Gathering Darkness✔️

Chapter 20: Alone

Kane wasn't sure how long he stood there, but at some point, something came down in his head, like a steel door slamming shut, like an emergency seal coming into place during an atmospheric breach. And just like that, everything seemed to snap into focus. He could feel his terror, his sense of loss, his almost suicidal hopelessness, his anger, but it was all at a distance, compartmentalized and hidden from sight for the moment. Right now, in this moment, there was only his responsibility, his job, his duty to stop this threat.

He was the last one.

The lone survivor, the only one capable of finishing it.

Kane turned his attention to the screen Lara had been monitoring the region from. He saw no more energy signatures around him. Moving in closer, he scrutinized the information. There were five energy sources left on the screen, not counting the huge energy signal pulsing near the center of the map. The portal. His destination. Although he didn't know if one of these signals was Lara or not yet. Don't think about it.

For a moment, he was stymied, unsure of how to get the information to himself to keep track of the signals, the Proxies, and where they were presently located, to hunt him down. But then he realized that it didn't matter, because they were now in the endgame. They were going to come to him, they were going to have to, because he was now going to make his way to the Covenant camp and set the bombs and blow everything to hell.

And hope that it would somehow work.

It wasn't like he had any alternatives.

Kane took one last look around the room, realized that Lara had left her SMG behind when she'd been...don't think about it. He knelt and grabbed the SMG, bringing it along, telling himself that it was for the extra firepower but knowing that it was because it was the only thing left that had once been hers. He turned and jogged out of the base, almost wishing that some of the Proxies would show up, because he could use an excuse to fight right now. But no, responsibilities. Emotions would come later, if at all.

As he reached the exit, Kane skidded to a halt. The Warthog was ruined, a huge hole smashed directly through the engine block, smoke drifting up and into the rainy night. Didn't matter. He ran around from the vehicle, across the asphalt, and through the security perimeter. He didn't even need a nav marker to help him find his destination. It was obvious now: a great, pulsing shaft of light that shot into the sky from somewhere ahead, like a malignant beacon. He could find his way there easily enough, and then he'd blow it all to hell.

One final time, Kane ran headlong into the dark forest.

* * * * *

The first attack came ten minutes into his run.

He heard the rustle of foliage somewhere above him right before he threw himself to the right. This one didn't scream. It was another Elite and it crashed into the ground like a force of nature. He raised his SMG and squeezed the trigger, rattling off rounds before it had a chance to take a step. For a couple of seconds, it went against the tide of bullets, but then he aimed up, into its face, and blew half of its head off, and it collapsed.

Kane reloaded, turned, and started running again.

There was nothing else in his head at the moment, or he tried to believe that, anyway. He felt that way, mostly. Still, distantly, he could feel his emotions, could feel the enormity of them, just barely begin to get the edges of his loss, his horror, his agony, but something was helping him keep focused, some survival trait that was fully aware of the fact that if he let it all come crashing down on him, there was a very, very good chance that he'd just put his pistol in his mouth and, as they said, 'fire and forget'.