Chapter 35: Freedom

Time left until monsters respawn: 0 hours, 13 minutes.

My body slides through the slick ice tunnel and I roll out of the way as the swarm of thousands of flies follow me. I hear Jose charge and fire his electric burst shot. The bugs don't make a noise as they die.

They're pouring through the tunnel by the dozens per second. I get up and shoot my Flame Thrower for 3 seconds while Jose charges another shot. I release my fire stream, someone hands me a Dr Pepper and I chug. More flies enter the tunnel. Jose's Arcing Shot hits the swarm and dozens more drop. The tunnel is now clogged with dead bugs. The guys with melee weapons poke and push the corpses out of the way. They make room for more victims to our death trap.

We continue that way for two minutes. I alternate between flames and soda. Jose charges electric shots and I can see him become more exhausted by the second. Someone empties a bottle of Ki point restoring water into his mouth. I hit zero AP but keep using Flame Thrower and Chimerablood's ability kicks in.

I'm briefly stunned as bright red horns burst from my forehead and my fingertips start on fire. The melee crew have to fight desperately while I'm temporarily out of the fight. Jose fires another charged shot, killing dozens of bugs and I recover and unleash Flame Thrower again. This time the flames are dark red and completely incinerate the insects instead of just making them crispy. I hold the flames and clear out the tunnel, even expanding it with the blistering heat I'm now putting out. I laugh maniacally.

We continue the cycle for 3 more minutes. Flames, electricity, melee, flames, electricity, melee, until eventually the buzzing around the tunnel stops. I see on my radar that the flies have thinned out and are retreating.

Someone behind me shouts “Go, go, go!” and a crowd of people rush past me as my arms drop. My ears are bleeding. I quaff another soda and feel better. I see Jose walk through the enlarged tunnel. I feel someone grab my shoulder and push me.

“Come on, man, we're not leaving our hero behind.” It's Brian. Who's this hero? I don't know. I let him push me and we go through the tunnel. It's full of bug corpses and smells about as bad as you can possibly imagine. We hold ourselves back from vomiting. I see some of the others aren't so strong willed. A few of the civilians have to stop and throw up after they clear the tunnel. But then they run. We all run.

Also, I notice that my flames at some point made popcorn out of some nearby corn. Haaaa that's fun. But I have to run.

Someone up ahead is the first to the door and it slides open like a regular goddamn Get! store entryway. People fly out the door. They've never run so fast in their lives. I see some flies land on one of the customers and take him down but then Nat runs over to him with two sharp looking santoku knives. Where'd she get those? Nevermind. In seconds she's got the older customer back on her feet and they're on the move. She's smiling. She must be stronger than I am.

We run and finally, after 23 hours and 56 minutes, everyone leaves the dungeon. Everyone except for me.

I stop right at the exit and the thought that had been in the back of my mind comes roaring in. I don't have to leave. I don't have to go back out there, where people don't understand what I went through. I can stay. I revive when I'm killed. I can stay in here and fight and get super strong. I can gain levels and chart my own path to power. As long as I don't leave here, I am immortal. I don't have to deal with that world out there. It's not like there's anything out there for me.

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I take a deep breath and turn back to the corn fields. This is where I belong. The fighting. Endless fighting and blood and death and killing and being killed. I am a Ranger, a dealer of death and destruction. Here is where I rise, here is where I become the world's strongest-

“JUUUUN!” It's Mercy's voice. I turn back to the entryway. She's being held back by a police officer.

“Hey dude, watch your hands!” I find myself shouting at the cop. Then I'm there pulling his hand off her. And then she's wrapped around me in a full body hug.

I look down at the girl who's holding me, tears in her eyes. Wow, she's pretty. She's a bit under 5 feet tall with a non-skinny curvy body and milk chocolate brown skin. She has dyed white hair that's just a bit wavy and falls all the way to her lower back. Her eyes are like half moons tilted upwards, her pupils a very dark gray flecked with gold. And, I like her, a lot.

There are others there, but I can't seem to notice them. I think there's a news van. There's this girl hugging me.

People are cheering. People are crying. People are laughing and saying that Jose and I are heroes. But also there's this girl, named Mercy Mahar, and I think that I might be in love with her, actually.

Someone comes up to me, I think they're from the government. Something about debriefing. Something about other jobs. For the good of the country. Something... I cup Mercy's cheek and tilt her tear filled face up towards mine.

“Did I make you wait for too long?” I ask.

She nods her head. “Yep and I'll hate you forever.” She pushes up with her toes to reach my lips and we kiss and God, what a kiss. I feel it in every bone of my body, every cell in my veins.

It's then that I realize what I was lacking that others had. They had something to go back to. I never did. My dad thinks I'm a failure. I never had a real relationship. I didn't even have a home most of the time I was in the Army. I just fought and trained and thought of nothing else.

Jose always had a family to return to. He always fought for their sake. Even now, I can see him calling his wife to let her know he's okay.

Davis always fought to aim higher. She always wanted to be better, go further than any woman before. To break not just the glass ceiling but every damn ceiling in her path.

But not me. I just wanted revenge. I wanted to kill terrorists. And in the cave I got that revenge and it tasted like blood and gunpowder and shit. And then I was left with nothing. Nothing but the pain, the memory, the fear.

I turn around and finally see what's happening. The civilians we saved are so happy. They're ecstatic. They're free. They all have things to go to. Things to see. People to love.

And I see some talking to the camera crew. They're pointing at me, pointing at Jose. Some of them, then multiple of them, then most of them, come up and thank me personally. They have tears in their eyes. They have smiles on their faces. They're thanking me. Me?

I feel something break inside. No, maybe that's the feeling of something being fixed. Mercy says to one of the people, “I know, my boyfriend is so awesome!” Boyfriend? Actually that sounds wonderful.

Something is definitely fixing inside me. It's building inside me. Some new version of myself. Someone who has something to live for. Someone who has someone to live for.

I pull her face to mine again to feel her soft brown lips against mine. She surprises me and teases my tongue with hers. Then I feel her hands slide down my back and grab my butt. Okay, so this might be something definitely worth living for.

After we kiss I turn back and see the sliding doors close. I smile. I've finally left the cave.