[1-3] The Nose

[Gildarts]

With her sniper slung over her shoulder, they approached the beach and there was still no service on her phone. Fuck. Her eyes quickly scoured the crescent landscape, hoping to find Abner's distinctive face among the bobbing heads of the survivors. It looked like only the front of the plane had landed here, though it was hard to tell, from the mashed bits of metal that appeared to have been chomped apart by the ground.

Acrid smoke filled the air, which was brushed away by the salty, ocean breeze. They’d made it through the woods, though Christa’s eyes kept catching suspiciously on Red XIII, before her toes fell over something limp and motionless. The Prime's body quickly became rigid, for without looking down, she knew exactly what she'd stumbled upon.

Suddenly, there was a cold hand wrapped around her ankle. "Wait..." the voice said almost soundlessly, as the person's head was face-down on the hot sand, muted by the world that would no longer hear her. Immediately, the still-enraged Christa knelt to the ground, and turned the body over.  What she found was a grotesque truth, delivered to her first by the revolting smell of seared flesh and then later by the sight of crushed bone twisted below the black skin, sprouting upwards like a plant about to pierce the veil of its soil. Her charred lips were still moving, but only Omni knew what she was trying to say.

"Oh no..." Christa's own eyes began to water at the sight, she could only imagine the pain, for it told in the fading light of the ghastly woman's brown eyes. The Prime's blue gaze didn't steer from the reflecting pair of golden brown, while her hand held the dying woman's with a grip tighter than God's. Christa was unwilling to let go, and so melted was the sniper's heart that she had released the pistol in an effort to comfort the woman. Christa's eyes lingered away for a split-second, trying to determine the number of breaths the nameless woman had left, only to find the chocolate woman had been been split directly in two, and now, only her torso remained. This world was too ruthless, for now, an innocent soul would die in a sizzling pool of her own blood.

"No..."The word scratched over the sniper's throat like sandpaper. The light was leaving the dying woman's eyes now, but the tears continuously streamed, cleaning the ash off of her brown cheeks and leaving stains from the rivers, Christa's pale, bloodied thumb brushed the woman's tears away, "You, are a hero." Christa spoke sternly, persuasively as the other, no different at all from Christa, lay on the ground preparing to walk in the valley of death, "Don't think of the pain, don't you dare. Heroes don't feel pain, because they know they did everything they possibly could. You did great, and you lived and you loved, and I bet that smile of yours smile is enough to light up a whole room. That's all life is about. You were a hero. And I will remember you until my final breath."