A Fight to the Deaths
Kela instructed two of the survivors to carry Maria inside, and pulled Gerr's arm around her shoulder to relieve him of some of the weight. She helped him back inside, eyes trained on the ground as she passed Logan. He noticed the boy's left leg was covered in blood, and he seemed to favor his right side more and more.
Once down in the hospital area, she placed Gerr on one of the tables and ripped off the pant leg of his left side. A small caliber bullet wound was centered on the side of his left leg, blood oozing out of the hole. Kela shuddered at the sight and the smell of the blood, and Hank glided her out of the way, going to work on the bullet. Kela ran out, and bounded up the levels to her room. She threw open one of the drawers and pulled out the bag filled with the flowers. Despite the fact they were dried, they still released a pungent aroma. She clutched the bag to her chest and ran back downstairs.
She stopped Hank from stitching the wound together.
She took out the top flower from the bag, ripped off three of the petals, and popped them in her mouth, chewing each carefully. Spitting it back in her hand, she placed the clump of chewed flower directly onto the bullet wound.
"Kela! You need to keep the wound clean, this could cause an infection." Hank exclaimed.
"No, it won't." Kela started, as she took off another petal, and placed it over the sticky mess. "I had just made it to Costa Rica when I was bitten by a snake. I was almost dead when some man in a strange dress made me a tea out of these petals. In a couple of days, I was fine and on my way. He told me that these petals can heals almost anything, given the right application. I did the same thing when some animal bit my leg, and it healed in no time. Wrap this up, will you?" she told Hank, who was baffled. Kela sighed, and decided to show him.
She found a small scalpel and sliced her thumb open. She chewed another petal in her mouth and rubbed the mess over the cut. She took a square of gauze and wiped off the goop and the blood. There was a thin line running vertical over the pad in her thumb, but the skin had re-fused together and completely healed.
"See? It might take a little longer because it goes so deep, but it will help him, better than any stitches. You just can put anything on it, or else the flowers won't work. I never had a chance to use it when I got burned in the danger room, or else the scars wouldn't be quite so noticeable." She unconsciously rubbed at her arm over her jacket. Hank was still skeptical, but he agreed to the same treatment, with minor variations, on the rest of the survivors. Maria was a different story. She had fallen unconscious when Gerr had taken her, and Lex had to hook her up so she could continue to breathe properly. Gerr had followed Kela into Maria's room, with the support of crutches.
"How did it happen?" Kela asked.
"I don't know the full details, but RegiCorp somehow found us. It all happened pretty fast, and before we knew it, they had bagged and tagged about half of us. Some managed to distract the main group while I got others to escape. It was weird, Liam didn't even try to shift and help out, he just ran. The look on his face though, it was like he wasn't even there, like he had disappeared. I hope he turns up here as well, I want to get my hands on him, he left of there to those, things." Kela's jaw clenched, and she fought to chase after Liam. Charles was right; I never should have trusted Liam. She thought. He must have been the one who tipped off the Catchers.
A sense sounded off in her head, and she left Maria to the hands of Hank and Storm. Gerr felt the same thing, but he couldn't follow to help her. Logan, wary of how she was reacting, frowned and crept along after her. He was amazed at the way she was handling this, most would have had a mental breakdown. He stayed farther back from her until she stopped in front of the door.
"What is it, Logan?" her voice seemed older, somehow.
"I'm going to make sure you don't do something stupid. Like run off and find that person you were talking about. Like or not, I want to help you, kid."
She turned to look at him, her eyes looking strangely blank. "You should have stopped me sooner then. I've been sneaking off for the past two weeks to help them plan an attack against RegiCorp. I guess that an attack is out of the question."
Logan sighed. "I know. I've been watching you leave every night, and seeing you come back every morning. I don't sleep, remember?"
"Why didn't you say anything?"
Logan shrugged. "Curious, I suppose. I meant to follow you, but I thought you could handle it."
"Let me do something, and then I promise no late-night trips anymore." She frowned as a muffled yell came from out on the lawn. She turned and headed out the door, Logan following behind.
"Kela!" the voice yelled. Liam was standing halfway across the lawn, a bit bedraggled but in one piece. A growl escaped Kela's throat, and her hands curled into fists. Once, just once, she thought. I could let the beast out of the cage and use it to kill him. The Primeval crouched in anticipation. It loved a good bloodshed. Kela banished the thought. Even someone like Liam didn't need to be ripped to shreds.
She strode toward him, and she finally noticed the smell. Something was off about him. She realized this was the way he was since she had met him. The Liam in front of her was not his true state. It was her adoration with him that masked what he really was. The Primeval had taken over. The real Liam was dead, and had been for some time. Why he hadn't reverted to his animal state perplexed her. As she got closer, she saw that Liam was slightly hunched, and dark bags had formed under his eyes. His face was red, and there was were scratches around his cheeks and face, like he had tried claw out his eyes. His arms hung loosely at his sides, the fingers clawed like he was about to strike.
Kela took this all in stride. Whatever thoughts she harbored for him had vanished.
"Shift and fight me! You could have killed her, could have killed them all!" Kela crouched down, preparing to change into a mountain lion.
Liam laughed. It was a purely guttural sound, devoid of anything human.
"You wouldn't attack a Shifter who has been given the cure! If he had only let me in, I could have prevented this. But he wanted to leave this world behind, join those pathetic humans! I saved his body, at the price of his consciousness dying and the loss of his powers. And now, you will pay for what you did to us, our existence!"
"You're the one who gave them away! You condemned your own kind!" Kela was trying so hard not to break his neck. The Primeval strained to break free; this would have been over by now, it reasoned.
Liam laughed again. "You don't know, do you? RegiCorp has been following you from the beginning, tracking you, in hopes of finding the camp. Looks like they got what they came for. They'll come after you next, and then the true Evil will be back upon the earth for another five thousand years." this statement snapped something inside of her.
With a feral yell, she launched herself at Liam, shoving him to the ground. He got his feet underneath her and kicked her across the space. They jumped up at the same time and threw themselves at each other, colliding with a dull thud. Logan was staring wide-eyed, in shock. The raw anger was something he hadn't seen in her in a while. She sidestepped Liam as he attempted to punch at her stomach and brought her elbow down on his own. They grappled with each other in increasingly violent ways; Logan was reminded of two carnivores fighting over a meal or territory. He desperately wanted to help her; Liam seemed to be gaining the upper hand, and he had size and weight on his size, but to intervene would be dangerous for him and could cause repercussions for the girl.
Kela was desperately looking for a way out. All of her anger had been drained and now all she had left was fear, and Liam could sense this. He began to notice she was attacking a second too late, and he found his opening. He connected with the back of her knees, and she fell to the ground. He wrapped a hand around her throat and kept her pinned to the ground. She began to struggle against the pressure. He leaned in closer and whispered in her ear.
"Give in Kela, become like me. You would be surprised at how easy it is. Then, you might have been able to live." Liam squeezed, harder and harder on her neck, and Kela struggled to stay alive. She was about to give in to the blackness when the pressure was released, and the cool air rushed into her throat. Logan yanked Liam off the Shifter girl and fought him away from Kela as she coughed and gasped for air.
"All right, bub, how about you deal with me!" he yelled, and extended his claws to attack. Liam deflected the blows and hit Logan square in the chest, sending him flying. He turned to attack Logan again.
Kela found her chance. She ran up behind him and grabbed him at the back of the neck. In one swift movement, she snapped his neck.
Logan came to soon after; Kela knelt on the ground, mumbling to herself. He took in the body of Liam soon after, neck at a grisly angle. He got up off the ground, and walked towards the girl, concern covering his features. Her brown hair was disheveled and hanging about her face. Her face was red, and her shoulders were heaving up and down.
"You okay?" he asked. She barked out a laugh and turned her eyes to him.
"If by okay you mean I nearly lost control of myself? Then yes. Don't ever let me do that again." Kela got to her feet, and shakily followed after Logan, leaving the broken body of the former Shifter leader to lie in the grass.
Kela knew that sometime during her fight with Liam, Maria had died. She kept silent all the way down to the hospital, and it wasn't until they were almost to the Mansion's hospital that Logan noticed the tears streaming down her face. He tenderly placed a hand on her shoulder, and she leaned in, sobbing into his shirt.
Kela walked towards the bed, Logan clearing out everyone else beside Gerr and the wounded. She shifted to a wolf and howled a sorrowful tune that reverberated through the room.