"If all the stars in the sky were made of gold what purpose would they serve to a dead universe? And so it can be seen that whatever cradles life and shines in the great darkness is the most valuable to man." - Blade of the people

Mark was running through the wasteland, his lungs were burning, sweat dripping from every part of his body and his legs bleeding from a variety of scrapes. around a hundred meters behind him a pack of grotesque animals mostly resembling a mix of dogs and hyenas was stalking him. He had been out searching for scraps of crashed air crafts and old ruined war machines. Of course he wasn't unprepared for the occasional mutant, he'd been doing this ever since he was a child and he had plenty of nasty experiences that taught him how to survive out in the wasteland for at least a week! 

Though he didn't expect to be attacked by three packs of mutants in a row on what he thought would be a routine scavenging run. Carrying large amounts of heavy ammo out in the sweltering heat of the wasteland was just asking to for heatstroke to screw you over. Thankfully he had enough practice in order to accurately hit most of his shots, not all of them were lethal but they certainly did cripple the ones that failed to dodge. Repeating the process with three different packs though had vastly exceeded his mental and physical stamina and left him with around 5 bullets left. 

Even if he was confident in hitting all his shots, which he wasn't, he just wouldn't have had enough ammo to take out the fourth pack of mutants that had started chasing him. His only saving grace was that they seemed to be a bit smarter than the rest and had become wary of him after finding the rest of the mutant corpses. They were content to slowly keep up the pace with him at range waiting for him to exhaust himself and collapse. Ironic considering that was a human tactic but Mark certainly wasn't a marathon runner by any means even if his unfortunate life had kept him in shape in a way.

Mutants were usually rabid, it was rare to even see them form a pack of two or three but Mark knew for a fact that there were at least eight stalking behind him possibly more. So he also knew that he had to have done something to provoke this many of them in such a short time. Thinking while running was hard but he did his best and went over everything he had done that day and he found it! Around 15 minutes before the first group attacked him he had picked up a strange little trinket he found nestled under a piece of rubble.

It was warm to the touch despite the colder area around it due to the shade. It appeared to be a ball made of metal however it was extremely light, there were a few scrapes are rusting portions but it was in rather good condition so he was going to sell it off in the market as either a exotic material or a paper weight, whichever would cost more. Thinking about it's strangeness he grabbed it out of his back pocket where he had stored it and took a closer look while trying to make sure he didn't lose focus on the more important task of running. Though a sound behind him proved that taking out the object wasn't the best idea's.

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The mutants had bursted out into a full on sprint once they saw it quickly closing the already shrinking gap between us. It was at that point that he decided that running more wouldn't help, He was already in a decent position since he had been running slightly uphill at the time he pulled out the orb. Taking the environment into account he bent down quickly and grabbed a fist full of coarse sand and held it tightly to make sure it wouldn't seep out. And then he turned around by now there was only a 20 foot gap between him and the fastest of the mutants only giving him a second of so to breathe before they would reach him.

He of course didn't trust his aim currently so he would have to let the mutants get fairly close in range in order to not waste a bullet that could miss or hit something non vital. In nearly the instant it took him to choose the first mutant was already upon him while the rest started to flank around him. He absolutely couldn't afford to get surrounded so he rushed toward the closest one swung his gun down to meet it between the eyes and just as its jaws were about to lunge for his throat he pulled the trigger. 

One dead

However as the blood was still raining in the air another mutant came from the back aiming to either bite into his legs or leap up to clamp its mouth around his head. However it never had the chance as Mark heard it approaching and rolled to the right away from any of the mutants and tossed the sand he had prepared behind blinding the mutant temporarily. The slight disorientation from the roll took a moment to clear away but it was fast enough for Mark to turn around and shoot into the mutants head.

Two dead

The remaining 6 were still practically circling him waiting for an opportunity to strike. Marks eyes were darting back and forth to keep track of them when 4 of them suddenly attacked while his eyes were focused on the other two. Of course the one closest to him got a bullet in the brain from the gun that he already had pre-aimed towards it. Faking his attention on the other two was certainly nerve wracking but getting to have an easy lethal shot was worth it, now he just had to deal with the other three who started attacking. He just needed t-

"Shit!" he had turned his head to make the shot but in that time one of the two he had his eyes on had darted behind his back and bit down on his right leg making stumble. Fighting through the pain he was able to turn and shoot it but its jaw was still locked in place even though it was already brain dead. It was at that point that Mark knew it was over for him, even if he somehow managed to shoot one of the 4 remaining wolves and then beat the other three to death he would still bleed to death long before he reached the city. 

The fact snapped his mind into shock, rage, and desperation before it all finally faded into coldness. He only had one option that might let him get away so he pulled out the orb again and was about to toss it when another mutant nearly tore his arm off just by biting into it so hard the bones cracked. Mark immediately dropped the orb as blood spurted out of him and onto his chest where the orb fell. and it began melting into the little puddle of blood it had been in, and after a moment the new red silverly liquid seemed to gain a mind of its own and darted into his veins, whether they were exposed or not due to his wounds it aimed for his main arteries all over his body.

The pain of it was intense far worse than even the mutant currently biting into his cracked bones. His mind seemed to be torn and stabbed lowering him into a state of sleep but before his mind drifted off he raised his remaining hand through the pain and jabbed the barrel of his gun into the mouth of the mutant and stared it in the eyes.

And he pulled the trigger.