Chapter 12 (Part 3)

Chapter 12

As the sky filled with smoke and dust, Hunter was the first to get up from the rubble. He scurried through the broken home. He looked for Draven. He finally found him under a large rock. “Draven, we are leaving. Now!” he said. He struggled with lifting the boulder from his chest. Draven was weak, and slowly dying. Once the boulder had been lifted, Hunter grabbed Draven and swung him around his back. Draven’s skin bruised with the contact. Hunter’s large, crow like wings sprouted from his robe, and they flew away. Polaris lie under the rubble, leg completely torn and crushed under the weight of the rocks. He slowly started to wake. When he did, he panicked. “Draven!? Aza!? Anyone!?” he shouted. He began to throw the rocks off of him. Once he stood, his broken leg began pulsing with an agonizing, stinging pain. He looked through the rubble, frantically searching for any of them. He removed rock after rock, but found no one. He began to lose hope, when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shift in a pile of debris. He scurried over, ripping the rocks from the pile. He was able to uncover Aza from the pile. He gasped. “Aza? Aza are you alright? Oh god, what have I done?” He said. She didn’t respond. She was only half conscious. Polaris looked around. He didn’t see any soldiers, but he could hear them. They were marching over the hill. Polaris had to act fast. He reached out to Aza, pulling her from the debris. He swung her around his shoulder, and began running off into the forest behind them. He ran as fast as he could. Just like the time he went to Yveskin. All he had to do was hurry. He ran a solid mile and a half away from the house, his leg mutilated. He made it to a small clearing so he could rest. Instead of putting down Aza carefully, and leaning against a tree, once he made it to the clearing he collapsed. He made it so he fell to the ground, taking the fall for Aza. He fell unconscious. Smoke continued bellowing from the smoldering house. They both lay in the clearing, resting. They were lucky to still be alive. If only Polaris hadn’t used the time reverse the other two times, things might be different. Days would pass before either of them woke. 

Draven began to slowly open his eyes. He lie on a small bed in a wooden shack. He looked around to see Hunter sitting in a chair next to him. Though he looked different. His skull now began to vaguely resemble a person. Flesh began forming around his head. Draven slowly rose from the bed. Hunter looked over. “You’re awake, how are you feeling?” he asked. Draven looked at him. “Fine. What happened? Where are we?” he asked. Hunter looked down at the floor. “You don’t remember huh?” he asked. Draven was confused. Remember what? He thought to himself. Just then, he started to remember what happened. “Oh god, why are we here? Where’s Aza? Polaris?” he asked. Hunter looked back at him. “Are you insane? Listen to me this one time. Forget them! Battery is after you. Worry about yourself for once.” he said. Draven shook his head. “No, that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works. You should have taken Aza instead! Me and Polaris can handle ourselves.” Draven went on a ramble about how Hunter was wrong. Hunter started to grind his teeth together. “SHUT UP! You think this is easy for me? I panicked! I didn’t know what to do! Goddamnit!” he yelled. Draven was surprised at his outburst. Hunter simply looked away. “Son of a b***h. My temper got out again.” he said. “There was a reason I swore away my humanity.” he mumbled to himself. “Rest up, you’ll need it.” he said. He began to walk out of the room. “Where are you going?” Draven asked. “We need supplies, we’ll be staying here for a while. I’m grabbing a radio and food.” he said. He left the room without looking back. Draven thought to himself about the situation currently happening. This was the worse case scenario. He began lowering his head back in the bed. All he could do now was rest, for he was still injured from the explosion. He worried about Aza, and about the loyalty Polaris held with him. Draven slowly closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

The wind swirled around the forest. Snow slowly fell from the sky, covering everything in white, including Aza and Polaris. Aza began to shift around, and slowly opened her eyes to the blue sky. She looked around before suddenly shooting up. Her breath was heavy as she scanned the area. She looked over at Polaris, still sleeping under her. She moved off of him before trying to wake him up. “Hey, Polaris, wake up.” she said. She shook him side to side. Polaris opened one eye quickly, before darting up. This startled Aza greatly. She jumped back. Polaris looked over at her. “Sorry, I was just, startled.” he said. Aza sighed in relief, then realised what was happening. “Where are we?” she asked. Polaris looked grim as he looked away. Aza asked once more. “Polaris, where are we? Where’s Draven?” Polaris turned to her. “I ran away with you after the explosion. I don’t know where Draven is.” he explained. Aza was surprised. “What do you mean you don’t know where he is? Did you look for him?” she asked. Polaris turned away again. “I did. I did look for hi-” before he could finish his sentence, Aza cut him off. “And you didn’t find him!?” she yelled. Polaris flinched. He seemed distraught, like all hope was lost. Aza saw the expression on his face and immediately pulled back. She began to cry. Draven was gone, most likely dead. All that remained were her and Polaris. Polaris looked back at her. He felt awful. He wished he could help, but all he could do was sit there and listen to her cry. He tried standing up, but a sharp pain came up his leg. He forced himself to stand. This was nothing compared to the pain before. He walked over to her to comfort her. “I did all I could. I’m sorry.” he said. She began to settle down, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I know you did. How could things end up like this?” she wondered to herself. Polaris simply shook his head. “Whatever happened, what we need to do now is survive. If Draven is still alive, he’ll come back for us. We just need to make sure we don’t die until then.” he said. Aza looked up at him. He had a grin on his face. Her eyes widened at the sight. She began to see the resemblance between him and Draven. She could see that he could be trusted. That grin was all she needed to put her life in his hands. And his plan worked perfectly. The only way he could gain her trust was if he acted like Draven. So, that’s exactly what he did. “Ok, what should we do?” she asked. Polaris looked around. “First, we’ll have to find food. I’ll go searching around while you stay here, ok? It’ll be safer that way.” he explained. Aza shook her head in acknowledgement. Polaris set off to find food, while Aza stayed behind. She propped herself against a tree and slept. She tried forgetting about the whole incident, but everything seemed so hopeless. The air was becoming colder. Winter was starting. Surviving by themselves in normal weather was hard enough, but the fact they had to survive during winter made it impossible. Draven had better come quickly, or else they would die.