Chapter 29- Futile Escape

"Not good." Matt said, and pulled the curtain shut. "Where are Flynn and Helen?"

"Stacking stuff against the door." Keith said. "How are we going to get out of this?"

"No idea."

Julie tried to get out of her bed, winced and laid back down. "I guess you'll have to do it without me…I can't get up."

"Don't say that!" Drake said. "We can't just leave you behind!" Flynn and Helen came in, sweating profusely.

"There's nothing left to stack against the door, and they're still coming!" Flynn said. "I'd give us about five minutes before they break through."

"That's not nearly enough time!" Keith said.

"He's right." Matt said. "We don't have enough time to get out."

"What are we going to do, then?" Drake asked.

"We'll have to fight our way out." Matt said. "I know it looks impossible, but we have little choice. If they break in, we'll end up fighting in here, and that's not good. If we get out there we might be able to break through and find a more defensible position, or maybe get out of here." There was a loud crashing noise.

"Sounds like they broke down the door." Helen said. "It's only a matter of time before they get through the stuff Flynn and I piled up in front of it. There wasn't much to put in front of the door."

"Well, that doesn't help." Matt said. He walked over to Julie. "Come on, you need to get on your feet." Matt helped Julie off the bed. She winced again and almost fell back over. Drake caught her and helped her back up.

"Come on, we've got to get moving!" Matt said. There was another crashing noise. "There goes…something, I don't know! We need to move!" And so they dashed out of Julie's hospital room and into the hospital lobby.

The door had been smashed apart in several places. There was a variety of tables, lamps and other such things piled up in front of it, but most of them had been thrown across the room and smashed against the opposite wall. As they entered the lobby, a lamp came flying across the room and split in half over Drake's head, showering him in sparks.

"Ow!" He said.

"Stay low!" Matt said. "And, I don't know why I'm saying this, but don't get git by any flying objects!" A coffee table flew at him. He punched it hard enough to make it shatter into several hundred pieces. "Come on! We need to get closer to the door!" They ran in a sort of semi-crouch towards the door and pressed up against the wall. The fiends began to stick arms and heads through the holes in the door and roar at them. Drake noticed they seemed to have eyes for Matt over anyone else.

"Okay, so here's the plan!" Matt said. "I'm going to push everything away from the door and try to kill everything in the general vicinity of it! You guys will follow up behind me and give me some support! Stay low, stay alert, and please, don't die! I don't want to attend another funeral."

"Got it!" Everyone said. Matt began to inch over towards the door. Splinters of wood kept flying away from the door as the fiends tore apart everything in their reach. Suddenly they pulled out and stopped. For a moment Matt froze, then he dove back towards them.

"GET DOWN!" He shouted. Drake didn't know why, but he froze, and he instantly regretted it.

The entire hospital was shook by a massive force. Splinters flew from the various objects that had been holding the door shut flew everywhere. Several of the splinters hit Drake in his left side, which had been facing the door, and a few more hit him across the stomach. Drake convulsed from the pain, small drops of blood coming out of the wounds. Drake pulled the pieces out of his stomach and quickly got to his feet. Two of the largest fiends had charged through the door, instantly flattening it. And now the same two fiends were turning to address Matt.

Matt decided to take initiative. With a few lightning fast strokes, he carved away the arms of the first big fiend with a kunai knife and impaled the little orb that marked the fiend's weak spot. The fiend let out a roar of pain and then exploded, sending a very surprised Matt flying across the room. He sprung off his hand and landed on his feet.

"They're not supposed to do that!" He said. Flynn, Helen, and Keith, began to berate the second fiend with a hail of bullets. It never stood a chance. The bullets tore apart the fiend's protective arms and tore through its orb, causing it to explode as well. The explosion took out several fiends who had just ran in the hospital door, hoping for a swift kill. "Come on!" Matt shouted over the noise of the fiends. "Follow me!" He ran out the now completely open doorway. The others followed him, as he requested.

There's so many! Drake thought, hammering away at the nearest fiend with his rifle. What was Matt thinking?!? We're all going to die! He ejected his empty clip, threw it at a fiend, and locked in a new one. Especially with Julie in such bad condition! Drake glanced uncertainly at her, as she was standing right next to him, helping to cover him. And he claims to be in terrible condition too! This is suicide! A shadow rose out of the ground to meet Drake. He swung the butt of his rifle at it and clove it in half, only to have it reform behind him. Fortunately, Flynn noticed and put a bullet through what should have been its skull. The shadow dissipated, only to reform in the core of the group of fiends.

"There's too many!" Flynn said, beads of sweat appearing on his face. "And these shadows are bitches! They keep respawning!"

"That's only for video games!" Keith said.

"We're going to die!" Helen said, pushing a fiend away with the stock of her rifle. "We can't possibly keep this up forever!" Matt passed in front of them, cutting down the nearest line of fiends.

"Just keep fighting! We'll get out of this somehow!" He shouted, looking over his shoulder at them.

"MATT! LOOK OUT!!!" Julie screamed. Matt turned to look in front of him to see a fiend leveling a shotgun on him. His eyes grew wide and he tried to move. He was too late. There was a earsplitting noise and Matt was sent spinning backwards, streams of blood following him. Drake dropped his gun in disbelief.

No… it can't be… He thought numbly. Time seemed to move slowly as Matt fell to the ground. His body hit the ground with a resounding thud that seemed to echo through Drake's mind. The others had also frozen and were staring with similar disbelief on their faces. Tears were leaking out of Julie's eyes.

And for some reason the fiends began to run away. Drake didn't care why. All he was focused on was the bleeding body in front of him. Julie ran to Matt's side without a second thought and began to scream his name. When he didn't respond, Julie rolled him over, gasped at the damage, turned, and threw up.

The shotgun blast had torn apart almost all of Matt's right side beneath his lung. They could actually see his lung expanding and contracting from his shallow breath. The right half of his liver had been torn completely off, as had the right side of his stomach. His intestines had fallen out partially when Julie had rolled him over, and their contents were spilling out to join the blood and stomach acid that was flowing quite freely out of his side. The sight made Drake sick.

"Matt…no…" Flynn said. Julie was openly crying on the ground next to Matt.

"Why? Why? WHY?!?" She kept saying, and then broke down into sobs again. With what looked like an incredible amount of effort, Matt sat up against a nearby building. His intestines slipped a little farther out.

"You're still alive?!?" Drake said.

"Yes…but only just. I need to put things in order." Matt said. He closed his eyes, then opened them slowly. "Julie, get up." She did so and went to stand next to Drake. Her eyes were still filled with tears. "I'm going to die. There's no way to fix this-"

"But can't you do that soul thing?" Keith asked.

"The damage is… too great to be fixed. I cannot regenerate that much." Matt looked into Drake's eyes. "I need to address each of you individually. These are my last words, I suppose…" He closed his eyes again, then slowly opened them. "Drake, you're a great duelist and a good man. You've got something going here, keep rolling and you'll be fine." Drake wasn't sure, but he thought Matt's eyes flickered purposefully towards Julie during the last statement. Matt's eyes now moved to Keith. "Keith… you're a brilliant young man. Keep working at it, and you'll go far… yes, quite far…" Matt's eyes moved to Flynn. "Flynn… so you're going to do tag dueling? Find a good partner… yes, someone who can support you not just on the duel field, but off of it too… and look in a place you don't expect to find someone in…"

Matt's eyes came to rest on Helen next. "You're a good woman, just try not to shoot everyone you don't trust… hehe..cough" Matt spat out some blood. At the rate he was losing fluids, it was a miracle he was still alive. "And just so you know, when you return to the Academy, you will be Chancellor… so be prepared." Helen nodded. There were tears in her eyes too. And finally Matt's eyes came to rest on Julie. "Julie, Julie… what to say? Come here… to my left." Julie walked slowly toward him and dropped to her knees next to him. Quite unexpectedly, Matt wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight to his side. And then he spoke so softly that Drake could barely hear it.

"I'm sorry… for what I put you through. If you hate me for that… I don't blame you. But please…grant me this, a last wish to a dead man. I want your forgiveness…"

"It's okay…" Julie whispered. "It's all okay… I forgive you… I love you…"

"I know… but it never would have worked. Sorry for that, too…" And with that, Matt released his hug. Drake could swear he saw tears welling up in Matt's eyes. Julie stood up and slowly walked away. Tears were falling quite freely from her face. Matt shut his eyes again, and slowly opened them. "I want… to thank all of you. It has been… an honor and a privilege to get to know each of you. It has truly been… one of the best times of my life. Now…" He reached into his pocket and withdrew two things: a cell phone and a PDA. "…I need to give you guys these. The cell phone will allow you to contact Brooklyn. The PDA contains all of my personal notes on the Shadow Realm, along with an incomplete map of the realm… incomplete because it does not go past the first level… and the realm is constantly changing. Here…" He held them out for Flynn to take. Flynn stored them in his pocket. Matt breathed deeply. "And now… I can die in peace. Just no one come and join me…hahah-" Matt's laugh became fainter and fainter. His eyes began to close slowly, until they were finally shut. Then, he took one last breath, and slumped over sideways, dead.

For a while they all just stood there. They had been through a lot, but this was the worst. Matt dead… they had long believed him invincible, unable to be taken down by anything or anyone. But now, there he was, finally beaten at last, broken, undeniably dead.