Chapter Two
Sie laid on his back, staring up at the motel room’s dirty and yellowing ceiling. The box spring mattress wasn’t the most comfortable, but it had been a long day. Even though it was only barely beginning. He would have dozed off for a nap if Lil hadn’t been pacing, a worried looked on her face, as she patrolled around the front of the door like a soldier on the nightshift.
“Don’t worry about them,” he told her, referring to the rest of their group, who had headed up to the roof to scout and survey the area. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. They can take care of themselves.”
“But they aren’t supposed to take care of themselves,” he could see her signing out of the corner of his eyes, a slightly aggravated look on her face as she did so. “We’re a team… and they’ve been up there for a while.”
He sat up with a sigh, the bed creaking underneath him. If she was so worried, what was she standing around here for? There was no prolonging the inevitable. She’d have to step outside into the rust and dust incrusted world known as TCFKALV eventually. He could tell she was going to hole herself up in the motel for as long as possible. Until someone pushed her out.
“Come on, let’s go check on them,” he said, after crossing the room and patting her shoulder reassuringly. With her behind him, he reached for the door, rolling his eyes. Great, so much for relaxing a little while. What awaited them was sure to be an utter hell. He’d rather just not deal with that mess. But, like before, it was inevitable. Still, as soon as he opened the door he came to an abrupt stop, his eyes fixated on the sea of silver that flooded the streets in front of him. He could feel Llidith hovering beside his shoulder now, pushing it down and trying to get a peek at whatever was causing him distress. He could hear her suck in a breath, shocked. It took no words to describe it. There probably weren't any. Hundreds. Thousands of tiny beings scurried down the streets and sidewalks of LA. Their tiny robotic legs made chinking noises as they crawled out from the gutters and cracks in the basements of the surrounding buildings like roaches and vermin. Spiders? Scorpions? What were these things? They were some sort of droids, he could concur that as he stood dumbfounded in the doorway, while Llidith tugged on his sleeve in vain. Finally, she snapped and sent the palm of her hand flying into the back of his head. It collided with a quick pop and he spun around, shocked. Taking the opportunity, she shoved him out of the way and slammed the door shut, looking exasperated. “That hurt!” He whined to her, as he rubbed a hand through his dark brown hair.
“You deserved it,” she told him. He could only shrug to that.
Click. Click. Click. The tiny mechanical sound could be heard from somewhere. On a hunch, maybe intuition, Sie stepped forward and jerked Lil out of the way, revealing the small droid, a spider, that had crept its way past them and perched itself onto the door. Beep. Beep. Its head turned, scanning its surroundings. A bright red light rested under what appeared to be a lens of some sort that looked like one large eye. Sie braced his feet, readying himself to send a kick at the tiny creature that would shatter it into the woodwork. But Lil rushed over to stop him before he had a chance. The droid, sensing the hostility, hopped down onto the floor, skittering across the carpet until it reached the vent. Somehow, it managed to squeeze between the cracks, its limbs and body seeming to flatten in on itself.
Sie gave Lil a disapproving glare. “What if it wasn’t harmful? You would have killed it for nothing.” She defended herself.
“What if it was!” Sie threw his hands in the air. He wasn’t going to even try to explain just how stupid that was on her part. Kill it? It wasn’t even alive! It was a robot…
Llidith walked over to the window and pulled the curtain back. The spiders were still continuing their little march down the street, spreading out in all different directions and infiltrating the city. What were they doing exactly? What was their purpose? She bit her bottom lip.
“They seem like spy droids,” Sie told her. “I don’t think they’re dangerous… but maybe we should go check on the others…”
“How?” She asked. The only way up to the roof was a metal stairwell, outside at the side of the building.
Sie grinned. “Well do you trust me?”
“No.”
“Oh well,” he sighed. “The only way you’re going to get up there without going outside is with my help.”
“…Fine. What?”
“Alright,” he walked over and took her hand, dragging her over to the television. “I haven’t tried this outside of the training center. Don’t let go of my hand. If you do you’ll burn to a crisp. Capisce?”
She nodded and he reached a hand towards the cable behind the set, channeling all of his energy into his finger tips. He could feel his fingers molding with the current, phasing through the cable’s protective covering and his atoms getting swept away. Then, as soon as he had picked up on the flow, his whole body was pulled into the wiring. It felt like every cell of his skin, every part of his being, was moving a thousand miles a minute. They probably were. It was like his body had been dissected into a million molecules, ready to be put back together again at the end of the journey. But the time spent inside that dark cable was short, it didn’t take long before he sensed they were traveling above the roof and it was time to leave the electric stream. Inside his head he counted to three and, just as quickly as they found themselves there, they were dropping from the cable that stretched over the motel, like lightening falling from the sky in a flurry of sparks. He tried to land on his feet, but for some reason his legs felt feeble, much like Jello. Instead, he took a tumble to the ground and rolled onto his back. Llidith landed, in almost the same manner, beside him.
“Hel…hello,” he mumbled, as his eyes met Mica, Alaina, and Joyce, who were crowded not too far from their landing spot. “You three look like you’re okay …”
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They, Mica, Alaina, and Joyce, had been discussing what exactly these massive waves of scurrying metallic droids below were, when Lil and Sie suddenly burst in appearance across from them. It was almost as if on cue. Their eyes lit upon them, at the rounded face of the gangly teenage boy with the small-framed girl whose distant face was framed with reddish brown hair. They heard Sie mumble an awkward hello, scratching his unkempt brown curly hair.
Mica took the first step forward, and as they approached them, he outstretched a hand to Sie. He glanced up to Mica, blinking his almond-shaped green eyes hesitantly, but he smiled accepting Mica’s hand, and was brought to his feet in a single sweep. Sie had to remind himself that Mica’s ability was superhuman strength.
“Yeah, we’re just fine,” Mica answered, and saw that Sie was assisting Lil upright, dusting themselves off; Lil’s hazel eyes lingered on Mica for no longer than a few seconds before flitting elsewhere, something despondent in her look. “I’m glad you both are…We were about to warn you, but…It seems that whatever those things are…Violent isn’t one of them…”
“Yeah,” Sie agreed, nodding, looking beyond Mica, and the other two girls, who were eying them, curious. “We came across one of them ‘spider’ droids downstairs…The rest of the hotel is vacant; we’re the only ones here, as I figured, but anyways that droid seems relatively harmless—”
At this, Lil stifled a hiccup of what sounded like laughter; Mica’s brow furrowed, and Alaina and Joyce looked at each other clueless, but ignoring this, Sie went on:
“Like I said they seem to pose no threat to us…My guess is they’re some type of navigating spy droid, designed to simply monitor…I guess to make sure we don’t do anything…Outside of the Vulterrki’s code of what is deemed appropriate.” Sie silenced, as Mica seemed to process all of this at once, biting his lip.
He inclined his head, and said, “Yeah, you’re probably right…But still I wonder exactly what they are…I mean everything the Vulterrki seem to do, always has some type of catch; but maybe they are just here to monitor as you said; let’s hope that’s true.”
“Yeah, let’s hope,” Alaina murmured, smirking. “The last thing I would want is one of those bug droids crawling over my head at night, while I’m sleeping…”
Joyce seemed to recoil to this, wincing. “Jeez, thanks a lot Alaina; Now that’s all I’m going to be thinking about…Nightmares, I tell you…Nightmares!”
Alaina paid no attention to Joyce, who had given her a look of dead pan in response, and continued: “Anyways, what are we going to do? We need a plan of attack…We can’t stay here forever…And I have a feeling that if we somehow choose to do just that, the Vulterrki will find means of making sure we keep a move on: never staying in one place for long…”
“I think you’re right Alaina,” Mica said.
“Of course, I’m right,” she snapped. “I mean whatever we think of, it has to be dead-on smart—one wrong move, and we’re goners.”
“Well, aren’t you the optimist,” Joyce chimed. “If it was left up to me—”
“If it was left up to you, Joyce, we’d all die!”
“—HEY!”
“Will you two, give it a rest!” Mica shouted over them, agitated. “I’ll be making the decisions on what we’re going to do…If anyone else objects?” He looked around to their passive faces; they all knew that Mica was the one who was most apt in leadership, so there would be no “objection,” and they all nodded. “Good…But I decide first, that before we make any decision on what to do, it has to be unanimous amongst all of us, agreed?”
The group nodded once more. “So…What to do first…Do we want to first put as much distance as we can between us and the other groups? Look for a food vendor?...Maybe, a base?”
“I vote for a food vendor,” Joyce said. “Food is numero uno, if we want to survive more than week.”
“True,” Mica noted, raising his brow.
“But without a base to call our own, we’ll be sitting ducks,” Alaina countered, weighing the odds.
“Also very true,” he said; Mica turned to Sie, and asked, “What do you think?”
“Well, I think we should first try to cover as much land as possible, in search for a base…Then maybe perhaps send a couple of us out in search for a food vendor…?”
This seemed to please everyone, as there was nothing said, and Mica nodded. “Good, then that’s what we’ll do—” As he went on explaining, in greater detail, he saw that Lil was conversing with Sie using her hands, as if expressing something important.
When Mica had finished, Sie spoke up, “Lil just told me something that I also think is necessary, but—I don’t know—” Mica, Alaina, and Joyce all stared at Lil who was signing something to mainly Sie, but could make nothing of it, and she was signing it vigourously.
“What is it?” Mica said.
“Well, she says, she’ll be fine,” Sie said.
“Well alright, but what exactly is it?” Mica urged.
“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Sie said, his eyes widening. “Since, well, Lil can fly, she’s offered to go take an overview of the city, in help of finding a decent base; and because she has precognition, she’ll be able to find us again…Seeing us going somewhere, and will be able to get to us then.”
“That sounds perfect,” Mica said, making a motion with his hands. “Is everyone in favor of this?”
They all shared looks of approval, some nodding, and then Mica clapped his hands. “Alright, that’s what we’ll do then…"
“There’s one thing, I think that should be mentioned,” Sie brought up, cautiously.
“Yeah?”
“It’s about our suits,” he said, staring down to the uniform gray jumpsuit they all wore, which was designed to endure rigorous wear, perspiration, and impact, while still somehow managing to be breathable, and strangely comfortable. “Well, not the suits exactly, but our wrist bands.” He was talking about the silver circlets surrounding all of their wrists on their right arms.
“What about it?” Mica asked; the others shared similar questioning looks.
“Well, after looking at it for awhile,” he said, “I’ve noticed that it does not displays a grid map of the entire city, but also the number of surviving trainees…If you press the red button there…But the problem is, it no longer shows thirty-five…It’s now thirty-one…”
For a moment no one said anything, hardly even breathed. Mica blinked. “So this means…That four have already died…This fast…But how?”
“I really don’t know,” Sie answered, appearing truthful, but concerned. “My best guess is that one of the trainees…Um, took out the rest of his group…But the reasons of that are beyond me…”
“Wow,” Alaina murmured, shocked. “You’re right.” She was glancing down at the bright red numbers flashing from her wrist band.
This had taken them all by complete surprise, and with the undeniable numbers blinking, there was no arguing. The cold reality of it all seemed to suck the vitality straight from the air around them; even Joyce seemed depressed.
“Well let’s just hope, if that’s true, Sie,” Mica said, sullenly, “we don’t run into that guy, anytime soon…Now to get off this damn motel roof…?”
They all looked around, and Mica suddenly noticed Joyce was nowhere to be seen; and then they all heard her voice, being projected loudly. “Hey guys! The stairs are over here.” They saw her standing over on the other side of the building, waving enthusiastically. Before Mica headed with Alaina, he saw that Sie and Lil were privately conversing, and she finally turned away from him, making her way to the edge of the hotel. She gave one last look back—a look that spoke words she couldn’t, something disconnected, but emotional, before leaping off and taking to the cloudy sky above.
“Come on, Mica,” he heard Alaina call for him, before he turned around, following her with Sie joining in from behind, an evident look of worry in his eyes. But Mica said nothing to this, as they crossed the motel roof together for the last time.
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Something just didn’t feel right. A sense of dread and worry fluttered around in Lil’s stomach, beating it against its walls like stones and heavily dropping to the bottom, weighing her down in her flight. How depressing. Flying was something she always enjoyed, the one thing that gave her a sense of freedom when she was at the training center. Now that she was out of that prison like facility, she felt even more caged. Limited. Below her, the streets were strewn with the remnants of possibility. The possibility to become famous, to seek fortune, to climb your way up the social ladder. It used to be a dirty sinful city, so she heard. Sin City, it had been called. That sin of greed and hunger has been washed away with time and destruction, the only thing those who walk Vegas’ streets hunger for now is the chance to survive. They’ve fallen to make room for another kind of greed, another kind of hunger, something dirtier. A hunger for blood. She closed her eyes and let the wind wisp pass her face. Yes, if she did this it all faded away for a moment. She could forget where she was, forget that she ever had a purpose in the world. She was just a bird, navigating its way home. Like she had one. Her brown hair trailed behind her like cape. It was as if she was some sort of superhero. She chuckled silently. Ha, her? A hero?
It’s funny the thought even crossed her mind. At the training center she had always been an underdog. It was a hard place to stand out. Sometimes you didn’t even want to. Social skills weren’t mandatory and popularity among the trainees wasn’t necessarily a priority. The only times they had to socialize at all was during their morning warm-ups, which took place outside in an area surrounded by tall and thick concrete walls, enwrapped in barbed wire, and during strength exercises, where the trainees participated in one on one combat to test their physical abilities. Occasionally she would pass another trainee on her way in or out of the lab and medical centers, where they did blood work or hooked her up to machines to test her brain’s functionalities.
Because of her flight capabilities, Lil hadn’t even been permitted to participate in the outdoor activities like morning warm-ups. Instead, Lil and those like her were taken to a large enclosed structure, much like a giant aviary. The walls were made of concrete, though the dome at the top consisted of mainly plexiglass. The feeling of the warmth of the sunlight on her skin was enough to recharge Llidith for a days flight. She’d fly to the top of the dome, press her hands against the glass, and look out at the forest beyond the facility, knowing she wasn’t strong enough to break through it… so that she could feel the brush of the green leaves against her fingertips. None of them were… Though she still felt the most hopeless. All the others still possessed something which she did not. She wasn’t the hero. She’d never be.
A noise to her left startled her and her eyes snapped open. How could she have been so stupid? Forgetting your purpose and losing your focus in this sick game would only lead to one thing, not freedom: your own demise. A small bird of prey flew to her left, keeping up with her effortlessly. She had always swooped through the sky with top speed, leaving anything and everything in her wake. This creature was fast.
That can’t be a falcon. She thought to herself. It’s jet black. But, as if only to prove her wrong, it called out yet again. Its voice echoed through the air, piercing and serious, like a warning. There was no mistaking its haughtiness, something Lil had always associated with the swift predator. It was certainly a falcon. Was it yet another thing sent to test them? Some kind of specially developed creature like the droids? Or was it just a freak of nature, like Lil herself? It flew level with her eyes and she saw that it was staring at her. The bird was accessing everything about the girl, his new rival for the skies. Then, it quickly made a bank to the left, and something deep inside her gut, where all the rocks and stones rested, was telling her to follow it. She angled her body to the side and sped up after it, but the bird was smart. She was surprised it hadn’t yet turned on her, ready to bombard her with its talons. It banked yet again, swooping in an arch underneath her, and dived straight towards the ground.
Excellent. She couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement pass through her. Flying was invigorating enough, but nothing could beat a freefall. She tucked her body in, until her head was facing the ground, and kicked her legs out towards the sky, propelling herself like a missile towards the earth. Her arms were outstretched behind her, providing her with the most efficient and streamline figure. She had to crease her eyes slightly, or they’d feel like they were going to peel right out of their sockets. Below her was a giant slab of asphalt, snuggled cozily between two buildings as a parking lot. It was a decent landing spot, though the hard ground would be a little stressing to her legs. But she was built to withstand it. The falcon seemed to have the same idea, but, just as soon as they were nearing the ground, it made another swoop to the left and curved its way into the framework of an unfinished metal structure. After spinning herself upright, Lil came to an abrupt stop, hovering above the ground and watching as it flew away. There was no use in following it anymore. It’s not like that would accomplish anything… and she had work to do. She lowered herself down gingerly and landed firmly with both feet. This would be as good a place as any to start her search. While she was passing over it she saw some promising locations, though she hadn’t been paying much attention. The others were looking for a base as well… so she could afford to explore a little.
She pulled her arms across her chest and stretched her muscles out as she walked, her eyes curiously scanning her surroundings. The droids that had been scattering around the city just moments before were nowhere to be found. They were probably hiding, as Lil saw that one do at the motel, out of sight. Hm? Beside the building the falcon disappeared into and what looked like a liquor store was an alleyway. There was a bright yellow car parked in the back of it, wedged behind a rusty dumpster. That was strange. What had happened to all of the other cars? Why was this one still here? It raised a hint of apprehension in Lil, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from investigating it. The alley was dark and foreboding. She didn’t like the dark much. It wasn’t because of any tales of the boogieman, ghosts, and goblins, which fed a child’s imagination and caused them to carve monsters out of nothing more than shadows. Llidith never had any stories like that to listen to. The fear of the dark was a natural, animalistic instinct. Unless you were made to prowl the nights, one was best safe and secure in their burrow, fearing those things which prowled the nights. That’s just the way things worked.
When she reached the car, she noticed the door was already slightly ajar. Rustling came from the interior and she took a hesitant step back. From a distance, she reached a hand and creaked it open more. A large rat scrambled from the floorboards and onto the ground beside her. With a squeak, it ran towards the sidewalk and disappeared around the corner. Lil smiled. Well, it was good to see something was thriving in the city. Now, the car. Ugh, papers and old food rappers littered the floor of it. The upholstery was tearing, brown in places where the interior of the seats were exposed, and it smelled like mold and animal urine. In the backseat were magazines of an… indecent sort. Though the guys would probably worship her for bringing them back to base, she preferred not to. So she didn’t. They never had to know. Below the passenger’s seat, she noticed the corner of what looked like a box poking out. Hesitantly, she climbed over the trash and grime in the driver’s seat to pull it out. On the side there was a number.
She recalled Sie saying something about it at the motel, when he first found his gun… so it caught her interest. She pulled it closer to her and opened the lid. Inside there were three packets of bullets. Lil felt her heart quicken. She almost wanted to slam the box shut and forget she ever found it. When Sie first found that gun… she wanted to snatch it out of his hands and chuck it out the window… But she didn’t. She swallowed and reached for the packets. Their suits consisted of deep pocketed zippers. She unzipped one of them and stuffed two of the packets into it, then unzipped the other for the third packet. As she was zipping it back, something new crept over her. The feeling of being watched. She turned her head back to the sidewalk from which she had came… but there was nothing there. Maybe she was just being paranoid. What had happened back on the roof had shaken her up just as much as the others. Maybe even more so. The thing with the watch, that is. Someone was out there. Someone who seemed to have a heads up on all the rest. Someone who had already tasted blood.
Blood. Llidith gasped as images began to flood through her mind and across her eyes. It was as if she was being transported to another world, though a translucent and fragmented one where time seemed to pass at warp speed. She saw the rest of her team, Sie, Mica, Alaina, and Joyce. They were exploring a building, a dark concrete one… A building? No… this was more open. It was like a parking garage. But someone else was there. She saw supplies. A headquarters of some sort. She heard screaming, Joyce’s she believed. A gun… not like Sie’s. It was larger… A shotgun… pointed straight in between Mica’s eyes. Then it all went blank, flickering out like that television screen from the morning. Her breathing quickened, but it felt like her heart had stopped. She needed to get back to them and fast. It was too early in the game for her to lose them. She couldn’t lose them. Searching time was over. She took back to the skies without another thought.
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They had been travelling for what felt like hours, or at least to Joyce who had kept to herself since being lashed at by Alaina on the roof of the near-dilapidated motel that was now somewhere miles in the distance, left behind. And furthermore, the numbers. It probably bothered her more than any other of her teammates. But then again, death had always troubled her. It was the one thing she could barely deal with. The chilling reality of it. And now, it didn’t even seem real. It clogged up her usually sunny and bright thoughts like a persistent, drowning raincloud soaking her with a twinge of discomfort, and uncertainty at every shadow-infested corner they came across.
The fear. It was tearing at her. Beginning to crawl up her skin, and had taken her mind captive, sucking her completely in—but she couldn’t have this; it was illogical. In this world, the rust-and-dust world they now were forced to kill within, she would have to become someone else, when that moment hung before her like ominous, deadly thin thread, attached to her sanity. If that snapped, then she would be a goner for sure. Maybe, Alaina had been right. If things were left up to her, they would all end up dead.
And for that reason alone, she was glad Mica was here.
She had to do all within her power not to think about that moment. The moment when life or death would weigh before her. When she would be forced to…to…She couldn’t even bring herself to even think of that terrible word. She wasn’t even sure if she was capable of doing it; she had only faked the ability of succeeding in that stretch at the Training Facility. But she didn’t want to die herself; so she would have to, but it would go against all she believed within—so she would have to become someone else in those fleeting seconds. Mechanical. Cold. Impassive. Inhumane. All that the Vulterrki were. She would have to become one of them to kill, and when she thought about it, perhaps that was the big picture type of goal they had for them all. To be forced to leave all they knew of humanity, in exchange for all that these Vulterrki were in essence. She desperately hoped she was wrong, more than anything.
Absorbed in her own swirling thoughts, she hadn’t truly been paying attention to her surroundings—which she figured was pretty idiotic, considering the circumstances, and when she blinked she saw that they were now traversing an oddly desolate, less constructed area of the city, ruinous mounds of dirt and litter sprawling monstrously along the banks of the cracked, and scraggily-overgrown roads, like ancient pyramids of a lost civilization. There wasn’t much cover, and detection would be too easy in these parts. Hence, their quickened movement, she supposed.
Above, the smog-overspread sky blotted out the late afternoon sun, and hung over the cityscape like a directionless, aged map, something you could lose yourself within if you weren’t careful. She sighed, feeling her legs already begin to cramp-up, and mouth becoming dry, lips arid due to the lack of water, and the intensity of the heat sweltering within this place; causing their hair to dampen and foreheads to become beaded with sweat and grime. Ick. She thought, and rubbed the back of her hand against her face, wiping in vain.
She heard someone else moan quietly, was it Alaina? Who cared, if it was her anyways. Why did she always have a bone to pick with her? What had she ever done to her to be treated this way? Joyce endeavored to think back to the time she had known Alaina during their Training Facility years, which hadn’t been long, only like three or four…And she was coming up with nothing. Maybe, that was the way she treated everyone. And why was she wasting her thoughts on that? Guess it was better than alternatives…
Without the slightest warning, an ear-splitting explosion resounded within the air, and there was a blinding, crimson flash. Joyce screamed, and she heard Mica’s sudden shout, and when the light faded, they were all still standing unscathed, but breath-taken.
“What the hell was that?” Alaina blurted.
“I have no idea,” Mica muttered. “Is everyone okay though?” And everyone nodded, including Joyce, who was standing outside of their group, more to herself.
“It sounded like it came from this direction,” Sie said, from his stance ahead, and Mica turned toward him.
“And we want to continue travelling in that direction?” Alaina cried.
“Why not?” Mica said.
“You’re insane—”
“Listen, there’s voices!—” It was Sie who had shouted that, steps away, near one of the mountainous mounds.
There was an abrupt, high-pitched scream! And something strongly sickening clutched at Joyce’s stomach and heart, twisting mercilessly. It sounded like it had been a girl, and now there was another voice echoing, from somewhere up ahead, blocked by the crowding sight of withered, boarded-up restaurant buildings.
“Let’s hurry, this way,” Mica encouraged, and they all followed without hesitation.
“Whoa!” they heard Sie say aloud, and Mica questioned him:
“What is it?”
Sie was staring down at his wrist in disbelief. “The numbers just went down one; I think whoever it was just screamed…Was the one who was killed…”
Mica shook his head; why did he feel so distressed? This was the whole point of the game…To kill or be killed...But how could they all just immediately decide to do just that...Kill? As if they weren’t human…? Didn’t even have consciences? They were lined up against the brick wall of an old, Italian eatery, its over-hanging sign barely still legible, the neon-lit pizza discolored and rusted. Mica narrowed his eyes, staring about the corner, and to them again.
“Everyone stay here, I’m going to go check this out…alone. Understood?”
They all nodded slowly, and Joyce swallowed, the fear rising in her throat again, like an unavoidable lump. Leaving them in the wavering shadow of the alley between the buildings, Mica stepped out into the open and what he saw left him absolutely speechless; for a moment, he couldn’t even find himself to be able to breathe. For in the distance laid a mangled form of what looked like one of the trainees, but was burned beyond recognition, a conflagration of flames consuming the crumpled corpse, the other figure laid sprawled out against the ground, steeped in blood. In that moment, he saw the figure turn its head, agonizingly, and attempt to scream what sounded like help, but came out more as a strained gurgle. This trainee was still alive…And there was no one else to be seen…The assailant, whoever it had been had long since disappeared.
Mica knew then what he had to do; there was no turning back now.