Day 6

----------------------------------------

A cough originates from within the purple smoke as Dalia, the only one not hurt in the attempt to get rid of them, desperately tries to locate any of the other two agents.

Through trial and error, she manages to get a hold of a strong arm, one she recognizes as belonging to Colette; then, lifting her fingers, she finds and gets a hold of the poisonous knife on her neck.

Acting quickly before the silver can do any irreparable damage, she pulls it out of the agent's neck, and instantly, like a reanimated corpse brought back, Colette opens her eyes and rises.

Blood gushes out from the wound fast as it doesn't manage to heal due to the effects of the silver, yet that doesn't stop or slow down the hurt woman.

"I...need to be fast; before he's gone...with the human." Through bloody coughs, Colette talks, soon standing up to her feet, half alive. "Find. Claw. KILL. RETRIEVE."

"No, Colette, listen to me; you can't go alone. You'll only get yourself killed out there. Let's get Yui away from the smoke first so we can go after her together--"

A deep, primal growl escapes the woman, who at this point is taken by her wolf so much that no Colette is left.

She doesn't have the ability to rationalize anymore. No self-preservation instinct remains in her glowing golden eyes, and Dalia notices it, wanting to stop her, but before she can do anything, Colette jumps like a true predator out of the smoke and in pursuit of her prey.

Due to her inhuman speed, in seconds she's able to reach the wall ladder and look up, locating the target wearing a strange expression, almost as if there is nothing there, an emptiness that leaves him devoid of any humanity, and on his shoulder, an unconscious detective.

Then, without a word, he drops a dynamite roll down the hole and disappears from view.

It doesn't take but a second for an explosion to happen, collapsing all of the way up and showering the agent with heavy blocks of stone, concrete, and dirt that engulf her form immediately.

Back at the makeshift lab, Dalia hardly manages to drag Yui's body out of the smoke of DMB before a wisp of dust and debris hits her, stealing her vision and any possibility of escaping the mines altogether.

Time goes by, the exact amount being impossible to tell due to the lack of sun or a clock.

Lying on her back, safely away from the rubble, Colette slowly opens her eyes to meet a killing headache. The memories of what transpired hit her like a runaway train, crafting a dangerous mix of anger and failure.

She bites her lips in response to the pain, hard enough to draw blood, letting a single primitive groan escape her.

Not wanting to stay rotting on the ground, Colette raises her hand, managing to grasp one pointy stone sticking off the dirt wall only to end up cutting her palm open; the pain echoes through her body but ends up being ineffective when compared to being almost crushed to death.

Ultimately, she manages to accelerate the process of getting up and inevitably leans her body on the cave wall to rest as her legs fail her soon after.

As she goes to punch her legs back to work, two figures ahead of her, in the middle of a discussion, catch her attention.

"Geez, Lia, you can be such a mom sometimes; not that I'm complaining or anything—it would be a lot more interesting if it wasn't for the cave setting." Yui attempts to get a laugh—to lighten up the mood—but their disbelief regarding their chances steals the usual shine they have. "Look, like I said, I'm all up and ready to go; there's no more of that shit in my system. I—We need to go after the detective before... Fuck, we need to save her, okay?"

"Yes, I understand the sentiment, Yui. We need to stay focused to save her; there are just some roadblocks on the way. Nothing we haven't dealt with before." Wearing a smile impossible to discern from a genuine one, Dalia notices Yui holding onto the detective's hairpin hanging from their shirt and moves a hand to pet the agent's head, trying to provide some comfort and earning a few feline purrs. "Now, do try not to push yourself over the limit. The remaining effects of the smoke should go away soon; until then, hold back as much as you can."

"Alright, fine. I can't promise I won't do much once we are out of here, but, until then, I'll try to hold back."

One step after the other, Colette forces her legs to heal faster by pushing them over the limit; luckily for her, being a werewolf grants her a healing capability strong enough to do something like this.

The sound of her boots against the ground alerts Dalia, who turns her head fast in her direction and meets the black, hurt eyes of the woman.

"Colette, I'm glad to see you are awake. I would tell you to take it easy, yet I have long learned that isn't something you can do." In hurried steps, Dalia nears the woman and begins inspecting her meticulously for any injuries, sighing in relief when finding none to be seen. "Your wounds seem to have healed well; the broken bones are back to normal, and the silver seems to have affected you less than I imagined. Good, that means I was quick enough."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Colette turns her head to what once was a corridor leading to a ladder, and that now stands as nothing more than a deposit of stone, dirt, and cement.

"Who dug me out?"

"Lia got your sorry ass out of there after you went suicide squad. Stone by stone, by the way. You should be thanking her." Without holding back on the aggressiveness, Yui crosses their arms and looks at her with a frown, even going as far as clicking their tongue loudly. "Next time you plan on doing something dumb, maybe just don't; what about that?"

Growling irritated, Colette steps past the witch in front of her, hands closed into fists, ready to unload violence on anything that it can reach.

"You were down; I was the only one who could stop him from taking the human."

"Yeah, by the way, fucking A job, bitch. Did that get you where you wanted? Taken by the falling walls with no chance of being saved." The two agents stand face to face, anger pouring indiscriminately from each word uttered in the name of pain. "First the detective is taken, and then I have to lose you too? Because that almost happened, you self-centered FUCK."

Those words are enough to get Colette's anger snatched away and replaced by surprise—the pain in their voice, the adrenaline taking over their body and creating tremors. The unexpectedness that, in the end, all of that anger is instead, deep fear masked as fury, makes the ambient awkward.

Silence starts between both, and, seizing the opportunity, Dalia steps in between both, resting one hand on their shoulders.

"It is okay to feel scared or angry; that's only natural after what just transpired. Unfortunately, that will not help us at the moment. Neither will be fighting between ourselves." Gently, the woman smiles and reinforces her hold on them, as if trying to anchor them to reality with her touch. "So be content that we are in condition to keep going, and let's use this fact to find a way out of here and do something. There should be still time, but only if we start moving now."

"How would we even do that?" Yui asks with a sigh, pointing out the clear fact that there's no exit around them. "If you don't remember when we first entered the place, there was only one entrance, and that was our only exit too before the fang exploded it to pieces."

"Yes, that is true. Our only convenient way out was brought down, but that doesn't mean there isn't another way. A more inconvenient path out of here." Dalia's words pique the attention of both agents, and before they can ask anything, she starts walking toward the end of the mines, leaving them only one option. "Follow me."

The walk to reach the door at the end of the path is short, and when all agents get to it, it is impossible not to notice some of the roots growing from the walls—bigger than they were some hours ago—and the closed door that now lies fallen on the ground, broken off its rusty hinges.

"Wait, Lia, how did you use your magic here? Wasn't you unable to because..." A second passes of Yui trying to reach inside their head for the right words, and in the end, they fail miserably. "Quite frankly, I don't remember what you said; I only remember you warning us several times that you wouldn't be able to use your flower thing here."

"On ground level, that is a truth; underneath it, that's another story." Caringly, her hand brushes against the grown roots; for a moment, a flower grows from it, only to die out and fall to the soil. "I don't need my garden if I'm directly connected to the roots of an old forest, and here lies a graveyard to what once was a beautiful, lively one. The remains of its life allowed me to open the door."

Past the door, stepping over it, an unnatural path continues on, only different from before; it goes upwards for a few steps before stopping shortly from reaching the surface.

"Wow, so you managed to open a path all the way up; well, most of the way." As Yui speaks, a memory comes to mind, which in turn makes them look at Dalia preoccupied. "Are you feeling fine? That should have taken a big toll on you, no?"

"For a moment, but that has passed already; worry not yourself." Dalia doesn't stop and move up the way until reaching the solid wall of dirt, the only thing left staying in their way; on it, sunk deep into the soil, two dynamite sticks stand at ready. "I would not suggest hurting the earth on any day, yet no other option stands to dig the rest of our way out. As did our target, we will use the power of the explosives; only in our case will it serve to open a way out of the ground."

"Okay, nice plan; let's do this." Casually, Yui walks to the dynamite on the wall and stops, standing centimeters away from it before turning to Colette and Dalia with a small, forced smile. "You two go down and wait near the wall, where the dirt won't engulf you; I'll light them up and join soon."

In opposition, Dalia steps close to them and shakes their head. "Yui, remember what I said; you're in no condition to—"

"I know that, dummy, I'm not going to do anything reckless here." From deep within their jeans pocket, they retrieve a lighter and dangle it in front of the woman's eyes. "Look, I have a lighter; you guys don't, so leave this to me. I promise I won't use my speed; I'll simply start the fire and then slide down, easy-peasy. Just...trust me on this one, would ya?"

A hand reaches from Dalia's shadow, stopping to rest on her shoulder and stealing any words she was thinking of speaking. Turning to look around, she only sees Colette nodding her head.

With a defeated sigh, Dalia too nods her head and steels her expression. "I'll leave it to you then, Yui. Keep your promise and don't get yourself hurt. We'll be waiting."

As that's said, Yui watches as both agents go back to the path they came and disappear from view. Now alone, they look at the metal lighter—their face reflecting on it: serious and determinate, with only a bit of fear managing to mark presence.

"Come on, we can do this. Light the fuse and slide down, nothing fancy; then we can brag about it to everyone." Unclipping the hairpin from their pocket, Yui stares at it for a good moment. "I'm coming to save you, detective; you can fucking count on that."

Away from the factory, the city rests quietly. The animals in the forest live their lives as normal, very like the humans, tucked away safely in their burrows in hopes of resting to face another day of hardship when dawn breaks.

Then, a sound reverberates the nightly air, shaking the forest back to life forcefully; for the animals, the sound is loud and clear, but for the people of Havenport, it is almost imperceptible.

The city remains dormant.

Boom

A hole opens on the ground, near the train tracks that course through the city like veins, pulsing tiredly, slowly, as an old body does.

From within the hole, three agents dig the dirt with their nails, like corpses rising from the graves, sharing a mission in common and losing no time to act upon it.

The fight against the clock starts.

----------------------------------------