Chapter 6
"Mum, mum. Don’t worry, I will get you out of here. You will be fine."
"Ray?" The woman croaked out, her voice thick with uncertainty at the sight of him.
When the Aberrants had initiated their assault, she and Amy were simply eating their breakfast and conversing.
Life had felt normal for those brief moments.
However, when the gigantic creature struck the dome and the piercing ring echoed through the air, she rushed to the window to investigate.
But before she could witness the horror outside, the dome shattered.
The monster landed inside the wall, sending a deep tremor through the foundation that threw her off her feet.
Within a minute, the entire sector was plunged into panic as walls disintegrated and boulders went flying through the atmosphere.
She wasn’t able to register the danger on time before a slab of earth crashed into the house, knocking her unconscious in an instant.
Turning her head to the side, she finally glimpsed Amy’s condition, causing her eyes to widen in pure horror.
"No, no, no. Amy!" She screamed in agony.
***
"Amy!" The woman shrieked in both shock and motherly pain as she saw her daughter’s face buried in the dirt.
She tried to shift her weight but suddenly realized something terrifying.
Her legs weren’t responding.
Turning around, she noticed the mound of rubble pinning her down, which had escaped her attention earlier.
That was when Ray’s voice snapped her back to reality again.
"... Don’t worry mum, I will rescue you. Nothing will happen to you. Just hang on."
"Ra...Ray."
From the tremor, the destruction of the fortifications, and the heavy footsteps filling her ears, she deduced what happened.
It was an Aberrant attack.
"No, no, no. Why did you come back here? You could have escaped. You could have boarded the emergency train to Wall Steel."
"And abandon you and Amy here? Is that how little you know your son?!" Ray snapped back in annoyance.
His hands were moving frantically, straining to pull debris off one by one.
He managed to toss a slab of wood aside with sheer grit.
Now, he was struggling to lift a massive section of the wall that lay across his mother’s back.
"No Ray. You should have fled. Death is everywhere. Th...the Aberrants are here. You shouldn’t be he..."
"Will you stop yapping, woman?!" Ray countered in anger.
The tears he was holding back began streaming down his face as he huffed and panted, struggling to heave the slab off her.
"... You are my mother. How can you think that I would have deserted you? How could I abandon the only parent I have left?!"
His mum was about to speak, but she was swiftly interrupted by his ragged breathing.
"This damned conflict took dad from us. I lost him to this blasted war between humans and Aberrants. And now... and now..."
He stuttered, his gaze darting to Amy’s crushed form to the side.
The sight fueled a desperate, frantic energy within him.
"... I have just lost Amy to the violence too. I can’t afford to lose you as well. So freaking shut up and let me save you!" He bellowed as he gripped the ends of the concrete.
His muscles were straining as he tried pulling the object that weighed several tons.
His teeth were grit as he roared into the smoke, but the heavy mass didn’t move an inch.
"Let it be Ray. I’m also a lost cause."
"Never!"
"Listen to me, Ray. Leave now while you still have the opportunity."
"Not a chance."
"Will you listen to me? I’m your mother!"
"And I’m your son! I inherited this stubbornness from you. I will never stop trying until I have succeeded in whatever I’m doing."
His mother paused.
Her lips quivered as tears cascaded down her cheeks in waves, reflecting the flickering fires of their dying home.
She watched her son, seeing the reflection of his father’s resolve in his eyes, even as the world crumbled around them.
She continued shaking her head while staring blankly at the ground.
Her teeth ground back and forth in a frantic rhythm as she began pounding her fist into the dirt.
"Ray... I have already lost one child. Please, do not make me watch my second child get killed. Pl...please run away and leave me here. I won’t blame you. Please, I am pleading with you."
"... But I will blame myself," Ray replied as he abandoned the heavy slab of the wall and moved toward another corner to push the collapsed ceiling off his mother’s body.
Sweat dripped down continuously, causing his shirt to cling tightly to his frame.
His breathing sounded rough and ragged in the stagnant air.
The injury on his forehead had now opened up further, causing blood to trickle down his face in a thin, crimson line.
However, he didn’t care about the pain as he moved to another section of the barrier, straining as usual to lift the weight.
"Why won’t this blasted wall budge?! Ahhh~ move, goddamn it! Please."
His mother didn’t know how to react to her son’s helplessness.
She watched in silence, feeling her chest tighten with immense, suffocating pain.
"Useless, useless, useless! I am so fucking useless. Why the hell am I so weak?! Arghhh~!"
Ray fell to his knees, shedding bitter tears in front of his mother as his breath grew incredibly shallow, like someone who had just finished a three-hundred-meter race.
His head remained bowed as the droplets hit the dust.
"I am sorry, mum."
"... It’s okay, son. It is... it is okay to pause or give up sometimes. It doesn’t pay to always be fixated on a single thing without end. It is okay to let go."
Ray quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeves as he took a deep breath, trying to calm his shaking body.
"So run now, Ray. Run."
But unsurprisingly, the young boy shook his head as he shoved his ability book deep into his pocket.
Then, he approached the stone structure again.
He clamped his hands tightly on the rough surface, veins bulging across his forearms and neck.
His feet were firmly planted on the earth as he attempted the feat once more.
"Ray."
"... It is not okay to give up when you know you can do something, even if it is only a little.
It’s fine to cry, it is fine to pause, but it is never acceptable to quit.
I will always wipe away these tears and try again. Never will I surrender, because the strong never do! So shut your mouth and let me fulfill my duty as your son!"
He roared into the air as he shifted his stance, pushing instead of pulling.
His arms were straining and his muscles felt on fire, but he persisted as he kept heaving, trying to lift the obstruction up.
His mother’s soft voice echoed out again, trembling with a new kind of fear.
"Ray..." She paused, her words trailing off as her eyes widened in absolute horror.
Then, with sudden vigor, she shrieked, "RAY! Behind you!"
"Huh?"
A freezing breath landed on the young boy’s nape, causing his eyes to go wide.
Cold sweat trickled down his spine as every hair on his body stood on end in an instant.
With all the speed he could muster, he spun around to confirm his dark suspicions.
Right in front of him, an Aberrant was crouched down, silently watching his futile efforts.
The next second, with a menacing ear-to-ear grin, the creature’s claws lashed out. The talons moved at a terrifying velocity, blurring through the air toward the young boy’s head.
"Shit."
"NOOO! RAY!"