Chapter 80 – Down this Chasm

Three of his ribs was broken; Lung pierced; a dislocated right shoulder; a broken femur; a damaged Scapula; and a cracked fibula. His ears ringing and a vision blurred to black and white. His state was something that normally those who would see right now would think of him as dead.

But alas his ability was a double-edged sword. Like a defibrillator, it acted as a tool to wake him up. As if he was sunk into a deep pool of water. Joshua gasped for breath. His dead-like state was gone and now he was awake with the strange words telling him to live.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

His agonizing shout resounded through this dimmed chasm where the only source of light was the blue crystals growing at black stone walls of this cave system.

Joshua struggled to sit up. He looked around him only see the world in black and white. He was trembling. His face was covered in blood. His body was riddled with cuts and bruises. His arm was bloodied. His clothes tattered. He could barely breathe. It was hard just trying to keep his eyes open.

He looked around again weakly. There, he found Silo barely breathing. He was twitching. He was muttering: “H-help me,” while looking up the ceiling. He was badly injured but wasn’t as bad as Joshua who had multiple injuries. Indeed, his ability gave him to survive near-death situations. But it didn’t mean it will completely save him from injuries such as this.

But despite his pitiful state, Joshua moved towards Silo. Dragging his heavy body, he kneeled near Silo and gave him a blue pill. Silo swallowed the pill. His face was starting to calm down. And when he did he saw the badly injured Joshua.

“I thank you.”

Joshua didn’t reply. He wanted to reply but he found no strength to do so. Weak and barely hanging on to what little strength he had. Joshua forcefully feeds himself with the blue pill. His jaws were stiffed. His mouth filled with blood. He could not feel the pill go down his throat so he pushed it down using his crooked finger. He was able to swallow it but it made him vomit a mouthful of blood on the spot.

“Are you okay?” Silo said.

Joshua dully looked at Silo unable to understand what he was saying. He tried to speak but his jaws were not moving well. He could hope for the blue pill to work for him. It did work for Joshua. But the moment Joshua felt that pill was working. His eyes rolled back. His body slumped down and he laid down the floor as if lifeless. Silo called out to him. He shouted but Joshua did not wake up. There was only silence in the cave. The flicker of the blue crystal above and the tiny spot of light made Silo feel like this was it. He could not walk with one leg. He wouldn’t even be alive if Joshua didn’t save him from that beast. So Silo prayed to his God.

But there was no need to pray. Joshua was forcibly awakened by his ability. This time he felt a bit better. He could see the red veins around him and the black and white vision was gone. He could move his limbs but at the cost of feeling intense pain. Silo looked at Joshua as if his savior awoke.

Joshua did not think much. He was already beyond his own limits. He could tell that his body was broken. But he couldn’t give up here. Oddly, despite the despair around him, Joshua didn’t cry. He just reached into his pockets and patched himself up. He had gauzes on him so he was able to wrap his wounds. He looked like a mummy after doing so.

What to do? He thought. He could tell that he was in an underground cave system. He could not hear properly with his ears ringing badly. He could not smell but at least his vision told him that he was somewhere underground. It was kinda despairing for Joshua. But yet his heart told him to keep going.

To him this place was hell. But what can he do in this hell? Should he wait for damnation in this place? Why should he? He didn’t like the place and he wanted to find a doctor. He didn’t have a mind of steel. He was merely following his common sense of wanting to live right now.

It hurts. What would you do if it hurts? You find a way to make it stop. If you hate the place then why would you stay?

It was a normal thought. Of course, it didn’t mean there was no thought inside of him that made Joshua want to die to ease all the pain. It was just that his thought was single-mindedly focused on trying to live. It was a flight-or-fight response that made him think more to living.

He wanted to get away from this place. He wanted to live. But yet Silo’s cry would make him question something. Should he leave him to die? It would be easy to do so. Joshua knew that he could at least walk unlike him. But oddly he came to an odd decision.

He was deprived of health here. Yet oddly this made Joshua want to spite at fate even more. So why not do everything he can to pull himself out of this? It was unreasonable. It was stupid and full of illogical holes. But yet he had nothing to lose. He was certain that it would hurt. It would be tiresome. It would make him suffer. But so what?

He had been abandoned by people who he thought of as family. He didn’t want to stoop to their level. And strangely inside Joshua’s head, he wanted to see a happy ending to this friend of his that was the reason he was in this despair in the first place.

You have dragged me here in this mess and you think that I’d let you have the peace of death? Sorry, I won’t let you have that peace. I am dragging you out of here out of spite. I will give you that happy ending and make you accept that girl waiting for you back in Edawick!

It was a strange thought. Maybe Joshua had gone crazy. Maybe he broke but he was dead-set on this newfound goal. The light inside him might have been broken. But he still works. And that’s all he needs to keep dragging Silo out of this chasm of despair.