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...'
soft, serene smile. Her gaze took him in for one last time as if Ezra was a beautiful dream
froze in the wheel of time as the light dimmed in them. It was as if she had
with relentless fury, each punch shattering his own bones, blood splattering from
out of my ribcage. It was a pain I had never known, and now that I
don't you fucking
coming, Ezra's world imploded into a
though the name itself would revive her.
back. At that moment, her weight seemed both
he said, his voice distant, broken. 'You heard them,
shook my head,
Ezra... please... stop... just stop now..." I choked on
a deep breath and
until her body started to decompose and
my vision, and each shaky breath felt like it might be my last. I shut my
pain wasn't mine to bear. It was
his back. Eventually, his mind shut down, and he fell," Asher said, staring at Ezra's eyes peering at Ellery's dead body with eyes more dead. An ominous panic bubbled inside me, rising like
clouds of memories, as though I could
could, Asher's hand
Three words exploded in my mind with every heartbeat - Ezra
from the present. All I knew was the truth of the moment and it was that I
into his embrace. I clenched his overcoat, my ears ringing from the deafening
***
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
screeched in my mother's private office. I didn't
everything she could to suppress whatever had gotten out of her
as she drove from her home to the FA facility, as
Asher didn't want me
if they were to hide
***
the FA facility, it was all in ruins. The walls were shattered; the ground scorched black like charcoal, and everything had scattered like a
stood petrified as she witnessed the overpowering moment when Ezra walked out of the walls walking amidst the raining embers. Flames of disasters consumed everything and
who were standing
worth. Go, bring Ezra home.' Deimos urged Raven to enter the flames that burnt everyone to dust
fire was constantly spreading, faster than the
troops diving in the fire to stop Ezra were reduced to ashes in
doom swirled around Ezra like looming shadows, dancing
is mutating at
is breaking
wait! It's
surviving healers read out the data loudly
the first time, I saw carnal fear in
is showing a power
whole ground within the walls is showing a rapid increase in negative
is assembling into the
researchers yelled
body is too weak to contain the
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