The Purge
Chapter 42: Halley

“I will live to see tomorrow’s sunset. Make no mistake. I swear I will live to see as many sunsets as it takes.”

The Wrath and The Dawn; Renee Ahdieh

Some people create their own storms and then get mad at the world when it rains.

Once I was told I was too kind for my own good. I was too fragile that if I were glass, I’d break so easily.

I put on a terrible brave face whenever I get in trouble. Well, I was not even trying to be good at it. But my commander, well, she’s a pro. I don’t know how she does it. It’s like she molds the whole world in her hands like clay and then makes it her mask to hide away from everything, I hate her for being too hard. Maybe I was wrong that Conleth can actually be her salvation. She’s beyond saving. We’re beyond saving.

I started to prepare myself for The Purge. Every time I glance at the watch on my display, I manage to pull the dread into my entire body. It’s loathsome. I feel so irritable that I complain a lot and I blame it all to Bri. Her pride is always her first priority. My gloves took the entire grudge I have for her as I pull it tight on my hands.

I looked at myself at the mirror one last time remembering my face before it becomes a memory to anyone. I sighed. Well. It’s useless. People won’t even remember my face anyway. It’s not even a valid tourist attraction. My dad won’t even look back at me when I was taken away.

I went for the door. I was about to leave my room when I remembered something hidden under my mattress.

I went back to my bed and I pulled it out. Memories started to fill my head as I touched the handle. It was my father’s balisong. I traced the blade with my fingers and it managed to brand me by slicing the tip of my index finger. It was still sharp even after months of cowering under the mattress. Maybe dad was right. Its blade is as sharp as its owner. Well, my dad was. I’m not. I placed it in the safety of my boots as I walked out of the room leaving my memories and humanity behind.

The Gates of Hell opened like incredible knives of teeth.

I swallowed my fear deep into my gut. I am brave.

My stomach churn once the railjet halted. It worsened when I started hearing the men shouting. My heart hammered inside my chest and it hurt so bad my knees buckled and I felt nauseous. Bri’s earlier words of wisdom vanished into thin air like smoke. All was forgotten when fear strike like a blade to the heart.

They are here.

I hear them whispering in the shadows.

Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

I was shaking and I felt weak. My eyes were slowly drowsing. Bri gripped hard on my hand and that’s when I went back to reality.

The Gates have been breached. We were too late. There were too many of them. Their voice made a catastrophic discordant inside my head.

I should have known. If I felt it sooner, if I didn’t let my fear run over me, we might have gone back. Those soldiers might not have been dead. It’s all my fault.

We started running for our lives since we all know that’s the only option we have no matter how stupid it is to think that after months of intensive training, here we are, running away from the monsters we have been trained all our lives. All those years wasted for fear.

As the pike stretched further, walls started to meet us. The walls moved like it has a mind of its own. It was the time I was very grateful with my size that my agility was extremely helpful. But the more we run, the more we escaped the verge of death, the more this place hunted us down.

It only took us a few seconds of rest before the walls separated us from Bri.

Panic and fear made a perfect combination to bring out the pessimist side of things.

Sig attacked the huge metal walls with her lightning. But it did not even made a scratch. Athren tried to fly over it but every time he reaches the top, the walls would go higher than before. Tears of frustration started to form at the brim of my eyes. Helplessness crept into my soul. Sig sank down on her knees as she stares up at the blank unknown sky. Athren descended slowly on the ground.

I looked back at him and he has his hands balled into fists.

“I should have known.”

We all looked at him. Athren glared at the metal wall like somehow he wished to break it with his own eyes. He gritted his teeth and tightened his fists.

“It’s the purge.” He said. “It’s us. We’re the moving targets. It has always been us.”

I took a step back and I hit the wall. A ghost of a gasp escaped my lips. “Us.” I repeated. “They want us dead.” I looked back at Athren, hoping he’d know the answer. “But why?”

Athren averted his eyes on the ground. “Because we’re not like them. We’re not human.”

“After everything…” Sig murmured. “But we are human! I am human!” she cried. She stood up, shaking. “We are not monsters! We are nothing like them. Please!” Sig looked around searching possibly for hidden spies or camera. “Please! We are not monsters! We won’t harm anyone!” a sobbed broke out of her system. “Listen to us! We are humans… We are humans.”

Athren grabbed her wrist in one swift move and pulled her right to him. “Stop it.” Sigourney narrowed her eyes at him. She tried to get her wrist off of his venomous grasp.

“We are Addonexus. We do not beg.” Athren told her. His voice dead with emotion.

“I don’t wanna be.” Sig’s voice cracked. For a moment, I agreed with her. I felt the same.

The ground started to shake again along with it the nausea building in my gut. The walls started to move. First in slow horizontal movements then sharp objects started to spring out of the walls and it moved vertically in fast motion. Athren bent air at his own will and it managed to force the walls away from us in a split a dead second.

“Go! Run!” he shouted as he tried to hold the walls away. He forced them out with the strength that he has left.

I ran with my heart in my ears. I closed my eyes and I can feel my tears falling down my cheeks. I don’t want to look back. I felt sicker than ever.

“Athren, they’re coming!”

“Don’t look back! Just keep running!”

Sigourney stopped on her tracks and turned back.

“Sig!” Athren went back for her.

“I got them.” She said.

Lightning emblazoned her hands and they seethed with ardor, igniting in purple, white, and blue catastrophic veins along her skin.

“I’m not gonna die like this.” She spat.

The walls threatened to move near her. If it closes, that would separate her from us. Athren allowed his powers to surge into the walls, giving enough time for Sig to catch up.

From the fog, I can see them coming.

Sanguinarians.

They were like the nightmares I had coming into life. Blood thirsty ghouls aiming to clear the life out of us. My feet were damn rooted on the ground. I felt the handle of my father’s weapon in my boot. I have to fight. I have to fight. But I was too scared to move.

Through the fog, Sig lashed out her lightning like whip through a gray sky. Athren followed by unleashing a hurricane out of his hands. It whirled through the walls until it caught Sig’s lightning. And like a raging storm, they douse at the beasts.

Silence filled the earth once more. But the upchucked feeling remained.

“We need to move.” I told them. Athren nodded and I started running north.

“Sigourney! Get over here now!” Athren shouted at her.

I turned to look behind me one last time. The beasts are now clear from eye view. They moved with lucid agility although their eyes were covered with rotten skin. Their mouth opened in twisted forms of hunger.

Sigourney looked back at us from her shoulder. “Run.”

The walls moved and Athren screamed as he forced them back to place once more.

“SIGOURNEY!”

“Go find help.”

Those were her last words before the walls shut with the last image of the Sanguinarians leaping upon her.

And before dread wash over me once more, six haunting words in red bold letters hovered on my display.

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