Chương 571: Night of Sinners

Zoe and Luke moved through the forest beneath a sky swallowed by night. They were in the island's second zone now. Dense woods, uneven ground, shadows that seemed to breathe when you stared too long. Their hope was simple: find chests if any decided to fall from the sky out here. The problem was, neither of them knew whether this zone even spawned them.

"I just hope there's nothing dangerous down there," Zoe said, staring at a hole in the rock wall. They crouched and crawled inside. Dirt scraped against their palms and knees as they squeezed through the narrow tunnel. When they emerged on the other side, they found themselves in a small cave, barely tall enough to stand in.

"It's better than staying out in the rain. I'm freezing." Luke crawled back out through the hole without a word. A few minutes later he returned with an armful of leaves, twigs, clumps of wet grass, even a couple of loose stones. He stacked everything around the entrance from the inside, sealing it off as best he could, camouflaging the opening in case anyone passed nearby. Only then did he sit back down.

"I found branches, but they're soaked. No way we're starting a fire."

"I could try using my fire skill," she said, hugging her arms to herself.

"The problem is it creates a huge flare. Big cloud of flame."

"Yeah. Let's not roast ourselves in a hole."

"If I light it outside, the firelight could attract enemies," she said.

"I know," he replied. The storm still raged outside. Even inside the cave, they could hear the rain hammering the forest and the distant rumble of thunder rolling through the earth.

"It's really cold, don't you think?"

"Yeah." They were both nearly naked at this point. Zoe wore even less than Luke, and her teeth were starting to chatter.

"Well, Sariel, I've been dropping hints for a while now and you still haven't caught on," she said, giving him a look.

"There's only one way we stop freezing to death. And knowing our luck, hypothermia is probably next on the list."

"And that would be?"

"Sharing body heat." She lowered herself to the ground.

"So. Do you want to be the one hugging, or the one being hugged?" He just stared at her.

"Standing there looking at me isn't going to make this less awkward. We are literally dying."

"I'm considering alternatives."

"There are no alternatives. And you might want to lose the pants. Wet clothes aren't helping." She reached behind her back and unclasped her bra, tossing it aside without ceremony. Luke let out a long breath.

"I'd rather be the one hugging. I don't want to wake up with your hands around my throat." he said.

"Seriously? After what we went through in the water, I figured we were past trying to kill each other."

"Humans are still humans at the end of the day." She laughed softly.

"Sariel, you must've had a complicated life." He lay down with his back against the cold rock wall. Zoe moved in close a second later, fitting herself against him.

"You do realize this only works if you actually wrap your arms around me, right?"

"I know," he muttered. Artemis, wherever you are, why do I have the feeling you're laughing at me right now? He closed his arms around her. At first it was stiff, mechanical. Two people pretending this was nothing. But slowly, warmth began to build between them. The cold retreated inch by inch. Their shivering eased. Breath steadied. They stayed like that in silence for a long time, the storm growling beyond the thin barrier of stone and leaves. Eventually, Zoe broke the quiet.

"How was it growing up with heterochromatic eyes? Must've drawn a lot of attention in school," Zoe asked.

"That only happened in the last few months," he said.

"And I spent most of that time wearing an eyepatch to hide it."

"The last few months? How does something like that even happen? Some kind of wild magic?"

"Something like that." The conversation eased into a natural rhythm. He learned she'd accepted the system at eighteen because she wanted to work for the government, then went off to university.

"At least you went to college," he said.

"And you became a multimillionaire at twenty, Sariel. And didn't even get to enjoy it. Talk about bad luck. You got rich a month before the apocalypse." This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"A few months. But yeah, I didn't enjoy any of it. I even promised a friend I'd take her to see Vegas."

"Maybe Vegas will still be there when this whole event ends. But…" She hesitated.

"Maybe not. Those planets closing in on Earth when we got summoned… that was bizarre." A merging of worlds, Luke knew. Whether she was right to worry or not, the thought stuck to him like humidity in the air.

"Do you think we'll be stuck on this planet when it's over?" she asked quietly.

"Because… it'd be pretty sad to finish the challenge as the last survivor, only to be abandoned here with no one left."

"You're not wrong," he said.

"Finishing alone… wouldn't feel much like winning." Silence settled between them.

"Maybe we deserve it," she murmured, more to herself than to him.

"Deserve it?"

"There were fifteen of us, Sariel. But only five got sent here." She drew a slow breath.

"In the first days, we tried to understand why. You heard about the criminals, right? You were hunting them when we met."

"Yeah. I interrogated a few and found out they were inmates from a special prison."

"Me and my friends think we figured out why we were sent to the island… or more like what we all had in common."

"And what was that?" Zoe stayed silent for several seconds. When she finally spoke, her voice was thin, almost worn.

"All five of us had taken an innocent life."

"An innocent?"

"Working for a hero isn't easy, Sariel. Sometimes you have to make choices no one should have to make. Two people trapped in a burning car, only one you can reach in time… It doesn't always matter who deserves to live. You just choose, and then you live with it."

"I get it." Luke had killed many people, but innocents… only one. And that one memory never left him. Angelica.

"It's a solid theory," he said.

"Did you kill an innocent, Sariel?"

"I did. But it was… similar to what you described. I didn't have a choice."

"The innocent I killed was long before I ever got the job as a hero's assistant," she said. Luke didn't ask.

"I couldn't save my brother from drowning when we were kids." She let out a rough, humorless laugh.

"Pretty ironic, isn't it? This whole event themed after the Sunken Realms." She wasn't laughing at the joke, she was laughing at herself.

"That's why I think we're here, Sariel. Not a single person I met on this island, none that I managed to help, was someone who hadn't directly or indirectly caused an innocent death. This place is punishment."

"It's a good theory." Whether it was true or not, Luke felt something slot into place. Of Charlie, Jack, Eleanor, and Evangeline… he was the one chosen for the island. Of course he was.

"At least I got unlucky alone," he said.

"But you came here with four friends. And in the end…"

"Yeah. In the end, only one of us can walk away." He couldn't imagine having to kill one of his own friends.

The rain kept falling, and the two of them lay there on the cave floor, wrapped around each other in the darkness.

"Are you awake, Sariel?" she whispered.

"I am." Zoe turned toward him, and Luke tightened his arms around her almost instinctively.

"I checked the scoreboard," she said quietly.

"It only shows the top five, but at least we can tell who's managed to get the bracelets."

"All five at the top have them," he replied.

"I looked too."

"They're monsters. Those are the ones who'll make it to the end of this challenge. One of them will win." Her face was so close to his now that he could feel the warmth of her breath.

"We're going to end up like sand, Sariel. Scattered. No one will even know how we died." Her hand slid up to rest against his chest.

"So why don't we… enjoy these last two months?"

"Enjoy them how?" She let out a soft sigh.

"You can be a little slow sometimes. I'm asking if you want to… make love to me. Tonight. And maybe… until the last day of this challenge." Luke didn't answer.

"If you want to keep chasing bracelets, fine. I won't get in your way. But at least tonight." Her fingers pressed lightly against him, hesitant now.

"I might not get another chance to connect with someone like this. I could die tomorrow. Or in a few hours. So why not?"

"I'm sorry," he said at last.

"I won't." A pause.

"But… why? I'm not your type?"

"It's not that." He exhaled slowly.

"There's someone special to me. A wife, I mean, a girlfriend. Well… honestly, I'm not even sure."

"You're not sure?"

"I accidentally proposed to someone once and ended up married for a year without realizing it."

"What?"

"In the end, I started a relationship with that person anyway. I guess she was supposed to be my girlfriend. But I just realized… I never actually asked her out."

"Sariel, there are simpler ways to turn down an invitation." He cleared his throat softly.

"Long story short, I'm committed." Silence settled between them, heavy but not hostile.

"You're not hugging me anymore," she murmured.

"I'm cold." He hesitated.

"Wait. Now you're just messing with me, aren't you?"

"Yeah," she admitted. She shifted again, turning her back to him. Luke wrapped his arms around her once more.

"Sariel, we're probably going to die in a few days," she said gently.

"I promise I won't tell anyone. If you decide you want to feel close to someone before the end… just let me know."

Zoe was asleep. Luke pulled on his pants and headed toward the cave entrance.

"Checking if it's morning?" she asked behind him.

"I… didn't know you were awake."

"I'm a light sleeper." Her gaze flicked to where he had retrieved his pants, then back to him.

"It's fine, Sariel. I know what you were planning to do."

"I'm sorry, but… I can't stay here."

"The notification said we get a few days off before the next challenge. You could stay…"

"It also mentioned a reward event."

"So you won't be coming back to this cave?"

"I'm sorry. No."

"I see…" she murmured.

"It was a pleasure meeting you. We might never see each other again, so… goodbye, Zoe."

"Goodbye, Sariel. And if we run into each other during the challenges, the truce still stands."

"Agreed." Luke left the cave. Daylight filtered through the rain outside, everything washed in cold gray. There was no way he could stay with Zoe. Too many kinds of danger came with that. Because if, in the end, only the two of them remained, he knew he'd have to kill her to leave the island. And Luke had no intention of carrying the weight of another death that didn't deserve to happen.

"Alright. This new notification is going to make things interesting."