Alexander North

“Are you kidding me?” the captain swears rather quietly as we reach the peak of the mountain looking out over the base, just to see dozens of glowing blue lights through the blizzard around the base.

In all honesty, we probably should’ve expected this from the beginning. After all, there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop people from turning. Or at least not a way we know of. And the base was full of soldiers, so that’s a lot of people to turn.

Also, I’m starting to wonder if those shards are attracted to people or something. Because they almost always charge directly at us when they see us.

Actually, never mind. They wouldn’t just continue on after missing us if that were the case.

I glance at the captain to find him staring at the base through his helmet.

“Are we going to use the secret entrance, captain?” I ask him while crossing my arms in an attempt to warm myself up, since the cold honestly seems to be getting worse over time. Although that might also be because we’ve been out here for a while now.

The captain jerks his head over towards me in surprise and asks, “You know about-” He then cuts off and stares at me before facing forwards again and muttering, “Of course you do.”

Well, yeah. Dad let me come here, but only on several different conditions, one of which being that I knew every possible exit to the base I would be stationed in.

Which, it’s nice that he cares so much, but he can honestly be a little overprotective at times…

“There probably won’t be as many of them near that exit,” he mutters before looking over each of us and saying in a quiet tone so as to not attract the monsters’ attention, “so we’ll be heading towards the secret entrance.”

Each of them shows different signs of surprise that I can read despite their helmets being on, but none of them say anything about it and we begin to follow the captain towards the entrance, which is at the base of this mountain.

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Yeah, this is a lot more manageable.

This is the first thought that comes to mind when I barely make out the slightly hidden cave holding the secret entrance through the blizzard, which has calmed down just a tiny bit from earlier. Which is a surprise.

That said, if I remember correctly, the inside of the cave itself is supposed to be full of plenty of traps and alarms, along with secure doors to make sure that no one just stumbles on the entrance and goes inside.

Although now that I think about it, the traps and alarms aren’t likely to work now anyways. Not with the technology going out and all.

So now all we have to deal with are the two monsters standing outside.

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“Do you think this is just happening on Arran, or could it be happening everywhere in the universe?” Michelle suddenly whispers, raising a question we have all wondered about but haven’t yet brought up.

I glance at her for a second while pursing my lips in thought, only to turn back to the base as I answer, “There’s no way to know right now, sergeant. Not with communications down.”

And with that, I draw two of my knives from the sheathes on my thighs. The others quickly do the same before the captain begins drawing a plan in the dirt.

“Since I have the symbiont, and the second lieutenant has the most training of any of you,” he pauses slightly at this, likely remembering Gabriel, who had more training than me in close combat, before continuing, “we’ll be handling the two monsters and hopefully either killing them or holding them back long enough for you four to make it through. And once you do, give us a sign and we’ll come running if we haven’t already dealt with them. The second lieutenant will then close the outer gate, which I’m assuming you know how to do?” He finishes with a look sent my way.

I nod my head at that, indicating that I do indeed know how to do it, and he just stares at me for a few more seconds and turns to look at the cave.

“That’s the plan then,” he finishes while climbing to his feet from his kneeling position. He then looks over each one of us, with a specific focus on me, and asks, “Are you all ready?”

We all nod our heads in affirmation.

Let’s just hope I’m actually strong enough to slow down the monster.

The captain nods back and takes a deep breath, then he rushes out and jumps down from the small ledge we’re on to land several meters away from one of the monsters. I quickly follow him, joining him in drawing the monsters over here while the others all rush over to the cave itself from above the ledge.

One of the two monsters seems to be-

My thoughts are cut off as it suddenly seems to literally blur from how fast it’s moving, making me realize that more than just its appearance is different from the other two types we’ve seen before.

Fortunately, the captain suddenly appears in front of me while shouting, “Switch monsters!”

I begrudgingly nod my head in agreement while switching my focus from the skinny-looking, almost wraith-like one with blade-like arms, to the wendigo-like one.

And that decision seems to go over well with the wendigo, who I find charging directly at me while chomping its teeth together like a dog with rabies.

Looks like – if I were to use video game terms for these monsters – the large one from before would be a brute or a tank type, this one would be a berserker, and the other one would be some sort of speed or stealth type?

I raise my daggers in preparation for the monster’s arrival, just to notice a shard flying straight towards me. But the wendigo monster reaches me right as I dodge the shard and lands a blow against my front, ripping bloody streaks though me all the way from my waist to my chest.

With a grimace, I swipe my knives down at its wrists as I’m being sent flying, but they only barely manage to pierce through and instead end up getting stuck in it.

Damn it, why did I ever think this was a good idea!?

“Second lieutenant!” “Alex!” I hear both the captain and Michelle shout, bringing my attention towards them for a split second to find the captain just barely able to keep up with the wraith-like monster’s speed. But what does bring me joy is the sight of the others at the cave entrance. “Come back!”

I nod towards them before just barely managing to dodge the wendigo and pulling its arm in the process to use its own weight and force against it to toss it behind me.

“Captain!” I shout at him while running off towards the others. “Let’s go!”

He looks back at me from his place closer to the cave and nods before swiping his knife straight at the wraith-like monster and making it back off.

A faint smile lights up my face as I look back to see the wendigo-like monster just managing to climb back out of the small ledge I sent it off of with my toss, only for that smile to vanish the second I face forwards again. Because the first thing I see isn’t the others waving at me, nor is it the captain having managed to break free of his monster to make it to the cave.

No. It’s the sight of a shard flying straight into my gut.