heartbreak & heatstroke | EPA v S&S v A { day four }
Nov 26, 2023 20:18:16 GMT -5
Post by eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris on Nov 26, 2023 20:18:16 GMT -5
E M E R S O N E M B E R S T A T T |
It's taking the stairs that proves to be the hardest task.
There are still fresh cuts littering his skin, a splotchy bruise across his shin where he tripped while running from the entity, a burn mark down his arm where the flash of the beam had scorched him — but as they descend down the steps in the intense, dry heat, Emerson thinks he might faint. They had only barely managed to evade whatever was lurking in the artificial sky of Ten, distracting the thing with seared meat just long enough to distance themselves from the threat. All that running had already made his throat turn to crackling sandpaper, every breath a jab of pain, but now he feels as if he's been drinking lava.
The truth is, he hasn't been drinking near enough of anything at all. His stomach rumbles, throat rasping, aching legs carrying down to the training room where he and his allies have been summoned. He recognizes one of the names that joined theirs, the other boy from Two who had been involved in Mac's death, but he is not yet acquainted with Sacrifice or Arlo. His heart still races with the knowledge of what is inevitably going to happen; Geiger has made that much clear already. The six of them are going to enter this room, and one less person will exit.
That's the way this game is played.
Having to work up the nerve to make this choice is one thing, but having to do so with a pounding headache is its own form of cruelty. He just wants to find the thermostat and relieve this unbearable heat, to find the source of the power outage and restore electricity to the building. He already knew this was no place to live, to consider home, but now that truth cannot be avoided. This is a danger zone, a wasteland, a graveyard in the making. None of them are safe, and only when all the others are dead will one of them be able to make a break for the surface, gasping for air and relief.
If he could choose his torture, he would take drowning over this.
"Let's just stay close," he says over his shoulder as they approach the training room, his long legs and restlessness putting him at the front of the pack. "Whatever or whoever they have waiting for us in there, we face it together." He's not sure at this point if he's saying this for his benefit or theirs, and with each passing day he wonders when his allies will finally get tired of carrying his dead weight around. He wants to be an asset, places himself in the role of protector, but that has yet to see fruition.
Mac died despite all his false airs of bravery.
When he walks into the room and his gaze land on Siberite, he is reminded of this. He goes back to that elevator, back when the lights were still on and he could breathe normally, and the act of remembering a time when things were still whole and not yet bloodstained makes his bottom lip tremble. His grip tightens on the handle of his glaive, his back turned to his friends but knowing that they stand with him. Despite how wise that is, despite his belief that they would be better off leaving him behind, he knows that they are at his side. He will not sit idly by and watch either of them be taken from him.
Never again. Four days of this torment have passed, and he cannot continue to always be the one reacting. He has to act. The first move is his to make.
So he aims his weapon at the boy from Two, his eyes absent of hate but his voice hardened with determination. "If you're planning to kill one of my friends again, then you'll have to get through me first."
emerson attacks siberite w/ glaive ;
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4.0 + 0.5 vengeance (10 damage received today)
_NSzpqgQFxglaive
4.0 + 0.5 vengeance (10 damage received today)