I heard cracks appear around me.
The blood and ground beneath me shook, as if as if because of a earthquake.
My sense of taste came back but I only tasted blood.
A few seconds afterwards, I was able to see again, although a bit blurry.
I looked down at where Josh's arm had pierced me. A strange cloth was tied around it.
'How am I still alive...? And how do I not feel any pain right now? Is it adrenaline?' I asked myself.
I glanced up. The hall was a mess. Cracks ran down the walls like veins, dust mixed with the bloody floors, many walls and pillars damaged by impacts of something, one pillar even completely crumbling on the ground.
In the middle of the hall was josh, not so far away from me. He was down on one knee, vomiting a black substance that looked similar to blood. He panted audibly struggling to catch his breath while sweating bullets.
'Just what the hell happend here? Did Sarah esc—'
I couldn't even finish the sentence in my head before my gaze landed on her limp body.
Covered in claw marks and bruises. One of her eyes cut open, a leg bent in a way that should be impossible and... her arm, cleanly severed.
"Sarah…"
Her name left my lips like a prayer strangled in my throat. I crawled to her, dragging my broken body through blood and dust. My hands shook, my stomach wound burned like hellfire-- but I didn't care.
She didn't move.
Didn't even flinch.
When my fingers brushed her face, it was cold. Her skin was pale, her pulse so faint I thought I imagined it. One arm gone, her leg twisted, her eye split open like glass. My breath caught somewhere between a sob and a scream.
"Sarah, hey— hey, come on," I stammered. "You're fine, yeah? You said you'd make it. You're fine. You're fine."
But she didn't answer.
The silence screamed louder than anything else.
Something inside me snapped.
I felt it like the sound of a thread tearing in the back of my skull. My breathing grew shallow, my vision blurring around the edges until all that remained was red.
I looked up--
Josh was still there. Kneeling. Breathing. Bleeding. Alive.
My vision tunneled.
All the pain, the exhaustion, the reason-- gone.
All that was left was noise.
"You," I whispered. The word came out low, shaking with something animalistic. "You did this."
Josh raised his head slightly, black fluid dripping from his mouth. His smile twitched, faint, mocking. But it looked forced. It felt forced.
"You're one persistent guy, Yuwon"
Something inside me broke completely. I slammed my fist into the ground, blood splattering across my arm. "You didn't have to go this far! Why Josh?!"
My voice tore the air open. He didn't respond.
I could hear my own heartbeat pounding against my skull, deafening, relentless. I remembered the rusty brass knuckle i had found back when i was scavenging with josh and Sarah. I pulled it out and put it on my right hand, my fingers slick with blood, gripping it with all my strength. I staggered to my feet.
My body screamed with every motion-- but my mind didn't care. It was gone, drowned in something wild and merciless.
Josh took one step forward, his body shaking. but I was already moving.
I had avoided using the brass knuckle against josh because close quarter combat would endanger me.
'But now?'
Every fiber of me screamed vengeance. I wasn't fighting to survive anymore. I was fighting to end him.
He moved first. Slow, then sudden. I met him with the knuckle, a savage arc to the jaw. Bone shattered under impact; Josh's head snapped back and a wet, acrid laugh bubbled from his throat. He stumbled, then lunged like a coiled thing let loose. His claws raked my side; skin split, the world went white at the edges, and I tasted warm blood.
Adrenaline sharpened everything. I kept hitting, again and again, each blow a punctuation of fury, made to punish him. The knuckle smashed cheek, throat, the hollow below the ribs. He bled that dark, oily ichor like a leaky engine, but he didn't go down. He found my wrist with a clawed hand and threw me like a rag, my shoulder slamming against concrete. Pain exploded through me, but the brass in my fist still held.
He laughed then-- a fractured chorus of voices- and came at me full force. I met him with a shove and grabbed at his head, driving the final pieces of myself into him. The knuckle opened dented-- broke, but shatteredhis entire jaw, locking it open; teeth flew. his smile faltered into something like recognition-- sadness and horror mirrored in the thing that wore Josh's face.
That was the crack I needed. I felt something give under my palm: a narrow, glassy organ behind the ruined eye, pulsing black. Instinct- or maybe fury- made me aim for it. I ripped. My fingers found purchase on slick, foreign tissue. It came free in a shuddering pull, slippery and hot.
The mimic screamed. a sound that bent the air-- and staggered as if a tether had been cut.
I didn't stop. I dropped the brass knuckle and hammered down on his face using my fist instead. Again and again into the soft spot at its throat, driving bone and blood into that unnatural heart. Each strike was a prayer and a punishment. Josh-- the man he had been--looked at me through that single damaged eye, something human and shocked staring back before the light left it. He tried to speak; it came out as a ragged whisper.
"I..." he breathed. The mimic's voice, layered and failing-- was a ghost of his old tone.
My fists dropped. My arms shook. My left hand was broken, my right shredded and bleeding. Josh's body convulsed once, then went still. Black ichor spread beneath him, thick and silent.
I fell to my knees. One trembling arm held him, my forehead resting against his shoulder. The maze hummed faintly around us, indifferent to our tragedy.
"Why…" I breathed.
Josh didn't move-- but a flicker of something ghosted his lips.
"I really wanted… to escape with you guys," he whispered, voice collapsing into nothing.
"That wasn't a lie."
'I don't know if it was truth or delusion. But at this point I don't even care.'
Memories bled through the fog-- our scavenging trips, our talks, stupid jokes about what we'd do after escaping.
A part of me wanted to believe him.
His hand twitched once, patting my shoulder weakly. "Take her… and leave already."
Then he was gone.
I pushed myself upright, legs shaking, vision pulsing. Every breath burned. Every heartbeat stung.
I limped toward Sarah, praying she was still alive.
'I can't feel pain. Or panic. That's probably... not ideal.'
My body gave out as if to answer my thoughts. I fell face-first into the blood. My reflection stared back. Eyes bloodshot, face streaked red, hair matted and dark.
I crawled toward her, dragging myself forward inch by inch while the entire maze shook and cracked.
'Just a bit more...'
'Move—!'
Sudden Footsteps echoed through the hall. Calm, confident, deliberate.
The image of charles uncanny smile shot into my head. I froze, expecting the worst.
From the stairwell emerged a tall man in a black suit, basic office attire, tie perfectly straight, hair short and brown. His eyes sharp, analytical.
He scanned the room— Josh's corpse, the blood, the ruin. Then his gaze landed on me.
Indifference flickered there. But his pace quickened.
I tried to stand. To fight. But my body refused and gave up on me.
So I sat there in the blood, trembling, staring up at him— my fate, and Sarah's fate, in a stranger's hands.