[Oi! Wake up]

I faintly hear as my face was being forcefully slapped.

[Get up!]

The slapping intensified as I groggily opened my eyes. With the gleam of the faint light shining down on face, I see the silhouette of a fairly brown-skinned man looking down at me menacingly.

 [Hurry and get up! This place is giving me shivers. Where the hell are we anyways?]

His voice’s familiarity was slow intensifying as I hear more and more of it. The man sat down on the floor next to me. It was cold and pebbly with small chunks of rocks stabbing my back as I laid lying. I slowly got up and got a better look at man that was sitting beside me. It was Jun “Johnathan” Edwards, or as I better knew him as C.J. He was, or much rather, still is my roommate in university.

He was a pretty tall (192 cm) 20-years-old half-Japanese half- Hawaiian man with short-curly black hair. Despite being half-Japanese, he took on more of his Hawaiian side rather, making him look a lot more intimidating to other people, not that if tall stature and toned muscular build wasn’t enough. Many people, however, did find him quite attractive. We became friends in our first year of university as we had two very contrasting hobbies in common, martial arts and anime, and moved in together in our second year with another one of our colleagues after we were kicked out of our dorms due to “issues”.

There probably might have been another reason that we moved in together. I am also mixed-blooded, as some people would say, being a third-Japanese and a quarter-American. However, compared to the him, I stood at a shorter 170 centimeters, with light skin and short black hair. Despite being interested in the same martial arts, however, I was much less muscular, as I often neglected muscle training.

[Izumi, you okay? It’s been about an hour since I woke up and you’ve been unconscious ever since] he said, looking at his watch.

{Where are we?}

[How am I supposed to know? I woke up here just like you!]

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I stand up and look around to see a dimly lit room that seemed to stretch indefinitely. The floor and surrounds seemed to be made of rocks and dirt and eroded stone pillars that seemed to be holding up the structure of the area. In lengthy intervals, there were lights, seemingly similar to the torch perched on the wall that we were next to, station on the pillars. The air felt humid and the cool wind that flowed through left an eerie sound behind.

{Get up.}

[What for? We don’t even know where we are. Plus, I’m still tired from yesterday’s practice]

Despite him being a martial arts fanatic, the practice that he was talking about wasn’t sparring. He had joined a dance circle called Yosakoi at our university and usually comes home late every night tired.

But just staying in this spot would not help us understand the situation that we were in.

{Just get up. We’re not going to get anywhere just by sitting around here. This place seems dangerous and I want out of here.}

[That’s my point. We don’t know anything about this place so we should stay here. There could be wild animals, like a bear, around here. I am not getting involved with that.]

Petty arguments were pretty common in our apartment, so this went back and forth for quite some time.

*squeak * *squeak *

[What was that?]

{Probably just the wind. Back to the topic, where are w—}

[Be quiet for a second. The sounds in growing louder. It’s getting closer]

*squeak * *squeak *

{It’s just a rat. Caves have rats. What are you so afraid o— What is that thing?!}

It was as big as a Rottweiler with dark grey fur covering its body. Jagged teeth protruding from its frothing mouth. The claws on its seemed as sharp as a sword. It stopped in front of us and stared us down with its beady, blood-red eyes.

C.J. turned to me and let out a wry smile and smirked.

[Told you so.]

It growled, followed by a shrill roar. It jumped towards C.J., with its mouth opened, baring its razor-sharp fangs. C.J. was able to get up from where he was sitting on, barely evading it's monsterour bite, but I couldn’t say the same for the pillar that was behind him. What was left behind was basketball-sized crater in the pillar.

{I’m starting to think that that’s not a normal rat anymore…}

[Oh, you think?]

The rat crushed the pieces of rumble remaining in its mouth, then turned around and glared at us once again. It screeched once again, about to lunge for an attack.

All of the sudden, C.J. ran up its side and kicked it in the stomach, sending it flying into the pillar. It made impact with the rock formation then fell down to the floor, stunned.

[While its down!]

Both of us ran towards the downed rat and continuously stomped on its head and body until it was a bloody mess. It out a horrible shriek as it died. Kind of gruesome now, since I just recently compared it to man’s best friend.

[Thank God I had shoes on.]

{Come on! I’m wearing sandals! There are blood and bits covering my toes!}

I am never wearing sandals again…

{Despite looking so menacing and feral, it went down quite easily.}

[Well we were stomping its guts out for a minute straight.]

We both sat down to catch our breaths. Not every day you brutally murder a giant rat monster. However, not long after, I started hearing an even louder scurrying of feet and even louder squeaking.

 *squeak * *squeak * *squeak * *squeak * *squeak * *squeak * *squeak * *squeak *

{You don’t think that...}

[It can’t be...]

We said to each other concerned laughs while nervously sweating.

From the dark, a colony of rat 30, no, 40 giant rats rushed towards us, all with gleaming red eyes and frothing mouths.

[“Run!!!”]