Offered to the Triplet Alphas

Chapter-102. The Last Survivor

[Xanthea]

'We'll make it..."

Words stabbed out of Ezra's dry throat.

'We'll make it...'

His legs buckled under the unbearable weight of exhaustion and starvation, but he gritted his teeth, refusing to fall.

'We're almost there...'

His every step was a cruel punishment, as he pushed through the pain, punishing himself for his own weakness, but determined to keep going no matter the cost.

'We'll make it. Stay with me, Ellery. A little longer. A little further.'

His voice cracked, as hope and desperation bled into every word.

He had chanted the same words like prayers over a thousand times during their ten-day journey through a hell called hope.

And when they finally reached the gate, it was just the two of them - the last survivors. Everyone else had fallen.

Ezra collapsed against the gate, his breath ragged and uneven. With trembling hands, he gently eased Ellery to the ground, her back resting against the cold wall. Impatience surged through him when minutes passed, but the gate didn't open. 'We made it! We're here!' Ezra's fist slammed against the gate. 'Let us out! Open the gate!'

Ellery just stared at Ezra, her hollow eyes brimming with tears, silently begging him to stop.

'The gate... will open for... the last survivor...' Ellery mumbled, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Panic sank its claws into Ezra's dying hope, tearing it apart, but the gate didn't budge. He turned, frantic, searching for the hidden cameras, the eyes that monitored them.

'J-just take her out! I'll stay here. Help her. Please! I'm begging you...' he cried, his voice breaking as he got to his knees. Tears streaked his grime-covered face. Ellery weakly shook her head.

'Don't kneel... don't beg...' Ellery reached out to him as tears streamed down her hollow cheeks.

Scrubbing his tears away with the back of his hand, Ezra took Ellery's frail hand in his, his fingers shivering as they closed around hers.

'I'm sorry... Ezra... I-I...' Ellery took in laboured breaths.

'Don't talk. Save your energy-'

'I w-w-won't make it-'

'You will...' Ezra shook his head, refusing to accept the truth, his grip tightening around her hand as she caressed the dirt off his cheeks. 'Listen to me for once...' she smiled faintly through her tears, her chin quivering. 'You are our last hope.'

'No-'

'Live a long life, Ezra-' 'No-'

'Live for me...' Ellery struggled to breathe. 'Live for all of us... for e-everyone who couldn't make it. Ok? P-promise me... you'll live. Live a long happy life...'

time as if

wheel of time as the light dimmed in them. It was as if she had stayed alive just to say those last

each punch shattering his own bones, blood splattering from his fingers and knuckles on the gate. 'MOM! MOM! AHHHH!' He roared in pure, raw frustration, his voice splitting the air with a

force so powerful it felt like a creature trying to break out of my ribcage. It was

up and I'll forgive you... don't you fucking abandon me now...' he

a void of ringing silence. Forcing himself to stand, he limped to

as though the name itself would revive her. 'Stay with me, Ellery.

her lifeless body on his back. At that moment, her weight seemed both impossibly

wrong gate,' he said, his voice distant, broken. 'You

shook my head, biting down

to yourself, Ezra... please... stop... just stop now..." I choked on my

and spoke in a shaking

dead body for days... until her body started to decompose and rot on his

and each shaky breath felt like it might be my last. I shut my

bear. It was his, and

dead. An ominous panic bubbled inside me, rising like a storm in my chest. Before I knew, I was on my

I called, reaching out toward the clouds of memories, as though I could somehow

hand gripped mine, pulling me

in my

the past from the present. All I knew was the truth of the moment and it was that I had

clenched his overcoat, my ears ringing from the deafening impact of

***

on, but I didn't look. I didn't hear the events that happened in silence - in the dark, empty memories that followed. I didn't see the way

mother's private office. I didn't see my mother frantically looking around at the data on several computer screens

everything she could to suppress whatever had gotten out

her home to the FA facility, as though she was running away from something or...

Asher didn't want me

no longer knew if they were to hide me from the painful memories or to hide some integral memories from

***

the FA facility, it was all in ruins. The walls were shattered; the ground scorched black like charcoal, and everything had scattered like a house of

as she witnessed the overpowering moment when Ezra walked out of the walls walking amidst the raining embers. Flames of disasters consumed everything and everyone that came

towards Alpha Deimos and Raven, who were standing on

prove that you can create history just like my healers. Prove your worth. Go, bring Ezra home.' Deimos urged Raven to

spreading,

the fire to stop Ezra were reduced to

around Ezra like looming shadows, dancing with the flames that boiled the

mutating at an alarming

is breaking

wait! It's rearranging, it's

of surviving healers read out the

the first time, I saw carnal

is showing a power

the walls is showing a rapid increase in negative

assembling

yelled above

is too