A Fault Line’s Breaking Point

Corpse Carrier - Act 1 | Chapter 19 - A Fault Line’s Breaking Point
One Second Since Juna Was Found Dead

Theo retracted his hand. There was no reason to touch a corpse. To touch Juna’s limp body. For some reason Theo wasn’t overrun with panic, unlike during Juna’s first attempt at suicide. Guilt had already carved a path into his heart and tunneled its way into the back of his mind. As if he unconsciously knew this could happen—would happen. Theo’s own morality wavered and Juna lay dead in a pool of blood that gushed irregularly from her throat.

Sliced clean open as if it was done with a quick flick of her wrist. A sharp knife hid behind her pale fingers with spots of blood that laminated her wrist.

Theo took a step back—two steps back—three. Convoluted. Everything had been so convoluted since he had arrived down in this filth of a cavern they called Ground Zero. Though for the first time in days his mind didn’t brawl with itself for order. He remained calm. Too calm. As if Theo couldn't even process her death. Like he didn’t believe it.

‘Save me.’

Her head was inside his own, speaking to him. Twice now Juna died. Twice now Theo only attempted to help at the very end. Failing. Twice now Theo wondered—

Could he really stay diligent?

No.

He burst from the divot and sent the vine door pummeling to the ground. Each stride grew faster and his soles pushed harder off of the stone as he rushed towards the village. Theo found the tavern, Travelers of the Lost, and burst inside.

From all the commotion inside no one seemed to notice. Theo, however, noticed everything. Ilinca filling a chuckling group of four’s tankards. A scrawny man and an elderly figure sitting at the bar, laughing. Booze spilled between the floorboards and crumbs from lunch meshed into the grain. A man coughing up his drink. The still cracked ceiling from the tremor a week ago. His own heart beating inside his skull. His rage. His pain. Juna’s pain.

And a fingerless man.

“Good I tell you,” the fingerless man said to another group of men. His tongue flared with each word. “They’ll buy it right up, down in the Entrance Sections. Quicker than you can name a price I tell you.”

With the two fingers remaining on his right hand, the man raised the severed tail of some lizard-creature. The tail was blue and had brush-like bristles stapled onto its edge, its vibrant colors hypnotizing Theo as the fingerless man paraded it around over the table. “Good, good Metal,” the man said with a grin. “And I didn’t even have to break a sweat.”

Theo knew that tail. Knew its blue color fading to orange as it reached the severed part of exposed meat. Pinched at the tip and dangled around by the fingerless man, was Speck’s tail.

Another word didn’t need to slip from the fingerless man's mouth. Juna’s bruises—Speck’s tail—her words: 'This place isn't any different’—The fingerless man’s insufferable smirk—And Theo’s last remaining grip on his diligence slipping away.

All of it came together with such a horrible sense of realization.

This man had hurt Juna.

That man had killed Juna.

And Theo could no longer stay diligent. He snatched up an empty tankard from a nearby table and smashed it directly into the fingerless man’s skull. A crack split the air before the sound of a body hitting the floor and the hustle of nearby patrons sounded.

Before the fingerless man could stand, Theo mounted him and crushed the dent tankard into his cranium. Blood gushed from just above his ear and Theo followed with another strike.

Before the third strike could connect, someone yanked him off the fingerless man. Captured, Theo watched—attempting to squirm his way free—as Juna’s murderer groaned. The fingerless man touched his temple and winced upon feeling raw meat.

Not enough, Theo thought.

Theo sunk his teeth into whoever held him from behind, then rushed forward the second the captor released his grip. Theo swung his next blow so far back with his shoulder he almost tripped before reaching Juna’s murderer. But Theo didn’t trip. The tankard connected. The exposed wound on the man’s cranium widened and his right eye caught Theo’s following unarmed swing just before it connected and spewed blood across the floor.

A black eye for a black eye—and hopefully much more.

Theo discarded the now skull-imprinted tankard and wrapped both hands around the groaning man’s neck, attempting to strain the life from his body with his own two hands. The fingerless man choked for air. He scratched—clawed with seven fingers across Theo’s forearms. A fingernail bit into his wrist and tore through just enough skin for Theo to unconsciously release his grip.

Juna’s murderer took advantage of that. Slamming his own forearm against Theo’s arm. Upon managing to break free, the fingerless man swung his legs across Theo’s torso, and in a second Theo was on the ground. The fingerless man now on top.

No tankard smothered Theo’s face. Only knuckles. Theo’s nose popped first. His upper lip second. The fingerless man reared an arm back, and Theo had no choice but to cover his face with both arms to hopefully block the punch.

However, his arms never received the force of a punch. Instead his left ear seared with pain, hearing from that side diminished, and no longer could Theo see straight. The man had rammed his elbow into the side of Theo’s head.

Everything spun—the ceiling, the unrepaired crack, the fingerless man’s face, his gritted teeth, and the man's raised fist. The second punch broke right through the barricade and connected once again to Theo’s broken nose.

Blood gushed into his open mouth now gasping for air. The left side of his head felt so numb he thought half of his brain was exposed. He wanted to throw up. It hurt. Everything hurt. Pain surged through his entire body as he lay helpless on the tavern’s floor.

Though even as the third punch connected to his forehead, Theo found it hard to cry. He couldn’t express sadness for himself or even fear. Because he wasn’t the only one who experienced this kind of pain. Not at all. Juna felt it too. Each blunt bare-knuckled blow that sculpted Theo’s skull had also connected to Juna’s. Her pain was the same as his. Theo couldn’t feel sorry for himself. Not one bit. He hadn’t suffered enough.

The fourth punch landed.

Theo blacked out.