Chapter 302 - A Joyful Apocalypse (Part 5)
"What are you saying?!" Asked Hannah in shock. She couldn't understand why Daniel would suddenly give the gun back to Felix, and start talking their language just to tell him to finish the job he had started. "DON'T!" She shouted at Felix, who despite his own words, she believed was once again trying to end his life.
"I CAN'T MOVE!" Responded Felix while turning to look at his friends. Right when his state of mind was at his lowest, he had been forced to take his gun, which he was now sure was ready to fire, and to point it at his own head. The only part of his arm that he was able to move was his index, so that he could use it to press the trigger.
During the time Daniel had spent with this group, he had kept 'Time is Precious' constantly activated. He had been able to understand the meaning of a few of the words the group had spoken so far, and learned how to join them together in order to express what he meant. "Shoot. This happen again soon … Easy like this." He said to him.
For as absurd as the situation was, Felix had finally understood what was happening. Only he could feel the pressure on his fingers, while the rest of his group looked at him as if he was in the middle of his third attempt.
His eyes couldn't help but start tearing up as he remembered what he had done earlier, and that if both guns hadn't jammed, he would not be standing there. He was truly living on borrowed time. His friends would have been out of two people if he had been gone, and their lives would have been nothing but harder. Yet, he had still decided to abandon them.
"I don't want to.." he muttered in between sobs.
"Don't do it then! Put the gun down Felix!!" Said Hannah as she believed to have found a small moment of clarity in her friend's suicidal thoughts. However, it's what she heard after that turned her mind blank.
"Do it, or I do." Said Daniel as another gun appeared in his hand.
The group looked at the gun that Daniel was holding with shock. Not only because his hands were empty so far, but also because that gun was the second gun with which Felix had tried to kill himself with. The gun which Hannah had picked up from the ground, walked out of the store with, and that had just disappeared from her right hand.
"What the hell.." muttered Hannah while turning to look at her companions.
"What is going on? How did he get your gun?" Asked George from her side, which in response to Daniel's action grabbed his machine gun and pointed it at him. "DON'T SHOOT!" He shouted in an attempt to get Daniel's attention.
He was completely ignored.
Daniel's eyes were pointed straight at Felix's, and in them, was a promise of death. To felix there was only one absolute truth ... And that was that Daniel was not joking. If he didn't pull the trigger, he had no doubt that Daniel would actually shoot him.
The same sort of madness that had brought him to pull the trigger twice was once again making its way into Felix's mind, and it was bringing him to lose control. But this time, anger was part of it, as he had no control of the situation.
The storage room suddenly became quiet.
"Felix, don't listen to him.. Don't do it! We need you!" Said Hannah in an attempt to reason with her friend.
"I AM NOT DOING THIS!" Screamed Felix once again in response.
Unable to understand what was truly happening, the group became quiet. But as soon as everybody stopped talking, Daniel lifted his opened hand. He then closed his thumb.
It was clear to everybody else that he was giving Felix a countdown, and that at the end, he would shoot.
"Don't!" Said George while pointing the gun at Daniel's arm.
Once again, Daniel ignored him, and lowered his pinky finger, only leaving three fingers up.
After taking careful aim, George pulled the trigger in an attempt to disarm Daniel, however.. *Click* the shot didn't explode.
In about three seconds he pulled the magazine out of the gun, and after making sure that it wasn't empty, he put it back in, loaded the gun once again, and pulled the trigger one more time, *Click* but the result was the same. "What the fuck is going on.." he muttered in confusion.
As this happened, Daniel had already lowered his ring finger, only leaving two fingers up.
"I don't want to die.. I don't want to.." Mutter Felix in an increasing state of desperation while staring at Daniel's deadly stare. A stare that only someone who had truly killed people and had gotten used to it was able to show. "I don't.. I don't!.." Unfortunately for him, it didn't seem that Daniel would stop soon.
His middle finger slowly moved down, and joined the other three. Leaving only his index up.
Unable to make his gun work, George dropped it on the ground and prepared to tackle Daniel, just like all of his companions had for the past few seconds, but the moment they tried to move, they found their shoes molten to the ground. "What the hell!!"
"DON'T KILL HIM!" Shouted Hannah with tears running down her cheeks.
The moment Daniel's index finger began to move down, time seemed to slow as well. The people present cold feel the beats of their hearts resound in their ears, and cheeks flush red and burning with a feeling of uneasiness.
Felix looked at Daniel's finger move in front of the trigger. It was the time.
Suddenly, the hold on his hand disappeared, and he was once again free to move his arm.
A primitive form of anger and hate made its way into Felix's weakened mind, and along with it, the will to survive. So he pointed the gun at Daniel's face, and before he could shoot.. *SPA* A bullet was exploded by Felix's gun and had hit Daniel directly in the head, sending him to the ground.
"I WANT TO LIVE!!" He shouted as he took a step towards Daniel and pointed his gun at him *SPA SPA SPA SPA SPA SPA SPA CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK* He kept shooting until, and after the magazine was emptied.
His breathing was heavy, and his eyes wide opened. He stared at Daniel's corpse for what felt like minutes … until finally, he turned to look at his companions, and in between sobs, he said "I'm sorry."
Hannah approached the crying Felix, and grabbed the hand which was holding the gun with both hands. She then hugged him one more time.
George was more confused by why Daniel would suddenly try to kill Felix after exterminating the siege of dead ones that had threatened to kill them. From what he knew felix had never done anything to Daniel, and the two didn't appear to have any shared past of which they were unaware of.
What they did not know, was that Daniel had felt everything that had happened inside the storage room even when he was killing the dead ones, and the group was falling deeper and deeper into desperation. He hand felt the metal essence of Felix's weapon being lifted next to his head, and he knew that Felix was going to kill himself.
However, he had stopped him twice.
Daniel had seen a lot, and he knew that that kind of experience would scar somebody unless there was something to learn from it. Luck was not enough of an explanation for why Felix was still alive, and since Daniel had already decided to help, he chose to do it all the way.
What he tried to force into Felix's mind with his actions, was the will to live. So he gave him a loaded gun, and left him with two choices. The choice to pull the trigger on himself, or to risk death by killing what was threatening his life. He had no intention of letting Felix die, and if there wasn't an odd blockade for mental power in the planet, he would have simply had Aeron remove his suicide attempt from his memory … he simply wanted to reduce the damage that a broken person had caused to himself and his group.
While Alex, Josh, and James approached the two and tried to console Felix, George looked at Daniel's corpse in deep confusion. "Why is there no blood?" He asked while moving closer to it.
For a few moments George examined Daniel's body, but no matter how much he looked, there was no traces of any injury. The only thing visible were the holes in his clothes, and a black smudge on his forehead.
"Why do you think he did it?.. Try to kill Felix after saving us." Asked Hannah after joining George in his examination.
"I don't know, but there isn't a single trace of blo-WHA!!" Responded George before springing up on his feet, and exclaiming in surprise.
Daniel had opened his eyes, and lifted his upper body. He then turned to look at Felix while standing up on his feet. At the same time, the entire group looked at him with shock.
"HE TURNED!! KILL HIM!" Shouted George right before Alex jumped in front of him, and slashed his machete on Daniel's head.
The motion was blocked by an iron grip that had suddenly wrapped around Alex's wrist. He then used a little too much force to push him away, causing the young man to crash against the shelves, and once again cause a ruckus.
Daniel did not go for a bite like other dead ones, so after his actions, the group was only able to stare in disbelief as he walked in front of Felix. "Friends …" he said while glancing at the rest of the group "Can't help if dead." He then added before turning towards the door, and walking out of the storage room.
It had been awhile since Daniel had seen his closest friends, and while he knew for a fact that they were alive, and likely doing well for themselves, he couldn't help but wonder what they were doing.
If Jerigh was managing to avoid killing everybody that bumped into his shoulder, if Roley had still something to learn from him or if he had already gone past his levels of comprehension.. If his family was finally able to live safely and happily … However, while he missed his friends and family, there was a person who kept appearing in his mind.
A voice which whenever he sat in his room waiting to go to bed, would make him turn around with a big smile on his face.. A smell that he was able to smell every time his hair needed being cut.. A look that would force numerous jaws to drop whenever they went.
He was reminded of how far away he was from Alesia whenever he looked up at the sky, and saw a different pattern of stars form the one of his home planet. The one he had recreated for her inside the pocket dimension.
"You wanted to set him straight … Is that why you did it?" Asked a voice that came from behind him.
Without turning around, Daniel looked up at the starry sky, and said in his own language "There is no grey area in fighting for survival … you either do, or you don't."
"What does that mean? And why are you still alive? Are you wearing a bulletproof vest?" Asked Hannah, unable to understand Daniel's words.
As she finished speaking, the rest of the group walked out of the storage room and joined her.
Daniel understood what the girl said, but he wasn't sure that he would be able to convey the meaning with his broken language. So he kept quiet and looked around at the hundreds of corpses he had left in the alley instead.
He was fully aware that these people were not like that because they were evil, but because of something done by the demon in charge with this planet. So he decided not to let them rot in this back alley as if they were worth nothing.
*Snap* The moment his fingers snapped, a sea of blue flames advanced from underneath his feet, and covered the hundreds of corpses.. Burning them to nothingness. Before the group could even react, the street was completely clean.. Not even the ashes of those corpses remained.
The faces of the group expressed the deepest shock they could manage, and before they could come to their senses, and react to what had happened, Daniel said "Infection. Started. Where."