Sen was running.

He hadn’t spared a moment to think—to deliberate. It had just taken a second after he saw the helicopter flying in the sky for his vision to tunnel down. After that, it was just buzzing. A soundless droning in his ears and the feeling of his body moving on its own, as if he had been possessed by a part of his mind that had just been waiting to snap.

And he wasn’t alone. In front of him, Em sprinted forward with all her might, her arms stretched and her eyes wide, as a desperate cry erupted from her chest. “We’re here!” she screamed, jumping, clutching at the air as if it grab onto the distant vehicle. “Please!” she cried. “We’re right here!”

Sen joined her. He screamed and called and they ran after the flying dot in the sky. They shrieked at it. Signaled. They climbed and ran and hooted like a pair of lunatics, desperate to catch even a smidgen of attention.

It was a pointless endeavor, with it being so far, so fast. All their screaming did was attract the attention of the things lurking in the darkness. But they didn’t care. Not there. Not now. Not when their minds were poisoned by a toxin unlike any other:

Hope.

That was what the helicopter was, to them. Hope. The military. Other people. A working vehicle. A way out. It was everything in that moment, and Sen chased it with a desperation he didn’t know he had. He tried everything as they chased it—throwing rocks at it, augmenting his voice with his Ability—and every time, his efforts went ignored. It left them behind, fading farther into the distance until it was nothing but an indistinguishable blot in the night sky.

They stopped, panting, right at the edge of a giant disc-shaped coral. Ruined sections of the city spilled out below them, infested with coral growths and bioluminescent flora.

It seemed like an impossibly vast sea before them; a distance they would never be able to cross.

And so they stood, watching the helicopter fly away, until finally…

It vanished.

And yet, the sound of rotors continued.

More dots passed overhead, trailing after the first. More helicopters. Some passed high, and others low. Sen saw them, filled to the brim with people as they chugged along, with every passenger looking down from above. One of them met his eyes; a soldier, wearing the colors of the UAE’s military. He stared at Sen. Sen stared back.

The man shook his head and looked away, his face set and his eyes harder than stone. And yet his posture betrayed a look of guilt, and an apology unspoken. The man retrieved a duffel bag from inside the helicopter and threw it down—straight towards them.

Sen caught it, and inside was the familiar weight of bottled water and various supplies. An emergency kit, fit to last a few days. A compass and some kind of map laid folded inside.

It was all they got.

The helicopters continued to pass. A dozen of them, carrying just under a hundred people.

“They noticed us,” Em whispered. “They know we’re here.”

Sen nodded numbly. “They’re leaving us.”

“I don’t get it,” he heard her say, and Em’s voice caught. Sen looked at her. Her eyes brimmed with tears of frustration. Her fists balled and trembled with barely suppressed rage. Em stared at him, looking for an answer. “Why aren’t they helping us? Why aren’t they stopping?”

Sen recalled what he saw of the passengers, huddled behind the soldiers. Children, women. Most of the adults were native Emiratis, with the children being the only exception.

The answer was as clear as it was simple. Sen looked down.

“We aren’t the priority,” he whispered.

They were aliens in a foreign country. Sen had forgotten that simple fact. A nation always put its own citizens first, and with half the world being in a state of emergency, every government had its priorities. Its people. And if they weren’t children or elderly that could be given special consideration…

Sen and Em were on their own.

Em’s shoulders went slack. The rage left. Morale vanished. And the two of them, standing in the middle of the ruined city, sat down as the strength left their legs. Even as the silhouettes of monsters in the shadows neared their position, they just sat and stared as the helicopters left them behind.

“And what are the chances that the group that just passed us are evacuees from Maladh?” she asked.

“High, judging from the direction they came from. The evacuation center must be full of people, if they’re making trips like that.”

Em laughed a dark, humorless laugh.

“Then we’re back to square one.”

Sen nodded as the sounds of approaching monsters neared from behind. He looked out into the city, dark and lifeless and shrouded in fog, and tried to imagine what it looked like just two weeks before. Before the apocalypse. Before the end.

Em breathed a soft sigh. “I miss the sun.”

“Me too,” Sen replied, as a shadow rose behind him. The silhouette of a vampire raised its claws. Sen flexed his hand.

[Bone Armor] crept over his skin.

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In the end, Sen killed enough monsters to pay off his curse’s essence requirement. The number they’d attracted had been a large group of Tier 0 vampires, led by a single, Tier 1 Elite. On any other day, Sen would have hesitated to fight them head on. But today, he’d been angry. Frustrated.

After they got to Maladh, what would happen? Sen had assumed it was a self-sustaining shelter full of survivors at first, but it seemed it was just a gathering point for evacuation. It wasn’t the long-term solution he’d believed it to be. Even if they arrived now, how long would it take for them to leave for safety? How long until something big attacked Maladh and killed everyone while it’s protectors were off evacuating citizens?

Amir had been right. Sen wasn’t certain anymore, and that uncertainty gnawed at him. It felt like a ball of vipers in his gut, lashing and biting at his stomach.

And the only way he had to vent that frustration was to fight.

By the time the fighting was over, Sen had killed nearly forty monsters. The sounds of battle just kept attracting more and more. In the face of that unending tide, he and Em had chosen to break through and escape, ultimately distancing themselves from Amir’s café.

Now, Sen sat huddled inside an abandoned house, leaning against a couch that was half-devoured by a strange, urchin-like growth. In front of him, Em was rifling through the bag they’d been thrown, placing its contents down onto a table in the dining room. There, a small pile of preserved food, bottles of water, and survival kit pieces were arranged in front of her.

“They gave us a lot,” she said, muttering in the gloom. “Enough to last one person a week. There’s even a…”

She paused.

“Sen?”

He frowned, deep in thought. “What is it?”

“Come here.”

With a grunt, Sen stood from the floor and joined her at the table. Em pushed at the supplies to clear a space in the center, before retrieving a crumpled map from inside the bag. She spread it across the surface. In the darkness, the two of them peered down at it.

It was a map of the UAE.

In it, several points were encircled and highlighted. Hastily-drawn labels were scrawled across the map. In it, Sen recognized a few places—Dhayah Fort, the Al Dhafra Air Base, and Dubai’s Sustainable City, where Maladh supposedly was. The latter was highlighted red on the map; like many others, the pinpricks of red scattered across the landscape where what he guessed to be evacuation centers. All were neatly labeled in Arabic.

But what caught Sen’s eye weren’t the red dots, but the giant, green circles labeled on the map. He stared at one in the south of them, resting southwest of Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s sister city and the capital of the UAE.

“That’s the military base, isn’t it?” he asked, his eyes wide.

“Al Dhafra Air Base, yeah,” Em replied. She leaned over the map and traced a finger over the text, her lips slowly moving. “It’s a safe place,” she read out loud. “It’s a permanent shelter. And here…”

She traced her finger eastwards, right towards the direction that helicopters had been flying. She jabbed her finger at another point encircled with green ink.

“Al Jahili Fort,” she said. “Another permanent shelter.”

“That’s where the evacuees are being taken.”

Em nodded. “But it’s… far. And I’ve never been to the city it’s in. Have you?”

Sen shook his head. He stood up straight and stared down at the map, the hope rekindling in his chest. He started thinking—chewing on his knuckles as the thoughts spewed across his mind’s eye. Evacuation centers were for people who needed someone else to take them to the permanent shelters. But them?

They could make the journey themselves. And while Al Jahili Fort was quite the distance away, the Al Dhafra Air Base was closer. More secure. He was willing to place his bets that whatever remained of the UAE’s military was headquartered there.

“I went to Abu Dhabi once, to pick my aunt up at the airport,” he said, staring at the map. Sen traced finger along the roads. “It took two hours to get there on a taxi. I doubt we can use cars as freely as before with all the changes to the landscape, but—”

“It’s close enough that we can cross the distance on foot. How long do you think? Two days?”

“Maybe four or five, if we have to stop and hide from monsters.”

“There’s the others to think about, too.”

Sen nodded, “Well, that depends on whether Bali wants to stay with Tasha in Maladh, waiting for rescue. And whether or not we find survivors in the school willing to walk that far with us.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t suggesting that we stick with whatever authority figure we find first. Like an instructor from Belmont.”

“I don’t think I’d like being told what to do during the end of the world.”

“True. They’d say things like, ‘Don’t jump off that building, Sen. Don’t attack that monster. Don’t throw your partner down a garbage chute.’ They’d give you safe, reasonably smart options, and that’d just piss you off.”

“I’m touched. You already know me so well.“

“Maybe you’re just predictable.”

Sen laughed. Smiling lightly, Em plucked the map away from the table and folded it up, before placing it in her pocket. She started cleaning up the various supplies strewn about, stacking them inside the bag one by one. Sen watched her work as he leaned against the table, his arms crossed. “Can you keep some of the cans out of the bag?” he asked, glancing outside, where the moon was about to set. Morning was coming. “I haven’t had corned beef in forever.”

She threw him one, leaving some bottled water outside with it. Once the supplies were packed, she joined him with a can of her own.

“I took you as more of an eggs and bacon guy,” she said, cracking open the can from the top. The lid split open, and the soggy smell of corned beef filled the room. Even unheated, it felt like a luxury to eat.

Sen popped his can open and shrugged. “I am,” he replied. “But my cousins liked corned beef. They used to have my tía cook it with egg—like some unholy blend of meat and omelette. Eventually, it just turned into comfort food for me.”

Em stuck a finger into her can and scooped some of the meat into her mouth. “I get you,” she said, chewing. “I wouldn’t have it every day, but Vienna sausages are my childhood.”

He gave her a teasing grin. “Not fish and chips? Or tea-soaked biscuits?”

“Oh, cheers. I’m guessing your favorite food must be spaghetti, then?”

“For your information, Spanish people aren’t Italian.”

“Hm. No wonder you don’t have a sexy accent.”

His shoulders sagged. “Can never beat the damn Italians.”

With a laugh, Em scooped another fingerful into her mouth. Seeing this, Sen reached his hand towards the kitchen counter behind them, where a lonely dish rack sat in the dust. With Psionic Force, he latched tendrils of Flow onto two spoons, and—fwip! The energy lashed back towards him, tugging the two utensils with it.

Sen caught both with a hand, before handing one to Em. He gave her a smug little smirk. Rolling her eyes, Em smiled and took it anyway, using it to eat her corned beef.

“Showoff,” she said.

He pointed the spoon at her. “If I don’t use every chance to feel cool about my Jedi powers, what’s the point of having them?”

“I don’t know, I always thought the Sith were cooler.”

“Typical, coming from you.”

“Bite me.”

Sen flashed her a grin, his teeth still sharp from the effects of a previous Skill Orb. “I don’t think you’d like it very much if I did,” he said.

Blinking, Em leaned in close to get a look at his teeth. “I forgot you had those. Is it permanent, now?”

“Nah,” Sen replied, shaking his head. He ran a tongue over his teeth and frowned. “They’re not as sharp as before, and they’ve slowly been changing since I took out the skill. Feels like they should be back to normal by next week.”

“Hmm,” she hummed, her gaze moving up. “And your eyes are yellow now, too.”

“Yours are as well. Thanks to the Darkvision orb.”

“…Yeah.”

The two of them lapsed into silence. The moment dragged by, waiting, and then with a quick snort, Em looked away.

“You’ve got a hair sticking out of your nose,” she said.

Sen blinked, reached into his nose, and plucked it. “Thanks,” he said. “A bit weird that you were looking into my nose, though.”

“I wasn’t.”

“You can look again, if you want.”

“No!”