Chthonic Orders

The spectacled lad's next shot of assumption clung to the battered figures beneath his vision. They appeared even worse for wear than did the nearly dead cretin. 

To begin, Kage started with a shambling hobble that allowed either of his feet to get beneath him. However, without the strength nor patience to lift himself he simply sat there as a pool formulated around him. It was a liquid lacquer of reddish black that seemed to cling for dear life onto its owner who embraced the warming touch. Afterall, the rest of him had been engulfed by a bitter cold which danced into either broken appendage limply dragged upon the floor. 

Jacob couldn't help but to cringe at the gnarled mess of the boy's left arm. Two sliced pieces of his forearm stuck from the skin with the center broken in a jagged shape akin to a strip of curled bark. Despite this outcome, the attached hand ever so slightly experienced twitches which left its fingers to wander. 

Following its companion, not much more could be emphasized to lessen the extent of gruesome murder on display. Due to the output of strength flung into the vessel, the knuckles along the appendage were displaced with two connected to the index and middle finger bent in opposing directions. Furthermore, the skin had been peeled away bare to the harshness of the coming sea's breeze. That of course would be a tragedy needing a fix, yet was offset by the impracticality of even measuring this injury as the fingers stayed limp. Digits splayed across the concrete with no rhyme nor reason, the bones melted into dust by the force thrusted upon them by Gan's muscles. Now, all that relayed from them were splotchy drawls. 

However, it was not the arms which arrested Jacob's surveillance, but rather the torso of the boy. Arms were arms, they could be stripped away then tossed aside for mechanical ones if need be. Yet… the amassed blotting darkness beneath Kage's shirt tore its way into the minds of those able to see. 

They leaked out with an unburdened response. When caught in the barrage of Gan's fists, Kage hadn't understood just how badly hurt he had been by the movements. But here, without any adrenaline to keep him distracted from it, he understood a creaking truth. 

Death was near. 

Jacob crouched low, observing the spots on his body. He approached Kage, hesitantly, so as not to cause distress in his eyes. Peeking into them, he spotted their wavering flicker as an unconscious sheet soon arrived. Holding no worry, Jacob ripped open Kage's shirt for a soft moment admiring the immense musculature under his gaze. Each abdominal, pectoral, then several others he could not name were finely crafted and tuned for flexibility above all else so that their placement wouldn't inhibit their host. It was a paragon of beauty that spurned something within Jacob, narrowing his gaze as it happened. For, the once perfect visage lay a horrid, gruesome mess. Ribs cracked then lifted, burst from their cage outward from the muscles which should encase them. Bruises spread wide and far with the most garish circulating the boy's left side where his guard was unable to function properly. 

Eyes darted from each wound attempting to circumvent another known injury only to have it blasted by a growing contusion. It all boggled Jacob's wary mind as he sought simple solutions for complex errors. Nothing could be done from his situation that would remedy the dying rattles that echoed from each part of the boy's anatomy. 

'He needs to get to a hospital, but no ambulance will come here, nor arrive in time before it's pointless. Stealing a car will only alert the gangs which work down the beach. They'll be on top of us in seconds if I try pulling that shit. 

Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! FUCK!' 

Buried in these rampant ill-advised answers, Jacob was seemingly pulled away from his maniacal mutterings as a voice reigned supreme. "Claire… where is she?" A voice bit by frostbite, soothed with something unknown, shuddered his spine. He could barely muster the energy to turn his head in the vague direction he believed she lay. As he did, so too did Jacob commit the very same sin. 

The once almost idolized doll of a girl, smitten by helpings of makeup, was no more with the face it once coveted now a torn tissue of unresponsive jerks. Her jaw hung low as the imprint of a finger burned the flesh demonstrating the destructive power which ripped the cartilaginous structure from its proper placement. Next came her misshapen nose, now forever gone as a loose flap clung with dear life hoping for a whistle from its bone to come rebounding home. Situated an inch or two away depicted the devastation wrought on her eyes, or one eye and remaining socket. Gan's attack eviscerated Claire's left resulting in little more than a pulsating blackness that broke forth with a seeping tide of discolored fluid, pink in nature, wrenching a curling stomach from the boy. Claire's right bore little sense for respite as the ball now settled without a bulging circumference, however, remained a cloudy gray accompanied by large blood vessels across its milky surface. 

Claire lay to the side on the floor, allowing for a quick seepage of the pink fluid to cross the vastness of the warehouse. Immediately, Jacob did what he could, stripping away a piece from his own shirt he wrapped a makeshift patch around the hole. It was seconds after doing the act that he realized the stupidity behind his choice. 

Not an idea sat in his mind capable of being helpful. 

"K-Kage… What do I do?" His feet turned in the fallen friend's direction, a shake overtook the rest of him. "What the fuck do I do, Kage? You gotta tell me here, man, because all of you are fucked up and I ain't got one damn clue." 

Croaks fled from Kage's throat before intelligible speech returned, words which fell with speckled darts of red. "No car, no ambulance, have to run… Pick up. Go!" It was short and concise, instilling direct commands into the boy's skeleton. 

On a dime, Jacob marched toward Kage reaching down to sling him over one of his shoulders. However, when his palm came close enough to touch, it was met by a graceless smack that dejected the notion. "Daniel… Daniel first." Focusing on the crippled twig not far off, a burning guilt divulged itself in Jacob's heart. There was an unsaid promise made when he hadn't brought Sam to this hell hole. It had been his responsibility to look after the kid then bring him back to her. Even then, a random glimpse at Kage told all that needed to be said. 

His breath raggedly labored with each pulse of his declining heart. It was the same for Daniel as the conserved energy he spent simply moving his body across the floor, a matter of feet, taxed the frame in his possession. The child too was encroaching Death's palace. 

Jacob nodded. 'There was no point in thinking. I just have to listen to Kage. Then, whatever happens… it happens.' 

The frayed boy peeped at Daniel's exhausted form. Shivers fought his body for a dying warmth that had all but left. Gauntness overtook what once were chubby cheeks still speckled with the flab of youth. The difference between memory and reality battled for dominance within the confines controlling Jacob. All the more did it produce immense regret. 

'All of this is my fault. If I just listened to Kage. If I just hadn't gone to Sam; instead, just rolled over and kept to myself. Then, then, maybe…' 

Flustered by the presence of this overwhelming despair, Jacob only suffused the motion by chomping his teeth onto his own tongue. The cries seeking to tear him asunder abated themselves as the pain stole their attention. A single swift motion scooped the child into both of Jacob's arms then swung him over the shoulder which would have belonged to Kage. 

It was not the best plan to have a patient flying by the grip of an Evolved as they ran for a hospital miles away, even Jacob knew this. But it was the only one conceived by the flickers of oxygen rampaging within Kage as well as the expenditure of space accompanying Jacob. There certainly was another way, one more safe, but this was what they got, and Jacob solely followed orders. 

Trudging toward Kage, his offer was again rejected by the crumbling corpse. "WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM! Do you wanna die?" Livid with the absurdity of Kage's actions, Jacob no longer held back the anger festering in him. Too much accrued over the past few days for him not to lash out. 

The corpse shrugged off his comment instead pointing at Claire with its wrist. "Her first." 

"Kage… You've got fucking bones poking through your chest. I can see the insides of your forearm. If you don't come along right now, YOU. WILL. DIE." It was perhaps bewilderment as to Kage's reasoning that stopped Jacob from simply striking the boy then carrying him along. Although Claire seemed worse for wear, nothing life threatening occurred to her. On the other hand, Kage and Daniel were forms of varying degrees within dying or already at heaven's door.

Still, Kage laid not deterred in his persuasion. "See that fluid?" He waved at the pink liquid rolling from the abyssal socket. 

Jacob nodded. "It's nothing bad, right?"

Shaking his head, Kage measured the air needed to speak further, "No, cerebrospinal fluid mixed with blood. He pierced her brain…" The very statement brought subtle convulsions in the cheeks then brow fitted onto Jacob's face. Whether that was the intention to bring forth sodden ideas into the person's mind became an enigma to him. He no longer could piece together what manifested in this defying corpse which had once been an acquaintance. Yet careful consideration prodded at the figure, even as his eyes softly caressed the collapsed feminine form lively breathing. 

Love stayed the same no matter how terrorized his sanity was. 

"The fluid is leaking out of the exposed wound." Another cough wrought horror from his open lips. His diminished figure played tricks with Jacob. Never had he seen someone so bursting with confidence, pride, as well as smatterings of egotistical suave transform to one without. A lack of conviction rang true in the eyes now low in their fitted purpose. The balls within simply stopped on Claire, remaining with a reason he was certain not even Kage could realize. As he watched heaving breaths ruminate in the barren lungs of the boy, his skin, by no means bursting with flavor, divulged into a ghastly pale disorder. 

Then, with the sight firmly placed into the front of his nightmares for time never-ending, Kage uttered a request. "Save her, please." Jacob held steadfast no more. Without a word he traveled to Claire, lifting her above his shoulder. 

Kage analyzed his clumsiness. The inexperienced lad attempted to lay her comfortably on a spot in which no comfort existed. Suffering under this embarrassment, Jacob managed his way through the array of crashed shelving units. Along the path he hobbled between sharp pieces threatening to tear his shins asunder. This coupled with the two bodies atop his weighing arms proved a struggle, however he managed in the end.

Despite his achievement, Jacob couldn't lambast in pride as he threw one last look at his… What? What could he even call him anymore? 

He failed him countless times only to then learn that they were all manipulated by the bloke for some insane dream. That, in fact, all of it could possibly have been a lie. A fact which Jacob was not dumb enough to believe, or perhaps too stupid to accept. There were still times that played like a record in his brain showcasing smiles, too real to be fake, glimpsing the boy's face. Even if their time together had been all part of a plan to leave them behind, using them like lambs to the slaughter. 

'Well, not all of it had gone according to plan.' 

In the end, Kage hadn't counted on Jacob failing him. Failing to be the friend he suggested they were. 

Jacob started at a walk; pupils bugged by despair. 'All of this is my fault. Every last part was caused by my ineptitude to help save Lisa. Caused by my damn dick!' He wrestled with the sneaking whispers that forced him then into a trot followed by a dash through puddles of untold origin. 

"I will not fail again." Or so he told himself.