Chương 137: Fall Off The Bone I

June was young. He was only 20 years of age. Regardless of his age, he had seen many things. Bodies, Murder, Assault, powerless to every damning setback. Pragmatism wasn't something he was born with; it wasn't something anyone was born with. He didn't adopt pragmatism from his mother, his father, his brother, or his sister. They taught him… life taught him in the meanest way. His life had taught him that he was powerless, no matter what. His family had taught him that he would never be enough.

He had run his life ragged, nearly died on several occasions of overworking, and nearly died on several more to just repeatedly hear them tell him the same phrase every time.

'I should have tried harder…' June's mother taught him that people didn't care to listen to him. Her blunder was June's lessons and punishment. June's father taught him how pathetic people were and how people would not help without incentive. His blunder was June's lessons and punishment. June's brother taught him that joy was a privilege to be earned, and that he would never earn it. His blunder was June's lessons and punishment.

June's sister taught him that some people cannot be helped, especially if they refuse another's grace. Her blunder was June's lessons and punishment. So many lessons… So many punishments… It would never be enough… June looked down at dozens of bones, some picked clean, others with eyes and viscera spilling out. His eyes twitched; he wanted to scream… he wanted to cry… what did these people do to deserve this?

His bones shook, his jaw teetered on the edge of closing from the waft of rot and the shock of what he was seeing, his stomach angrily churned almost as if it wanted to climb out and find the one who did this.

'I-if… no no… I couldn't have saved them even if I got here earlier….. shit! If only….' He rubbed his shell's gauntleted thumb against his palm in circular formations in hopes of calming his nerves. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. This was less fear; it felt like his innards wanted to find the one who did this. June walked further down the tunnel, doing his best to navigate his shell respectfully around the bones.

Roaches crawled through cavities of picked-clean skulls, spilled organs, and even dived in and out of semi-intact bodies without grace… He didn't know how to feel about seeing these bodies be used in such a way, but he remembered the roaches' place in nature and calmed himself.

'I hope being picked clean by detritivores is better than being stuck in this shithole…' The Sumeye following him seemed to have backed off; this was the source of their fears after all. June didn't need to find the one who caused this all, but a piece of his mind kept on egging him on to part the fool who killed this many people. He hoped it was a beast instead of a person, but he had an unfortunate track record of being correct with his predictions of the worst outcomes.

Another silvery bar doorway presented itself; this time it had no lock. He stepped closer and peered through the bars, and the reaction to what he saw caused the entire shell to twitch unnaturally. A dirtied man with long, unkempt hair and beard stood in the room, walking around, wearing effectively no clothing except for a simple rag covering his loins. He dragged a body by the arms over to a makeshift fireplace, and haphazardly tossed the body in. The body woke up….

The survivor who was dragged and thrown into the ramshackle fireplace started screaming; they flailed around trying to get out, trying to escape… But the one who threw him in had other plans; he pressed a dirtied foot against the struggling survivor's face and pressed the back of his head into the fire with little to no effort. June opened the door and barreled towards the scraggly man, and in turn, the untidy man tensed his foot on the survivor's face and…

Splat The poor fool's head that was stuck between the dirtied man and a stack of lit firewood simply… Popped like a zit… The filthy killer raised his blood-covered toes to his mouth with amazing flexibility… and sucked the blood off of them. What was happening clicked in June's head; this man was a cannibal. June shook his apprehension off and lifted his fists into a boxing stance. Then he failed rule one of the battlefield. He hesitated.

Within the next instant the man appeared next to him and delivered a roundhouse kick to the shell's side, causing the 8ft tall shell to stagger over and fall, the bone armor coating his side splintered and shot within the suit like buckshot, fortunately, June was able to raise his real arm to catch most of the bone debris, aside from the few pieces dotted along his mouth and cheeks.

June collected himself immediately and turned to his side before pushing off the ground with one hand and delivering a violent kick with both of his legs. He then swept over into a standing position, followed by a bear tackle, clocking the cannibal in the head with one of his suit's pec-platings. The cannibal fell pinned by June. While June had no proper experience with proper pugilism, he did have a brief time learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu; he shifted his body into an armbar and held it at its tensile maximum…

and then he remembered this wasn't sparring. pop The cannibal let out a feral scream as its arm bones inverted then snapped. Despite that, the man managed to whip his broken arm with enough force to throw June's 8ft tall shell through a nearby wall and into the next room. June caught himself and clawed his fingers into the ground to stop sliding, and stood up, before immediately getting distracted. Dozens of people were in cages: adults, Children, even pets.

Most survivors looked catatonic; they simply sat with empty eyes, unmoving, barely breathing. Some people looked emaciated, others shared cages with corpses, and others seemed to have let go of themselves and eaten their cellmates. June grit his jaw with such violence that his teeth shattered against one another; the one that stayed intact either dug into gums or met other intact teeth and was forced to make way as he gritted further.

No matter what, June did his best to never grunt or scream when injured or in any case whatsoever, but for the first time in his life, he felt that if he didn't scream with anger, he would go insane. The fading memory of Quash's trauma flashed into his mind as some cruel form of forgotten PTSD, and he screamed… But his scream did not sound like the one a human would make. But a beast.