{"id":3641,"date":"2018-06-25T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T04:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3641"},"modified":"2018-06-24T18:13:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T22:13:20","slug":"forty-06-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3641","title":{"rendered":"Forty – 06"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

The sound of drums became a throb, growing louder in a vain effort to drown out the screams of the dead and dying. His head pulsed with the beat of those drums and he breathed heavily, leaning forward as he let go of the torrent, letting the trailing edge grow ragged like a flag in a gale. Through watering eyes, he watched some of the dirae<\/em> spiral down into the mists, losing sight of them as they fell.<\/p>\n

Do I have another one of those in me if I need it?<\/em><\/p>\n

A shiver shot through him as Matt realized that he actually did<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s terrifying.<\/em><\/p>\n

A horn blasted and the sound left his head ringing. He swayed. Phelan\u2019s hand shot out to steady him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Matt mumbled, leaning heavily against the wall. \u201cNo, not really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got any left?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Matt said, swallowing the bile that had crept slowly upward into his throat, slicked the back of his tongue. \u201cThat\u2019s part of why I\u2019m not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sound of the drums changed.<\/p>\n

Not drums. No. Weapons on shields. Shit. What kind of army do they have out there?<\/em> He sucked in a breath and looked toward the mist just as a bolt of lightning arced downward, illuminating the field and leaving him momentarily blind. More screams, these more of fear than pain, echoed across the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy haven\u2019t they tucked and run?\u201d Matt asked, the question slipping out before he\u2019d really thought about what the answers could be. \u201cStubborn bastards. They\u2019re wasting lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan shook his head. \u201cI don\u2019t know. This is all uncharted now. Nothing makes sense anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The words were a lie, Matt could feel it, but he didn\u2019t care. If Phelan had insights that were important right now, he\u2019d have given voice to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to my nameless fear,\u201d Phelan breathed.<\/p>\n

Matt didn\u2019t bother to suppress his shiver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] The sound of drums became a throb, growing louder in a vain effort to drown out the screams of the dead and dying. His head pulsed with the beat of those drums … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,292,14],"tags":[150,171,170,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-40-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-WJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3642,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions\/3642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}