[Erick Sanders]

I scrambled, pulling myself up over the tree branch. Perched at the tops of the canopy my head peaked through the leaves, I could see for miles. I out over the valley, at the smoke pluming into the air. “You were right, there is a fire” I called down to Jack, who was resting against the tree trunk thirty-five feet below me.

We had kept a steady pace for the last five hours as the sun began to set, its light replaced by two other moons and a gas giant, lighting up the mountains in a luminous grey. We had moved up the ridge as Alaira had advised, cutting our way through the shortest of the undergrowth until Jack had become paranoid by the smell of smoke, sending me up a tree to try and spot anything.

Samantha nudged my arm and pushed me aside as she peaked out.

“Four hundred and twenty meters” She called as she stared through her range finder.

“Someone is either having a party, or they accidentally blew something up” Sam muttered, “Three trees have gone up in flames.” She dropped the rangefinder and looked at me. “Do you have to be so close; I don’t want to get poked in the back with your…swords” She smirked and pushed me further down the branch. I shuffled my feet, conscious of the lack of space and not wanting to tumble back to the ground.

“This was my spot first, you could always get your own branch.” I retorted.

Samantha was one of the Filipino twins, showing no hesitation as she traversed the trees to follow me. Her shoulder-length black hair whipped around her in the wind as she sat deftly on the branch to begin tying it back. “Quit complaining, do something useful and fall off.” She smirked, dropping her hands to the branch and rolling backwards not losing her grip and she swung down before flinging herself to a lower branch then another until she landed with a soft thump on the forest floor.

I grumbled to myself before dropping down after her with far less grace, letting myself fall before grabbing the last branch to slow my momentum, hitting the ground with a roll. Samantha was already pointing out the direction we had spotted the smoke.

“Do we risk going down there or keep on up the ridge” Keg questioned, taking a swig from his canteen.

“I say we just keep our eyes and ears open; they will still be heading up valley, there are at least four sections down there. Let them kill each other,” Mia said. She stood behind Samantha, her mirror image. There was a murmur of support from the group.

“I’m going to go down there. I’m not looking for a fight, but I want to know where everyone else is.” The James said, the tips of his red hair shone in the speckled moonlight.

Other agreed to join him on a short recon and were just discussing how far up the ridge we would all meet when a small thud made everyone freeze and look down. In the centre of the circle lay a golf ball-sized grenade.

While we had been looking at the fire in the valley below and discussing what we should do, a section had crept up on us. They must have been more than twenty meters away because I hadn’t felt anything other than a snake gorging itself on a small rodent with my electromagnetic sense, but they were close enough to accurately hit us with explosives.

Everyone dove into the underbrush as the grenade exploded in the night, shrapnel ripping through the thick ferns and peppering my side. I grunted in pain and had to duck as bullets tinged off my helmet, knocking my head sideways. Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself to my feet and sprinted after Jack and Keg. They ran between the trees and dropped down the far side of the ridge, using the defilade to shelter themselves from the gunfire.

“Well fuck!” Jack swore, scanning the forest. The rest of our section was now split up, and with no comms, we would be unable to locate or get in contact with them. Figures dashed through the shaded forest, retreating away from the epicentre of the fight and erratically returning fire into the darkness.

Jack and Keg jerked around and raised their rifles as three bodies slid through the dirt, only to quickly lower them when they realised it was Mia, Samantha and Olivia. James hurtled after them, jumping over our heads and tossing his own grenade out into the forest.

“Where the fuck did, they come from” He spat, shaking his head and tossing another grenade over the ridge.

“We were fucking stupid! We need to get out of here, I can’t see shit” Jack said, firing a few shots at the muzzle flashes in the dark.

“What about the others?” Oliva argued,

“Fuck the others,” I said, sheathing one of Havars swords and rolling to a low squat, being sure to keep sheltered below the ridge. This wasn’t about comradery; this was about winning a place among the Grey Scarred. The others would have to catch up when they respawned.

I drew my pistol. It felt woefully inadequate, and I wished I had of kept one of the assault rifles from the fighters I killed.

“He is right,” Mia said, as Olivia began to protest, “Sam and I had to run over four of our group to get here, most of them will be dead already, we fucked up.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The others grunted and a round of nodding went through the seven of us. I slid down the hill after Jack, dirt spilling into my boots and rolling down Infront of me. We stumbled to a run when the ground flattened out and took off, heading in a wayward direction, but still towards the peak of the mountain range.

“So you guys know each other?” I asked, pulling a nutrition bar from Jacks bag.

We had trekked through the adjacent valley, forging our own path through the rough undergrowth and up the far ridge. Jack had set a gruelling pace, only allowing us to rest when we crested a peak void of any trees. We could see for kilometres over the tips of the low grasses and shrubs that persisted at this altitude, nestling between a set of thick boulders.

“I wouldn’t say we know each other. Jack and I work together in the waking world, Olivia was part of out intake on the first night in the Dream and I think we have all shared a rotation or two at some point” Keg explained, warming his hands on a small heat pack he had pulled from his bag.

“Oh yeah, remember in Hitesh. We had to stand guard for seven hours, then Mule practically drank a barrel of wine by himself” Olivia chuckled.

“I was next to him the next day, I swear he pissed himself at some point” Keg grinned at the memory.

“So, you’re all here for the same reason these two are?” I nodded to Jack and Keg.

“Pretty much, I would have liked to try out once I was was done with my three-year service, so I’m not complaining that they sent me along,” James said, Olivia nodded her agreement.

“All to gain support against the Chinese, couldn’t they just get that with diplomatically?” I rubbed my head. World politics was never my strong suit.

“They will be, but you know, all the eggs in one basket thing. Easier to have a few of us try to gain support from inside.” Olivia said.

“The CCP has done the same thing” Mia muttered, “The third group to take off from the shuttles, half of them had Chinese gear,” she explained.

“So, we also have to make sure they don’t get some of those fifty spots,” Jack said, full of nonchalance at the challenge.

“Has there been any word on the UNs reaction to their In Dream aggression?” I looked around at the huddled group. Last time I had read the news, while at work, there had been no new statement. The UN had maintained that while China restricted its aggression to The Dream there was nothing they could or would do, but if anyone was going to have inside information it would be the people Infront of me.

“Nothing that I have heard. It’s still the same old response. To be honest I wouldn’t want anything to happen. It's one thing to fight a war in The Dream, but it’s my actual life on the line if they choose to retaliate in the real world. I only have one of those.” James said, and the others nodded in agreement. I had to agree with them, I wouldn’t be the one to go off fighting so I wasn’t in a position to argue even if I wanted to.

Jack handed me a rolled-up rain jacket, “Get some rest, Keg and I will keep the first watch, we’ll switch with you an Olivia in a couple of hours,” He said, I took the jacket and lay down on the rough rocky ground, using the jacket as a pillow. Classic Jack, as much as he pretended to not give a shit, he was still trying to make sure I was comfortable. I watched the gas giant as it drifted lazily through the nights’ sky before I fell into a light sleep.

I was kicked awake by Jack. The gaseous planet still loomed overhead and the sun still hidden from view. I jerked up, drawing one of Havars swords. Something felt wrong. I spun on the spot slowly, the others watching me wide-eyed. “What’s up?” I asked.

“You sense something?” Jack whispered, taking a knee and gazing down at the edge of the forest.

“Can you hear that?” I said, realising what was off with the still night, I couldn’t feel anything with my EM sense, it was something more subtle.

“No” Jack answered, squinting at the darkness.

“No birds are singing,” I whispered.

Jack nodded and he raised his rifle, scanning the trees. Our father had taught us early, and the army had reinforced the lesson in Jack. Birds didn’t sing while predators were around, and that often meant people. I strained my ears at the silence. There was nothing, not a chirp or a tweet from anywhere around us. Are we surrounded? I thought.

“You two are idiots,” Mia said with an exasperated sigh. She was leaning on a bolder, and amused smile pressing at the edges of her lips as she watched us, “There are no birds here, I haven’t heard or seen a single one this whole time. This moon doesn’t have birds.” She chuckled at our embarrassment. Jack lowered his rifle and I sheathed Havars swords, shaking my head.

I had been so caught up in our fight, then the march that I hadn’t even noticed, such a large part of life on earth, and now that it had been pointed out to me, It was blearing obvious. A forest without birds was something I didn’t think I would ever experience.

“Come on, the rest of us are restless, let's keep moving” I looked at the group and noticed that they were all ready to move. Stifling a short yawn, I tightened the straps on my holster and followed them from the peak and down a narrow path.

An hour later I clambered up a tall tree after Samantha, failing to copy her as she seemed to crawl directly up the trunk, the bark ripping under my hands and the purple leaves battering my face. Samantha peaked through the topmost branches bringing a pair of binoculars to her eyes.

We had followed another ridge until it united with our original from the day before. From here we had risen until the ground began to level out at the rim of the enormous crater. Samantha stared down into the crater, scanning the landscape.

“It’s there, practically in the middle. Christ, it’s a long way.” She swore before passing the binoculars to me. It took me a moment, then I spotted what she was talking about. Near the centre of the crater was a small spot of light. I wasn’t an expert, but I would have put money on the finish line still being almost one hundred kilometres away. For the lights to be so bright at this distance meant it had to be a brightly lit compound.

I was about to begin the climb back down when Samantha grabbed my arm. You see that?” she muttered, still looking out through the gap in the trees.

“See what?” I stood back up and followed her finger.

“There!” she hissed. “Flashes of light” I stared out at the darkness for a moment before I saw what she was talking about, small spots of light flickered in and out Infront of us.

“Torches…There is a section down there, right in our way,” She swore as we watched the group meander through the trees just over two or three hundred meters away.

“Let see what the others think,” I said, sliding back down the tree.

“If we think of the goal as north, then we will have to head north-west cutting down toward the compound from the west,” Jack whispered. Seeing the other group had put us all on edge.

Despite my initial proposal to go down there and try killing them all, the others had sided with Jack and James, deciding to try skirt around them.

“The goal isn’t to kill as many as possible, its to get to the finish as soon as we can” Jack had pointed out.

I sighed as we started running, my calves burning from the uphill struggle.