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...'

serene smile. Her gaze took him in for one last time as if Ezra was a beautiful dream she was grateful to have and in the lost

dimmed in them. It

gate with brutal, wild force. His fists met the concrete with relentless fury, 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

my ears, but it was no use. His shrieks reverberated in my chest; a force so powerful it felt like a creature trying to break out of my ribcage. It was a pain I had never known, and now that I did, I couldn't endure it. Blood smeared down the walls, leaving dark trails as

up and I'll forgive you... don't

coming, Ezra's world imploded into a void of ringing silence. Forcing himself to stand, he limped to

in a soft voice, as though the name itself would revive

gently carried her lifeless body on his back. At that moment, her weight seemed both impossibly heavy and unbearably

broken. 'You heard them, didn't you, El? It's

shook my head,

please... stop... just stop now..." I

and

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

it might be my last. I shut my eyes, desperate to block out the suffocation, but it only seemed to

to bear. It was his,

eyes peering at Ellery's dead body with eyes more dead.

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

could, Asher's hand gripped mine, pulling

hyperventilated. Three words exploded in my mind with every heartbeat -

to reason anything. My mind couldn't process the past from the present. All I

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

***

I didn't hear the events that happened in silence - in the dark, empty memories that followed. I didn't see the way the darkness in those memories shattered like black glass

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

try everything she could to suppress

to the FA facility, as though

that Asher didn't want me to see,

but I no longer knew if they were to hide

***

FA facility, it was all in ruins. The walls were

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

and Raven, who were standing on the

create history just like my healers. Prove your worth. Go, bring Ezra home.' Deimos urged

fire was constantly spreading,

fire to stop Ezra were reduced

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

is mutating at an alarming

DNA is breaking

It's rearranging, it's

healers read out the data loudly from their

time, I saw carnal fear in my mother's

body is showing a power surge. The source

whole ground within the walls is showing a rapid increase

energy is assembling into the

researchers yelled above the

too weak

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