Page 24 of Marked for Extinction
I should have been faster. I should have ran faster. I should have gotten him back to camp sooner instead of messing around and bantering. We wasted precious time, time we couldn’t afford. It was my fault, it always was. If it wasn’t for me, he would still be alive. I couldn’t save him. What kind of medic was I? Why do people continue to die no matter how hard I try? What the fuck am I good for?
I was no doctor, I was a curse.
Unable to take it anymore, I got to my feet and ran, leaving the community behind me, covered in blood. The only sound I could hear was my racing heartbeat behind my ears and the sound of Angel trotting behind me loyally. Hot tears ran down my face as I entered the tree line to get away from Black Hollow. Everything became too much, I couldn’t face them. Not like this.
“Vik!” Inés’ voice softly echoed behind me but it only made my feet move faster.
Comfort was obsolete. I didn’t deserve any, never again. How could she understand what I felt, how my soul was ripped from me piece by piece each time I lost someone, each time I failed the community. My head felt tight, my body was wound up like a bow. I stopped moving and punched the closest tree with both hands as bark flew like shrapnel. Each time the bark cracked with an audible crunch, it only spurred me on. Again and again, I slammed my fist into the trunk, lost in a haze I didn’t know I was in… until hands grabbed my shoulders and forcefully pulled me back.
I turned around, my hands slippery and warm from the dripping in blood. I held both of them up in a daze, showing her my exact mental state and silently begging her to stay away from me before she lost her life too by being around me.
My hands slowly dropped to my sides as the blood continuously dripped onto the ground. I was numb. The pain no longer registered. The only thing I saw, the only thing my mind could grasp onto in the moment were Inés’ piercing dark eyes staring back at me.
Was that a hint of compassion? Was she blind to everything that was happening around her? To everything that was me?
“Please, stop,” she begged, grasping my wrists in her little hands. “It wasn’t your fault. It was the vampires, the enemy. You can't save the world, Vik, no matter how hard you try.”
My body wasn’t my own anymore. These wet cheeks belonged to someone else. I was dissociating, I knew it. As more hot tears ran down my face, her eyes began to mist in reaction. I didn’t deserve it.
Don't weep for me, weep for that poor bastard I didn't save. Just like all the others. I'm a doctor. My job is to save people and again it was too little, too late.
Calmly, I stared at her face. “I'm done trying to save people, maybe I should kill. The days of these hands trying to save others is over. Now, I know what they were truly meant for: to bring death.”
Turning away from her shocked expression, I walked back to the camp and went into my bag and grabbed strips of linen for my hands. I wrapped them up and silently made my way to the southern entrance and descended into Black Hollow with the mission to go into the armory. Angel howled and whined since I left her topside but I was hyper focused on my task.
“Hey man, are you alright?” came a voice in the background but it didn’t fully register. It sounded like a buzz, white noise. It all did. Looking at the wall of weapons, I quickly grabbed what I needed and slung a gun around my back.
“Vik.”
I grabbed my knife I placed in its holster. They killed one of us too many, it was time to repay the favor.
“Vik,” came the feminine voice again but I scowled and angrily walked back to the southern exit and ascended the metal run ladder back topside. Angel’s tag wagged as her tongue lolled out the side, excited to see me return. She followed behind me as I made my way into the woods.
“If you are going, I will go with you. It isn't good for you to be going alone,” Inés called out from somewhere behind me.
I looked over my shoulder but didn’t stop moving forward. She had a gun with her and knives.
Angel huffed. I chose to ignore them both. “It's your funeral. If something happens, I can't save you.”
She grabbed her knife, swinging it around her hand in a circular motion, grabbing it with the opposite hand and placing it back into its holster. “I think I can manage.”
Angel, my faithful dog, caught up to me and rubbed her head against my leg. I couldn’t stop her. She was a grown woman. She knew the risks. As we continued to walk together, I realized we made a small ragtag group as much as I didn’t want one.
My first destination was the Dsaris territory.
We walked the night away. The sun was only a few hours from rising, the trees and ground all looked the same but I knew which direction we were going. I didn't speak a word. My mind’s only thought was on vengeance. I was tired of watching people die.
It was their turn to die. It didn’t matter what clan they were from. Bloodsuckers were bloodsuckers. It was their turn to live in fear.
All of a sudden, the crunch of leaves echoed softly between the trees around us. Angel began to bark and I hushed her. I watched quietly as Inés turned her head around, looking for any signs of unwanted company when she was hit with a large object and knocked out, face first onto the ground. I quickly upholstered my gun only to be hit from behind in the head as well. The searing pain was sharp at the back of my skull, throbbing in tune to my pulse. Laying in the dirt, my face was turned to the side enough for me to see blood streaming down Inés’ face.
Angel’s bark immediately turned into a pained yelp, making me grit my teeth to hold onto consciousness.
They better not hurt my fucking dog, was the last thought I had when darkness finally overtook me.
Courtesy Warning
The following chaptersmay contain triggers for some. Triggers include but are not limited to descriptive torture, dismemberment of limbs, suicidal ideation, depression, violence, decapitation, off page animal death, themes of war, vulgar language, kidnapping, themes of captivity and starvation, on page description of infection, breaks in mental states, on page animal death during fight for survival, mental torture, themes of loss, themes that may be disturbing to some readers.
