Subnautica: A Rise of Time

Chapter 23: Burning Flesh ||| Perspective: Lukarikea Vellis

(TW: Just blood and gore, that's really it. No summary at the end for this because I don't feel like writing one at all) 

"RYLEY!" Luki screeched. He was hoping he'd respond with a cough or something, but no, he didn't. Ryley was still alive as Luki could see his chest rising up and down, but Luki didn't know if Ryley had any longer to live.

Time wastes quickly. Remember, the clock is always ticking in the background of every single thing that happens. Ryley's words from days ago echoed in his head.

The clock is ticking. Ticking down until Ryley's final moments. Luki realized. He grabbed Ryley's arm, digging his claws into the rough brown scales of his arm. Luki pulled Ryley up to him and used his grappler to launch himself and Ryley up above the Aurora. When they got high in the sky, Luki extended his wings out as far as they would go, and he accidentally moved his wing membranes from his arms to his sides.

It was a mistake of his to almost rat himself out for being the very few lucky ones who had wings that could allow them to fly, but Luki wouldn't know if anyone noticed because of him carrying Ryley.

Luki attempted to glide all the way to the landing pads, but Ryley was weighing him down by a lot. And Luki wasn't really expecting him to be this heavy, so it wasn't a guarantee he would make it to the landing pads without diving head first into the water. Luki thought he could make it in time, but he suddenly veered off course and ran right into the water, quite close to a landing pad being used by the construction workers. Luki knew he'd be able to get their attention.

"HEY!" Luki yelled at the top of his lungs. "I-I NEED HELP!"

Four of the workers that were originally minding their own business responded to Luki's call for help, and they dove into the water and swam towards him.

"What's going on?" One of them demanded.

"Someone tried to murder Ryley." Luki said, still holding Ryley above the water so he didn't drown while being unconscious.

"Get him up on the landing pads." The largest dragon said, "and we'll call for someone up in the Vesper. This is an emergency."

Luki let them take Ryley and drag him up onto one of the landing pads. When Luki climbed up onto the landing pad they dragged Ryley onto, they already had some med packs out and they had someone already getting the word to the Vesper.

"He still has a knife stuck in his arm." Luki said.

"I see that." One of them said. The one who had spoke pulled out the Thermoblade from Ryley's arm, revealing the horrendous remains of Ryley's arm. He still had it, but his scales and flesh were melded together with nerves most likely missing or burnt away. Ryley's arm was now just a ragged mess of burnt flesh, muscle, and scales melded together into one mess. And it looked like the knife had left a pretty big gash or hole in his arm.

"He's losing blood fast." Said a dark green dragon who was trying to stop the flow of blood that was coming from Ryley's burnt neck.

"Stop the flow the best you can." Someone called from farther away. "A medical team is coming down as fast as they can."

Luki jumped over to help. The situation wasn't as tense as it was when Jafer was cutting the bottom of Ryley's neck right in front of Luki, but it was still tense. Luki had to use some horribly thin and just plain awful bandages just to stanch the flow of blood. It wasn't the most effective in stopping the flow, but it was helping. There were two dragons trying to stop the flow of blood from Ryley's burnt, disfigured left arm, and three (including Luki) were trying to stop the flow of blood from the decently big re-cut scar on Ryley's neck.