Chapter 127: The Best Action

“This way!” I loudly command, swinging a right as we reach a fork in the road.

I can hear Ember and Hunter’s footsteps behind me, but I have no idea how much time we have until the mutts catch up to us! I can’t look back… it’ll only distract and slow me down! Getting rid of our packs might be necessary here… losing the extra weight will make us quicker. Although they wouldn’t last long, the bags can act as temporary roadblocks to slow the mutts down. It’s not like we have any food or water left, but our supplies will be lost… we might need this stuff if there’s another maze!

“I can hear something ahead of us!” yells Ember, now running by my side.

Not looking anywhere else but forward, I try to remain calm as I ask, “What is it?!”

The path we’re currently on isn’t long, and up ahead is a forced left turn.

“It’s hard to tell with the mutts barking behind us, but it sounds like… some kind of generator?!” yells Ember.

“A generator?! Like a machine?!”

“Yes! But- damn, these dogs! I can’t hear shit!”

Damn it! Well, I guess it doesn’t matter what our packs have if we’re dead!!

“Ditch your pack!” I say, already halfway done with taking mine off as I seize my steel sword. “We need to widen the gap, and they’re only slowing us down! Grab your weapon too!”

“No! Wait!” began Ember in an attempt to stop me, but it was too late.

Releasing the backpack strap from my grasp just a millisecond before she warned me not to, the deed was already done, and I had messed up. Messed up badly. And for the first time, I looked back.

Only a few steps behind me was Hunter trailing close behind. And as I dropped my backpack to the ground, Hunter didn’t have enough time to get out of the way before the pack struck him in the shin.

With the impact causing Hunter to immediately slow down, Hunter is already on guard and ready for what’s about to happen. Quickly reaching behind his head for his sword, Hunter swivels back, blindly slashes through the air, and connects with a lunging mutt only a foot or two away from sinking its teeth into Hunter’s chest.

“Forest, I think the exit is up ahead!” says Ember, reeling my attention off Hunter and back to what’s ahead of us as we round the corner.

A short, wide pathway comes into focus with a large stairwell at the end. I could also hear the generator Ember mentioned, which rumbled just underneath my feet.

We couldn’t be any further than a hundred feet away, yet…

Fixing my gaze back on Hunter, who's feverishly trying to fend off the pack of mutts while also attempting to keep up with us, my teeth anxiously begin to grind together.

We aren’t going to make it!

TICK!

“Well, don’t just stand there!” yells Ember, taking out her sword and sprinting back to help Hunter. “If we help take out some mutts and create an opening, we might be able to make a run for it!”

Adrenaline pumping, there isn’t time to logically think about the best action. Raising my sword and prepping for battle, I join Hunter and Ember in the fight and swiftly slice the head of a mutt, closing in on us from our left.

This is the best action!

After quickly taking out another two mutts that both attempted a straightforward attack on me, I had a brief moment to check on Ember and Hunter before another mutt would be close enough to attack me. Ember almost seemed to be taking the fight to the mutts, carving her way through them with ease, while Hunter was holding his own, but it was clear he was struggling to move. After closer inspection, I realized something terrible had happened.

The back of his leg… part of his flesh is missing!

Ignorant of what’s going around me as I’m caught dumbfounded by this horrifying sight, this momentary lapse in attentiveness nearly costs me my life.

“To your left, Forest!” calls out Hunter.

His words snapped me out of my daze, and I maneuvered my body just in time to dodge an incoming mutt before I slammed my sword down from above, slicing the mutt in two.

Hunter can barely even stand, and he’s still looking out for me! How pathetic am I?!

Gritting my teeth, I hack down another mutt and reposition myself closer to Hunter.

With that injury, there’s no chance Hunter can run again. But if we work together and fend off the mutts, we might be able to slowly backtrack toward the stairwell.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

GRUNNNNKKKK! TICK, TICK, TICK, GRUNNNNNNKKKK!

The floor beneath me suddenly starts to slide open, and I’m forced to separate myself from Hunter again.

Now, what the hell is happening?! Is the ground caving in on itself?!

Quickly looking over at Ember to see if she had noticed, her wooden sword broke just as I glanced in her direction. Left defenseless, Ember is forced to separate herself from the pack of mutts that she had drawn toward her.

“Either of you got an extra sword?!”

“No, but take mine! I can’t-... I can’t keep this up much longer!” replies Hunter, tossing his sword to Ember.

Ember catches his sword out of the air by the handle and looks down Hunter’s leg, spotting exactly why the prideful Hunter said something like this.

“You know… you’re one hell of a badass,” says Ember, stepping in front of Hunter and staring down at the sea of mutts lining up before us, gathering as if they had planned to engage in one final attack. “Thanks for the sword. I’ll protect you from here.”

Pulling out his bow and reaching for an arrow from his quiver, Hunter snarkily remarks, “Protect me? Stop acting like you’re gonna take all the glory! I can handle myself!”

Ember scoffs, “Yeah, yeah… now let’s see you back it up!”

Looking around, I notice more areas along the ground splitting open, creating wide pitfalls we can fall into if we’re not careful where we’re going. But in battle, it will be nearly impossible to keep track of everything…!

No! We can’t fight them! We need to get out of here! One wrong step, and we…

All at once, the mutts charge us in a synchronized attack. Releasing a battle cry, Ember steps forward and tears through the flesh of two mutts in one swing. A mutt then almost catches Ember out from her blind spot, but Hunter fires an arrow directly into the mutt’s temple. A trio of mutts then target me, and I quickly take care of the first one by hacking it down by the front knees. The second one then gets within range of my sword, and I’m forced to take a step back before I flick my wrist and smoothly cut off the head of the second mutt. By the time I checked on the third mutt’s whereabouts, I noticed Ember had already taken care of it while Hunter continued to fire arrows at the next wave of mutts.

With four mutts lunging toward Ember to attack her simultaneously, Hunter strikes down one of the four with an arrow. At the same time, Ember lacerates the mutt to her far right through the chest. Quickly modifying her stance, Ember kicks the underside of the mutt leaping toward her from the middle, forcing it to stumble back. Then, tossing her sword in the air to her opposite hand, she seamlessly swings her left hand to her side, stabbing the blade's tip into the third mutt’s neck.

Yanking out the blade while the mutt dematerialized, Ember shifted her focus toward the mutt she had previously kicked away from her. Readjusting her footing while the mutt lunged toward her once more, she swung her sword like a baseball bat as it connected with the underside of the mutt’s jaw, defeating it.

Hold on… with Ember, maybe we can fight them-!

GRUNNKKKKK!

The quaking ground beneath Ember suddenly causes her to collapse; I race towards Ember and push her out of the way before the trap door opens, creating a pitfall.

“What the hell?!” shouts Ember, immediately locking eyes with the trap door she now laid a few feet away from.

“The ground around us is starting to cave in!” I shout, hacking another mutt down.

Staring behind him toward the stairwell, which we have slowly been backing towards throughout the fight, Hunter realizes that we couldn’t have been more than fifty feet away by now. But he also realizes that time is slowly running out as more and more pitfalls cover the land between us and the stairwell.

“We don’t have much time! Before long, the floor between us and the stairwell will all fall to pieces; if that happens, there is zero chance we will make it! We’ll be trapped here fighting these mutts until we die!” I yell.

GRUNNKKKKKK! VRMMMM! VRMMMMM!

Bringing down two more mutts, Ember stares behind her and registers that the floor and mutts aren’t the only problems we’re dealing with.

“The stairwell is being closed off!” she yells, and I whip my head around to see that two sliding doors are slowly grumbling inward from either side. I then hear an arrow whistle by me, and I track its course to see it strike a mutt in the shoulder, stunning it for a moment while I strike it down.

Shit! What the hell do we do?! What do we do?! We’re completely cornered here!

Suddenly, somebody grabs the collar of my shirt from behind and pulls me backward. Immediately concerned about falling into a trap door, I flick my head around to check where I’m going as I stumble back. And in that brief moment, I realized Hunter was the one who had thrown me behind him.

“Go! Both of you! Go now, or you’ll die!” exclaims Hunter, a slight quiver in his voice.

“No! I won’t leave without you!” I shout back, watching Hunter shoot down another mutt.

Reaching for his quiver, which now only has three arrows left, Hunter says, “We put up a good fight, but we all three know that I’m not making it out of this situation alive!”

Whipping my head around to check on the closing door, I note that it’s over halfway done with blocking off the stairwell. Looking back at Hunter, I watch as he reaches to retrieve another arrow from his quiver, only for him to delicately feel the feathers of his last arrow.

Slowly sliding the arrow out of the quiver and nocking it on his bow, Hunter’s arms and legs begin to shake as he tries to steady his aim at the next mutt, preparing to attack him.

“I’m not-” Hunter says as the pack of mutts slowly encircle him. “I’m not running away this time! So go! Go! Because if you don’t survive, me and Falc will have died for nothing!”

“Time’s up, Forest! We gotta move! It’s almost shut!” informs Ember, and I bite down on my lower lip, dropping my gaze.

There’s… there’s nothing we can do to save him! And it’s my fault! Hunter will die because…!

My body abruptly begins to move on its own, and my ability to think dissipates as I can’t find the strength to say anything to Hunter. Turning my back on him, I carefully watch my footing as I steer around the collapsed pitfalls along the ground. Arriving beside Ember, the two of us quickly run in between the closing doors that slam shut behind us as we fall to the ground on the other side.

Huffing and puffing, I close my eyes and roll over onto my back as I hear an echoing ring file into the background, bouncing off the stairwell ahead of us for a few seconds before fading away. A courageous roar then bellows out from the other side of the wall. After that, my face painfully creases together as many scuffling noises, barks, and screams overlap before silence lingers.

Grimly opening my eyes, I lift my arm above my head to look at my wrist. Turning on my watch, I immediately notice it’s already been updated. Seven people left. Dropping my arm back to my side, I close my eyes again. But this time…

A tear sheds down my face.