86: The perks of hybrid blood

“Go!” It came out as a muffled command.
Liam, Xavier and David looked down at me in astonishment.
“But-”
“Go now! I promise, I’ll make it out soon and meet you all at the end of the Field of Stone. I just… I have to do something first.”
We stared at each other for a moment, with Liam and Xavier sparing me looks of understanding, and David sparing me one of utter confusion.
“Fine.” Liam said. “But promise you’ll make it back in time. *Promise*!”
“I promise.” I then let my eyes wander to David. “I know I don’t need to say this but… keep them safe. They mean the world to me.”
“You have my word, Phoenix.” He said, with a serious look in his eyes, and so, relieved, I trusted him and watched as the three of them began to move forward. Xavier, however stopped a spike away and spared me one last glance before continuing.
The moment they left, I turned to my side and began spitting out the blood that had been invading my mouth. Before I could go on retrieving anyone’s body, I’d need to first get myself the hell out of this predicament.
I glanced around, trying to see if I could lift myself off of it, but I was too deep into the spike, and I’d need to break off the sharp edge of it before I could do that. And so, I placed both of my hands on the rock. It was slippery with blood and the first time I tried to break it, my hands slipped against the jagged surface of the rock, and I whimpered at the cuts they caused. So, I tried a different approach. I balled my hands into tight fists and punched at the rock. And lo and behold, a large chunk of it broke off and fell to the ground. I punched again, and again, ignoring the searing pain across my knuckles. Once there was nothing but a little stub, I placed my hands around the area of the rock beneath me and paused a moment. Goddess knew this was going to hurt like hell. I took in a good few deep breaths before slowly lifting myself off of the remainder of the spike. Each movement was complete and utter agony, and by the time my body had left the spike, tears had begun to stream down my face.
“I’m going to fucking kill Meera.” I huffed, wrapping my arms around the bloody spike. I looked down to see how far I was from the ground. I could make it, if I didn’t mind spraining my ankle, and seeing as I had more severe wounds to worry about, spraining my ankle would be nothing but yet another hinderance to my journey to Felicity. So, I wrapped my arms around the large stone spike and began climbing downwards. My hands had already healed, and so my only source of pain came from my abdomen. But the closer to the ground I got, the more the gaping hole in my abdomen healed.
When I reached the ground, I waited a moment to adjust my eyes to the darkness. Once I could see well enough to differentiate between the shapes of the spikes and the open spaces between them, I began to focus on the figure on the ground a short distance away from me.
But as I got closer, I began to hear the heartbeat of not only one other person, but two. They beat softly, one after the other, and although I kept an eye out for the source of the second heartbeat, I began to pick up my pace and ran toward the body in front of me, hoping that it was Felicity.
To my relief, my small, short-haired friend lay before me, unconscious and breathing softly. I was just about to crouch down and reach out for her when I was startled by a loud, “Help!”
It came from the left, and as I turned my head to look towards where the cry for help was coming from, I noticed a figure on the ground, dragging itself towards me.
“… Phoenix?” The figure said. The voice, I realised, belonged to Samantha.
“Samantha!” I yelled out. I quickly grabbed onto Felicity, hoisted her over my shoulder and then began to carry her over my shoulder, towards Samantha.
When I finally reached her, I noticed that her legs were broken and her clothes were covered in blood. She would have survived if I hadn’t come, but I doubt she would have healed in time to get herself out of here.
“You need blood.” I said as I gently set Felicity on the ground. It was damp and cool down here and I could feel goosebumps forming on her exposed skin. I’d have to hold onto her tighter once I’d healed Samantha since I was much warmer than she was.
I offered out my arm for Samantha, half-expecting her to refuse and be disgusted. Instead, she grabbed at my arm, pulling me down to the ground, and sunk her fangs hungrily into my wrist. It felt disgusting and painful to let her drink from me. Nonetheless, I knew that she needed her legs to help get herself out and I was already carrying Felicity. I cast my glance towards her. Nothing of hers was badly broken, the worst of her condition was her state of unconsciousness which was fortunate because I couldn’t spare her any of my blood with Samantha practically leaching all of mine.
Once she had had enough of my blood to not only keep her satisfied, but to help her heal, she gently placed my arm down and then looked down at her legs. She had a look of astonishment on her face and moved her legs around for a bit before glancing back up at me.
“Wow! Your blood works like a charm!” She exclaimed.
I glanced at her sceptically. Until now, Samantha had been nothing but hostile towards me. But here she was, accepting my blood and behaving civil towards me. It was unnerving but refreshing at the same time.
“Perks of hybrid blood. It helps you heal really quickly,” I said, pointing to my abdomen. There was a hole in my jumpsuit, but beneath that, my flesh was completely healed, as though nothing had punctured through it in the first place.
And then the both of us fell silent for a moment, until she uttered out the two words, I never thought would ever leave her mouth. “Thank you.”
I was caught off-guard and stumbled over my words as I accepted her thanks. Her gaze then fell to Felicity’s unconscious body.
“Do you know how to get us out of here?” She asked.
“Us?” I uttered out in astonishment.
“W-well yeah. You can’t possibly carry her around on your own. It’s a far walk, and we’re going to have to be quick if we want to still make it to the next round.
She did have a point, but I still found it strange that she wanted to join me. Nonetheless, I nodded.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to get back up there or if we *should* go back up. Are the conditions as bad down here as it is up there?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think they were counting on survivors. Felicity and I were lucky. The others who have fallen down here are dead and the only person who was crazy enough to come here willingly was you.”
I took a glance around for a moment. It was still quite dark but if I strained my eyes a bit more, I was sure that I could figure my way to the other side, towards the finish line of the race. The only foreseeable challenge was getting to the surface once we reached the end of the field.
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Hello everyone! Again, sorry for the delay in updating!!!
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!