Amy Cross - Persona

“I know,” I stammer, even though that brief memory has sent a flash of fear through my chest. “But what do we—”

“Down!” he hisses, dropping to the forest floor and pulling me with him.

“What it is?” I whisper, but a moment later I realize I can see a dark figure making its way through the forest, heading back toward the burning town. After a few seconds, I’m just about able to see the figure’s face and I realize with a shiver that it’s Ben. I instinctively move to go after him, but Deckard holds me back.

“He must have been sent to mop up anyone who escaped,” Deckard replies, keeping his voice low.

Again I try to get up, and again he holds me down.

“He’s got a gun,” he whispers. “He’s twenty feet away, Asher, what exactly do you think will happen if you try to rush him?”

“He has to die,” I reply, keeping my eyes fixed on Ben up ahead. “I want to kill all three of them personally.”

“He’d cut you down before you got halfway toward him,” he continues. “Asher, be smart!”

I know he’s right, but at the same time I feel physically sick as I see Ben heading toward the town. After a moment, however, he stops suddenly, silhouetted against the flames of the huts, and slowly he turns to look this way.

“Do you think he heard us?” I whisper.

We wait in silence, as Ben takes a few cautious steps in our direction with his gun raised. He’s not looking directly at us, but it’s clear that he’s got an inkling that someone is hiding out here.

“Show yourself!” he shouts. “I know you’re there, but hiding just means you’ll die when I find you! If you come out with your hands up, you still have a chance to survive!”

“Liar,” I mutter under my breath.

“I’m warning you!” he continues, taking a few more steps in this direction. He’s barely ten, maybe fifteen feet away now. “Don’t make me angry!”

“He’s not going to give up,” Deckard whispers. “He knows someone’s here.”

“What’s the plan?” Ben calls out. “Do you think you can hide and I’ll leave you alone? No chance. Do you think you can fight back? You’re all by yourself and I will root you out!”

“He thinks there’s only one of us,” Deckard mutters.

“But how—”

“When you see your chance,” he continues, turning to me, “take it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Be smart, Asher,” he whispers, reaching out and putting a hand on my shoulder. “You’re strong and you’re tough and you can do this, but you have to remember to be smart. If you can overpower him, we’ll be able to take his gun and use it against the other two.”

“Where are you—”

Before I can finish, he gets to his feet and puts his hands up in surrender. I open my mouth to tell him to stop, but a moment later I realize that he’s already been seen.

“Freeze!” Ben shouts, hurrying closer with his gun raised.

“It’s me!” Deckard tells him, stepping slowly between the trees with his hands still in the air. “Don’t shoot! It’s me!”

“Deckard?” Ben replies, clearly shocked. “How the hell did you get out from those caves?”

“I had a little luck,” Deckard explains, still stepping further and further away from me. “I couldn’t save Asher, but I managed to find a way out.”

I watch as he keeps limping away, and after a moment I realize that he’s not heading toward Ben. Instead, he’s trying to slowly draw his attention away from where I’m hiding, and it seems to be working.

“Some people just don’t know when to die,” Ben sneers, keeping his gun trained on Deckard and, in the process, starting to turn his back toward me. “What’s wrong? Too scared?”

“Kinda,” Deckard replies, edging further and further away from me. Screams are still ringing out from Steadfall in the distance. “I was thinking, maybe you could take me to your boss and we can see about cutting a deal.”

“What boss?” Ben asks, still turning to keep his gun aimed at Deckard. “Harold isn’t my boss. We work together, but he’s not in charge.”

“Doesn’t seem that way to me,” Deckard replies. “He’s the one giving orders. You and Leanne are just his little helpers, right? You do what he tells you to do?”

Realizing that he’s luring Ben around so I can sneak up behind him, I start to carefully make my way through the darkness. I don’t dare move any faster, and I know that one wrong step could ruin the entire plan. Still, reaching down to my belt, I feel for my knife.

“Sorry,” Ben continues, with his gun still aimed at Deckard, “but your sudden return wouldn’t exactly go down too well. Harold already—”

“Just let me talk to him,” Deckard says calmly. “That’s all I want. A chance. That’s all anyone wants in this world, right? A chance to explain himself.”

He pauses, as if he’s waiting for me to make my move, but I’m still too far back.

“I still have a lot to offer,” he continues after a moment. “I might be an old man but I’ve been on the island for a long time and I know how things work around here. I know how people work, too, and I know who to trust and who to give up on.” He pauses for a moment, and for a fraction of a second his eyes glance at me before he quickly looks back at Ben. “There are people on this island who I consider to be among the finest I’ve ever met, people I trust with my life. People I’ve believed in from the first moment I met them, and who I’ve still believed in even when they’ve doubted themselves, even when I’ve had to push them to achieve their best.” He pauses again, and this time his eyes stay fixed on Ben as I continue to sneak up behind. “People far better than a piece of scum like you.”

“Save the speech,” Ben sneers. “You’re just—”

Suddenly he starts to turn, as if he’s sensed my presence. Before I can react, Deckard lunges at him, and Ben turns back around. All I can do is watch in shock as Ben fires twice, hitting Deckard in the chest with two energy blasts. Crying out, I lunge at Ben, throwing all my weight against him as I send him toppling down to the ground. His gun fires twice in the process, hitting a nearby tree, but I quickly grab the weapon from his hand, snapping several of his fingers and then aiming the gun straight at his face. Filled with anger, I don’t even wait to hear what he has to say. I fire three times, and for a moment the flash of energy almost blinds me. With the gun still in my hand, I fall back, staring in horror at the bloodied mess that remains of his head.

Looking down at the gun in my right hand, I realize that I’ve held one of these things before.

“Deckard,” I stammer, turning and scrambling across the wet forest floor. “Deckard!”

As soon as I reach him, I see that a huge, smoking hole has been blasted through one side of his chest. Dropping to my knees, I put a hand on the side of his neck to check for a pulse, but blood is erupting from his wounds, flowing out of his body and spilling onto the forest floor.

“It’s going to be okay,” I tell him, as I start to pull his tunic aside to get a better look at the wound. My hands are covered in blood now, but I refuse to accept that I can’t help him. “You’ll be fine, Deckard,” I continue, “I promise. We’ll get you patched up here, and then you can rest, and eventually you’ll be on your feet again.”

Once his tunic is clear, I stare in horror at his bare chest, part of which has been completely burned away.

“Just stay calm!” I hiss, leaning closer to get a better look. There are pieces of twisted bone protruding through his mangled flesh, and more blood is running down onto the ground. “We’ll make you better again,” I tell him. “We’ll make you better, we’ll find a way.”