Much Like Suffocating

In the courtyard, Kai sped at Officer 1060 from across the plain of grass.

As Kai closed in he raised his leg to place a kick on the Officer.

“Too slow for a speed Mode.” Officer 1060 whispered to himself as he caught Kai’s leg.

1060 manifested a dagger in his free hand, sending Kai into a panic.

The teen struggled with his right foot, trying to get it out of the Officer’s grasp.

“Nowhere left to go, boy.” 1060’s face twisted into a sinister grin as Kai’s panic grew.

The dagger had started its way down when Kai hopped off of his free leg and used it to kick at the Officer’s chest, propelling him backwards.

Kai tumbled a few feet away from the grass, noticing a long slash through the middle of his shirt.

“A bullet in the shoulder, and almost stabbed in the chest. I won’t make it very far.” Kai panicked as he got up.

“How much longer, dude?!” Kai yelled towards Chase, who had his back turned to the fight to conceal what he was kneeling to.

“Just a little more, keep him busy!” Chase yelled as he turned back around to his front.

“Now, where would that go?” Chase knelt in front of a long rifle of some sort, trying to put a scope on the top of it.

He clicked the scope in place, making the rifle look complete.

“Now for the hard part.” Chase closed his eyes and held his hand out, the way he did when he manifested any part of a gun.

“Remember the important part of it.” Chase reminded himself.

Chase had imagined and manifested each inch of steel. Now, it was time to manifest the key to this lock.

“Now, what is that sub-human doing?” Officer 1060 used Kai’s recovery time to shift his attention to Chase.

As Kai was focused on getting onto his feet, Officer 1060 manifested a dagger from his right sleeve.

He closed one eye as he aimed between the base of Chase’s skull and the top of his spine.

Kai looked up just in time to see the Officer reel back for the throw.

“Shit!” Kai mumbled to himself as he raced forward to stop 1060.

“Bullseye.” 1060 mumbled to himself as he chucked the dagger.

The blade sped through the air, heading straight for the neck of Chase, who still had his back turned.

Kai ran as fast as his Mode could take him, but the dagger moved past his intersection in what felt like slow motion.

The whole world seemed to slow down for Kai as he saw the knife get closer and closer to Chase’s head.

“Oh no, don’t let me lose a friend. If only I was faster. Bloom would have caught it. No, Bloom would have never let this happen. I’m sorry, Chase. You gave me one job and I failed. I failed you.” Chase began to cry, seeing no way out of defeat.

He reached his hand out, knowing it was pointless. Knowing he was too slow.

“Done.” Chase twisted around in the blink of an eye with a scoped rifle in his hands.

He closed one eye as he instinctively shot one round towards the oncoming dagger.

A shot was heard as an iridescent bullet exploded from the barrel of Chase’s gun.

“We’re back to these games…” Officer 1060 thought as the bullet headed towards the knife.

Kai’s eyes widened with relief as he saw the round charge towards the knife. He got even more excited at what happened next.

The knife and the bullet collided, but instead of ricocheting off of each other like Kai and 1060 expected, the iridescent round pierced through the point of the knife, shattering the blade into a dozen pieces.

The Officer’s eyes widened as the bullet shot through the handle of the dagger, charging right towards him.

1060 tried to dodge the bullet, turning his head away from the path of the iridescent lead.

“Ah!” The Officer screamed in pain as blood shot from his right eye.

The bullet had sliced through the front of his eye. 1060 had dodged just in time to reduce the damage to any other parts of his face.

“Spirit-concentrated bullets. Most of the preparation was spent focusing as much of my Spirit into each bullet as I could. Spirit’s beaten by more Spirit, after all. I knew it would work out.” Chase told himself.

“You fucking scum! You finally got a hold of Spirit’s basics, huh?!” Officer 1060 yelled at Chase as he held his glove to his eye, the blood seeping between his fingers. His eyes were widened, so Chase knew he was hiding his shock.

Kai stood motionless, waiting for either his friend or his foe to move first.

Chase grew a sly smirk while he looked at the Officer through his scope.

“You have nothing to smile about! You’ll all be dead by sunset. Mark my words!” Officer 1060 screamed, his voice cracking from the surging pain expelling from his eye.

Chase shot another iridescent round at the heart of Officer 1060.

1060 once again attempted to dodge it, leaning to his free hand while manifesting a knife from his sleeve.

He held the blade in front of his left shoulder, the location the bullet was now headed towards.

The bullet once again shattered the blade into pieces, digging itself into the Officer’s shoulder.

1060 once again screamed in pain, looking around the courtyard frantically.

Officer 1060 sped towards the one of the windows that led back into the building.

Kai took two steps towards the Officer, ready to intersect his path. He stopped when he started to hear rapid fire coming from Chase’s rifle.

1060 continued his sprint towards the window, trying to dodge the storm of iridescent lead raining down on him.

One bullet hit his left shoulder again. Another ripped right through the side of his hip. Before any more bullets could catch a hold of the Officer, he jumped through the closed window, landing on the broken shards of glass on the other side.

He started his sprint down the hallway, towards the cafeteria where this had all started.

As he got out of sight, Chase, who was propping himself up on his back, let himself lay flat on the grass.

He let out a little chuckle as his rifle lay to its side.

Kai sped over to Chase, kneeling down to his level.

“Are you good, bro?” Kai asked sincerely.

“I should be asking YOU that question!” Chase started to chuckle while he closed his eyes.

“Wait… He was going to…” Chase’s relaxed mood completely disappeared in an instant.

Chase stood up with urgency as he looked at Kai.

“We have to go. The others are probably already heading back to the cafeteria.” Chase nodded to Kai as he nodded back.

They both began to sprint towards the cafeteria, Kai going on ahead to make sure the Officer wasn’t going to try to ambush them on the way.

In the cafeteria, the Advisor stared at Hendrix waiting for his move as Hendrix stared, wide-eyed at the skin peeling off of Milo.

“What is going through your head right now, dissenter?” The Advisor pulled at his gloves as he awaited an answer.

The room went silent for a few seconds, only broken occasionally by Bloom’s quiet sobbing.

“You don’t have to answer, Hendrix-” Alex’s comforting was cut off by Hendrix himself.

“When I was a kid, I always wondered why people murdered each other. Now, I think I realize some people deserve to die.” Hendrix looked up at the Advisor, taking his eyes off of Milo for the first time since his body went limp.

The Advisor’s bloodshot eyes met Hendrix’s shellshocked, crying eyes.

The Advisor's eyes hinted at a smile as he heard the words he had been waiting for.