Chapter 37
Ruby's Rage
The sound of sirens brought Zach out from his dream, causing him to groan groggily and open his eyes. The last remnants of the dream – something involving a candle-lit dinner and a lovely Spanish lady – disappeared as he focused in on his surroundings and it all came back to him like a punch to the gut.
He was still strapped in the back-seat of the police cruiser, his neck aching dully. The window to his left had a long crack running down its length and he could see a pile of loose bricks blocking his door from opening. He turned his head to the front of the cruiser to see Nathan Furrow's long frame slumped against the remains of an airbag, covered in dust but breathing slowly, judging by his back moving up and down.
Finally Zach turned to the right and his stomach jumped a little bit at the stark redness of the blood sticking to the floor and roof of the passenger seat. The entire left side of the car had been ripped and torn at by the explosion, as if a large and ferocious animal had tried to get inside. Ruby herself was motionless in her seat, her seatbelt snapped in two and half slumped out into the open air, the left side of her body coated in blood. It took Zach a moment to find the origin of the blood but finally he spotted the three twisted metal shards of the chassis sticking into Ruby's side. One had impaled itself in her ribcage, one in her leg, and finally the other in her shoulder blade, just below the neck.
The blood was still pumping, Zach could see, slowly spilling out of the three horrifying wounds. He felt the panic and the bile rise in his throat and for a moment he wanted nothing more than to scream. Then he took a deep breath and quickly looked around for the small leather pouch. For a horrifying moment he thought that he had somehow lost the five capsules but then he spotted them, tucked under Nathan's seat. He scooped them up and peered inside, the golden glow inside calming him down.
"Ruby?" He called out, finding his voice. He managed to manoeuvre himself so he was looking over Ruby. Up close her skin was pale and small beads of sweat dotted her skin. "Ruby, can you hear me?" There was no response to Zach's question. He grit his teeth and gently shook her right shoulder, taking care not to disturb the injured left.
Still nothing.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He chewed on his lip, unsure of what to do. He looked to Nathan but the Detective Inspector was clearly out of it. Then he looked back to Ruby and understood the answer was held in his hand. Zach reached into the pouch and pulled out one perfectly round capsule, feeling the strange warmth of it and letting the small glow shine. Just looking at it, Zach knew that the Oracle must have been telling the truth about its powers, no matter how crazy it sounded. This capsule held power… power to save lives.
Zach knew he couldn't think about the repercussions of the meaning behind using one of the capsules. All he could think of was what was in front of him and that was a severely injured woman. He gently pushed the capsule against Ruby's lips, parting them. He frowned as he tried to figure out how to get her to swallow the capsule when the capsule suddenly seemed to dissolve into golden liquid. The liquid ran into Ruby's throat as if it had a mind of its own, disappearing into the darkness.
Almost instantly Ruby's eyes suddenly opened and she let out a gasp. A faint gold shimmered in the whites of her eyes before it disappeared and Ruby focused her gaze on Zach. "What…?" She moved and suddenly cried out upon disturbing the shards of metal stuck in her side. "Christ!" She spat the word out before looking back at Zach. "What-What happened?"
"…It worked…" Zach said in a whisper, already seeing the colour come back into Ruby's cheeks. She may still be injured but it was clear she wasn't at death's door anymore. However, Ruby's eyes narrowed at Zach's words.
"…Worked?" Her breathing grew quick as she looked at the pouch in Zach's hand. Then she slowly looked back up to him. "You… You didn't…"
"I had to-"
"Tell me you didn't!" Ruby's voice was frightening as she moved, tugging at the shards embedded within her. "Zach!?"
"I had to," Zach repeated firmly.
Ruby's eyes widened and she grit her teeth, breathing a long breath in and letting a long breath out. "I…" She seemed to be finding it hard to find her words. "…wasn't… on… the List…" Ruby closed her eyes for a moment before twisting her body. In one sharp movement the twisted metal was wrenched from her side and Ruby let out another cry of pain. Blood splattered against the seats but Ruby didn't seem to care. It must have been the work of the Nectar as she managed to climb out of the side of the car, standing upon the loose bricks of the broken wall.
Standing tall, Ruby looked down on herself. Blood stuck her clothes to her skin and the three wounds were clear on her side but they only throbbed dully. It was as if she had merely stubbed her toe, instead of being pierced. Then she turned back to Zach and with half of her face coated in blood and the fierce expression in her eyes, she looked like a wild animal. Her shoulders heaved as she fought to control her breathing.
Finally, she looked up to the sky and let out a wordless cry of anger that was filled with unsaid emotion. Every frustration she had felt over the last few days rang out over the immediate area, the deaths of Daniel, Jay, and Paige, the fury at the Oracle's twisted sense of duty, the intense anger at Zach's usage of the Nectar. Finally Ruby's voice stopped and only the echoes could be heard.
Shaken, Zach slowly pulled himself out of the car as well, standing in front of Ruby, whose face was still pointing to the sky. "Ruby—"
Her knuckles slammed into his jaw and took Zach completely by surprise. He span and stumbled backwards, tripping over the bricks and landing heavily on the pavement. She lunged on top of him and Zach couldn't even fight as she pushed her hands against his shoulders, pushing him flat against the pavement.
"I wasn't on the List!" she said again, her voice filled with venom. "Why did you use the Nectar!? I wasn't destined to die, Zach! There were only five, five capsules to save five of the survivors and now we can only save four of them!"
"You were in-injured…" Zach tried to say but Ruby dug her nails painfully into his shoulders. He winced and shut his mouth.
"So what!? So what if I was injured!? It was just a normal injury, a normal accident, I could have survived it! I would have fought through it! I wasn't on the List!"
"What would you have me do?" Zach found an anger rising in his chest now. "You were bleeding out, you were pale, you were dying! You expect me to just ignore that?"
"Yes! The others on the List are more important than me!"
"Bullshit!" Zach responded, staring above at Ruby's face mere inches from his own. "You're saying your life is less important than there's?! Fuck if I can make that decision, Ruby. All that mattered was the then and the there and that was you bleeding out and dying! I could stop it and I did!"
"Signing someone's death warrant!" Ruby roared. "Only four, Zach, do you realise that! You've doomed one more!"
"Hell if I have!" Zach had enough and pushed against Ruby, throwing her to the side. He managed to get to his feet, standing his full height to look down at the smaller Ruby. "Do these capsules mean you've given up on every other possibility!?"
"There is no other possibility!" Ruby ground her teeth together. "You know that!"
"I don't know that! You don't know that! These—" he raised the pouch of Nectar. "Are a way of saving four of our friends, not dooming four of them! This just means we have to figure out how to save four survivors, not eight, right!? We're not going to stop helping them just because of this Nectar, right?"
Ruby let out a growl and seemed to lose all sense of reason. She lunged for Zach again and swiped at his face. One nail caught his cheek and tore his skin, causing Zach to curse. "We had a guarantee for five lives! You screwed that up, Zach! You wasted it!" She lunged again but Zach managed to back up into the road.
"Don't be so stupid!" he responded. "Wasted it?! Wasted it on what, huh? Wasted it on the lady who saved all of us!?" He shook his head. "Without you there wouldn't even be four survivors! There'd be none at all!" Zach stepped forward and grabbed Ruby around the collar, looking deep into her eyes. "Ruby, we hardly know each other but from what I do know of you, you're a fucking hero! You may think I'm wasting it on you but do you think the others would think that?! Do you think Tanzi would think I was wasting it, saving you?"
"And now you've traded my life for hers!" Ruby dived forward and tackled Zach to the floor. He managed to roll on top of her and pin her hands to the street. Ruby struggled but Zach was too strong.
"You're not thinking straight, Ruby! We can save Tanzi, we can save the others! We just need to—oomph!" Zach fell to the side, his eyes watering from the knee Ruby drove into his crotch. She got up and for a moment Zach could swear he could see gold shining in the veins of her neck.
"I fought so hard, Zach! I fought so fucking hard just to see Paige die!" Her eyes were bulging now as the fury that was in Ruby grew. "I didn't ask for this!"
"I didn't say you did!" Zach said as he got to his knees.
"What the fuck did I do, huh, to deserve all of this!?" Ruby seemed to ignore Zach and ran her hands through her red hair. "I was innocent! Then Epsilon happened… and Sabrina… and it all got so.. so fucking goddamn fucked! I survived by a fluke!" Ruby was crouching over now. "Now it is happening all over again! Everyone is dying and I'm just here to watch!"
"We can stop it," Zach insisted but Ruby wasn't listening to reason. She whipped her head towards him and he saw the strange gold lines running through her again, following down her veins. "Listen, Ruby, listen to me! We have four capsules, okay, we can save four of them! But we can save the other four, right, we can… we can search for those rifts, can't we? The Nectar of the Gods still falls, every year. If we can save the other four, if we can keep them alive then we can still save them! And what about the other things he mentioned, the Chalice of Life, those Totems…"
"Why did I even try!?" Ruby cried out. "I should have let Death take us all when Tanzi had the vision! Saved us from this doomed future! Chalice of Life? Totems? The Nectar?! All useless… All futile…"
"Ruby! I don't know what's got into you but you need to listen to me!" Zach backed away as Ruby approached. "The Nectar has done something to you… right? You're just freaking out because of the Nectar… That's something you can fight, right? That's something you can fight!"
Ruby paused for a moment, her breathing wild.
"Yeah, yeah, that's it!" Zach smiled hopefully. "It's… It's just some kind of aftershock, some sort of side-effect. Fight it, Ruby… We got to get to the Hospital, we got to save them!" Zach raised the pouch of Nectar capsules. "And we can!"
For a moment it seemed as if he had gotten through to Ruby… then her face turned into an intense grimace. "Why even try?" She whispered and leaned down to pick up a brick. She tested the weight before suddenly throwing it at Zach. It crashed against his shoulder and Zach cried out in pain, falling to the floor again. It's driven her crazy… he thought desperately as he watched Ruby pick up another brick. The Oracle screwed us over…
"End it now… End it now to avoid days of futility…" Ruby said in that whisper and walked over to Zach. She hefted the brick up and Zach brought up his hand in desperation to block the attack.
BANG!
The gunshot rattled past them and Ruby stepped back in shock.
"That is enough!" Nathan Furrow was standing next to his police cruiser, gun held in his long fingers. "The first was a warning shot. Drop the brick, now!"
Ruby stared at Nathan and suddenly broke out in a grin. Only it was a grin that didn't reach her eyes. "But if I don't… If I don't then Death will anyway… Like Daniel… Like Jay… Like Paige... Heheh…" Ruby chuckled madly. "Names on a List… Heh… Eddy and Corey… Bridge… Heheheh… Jason, Meghan, Trenton… Sabrina… They died no matter what I did! You'll die no matter what I do! So enough is enough! I'm done playing by Death's rules!" And with that Ruby went to swing her brick down towards Zach one more time.
BANG!
This time a spray of blood came out of Ruby's neck. She stumbled back in shock before falling to her knees, her hands desperately clawing at her neck. The gold in her veins seemed to dissipate and Ruby's lips quivered. However the blood stopped flowing and Ruby could only shiver wildly. She clutched at her neck and looked to Zach. "I-I-I… I…" She blanched and suddenly doubled over, letting the little contents of her stomach out all over the road.
"My God…" Nathan muttered from next to Zach, having moved up. "Those Capsules of yours… They are real. No one would be standing after a shot to the throat. Yet she... She still talks…"
Ruby finally looked up, wiping her mouth. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" Tears ran down her face, intermingling with the blood. "I-I don't know… I don't know what came over me… I-I…"
Zach forced a smile. "You're you, right? You're not crazy anymore?"
"I felt… I felt so… strange… like… like the self I keep buried away took control and… and…" Ruby held herself close and shivered. "Tanzi… the others… Zach, you-you must go and save them… you have to save them…"
"Ruby, you're…" Zach started but a thin hand clamped on his shoulder. He looked up to Nathan Furrow, who was wearing a peculiar expression.
"Sounds to me like you have to run," Nathan said as he looked to Ruby before looking around at the numerous black plumes around Eastbourne. The sirens of other emergency services echoed around at results of the explosions. "I cannot pretend to understand what is happening but it seems to me like you and those capsules of yours must make it to the hospital. I will make sure Ruby is kept safe."
"But…"
"P-Please…" Ruby looked to Zach desperately. "Save them… Save them…"
His stomach tying itself in knots at the choices he would have to make, Zach nodded grimly. His throat was so dry he was unable to get any words out so he turned his back and started running towards the direction of the hospital, hoping against hope that everybody was okay.