I forced myself to get up, stumbling and holding my ribs. I looked down at Ezekiel who was still face down on the ground, seemingly unconscious. I looked back at Leonidas, gritting my teeth in frustration. “I may not be able to win, but I'm sure as hell not gonna kneel. ESPECIALLY TO PIECE OF SHIT LIKE YOU!” I got back into fighting position and prepared to attack. Then I placed all my strength into my left leg and shot forward toward the ground smashing underneath my foot. He looked somewhat surprised as he blocked my attack. “That's it,” He grinned, “Show me your everything….so I can tear it all down.” I growled as I threw strike after strike just for each one to be blocked or dodged. But as my attacks were being easily countered, I still refused to slow down, pushing my body even further to try and land at least one blow. I threw a punch aimed directly at his face, and he only had a split second to grab my fist but his widened eyes showed that even he was caught off guard. He let go and started to attack back, socking me across the jaw, then in the stomach and kicked my lower jaw. He untracted his claws and started taking large swipes at me, the only thing I could do was block them with my arms, getting large cuts in them. He slashed my right leg and even aimed for my stomach, but I managed to evade it only just for my shirt to get cut. As Leonidas continued his onslaught, and my stamina drained even faster I could hear faint voices coming from the right. I looked over to see the other lionesses run-limping over toward us.
The two of us turned to see what they were doing “KING!” One of them shouted, “BEHIND YOU!” He shot his head back to see Ezekiel in the air with his foot mere inches next to Leonidas’s face. He blocked it with his wrist but it sent him sliding a little to the side. Ezekiel's feet landed back on the ground and he stood there huffing. “Damnit,” He said, “I did a full lap around and put whatever strength I had left into that kick.” I turned to see Leonidas who’s hand was shaking after the impact. He looked at us with complete anger, “That…hurt.” He sneered, “THAT ACTUALLY HURT! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!!!” He got into a charging position, rage filled his eyes. “Guess I only managed to piss him off, huh?” Ezekiel said as he took a step back. “You did more than me, so I'll give you that.” I told him as the two of us prepared ourselves and Leonidas pounced in our direction.
As Leona and Ezekiel continued to fight for their lives, Belle continued her search for Ferral. And Ferral himself, exhausted and still upset about the loss of Stephen Brown continued roaming through the city, finding new shelter in a long and large building that had been broken in half with the lower hand leaned to the side:
“Finally, a place to rest.” I said as I climbed to the top of the broken building and slid down onto whatever floor was left. But as I leaned my head down against the wall, I heard a noise coming from beneath me, so I looked to see it was somebody sitting on another broken floor. Sighing, I cautiously started to come down to see who this person was and to my surprise it was the gorilla guy I met back when I first left The Facility. “Hello.” I called out while hanging from the edge of the floor; he looked up at me and grunted. “Shocked to see you're still alive, Failure.” He responded as I slid down the wall with my claws and to gently touch the floor.
“It's been awhile, huh?” I asked. “Indeed.” I was going to say something else, but he continued to speak. “You know we're in a battle royale right now, right? I nodded. “And you know I can try and kill you, right?” I nodded again, “Yeah, I know.” He got so we could be faced to face, “But I'm not. Because you spared my life in our first encounter so I owe you a great debt. So I'll spare yours and we can consider said debt paid.” I smiled and chuckled, “Alright, but I don't think you've beaten me that easily.” He grunted again, “Hmph, we'll see. Now, leave my territory or we could test your little theory now.” I nodded again, “Alright, but…can I say one more thing?” “One more.”
“I’ve been told by one of the scientists who worked for The Organization that they sent us all on this island so only one of the experiments will remain standing. Now, I don't want to see innocent people be taken away and I can feel that neither do you. So if we could all come together, the only losers would be them.” He looked away, not responding right away. “And you want me to be a part of your rebellion.” I nodded, “Yes.” He stayed silent again for a minute. “We'll see.” I turned and hopped back up onto the floor I was originally on, then climbed out of the building, leaving gorilla-guy by himself again. Afterwards, I pressed on, this time walking through the city still tired and hungry. Really hungry. I continued walking with little to no energy left that eventually I simply passed out on the ground.
After some time, I eventually woke up and started to open my eyes realizing I was looking up. Then, I noticed the face of something looking over me. As my vision focused, I finally noticed it was Belle. She looked at me with a smile, “About time you woke up, Ferral.” She said. “Hi, where are we and when did you find me?” I asked as I groaned and lifted up my body to be sitting next to her. “We're just in some random area that I found for us to hide it.” She responded. I scratched my head and let out a long yawn, then my stomach grumbled loudly. “Nnngh, I'm so hungry.” Belle giggled then reached behind her. “I knew this would happen so I took the liberty of packing everyone their own separate bags of trail mix.” She took out two plastic bags, each having a variety of nuts, dried fruit, and small chocolates. I could feel my mouth begin to water as she handed me one of the bags and I ripped open the top and started pouring into my mouth. “IT'S SO GOOD!” I told her with my mouth full. “Made it all by myself,” Belle replied, putting some of the trail mix into her palm and throwing it into her mouth. “I originally was going to just buy granola bars, buuuuut then really they'd all get crushed in my back pocket.”
As the two of us continued eating, we talked about how strong a lot of people on this island have been and what we're going to do to help Leona and Ezekiel against the other lionesses. A topic that Belle brought up was what would happen if they…well, I scowled and got up, beginning to pace back and forth. “I don't WANT to think about that. I WANT to hear those horrible words!” I crumpled up the empty plastic bag in my hands. She got up as well and tried to calm me down. “I know words like “die” or “killed” kind of trigger you Ferral,” She said, “But they're things that are always on someone's mind. Even me. I mean, on the outside I look fine, but really….I'm terrified.” As my panic started to fade, I could tell her’s began to rise. “I don't wanna die, Ferral. There's so much I still want to do! I want to go to school, live a normal life, and be kissed by a boy!” Once I fulled calmed down, her panic swelled more. I needed to try something to calms her down, but didn't really know what to do….then I grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed the side of her cheek. “I…uh…what was that for?” She asked in complete shock. “You said you wana be kissed by a boy, so I did.” Her face turned a deep red and she slowly turned her head away. “I didn't mean you….dummy.”
“Do you feel better now?” I asked. “Not really, but I guess thanks for trying.” I grabbed her again by the shoulders and she let out a small yelp, “Look Belle, we are ALL going to live. I promise you we will.” She look of concern turned into a smile, “Okay, it's a promise. Let's make it come true.” I nodded, “Yeah, now let's go help our friends.” She nodded in agreement, closing her bag of trail mix and putting it back inside her back pocket. “Let's go!” She said, and we went bolting off to go and help Leona and Ezekiel.
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