with enough missiles to level a whole block. I was glad he was on our side.
“I see,” he murmured, blinking slightly, his gaze turning away from me. “Well, Den, there is no way we can head back now. We are trapped, so the only thing left is to keep going forward. Rest up for a few minutes and let everyone know what I just told you.”
“Okay,” I turned away, and moved back to the others.
After telling them what the officers told me, I sat down, my knees crooked, and closed my eyes, falling into a light sleep.
X-X
“Get up,” Shanna shook me up a few minutes later, her gaze set on the metal door. “We have to go now.”
Something was scratching the door, making an earsplitting and exasperating sound echo through the walls. I stood up, wiping the sweat from my forehead, bending down to gather up all of my belongings on the floor. Another loud bang against the door caused everyone to start panicking again. Some of the people began to run ahead of us, leaving me and the armed law enforcers behind. I leaned to the left, balancing my weight before the rocky fall could knock me off my feet. The monster was back and it seemed its appetite was greater than we could have imagined. To make things worse, none of our weapons were stopping it, not even the bazooka. Staying here and fighting it off was just suicide.
With one glance back, I followed everyone, leaving the law enforcers behind. I marched through the dark and slanted tunnel, turning my head back every thirty seconds, hoping to see Shanna and the others behind me. The other people in front of me were already a hundred meters ahead, moving blindly in this malicious darkness. We had no way of knowing what lie ahead of us, much less if there was a dead end or more of those creatures. I heard someone screaming, coming from a few yards in front of me, and hastened my pace. Was it the monster? How could it have gotten through Shanna and her companions like that? Perhaps it was another monster, but I hoped I was wrong.
I marched further down into the tunnel, and stopped when I heard another scream, about twenty meters ahead of me. It couldn’t be the monster; there was no way it would fit in this small tunnel. It was then someone appeared holding a knife in his hands, charging at me. Had it not been for my com lenses, I wouldn’t have been able to see him until it was too late. This new stranger wore a dark jumpsuit, with white boots—he also had reinforced steel cuffs of his wrists and around his ankles. As he lashed at me, I moved away, hitting my back against the left wall. His knife narrowly missed my shoulder as he slammed his elbow into my stomach. I gulped, feeling the maddening pain overwhelm me. My legs gave out, forcing me to drop down to my knees.
“Sorry, kid,” he whispered, kneeling down, his knife coming for my throat. “It’s nothing personal, just business.”
I panicked, my instincts kicking in, as I reached for his hand, trying to push the knife out of his hands. He was strong; the weight of his whole body was slowly pushing the knife down to my neck. My heart began to race quickly, the feeling of my own demise starting to look more genuine. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Looking into his cold lifeless eyes, his breath brushing against my forehead, I reached for my left pocket, and pulled my com pad. I used the hard part of the pad to hit him on the forehead, thus undoing his hold on me. Screaming out, he yelled and moved away from me, his hands clamped on his face.
“You just made a big mistake, boy,” He growled, unleashing an evil grin. “I was going to make it quick and painless, but now, you just forced my hand.”
Extending his left hand to the side, he side-stepped, pressing his weight into his left foot, before rushing at me. I raised my hands up, trembling in fear, unable to think straight. Nothing could have prepared me for this situation, at all. I mean, I was just a graduate student, and not a fighter.
“Stop right there,” a voice suddenly spoke, forcing the man to stop in his tracks.
He turned his head around, and I followed his gaze to see Shanna and two other armed men pointing their guns at him. He complied with her request, and dropped his proton knife onto the ground, still smiling menacingly. The man moved back to the other side of the tunnel, his hands raised up—the chains of his arms making a subtle whistle.
“Hey, I know who this man is,” one of the armed men said, pointing his gun at the chained man’s chest. “Remember the report we got this morning about a hover ship filled with escaped criminals crashing in Sector 8. This man is Scott Crawl, the spree arsonist of the Eastern City.”
“Are you serious?” Shanna glanced at him, backing away from him. “He was responsible for those fires and shooting sprees? I ought to kill him myself and save us the paperwork.”
“Ah! So my reputation precedes me,” the prisoner chuckled, taking a large breath of air. “I guess I should feel honored.”
“Just shut up,” the large man roared, moving in closer and punching the man in the face. “Where did you come from, and how many of you are here in this tunnels?”
We heard another scream, the sound coming from somewhere ahead of us, inside the tunnel. I stood up, massaging my neck, my eyes peeled into the abyss in front of me.
“Looks like your friends have met my comrades,” the prisoner laughed, glancing at each of us with a large grin.
Violent screams followed his remark—each scream even more unbearable to hear than the previous. Shanna took lead, running ahead of us with her gun raised up, one of the men following right behind her. The large man stayed behind to watch over the prisoner who attacked me.
“Do you know how to use this,” he spoke, handing me a pistol.
“Sort of,” I replied, thinking back on holograms I played in the virtual games.
When I thought about it, the mechanism in this gun and the one in the games were almost identical. The only difference was that I only had one life, in the real world. I took the gun from him and observed it carefully. It was rather heavy and big, the grip was a bit rough to allow a steady grip. I just hoped it wouldn’t fall off my hands when I fired it.
“Go on ahead,” he waved me away, his gaze upon the dangerous criminal. “Go help Shanna, I will stay here and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”
I took one glance at him, nodding, before taking off further into the tunnel. The screams had finally stopped; but I didn’t trust the sudden silence. I checked the gun one last time, inhaling deeply.
“Oh crap,” I sighed, realizing my blunder.
Apparently, I had forgotten to ask him where the safety mechanism was. As it was already too late to ask him, I proceeded further into the tunnel; the gun pressed in front of me. I listened to the maddening silence, hoping to hear anything. It was bad enough we had to worry about incredibly, powerful monsters chasing us, but now this? Who could have foreseen that we would run into escaped convicts? I took a few more steps before halting, tilting my head around to scan the new area. The small shaft ended here, broadening wider into this large rectangular space—about four stories high. I looked down, suddenly peering into this bottomless hole. I think the screams were from people running in without looking down at what was around them.
“Shanna, can you hear me,” I yelled, estimating the depth of the hole by using the echo of my voice.
My voice did not echo back, so that didn’t work as I intended. I paused briefly, looking back to see if there was anything or anyone following me.
“Don’t move,” I heard a soft voice hiss, a sharp object appearing next to my neck. “I wouldn’t want to cut your neck by mistake.”
Judging by the tone, I would say it was a girl, slightly about my height, with a slender physique. Don’t ask me how I knew all this—I just did. With her left hand angled on my neck, she used her free hand to swat away the gun from my hands, whilst dragging me back to the other side of large room. Hiding in the corner of the room was another door. She opened it slowly and shoved me inside, almost knocking me off my feet. Inside this new hidden room, I saw lights and com screens everywhere; the whole interior was reinforced with platinum steel. It lo
oked like the escaped convicts had found themselves the perfect hiding spot to wait out this oblivion.
“Well, well, well,” I heard a voice snicker, followed by a set of large footsteps. “This must be our lucky day, guys, it’s not every day we escape from custody, set up camp in an amazing place, and get fresh victims to play with. Is anyone feeling like it’s our birthday or something?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” two other voices joined in at the same time.
A man with glowing red com lenses approached me, stopping a few inches away. He was a tall man, with muscular arms, orange spiky hair, and metallic knee coverings on both of his legs. He was most likely an enhanced being or something close to that. Genetic enhancements were a common thing nowadays, thanks to the advancement in technology. I was certain this man was enhanced, taking into consideration the size of his arms. He could literally break a man in half with those giant whoppers. I moved away from him, without standing up, using my hands to propel myself to the wall. I turned my head around and saw the other people, who I fled with lined up against the wall. Shanna was right besides them—they had bound her with some sort of bendable plastic wrapper. To make things short, I was way over my head.
“Stand up,” the man said, lifting me up to my feet with one arm.
I heard my right arm snap,