Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 241: Purpose In Death

Chapter 241: Purpose In Death

"Cassius," grunted Rip as he saw the face of the Reaver taunting Wang Tian Mu. "I didn’t think you were still alive, let alone kicking."

The Reaver cocked his head to the side and leaned against a tree, struggling to draw in a breath.

"Randolph?" replied Cassius, more surprised than ever. He had been looking for this man for almost five years, way before the end of the world came, and yet, this was the first time he had seen him since arriving in this god forsaken country. "Long time no see."

"Isn’t it just?" smirked Rip. His body was humming with power, thanks to his Little Bird, and he was actually looking forward to the confrontation between him and the other man. "Didn’t you come here to kill me?"

Cassius smiled, conserving what little strength he had left. It was like it was pouring out from under his feet.

"You and I both know that I was under orders," shrugged the Reaver. "If you had only accepted your death gracefully, we wouldn’t be here now. Now would we?"

"Ah yes, how is my darling uncle? There are some days that I wonder if he is still alive after everything... and others where I am somewhat disappointed that I wasn’t the one to rip his head from his body." Rip was as calm as ever on the outside as hatred for his own flesh and blood coursed through his veins.

His uncle was Head of the UK Firm... or whatever the equivalent was in this world. But that was only because he stabbed Rip’s father, his own brother, in the back one evening after dinner.

Rip had been in Country K at that time on another project for his father, but a warning from his mother made sure he never went back to the old country.

Apparently, not even that was enough to satisfy his Uncle since a lot of the underlings were divided between uncle and nephew. He wanted his competition dead so there could be no question about who reigned supreme.

"No idea," admitted Cassius. "The last I heard, he was alive and well. But then the EMP hit and..."

"And the world went to pot," chuckled Rip, putting one of his hands in his pant pocket. "So, are you still playing Laertes?"

"Ah, I see you still suffer from visions of grandeur," chuckled the Reaver. More energy was pulled out of him, and he quickly turned his attention to the woman in the center of the highway. He knew it was her; he just didn’t know how she was doing it. "You always did like to think you were a modern day Hamlet."

"Hardly," scoffed Rip. If he wanted the pleasure of killing this man himself, he would have to act quickly. Otherwise, his woman would have him drained dry and nothing more than dust in a matter of minutes. "I never gave a rat’s ass about the Firm or the people in it. I just wanted to live my life the way I wanted to."

"Oh? And how is that going for you?" Cassius’ accent became more and more pronounced the longer the two stood there.

"Fantastic, actually," smirked Rip. "That feeling you have? Of slowly dying with no way to stop it? That is thanks to my woman."

Cassius opened his eyes wide as he looked back at the woman.

"And if it weren’t for you and my uncle, I would have never met her. So, maybe I should thank you for that. After all, if I were back in the U—County E when all this had happened, I wouldn’t even know how I died, let alone meet the love of my life."

"The love of your life? Aren’t you being a bit dramatic, old chap?" sneered Cassius. He was no longer even pretending to be a native of Country K, reverting to his roots as he neared death.

"Not even a little," shrugged Rip, a giant smile on his face. "I was originally wanting to kill you myself. First for the threat you posed to her, and then for myself after I saw that it was you. But now I am thinking that there is a certain sense of poetic justice in my woman killing you."

Rip turned around, showing the other Reaver the ultimate form of disrespect. That man, that Reaver, was no longer a threat to him or the one he cared about. There was no point in wasting any more time on the past when he had a bright future in front of him.

At least now, he finally would have some closure when it came to that particular demon.

Strolling away, he listened as the Reaver fell to his knees, his face becoming more and more gaunt with every passing second. Letting out a long sigh, he smiled for the first time in a while.

"Are you okay?" asked his Little Bird as he approached the group. To say that she was glowing was an understatement. She was lit like the sun, and he was utterly helpless, stuck in her gravitational pull with no chance of escape.

But that was for the best. He hadn’t wanted to escape since the moment he first laid eyes on her.

"Just fine," he assured her, dipping down so he could place a gentle kiss on her lips, feeling a jolt of electricity from where the two of them touched. "I didn’t realize that it was an old friend."

"Should I let him live?" asked Wang Tian Mu, an eyebrow raised as she studied him.

"Absolutely not. Take everything that you need from him and more. He was useless in life; might as well give him a purpose in death," murmured Rip as he wrapped his arms around his Little Bird, not caring that another man was touching her too.

In fact, Rip was pretty sure that if anyone understood how he felt right now, it was that man.

The others seemed to have too much of a gentle life before everything happened and Rip worried that maybe they couldn’t quite understand what the fates had given them.

But that was fine. He was there to make them understand.

He watched dispassionately as Cassius, the Alpha of this horde of Reavers, disappeared into nothing as the first rays of the sun shone through the trees.

"Shall we?" he asked, looking down at the woman in his arms.

"We shall," she replied with a smile.