The Silver Foxes.
While they proclaimed themselves a group of rebels fighting against the forces of Paradise at all costs, a ‘suicide squad’ in other words, fighting was not the only thing they did.
Their secondary goal was to ensure that nobody who had lost everybody would be left behind.
The chiefs had made it abundantly clear that they wanted them to feel like they still had a purpose in the world. Even if they had nothing, no one, or nowhere to go, they welcomed all and gave them a reason to live. Elderly, children, or permanently disabled alike, no one was exempt from the Foxes’ protection and care.
For that reason, some people who were with the group were not Foxes. They were just pickups, tagging along with them for the foreseeable future until they had decided on a place to settle down or had made their decision to voluntarily leave them.
Some of them, who were grateful just to be taken care of, even volunteered to stay with the group as honorary Foxes, not assigned to any heavy missions but still helping them out with odd jobs here and there to lessen everyone’s burdens.
“Oi, kid! Where’s that box you were supposed to bring me?”
“Y… yes sir! I’m coming!”
One of those honorary Foxes was a young boy named Liston. Having lost his entire family to an unknown beast attack, he had met the Foxes a few years ago while hiding in the ruins of his former home.
While shy and apprehensive at first, he eventually decided to stay with the group that had taken him in and help out with menial tasks such as moving boxes, polishing weapons, and sorting out paperwork once he was old and strong enough to do so.
“KID!”
“Yes, yes!”
It was hard at times, with the Foxes’ schedules being incredibly fast-paced and stressful, and he had been subjected to strict punishment and scolding numerous times, but he did not mind them at all.
He knew the lifestyle he had signed up for, and he was not deterred by what the group intended to achieve and what they did to achieve it. In fact, he was all for it, and he constantly wanted to see what they had planned for future missions.
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This day was no exception.
He had heard rumors from his close friends, people the same age as him who had also signed on, that something big was happening in the underground city.
Eager not to miss out, he had automatically volunteered for the task of moving supplies in the nearby vicinity so that he could get a front-row seat to the action.
And now, with the news that an angel, a devil and a spirit had joined the group, even if only for the time being, his excitement was through the roof.
As he passed by a window carrying a box of rations to a designated storeroom, he could not help but gaze dreamily out of it, his mind running wild with the possibilities of what might happen in the next few days.
“Rmbbbbbbbbb”
It was at this moment that the floor beneath him began to shake. It was mild at first, but it soon became stronger and stronger, causing him to lose his balance and fall. The box dropped on his leg, and the rations crashed and spilled all over the floor.
Agh! An earthquake? I better—
As he moved the box away and grabbed his leg in pain amidst the tremors, he looked out of the window again, determined to see what was happening outside.
“BOOM!!!”
“Agh!”
A loud, deafening crash ripped through the hallway as the landscape right outside seemed to have exploded from below the ground, showering him with chunks of dirt and stones and causing him to cough and choke, his eyes watering from the now dust-filled air.
Then, he saw it.
Rising from the ground, like a massive wave, was something.
He had not seen anything like it before. It was huge, slimy and, for lack of a better word, outright disgusting.
An unidentified monster, an unknown thing.
Not before long, as he continued to look at the growing thing, his body began to shake uncontrollably, although it was not from the tremors beneath his feet.
“W… what???”
A mix of emotions swirled around inside him, but the first thought that came to his mind was of fear.
I need to…
The thing had many eyelids dotted all over its body, and now one of them opened right in front of him, revealing a surprisingly human-like eye, albeit one that was several times larger than a normal one.
“Hello!”
“Hi!”
“How you doing?”
The thing stopped. The eye had spotted him, and several mouths that also lined the thing’s body began to speak in different pitches and tones all at once, creating a deafening cacophony of voices that he could barely understand.
“…”
He was speechless, but his brain continued to work overtime. As the thing began to move again, its massive weight caused the structure he was in to crumble like a block of cheese, very soon trapping him in rubble.
I… I need to get the fuck ou—
Having picked it up from his friends, he swore for the first time in his life, right before he was crushed by the collapsing ceiling.
…
And just like that, he was gone.