Last to fade~

A Pocket God Oneshot
-starring Klik
-:-:-:-

"MOVE!" I shouted.

Gorillas, it turned out, were a lot faster than I could ever have expected. Swinging down from the trees, they were hot on our heels… and gaining far too fast for comfort.

"Why are they so angry?" Klak asked fearfully, using a spear to vault over the head of one of the massive creatures. He might have been clumsy, but he was certainly fast enough to evade the surprised gorilla.

"They're territorial animals and we've encroached on their land." I explained, diving aside as two of the beasts lunged at me. The ruse worked, sending the animals crashing into one another. "They're just protecting their home."

"That's all well and good, Klik, but who's protecting us?" Booga demanded. The caveman didn't bother with evasions, simply barreling through any gorilla foolish enough to stand in his way. It might have been impressive if I had time to think about it, which I didn't.

That didn't mean that his words didn't sting. Where were our protectors? Why weren't the gods helping us through this? Did they not want us to return the Gem of Life?

That was a troubling thought, but there wasn't time to muse over that. Right now survival was the main issue, and one that was getting more and more difficult to solve.

"Maybe fuzzy animals just want to cuddle pygmies close to bosom." Nooby suggested.

If only.

Hands grabbed me from behind, strong ones that pinned my arms to my sides. My yell of alarm went unnoticed as the others streaked towards shelter, diving behind a tree to hide from the primates.

Safe? I wasn't sure. But either way, I had my own problems. The gorilla that had hold of me swung us both back up into the trees, away from the others, away from where I might escape.

Away to where it was going to kill me.

Dying had never been serious before, or at least it hadn't been for a very long time. But death without regeneration… death without coming back to life… death as a mortal was a much more frightening concept.

Pain. The hold it had on my chest were tightening to the point that I could actually feel my ribs struggling to hold up against it. These creatures were strong–very strong. Too strong. There was no escape, not for me.

I was going to die.

And I would never come back afterwards.

As if my thought had brought it on, a sickening snap told me that at least one of my ribs had finally given in to the pressure. It was punctuated, of course, by a surge of agony and nausea, but my feeble cry of pain went unheeded.

Stop it stop it stop it–

And the hands tightened again. Another rib went, maybe two, and the pain was such that I didn't even have the strength to scream.

Dimly I realized the apes were all around me, swinging and hooting in the branches. They had seen this ones catch and wanted in on the excitement themselves.

There are so many of them… there can't be many more, can there?

No, this was most of them. Nearly all of them. There really was no escape.

Then that means that they aren't after the others.

Had I lured the gorillas away from them? Were all of them up here with me?

That was a new thought, one that my pain-stricken mind struggled to comprehend. But if there was one thing I prided myself on other than my faith, it would be my quickness of mind–and that quickness was giving me an idea. A vague idea, but a crucial one.

The satchel I wore was still around my neck, tangled in the brutish fingers of my captor. Feebly, but with newfound determination sparking in me, I struggled against the ruthless grip of the massive ape, trying to free the leather strap from its position under those huge hands. There was still a chance, there had to be a chance.

It never would have worked, save for the one stroke of luck we had seen all day. Another gorilla seemed to want in on the fun of killing me, and he lunged at the first with a challenging bellow.

The grip loosened as the ape hooted angrily, raising one arm to defend itself and it's prey. That was enough for me to tear the satchel out of its grip, struggling to get it off my shoulder with my one free hand.

The second ape had a hold on my leg, the first on my upper body. They were screaming bloody murder at one another, hooting and bellowing and swinging massive fists in a competition of both strength and courage. The bigger problem was that my leg was being stretched, agony jolting up every inch of my back… until finally, the bone snapped.

I'm sure the others must have heard me scream that time. Then again, the apes were all howling quite loudly, and we were quite high up.

Oh, who cared? My leg had just been ripped clean off, and no amount of distraction would change the fact that it hurt. It was more than simple pain, it was blistering agony that sent fire sprouting from every nerve, it was nausea that made my stomach heave and my mind short out, it was like nothing I had ever known. There were no words I knew to describe it, which was a first–and a last.

Shaking, tears streaming down my cheeks–no, wait, I was upside-down, or at least I was pretty sure I was. They were streaming up my face and off of my eyebrows–I fumbled at the strap of the satchel. It hurt, oh, it hurt, but I couldn't stop now. Not yet. It was too late for me, far too late… but it wasn't too late for the others.

Please, please come off… gods above, help me…

And maybe they did. Because finally, the strap came loose, and the satchel–with the precious Gem of Life inside–plummeted to the forest floor below.

My last act. A painful one, but that was alright… maybe it would make all the difference. Maybe, just maybe, no one else had to die.

I hoped, I prayed it would be so. But there was no time for anything else, for the second gorilla had a hand around my neck and was yanking harder than ever.

There was one second of white pain, then everything stopped.

Just stopped.

And there was nothing.