming through his veins, pounding in his arms. He was petrified with fear as Red’s presence loomed over him.

“Yes sir.”, said Green Runner.

Red flared his teeth and slowly walked to Grey, Patches, and the orange raptor. Green Runner put her good arm on Yellow and he began panting, desperately gasping for air. All the emotions from the fight were still going off at once inside his head. The world grew quiet and fuzzy as he swayed about.

“Take it easy dear, slow your breathing or you’ll pass out. Listen to me, slow your breathing. That’s good, don’t worry, this feeling will go away soon, and you’ll get used to it.”, she consoled him.

Yellow managed to slow his breathing enough to hear again and his vision cleared to see Red approach the orange raptor. The party he was with had gathered near him. Red looked over to them.

“Purple-Tan, did you all hear my order earlier.”, asked Red.

“Yes sir.”, said a purple and tan raptor from the group.

Red reacted instantly, Yellow wondered if he had even waited for an answer, as he cut off the orange raptors head. In a shower of blood its body collapsed to the ground and its head rolled past Reds feet.

“Little Grey, I caught a glimpse of your fight, you and Patches did great today. Will she be okay?”, asked Red, his voice echoing through the silence.

“Mm, it doesn’t look like it cut any bone, just the tip, I should be able to stop the bleeding.”, said Grey before biting down on Patches tail.

“Please do.”, Red told him before looking back to Purple-Tan.

“Purple-Tan, consider yourself promoted to Oranges place.”, said Red.

Purple-Tan simply nodded, with no obvious reaction to Red’s killing.

“Everyone on my side listen up! I know some of you carry a grudge against the shadows, I too have shared blows with them, but now is the time for peace! If any of you can’t let go of the past, you won’t be welcome in our future, understand?”, Red bellowed.

The friendlies began bowing and Yellow did the same.

“As for the rest of you, do you still wish to fight, or will you join us? There is a place for everyone in our grand nest. We will treat you as equals, allow everyone to mate, and with our efficiency granted from land control and numbers, gather more food than ever before!”, said Red.

Yellow looked around to find all the shadows either nodding or remaining completely still.

“Brothers, sisters, Red has shown you his will and his honesty. I believe in both his intentions and their outcome. Will you all please reconsider joining us?”, asked Blackhead.

The shadows left their battle stances and sat around Blackhead. Green Runner grabbed Yellow’s hands and began to lick the blood from them. He sighed and began to clean her too. Everyone gathered around each other to heal their wounds, and just like that the fight was over.

“Alright Yellow, let’s talk to our new friends and find a way to end the fighting with the remaining packs quickly and peacefully.”, Red suddenly said from behind him.

“Great job brother, you and your pack sure know how to fight. Oh, this was your first time though, right? Might you’re be some kind of prodigy?”, asked Brown from next to him while giggling.

Yellow blushed and smiled as he contemplated their next move.

. . .

“So, we’ll just make a boat, sail down the river and find the spaceport, easy.”, thought Emotion.

“Just how long do you plan on dragging out this moment?”, asked Logic.

“With the nanites covering the Earth I can convince everyone to live sustainably with messages personalized to them. Morcant can reunite with his family, and Taysass can raise her baby.”, thought Emotion.

“Just stop, there’s no point in waiting, it will only make it worse.”, thought Logic.

“If we’re lucky Tute has everyone who died in stasis or something and I can save them too.”, thought Emotion.

“It’s time to be strong. You know I’m here to deal with shit like this.”, thought Logic.

“Maybe I didn’t want to be strong! Why does stuff like this keep happening? Why can’t I just live in peace and quiet?”, asked Emotion.

“So, you’d rather me not exist?”, asked Logic.

“I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant, but I feel like if I lose anyone else, I’m going to break.”, thought Emotion.

“It’s alright, long ago you couldn’t take it anymore, so you made me, but I have my own thoughts and desires too you know. The faster we start this, the better our chances are. I want them to live too, but instead of crying about the approaching danger, I’d prefer we fight it, even if we lose everyone. Emotion if you aren’t going to let me take over then at least listen to me, you need to move, now!”, thought Logic.

Justin stopped leaning against the tree and stood up with Tacktay in his arms, waking her. The creaking of the floor echoed through the still, silent night and the slow-moving threats in the canopy halted as Justin did another count of them by activating his heat vision. He enhanced his other senses as well and the dead silent night which had engulfed him for hours was broken by Tacktay’s voice.

“Is it morning already?”, slurred a groggy Tacktay after fidgeting with her walkie-talkie.

“No Tacktay, it’s still night. I didn’t have my heat vision on, because I didn’t think it was necessary. I didn’t notice these black figures closing in until their glowing eyes were glaring at me from a nearby branch.”, he whispered with his head down, unable to look her in the eyes.

“Understood, how many of them are there?”, she quietly asked.

“I don’t know, at least a dozen. They look like owls, but they’re definitely raptors.”, he whispered.

“What are we waiting for? Shouldn’t we wake the others?”, she asked.

“I don’t know if I can protect ya’ll like this. We’re over twenty feet up on a small, unstable platform, surrounded by nimble little raptors. I was contemplating whether it would be better to let them die in their sleep.”, he whispered, his head lowered in shame.

“I don’t think they would appreciate that.”, she whispered.

“Mm, I know.”, he mumbled.

“You could jump and carry us away?”, she suggested.

“The planks would give out, and even if they didn’t, the force of the jump might hurt them.”, he whispered, shaking his head.

“Understood, if the others die, I’ll hover above the canopy until morning and meet you back at the cave base. Until then, let’s keep trying our best until the end, okay? You know, it was you who taught me that it’s never alright to give up. I didn’t know then that you were so emotional and whiny, but despite that, your also strong willed and inspiring, so I’ve decided that I’m going to stay by your side until the end, no matter what.”, she said, placing her head on his.

A smile formed on his contorted face, he would be crying, but couldn’t find any more tears to shed. He began walking towards Morcant and Taysass, eventually pushing their two rifles up to them.

“Right foot.”, thought Logic.

“Left foot.”, thought Emotion.

The rifles bumped into Morcant’s head and it jolted up. Justin put his finger over his mouth and squatted down to him.

“We’re about to be attacked by a dozen little black raptors. They blended into the night, I’m sorry.”, he said.

Morcant looked around at the raptor’s eyes, gleaming through the night, and back to Justin before sighing and grabbing his walkie-talkie.

“Some lookout you are, we’re completely surrounded.”, he said with an uneasy laugh.

“I’m sorry.”, whispered Justin.

“Don’t worry about it, but you’d better keep us all alive, so we can get mad and yell at each other about this, okay?”, said Morcant as he shook Taysass awake.

“Hm, Morcant I’m cold, hold me.”, she said after finding her walkie-talkie.

“No can do Taysass, we’re about to be attacked by raptors again, black ones this time, so they’ll be hard to see.”, said Morcant.

Her eyes widened as her teeth began to chatter.

“It’ll be okay, just sit here with this gun and wait for us to finish.”, said Morcant with a smile, handing her a rifle.

“But…”, she tried to say as he put a finger over her mouth.

Morcant stood up without his rifle and to Justin’s surprise, pulled out blades from both the front and back of the boxes on his arms. Four sharp blades, each two feet long, extended from his forearms as he made a battle stance. Justin clicked the safety button on his rifle to turn it off and stood up as well.

“Morcant, are you sure that’s safe? Couldn’t you cut your back?”, he asked, still in a whisper.

“Yea, I’ve trained with these many times before, every family with a pair does. In this tight space these will be better than a rifle anyway.”, said Morcant in his full voice.

“Those blades look heavy, but he’s holding them up with ease. Training, working on a farm, is it weird that I’m jealous of that? Would he be if he knew how easy I had it?”, thought Emotion.

“If you wanted to be strong you should have said so, we could have trained ourselves…”, thought Logic.

“Everyone just put me down or told me to be myself, no one pushed me to greatness. Why would a child try hard when everything is basically handed to them? I didn’t realize I wanted to be strong until it was to late.”, interupted Emotion.

“Well, we’re strong now, maybe we should take the time and learn to better utilize our strength and abilities.”, thought Logic.

The raptors began hissing amongst the branches and he realized they were out of time.

“When we’re done here, you’ll have to tell me all about those blades of yours.”, said Justin as they turned their backs to each other and circled around Taysass.

“Mm, I can see why these things slipped past you, I can barely see them. I’m not mad, but I’m definitely gunna hit you after this.”, said Morcant.

“I’m going to stop these things from hurting you guys, and I won’t let you hurt yourself by hitting me afterwards either.”, said Justin, squinting at his opponents, grinding his teeth.

“Let’s see it then!”, shouted Morcant.

The hissing changed to snarling as the raptors glided out of the trees and began circling them. Justin began firing as several of them leapt at him, and he only managed to hit one as the other two latched onto him. Tacktay shot them with her pistol from atop his head and he sighed, glad his ears weren’t damaged by gunshots anymore.

“Their to fast to shoot two handed, we should try an approach that considers our new abilities. Grapple with one hand and shoot with the other.”, thought Logic.

He held the rifle in his right hand and tried to place accurate shots on the swirling enemies while waiting to catch any that came his way with his free hand. He noticed his accuracy taking a significant drop while hearing Morcant wince in pain. He spun around, aimed, and shot a raptor on Morcant’s leg. Its head blew off, but its claws were in so deep that it still clung to his bleeding leg.

“Tacktay, defend Morcant!”, he shouted.

She flew above him and began shooting as he tore the raptor off his leg and began to wrap it with his shirt. Taysass started firing as well, missing every shot as four raptors darted towards her. Justin put both hands on the rifle and exhaled slowly as he shot them all dead. Before he could turn around another three raptors latched onto him and began futilely biting at him.

“God dammit, why are you all so eager to die? Just fuck off!”, he thought.

He tossed his rifle in the air and bit into the raptor on his right shoulder, tearing its neck and head clean off whilst grabbing the other two and squeezing. He felt them crack and squish in his hands as blood spewed into his face. Catching the rifle with his right hand and throwing the raptor body still clinging to his shoulder with his other he looked ahead once more. Over a dozen pairs of eyes were surrounding the Therizinosaur carcass.

“There’s still more?”, thought Emotion.

“In hind sight it seems silly that we put that things body so close to our base, but we didn’t know there were nighttime pack raptors in the canopy.”, thought Logic.

The new pack of black raptors flew through the canopy towards him and the others were still shooting behind him.

“Is there another pack on their side as well? Stupid animals, don’t you see all these bodies? Just how hungry are you?”, wondered Emotion.

“They’re moving too fast, we can’t shoot that fast, the others are toast.”, thought Logic.

“No! I’m not done yet, I have to save them! Nanites, I can tell that you’re under some kind of safeguard, that your holding back, and I’m demanding you disable it, enhance my speed and accuracy, take control of my arms, turn my brain to jelly if you have to. Exterminate the enemy!”, Emotion cried out.

Justin felt his right arm move on its own as it meticulously shot the raptors one after the other. Two of them managed to skirt through his shots but his firing arm didn’t even attempt to aim towards them as it continued firing at the others. He realized why as his free arm threw a punch at one and he consciously kicked the other, killing them both. As he shot the last raptor in front of him, he threw himself backwards with his left arm and aimed with his right, but he was to late.

Taysass smiled at him as two raptors at her sides ran past and swiped their feet across her belly and back. She collapsed and blood erupted from her like a piece of popping corn, her organs spilling out and sliding, piling up at her now detached legs. She shook while her eyes focused on the dark sky above and the raptors didn’t even look at Justin as they turned to devour their prey. Time froze and Justin’s mind snapped.

“Dead.”, thought Emotion.

“I’m taking over now.”, thought Logic.

“Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead…”, Emotion began chanting while Logic ignored him.

Morcant and Tacktay turned their backs on the raptors approaching them and each shot one of the pair attacking Taysass. Their bodies collapsed and tumbled forwards as Morcant and even Tacktay froze at the sight of Taysass’es baby squirming, its legs cut open.

“Get down, now.”, calmly stated Justin, his face sullen and drooping, his squinting eyes looking right through them.

Morcant attempted to lunch towards the baby as Tacktay flew into his head, throwing him down.

“How dare you take my angel from me, she was so kind, so innocent. Nanites, I need more, I’m demanding everything, I want it all.”, thought Logic.

His face twisted and narrowed, his nostrils flared, while he grinded his teeth and yelled, “Remove restrictions!”

Both his arms took hold this time as he began shooting at lightning speed. The raptors dropped like flies as he mercilessly shot them out of the air. Time seemed to slow down even further as his arms drifted and swayed from one precise shot to the next. Eight had dropped before he heard the clicking sound coming from his rifle, he was out of ammo. He readied himself in a batter’s stance with the rifle and waited. The floor under him splintered and cracked as he swung back the rifle and hit the last attacking raptor, sending it flying out of sight.

He slowly walked over to Taysass’es body and knelt down to her. She was sputtering blood out of her mouth and wheezing. Her baby was still, having drown in the fluids or succumb to blood loss. She was still clutching her walkie-talkie, but he wondered why she had been holding it at all. Morcant crawled over to them with Tacktay swaying on his head.

“Tacktay… why?”, asked Morcant, tearing up, shaking.

“The baby would have just starved without her had you managed to save it.”, she said.

“But I was just holding her... This can’t be happening.”, cried Morcant.

“M, mwah…”, Taysass stuttered.

“Taysass, I’m here.”, said Morcant, grasping her free hand.

“Melus.”, she whispered.

“Eh?”, asked Morcant.

“Momma, papa, granny.”, she said.

“Justin, should I end this?”, asked Tacktay.

“I’m flying, we’re all flying.”, laughed Taysass as tears and blood streamed down her face.

“Tacktay, don’t you dare do shit.”, spat Morcant, clenching her hand.

“Morcant, Justin.”, said Taysass, placing her hand holding her walkie-talkie to Justin’s face.

She smiled at him, her starry eyes staring past his bleak expression, piercing into his soul.

“Thank you.”, she whispered.

Her hand dropped to the floor with a thud and her face fell over during a final breath as the shine in her eyes faded away. Morcant began shaking her, calling out her name. Justin was frozen, his thoughts spiraling into madness.

“Emotion, this is too much. I know you wanted a purpose beyond our vapid existence, but I don’t know if we can do this anymore. The pain is drowning me, pushing me out, its unbearable. Why am I even here?”, thought Logic.

“Taysass, Taysass, Taysass, why, why couldn’t I save you? What’s wrong with me? Why couldn’t it have been me? All this power and I’m still useless. Why? Why, why, why, why?”, Emotion’s grief consumed his mind.

Justin looked up, noticing Morcant was staring at him in horror, at his twisted, twitching face. His right-side squinting, wrinkled up, and teeth grinding. His left eye was trying to pop out of his skull, tears streaming out of it as his lips trembled. He couldn’t hold back anymore as he lost control of himself. He began screaming over her body, its volume increasing, growing into a roar, shaking the platform. He began tearing out enormous chunks of his hair while he roared and shook the canopy.

He looked up as he drew another breath to scream again and saw Morcant trembling, covering his ears and Tacktay above him doing the same. Behind him more raptors fled the scene, flying into the night. Words Justin thought were in his mind began to exit his mouth.

“Die.”, whispered Emotion in a soft, raspy voice.

“Kill them.”, whispered Logic, in a deep, steady tone.

“Die.”, said Emotion.

“Kill.”, said Logic.

Justin stood up and began sliding his feet and body forward, stumbling like a zombie. He looked down at her body, stretched out from her back were a pair of wings on the floor, painted from blood.

“Justin snap out of it!”, said Morcant, standing up with his knife outstretched between them.

“He really thinks you’ll hurt him?”, wondered Emotion.

“Everyone always does, forget about that, let’s kill those things.”, Logic told him.

“Mm.”, Emotion agreed.

Justin calmly walked up to Morcant and placed his bloody hand on his trembling shoulder. His hair was spiked up, like he’d seen a ghost. For a moment, Justin could again feel all the blood oozing down him and wondered what he must look like. Morcant’s mouth closed as he sniffled and breathed heavily. Justin spoke up, knowing he might freak out soon.

“Keep her safe, I’m going to exterminate them real quick.”, Justin said with a surreal, toothy grin.

Morcant didn’t move as Justin walked past him and leapt off the platform, in search of his prey.