July 6, 10.45

It was coming close to 11 o'clock at night. The camp directors' "Exodus" plan had been put into place less than half an hour ago. Zoe's trio, the family of one of the now-deceased person that they were travelling with earlier and my group were coincidentally put together in the same large group, with around 30 other refugees who we weren't familiar.

However, there wasn't actually a need to socialise with them anyway. We weren't even going to be with them for the most part. We had already plotted our own escape plan to break away from the rest. Based on the discussion we had two days prior to the "Exodus" we had all agreed that it wasn't safe to follow the rest to evacuate in a large group. Our presence would attract every single alien creature in the proximity. It would practically be suicide.

In addition, after what one of the refugee's claimed, we doubted the camp's declaration that there were ferries docked at Navy Pier to save us. If they were to end up leading us to an empty jetty, we would be doomed. Again, they might take the opportunity to execute us there for whatever reason.

Most importantly, though, we didn't trust the camp. There were way too many inconsistencies in the directors' planning, things that they were potentially covering up and issues that they were unwilling to enlighten us about. If they had truly killed the volunteers before they could set out on their missions, who said that they couldn't do the same to us when we evacuate?

Instead, we had curated an entire grand plan for our own smaller group of 10 people. This would not only reduce the risk of us running into the aliens, but also potentially save our lives from being killed by some insider sent by the camp directors or whatever rebel group.

Furthermore, I had contact with Valour. They were able to truly secure a rescue helicopter or vessel for us to flee in. If I had to choose whether to follow Valour or RISE, there was no doubt that I would pick Valour.

Now, the plan was simple. For around the first part of the escape, we would still follow along with our assigned large group. Only when the time was right would we sneak away. It could vary from seconds to minutes to break away from the group, although we wouldn't wait any longer if our safety was being threatened in the main group.

After escaping, we would head to the nearest 'L' station, preferably Quincy due to its rather enclosed platforms that would provide shelter. We would seek refuge at a corner of the station, settling there for the night. The next morning, when there would be light for easier traversing, I would contact Valour to confirm with them where to meet to get onboard the helicopter. On the other hand, I had a radio prepared as an alternative method to send a message out to Valour in the case that my phone runs out of battery.

After much preparation, it seemed that we were ready.

The group leader, who was a staff member—not exactly a good sign—gestured to us to follow her. Thus, we moved behind her as she brought us back to the main camp entrance. Meanwhile, our secret smaller group of 10 stuck together, keeping our actions subtle so that no one would have suspicions about us.

After much walking, our entire "unit" of people had arrived in front of the entrance doors. There were five soldiers watching over the doors They signalled to our group leader with a hand movement I didn't recognise, although I assumed it to mean that we could go.

Hence, she stretched her hand forward, leaning towards the door as she aimed for the handle. She then grabbed tightly on it, just about to pull the doors open. We all waited anxiously, as I looked around our small group. I could recognise the mutual anxiety that we all had on our faces. I knew that there were still risks to this. But we had to go on either way.

However, before the doors could swing open, a blasting shriek pierced our ears. Our group leader reacted to it, flinching as she let go of the door handle. Everyone turned their heads, facing the back entrance at the far end of the camp, where people there appeared as dots. Nevertheless, we didn't need to see to believe that one of those alien creatures had gotten to us.

To add fuel to the fire, a pair of additional alien shrieks followed after. In the end, there was an uncountable orchestra of shrieking noises, a proclamation that a massacre was going to occur. At that point of time, not a single person was oblivious to the incoming aliens. Refugees crawled out of their sleeping bags, desperately attempting to flee.

Soon enough, the aliens came in sight as chaos ensued. Hoards of people ran in all sorts of directions, the unfortunate ones getting stabbed through by the creatures. Few survivors managed to make their way to the exits in the midst of the mess. As we all mutually paused for a second to process everything that was going on, we moved aside from the camp entrance, allowing refugees to leave first.

I looked around the group, noticing everyone's stunned faces. I seemed to be the only one who was truly mindful of everything around me. It was as if everyone else had gone into an idle state. Amid looking around our group of 10, I came to the shocking realisation that there weren't 10 of us.

I counted the number of people in our small group once more, tallying up to only eight people. Sweat droplets trickled down my head as my body went into a catatonic state for a moment. I instantly noticed who was missing right after realising that there were missing people in the first place.

At that moment, the rest of the group had seemed to go back to reality, wary again. They all stopped staying still in their spots, swaying around at the very least. Adam then signalled to us to follow the other survivors out of the main entrance to get out of the camp. However, I couldn't leave without the missing members. At the same time, I couldn't be selfish enough to hold them back and endanger their lives.

I reached forward to tap on the shoulder of Adam, who was already preparing to leave. He turned swiftly, facing me as I immediately began speaking afterwards. "Veronica and Tara are missing. Jen and I are gonna look for them. Y'all should leave first. If I make it to Quincy by tomorrow, then I'm alive. If not, don't wait for me," I said my final words to him, before grabbing Jennifer and leaving.

As we moved through the crowd without any orientation or direction, we eventually became more and more hopeless. It was impossible to spot anything large in the waves of people rushing across the halls, let alone Veronica and Tara. Thankfully, someone grabbed onto my back, which wasn't something someone would typically do. The person quickly let go as I turned around to see her.

"Tara!" I exclaimed as I grabbed tightly onto the girl so that she wouldn't be dragged away by the panicky swarms of people around. "We thought we'd lost you! You good?"

"Yeah... I'm okay. But Veronica isn't," Tara stuttered.

"What do you mean?" Jennifer cut into the conversation, stepping forward as she displayed a face of much concern. "She was with you right? Where is she now?"

"I... I'm sorry. I don't know," Tara revealed, sighing as she closed her eyes and put her hand on her forehead. She shook her head for a moment, before opening her eyes back open and looking up at us. "She and I were heading for the restroom at the near end of the cafeteria. Before we entered, I noticed that there was some sign on it, so I was going to stop her from going in—"

"Was the sign saying not to enter the restroom?" Jennifer interrogated, grabbing the girl by her shoulder rather aggressively. It seemed a bit too much at first, but I understood that she was worried for her best friend. Thus, I simply placed my hand on hers, prompting her to let go of Tara.

"Y-y-yes," Tara responded even more nervously than ever, probably pressured by Jennifer's actions. "But as she pushed the door open, one of the soldiers stopped her just at that moment. This soldier, though... was not just insane, but abnormal. His hand wasn't a hand... but like a crab pincer or something. And then, he..." she added, before stopping by trailing off. A tear rolled down from her right eye as she covered her mouth with her hand.

"What? What did he do?" Jennifer pushed the girl for answers once more, staring at her intently.

"He stabbed right through her back," Tara told us as she began to break down into a crestfallen state.

"Dear God!" Jennifer cried out as she exhaled intensely. She grabbed onto her hair and pulled it as she breathed deeply. She then dropped her hands forcefully, letting go off heir hair as strands of it fell to the ground. "We have to go and find her," she ordered impulsively as she began walking away.

"Wait!" I attempted to stop her as I reached my hand out to her through the moving crowd. However, she quickly slipped out of view as layers of people covered her tracks up. I sighed, bringing my hand back down as my efforts to get to her were futile. Nonetheless, I looked back at Tara, who had grabbed onto my arm tightly so that we wouldn't get separated the same way we did from Jennifer.

"We've got to go after her," I informed Tara as I moved her grip on me down to my hand so that I could mutually return the grasp on her hand. As soon as I secured my grip, I dashed through the chaotic crowds of people running around frantically, dragging Tara along. I kept my rifle in my other hand just in case we were to come across one of the aliens on the way.

We squeezed our way through the different groups of people sliding across the hall in different directions. It was like swimming against the current in the sea as we pushed against random refugees toughly. At some point, I almost lost my sense of direction, unable to tell where exactly I was heading to. However, we fortunately caught a glimpse of the cafeteria ahead of us, moving to it as soon as we spotted it.

We sprinted towards the side, where the restrooms were located at. Around that area, most of the people had vacated the café, fleeing towards the exits. Thus, the coast was rather clear for us to move, as we could finally see whether there were aliens in the proximity, in which there were thankfully none.

As we reached the female restroom, I could see the door pushed wide open even from the side. A strong stench blew across the cafeteria as my nose instantly sensed it from far away. Tara reacted to the unbearable smell as well, pinching her nose forcefully as it turned red quickly. We continued moving forward, assuming that Jennifer was somewhere inside the rotting lavatory.

However, as we reached the front of the restroom, we stopped dead in our tracks. As I looked inside intently, I proved myself right by confirming that Jennifer was inside. But it was nothing to celebrate about. Now that I had seen what was truly going on inside the toilet, I didn't just have the nauseating smell to deal with.

I had to process the mountain of corpses inside and tell myself that my eyes weren't lying.

Tara let out a horrified scream as she slowly got down to a squatting position. I quickly responded by bending down to her level, initially wanting to silence her by putting my hand on her mouth. I was afraid that the aliens would come and find trouble with us if we were to make too much noise.

However, as I thought about, they had way more victims to slaughter in the main refugee hall—more than there were in the lavatory. Hence, I moved my hand to cover her eyes instead as I wrapped my other arm around her shoulder to comfort her. Despite this, she still continued to hyperventilate, panicking uncontrollable.

I didn't even need to imagine what kind of terror she was experiencing. The entire sight of horror was laid out in front of me. I couldn't lie and say that I didn't wish that I could use my hand to cover my own eyes. There was such a heap of bodies piled up on top of one another that it looked as if they were going to collapse at any time. The entire flooring of the restroom was also covered in blood, not to mention.

Amid all of the mayhem, Jennifer was spotted bringing down one of the bodies from the pile in the restroom. This set off an unsightly chain of other corpses rolling down, bringing the reek of decomposing flesh towards us. Only after much spectating did I realise that she was actually bring down someone who was very much alive.

Thus, I grabbed Tara's hands and placed them on her own eyes. "Now, I know you ain't a kid anymore. But you sure as hell won't wanna say what's in front of you and have another panic attack again. So, promise me you won't let go," I warned her as I slowly let go of her hands, leaving her to cover her own eyes.

As soon as I was sure that she would cover her eyes without letting go, I got up. I rushed forward towards Jennifer to help carry the injured person down. Only then was I hit with another shocking discovery. As I stared at the person's face, I finally realised that it was Veronica all along.

Of course, it was, I thought to myself, slamming myself for being so stupid. I wasn't saying that Jennifer wouldn't have helped another random injured person out, but I had to understand that she was at the restroom in the first place because she suspected that Veronica was hidden there. I was foolish for not even realising that she had gone there to rescue Veronica, as it had never come across my mind.

For a moment, I found her unrecognisable, as all of her clothing had been entirely soaked in blood. Her hair was also tangled in a heap, equally wet as her blouse. The only thing that could be matched to her previous appearance was her phase. Even so, her looks were hardly easy to match with the Veronica I saw less than half an hour ago.

I inspected her clothing, checking for any open wounds anywhere. Even though Tara had told me that Veronica was stabbed, I couldn't assume how she had ended up in her unconscious state. It could have been from loss of blood from the stab wound, a concussion or internal bleeding from additional violence in the attack involving blunt force trauma, or even loss of consciousness from a panic attack. Eventually, I discovered two small wound holes at her spine, which looked exactly just like how crab pincers would impale a person.

However, after much scrutinization, I heard some sounds of life. As I flipped her over, she came round, her eyes slowly fluttering open. She groaned weakly as she stared up at me blankly for a moment. As she finally began to process everything that had happened and was happening to her, she became wary of her surroundings again.

I knew that she was when she called out my name.