A knife was pulled out, its edge meeting someone's throat. The clean blade that was only tainted by the food we ate now tasted blood. Everyone on that side of the room was on each other, all while row A watched.
Some people's eyes were gouged out, while others' stomachs were torn open just for their intestines to be ripped out. Blood stained the walls. I could hear Ael on the top bunk cheering the fight as it went on.
"Yeah! Now grab his tongue and pull it out!" The bed shook a bit.
'Is he bouncing out of excitement?'
While he was happy with blood flowing through the bunker, I had a hard time watching. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. Throbbing—my heart was throbbing. Each person had a life and a family. Some of them would not be able to see them again.
My face tensed up after witnessing this all; I was fighting against myself. It was my body versus my conscience. My conscience wanted to look away, but my body didn't let me. This was why war was ugly. War was just a means to an end.
I could hear people scream in agony, some asking for mercy, but none was given. Soon, only half of row D remained, while Row C and B only lost one or two in the process, but no one cared. To them, it was survival of the fittest.
As it came to the last few people, some decided to try to run away, but there was nowhere to run. They would just end up getting cornered by a group of people, get held down, while someone would stab them straight to the heart.
Soon, it was just the last person—it was Adriel. They yelled to stop as a blue-haired man walked up to him. Backing up, Adriel's back hit the wall. Taking this chance, the blue-haired man grabbed him by the hair and, in one fell swoop, decapitated him, causing his body to collapse onto the floor as he held his head like a lantern in the night.
It was Amiel. A roar echoed through the bunker. A man who lost his honor here in the bunker, somehow came from the depths of hell and was now showered in it, ending this war.
***
As the officer came out of the bathroom, he ignored the blood-stained walls and all the bodies on the floor. He would simply step over them as he walked back to his table. Like he told us, we could do whatever we want. He was tired of our bullshit.
'Was he smiling? Was this what he wanted us to do this entire time?'
I thought back to the start of this whole chaos, and how he wanted us to fight for a spot in the bunker. Then out of nowhere, he was telling us not to kill, that he had a duty to this empire to uphold. Was that all just an act? Things didn't add up. I was stupid for not turning a blind eye to it.
My head started to hurt, lost in all the commotion, on top of the lack of sleep I had been getting.
People looted row D, split evenly between rows C and B. After Amiel had been isolated from everyone else these past days, Marcus walked up to him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Good to have you back."
He gave a smile that replicated the warmth of the sun. It was fake. "Good to be back. Thank you for giving me this chance." He put out his hand to shake Marcus's. Right now, he was being treated like a war hero.
As he was being welcomed back into his group of people. He gave a glance over at Row A. He was telling us we were next.
Ael, hopping down from the top of his bed, said, "That was fun!" With my train of thought being disrupted by him, a new one came, 'Of course he would think that.'
"Your idea of fun is wicked."
Ael, fell back a step, "Ouch."
'How theatrical'
After he recovered from his performance, he snapped back, "My idea of fun is just more unique than others. People just don't get me."
With a blank expression, I replied, "Yeah, sure."
'Uniquely psychotic, if that's what he meant.' I thought.
"Anyway, I need to know something." He stared at me. "Will you have my back?"
I hesitated before answering. I knew his desire for a friendship wasn't the right one, but right now, he was my only ally. I needed him, and he wanted me. I had no other options to explore; this was my best one as of yet.
"Yes," I replied.
He smiled, "Good, then I am going to need you to be mentally prepared for what's to come next." He turned to face the aftermath. "It's no secret that we are next. The officer just expressed that he doesn't care about killings anymore. If anything, he wants killings to happen."
"Yeah... I was just putting that together."
'Looks like he isn't as much of an idiot as I thought.'
I faced toward the aftermath as well and said. "Don't worry, I'll be mentally prepared,"
Either way, Ael was right. This place was now a place without laws. The only law that existed now was survival of the fittest. And right now, the people on top of that food chain were Burr and Marcus, with Amiel being a close second. I could not let my mind get in the way of me killing.
For the first time, I turned toward Ael and said something I didn't expect to ever tell him, "Thank you."
He turned back to me quickly; he was pale. "Are you sick?" He checked my body for anything wrong. He even touched my forehead, to see if I had a fever or something.
"Get off of me! I will take back that 'thank you.'"
"Sorry, sorry." He laughed, placing his hand behind his neck out of embarrassment, "And you're welcome."
***
Not much longer after winning the fight, rows B and C were having a party. They couldn't splurge on the resources they had, but they could still party. Amiel, of course, was at the center of it all.
The room had a campfire look to it. Not because there was a fire, but because the room was lit up by ember stone lanterns. These ember stones had endless uses for them. They powered everything from simple gadgets to cities.
No wonder countries were built on them. One ember stone mine was worth about a dozen or more fleets. And that was a small mine. If a few fleets were lost trying to take over an ember stone mine, it was worth it. Seeing that the fleets were powered by these stones.
Without these stones, they would lose their power source for a functioning society and power for war. It was why the necklace that Amiel took was so important. A necklace like that could power a lantern for a few extra days. But now it looked like that did not matter. Amiel now had a greater status here than before. I was just afraid of how he was going to use it.
In the midst of all the partying, I could see Amiel turn to glare back at our row. No, he was glaring at me. My heart tensed up.
Even with row A being its next target, no one in this row moved to form an alliance; it was going to be a free-for-all, from the looks of it.
'Shit.'