“Who is that?” Tala asked. She had shuffled her way across the room and had put her head against my shoulder using her hands on my back to steady herself.

“I don’t know,” Theo said, keeping his eyes on the figure across the street.

“Is he another survivor?” I asked between quivering lips. The cold chill of fear had lessened somewhat as the person turned their attention away from us and began to walk back into the swirling flames.

“I think so,” Theo said. “If he is then his [Combat Power] and [Level] must be so high that we can’t detect it.” With a careful step backward, Theo reached up and slowly closed the door. As the click of the handle sounded the sense of fear disappeared almost entirely. I could feel sweat beading against my head and cooling my armpits. A trickle of sweat fell down my back as I let out a sigh of relief. What had happened? That overwhelming fear was stronger than anything the Fallen State had thrown at me. Why?

The three of us sat quietly for several minutes before Theo looked up from his lap and said, “Did anyone else feel that?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I… I…” Tala took a hard swallow and continued. “I was so afraid. So terrified by… something. By nothing all at once. I didn’t even see whoever that was when I first felt the fear. It was as if it washed into the room like a cold wind only… only far worse.”

“I think it was some kind of an ability. Like a high-level class power,” Theo answered. “Though I don’t know what. My dad has seen a lot in the Fallen States but he’s never mentioned anything like that.”

“Other survivors?” I asked. “My dad mentioned other survivors all the time. Said you can’t trust anyone outside the colony. If that’s what he’s referring to then he’s right.”

“No… No, my dad talked about other survivors, even having to kill a few, but nothing like whatever that was,” Theo put his hands on his knees and stood up. “Either way they’re gone now. We should keep going. We still need to find some food and I think we are close to the top.”

Tala and I followed his lead and stood up. Theo opened the door and walked out into the hallway. In the distance the pluming smoke of the wrecked building continued to rise. Tala took a deep breath, looked at me and gave me a small smile before making her way from the room.

Despite most of the fear now faded away, my hands continued to tremble and my legs felt weak. If that was the power of other survivors, to cause such intense terror without even a word, or even to be in the same room, then the world was a much more dangerous place than I ever thought possible. I kind of chuckled at the thought. I had seen an eye of a fallen god watch over a world of broken shadows and crimson light, disfigured creatures try to tear my throat out, and horribly realistic dreams of — I still don’t know what, but that man had scared me far more.

“Ward?” Tala peered through the door. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“You sure?”

I nodded with a smile and walked past her without another word. I didn’t want her knowing how scared I was. Even though the effect had faded I couldn’t help but feel it looming deep in the recesses of my mind.

We walked in silence down the hallway until we arrived at another set of stairs. Theo had complained about the Trials taking place in a bloody tower and how many sets stairs we had already climbed. Tala followed it with a sarcastic remark on the lack of food we had found and how bad we were at scavenging. I stayed silent.

We had gone up several flights of stairs till we reached a platform that lead out towards a large set of doors to our left nestled next to the elevator and a curved hallway to our right. I could see another wall of glass down the hallway and glimmering red light from the morning sun. As we took a moment to decide our next course of action I felt a wave of nausea hit me from the base of my skull to my eyes. It caused me to slump over and put my hands on my knees for support.

“We really need to find some food,” I said.

“Agreed,” Tala said.

“We could try scavenging again but were so close to the top. Plus look around. There’s nothing to search in. No drawers, no furniture, nothing. All there is up here is nothing.” Theo said as he leaned with his back against a wall while waving his arms around.

It was true. The last several floors we had been on had been completely void of anything. There were no office chairs. No desks. Not even a single fake plant sitting in the corner of the room. All there was was a thin layer of dust, sickly yellow plaster walls, and dull overhead lights with no power. It was strange and silent. Not even a whisper of wind could be heard through the empty walkways and barren rooms.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Something seems… off,” Tala said. “Since we got past the skywalk we haven’t seen any creatures or monsters lurking about. Even look at the carpet. It’s perfect.”

“Yeah, so what?” Theo said.

“Doesn’t that seem… I don’t know unusual,” Tala said.

“The whole world is unusual,” Theo pushed himself from the wall and motioned with his arms again. “Does any of what we’ve experienced seem in anyway natural? No… The world has Fallen! A dead world filled with monsters, magic and death.”

“Exactly!” Tala folded her arms and gave Theo a hard stare. “A world full of monsters and we haven’t seen any skulking about up here. That’s not suppose to be normal.”

“She’s got a point Theo,” I said. “I think we need to be more cautious. We don’t know what could be hiding up here. For all we know there is something up here scaring the monsters away.”

“That’s a scary thought,” Tala said.

“Let’s just keep going. We’re wasting time just standing around. The best thing for us to do is keep moving.” Theo turned heel and walked towards the double set of doors.

“Hey!” I stepped forward and put my hand on Theo’s shoulder. In a blink of an eye Theo spun around and clocked me across the chin. The punch barely made contact so I was able to stay on my feet but it did cause my eyes to blur and my jaw to click. Without thinking I rushed Theo and tackled him to the ground. We fell together with Theo hitting his shoulder against the nearby wall and my head hitting the hard carpet. I felt a sharp pain cross my skull and then a blunt hit against my shoulder. Theo had begun elbowing me in the back as I starting ramming my fist into his side.

I don’t know why I was so mad. Probably because I hadn’t eaten in so long, or because I had grown tired of Theo’s arrogance. Something in the back of my mind told me it was a combination of both. I was wrong. It was far worse than that.

I know that Tala tried her best to separate us. She had reached down several times to pull us apart while also screaming about how we were dumb teenage boys. “You two are acting like idiots! What’s wrong with you dumb boys! Grow up!”

Despite her efforts we continued to fight. With every punch to the head, or knee to the stomach Theo landed on me, I retaliated with an elbow to the ear or a kick in the shin. At one point Theo had managed to wrap his arm around my throat and starting choking me out. I managed to land a heavy hit to his chest which loosened his grip long enough for me to wiggle out, turn, and land a good punch to his eye.

It felt good to fight. In all honesty I wasn’t sure exactly why this had started or if I really wanted to win. All I wanted to do was unleash all my fear, stress and hunger into anger and pain. Whether it was pain for Theo or pain for myself it felt strangely good.

We finally kicked each other hard enough that we both fell back onto the floor in a red-faced huff. I wanted to get up and keep throwing down but I was so tired and so hungry. All my energy had slipped away from me and all I could do was lay there. Luckily for me Theo seemed to be as tired as I was.

Tala had her hands on her hips and was scolding us like a mother chastising her two kids. Her voice sounded distant to me and my vision was still blurry so all I saw was a flurry of red spots floating around her head.

“Damn you Ward,” Theo managed to say through breathless words.

“Damn me? You’re the… one who threw the first punch,” I said.

“You’re both at fault,” Tala said. “Acting like a bunch of… a bunch of… hair-brained jackasses.”

“You two don’t get it,” Theo said as he propped himself up on his elbow. “This whole thing. The Trial. It’s a competition. Everyone for themselves. I’m, going to be the first to the top. I have to be the first to the top.”

“Then why stick with us?” Tala said.

“Yeah,” I chimed in. “If you don’t want to be here then just go. No ones stopping you.”

“Because… Because…” Theo stammered.

“Because why?” I said with a glare like daggers.

Theo didn’t answer. He simply got up, licked the blood now tripping down the corner of his mouth and walked away.

“Wait—” Tala said but before she could continue Theo cut her off.

“Tala, stay with Ward,” He turned, his eyes red with rage.

“But—”

Without another word Theo pushed through the double doors and left.

What a prick. If he wants to go off and die by himself then so be it.

I put my hand on the wall next to me and managed to get back on my feet. My head was throbbing, my chest hurt and I could feel blood trickling down my nose. My status said I was [Bruised]. I pulled out my remaining Bandage and considered using it to heal myself. I decided that it wasn’t worth using it now and could come in handy later on.

Tala had begun to cry again. I thought about saying sorry. Maybe even giving her a hug to comfort her. After all what we did was stupid, but I still had anger in my heart and her cries were annoying me.

“C’mon,” I motioned to Tala for us to head in the other direction. “If he wants to go off by himself then let him.”

Tala had muttered something under her breath between quivering lips but I didn’t hear her. I walked away without looking to see if she was following behind.

I could feel the anger still simmering deep in my chest wanting to boil over again. I put my hand to my nose to stop the bleeding and could feel that the scar on my lip must have split during the fight. Damn you Theo.

As I made my way past the stairs we had come up, and down the glass hallway something in the memories of the fight started to bug me. It wasn’t the underlying embarrassment on losing control or the thought that Theo almost beat me. It was something else. What was bugging my? Then it dawned on me. It was the look in Theo’s eyes when he looked back. There was anger, sure, but there was something else buried within that rage. Fear. Fear and sadness.