Ark 7: The Sariel

Chapter 10: Fading Hearts

"Piece by piece,
I slowly fade away,
I slowly drift apart."
― Five Finger Death Punch

We made it to Las's room, I looked in through the window, Las's wife Cassandra was sitting by his side, her blond-brown hair draped over the hospital bed. I opened the door and walked in, Cassandra looked up at me, her brown eyes framed by red from crying.

"Jax?" Cassandra whispered.

"Yea Cass?" I walked to the hospital bed.

"What if he doesn't pull through? What am I going to do?" She started crying again.

"Hey...Cass? Look, you'll be fine....Las....Las will be fine...." I tried my best to reassure her. I looked back to Las laying on the bed. "My best friend.....this is my fault" I thought to myself, I was thinking about everything I've done recently, all the mistakes, all of the near death moments. I was pulled from my daydream when the sound of gunfire erupted in the medcenter, the door burst open and Ezekiel pushed Titus and mom into the room, Troy and Alyx drew their weapons.

"Ez? Where's Celia?" I asked pushing past Troy and Alyx.

"I don't know she was right behind me a second ago!" Ezekiel started panicking.

"Wait here, keep our brother and mom safe, got it?" I started towards the door.

"I'm sorry Jax, I should've checked" Ezekiel said, his voice shaking.

"It's ok, I gotta go. I'll be back" I said opening the door. Alyx had followed me out the door.

"I'm with you Jax, let's find Celia" she said as we walked through the corridor.

"Thanks Alyx" I replied. We turned a corner and I saw Celia standing in the middle of the waiting room with the Chief. Just outside the doors I could see and hear gunfire as the rioters assaulted the medcenter, Alyx and I made it into the room just as the doors burst open. The rioters pushed their way inside, they saw Celia and Chief standing in the room and opened fire, I saw Chief throw himself in front of Celia to shield her from the rioters. The round slammed into his chest one by one, the thunking of the of the rounds slamming into his bodies froze me in place. Celia screamed, Alyx raised her gun and began to fire at the rioters, I ran to Celia and Chief. Celia jumped onto me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Chief c'mon, let's get outta here!" I yelled.

"Go kid, get your sister out of here, I'll hold these guys here" Chief yelled at me.

"No we can get you out of here, let's go!" I started getting desperate as a round hit the ground not far from my feet.

"Listen Jax! This is it for me! Go! You Troy and Alyx need to get Jameson and find Reynes, take him out and we've won.....do this...if not for me, do it for Las...." The Chief pushed me away as he drew his sidearm and began returning fire at the rioters. I ran back to Alyx and told her to follow me.

"And leave Chief? Are you mad?" Alyx demanded.

"He said to go....Alyx, he's hurt....bad....he won't make it, don't let this sacrifice be in vain.....we have to go!" I pleaded with her. She looked at me for a split second before following me down the corridor back to Las's room. I could still here gunfire on the way back until we reached the room, I felt the explosion rattle through the walls before I heard it.

"Jax.....he's gone...." Alyx looked at me.

"I know.....I feel like we could have stopped it...." I responded.

"Don't let your heart fade Jax, we will need all of us to recover from this...." Alyx said as we stepped back into Las's room.