"What in the..." Bill gasped as he felt the surge of power in his body. He had begun to grow accustomed to the alien sensation after this long, horrid day, but this little shard contained an energy that was far more potent. The wicked wounds and lacerations he had received in the last battle had improved noticeably. He stared at the grassy floor around him which was strewn with many hundreds of the shards, and knelt down on the ground. His hands shot out, and he snatched a dozen of the emerald shards in seconds. He could feel an incredible power within them, it was calling out to him now that he had stopped to listen. Still kneeling on the ground, he poured all but one of the shards into his left hand. He held out the lone shard in his right hand, and stared intently has he closed his scared and callused fingers around around it and slowly increased the pressure on the gem shard until it gave in. It shattered into a fine powder, and as the powder settled on his skin, it shined with a radiant light before it dissolved into him. Another rush of power entered his body, and his wounds began to close again. He hadn't imagined it. This little shard held the power to heal wounds. "Art! And you! Deputy!" Bill called to the two men who were still staring at the wreckage in shock, "Get over here!" Bill didn't even spare them a glance as he crushed the rest of the shards in his left hand. A wave of vitality coursed through his body and soul, incomparable to the lone shards before. It brought with it an ecstasy unlike any pleasure he had ever known, and he felt the torn flesh of his body healing over, coming together, and then the muscles, veins, tendons and nerves reconnected and reconstructed the natural order of his body as if it had never happened. The scars were the only proof remaining that he had ever been injured. And then he felt an unfamiliar tightness under his blood-stained orange hunting cap. Bill tore it off, and then ran his fingers through his hair. He had started going bald at the age of sixteen, and had shaved the rest off to match. It was the first time he had enjoyed the feeling of hair on his head in twenty years. He couldn't help but laugh in delight. Art and David had walked over, and were staring at the hunter laughing and rubbing his hands through his hair. "Ahem!" David coughed loudly while glaring at Bill's back, "Are we interrupting something? Or do you mind if I spend some more time with my friend before watching you groom yourself?" "Shit! Sorry!" Bill shouted as he whirled around, and then he remembered what he had called them for, "Help me pick these up!" he yelled as he threw himself forward onto the ground and started madly grabbing the emerald shards and stuffing them into his vest pockets. Art simply stared at Bill with his mouth open in disgust, but David was roiling with rage. "How fucking dare you!" he roared, "All those men dead, and you can't even wait a few minutes before scrambling for treasure? And you not only insult the dead, but you call me away from my grieving just for this?! In his fury, David brandished his claymore and stomped across the few feet to Bill who was glaring at him with frustration and indignation as he stood up and hefted his axe. "God dammit David! Can't an old man get any sleep around here!?" Pike roared after being woken by the deputy shouting just five feet from where he lay, "Damn it all. This isn't the station" Pike grumbled as he sat up, and within a second his gruff, grandfatherly rambling vanished. That was all the time it took for his sleepy daze to be driven off and for the harsh reality of this warped mutant hell to replace it. "You wake from his shouting, but you didn't hear the grenade? Or the gunfire? Or the battle?" Bill sighed, wishing they had had another man in that last hellish confrontation. We're alive..." he mumbled, "Well, some of us at least. Better than I'd hoped at the end there, not that it matters with all those other bastards out there. How the hell am I alive after that explosion?" Pike noticed Bill and David both had snapped their heads to him when he woke, but were standing with weapons poised to strike each-other down. "And what the bloody hell are you two doing?" "He was scaveng---!" David started as he lowered his claymore, but Bill yelled over him. "Fuck, you all keep distracting me!" He yelled before he threw himself to the ground once again. "I have the answer to both your questions right here!" "You see this sh---!" David seethed to Pike, before being cut off again "Shut up. Just take these." Bill shoved a handful in each of their hands and stared at them expectantly. "You think you can bribe-!" "Oh, for fucks sake! Save your anger for the rats. Just crush it. Like this." Bill pulled out another shard, and crushed it between his fingers, showing the rest of them the might of its glow. "It's a shiny rock, who gives a---!" David tried to continue his perpetually disrupted tirade, however Pike rose, and towered a full head above them. He had never been short by any measure, however as he stepped between them to put an end to their bickering, he had clearly grown much taller. "Shut up David, just do it. Give the man some credit. He has more than earned that much today." Pike spoke as he pulverized the shards in his own hand. His wounds had already been healed, and the marks of age had vanished along with them. As the surge of power washed over him, his muscles tensed, and then immense pain erupted all over his body. Every muscle in his body tore apart all at once, and he clenched his teeth in agony as he struggled to suppress a scream. He felt his muscles dissolving, evaporating, and then within seconds they began to reform. After the great battles, and the surge of power released by the gem's detonation, his already well toned body had reached the limits of how much muscle could be packed on without getting in the way. Any more and he would be less flexible, less agile, and so the surge of power was redirected from simple growth. His entire muscle structure was rebuilt, with condensed and inhumanly powerful muscle taking its place. The entire process took less than ten seconds, but he felt a tremendous change within him. He looked around, wondering if Art and David would be staring at the contortions his face had made, but they were completely oblivious to the pain he had endured. And from the fading aura of power around their bodies, and their own changes, he could easily imagine why. The wounds and fatigues of the day had vanished once more, and the same unnatural vitality of Bill and himself had taken root within them. Pike had been the oldest by far, but none of the men here around him had been less than middle aged. Now the four of them all looked like they had walked off a college football field, at least if no-one noticed the horrible scars. It was a day of horrid tragedy, mutant monsters, and the discovery of magical power. Over and over their bodies had swelled with might they had never imagined. It was slow at first, but as the stakes grew higher and their foes more numerous and monstrous, they had reached new heights. Each time seemed as if they were at the peak of human potential, but each time they were proved wrong. As Pike felt the power within his muscles, within every extremity of his body, he believed that with this power, there would be no limit. If their bodies were too weak to handle the power, then their bodies would change. The price had been far to great, but the power they had gained was real. He stared at the shards covering the the cavern floor around the altar, and he reached out with his mind. He felt the surging power within them, straining to be unleashed. And he sensed the countless lights of power flickering in the unseen distance, those transposed onto his vision of the cavern with his instinctive sense. Each of the lights that were another cavern of hell just like the one he had sacrificed almost one and a half hundred men to defeat. At this rate humanity would be extinguished, or forced to hide within towns, never venturing out into the wilderness. But that could only work if these terrible foes ceased to grow. Even as the seconds passed, he could feel the tiny shifts in their power that proved that was a false hope. But here, right before him, was a chance. If he took all the shards here, if he made all of this power his own, he could win. A single handful had allowed him to eclipse the greatest Olympians. All of it would... He was lost in thought, but he noticed Bill scrambling to gather as much as he could into his pockets. While the three of them were reeling from the changes, he had harvested nearly a quarter of the scattered shards. 'Would a quarter be enough?' He wondered, panic tugging at his enhanced heart. 'If we share it, the four of us together would be stronger, but will they fight? Can I trust them not to leave with the power they have? Can I risk the lives of everyone in Greendale on their courage and good nature? Are they as enraged as I am? Would rage drive them to do what needs to be done?' Pike's dark brooding took him to a place he had never been before, but a shout from Bill turned his musings to planning. He had to decide, and quickly. Before the others used too many shards. "Hurry up and help me dammit! I don't know how much time we have! We might be too late!" Bill shouted, desperation straining his voice, "I wasted too much time on you..." he mumbled under his breath, but the enhanced hearing of the other three easily picked up his private mutterings. "Time we have for what? Late for what?" David demanded, as confusion contorted his brow. "To help them!" Bill cried, gesturing madly towards the entrance to the cavern, scattering the shards he had in his hand in the clumsy gesture, "You saw them Pike! You saw those men old Frank tried to patch up! He did his best, but hes not a doctor. He's the town butcher for fuck's sake! I don't know how long he can keep those boys alive!" "Christ..." Pike groaned, he has forgotten about the brave men still living, but too weak to stand here before him. His greed had trampled over his compassion and his loyalty to his men. "He can't help them at all." David sighed, "He came to help you with me and the others. A rat got his leg, and he went down..." "Fuck. Hurry up and help me then!" Bill cried, scrambling faster than ever. The three mighty champions fell to the ground on their hands and knees right beside Bill. "Go on ahead Bill!" Pike barked, his hands grasping at the little emerald shards of power, "We will gather the rest. Get those shards to the wounded!" Bill didn't even offer a reply as he sprinted out across the cavern at a speed that would shame the gold medalists at any competition. His feet were sure and steady, but as he crossed the mountain of rat corpses, the one he had stepped on had been hollowed out by cannibalism early on in the battle, while the rats were waiting for their turn to lunge at human flesh. His foot broke through from the force of his mad sprint, and he stumbled. He caught himself at the last moment, however a large chunk bounced out of one of his pockets without notice. It fell to the ground, and sunk beneath the surface of the great pool of blood and gore. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It took just a few short minutes for Pike to scrounge up every last shard scattered across the floor. After the first third had been gathered, they dumped all their shards into one of Art's empty flare cases, and sent him running after Bill. Then Pike sent David, and now he had finally gathered the last, and most scattered shards alone. He still desperately wanted to take them, and use their power to defeat their next foe. But if it meant damning one of the men who had trusted him, and followed him to a cold, lonely death far from the light of the sun, he couldn't bring himself to do it. With his pockets filled with every last shard his heightened senses could find, he raced over to meet up with the others who had gone ahead. He had been hearing cries and screams, but they were cries of grief, not of battle. As best as he could tell, Lana's brothers were dead. He could see them across the cavern, though the sun crystals above were beginning to dim. As he drew near to the others, he felt a shard glowing in the muck, but Lana's screams echoed through the cavern again. "Fuck! Why isn't it working! He's still alive dammit!" and then she broke down into sobs once more. Pike glanced at the woman, who was cradling Duke's mangled body in her glowing arms. And then did a double-take. Her arms. No, her whole body. It was glowing with a green light. "Give me more! It will work this time!" She screamed at Bill, who was shaking his head, staring at the ground, trying to hide his tears. The grief of the woman in front of him was too raw, and cut through to his soul, but it wasn't going to work. They had healed up the other two wounded men, and a third they had assumed dead, crushed underneath a pile of rats. He had croaked when David accidentally stepped on his hand. Each had only required a few shards, except for the buried man who needed a few dozen. With just that their terrible wounds closed and they recovered excellently. Even mortal wounds, and a man on the brink of death could be restored with so few. As much as they had taken earlier had been overkill, so much as to reject the passage of time. But he had given Lana the full contents of one of his pockets, and Art had given her all the shards he had carried back, but nothing had worked. The great man was still breathing, but it was so pitifully shallow, and came out in infrequent gasps and weak, rasping inhales. It seemed there was a limit to the power of the shards, and it was that they poured power into the one who crushed them. She had crushed them over his chest, but the powder didn't fall as if it was immune to gravity, it just soaked into her hand. She did it over his mouth, put them in his hands and pressed, put it under his shoulder and pushed down on him to crush it with his weight till he sobbed from an agony so great it reached him in his unconscious state. She continued to press, and the shards shattered, but what they had thought was powder simply drifted through the great man's body, and absorbed into the desperate woman's skin. Bill looked to the man who had saved all their lives, Earl. When they had returned and healed who they could, they heaved the gargantuan bear off of their hero. Even with his dying breath, he had fought till the end. He had braced the maul shaft against the ground, and the bear had impaled itself with its own weight. Where human strength had failed, the bear's weight had forced the shaft through its hardened hide, and deep into its heart. They carried him out, and laid him to rest beside his sister and brother, the bear had mercifully died before it had torn his head clean off, but that was the only good that could be said about the state of his body. They should have known that bringing her a dead brother while holding a dying one in her arms would drive her mad, but they thought only of what their fallen hero would want. She had snapped, and kept demanding more and more, desperate to save her remaining brother. Bill stifled a sob as he handed her another handful of shards. "I'm sorry, but this is all. The men above need healing too." She snatched it from his hand. She strained to drive the fear and terror from her voice, "It will work. It has to." Bill couldn't bear to watch another round, and left to join David who was staring into the depths of the darkness, mumbling. "Those damned fools. They will never find the way... Fuck." he punched the wall to emphasize that last, quiet curse, tearing a large hole in the dirt of the entryway. Two of the men he had tried to escape with earlier had grabbed their wounded friend and carried him into the dark, moss-lit tunnel, but they still had no light after they reached the tunnel to the second floor, and no way to navigate the maze even if they did. While the two men were staring down the tunnel, and Art was sitting against the cavern wall with the three healed men, Pike was staring at Lana. This was his fault. They had won, but it was hollow compared to the countless other... whatever these were. Earl would never see his unborn child, and Duke would leave a grieving fiancée just a month away from the altar. He watched as the glowing woman bowed her head in prayer, with her hands clasping the magical emerald shards. She carefully piled them atop his heart, and she closed her eyes. She breathed in deeply, held her breath, and then slammed her hands down upon the pile. "No! No! No! Not again! Not me!" She screamed as the glow of the crushed emeralds added to the radiance around her hands and arms, before spreading out evenly across her body. She clung desperately to his chest, as her tears rained down upon her dear brother. She begged, she pleaded for the light dancing tauntingly around her to leave. She poured the weight of her entire soul into saving him. His chest began to glow.