At the entrance of the cave…
Railey's body collapses like a piece of dead meat, his chest moving very slowly… as if every breath is his last.
His blood spreads around him, and the darkness gradually devours him.
The cold wind enters from the mouth of the cave, passes over his thin body, making him shiver despite being unconscious.
The night passes…
And nothing remains except the sound of water droplets inside the cave, echoing like a countdown to the end of his life.
---
After long hours…
his left fingers move slightly.
His eye opens halfway…
he sees the cave ceiling blurred…
and everything around him spins.
He tries to crawl inside, but his body refuses.
His torn left leg leaves a red trail behind him every time he drags himself, and the place of his severed right arm throbs with pain as if it is burning.
With great difficulty, he enters the cave halfway… then falls on his face.
He cannot cry…
even tears have dried up.
All he hears is the echo of his old voice…
the voice of a child from 11 years ago…
screaming in his heart:
"I want to live… I just want to live…"
But now the voice fades away.
He no longer wants anything.
---
Two days pass…
Railey lies in his place, barely moving.
He drinks only from the water dripping from the cave ceiling, like a wounded animal waiting for its end.
His wounds begin to rot…
his smell becomes so disgusting that even he feels nauseous every time he opens his eyes.
And on the night of the third day…
he suddenly wakes up, choking.
He vomits…
vomits violently…
until dry blood and small pieces of goblin flesh he had eaten before come out of his mouth.
He trembles, tries to stand, but immediately falls.
He whispers in a broken voice:
"Why… why didn't I die there?…"
---
Despite all this…
only one thing forces him to move:
the fear of a slow death inside the cave.
He begins dragging himself deeper inside, toward where he used to sleep before.
His old place… the spot where he lived for a full 11 years.
But the place has changed…
the walls have become colder…
the night has grown heavier…
and the memories have become so painful that he feels suffocated just by looking into the darkness.
---
On the fourth day…
he tries to eat something… anything.
He stretches his trembling left hand toward a corner of the cave…
picks up a small mushroom that was growing from the ground…
and bites it…
The taste is bitter… disgusting… but he swallows it against his will.
After minutes…
his body curls in pain…
he screams…
clutches his stomach with his only hand…
and his body begins to shake uncontrollably.
But strangely…
he does not die.
The pain passes…
slowly…
And for the first time in days…
his body calms down.
---
He lies on his back, staring at the dark ceiling…
thinking:
"If I am going to die… I will die standing… not rotting here."
He tries to sit…
rolls down…
fails.
He tries a second time…
trembles…
bites his lips until they bleed…
and lifts his body…
And he sits.
This is the first time he has sat up in days.
---
He breathes slowly…
with one eye half-closed…
and says to himself:
Then he falls to the ground, not because he fainted, but because of exhaustion.
But inside him…
for the first time…
a small spark emerged…
Not hope…
but stubbornness.
The stubbornness to survive… the stubbornness to refuse… the stubbornness to not die.
And the chapter ends with the scene:
Railey sleeping near the wall, his body covered in blood and dirt… but his chest moving steadily for the first time.
---