Day Two

[Strazio Rockwell]

The glass gave way as I dove for safety. I hit the ground and inadvertently started to tumble down into a ditch. My broken arm smacked against the moist ground as I came to a stop at the bottom of the valley. Not wanting to draw attention to myself from the mob in the diner I bit my tongue and stifled a scream of pain. Slowly I managed to crawl to my knees. My back was in agonizing pain and I reached back to try and find the wound. A large metal nail was plugged deep into my lower back. With a deep breath I ripped the nail from my flesh and through it to the side.

“Fuck. FUCK he shot me with a fucking nail!? Are you kidding me? I’ll make a fucking soup out of that goddamned turtle and use his shell as a bowl!” I raged and punched the soft ground with my good arm. It took every scrap of self control to not charge back into the diner and paint its walls red. All you ever do is make enemies, you won’t get very far being that abrasive. Valerie’s advice seemed to taunt me in a dark hour. Under my breath I cursed him and stood up.

The worst of the storm seemed to have past, but that didn’t mean the rain wasn’t still vicious. Traveling would be arduous, but I certainly couldn’t stay out here for them to find me. With a deep rage still boiling in my chest I turned my back on the diner and began to hike. With no map and only a rough idea of my location it would be damn near impossible to find any of those care packages that Karl had so generously dropped on the island. Plus it seemed that most of the primes had huddled together into groups. Gilgamesh probably had a small boy band carrying him everywhere he went. Although, Crona was dead.

“Crona...” I muttered, thinking back to our meeting in New Babylon. The poor kid didn’t seem cut out for a death match like the abyss. But, if Crona was dead than that means maybe Gil and crew ran into some hardships. A slight feeling of schadenfreude overtook me and I grinned at the potential misfortune of the arrogant king. All I had to do was outlast him and I would be happy at this point. It was a game of survival and there was no way I would lose to that arrogant bastard.

Fuck alliances I thought to spite Valerie I’m not here to make friends. Mara had been the only person I had ever thought of as a companion. We were on the same level, we both had the same goal and we were both very very angry. And you even betrayed her I winced as the unwanted thought crept into my mind. Now was not the time to think of the past, but yet I couldn’t shake the thought of Mara being excommunicated and slashed across the throat.

My mind went blank as I tried to push everything away. All that mattered was putting one step in front of the other and surviving this rainstorm. All I needed to do was to move forward like I always did. For a while I walked like that, mind blank only focused on the next step. The rain served well as white noise and let me clear my head and focus on the competition. Eventually I came to a road and decided to follow it. My boots were caked with mud and muck and I left a trail of boot prints in the rain. Hopefully the oppressive downpour would clear away my tracks and offer me some cover.