CHAPTER 41 — The Price of Survival
Elion — POV
The concrete groaned.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
Every hit shook dust from the ceiling. Something metal snapped—something important—and the air filled with terrified screams.
Harland's voice cracked.
"Please. If they get through the West Stairwell, they'll slaughter us. They took our water last week. They killed a father and his son. If they break through now—"
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
I already knew how this played out. The world has changed, where the society has practically collapsed.
The weak people will either die or server the strong. The strong people will take and do whatever they want. That is the law of the world now. Might makes right, the law of the jungle, and all that shit.
Behind me, my team stood waiting—silent, trusting.
Rea's voice was steady. "Elion, you decide."
Delilah gripped her sword. "We're ready for a fight."
Alexiy swallowed hard, but didn't look away. "Whatever you choose… I'll stand with you."
Meso leaned forward on her toes, smiling like she was watching a murder mystery unravel in real time.
"Let's help~," she whispered. "And then they'll owe us. So much."
Harland's breath hitched.
I turned toward the door, as a thousand thoughts crashed in my mind. Alright, while I don't like the idea of facing reckless danger, but when there were clear perks— like Meso said, they will owe us more— well there're more pro's than con's.
"Take me to the barricade," I said.
Harland nodded once—sharp, grateful, frantic. "This way. Hurry."
He shoved the conference door open and sprinted down the hallway. Survivors pulled aside instinctively, some clutching children, some holding makeshift spears made from IV stands, others crying as the distant impacts grew louder.
THUD. CRACK.
A woman's voice screamed from down the hall, raw with terror:
"THEY'RE COMING THROUGH THE DOOR!"
The West Wing loomed at the end of a long corridor. Harland pushed through a set of double doors, and the smell and sight before us.
Blood. Sweat. Smoke.
The barricade was a mess—chairs, wheelchairs, metal carts, anything that could stack—but it was already sagging forward.
Three guards braced their bodies against it. One woman, the gun woman who brought us here, was slumped on the ground, a trail of blood smeared across the tiles.
Her chest rose shallowly showing she was alive, if unconscious.
One of the men strained against the barricade and shouted:
"DOC! THEY'RE ARMED! GUNS AND KNIVES!"
As he turned to yell, I saw the dark bruise on his jaw. One of the raiders must've hit him through the cracks.
Then—
A fist punched through the barricade.
Wood splintered and metal screeched. As a voice on the other side—deep, mocking, eager—growled:
"OPEN UP! We know you've got meds in there! OPEN IT OR WE'LL OPEN IT FOR YOU!"
Harland flinched.
Another hit. And the barricade shook violently.
I stepped forward.
Harland looked at me, desperate. "We've fought them off before but— we can't keep doing this. They keep coming back stronger. And they know we're running out of food. If they take the medical wing— we're done."
I tilted my head.
"How many are there?"
His lips tightened. "Ten… maybe fifteen. All armed. I know at least two had guns."
"And you expect me to fight their entire group?"
"No—" he began.
"—Yes~," Meso corrected sweetly. "Because you can, Eloin. Come on give us a show, I want to see you in action." She said with a strange light in her eye.
Harland looked confused, distracted by panic. "What is she—"
"She means," Rea said, loading her gun, "you have no idea what he's capable of. Of what we all are."
I knew Rea still had some trauma from when I first recused her, and I as much as I wanted to talk to her I just hadn't found the time. But seeing the look in her eyes, I knew she had no issues killing other humans.
As much as I wanted to talk to her and see how she holding up I also knew it was sometimes needed to be active to not dwell on the past, and right now I needed to focus on the situation.
BAMN!
The barricade bowed inward suddenly and the metal frame snapped with a deafening CRACK. A hole opened in the middle—large enough for an arm to reach through.
A machete swung blindly through it.
One of the guards barely ducked in time.
A second knife came— thrown this time— aimed to kill.
I reached out with Telekinesis.
The machete froze mid-air— inches from the guard's throat.
The man gasped.
Everyone—including Harland—stared as the blade hung in the air, suspended by nothing.
Meso grinned, pleased, and Alexiy's breath caught in her chest. While Rea's eyes narrowed in approval. Delilah muttered, "Unreal…"
I tightened my fingers slightly.
The machete bent—Metal warping with a horrible, grinding squeal—Until it snapped like a twig.
On the other side of the barricade, a voice snarled:
"What the—?! Who the hell is in there?!"
A shotgun blast hit the barrier, scattering wood and debris.
The survivors dove behind crates.
A woman screamed.
Harland shouted, "GET DOWN!"
The raiders outside laughed—cruel, confident.
"YOU THINK THAT DOOR WILL SAVE YOU?! WE'RE TAKING EVERYTHING!"
I stepped forward until I stood only a few feet from the barricade.
Then I raised my hand.
"Move," I said calmly.
The guards didn't understand.
I sighed and flicked my wrist.
Gravity expanded outward in all directions— not crushing, not violent—just shifted enough to shove the men aside gently.
They slid across the floor, startled but unharmed.
Harland stared. "What are you—"
"Stand back," I said coldly, my voice loud enough to resound through the room, but quiet enough to fade in to silence.
He did.
The entire room held its breath.
THUD.
The raiders hit the barricade again.
I heard their breathing now that I focused. Heavy, almost hungry. And the confidence... I could smell from a mile away.
They thought they were predators.
I closed my eyes.
And felt my spirit pulse, my will surged. Frost sang at my fingertips, summoned by pure will. Gravity coiled around my legs like invisible ripples in the air that bent space around me.
I opened my eyes again.
Unknown to me at the time but my usual, brown eyes had turned bright blue. A vibrant frosted blue that seemed to make my eyes glow according to the others.
Meso whispered, "Oh… yes. Yes. This is the part I love."
Another hit.
Then another.
The barricade had collapsed inward two feet by now, honestly I was surprised that the raiders were still locked out. Whoever barricaded the door, knew what they were doing.
A raider forced his arm through the gap, trying to pry apart the broken furniture.
I moved before anyone could blink.
Telekinesis yanked his arm forward— slamming him against the barricade from the other side. I pulled and mentally wrapped my Telekinesis around his arm tighter as I continued to pull. He screamed.
Then with a sound almost like a wet paper being torn and a loud snap—and I had torn his arm clean off— The arm flew forward since I was still pulling it and slammed into the back wall, as the impact rattled the whole structure. The man on the other side of the barricade, now armless, screamed as he fell and
"WHO'S IN THERE?! FUCKER get out here NOW!!" someone yelled.
I stepped closer.
"This ends now," I said softly.
My voice wasn't angry. I wasn't disgusted by my actions. To me these weren't humans, or I wasn't human anymore. Either way, I felt nothing as I was about to murder random humans. I wasn't happy or some sadistic bastard, but I also felt no remorse or guilt. To me it was simply no different from taking out the trash, or cleaning the dishes, or dealing with the annoying customer at 2am.
This was simply something that had to be done. Why bother feeling anything about 'work'?
I raised my hand toward the barricade.
"Gravity Well" I voiced.
And the world bent.
Gravity twisted in a spiraling pull, dragging on the wooden beams, metal braces, shattered glass wedged between the cracks.
Then—
With one push—
BOOM.
The entire barricade exploded outward.
Not from pressure. From force.
A focused burst of gravity shoved everything outward in a cone.
Chairs flew as metal carts were launched like projectiles. The raiders standing outside screamed as the debris slammed into them, throwing bodies backward into the stairwell walls.
Three men went down immediately with sickening cracks. Two more tumbled down the steps. Another crashed into the railing, breaking it clean off as he fell down the center of the stairwell to the bottom floor.
Harland stumbled, stunned.
The survivors behind him gaped in open shock.
Silence fell for one impossible second.
Then chaos erupted.
"WHAT THE HELL—?!"
"HE'S AN AWAKENED—!"
"SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!"
Gunfire exploded.
But before a single bullet touched the air—
I had already raised my other hand. "Frozen Wall" I whispered.
A wall of frost formed instantly— thick, blue-white, crystalline—spreading outward in a curved shield like a frozen barrier.
Bullets hit it with dull thuds.
They didn't ricochet, or even penetrate the wall. Just soft metallic taps against solid ice.
Meso giggled like this was the best part of the movie. "God, that's so cool. No—literally."
Alexiy stared at the frost shield in awe. "Elion…"
I wasn't sure what my team through about the cruelty I had shown. While I think that all of them if aren't ready to take a human life, at least know that not all humans are good, but I'm unsure how they think about me ripping a man arm clean off.
Before I could ask them however the situation on the other side seemed to shift.
The shooting stopped as the raiders realized their gunfire was doing nothing.
One of them shouted, panicked:
"RETREAT! HE'S A MONSTER!"
Another yelled back, "NO! IF WE RUN WE LOSE EVERYTHING! The Boss said that we —!"
I didn't give them time to decide.
The frost shield cracked— Not due to damage, but because I willed for it to disappear.
Then shattered into a thousand glittering shards.
And I stepped through the falling ice.
The raiders froze.
Every instinct told them:
I was a Predator.
Not prey.
One man raised his gun. "STAY BACK—!"
I flicked my wrist, and with a thought of telekinesis, his gun snapped upward and flew out of his hands, hitting the ceiling and staying stuck, as if there was a magnet, or as if gravity had flipped for the gun and now it was on the 'floor'.
He stared as though the world stopped making sense.
Another raider charged with a knife. I shifted the gravity around him— his body suddenly weighed triple what it should. He collapsed face-first on the concrete, knife skittering away, as his bones started to break due to to pressure and the weird way he fell.
Crack!
Another tried to run.
I telekinetically yanked him backward by the collar. He hit the floor, wheezing, his breath knocked from his lungs.
Their leader—a tall, scarred man with a rifle—appeared at the top of the stairs, shouting:
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?! FOR FUCKS SAKE! ANSWER ME!"
I met his eyes.
The frost on my hand swirled upward, forming a blade of ice along my forearm.
"I'm the reason you're not walking out of here."
He fired, but he had moved too slowly.
I had twisted sideways— my gravity field bending momentum— and the shot curved past my shoulder harmlessly.
His eyes widened in horror.
Rea's voice rang out behind me:
"Elion—six more coming up the stairs!"
I didn't look back. I wasn't sure what skills she had, but I trusted her words. Let's finish this
I stepped forward—
—and the temperature dropped.
The frost blade solidified. As a gravity pulse coiled around my fist. My telekinesis tingled behind my eyes.
The leader tried to reload his rifle.
Too slow.
I swung.
The ice blade shattered his rifle in half.
He stumbled back, screaming.
His men hesitated.
That was all I needed.
I slammed my palm against the floor.
The gravity pulse hit like a shockwave— blasting outward down the stairwell.
The men collapsed, as weapons flew. Bodies slammed into concrete walls.
Not dead.
But done. Broken bones, or even better, broken minds. I know none of them will get up anytime soon so I can think about what to do. While I didn't mind killing, I also didn't think everyone here should die, since human labor will become scare until the world stabiles and starts to rebuild...
Long term thoughts I know, but I wasn't sure killing everyone here was my best choice.
The hallway fell silent except for groans and quiet, shallow breathing.
Behind me, the survivors stared at me with wide, fearful eyes.
Harland's voice broke the quiet.
"Are… are they all subdued?"
I nodded once.
"For now."
He exhaled shakily— relief and disbelief mixing. "We've… never won a fight against them. Never even come close."
Meso bounced excitedly. "He's amazing, right? Don't worry, doctor. Elion's not a hero. But he is very good at killing~ Hehe"
"MESO!" Alexiy sputtered, horrified.
Delilah whispered, "He's… unbelievable."
Rea simply nodded.
Harland swallowed hard. "You saved us."
I shrugged. "You asked."
"Is that… all?" he asked quietly, as of he knew that now the situation had changed.
"No." I stepped past him. "We need to talk."
The doctor blinked. "About what?"
I looked back at the broken stairwell, the unconscious raiders, the terrified survivors watching me like I was a force of nature that had walked into their fragile shelter.
"We need to discuss the future," I said plainly.
Before Harland could ask anything else—
A little girl peeked from behind her mother's legs.
She stared at me with wide eyes and whispered:
"Are you… are you going to keep us safe now?"
My heart tightened.
Everyone held their breath.
I didn't answer.
Not yet.
A/N: OH MY GOD! READERS! forgive my unplanned absence. I had finals, and was swamped with those and before I could start to edit this chapter I got in a car crash. I'm all good, it my friend who was driving. I'm all good and will try to keep updating on here again more again. I also applied for a contract, sadly my other book REBRON UNDER CHAOS was rejected. but I hope this one gets accepted, so please leave, comments, or give me power stones