Chapter 13: Rite of Passage
1136 Words
Luther leaned against the moss-covered wall of the sewer, ignoring the filth sticking to his back. His body was hot from overexertion.
He lifted another cigarette to his mouth, brushed his fingers through his sweaty hair, and mumbled to his sister, "Dig out their power cores."
"I..." Glancing the dead rat, Constance felt repulsed at the thought of touching one.
"What? You don't want to? Then get out of here. I don’t want you here just to drag me down," Luther puffed at his cigarette and spat it out, attempting to stand. His body was sore and tired now. He staggered back to his feet.
Constance hurriedly came to help him, but he waved at her to leave him alone. "If you can't get over your fears, you’re useless. If you survive today on your own, you’ll only die tomorrow.”
Luther coldly stared at the bewildered Constance, taunting her further. "I’m not going to waste my energy on someone that is already dead.”
Constance looked up at Luther, clenching her fists so her lip wouldn’t tremble. "If I do this, can I please stick with you?”
"I don’t need a coward. You’re a good partner. I trust you, and you’re loyal. But this isn’t some competition, this is literally doomsday.”
Luther emphasized his last words, and he continued, "It’s not that I don’t need you. The fact is, Doomsday is not a day for cowards.”
"I..." Constance struggled to reply, her mind drifting back to the first day they were in the building. Luther warned her of everything that was about to happen. From their first zombie until now, he never asked her to do anything. He taught her all of these survival skills as he fought for her to do what?
To train her? Did he really want her to keep living in a world like this?
Constance looked at her brother, who had fought until he was two seconds from death so many times to keep her safe, and besides all of his pain, never cried in complaint once.
Even now, Luther was trying to push her to overcome her fear so she could be stronger.
Constance felt comfort in her heart by how invested her brother was in keeping her alive.
Luther saw the expression on her face and sighed, "Forget it. If you can’t do it, I won’t force you."
"No! I can do it. I won’t let you down."
Just when Luther had given up on trying to make his sister overcome her fear, she fought back so he would not be disappointed.
Constance lifted the ax and approached the nearest rat corpse.
"Someone once told me, ‘Don't fight for the moment, fight for the future.’" Luther pondered out loud for his sister to hear.
Constance raised her ax as he spoke, "I understand, Luther. But I won’t let you down again. I can do this.”
As she said this, she swung the ax down on the dead rat’s head.
The fire still burned, now cooking the meat of the rat’s body. The smell overpowered the stench of rotting corpses nearby.
Luther and his sister sat close to the fire, the heat warming their faces and the smell of meat in their noses.
Luther had eaten three more power cores, boosting him up to Bronze rank three. He felt much better as his body strengthened and recharged.
Luther flipped the rat meat on the stick it was pierced on. He took out a few bottles of seasoning from the backpack, sprinkled it on the meat, and waited for the oil to drip off of the dead rat and into the flame.
"Are we really going to eat a mutant rat? " Constance asked him, almost disgusted. She was the one to prepare the meat, but to eat it…
Luther smiled. "You’re not hungry?"
"I am, but mutated rat meat..."
"Don't worry, most viruses can't endure high-temperature heating. We are Erazers, and this would be considered exotic meat for us. It’s harmless, and over time it’ll strengthen our power." Luther smiled, ripped out a piece of meat, and ate it. The oil from the meat dripped out of his mouth and he smiled as he chewed. "This tastes so good. Constance, you have to eat some of this."
He ripped off another piece and handed it to Constance.
She saw her brother enjoying the taste, and she felt a little more convinced.
"Eat it. You need your energy, or else you won’t be able to fight.”
She nodded, her stomach rumbling from hunger. She took the meat from his hand and ate a large bite of it. Luther nodded when she ate it, smiled and asked, "You ate five of those power cores. How are you feeling now?”
Constance chewed the meat and replied, "I feel like I can do more. Before I could only shoot three fireballs at a time, but now I think I could do seven or eight if I had to."
"That’s great. But you need to keep an eye on your power. As soon as some people gain their powers, they can become very powerful in just a matter of days." Luther ate a few pieces of meat and burped, wiping his hands on his pants.
He was full now, and he packed everything he had. There was not much left in his backpack, and they needed to try and gather food and medicine soon.
Luther knew that their power had been used a lot already. And now, his sister had been injured. It was going to be nighttime in a few hours, and they didn’t have a safe place to stay until morning.
All these factors reminded him that they needed to get away from the sewers quickly.
Luther asked Constance, "Are you full?"
"Yes, I'm done."
"Alright, let’s go."
They got to their feet and left. Constance didn’t know everything that was going through her brother’s head right now, but she knew she could trust him. This was how it always was.
As they fled, they ran into two groups of infected sewage workers and a few more mutated rats. Luther was strong enough now to fight anyone off that was below a Silver level mutation, and he got even stronger from fighting them.
They had come across over a dozen power cores, and Luther had eaten over half of them. This was because Luther knew he had to build up his strength as soon as possible, and he was the one that fought off almost every enemy.
They stopped.
Luther found a ladder going up and said. "That's it. Our exit."
Luther climbed up first, opening the manhole cover. By now, the sun was already down. He looked around. There were trees on both sides of an asphalt road, and several cars parked facing both ways. Far beyond the trees were some fields. They were now out of the city. These could be the suburbs or even the countryside.
When he saw that it was safe, he pushed the manhole cover to one side and waved for Constance to follow him.
- Writer
