Sitting against wall, Amber cries and here I am again, frozen in place. "Get out." I walk over to her with axe in hand, "Not here to fight you." "I don't care!" I slide down the wall, "I don't care either. I want you to come with me." She shakes her head, "It's Bullet, isn't it?" She grabs her face and starts pouting, I get into a squat and wrap my arm around her, "I'd treat you with the respect you deserve. If Bullet can't do that all the time, he doesn't deserve you." She shakes her head, "He'll kill me." I turn her head and glare into her eyes, "He can try." She suddenly clings to me, her arms wrench tight around my back. Despite the reckless force, I wrap my arms around her. "You are one of the only people I actually care about. I won't lose you too." A shotgun cocks, "Good job, Amber." I try to zip away but I'm all out of juice. I can't escape her grip, "Amber!?" Amber shuts her eyes as Bullet laughs, "Aww. I almost believed it, that's how good you lie."

"It wasn't a lie." I flick up a false tooth with my tongue. Hail Mary it is, then. The pill pops out and I crunch down on it. A surge of energy rolls through me. I quickly twist Amber around and bite her. She yelps and lets go of me. Bullet shouts, "What the-" I push her and she falls over, right onto bullet. He screams in pain, "Get off me you bitch!" I pick up my axe and snort another bump. She shouts to me, "I'm sorry!" I swing down the axe and knock that little bastard out. "Make it up to me by coming with me." She gets up slowly, "I-" She needs a push. I'm going to regret this. I grab her hand, "Just trust me." I start walking and she lets me lead her. The speakers cut on, Scott shouts,

"Come on you bastards! You know where I'm at!" I walk out the room as the message keeps on going, droning on. I don an outfit and slide on the helmet. The captain is dead! Until Bullet gets here- Give me that! New order. Kill Scott Crawford, keep the others alive and chained up good. I will pay you personally for Crawford! I turn into a room and as soon as soldiers pass, I start marching the other way. Another team runs up, "What the hell are you doing!?" I stop and growl, "Bullet needs me, now!" They march off and grab at my helmet. Oh my god, that's terrifying! How the hell did I not get shot!?

I yawn as Jack closes his eyes, "Don't stress, Jack." He huffs. Oh? I whisper, "Jack?" He turns, "Wait for the signal. Pass it on." Jean stands up and a soldier points a gun at her, "Sit down!" She grabs at her stomach as Scott climbs above us. Another boom. "Now!" A giant monstrosity from below bashes against the ship, all the soldiers stumble to find their footing. Scott shoots soldiers from above as all of us get up. Jack steals a knife and relentlessly stabs at a man's armor. Markus knocks a soldier out while Rose runs to me. "Don't look!" I cover her from anything that would hit us. But luck is on our side, they're shooting at Scott.

I punch a soldier. My eyes widen at my mistake, he whacks me with the rifle's stock. Stars flood my vision as I fall onto the floor. He points the gun at me, Slim rushes in and snaps his neck. He smirks at me, then zooms away. Since when could he do that? I grab his rifle and start shooting the ones left standing. The soldiers start running to find cover. Slim rests his axe on his shoulder, "Stay over there and you don't die!" Mama shouts, "Jack, he's dead!" He stands up as Jean hunches over. I call out, "Slim!" He zooms towards me and sticks the axe to my neck, "Damn it!" A painful shock rolls across my brain. A keyboard enters Slim's name. "I-I didn't know!" He rips the axe away as they start shooting at us. "We gotta leave!" I run for cover as bullets whizz past. A bullet tears through my leg and I fall down. Slim grabs my shirt and pulls me quickly out of there. He looks down at my leg, "That's what you get!" I shout over the gunfire, "I didn't know!" "You don't know a lot of shit despite that power!" I shout as he zooms away, "I can't control i- Damn it!" The gunfire stops and he zooms back. "Well shit." He inspects my wound, then helps stand me up. "Come on, I'll baby you." "You're an asshole, Slim!" Mama points to Slim, "Quit it!" "You quit it, old hag." She shakes her head, "Find a better insult another time, we have to move!" He suddenly smiles and whispers, "Is she your girlfriend or something?" "Ew. No." Mama shouts as they go on ahead, "I heard that!" Shit. "Sorry!" Slim pinches me, "Ow!" "You don't owe her a sorry." I pinch him back and he doesn't even flinch, "Yeah, I- She practically saved all our asses."

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Mama shouts, "She's with us!" A giant woman covered in bandages immediately runs up to us and talks in a sheepish tone, "Why are you doing all this? For them?" Slim smiles, "This is my brother, I've been always getting him out of jams." I scoff, "No you haven't!" Scott runs up to the woman, "Damn, you're fast." She huffs, "You're out of shape." We finally catch up and Slim calls out, "Amber, can you carry that old woman? We have to be quick." She grunts, "No, my back is killing me. That fat guy cut me good." "Sorry about that. He's a little crazy." I squint, "A little? Look at her. A lot of shit here is your fault!" He lets go and I struggle to stay standing, "I've done everything to keep my two brothers fucking safe! Why else am I here, saving your sorry ass!?" Amber gives that tone again, "Slim?" He gets under my arm, then talks in the calmest tone I've seen him ever speak, "Yeah?" This can't be him, he's a liar! "I don't think I can go with you." There it is, now he'll- "Why not?" She grabs onto herself as we walk, "No one can save me. Not from him." He turns to her, "Then you need to save yourself. He is only a man acting as a demon, you could destroy him with ease." She stops and I look back as we walk, she's holding her arm, watching us escape. "I love that girl." I turn as he has a smile on his face, "Sure." Shouting comes from behind us, an army of boots stampeding. He quickly scoops me up on his shoulders, "Shit! Back pocket! Gimme one of those vials!" I reach and hand him one. He sniffs the stuff through a straw, then he speeds up. "Why didn't you use that stuff against Ursa!?" "I did! Even with all we did, we only could tire him out! On our own, we are so impotent we can't fight someone like him!"

Up the stairs and out the back of the ship, I bang his head against the door frame, "Watch it!" "Tuck your head, dumbass!" We catch up to them and Verank cheers, "Let's go!" Soldiers burst open through the doors. As they all start shooting the boats, sparks fly off the boats as they all just freeze in place. Verank bolts towards them, Scott shouts into the radio, but they aren't wearing their radios. I drop Markus and snort a bump. It's getting less effective. My body needs to rest. Despite that, I jump and swing my body up onto the second deck. My feet meet a skull, we drop to the floor and I stab him. His friends turn to shoot me, I slap the barrel away as I stab through the other's throat. I kick the other's knee, then his groin. He hunches forward and I drive my knife up, it tears up through his chin. Bullets crack into his vest as Verank screams out in laughter behind me. The soldiers start to pull back as we take more and more ground. Verank shouts and hops down, "I'm at my limit! Good luck!" I turn and try to jump over the railing. "Oh come on! Verank!" A large hand pulls me back, then tosses me through a bulkhead door. As I stop tumbling, Amber shuts the door. "I can't trust her to kill you!"

Bullet pushes his shotgun to my chest as I reach for a vial, he fires, blasting through my chest, I fly and smack against the wall. Shit! He laughs as I huff the last of the vial. "Cute." I zoom to the door as he shoots and misses. With a loud huff, I tear the door off it's hinges. I run and jump onto the railing, then leap as another shotgun blast forces pellets into my back. I nod off as my back hits the water.

The bullets stop and Mama steps up onto the ship's wall. The rest do the same as the soldiers shout and run towards us. I grab hold of Rose and stand up there too. I hug Rose and we all fall backward off the ship. I open my eyes and find that shark from before just watching us, Jean dives deeper, following a long trail of blood in the water. Mama grabs onto the shark with Jack nestled under her arm. I quickly grab onto it and he starts swimming us towards the shore. Mama and I look at each other. She shrugs.