I had lost sight in my right eye due to the blood pouring out of my head. If I could just escape this beast! My arms burned from the effort of lifting the rebar out of the rubble. If I could somehow stab it near its stomach, I might be able to kill it, but it was fast, and its scales were too strong.
Every time I tried to hit it, I felt the reverberation travel through all my bones. A smile crept onto my face; today was just my lucky day. First, I was exiled, and now I was fighting a damn death lizard.
I couldn't turn around at all; if I did, it would pounce on me—almost certainly.
I shuffled back a little, and the beast moved forward slightly.
I could try to play possum, but no, that wouldn't work, would it?
If I continued long enough, maybe I would bump into a group of survivors.
I backed up again, and again, and again.
Then it leaped at me. I ducked under it and put all my force into running beneath it; I didn't have long before it would recover.
I needed to put a lot of distance between me and that thing.
I dropped the rebar; it would only slow me down at this point.
If I couldn't outrun it now, I was going to die anyway.
My legs felt heavy. Was I dying?
The sand sank with every step. I wasn't built for this. I was meant to live a life of luxury.
I felt a rock a second too late.
I tripped, and my blood stained the sand.
Crunch.
Had I entered shock? What would be gone from my body?
"Get up," a gruff voice said.
I slowly opened my eyes; my blood had stained the sand.
"What are you, deaf? Get up!"
I pushed myself up. "Thank yo—"
"Shut up, kid. Your voice is too high-pitched."
What the hell? Who was this rude old man? No, I shouldn't be so mean; he did just save my life.
I stood up fully. "Th—" I stopped myself.
"You doing this, kid?" The man's hair was covered in red, but I could see strands of blonde through it. His piercing blue eyes analyzed every bit of me.
"Answer me, city boy."
Was that a knight next to him? "Jack, calm down. The kid is probably in shock." The knight turned to face me. "What's your name?"
"Victor Alusa." Jack, I guessed, was pointing at the beast and the wounds I had left on it.
"I'm going to guess you mean the cuts I barely left on it."
I shouldn't be standing; I crumpled to the ground, barely conscious.
"I'll carry him," the kinder person said.
The world faded into nothingness around me; I felt like I was floating.
Maybe I was—no, that wouldn't make sense.
"Kid, wake the fuck up!" A stinging sensation burst on my cheek.
"I'm awake!" My voice was quiet, weak.
Jack grabbed a nearby flashlight. "You better stay awake, kid. I don't want to keep watching your ass." He pushed my right eye open and shined the light into it.
"Good, your eyes are reacting this time." He took the light away and set it down.
"Alright, I guess I'm meant to give you this option because I'm the leader or some shit like that," he said as he sat down. "We want to test you, and then potentially have you join us." He was smoothing his hair back.
"I do owe you for saving me," I replied, my words barely audible.
"True that. Well then, come on. I don't care if you've been asleep for two days; I'm getting you walking today."
"Okay."
Without a second to spare, Jack grabbed my arm and pulled me out of bed. For a moment, I thought, 'I've got this; I've been walking for 14 years.' But nope, I flopped onto the ground.
"Hahahaha!" He was still holding my arm. "I didn't think two days would have messed you up that bad. Fuck, even Mia did better, and she had been out for two weeks."
I looked up from the ground. "Did she have any beast's blood?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, and everyone does."
"Not everyone," I said, grabbing the bed railing to pull myself up.
"Great, and I'm guessing you're not 9," he said, lifting me up and helping me back onto the bed.
"Nope, 17." I scooted to the edge of the bed, letting my feet rest on the ground.
"Well then, maybe we can get you a wheelchair." Jack rested his hand on my shoulder.
"No, I think my legs just needed some time to adjust to gravity and my body weight." I tested my weight on my feet.
That tiny bit of weight shot pain up my legs.
Despite the pain, I put more weight on them.
"Take it easy, kid. We have a wheelchair. I'll just go get it, and I better not find you on the floor when I get back."
He stepped out of the room. I could feel a breeze, but sadly it didn't last long.
I hadn't really looked around the room too much. The paint was peeling, and it seemed to have a main window that had been broken and then repaired with metal.
The door opened again.