As the light from the world re-enters into my eyes I wake up to a city in flames. The dark sky is lit up by yellow and red flames. Dark clouds mix with the sounds of battle as it wages everywhere.

My body slumps over in the alleyway. I rub the back of my head to see blood on my fingers. Whatever knocked me out did a good job.

I have no idea how I got here I don’t even remember what happened beforehand. The only thing I can recall is the walls collapsed, and I rushed into the city.

But what else happened?

No, I can’t stay to ponder, it isn’t safe here. I need to figure out what is going on.

Next to me is my bow, but the bloody thing is snapped in half. I go for my sword near my hip, but that is gone as well.

Shit, this isn’t good. No weapons or a clue of where I am. This isn’t my day. I need to find something and get out of here.

I exit the alleyway to a sight of bodies of both Cinari and Dogs littering the main street. I pick up the nearest sword I find near the body of a Dog.

I look around to figure out my bearings. Unfortunately, I am too far into the city to figure out where the exit is, and where the Cinari are.

Well, the best I can do is hope I don’t run into them without back up.

I walk along the side of the road, moving past empty stores, barricades and more.

The place is full of gore, blood and flames. The smell of charred flesh and the stench of oil invades my nose.

Did we burn the buildings down? I don’t remember doing that. Nor do I remember them not burning for some reason.

Up ahead, a few Dogs in a group talk amongst each other. There seems to be no more than five, but I am too far away to tell.

‘Hey! Wait for me.’ I yell as I wave my hand to get their attention. But they turn their heads and ignore my cries. As they run to the other side of the road, three bolts skewer two of them to a wall. The third one crashed into the chest plate of a Dog, causing his armour to violently vibrate, making him puke his organs out from his mouth.

The other two Dogs luckily arrive at the other side of the road, but are now hiding in a building, away from whatever killed their friends.

I duck behind a dead horse, looking over the street to see what is going on.

A voice echoes from the street. ‘They are in the building! Smoke them out!’

A Cinari with a flaming bottle in his hand walks up to the building. The building bursts into flames as the Cinari throws the bottle inside.

The Dogs in the building rush out, screaming as the flames wrap around their bodies and eats away their flesh from their bones. The Cinari spears them to death, either as an act of mercy or to end their horrific screams. They act like it is routine, a drill they mastered the art of cruelty long before we entered city. The Cinari head back to their positions.

I need to figure out what their defences are like. If we have to go through them, I need to know what to do.

I prowl closer to where the Cinari are, hugging my body to the building walls. A Cinari emerges from the fork. Pushing a three-headed ballista. They notice me; they aim their weird looking war machine at my general direction.

‘Oh shit!’ I say aloud, frozen in place as they line their weapon up.

Max tackles me to the ground as they fire their weapon over us.

‘Take them down!’ She shouts as her men come out of the alleyway, charging at the Cinari to butcher them.

‘I thought you were underground?’ I say to her.

Max gets off me with a frown. ‘A thank you would be nice. But to answer your question, it’s a shit show down there.’ She helps me up as she dust me off. ‘I suppose it is also a shit show up here as well, seeing as you are all alone.’

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

‘Yeah, I am thankful to see you too, Max.’ I check her men to see if they are in good shape. It seems they are a bit beaten and bruised by whatever they dealt with underground.

‘They’ve got this place well defended. We need to stick together if we want to survive this place.’

‘I agree, but if you are tagging along. I am in charge. You will follow my orders.’

‘Fair enough, but I would like to have a bow and some arrows. If you don’t mind.’

Max shakes her head as she takes one of her men’s bows and chucks it to me.

‘Make sure you don’t hit any of us.’

We walk through the empty city streets, stepping over the bodies of our fallen comrades while I pick up whatever arrows I see along the way. It doesn’t matter if they are Cinaris or our own. If I need to survive, I need to use what I can get.

We head to where screams and cries are coming from, but whenever we get near, the battle is either already over or they have moved somewhere else.

It is clear we are lost in the city. It doesn’t help that the Cinari have removed every street sign and painted over the names of stores. The place is a damn maze. Without any landmark or something we can be familiar with, we are no better off walking around blind.

We enter a place that looks like a playground with a swing set and a slide. I don’t like the look of this. There doesn’t seem to be any signs that anyone has set foot here in a while.

I walk behind the group with my arrow notched. A bush near the swings shifts subtly. Without hesitation, I launch my arrow into it. A Cinari falls over dead.

‘Take them out!’ One Cinari shouts as he and his fellow soldiers charge towards us from every side, from behind the buildings and bushes.

Max and her men lock themselves into a brutal melee with the Cinari, swinging and thrusting their weapons into each other. I stand behind my comrades, picking off any targets that get close to me.

One Cinari sneaks up behind Max, but I strike him down before they can deliver a killing blow. Max turns to grin at me, as if she is thankful in her own way.

After slaying the last of the Cinari, we scan our surroundings to see if there are any more left.

‘I guess that’s the rest of them,’ Max mumbles.

I head over to one of the dead Cinari, searching its body for anything valuable.

‘What’s this?’ I pull out a folded sheet of paper. Upon further inspection, I notice it’s a basic map of the city. This is good. Now we can figure out where we are. Maybe we can even decide whether we should press forward or leave and regroup.

‘What did you find, Alex?’ Max stands behind me.

‘A map of the area. It doesn’t cover the entire city, but it gives an idea of where we roughly are.’

‘That’s good. So what’s the plan?’

I raise an eyebrow. ‘I thought you were in charge?’

‘I need to know what you would do with this knowledge.’

This has to be a trick. She never wants to follow my opinion, let alone my orders or plans.

‘We can find the weakest position and take them on. We’ll take any Dog that is in our path to increase our chances of penetrating their defences.’

Max nods in agreement. ‘That is the right answer.’ She snatches the map from my hands.

‘Let’s get moving. We have a city to take over.’

I shrug as I follow her deeper into the city.

I don’t know why she tested my loyalty; does she want to make any excuse to kill me? Whatever it is, I need to keep an eye on her from this time forward.