Chapter 8
The seven heroes stood outside of the rocky formation where the beastmen caves were located. A number of stairways were carved into the side of the plateau leading to each individual cavern.
Corg knew from playing the game so often that these caves were what linked the valley to the Malpheggi Swamp. He also knew that the place was crawling with beastman warriors, not to mention the legions of beastmen who littered the entire valley. The question was, he thought, Do they know we’re coming or do they we’re all already dead?
The silence was broken by a distinct whistling sound. Everyone looked up and saw a small black object sail through the air. It landed on the ground not too far from where Piotr was standing. It was an arrow.
“Ah crap,” Jack muttered.
No sooner than he said, a number of beastmen poured out of the caves, all armed with knives and maces. Their faces vaguely resembled the wolf men of the movies Corg had watched as a kid: vaguely human but unmistakably feral, covered with hair and with fangs protruding from their human-like mouths. They were all wearing a light plate mail and a number of them were wearing red capes.
A loud howling from behind caused the party to spin around. A number of pygmy and big beastmen were emerging from the trees into the clearing. The pygmies were armed with daggers and slings, whereas the big beastmen were armed with clubs. The big beastmen were quite deserving of their name. The beasts were over seven feet tall. Unlike the warriors, they wore no armor, but the skins of tigers and panthers. Their fur, instead of brown, was white and grey. The pygmies looked more like the warriors, although they too wore no armor, just what appeared to be tunics. This band of beastmen covered the rear of the party, should they want to escape.
Soon all became quiet. The beastmen all stood their ground, but remained still.
“They must be waiting for the order to attack,” Sari co
mmented. She knew from personal experience what it was like to fight an army of monsters.
“We’ll have to split up,” Corg commented. “I have an idea.”
“Yeah, we should listen to Corg,” Jack said. “He knows this ga—I mean—he has good instincts about this stuff.” Jack blushed.
“He’s right,” Piotr added. “The boy knows his forgotten realms.”
“Okay, then,” Laya said, “What do you suggest if you know so much?”
“Well, there’s going to be a leader—“
“Duh,” Sari mumbled.
“Hush, woman!” Corg whispered in a threatening tone. “The leader will probably have a female companion, an Azcan woman. She’ll look like us, only with more tanned skin.”
“Where do get this stuff? Do you just make it up as you go along?” Sari said sarcastically.
Corg ignored her. “Sari, you like personal combat, don’t you? You take the woman. Piotr, Jack, you two take the leader. Laya—you take the little ones with the slings and bows. WREN? I think you can take the big ones. Mieu and I will take on the warriors.”
“Shh!” Mieu said under her breath. “Something’s happening in the caves.”
The seven became silent and fastened their eyes on the caves. Two figures appeared at the mouth of the highest of the caves. One was a woman, pretty much as Corg had described. She had jet-black hair, wore what appeared to be some sort of chain mail, but with a green shirt covering it. Her skin was tanned to the point of being golden. She was utterly beautiful, but she wore scowl on her face the let the party know her intentions weren’t the most positive. She brandished a strange, rectangular sword in her hand.
The other figure was probably a man, although it was hard to tell. He wore a brown cloak and his face was covered by what appeared to be a leather mask. He raised his hand and yelled, “Take the women alive. The others are all yours!” He then lowered his hand, whispered something to the woman, who started descending the steps toward another cave.
“Please!” Sari called out.
Both the leader and the woman stopped and stared at Sari.
“We come in peace! We’re here on a mission of peace and diplomacy! We seek an audience with you.”
The leader stayed silent for a few moments. His female companion’s sneer turned into a cruel smile. She walked up the steps and whispered something in his ear.
“No!” the leader cried aloud. “There will be no diplomacy. You will not take this land from me! Nor will there be any truces and treaties!”
“We are prepared to defend ourselves!” Sari warned. “We have survived the most bitter wars and battles against evils that dwarf your puny tribe by comparison! But we do not want that. We only want to negotiate!”
“Fools! Do you know who I am? I am powered by the great Burrower, the subterranean Old One. I could easily slaughter each and every one of you in ways that you could only imagine. Nonetheless, my people are hungry and miss the taste of human flesh.” The leader rose his hands once more. “The priestess demands the woman as a sacrifice. As for the others, feast!”
Jack stepped forward, as did Corg.
“Hey buddy!” Jack yelled. “Either call these sorry suckers back, or we’re going to have to administer the killage on you all!”
“Yeah,” Corg taunted. “I don’t care if you’re powered by Godzilla himself! I’ll take this here lightning wand, shove it up your crack, and we’ll see how you like it!”
The leader tilted his head as he stared at Corg. However, as the priestess started caressing his body, the leader turned around and entered the cave.
For a moment, the beastmen stayed still. In a moment, they were slowly moving closer to the seven.
“Now’s our chance!” Sari screamed.
“WREN! Use Burstroc to distract them!” Mieu called out.
Touching a button on a small console that opened on WREN’s wrist, a small number of rockets fired from the weapons pack on the back of WREN’s armor. The rockets zipped through the air like a volley of bottle rockets. The beastmen all froze and stared in wonder at the sight. In a few moments, the rockets were descending upon the side of the plateau where the caves were. The multiple explosions scattered the warriors in fear, and, in a few cases, killed some of them instantly.
“Avengers Assemble!” Corg yelled, as they all split up.
“What a sucker,” Jacob commented to Piotr, as they made their way through the smoke and up the stairway that lead to the chief’s cave.
* * * * * * * * *
Laya let loose a laser-like arrow from her Nei Bow, which shot across the clearing and found it’s target in a pygmy beastman who was trying to creep up on her with a knife. As she pulled back on the string again, she felt something whiz by her ear. She turned her head and saw three more pygmy beastmen advancing on her from the south. As one of them started swinging his sling, she fired again. The arrow shot forth and sliced through the attacker’s arm, severing it at the elbow. The other two ducked for cover.
* * * * * * * * * *
Thank goodness for Corg and Mieu, Sari thought as she navigated the various stairways on her way to the woman’s cave. The other two were engaging the beastman warriors, which was enough of a diversion for her to make it to her destination unmolested. Ah, there it is, she thought as she neared the mouth of the cave.
Entering into the cave, she was ambushed by two warriors who ran at her armed with iron war hammers. Thinking fast, she slid under the legs of one the warriors, narrowly avoiding getting her head crushed by the blow of the other. She quickly jumped to her feet as the two turned to face her.
“Sorry guys,” she said jovially. “But we’ll have to cut this keep this short and sweet.
Sari hurled her two Laconian daggers at the beastmen. The daggers sank deep into both of their throats. Gasping for air, the two warriors fell to their knees and desperately tried to pull the knives out. One of them was successful, and a dark stream of blood sprayed out of the wound and stained the walls of the cavern. Soon, both were motionless. Sari walked over to the two dead bodies and reclaimed her daggers.
“You brown-haired witch!” cackled a voice from behind.
Sari looked up and saw the golden woman standing in front her, holding her strange sword with both hands.
“I’ve sacrificed all of your friends to the god of below. He will be glad to be able to swallow the soul of such a brave warrior.”
Friends? Sari thought. She then remembered that the castle had once been occupied. “Well, the best sacrifices won’t come easy.”
The two women lunged full-force at each other.
* * * * * * * * * *
Mieu cut a swath through the warriors with her Planar and Nei claws. The two claws she was armed with were, to her knowledge, the strongest in existence. The Nei claw was especially strong, as it had been tempered and strengthened by magic, in addition to having belonged to Miun, one of the greatest cyborg fighters she had ever known.
The warriors poured out the caves in great numbers. She would’ve been overcome had they used better weapons, but their swords and maces were rather weak. She was easily able to slice through the weapons as well as their owners. Pieces of metal and flesh littered the side of the plateau as Mieu hacked her way through them all.
* * * * * * * * * *
Dang it, Corg thought. The only weak point is their head. Corg was armed with a chain whip he had made from the chains of old flails that were forged in the castle. The blade at the tip was made from a red spearhead that he had found hidden in one of the dungeons.
Corg swung and whirled the chain in circles. It passed around over his neck and under his legs at dizzying speeds, creating almost a theoretical force field around him. The beastmen who surrounded were kept at bay by the spinning the whip; they knew that if they got too close, it could mean the end for them.
I can’t keep this up forever, Corg thought. Here we go. He swung the chain in an arc and felt it hit something. He heard the unearthly howling of the beastmen and saw two of them holding their hands over their eyes, blood streaming down their faces. He swung again and saw the blade of the whip cut another one of the warrior’s throat. It toppled to the ground and died gasping for air.
The next time Corg swung the whip, the blade buried itself in the armor of another warrior. The blood that streamed down the silvery armor let him know that it had pierced the beastman’s hide, but unfortunately, the whip didn’t return with a simple yank. The other warriors saw this and charged Corg. Corg, who had studied a little bit of martial arts, quickly said a prayer in his mind, God help me. He ducked and evaded the blows as well as he could. He grabbed one of their arms and struck its elbow with his forearm. There was a loud crack and the monster wailed in agony. Corg through it aside and struck the nearest beastman in the throat with a one-knuckle punch. It reeled over and once again died as it struggled to breathe. The next beastman ran at him, swinging his sword wildly. Corg caught the creature’s hand, grabbed its elbow, and with a twist and a bend, caused his attacker to impale himself with his own sword.
A sudden impact sent Corg flying to the ground. He quickly came to and saw yet another warrior running at him with a large mace. Corg quickly swept the beastman’s legs out from under him, knocking it on its back. Corg leapt on the beast’s chest and dug his thumb, index, and middle fingers into its temple. It soon stopped struggling.
“Eagle’s claw, baby!”
Corg got up, ran to the body where his whip had pierced, pulled it out, and faced the next round of attackers.
* * * * * * * * * *
WREN fired his Nei Shot into the horde of white-furred beastmen. The bullets left the gun as greenish packets of light and ripped through their targets’ flesh with no effort whatsoever. Hundreds of projectiles covered the distance between WREN and the beastmen who were falling upon him. Within seconds, the fusillade magically-tempered bullets practically disintegrated the beastmen’s weapons and reduced them to mulch.
WREN made a quick scan of the carnage that was happening. Upon seeing Laya struggling for cover against what were innumerous arrows falling from the sky, WREN quickly followed their trajectory back to a large cluster of trees to the south. Bending over forward in direction of the trees, he fired another round of Burstroc. The rockets whizzed through the air.
Laya saw the smoke trails of the rockets head in the direction of the trees. In a few moments, she saw a number of large fireballs erupt in the treetops, followed by a several humanoid figures being violently thrown from their hiding spots by the force of the explosions.
“Thanks WREN!” Laya called out. “I owe you one!”
It didn’t take very long for that opportunity to present itself. To the northeast, a horde of beastmen riding on the backs of wolves came into view. These particular monsters were a bit different from their white and brown counterparts. They were nearly nine feet tall and were covered in green fur. Some of them were using oversized slings to hurl rocks, others were armed with abnormally large clubs.
Laya quickly started firing her Nei arrows as fast as she could. WREN gave her a confused look, thinking she was firing at him. He turned around and quickly understood what she meant. Her arrows streaked through the air and started striking targets. The arrows ripped through arms, clubs, and heads. A few hit the wolves, which threw their riders from their backs. WREN quickly joined in the fracas and fired several bursts from his gun in their direction. Between his blasts and Laya’s arrows, they were able to quickly mow down most of the beastmen…most.
As the two stopped firing to inspect the damage they had caused, a hulking figure fell upon WREN from the rear, knocking his gun from his hands. WREN stumbled over and turned to face his nemesis: a huge, green-furred beastman armed with a large bone club.
* * * * * * * * * *
Jack and Piotr calmly made their way to the back of the cave. The cave was simply a narrow chamber that opened into a wider one. While calm on the outside, Jack and Piotr were incredibly nervous on the inside. The walls were covered with various paintings depicting death and torture of various other creatures. Strange symbols, which appeared to be written in blood, also marked the walls of the chamber. It was the kind of stuff Jack and Piotr’d expect in a horror film or in an Indiana Jones film.
As the reached the opening of the large chamber, they saw the chief of the beastmen standing alone near the back wall. He was still wearing his leather mask.
However, this chamber gave Piotr and Jack the willies more than the other. Its high ceiling was decked with the hanging skeletons of people, or at least what appeared to be people. The walls were adorned with the skulls of men and beast alike like some morbid European catacomb. Some of the skulls had elongated snouts and were strangely reptilian-looking.
Piotr calmly pulled out his twin mini-clubs.
“You nervous, dawg?” Jack whispered in his friends ear.
“Heck yeah!” he responded.
“All right, dawg!” Jack called out to the chief. “This is the end of the road. Either you surrender your sorry crack to the Jack, or you better prepare yourself for phatty spackdown.”
“Yes, ‘tis true,” Piotr agreed. “We’ll give you three beatings, each one worse than the last.”
“Oh?” came the voice from behind the mask. “So you are one of us.”
“What?” Jack called with a high-pitched voice.
“Guys! Guys!” said the chief. “You’re not game characters like the rest of these weaklings. You’re people!”
“You mean that you’re from our world, too?” Piotr inquired.
“The real world? Yes, I am.”
“Uh, dawg,” Jack said. “This is the real world, too.”
“Bull—“ the chief said. “This world is nothing but an illusion. These people and creatures are nothing but figments of your overactive imaginations, just as they are mine. This place only exists in your heads.”
“Liar!” Piotr yelled. “This isn’t some fantasy land where you just wake up when it’s all over. Where you die and get to play it all over again! Are you friggin’ stupid or something?”
“It’s the two of you who are fools! This is all fake! This doesn’t exist! There is no death here! There is no right or wrong here! If I wanted to, I could go out and kill any peasant or hero I came across. Actually, been there, done that.”
“What is the crazy little booty talking about?” Jack asked Piotr out loud.
“Idiot!” the chief said, “You can’t kill what’s not alive. You can’t do any wrong in a world that only exists in your mind. It’s impossible!”
“And so what? How many people have you killed here?” Piotr asked calmly.
“I haven’t killed any people. But game characters, dozens and dozens. Probably hundreds. I try to get as creative as I can. Always a different spell or a different weapon. Sometimes a painless disintegration death, sometimes a painful torture death. It’s a real rush, guys. Imagine yourselves as actually part of some interactive game. Come on, the three of us can team up and go from world to world doing this. It beats living in the real world…that cold, unfeeling place where us gamers and nerds and geeks are forced to get together in the darkest corners of the internet for companionship.”
“Dude, you’re hecka friggin’ crazy. This place is real and those people you killed are real people.”
“Enough of this,” Piotr retorted. “Either you’re coming with us and ending this conflict or we’ll do things the hard way…aw, screw it! C’mon Jack, let’s teach’em a lesson he won’t soon forget.
* * * * * * * * * *
Corg saw two big beastmen and a hill giant come out of the forest in the direction of the caves. “Mieu! Watch out for the—“
It was too late. As she spun around to face the new attackers, one of jumped at her with a flying shoulder smash, knocking her down the slope of the plateau. Mieu quickly got up again, but one of the white-furred monsters fell upon her and lifted her up in a great bear hug.
Oh no, thought Corg as he made his way around the stairways to some point above Mieu. Here we go. Corg left from his vantage point onto the beastman’s back and started strangling the beast with his chain whip. The beast soon released Mieu, who did a back flip to put a little bit more distance in between her and the other two. Corg kept a tight grip on his chain, hoping to kill this one before confronting the other two. The beastman wildly swung his body around, trying to rid itself of its would-be killer. It finally flung its upper body forward, nearly throwing Corg off of it. Thinking quickly, Corg grabbed the beastman’s hair to keep from falling and secured its neck with his legs. Corg pulled the beastman’s head back by the hair and put the blade of his whip deep into its eye. The beastman howled and screamed and flailed its body about. It soon fell forward and died.
But there was no time for Corg to congratulate himself, for the other two were soon upon him. Once again, Corg was bobbing and weaving to avoid the attacks of the two giants’ clubs. Once in a while he tried to take advantage of their missed swings to punch and strike them, but they didn’t even feel it.
“Mieu! I could use your help right now.” He looked over and saw her entangled in a fight with several beastmen warriors. That look nearly cost Corg his head, as a side swing from the hill giant’s club came in his direction. Corg tried to block the blow with his open hands, but the impact sent him flying to side.
Great! What am I going to do now? With only seconds to ponder, he remembered the movies he watched where the kung fu fighting good guys always used some soft style against the bad guys.
“Alright babies, it’s time for tai chi.” Corg got to his feet and started moving his arms around in a smooth, circular manner.
The big beastman and the hill giant charged Corg again. He started side-stepping them and striking them with his forearms and shoulders. The hill giant ran at him and Corg sidestepped, struck him with the back of his palm, and sent him sprawling to the ground. When the big beastman entered the fray again, Corg struck its wrist with his and then stayed on it. The beastman found that it could barely lift its arm without Corg pushing it down. Corg pushed the beast’s arm against its chest, bent his knees, and then pushed off and struck it with both of his palms. The force of the blow sent it sprawling to the ground.
By then, the hill giant was back up again and ready to fight. It swung its club at Corg, who caught the blow in middair. As the two struggled for the control of the weapon, Corg thrust his foot into the giant’s groin and leapt straight into the air for a spinning backhand. The giant shrieked and released the club. Corg grabbed the club, and letting out a loud war cry, swung the club at the giant’s head. The club struck it on the top of its head with dull, but easily audible crack. Streams of blood ran down the giant’s face as it stood for a few seconds, and then toppled to the ground.
As Corg went to face the last of the big beastmen, he felt a powerful impact in his stomach and the sensation of being lifted off the ground. In a split second, he realized that the big beastman and hit him with its club. He soon felt his body hit something very hard, probably the cliff wall. Corg struggled for a moment to get up, but couldn’t. In a moment, everything was black.
* * * * * * * * *
WREN found that the huge beastman was a good match for him in unarmed combat. For several minutes they struggled, punching and grappling with each other. Every time WREN beat him to the ground, the beastman simply stood up and came back for more. Every time the beastman through WREN against a tree, WREN simply shook it off and continued.
WREN jumped and grabbed the beastman by the hair. Pulling the beasts head down, he started bludgeoning it with his fists. Soon the beast’s face was red with blood, but it kept on fighting. It pushed WREN off of it and followed that up with a running head butt that sent WREN flying to the ground.
As WREN got up, he noticed that couple of small beastmen were huddled around his weapon. Quickly getting an idea, he bent forward again and pressed another button on his wrist console. A small orange ball of light flew out of his weapons pack and hit one of the beastman. The beastman was immediately enveloped in flames and ran away screaming. The other little one was smart enough to flee and leave the gun alone.
This was enough of a distraction that WREN dived forward and kicked out the beastman’s feet from under it, causing it to fall forward. WREN quickly got on top of the creature and began to hammer his fists repeatedly into the base of the beastman’s skull. After a few punches, the beastman’s body began to convulse. However, after several more, the beastman was as dead as a stone.
* * * * * * * * *
Sari and the woman fought savagely. The woman was obviously trained in the arts of war, as she swung her sword with deadly efficiency. Fortunately, Sari too knew what she was doing, and was able to parry all of her blows with her twin daggers. They hacked at other with unbridled ferocity. The woman’s sword took out a few chinks in Sari’s armor, whereas the woman’s golden body was coming redder with each small cut.
With a savage swing, the woman swung her sword and struck both Sari’s daggers, knocking them out of her hands. She then leapt on top of Sari and knocked her on her back. She put the blade of her obsidian sword to Sari’s throat.
“My god will have an excellent banquet tonight. The souls of the bravest and most unwilling are the most delicious to him.”
“Why don’t you just ask him how delicious it really is when you see him, witch!” Sari kicked her leg up and her foot connected with the back of the woman’s head, sending her sprawling forward. She then ripped off her white cape, wrapped it around the woman’s neck, and pushed the woman off the side of the staircase. The woman tried to grab the stairway but Sari simply stepped on her hand. After almost a minute of struggling, the woman gave up and stopped moving.
* * * * * * * * * *
The beastman chief seemed to have learned as much about hand-to-hand fighting as Jack and Piotr had while there. He was able to block and parry almost every blow of Piotr’s clubs and dodged most of Jack’s kicks. He seemed more powerful than they were, as just a single punch of his would send either of them flying across the room.
While regrouping, Jack gasped, “What are we going to do? The dude just doesn’t want to die!”
“Hmm…What if the dude is right? What if it’s all in our heads? Can we imagine ourselves to be better than him?”
“That’d definitely help, wouldn’t it? Hmm…” Jack stroked his chin and looked over at the chief, who stood waiting for them to make their next move.
“I got it!” Jack said. He leaned over and whispered something into Piotr’s ear.
Both of them got on their feet and circled the chief.
“I’m ready when you are, dawg!” Jack called out.
“Be my guest,” Piotr said, extending his arm as if to let Jack go first.
“You two know you can’t beat me? I have more experience than you. My level is higher than your. What are you going to do?”
“Super Cyber Bionic Knee!” Jack called out. He jumped towards the chief and with all of the forward momentum he could muster, he struck him in the head with his knee. The force of the blow sent the chief flying across the chamber.
Before the chief could get up, Piotr ran over to him and, picking him up by the legs, started swinging him in circles. He finally flung him in Jack’s direction, who leapt in the air and struck him with a flying spin kick. The chief hit the ground with a dull thud.
Jack ran over to the chief and threw his arms under his and put him in a full-nelson hold.
“You see, even though this isn’t a game, doesn’t mean we can’t perfect a couple of special moves and combos. Okay, Piotr, let him have it!” Jack screamed.
“Attack of the Killer B’s” yelled Piotr. He unleashed a barrage of blows with his clubs, most of them striking the chief in his face, but a few of them in his stomach as well.
The chief screamed and thrust his foot into Piotr’s stomach, knocking him down. He threw Jack of his back and went in to strike. Jack grabbed his hand mid-blow and thrust his foot out vertically, hitting the chief in the chin. The impact lifted him on the ground and his fell again on his back.
Piotr and Jack quickly ran to both sides of the chief and picked him by his hands and feet. They swung him back and forth a few times before finally throwing him into the air. Piotr leapt into the air and knocked the chief back down with a flying shoulder smash.
The chief struggled to get back up and looked over at them. “Good work. I see that the two of you are getting stronger. But that’s still not enough to beat me. Why don’t you stop? Don’t you know that I’m a god of this place?”
“Sorry dawg, your subject to death just like the rest of us. We’ll give you once last chance. Give up now and get your crazy self out of this world. Otherwise we’ll be fully justified with whatever action we’re compelled to take,” Piotr said, trying to stay calm.
“Fools! Morons! You can’t kill me. I can’t die! Don’t you understand? This place isn’t real. It’s a game for heaven’s sake? When you kill me, I’ll just wake up in the real world and I’ll just go to another game. It’s all game! IT’S ALL A GAME.”
“Okay, we’ll play your little game, you sorry sucker. Final Round! Fight!” Jack screamed.
Piotr threw his clubs down. Jack pulled out two other stick-like objects from under his black robes and tossed them to Piotr. Piotr held the two small poles like he did his clubs and ran at the chief. Piotr started evading his punches and kicks. When one of the chief’s punches came close to Piotr’s face, he struck his fist with one of the sticks. Sparks flew from the impact and the chief yelped in pain. Piotr began to strike him repeatedly all over his body with the two sticks. With each blow, sparks and small flames jumped out of the sticks. Piotr struck the chief repeatedly in the stomach, in the ribs and across the face. The air began to smell as if someone was burning.
Finally, after about twenty blows, Piotr stopped. The chief’s body was trembling and it was obvious that he was struggling to stay standing.
“What…was that? What did…did…you…you do to me?” the chief stuttered.
Piotr gloated, “Oh, our friend Corg always said that the wands of fire and lightning in this place were more than a match for any enemy in the gam—world. So, we figured, if we mix my fighting style with these here wands, we could do some phatty damage. Your turn, Jack”
“Hwang Jang Lee! This one’s for you!” Jack shouted.
Jack ran across the chamber and jumped high into the air. At the height of his jump, he trust his right leg into the chief’s head, than the left leg, and then the right again. The chief fell over and did not get up for several seconds.
Jack and Piotr walked over to him and knelt on both sides of his face. Piotr stretched out his hand and removed his mask. Behind it was the face of a young man, probably no older than twenty-one years of age. Streams of blood ran down his face and he was coughing up blood.
“It’s okay. You two win. It’s…it’s all right,” the boy said weakly. “We all lose and die while playing these games. It teaches us the movements and techniques that we ne…need to know for fu-fu-future games. It’s all right. Don’t worry, there’s nothing to be afraid…of. Tomorrow, I’ll…I’ll wake up in bed and it’ll start o-over again. Maybe for the next…round I’ll surround myself w-w-with beautiful girls. Yeah…I’ll do that. Maybe a Leisure Suit Larry game…or maybe o-one of those Phantasy Star Online games…where I can create my own woman. Yeah…I like that. With wild hair, large *, a nice body…and then I’ll go there and…”
The boy paused and coughed up some more blood. He breathing was reduced to a low wheezing through his nose. After a few moments, tears started running down his cheeks.
“I’m not coming back, am I?” he asked.
Both Jack and Piotr took a deep breath and shook their heads.
The boy wept for a few moments, and then stopped. He didn’t move again.
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