Jim was rudely awakened by Max, as he looked around the room in confusion. He was still half asleep and didn’t know where, was up and down. Taking a moment, he soon remembered what happened. “How long did I sleep?”

“I don’t know, maybe half an hour,” replied Max, exhausted. Confused, Jim asked, “Then why did you wake me up?”

Instead of replying, Max just pointed to a corner of the room where Clay sat with his eyes closed. Seeing this, Jim’s sleepiness completely vanished as he asked, “What do you sense?”

Taking a deep breath, as if to keep his rage in, Clay replied, “It’s that monster. That motherfucker must have eaten the hearts of the corpses to expand its life.”

Hearing this, Jim could fell the rage welling up inside of him, it took a deep breath, but he was able to keep his cool. He knew better than to lose his cool over something like this. “How far away is it?”

“About two dozens meters. He is walking around the village looking for us. It seems like it's just barely alive, its aura is very unstable, as if it could break down at any moment,” Clay replied before opening his eyes and looking at the room. “What do we do?”

Before waiting for a reply, Clay stood up. “I for my part will fight! This bastard killed my only friend, that was like family for me. I don’t even know what the point of living is in this godforsaken world. Everyone is dead… my family, my friends or any other person that meant something to me… I will drag this monster into the depths of hell and when it's the last thing I do!”

“Are you stupid?” Max asked bewildered, “That is nothing but suicide! You already lost your left arm, and you don’t even have a weapon, how do you intend to kill it? Chocking it to death?”

Thinking for a moment, Jim looked over to his still unconsciousness friend. He didn’t care much about this own life, but Jake and Mia had to survive. He looked at Clay and Max that were still arguing. “Stop being so loud. The royal guard is close, and its senses seem to function just fine. I think it's very hard to leave the village without it noticing us. We can’t wait here, either. It will find us eventually and if we have to fight, I want to be prepared.”

Jim hesitated a moment before a resolute expression appeared on his face, “Clay and I will stay here and kill this ant or at least hold it at bay for long enough for you three to flee. Max and Dennis please take Jake with you and go to the city to get my sister, but only if it's possible, there is no reason for you to sacrifice your lives... too many died. I don’t even know if my sister is still alive anyway… No matter, please look for her and get to Dave and the others. Tell them that we succeeded and killed the queen.”

Shocked, Max said, “If anyone should fight that ant than me! I’m the only rank fourth that is still uninjured and in its weakened state I should be able to kill it-”

Putting a hand on Max’s shoulder, Jim explained, “Exactly, that is why you and Dennis should go. You are still healthy and will be able to catch up to the others. I know that Jake will be a burden on you two, but with my hand… I can’t guarantee I will be able to bring Jake or my sister to safety on my own. Let’s be honest, both Clay and I are, thanks to our injuries, unlikely to survive much longer anyway. I know that’s a lot to ask from you two, but if the last four months meant anything to you, then please take Jake, my sister and run, just run and never look back.”

Max wanted to rebuke him but seeing the resolute expression on Jim’s face he just heaved a heavy sight, “I think it’s unnecessary for you two to throw your lives away like this, but I also know that it's unlikely for us to leave this village without fighting that ant. Just so you know, we will wait at the church for the rest of the day, should you survive this battle come to the church, and we can look for the others together, all right?”

“Of course I will not go down without a fight,” exclaimed, Jim with a false smile. “Now go, we will distract that son of a bitch for you.”

Before they went their different ways, Dennis gave Clay his sword. “You at least need a weapon to kill that fucker. I will carry Jake, so I can’t fight anyway, and in the worst case scenario I still just use my dagger.”

Grabbing the sword, Clay thanked him and leaned over to whisper something into Dennis ear, which Jim couldn’t quite understand, but it caused Dennis to chuckle. “Definitely. Please keep on living, so that you can pay me back, properly. You are harder to kill than you think.”

Soon after, they parted ways as Max and Dennis made their way to the city, Max had his sword and shield as usual, while Dennis carried Jake. Seeing their figure vanish behind a corner, Jim couldn’t help himself but heave a sigh of relief. He did the right thing. Jim knew better than anyone that he most likely wouldn’t see the morning of the next day even if he didn’t continue fighting.

Feeling inside of him, he felt how his essence was at a critical level. His body was littered from top to bottom with hidden injuries, due to the reckless overuse of his essence. Looking at Clay, he said, “Thanks for not saying anything.”

“No problem, I’m surprised that you are even able to stand up,” replied Clay without looking at Jim, he was looking at a different direction, most likely the one where the ant was. “Oh, so I was right.”

Confused by that statement, Jim asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“It’s just an assumption I had for quite some time now. Often it felt like the ants noticed us before we did, and I always assumed, they just sensed our aura or heard us, but it seems like they're most sensitive to vibrations. I think their ears are even quite bad, but the moment Max and Jake began to move, the ant began to walk in our direction. Besides, it’s close, are you ready?”

“As ready as I can be,” replied Jim with a smile. He knew that he would die, but at least he would drag that ant with him.

Thinking this, it didn’t take long for the two-meter tall royal guard to drag its body past the corner of the house and come into vision. Since the last time they saw it, the ant’s condition worsened a lot. It was still limping on its right leg, the blade on its left arm was broken, Jim’s machete was still stuck in its thorax and the same went for Clay’s sword. It almost looked like it was fusing with the two weapons as they were covered by a new bright patch of flesh. In comparison to the pale white flesh ants usually had, this flesh was more pinkish, as if it just freshly grew.

Between the insertions of its exoskeleton, the ant was covered in green-yellowish blood, as if trying to rip the exoskeleton open and grow in size, causing wider gaps in its armor. A mix of the same green-yellowish blood was all over its mouth, but there was a mix of red in it, which immediately infuriated Jim. This monster violated the corpse of Chris!

Grabbing the obsidian dagger strongly in his left-hand, Jim prepared himself. Similar to the machete was this dagger with him from the beginning. Even though he used it mostly for skinning animals, there were a few times when he would have been seriously injured or even died if he didn’t have that dagger.

Taking a deep breath, Jim and Clay moved at the same time without communicating. Seeing the two of them, the royal guard screeched, in a frenzy. At that moment, Jim felt more free than he ever had before. He knew he would die and could live with that outcome, which caused a burden to lift from his shoulders he didn’t even know he had.

The little essence he had begun to accelerate inside of him, until it eventually ignited and burned. Without losing himself, he was in full control of his body. He was the first to reach the ant, as it held its right arm up to initiate an attack, but in comparison to before, Jim saw the blade move clearly.

He sidestepped the slash and skillfully moved his dagger and found a gap where the elbow was and swiftly sliced deep into it, before continuing and ramming the dagger into the armpit, below the right arm.

Pulling the dagger free, he moved behind the ant and sliced at the tendon of the right leg, where Clay previously already slashed the ant, but the wound was covered by freshly regenerated pink flesh, but with Jim’s attack the wound open again.

Enraged, the ant spun its right arm around with surprising speed, hitting Jim and sending him flying. As he rolled on the ground, he knew that his right arm and more than a few ribs were broken. Not that it mattered, a few broken rips wouldn’t stop him.

In the meantime, Clay was already upon the ant, being able to use the short time it was distracted by Jim, to line up another slash at a gap of armor between the hip and chest.

Pulling its right arm back, the ant used the momentum to quickly thrust at the chest of Clay, but as soon as the arm moved, Clay already was ahead and sidestepped, using his sword to block the blade and parry it away. The moment the blades touched, sparks began to dance.

Afterward, Clay wasn’t able to land another attack, as he was on the defense and desperately trying to avoid and parry every attack. That was also only possible because the ant had only one blade left and could only use his arms, as his legs were hurt too severely.

Jim knew that Clay wouldn’t hold on for long, so he quickly stood up, only to be assaulted by a piercing pain, as he coughed blood. It seems like his rips pierced into one or multiple organs.

Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on the burning essence inside of him. Just one more push, he could this! With a last burst of speed, he sprinted to the ant that was still trying to kill Clay, who was by now littered with cuts from top to bottom. He couldn’t fully avoid all the rapid attacks, so he just tried to minimize the damage.

With one last push, Jim finally reached the ant, letting go of his dagger in the process. With all the strength he could muster, he grabbed the sword that went through the body of the ant and pulled with everything that he got.

Due to the newly grown flesh, it was stuck and Jim had to put all of his weight in, almost pulling his whole body up, which caused the ant to cry miserably. It tried to shake him off at all cost, scratching with its long claws all over his body.

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With one last push from the ant, the sword finally came loose and Jim was thrown back. Almost immediately, a fountain of green-yellowish blood and pus began to flow out of the ant.

But it was not dead yet, and it seemed like it wanted to take Jim with him, as it threw its body on top of him, pinning him down with its weight. Its right arm couldn’t be used due to the blade being too long, but the left one was shorter, so with a piercing pain Jim felt how the broken blade entered deep into his stomach again and again and again…

He was unable to struggle or scream, his essence was close to none at this point, and his life was hanging on a threat to begin with. Eventually the stabbing stopped and when he looked up he saw Clay on the back of the ant as he pulled the broken machete back, beheading the ant, that let out a last painful screech that would have hurt Jim’s ears if he could hear at the moment.

Jim was at death’s door at this point, and he couldn’t feel his body at all, it was completely numb. He didn’t even know how severe his wounds were. He slightly regained consciousness when he felt how the large amount of essence from the ant entered his body, but at this point this wasn’t better than a drop of water on a hot stone.

His death was inevitable, and this essence only increased his life span by a few minutes at most. His vision was blurry, and he couldn’t see, hear or feel much in general. But it almost felt like someone was dragging him away by his collar. Suddenly his surroundings turned darker as he was dragged in a cellar?

He couldn’t really tell but the air, was more moist and stale in there. He felt the cold stone on his ripped open and bloodied skin. It felt quite calming to speak the truth. It was like a cold, but comfortable blanket, his coffin. The place where he would spend his last moments.

With a sound that seemed to be a thud, the barely visible light his blurry vision could take in vanished, and he was dragged in a little deeper before he came to a stop. His body was heaved against a cold stone wall, which felt even better than the ground.

Before him danced a shadow that looked quite familiar, “Jake?”

“No it’s Clay.”

Hearing this distant voice, Jim felt confused. Clay? Who was that again? He knew that person, and they were doing something, but he couldn’t quite recall what it was.

Suddenly there was a little sting on his cheek. “Don’t you dare go yet! What is with Mia!”

Mia? Yes his sister. His sister was with his parents… No, his parents were dead! Realizing this, his vision slightly cleared. His sister was all alone and hopeless, he promised something. Of course! He had to save Mia!

As if awaken from a dream, Jim regained his consciousness and fully opened his eyes, as his vision gradually turned clear again, and he saw Clay sitting before him leaned against a wall similar to himself. He, too, was covered in blood and his blond shoulder long hair was completely disheveled. “You look like shit.”

“You should see yourself,” replied Clay with relief.

Taking his surroundings in, Jim confirmed that he was in a cellar that couldn’t be more normal looking, with a few shelves that held all sorts of stuff. Taking in a deep breath, he felt a stinging sensation of pain in so many places that he didn’t even dare move a single muscle. “I’m going to die.” Jim said, not to Clay in particular, but more to himself, to make his situation clear.

“I know you will die if we don’t do anything, but you could…”

Jim was first confused by that statement, but then it dawned on him, as he slightly shook his head. “Clay, I will not eat the heart of that monster. If I have to die, then as a human and not as some grotesque mutant.”

Nodding his head, Clay replied, “Okay, I respect that… so this is the end?”

Weakly nodding, Jim said, “Seems like it… Are you going to make it?”

Thinking for a moment, Clay shrugged with his shoulders. “I feel light-headed, my senses barely work as if I’m dehydrated, and it takes my everything to keep consciousness. I try to focus on burning the essence from the ant. If I stay awake for long enough, I should be able to stop the bleeding on my wounds and eventually recover my blood.”

“So you just have to stay awake for as long as possible, right?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s easy, I will just not lose consciousness before you. We never had a competition, but I sure don’t want to lose our first one,” said Jim with a chuckle that caused way too much pain.

“Haha, I sure won't give up!” Clay exclaimed with a slight smile before growing silent. “This remembers me of Lukas and our silly competition. If I look back at it now, it seems really pointless, but in the end I’m glade we had it… it was fun.”

“That’s for sure. In the past, I found it annoying, but it was really just a good way to pass the boredom in this city in the middle of nowhere.”

Jim thought a moment before asking, “Did you know Emma well?”

“Not really. She was pretty shy in school and apart from knowing that she was good friends with Charlotte, I didn’t know her much,” replied Clay.

“I can’t forget her… transformation. At some nights I dream of this scene and I can’t seem to forget it, as if it's branded into my very soul…”

“Me neither… Let's hope that wherever she is, right now, it's better than this shithole.”

“Yeah, isn’t too hard to find a better place,” replied Jim with a muffled laugh. He couldn’t strain his body too much. There was another moment of silence. Jim knew he had to keep the conversation going.

“Clay… what meant Chris too you?”

“He was my… friend, but we were more like brothers. Always looking out for each other, and we went both through a very hard time together. After my family died, he was the only person left I cared about. I of course had other people like you, but without offense, I wouldn’t call you a friend.”

“Not? How do you define a friend?”

“I don’t know… Someone I can rely on. Someone I can talk too without thinking if what I’m saying is wrong or improper. Someone I can share all my weird thoughts with, without being criticized. Someone that trusts me…”

Hearing this, Jim grew confused as he explained, “But didn’t you give me your back when we fought in the tunnels of the mountain, while I trusted you with my own? And did you ever have to think about what is right to say when we talked? And didn’t I listen to you ramble about all of your theories about aura and the ants without criticizing you?”

There was a moment of silence. “It’s rather embarrassing that you had to put like this for me to realize… yeah, but you are right, seems like we really became friends?”

“Of course we did! You don’t always need years of knowledge of each other, to form a meaningful relationship with someone.”

Nodding, Clay replied, “You are right… Now that we are already talking about the deceased. What meant Solaire to you?”

“He was like a grandfather for me. There was a time, where I felt more at home with him than my own parents. You know, I had my problems in the past and Solaire was the person that helped me during that time. He was the most strong-willed and kind person I ever met, sacrificing his own life for the benefit of others until his last breath,” saying this, Jim’s eyes began to tear up.

“Did I ever tell you that I think you and Solaire are very similar?”

“No, why do you think so?”

“You always tried to help those in need of help, or were the first to step in when you saw injustice. I’m very sure that without you, we wouldn’t have made it so far. Hell, we probably wouldn’t have survived the first day of this apocalypse if you hadn’t the courage to kill that hawk in the beginning. I would have most likely died, and I never thanked you for that, so thank you.”

Smiling, Jim said, “You also have your heart at the right spot. Solaire noticed it early on and now after watching over you, I can confirm it. Only because of your numerous discoveries of aura were we able to come this far, not to speak about your returning, even though you could have left long ago. But you didn’t, you stayed and looked in every village for survivors and warned us about the ants. That is also why you saved Evelyn, right? Her intentions after all were pure, you believed that killing her was wrong.”

Smiling, Clay clarified, “I don’t think I’m as kind-hearted as you make me out to be, but it’s true that I have my own sense of justice that I follow.”

They continued their conversation for what felt like an eternity, as if the surrounding time stood still and nothing else matted but besides each other. Their topic of conversation always changed, be it school, family, hobbies, video games, books or anything else. They talked about everything they could think of. During this time, Jim felt at ease and carefree, but he knew he had to come slowly to an end.

“Clay?”

“What’s up?”

“Your bleeding stopped.”

Looking confused over his body and touching his wounds, Clay seemed to finally notice that all of his wound already clotted and some already began to form scab. Moving his body around, he also noticed that he felt more energetic than when they started this conversation. In comparison, the state of Jim only worsened.

As much as Jim enjoyed their conversation, his true goal was to make sure Clay would survive, and it seemed like he succeeded in that. Clay was right, he really wanted to help people, and being able to safe someone during his last breath caused Jim to smile. “Clay now it's your turn.”

His turn? What did he mean by that? Clay was confused at first, before he finally remembered in what state Jim’s body was still in. He was so immersed in their conversation that he didn’t even notice how his own condition improved and how Jim’s only worsened. He could feel his tears welling up and his voice breaking. “Jim, please, you can’t just go like this… there is still so much you have to do.”

“I always wondered how it would feel to die, and how I would die.” Jim leaned his head against the stone wall as if lost in thought. “I have to say it's better than expected. Even if it's far from what I imagined, I’m glad I died in your presence. Around my family, I would have been way too emotional… As fucked up and cruel this whole situation was… it was fun. At least we didn’t get bored, right?”

Holding his tears back, Clay broke into a chuckle. “That’s true. It was truly a thrilling experience.”

“Clay, don’t cry because of me. For you, this isn’t the end, this is just the beginning. I’m sure that you will meet new people that you can form new relationships with, we did it too after all, you have to live on alright?”

“Of course, I won’t give up so easily!”

“Yes, you have a strong will.” Jim held his breath. “I know that I shouldn’t ask this from someone who already lost so much, and I don’t want to burden you with my problems, but please look after my sister.” Saying this seemed to take almost all the power out of Jim’s body. That he was able to survive this long, with the amount of wounds he sustained, was a miracle on his own.

Coming closer to Jim, so that he would understand his quiet voice clearer, Clay replied with a hoarse voice and tears in his eyes, “Of course Jim. You don’t need to worry about anything. I swear that I will protect and care for Mia to the best of my abilities.”

“Thank yo-” Jim had a violent fit of coughing as crimson blood spurted out of his mouth. Wounded from top to bottom, Jim’s life was near its end.

“Clay… you must survive no matter what. Live a long and free life in my stead and everyone else that died…”

“Yes I promise.”

“You have to live on…”

“I will!”

“Can you do me a last favor?”

“Of course, anything.”

“Could you hold my hand? I can’t see anymore, it's so dark...”

Grabbing his hand, Clay smiled, while tears trailed down his cheeks, “Yes, I’m here.”

“Clay? Clay, are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here. I will be here until the end.”

“I feel so tired… I think I will nap for a moment.”

“Yes, you can rest at ease now.”

“Clay…”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Do you know what comes after death?”

“No, but I’m sure you will be able to see Solaire, your parents and everyone else.”

“That would be… nice.”

“Rest easy, my friend, I will look after Mia in your stead.”

“Thank you…” Speaking those last two words, Jim took his last breath as his journey finally ended, with his heart at peace.

- The End