Trent dragged himself into a corner. His vision had doubled, his ears were ringing and he registered very little around him. But he knew he was in danger. His racing heart told him so.

That ... coupled with his sudden desire to run away.

Yet even if all the sounds were a distant echo and his world was a fuzzy image of a million polka dots, Trent knew he was going to die unless he moved quickly. So he pulled himself out of this dark room with echoing gunshots and back towards the brighter room he'd failed to reach earlier.

The closer he was to Freya, the safer he'd be.

As he continued dragging himself, Trent was spun around quite unexpectedly. He still couldn't see very well, but the foggy blob that had spun him was grey in colour.

His stomach twisted.

Trent kicked as hard as he could. Grey was the enemy. It always was. Ever since the Event, soldiers had been donned in black, to take full advantage of camouflaging in the darkness of the night. The only people that still wore anything but black were Tectans.

The grey smudge yanked Trent's hair with a painful tug. He let out a short cry, more out of surprise than pain before striking his knee as high as he could between the Tectan's legs.

A loud yelp ensued and he was let go.

He was free again.

Trent went back to crawling away as fast as he could. Towards the dim, swinging light bulb.

Another arm.

This one around his chest as he was dragged back to the dark again. His heart froze again at the sight of grey on the figure's head. Trent swung wildly at this new enemy. He wasn't going to get captured. Not if he could help it.

"Captain!" The voice was less of an echo with each passing second, "Captain calm down!" The voice was a harsh whisper, but not unfamiliar, "It's me!"

"Rookie?" Trent whispered back, not hiding the pang of irritation he felt towards Axel, "Why the hell are you wearing that thing?!"

"Because wearing the enemy uniform makes me invisible to the enemies," Axel responded with far more calm than Trent possessed.

"Alright wise guy," Trent snapped, his voice dangerously close to breaking the whisper, "what did being invisible help you find?" He wasn't even sure why he was annoyed at the rookie. That was a smart move. He should've been proud. It wasn't like his panic was the kid's fault.

"It's definitely night," Axel said as he let out a nervous laugh, "I don't know why but they're ignoring us and aiming for Freya and Dex. And umm ..." He let out another nervous laugh, "they've nearly taken down a wall and I can see the moon outside."

Trent swore, the moon wasn't a guarantee of how far into the night it was. It could have been an hour before dawn for all they knew. Trent turned back to the sound of the gunshot. He had subconsciously zoned it out like white noise until now.

Now that his eyes had adjusted to the dark again and the panic had faded, it looked very much like they were taking shelter behind a pile of stacked crates. This part of the complex was a long, narrow hall overrun by giant crates. From somewhere towards the right further down the hall, two soldiers seemed to be constantly firing.

"Have they reloaded?" he asked Axel, far more alert than before.

Axel shook his head firmly, that was good. They couldn't keep shooting forever. And when they stopped to reload, Trent's team would annihilate them.

Trent counted twenty shots ... then thirty ... forty ...

What kind of gun didn't run out of ammunition?

"New plan!" Trent announced, "Give me your mask and get ready to shoot!"

"Captain?"

Trent extended an impatient hand, "Axel! I will pull rank!" he warned, the rookie was a good, sharp kid. It was exactly why it had to be Trent. Besides, if he wasted time explaining his plan, Axel would protest, and that was both unnecessary and annoying.

"Sir!" And while he had gone rigid at Trent's pathetic display of superiority, Axel didn't look pleased as he took off the mask.

"Get ready to fire," Trent reminded, donning the mask and standing tall. If something went wrong and he was shot, there was no way he was letting someone as young as Axel die instead.

Trent watched silently over the crates at first. Four Tectans were firing at Freya and Dex, two at a time. They had completely ignored Trent even as he stood. He watched a pair squat and a second pair take over the shooting almost instantly. It was so fast that it sounded like the firing had never really stopped.

Spread out and firing like this, it was almost military.

Trent pointed his gun at the Tectan on the right and fired a single shot. The one right across him stopped firing, finally registering Trent. Another gunshot echoed from behind him and the Tectan dropped down.

He grabbed Axel by the waist and ducking as low as he could, yanked him across the the room towards the opposite wall.

A torrent of bullets sprayed his earlier location, destroying the crates and taking a section of the wall with it. Trent spotted a hallway behind the broken wall, but he didn't linger for too long. Something pungent had wafted up his nostrils. Whatever it was, had long since rotten in the crates.

Trent tore off the mask, it was useless now. Instead he waited and listened. They couldn't take turns shooting now that he had killed half their force. And soon enough he heard the ever familiar 'click' of the end of a magazine.

Trent stood up, gun poised at the stack of crates against the wall, not ten feet from him. where he knew the Tectan would peek through. The savages may have been good, but he knew he was better. These Tectans with all their smarts couldn't possibly have the level of training that he did. The intense level of training that the Absolute Rule put all its soldiers through.

Here on the surface, the scavenging Tectans had no technology and no comfort.

They would never win.

Trent spotted half a head rising head from behind the same crates at the other end of the room. He fired mechanically and then ducked again. Not really confirming if the Tectan was dead, and ready to pull Axel to a different location.

But the rookie wasn't beside him anymore.

Trent sprinted again, moving diagonally towards another stack of crates on the opposite side of the wall yet again. As worried as he may have been about Axel, he couldn't stay in one place. Even if they lacked training, the Tectans were insanely overpowered with the weapons they possessed. The only way to take them out would be to play smart and safe.

He waited for the volley of bullets once again. Gun ready. But there was no sound. Trent was tempted to peek, but he couldn't risk getting his head blown off.

So he waited.

A minute passed and then another before he heard a snap, like the cracking of bones. Trent's heart froze again as panic welled within him.

Was it the kid?

He would slaughter every last one of them if they'd hurt another member of his team. Axel was barely an adult. An overeager child that had stupidly signed up to the army as soon as he was old enough to.

Trent moved towards the other end of the hall, crouched but ready. He spun instantly as he reached the crate, but there was no grey.

Axel was panting against the wall on his knees, a cut lip and bruised cheek on his otherwise youthful face. By his feet lay two motionless Tectans.

He raised a thumb towards Trent, still panting with a cheeky grin that showcased his bloody lips, "All clear, Captain!"

"Bloody moron!" Trent stood up straight and extended an arm.

"You said so yourself, Captain," Axel panted, taking Trent's arm to get back to his feet, "you don't just keep me around for my pretty face." He raised a hand, still grinning his bloody grin.

Trent would have knocked some sense into the disobeying moron if he wasn't so relieved the kid was still alive. So he shook his head disapprovingly and walked away.

"Don't leave me hanging, Captain!"

But Trent couldn't care less. He made his way back to the slightly brighter, square room instead. A section of the wall across him had been torn to shreds.

Trent peered outside, they were definitely on the surface. He was standing in a building about five stories above the ground. And just beyond, an iron meshed gate towered at least twenty feet above them.

The night was eerily still. Yet under the blanket of stars that shone as far as the eye could see, there was no safety. For beyond the mesh gate was a forest of unruly green. Sleeping for now, but just as dangerous as it had been since the Event.

Since the oldest and deadliest inhabitants of this planet had decided they'd had enough.

Since the day the Vines had emerged from the trees and annihilated life on the surface.

(1555 Words)
(Tally: 4645 Words)