The ten or so students in this building were mostly sitting or standing around, unsure of what to do. Somehow we'd all been left behind.

Take control.

"We have to keep moving," I said.

"Nah," a guy said. "We can hold out here. It's not going to work anyway."

"Things don't happen unless you make them. Get off your ass."

"Or?" he challenged.

I shot him. He convulsed and fell over. Everyone had stopped.

"Holy shit," someone swore.

"Why the fuck are we getting blown to pieces, if we're not taking this seriously?" I said. Anna briefly came to mind. Before anyone could reply, I hammered in."We're moving now."

"Th-the, building, it's surrounded," the young healer said.

I smiled wickedly. Control. "Not a problem."

O

One of the magus had been able to put a hole into the earth, which descended at an angle. I had remembered what Anna had said. This was my plan.

Droid tunnels.

I jumped in and slid down the smooth passage, until I met a short drop, and landed in the narrow tunnel. My bad foot ached on the landing, and I had to prop up against the wall. One by one, the rest followed into the dark. Somebody spoke a spell, and a glowing mist flowed down the hall, barely illuminating it.

We spaced out some and started running down the tunnels. We had a Seer, to navigate us. We must have jogged for around a half hour before someone needed to stop. My foot was killing me, but I wouldn't have stopped.

The tunnels had gotten wider, and we had passed into sewers, I reckoned. Shallow water flowed over my feet. I was waterproof, but others were complaining of wet feet.

Even with the light on my gun, the darkness of these passages were bad, in that they left us vulnerable to certain attacks. I had sensed disturbances, and we had  had to stop no less than three times before to work on counteracting a spell.

Not to mention the miasma of crap.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Is no one a teleporter?" I had assumed someone would have brought it up by now. I was holding out for an idiot, though.

"I've been using a haste spell, on everyone," came a voice.

That must have helped my foot.

"It would take us an hour and forty-two minutes to draft a teleportation spell," our Seer said. She continued, "we are only an hour away."

"Let's move then."

Our jog had reduced to a trudge, in the dark.

After some time, the Seer spoke.

"There's something wrong. We need to do a headcount."

I turned my guns light back, and others contributed to the illumination.

"Where's the healer?" I asked.

"We must have left him behind," a man said.

"No. There's no path to him. He's dropped out," the Seer's voice had lowered.

"He's dead?" I whispered, taking her cue.

"Has to be!" she panicked. Others murmured or cursed.

"There's not ah soul following our company, though," someone else said.

I made my way to the back of the group and peered into the black. I could see.

With all the lights, it was hard, though.

"Dimmer please." They obliged.

I squinted, gazing back down the sewer tunnel. There was a shimmering. It had a shape. The shimmering intensified. It wasn't though. It was drawing closer.

"Androids!" I yelled.

Every one of them came out of hiding, their image solidifying. There were dozens of them, each working in perfect unison. I opened fire into their mass, and the tangle of limbs and bodies moved to minimize damage. The horde artfully moved forward, dodging the barrage being thrown at them, through flips and jumps.

The tunnel flashed with energy bolts and fireballs. The androids weren't going down. A spike came out of the dark and hit me in the chest. The metal dented flat against me, as the fabric hardened to stop it. I was sent sprawling back with the force. Someone, as the machines gained ground, decided to create a force field. The fighting stopped.

The Seer helped me up. Now blocked, the droids were patient as they scanned the barrier. Already looking for a way to break through it.

"It's a Technicist," I choked out the words. My chest was constricting. "They're hijacking the military droids." Rib cage fractured. "...Upgrading them."

"We need to surface."

"No... keep moving."

We kept on, leaving the field in place. After a long walk, the Seer finally said it.

"We're here." It was a ladder, which ascended into the ceiling.

Others went first. I stayed behind until they'd gone, and the darkness was complete. I threw back my hood, and my night vision remained. I held my gun trained down the tunnel. Figures danced in the dark, tricks of the eye.

More dwell outside of sight than in the light. Voices.

I jumped the ladder and quickly climbed.  I exited the hatch, to find everyone waiting. We were off the road a ways, and there were three of our group missing. Standing in some back alley, the evening sun was hidden behind the buildings to our sides.

The Seer pointed. A white skyscraper rose above the rest. The Statehouse.

I could make out three figures suspended in the air around the tower. From this distance, I couldn't be sure, but it looked the Beaulieu brothers.

I touched my coms. "Kendall, are you in?"

"Just coming up now. The civilians should be gathered in the court, at the top," he replied. I could hear his ragged breath, running up stairs. "...It's em-!"

The Statehouse was eviscerated by bolts of blue light. Obliterated so violently, that the light from the explosion was painful to see. The entire structure was carried off like dust scattered on the shock-wave, which rushed down at us. Debris fell like hell-fire.