Living with Survival
Chapter 4: The Kingmaker
Tim heard a slow drip. At first as a singular sound in the darkness and then as a sense of consciousness. The drip was every 7-8 seconds. Tim realised he was counting the seconds in between. Like lifting two mountains, his eyelids raised open. At first he saw nothing. "Am I alive" he could barely whisper. Minutes went by, but felt closer to hours. Slowly his surroundings eased into view. He lay in a bed, an old wooden one. The dark room he lay in was made of stone, empty and hollow. A wax candle sat flickering in the dark in the centre of the room.
When an ounce of confidence graced him he attempted to sit up. A lightning bolt of pain shot through his stomach and licked his entire body. He thought for a moment even his toes and fingertips tingled with agony. He must have let out a scream, but hardly noticed. A sound of footsteps moving across stone floors grew louder beyond the wooden door of his room, or cell. The door swung open and out of the blur of his injury stepped a shape. "Tim" came her voice and within view stepped Ellsy.
She sat gently next to him and grasped his frail hand. "I'm so sorry Tim" She was holding back a world of hurt, of guilt. "W-w-what happen..." Tim began to cough, a storm cell of throbbing in his gut. "Shhh, Tim, don't move. You were shot. I shot you. I panicked and hit you. I'm so sorry Tim." She began to sob. Tim's frail hand rose to her soft cheek, the softest thing he had ever felt he thought. His finger wiped away a tear. "shhhh" he barely managed to muster the energy to speak. "Where a-are w-w-we?" Ellsy composed herself for a few seconds and began to explain. "We were found by some survivors. They helped us and rushed us back here. We're in a castle Tim, Warwick Castle. They've made a settlement within the walls. There are over a hundred people. They've been here since the beginning." Tim could barely process the information. He tried to sit up again but it was all too much. Blackness took him again, Ellsy's voice echoing in the distance as he lost all consciousness.
Tim could see Jons face, nothing else. He stared with unmoving eyes, like a statue with a flicker of life. "Jon?" As the name left his lips his brother face contorted into something evil. Blood began to discharge from his eyelids. His eyeballs turning crimson in an instant, his teeth bared and stained with gore. He lunged for him as Tim tried to get away, but he was glued to the spot, unable to struggle or escape the attack.
The awakening this time was sharp and sudden. Tim's eyes were wide and full of horror; the pain was dulled, but very much still there. The same room surrounded him, yet no Ellsy. "Awake again I see" came a voice in the shadows, the astute voice of a middle aged man. Tim turned his head to the far corner of the void of a room. A man leant against the wall, his shoulder length hair shun almost silver when he stepped into the candle light.
He was dressed in strange clothing, simple but almost medieval in nature, a leather tunic with an aged white undergarment. "You're very lucky you know, you survived the attack from your old friend, you survived a gunshot wound from your current friend, and you survived the trip here due to your new friend". "Who are you?" Tim could speak a lot easier now, had much time past he thought? "My name is Rich, but most people call me The Kingmaker around here, I'm the leader of our little rabble". Tim's head spun with the sheer madness of it all. Kingmakers and castles he thought? He must have died and went to some strange afterlife. "Can you walk? You're currently in the Northern tower, which means we are a few steps away from the castle walls. Perhaps some explaining would be a welcome remedy". Tim instantly forced every part of himself to sit up. The pain was bad, but the thought of being outside compelled him to his feet. A few moments of composure and Tim struggled towards the exit. The Kingmaker pushed the heavy wooden door open for him, and gently took Tim by the arm. There was a quiet strength to the man; he had the aura of a leader. Tim breathed heavily and walked out the door into the unknown world beyond.
