Roosevelt was on the ground. Death.

  Lily was next to him, mourning his tragic, yet heroic end, but shedding no tears.

  The bitch that killed him was also on the ground.

  Raven was next to it. He was checking if it was alive.

  Why not just take its head? That will surely kill it.

  He took too long. I assume he also searched for any valuables it might have possessed.

  My teammates, excluding Raven, were in mourning over Roosevelt’s untimely demise.

  He, on the other hand, had no emotions to spare. Not a glance, let alone to shed a single tear. It was as if his death meant nothing to him.

  I barely held the rage in me… My fist clenched and my nails almost pierced my hand through the gloves…

  The Princess was the last undead to fall. After its scream, nothing else happened.

  The survivors from the military walked to us. They were now battered up, but even with their numerous losses, they didn’t require any time to respect their sacrifice. Just taking the dog tags from the one they could and leaving the rest.

  “Four good soldiers died behind us. Two more from that creature. My squad is as good as annihilated… Our numbers won’t protect us when the Stalkers return. From now on, we have to move fast,” Olivier said, his face dark.

  The rest of the soldiers also had serene expressions.

  I was in no mood for anything.

  “Let’s go. We have no time,” Raven told us.

  Those words sounded cold and distant to me.

  Like hell I was going to do as you tell me!

  “Why?” I asked again, this time knowing for certain he heard me.

  “What ‘why’?” he replied without emotion.

  “Why didn’t you protect him?” I asked with a cold yet calm voice, taking the loss to heart.

  He didn’t say anything. My inquiry annoyed him. However, I wouldn’t let it slide this time.

  “Why didn’t you protect him!?” I roared and grabbed him by the collar while tears started falling from my eyes again.

  “Mary?” Lily was surprised by my strong reaction.

  I looked at her briefly. Her eyes were red. She wanted to cry, but endured it.

  I never showed this side of myself to her. My dark side…

  “Answer me!” I continued pressing him, wiping away my flowing tears as my hands trembled from anger.

  The rest of my friends were speechless and the military didn’t take a side.

  He realised I was adamant and I wouldn’t let us move without getting answers.

  He made a sight. His cold eyes stared into mine. I stared back, not backing up even an inch.

  The reply froze me in place.

  “I never intended to. It was his incompetence that made him die.”

  I expected an excuse of a sort. That a mistake happened and Roosevelt was endangered. That the Princess was too strong… That you did your best but couldn’t…

  You never cared about us. You never saw us as allies, let alone as friends.

  After a few seconds of silence and realisation, I continued.

  “Weren’t you supposed to protect “us”?!”

  No, you weren’t. I made it so that you had to protect only “me”. I’m sure you knew it perfectly. I hoped you would also keep my friends safe, but now I know it was a mistake…

  “No. I promised to protect only “you”. I forgot to add something when we discussed it. I will protect you, but if you do NOT annoy me too much. My patience has limits.”

  Yes, I can see you are angry and barely holding it in you to grab my collar.

  I was playing with fire. A fire that would burn me.

  “If you are done bitching, let’s continue moving.”

  “Mary…” Lily grabbed my arm and spoke gently, her voice seeped with worry.

  Her expression was filled with concern, begging me to stop.

  “Did his death help you take it down?” I asked and the tears began to flow freely.

  My grip lost strength and I let go of him.

  “He did what he could. But depending on you, his actions might be wasted.”

  I get it. We have to go.

  I took Roosevelt’s pistol. It was the only thing I could have taken to keep a physical object to remind me of the time we spent together…

  I need to calm down.

  “What’s the plan now?” Leo asked, his voice exposing the worry he was feeling.

  Roosevelt’s death and my fight with Raven kept everyone on edge. Only the soldiers didn’t care. They have already lost too much. No, they might have never cared about us.

  “We run as fast as we can out of this damn place before we all die,” Olivier said.

  “Are we going to do so without any order?” Rich asked.

  “No, we stay close to one another.”

  From the blocked path, sounds could be heard. Sounds of something hard hitting something harder. The rubble started moving.

  “We have no time for that. Something worse is coming. From now on, we run without turning back,” Raven said with a cold voice.

  My teammates looked at me, their expressions showing worry I have yet to see from them.

  There was nothing we could do for the one who died. We had to survive.

  “Let’s go,” I said with no emotion after wiping my tears.

  My cheerful self was gone.

  “After we get inside the pathway, use explosives and block it. It will buy us time,” Olivier ordered one of his subordinates.

  We moved on.

  After the soldiers blocked the pathway and Raven and Leo swapped their backpacks, we began to run.

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  Navigating in this darkness while running was hard. More often than not, we couldn’t even run fast due to the uneven ground. Our numbers were too scarce to ensure that the path before us was lit enough.

  No creatures were waiting for our arrival to ambush. Nothing was in a close enough vicinity to endanger our lives. However, we all knew that something was chasing us and we hoped it wouldn’t catch up anytime soon.

  Everything went well for a while. However, I felt that something was off. That bitch’s scream… It must have cried for help or given an order in its last dying breath.

  Half an hour later, my fear proved right.

  The ground began to shake slightly.

  The feeling slowly got stronger.

  We could hear stalagmites and stalactites being broken behind us.

  Whatever was following us was approaching fast and destroying everything in its way.

  It was a monster we had no will or strength left to fight.

  “Oh, not again! Now what?” Raven was also getting to the end of his patience.

  “Do we stop and engage it or do we keep running?” Lily asked.

  Whatever was behind us should be formidable. I’d rather not fight it. Yet, running away seemed impossible.

  “Is there a wide area where we could fight?” I asked Olivier.

  “There is none until we get close to the cave’s exit.”

  “What will we do when it catches up with us?” Leo asked, the fear evident from his tone.

  “Along the way, there are branches on the pathway.”

  Are you implying that some of us have to take that thing’s attention and go down an unknown path to stall for time? You are asking them to die! No one would take that role!

  No one from the soldiers would and I don’t want to lose anyone else!

  “Someone will have to be decoy,” Raven said aloud what I concluded in my head, strengthening my resolve not to follow the plan.

  “If the need arises. I don’t want it, but as a last resort…” Olivier said with no emotion.

  Then you be the decoy!

  We kept on running and all thanks to our chaser, our speed increased. However, we weren’t fast enough.

  A strong roar sounded behind us.

  At this rate, it will be upon us soon.

  “We have to outrun it!” Rich said.

  That would have been the best outcome. But it wasn’t happening.

  The monster that chased us eventually caught up to us.

  From behind us, a stalagmite was thrown. It barely missed us, but it forced us to stop moving.

  “Let’s kill it!” Leo proposed, tired from this cat-and-mouse game.

  We all shone with our flashlights at the creature.

  What we saw made us forget the idea of engaging with the enemy.

  You have got to be kidding me!

  This monster might as well even be worse than the Princess!

  What’s a ‘Tank’ doing in here?! How come one of those behemoths be inside a tiny cave?!

  It was supposed to be an elite undead! We don’t have the weaponry required to make a dent in it, let alone kill it!

  Tank is a Brute on steroids.

  It’s bigger, stronger, smarter and way more deadly.

  The height ranges from 10 to 13 feet. It possesses strong muscles all over the body.

  Tanks have ‘low’ intelligence and ‘high’ armour.

  They are rarely seen, even in here, where the larger undead are more common.

  They can take a lot of punishment. Even with high-calibre guns, taking one down will be a challenge.

  Small firearms won’t even tickle them.

  There are even stories about how a Tank can take an entire stronghold by itself.

  I have no idea what we could do against it with our current equipment. Running is our only option.

  “Run!” Olivier shouted, the fear palpable in his voice, when he saw what our enemy was.

  They went first, without waiting for us.

  We, on the other hand, were frozen. Seeing a monster like this after the previous one made us unable to move.

  “Run! Now!” Raven shouted at us.

  Move, my legs! Move!

  We started to run as fast as possible.

  The Tank was roaring and occasionally throwing large cave objects at us.

  If this continued, we’d be cornered in no time.

  “Keep running,” Raven told us with an icy voice and slowed down.

  What was he going to do now?

  I looked behind me, not daring to stop distancing myself from the Tank.

  I… Raven hurt me. He betrayed my trust. However, I realise my selfishness. I don’t want him to put himself in danger.

  He already did more than enough for me and my team. The least I could do was make sure he survived my foolish leadership.

  He turned around and walked towards the Tank, his gait calm and even!

  The Tank didn’t stop its mad charge and was about to crush him!

  Did Raven lose it?

  I stopped running and started shooting at the Tank. My bullets either ricocheted or did nothing to it.

  The rest of my teammates looked behind and also stopped, readying their weapons to fire.

  “Run, for fuck sake! I’ll come in a bit!” Raven roared at us.

  I was reluctant to listen to him.

  The Tank slowed down and swung its massive arm at Raven.

  He dodged by stepping backwards. The attack hit the wall.

  Raven retaliated by shooting at the Tank’s face.

  It was unknown whether the shots harmed it, but the Tank roared and continued to attack.

  Raven continued to dodge and shoot.

  He was single-handedly able to fight the Tank in an even battle, forcing a stalemate!

  I didn’t know his plan, but I decided to put my trust in him yet again. Please, for the love of all, don’t betray it again.

  In the worst case, I fear that he would have sacrificed himself to give us additional time…

  I started to run without looking back. My teammates reluctantly followed me.

  The sounds of their battle continued to echo as we ran, slowly becoming quieter until silence ensued.

  Their fight was over. The victor is unknown, but given the silence, it might have been a draw.

  I would only know if Raven came back. I pray that he won and is well.

  We continued running without stopping. We caught up with the soldiers at one point.

  They noticed our existence.

  How kind of them.

  Both sides kept a certain distance from one another. Neither one trusts the other completely after everything that happened.

  It wasn’t long before our next challenge caught up to us.

  Something was approaching from behind us.

  “Keep running!” I shouted, having had enough creatures chasing us for today.

  The thing was closing in fast. It wasn’t as ominous as the last one, but I feared what monstrosity was behind us this time.

  “Turn around, prepare to engage!” Olivier ordered, realising there was no escape again.

  The soldiers turned around and aimed their firearms.

  We also stopped and took a position after we passed them, awaiting the smaller monster to come into our sight. If it were something we couldn’t take on, we would have been the first ones to return the gesture.

  It must be the Stalkers. They found another way to get to us.

  When the thing chasing us came into the light, one of the soldiers pulled the trigger prematurely and almost hit the person I hoped would come back!

  He was dirty, but no real harm was done to him.

  After realising one of the soldiers shot him, he gave the death stare and I feared what would have become of the one who shot at him.

  “How?” Olivier asked, his tone enough to make us understand his astonishment about Raven’s survival and return.

  That is a good question, however. I want to know that too.

  “I made it hit the wall a few times. It got buried and I barely managed to survive it. It is not over. It will have problems following us for a while, but it will be coming soon.”

  He omitted the details of the battle, either to hide the truth or because there was no time to explain in detail.

  No one dared to question him further. If he didn’t want to talk, who could force it out of him?

  We eventually managed to get to a cavern. If my memory serves me right and if Olivier’s words were true, we should be close to the exit.

  We almost made it out of here! Only a little bit! Only a little bit…

  My happiness didn’t last for long.

  When we entered, I felt a presence, a murderous intent.

  Something tried to slice my head off. Another ambush?

  I moved sideways, dodging the Stalker’s attack and shot it in retaliation.

  “Stalkers!” Rich shouted.

  “Take formation! Prepare to engage! Push forward!” Olivier ordered as he threw a glow stick.

  The cavern was filled with Stalkers. We couldn’t fight them off, yet this was the path we must take.

  Our numbers weren’t good enough to hold all of them! A few of them forced us to engage in a melee!

  Raven was forced to switch to using his pistol and knife. With his left hand, he shot the ones who were nearing him, with his right, he slashed the Stalkers' hands and necks, staining his clothes in their blood.

  The soldiers even used grenades, but the holes the explosions made were filled in no time.

  A few of the soldiers took shallow cuts. Leo was grazed a few times.

  There was an exit of the cavern in less than 70 feet. But even if we made it there, they are faster and will chase us down in no time if we were to run.

  However, fighting them in a tight corridor was easier than in here and might be the solution to our current predicament.

  “The path to our left,” I ordered, but no one listened.

  “The path toward our 10 o’clock. We move there!” Raven clarified.

  “Roger! Begin the slow advance. Keep vigilance!” Olivier spoke.

  We, both my team and the soldiers, formed a circle. Our guns didn’t know respite. Mine even became hot.

  When I killed one, two more took its place. They will overwhelm us. We cannot fight them!

  We began slowly moving while shooting.

  We barely held the line.

  “Shit!” one of the soldiers cursed and stopped shooting.

  His barrel was on fire!

  Our firearms also started malfunctioning, a few bullets jamming the gun and allowing the Stalkers to close in without any opposition.

  “We have to move! Follow my lead!” Olivier ordered while using his pistol.

  When we got close enough to make a risky run towards the exit, most of us switched to secondary firearms.

  “I will count to three. We will make a run for it!”

  We had neither time nor a better plan to object to him.

  “One… Two… Three!” Olivier ordered and threw a grenade.

  “I love you, Mary!” I barely managed to hear that sentence.

  The next moment, the grenade exploded. It was a flashbang.

  The light from it stunned the Stalkers, allowing us to escape. However, even in a blinded state, the noise must have enraged some of them. They dashed madly at us, most hitting objects along the way, but nothing forced us to turn around.

  The sound also harmed my teammates. I’m hearing the ringing in my ears and nothing else. My head feels as if it would explode any moment now.

  Even in that state, I had to ask myself a question.

  Why did Leo say it to me? Why did he confess now? Don’t tell me… I don’t have time to think about it!

  As we were making a run for it, I didn’t look back.

  Even in my semi-deaf state, I think I heard gunshots behind me as I was running. Did some of us fail to make it?

  I don’t have the time. I had to keep moving.

  Later, I realised that Leo and Rich were nowhere to be found.