Amy Cross - Persona

Grabbing the torn section of tunic, I start ripping it into smaller pieces. My mind is racing and I have no medical experience at all, but at the same time I figure I can buy some time by patching the holes in his chest.

“Stay with me,” I continue, scrunching a section of fabric into a ball and then pressing it against the largest wound. Blood immediately starts soaking through the material, and it’s clear that there’s far too much for me to clean up. Within seconds, more blood has begun to trickle from the edges of the wound, as if it simply refuses to be stopped.

As panic fills my chest, I look around for something else, anything else, I can use to save him.

“It’s going to be fine,” I whisper, with tears running down my face. “I’ll save you, I’ll…”

Spotting some wet leaves nearby, I scramble over and grab them, figuring that maybe I can use them to somehow seal Deckard’s wounds. My hands are trembling, and when I crawl back over to Deckard I don’t even dare look at his face. Instead, I start rolling the leaves between my hands, although after a moment I realize that there’s no way this is going to work. I freeze for a moment, trying to work out what to try next, before finally I feel a kind of weight settle in my chest, and I force myself to face the truth.

Turning, I look at Deckard’s face.

He’s dead.

He probably died as soon as he was shot, several minutes ago now.

He died to save me .

There are still screams in the distance, coming from the town, but for a moment all I can do is sit next to Deckard’s body. I feel completely numb, as if all hope has left my chest, but slowly something else starts to creep to the edge of my senses. Deckard believed in me, and he truly seemed to think that I still had a chance to deal with Harold and get Steadfall back. Maybe he was wrong, maybe he was completely deluded, but I have to take that chance now.

Reaching out, I gently close Deckard’s dead eyes. I feel as if I should say something, but no words come to mind.

“I hope you find your wife now,” I mutter finally, before slowly getting to my feet. There are tears in my eyes, but I don’t have time to mourn right now. I have to—

Suddenly I hear a vast, shuddering groan, as if something huge and metallic is lumbering through the forest. Turning, I look through the trees, and I feel a growing sense that I’m not alone. Everything around me feels somehow unreal, as if I’m in a dream, and the cold night air seems to be shimmering slightly. Still clutching the gun, I step past Deckard’s body and then past Ben’s as well. Still staring at the darkness ahead, I listen to the sound of engines getting closer, and after a moment I realize I can see lights hovering as they advance through the forest. I’ve seen them before, but I don’t remember where. A moment later, trees start to come crashing down, and I realize there are dark figures running this way. All around me, the air is vibrating with a kind of tense anticipation, and I feel as if I should know what I’m doing.

The war.

This is what happened during the war.

“Down!” a voice shouts.

Suddenly several energy blasts come flashing through the air, slamming into trees and missing me by inches. I turn to run, only to find that there are soldiers all around me, already firing back at the enemy. Dropping to my knees, I turn and watch in horror as some kind of vast warship comes crashing through the forest. A moment later, energy cannons are engaged, sending a series of crackling red beams through the air. Unlike the blasters that simply send pulses of energy, these cannons produce a long, continuous beam that flashes over our heads, slicing easily through trees and then changing direction until they cut straight into the bodies of nearby soldiers. They scream as they’re dismembered, and I stare at them for a moment before turning to face the warship and raising my gun. I start firing, even though I know I don’t have a hope in hell of bringing the damn thing down.

“Asher!” a voice shouts, grabbing my arm. “We have to retreat!”

Turning, I’m shocked to see Mads next to me, dressed in full combat gear.

“Asher!” she hisses. “Move! We’ve got orders to drop back to the original insertion point. There’s more cover there, and we can regroup for another push. Right now, we’re out-numbered and we’re losing too many people!”

“We can’t retreat!” I tell her. “If we—”

“Move!”

Pulling me between the trees, she forces me to duck as the energy beam slices through the air above us. Several more trees come down, slamming into the wet ground, as individual energy blasts are sent flashing toward our position. Other soldiers are already pulling back and diving for cover but, when I turn to look back, I see that the warship is still coming, smashing through the trees while foot-soldiers approach through the darkness below.

“What is that thing?” I stammer.

“Don’t freak out on me now!” Mads shouts, aiming her gun and then firing several blasts at the enemy.

“Who are they?” I ask. “Who are we fighting?”

“For real?” she hisses.

I turn and fire some shots into the darkness. There are shapes up ahead, hurrying between the trees, but I can’t make them out properly and I can’t see exactly who or what they are. “This happened,” I whisper after a moment, as I realize that I’m reliving a memory. “This actually happened, we—”

Suddenly a blast fills my vision and I fall back. The shot misses me by inches, but a moment later I hear a cry as Mads slumps to the ground. Crawling toward her, I find that she’s taken a direct hit to the chest, and the damage has broken through her armor. Blood is flowing from the wound, and she lets out a gasp of pain as she tries to get up.

“Run!” she shouts. “Asher, you—”

Before she can finish, blood starts bursting from her mouth. She tries to speak, but she simply brings up more and more blood.

“I’m not leaving you,” I stammer, grabbing her arms, ready to pull her to safety.

“Run!” she gurgles.

Hearing a loud creaking sound, I turn and see that the warship has begun to turn, heading straight toward us through the forest. Energy blasts are flashing through the air in both directions, and cries of pain are coming from all around. We’re right in the heart of the war and there’s nothing I can do except try to get Mads out of here.

“Don’t get yourself killed,” Mads whispers, sounding weaker by the second. “Asher, leave me! Get the hell out of here and go back to join the unit!”

Ignoring the advice, I start pulling her across the damp ground, but after a moment I stumble and fall. By the time I’ve managed to get up, the warship is even closer, sending trees crashing down all around us. For a moment, all I can do is stare up at the vast lights of the machines as it starts to fly directly over us. The engines are deafening, whipping the air all around into a gale and causing the ground to shudder.

“Run!” Mads screams, her voice barely audible as the warship’s engines enter a new surge-cycle. At the same time, the blast from the cannon is burning the air.

Nearby, foot-soldiers are screaming.

“Asher, run!” Mads shouts. “Get out of here!”

“Medic!” I scream, hoping against hope that someone from our side will hear me. “I need a medic!” I look around, but all I see are dead bodies scattered throughout the forest. “Medic!”

“Asher!” Mads continues. “It’s too late!”

Filled with panic, I aim my gun straight up and start firing futilely at the warship’s brightly-lit underside. The shots bounce off harmlessly, of course, and a moment later I realize foot-soldiers are getting closer and closer. Turning, I aim at them and fire, blasting them as fast as possible. They return fire, but their shots miss while I manage to hit two of them almost immediately. Overwhelmed by a sense of fury, I start running toward them, still firing, figuring I’ll take as many of them out as possible before inevitably one of them—