"Damn it…" Alex muttered, "We're cornered..."

He was the only one who said anything. The rest fell silent, frozen in place like rabbits caught in headlights.

"TURN OFF YOUR ENGINE IMMEDIATELY! ALL PASSENGERS, RAISE YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!"

"Malu?" Syringa whimpered, suddenly remembering that she was, in reality, just an ordinary eighteen-year-old girl. All her spunk and confidence had been shattered and ground into dust. "Malu, what should we do?"

But Malu himself didn't know. He sat there, seemingly struggling to make the right decision. His face was hidden behind a mask, but I could see him slightly rocking back and forth, trying either to come up with a plan or to compose himself.

"TURN OFF THE ENGINE NOW! RAISE YOUR HANDS IMMEDIATELY, SO I CAN SEE THEM!"

This was our death sentence. Soon, police units of such size would arrive that there would be no getting past them. Even if we tried to run through the houses, they'd catch up with us - it was inevitable. The helicopter simply wouldn't let us slip away. And then, each of us would be locked up for a long time. The more we resisted, the longer our sentences would be.

I glanced back into the cabin, seeing that the others were thinking the same thing.

"Malu, should I... turn it off?" Her pitiful voice, full of fear for her pathetic future, sparked anger within me. Anger at this miserable fool who had lost all her strength at the first sign of a real challenge.

Malu, Malu, Malu... I looked at those who were now trying to convince themselves that surrender would be better than taking any action, even Malu. That's why they were contemplating this option - they wanted to convince themselves it was the best course of action. They were looking for a compromise.

And in that moment, I felt anger towards them. Not hatred, but actual anger towards their weakness. Anger that they had embarked on this venture but were unprepared to see it through in the face of real difficulty. They had simply turned into a flock of sheep that didn't know where to run.

It disgusted me to see those who had instantly given up when faced not with unarmed people but with real opponents. I wanted to hit them. Weak, worthless losers who had decided it was better to surrender without a fight for their own future.

But I couldn't give up. I had something to fight for. Because the sentence would not only be passed on me but also on my sister. On my whole family...

I remembered how I'd said I'd kill a man if I had to. That I'd do everything in my power to save my sister.

Unlike them, I wasn't lying to myself. Compromise was the choice of those who lacked the strength to defend their own.

"Syringa," I said, trying to keep my voice steady and confident despite being just as scared as they were, "at the corner is a cafe with glass walls. That's how we'll get out of here."

"What? How?" She looked at me in surprise, but I wasn't paying attention to her.

"RAISE YOUR HANDS UP NOW! TURN OFF YOUR ENGINE IMMEDIATELY!!!"

Fuck off, assholes, all of you.

I clicked the safety off, raised my gun, and without any hesitation, I pulled the trigger. The automatic's crackle was monstrous. The roar inside the car was immense. I sprayed bullets through the door window, forcing all the cops to hide behind their cars like rats.

"SHOOT! FLOOR IT!" I shouted, not letting go of the trigger and not allowing anyone to poke their heads out.

Others joined in. My gunfire seemed to sober them up. In just a few seconds, the cabin was filled with smoke.

Through the gunfire, I didn't hear the car's tires screech. Syringa, hunched low, sharply spun the wheel, turning the car towards the corner cafe and leaving a black circle on the asphalt, then she floored the gas pedal. I kept firing, as did the others, showering the cops with lead. Now, there was no turning back. I had burned all the bridges, and now none of these idiots could bail.

The car jumped the curb and crashed into the glass wall at full speed. It broke through without any trouble, though I still lurched forward at the impact. It instantly scooped up all the tables and chairs with its hood, then crashed through another glass, coming out on the other side. The iron wall frame hung onto the car. After slamming into a parked car and leaving a dent, we sped down the sidewalk, while the police cars that were approaching on the road tried to block our way.

But they were too slow.

"TURN LEFT HERE!" I bellowed, and Syringa, startled, sharply turned the wheel without gauging the speed, which caused us to spin and hit a lamppost with our rear end. "FLOOR IT! KEEP GOING!!!"

We managed to dash into an alley before the police cars could box us in.

"Shake off the tail!" I shouted to the ones in the back row. "Shoot them!"

"The fuck are you thinking?!" Malu barked.

"Not getting behind bars! These fuckers won't take me. And if they want to, let them try!"

Whether my determination inspired him or he was also infected by my desire to avoid prison, I saw his mouth stretch into a snarl. Malu's old madness, which I had sensed in him before, finally returned.

"Right. Let's give them a taste! Guys, shoot at the car, we don't need much wet work!"

The cabin was immediately torn apart by automatic gunfire. Crowbar and Geezer fired straight through the rear window. Meanwhile, I opened the hatch on the roof. I stuck my head out and joined them, emptying the rest of the magazine into the hood of a police car.

In the narrow alley, under a hail of bullets, its pursuit ended very quickly, thereby blocking the others. I reloaded and fired several rounds at the helicopters. I didn't expect to shoot them down, but I hoped to scare them off at least. They quickly dispersed in different directions.

"Where to?!" Syringa asked, focusing on the road. "We can't escape! They'll close off the city soon, and that's it! Unless we bury ourselves underground!"

Bury ourselves underground...

That, incidentally, would save us. Only we don't have a subway... because...

Because we have a vast network of underground rivers beneath the city, linked by many sewers, forming a giant maze. There are also caves, as I've read in books about our city's history. The network is so extensive and old that there isn't even a decent map of it. And I'm not even mentioning the caves. So, we can indeed bury ourselves underground.

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"Head to the Chinese!"

"The Chinese?" she asked, surprised.

"Yes! Let's go! We're right in the center!"

"What do you have in mind?" Malu asked.

"To get us out of this shithole," I answered honestly.

As much as they annoyed me by almost giving up so easily, I didn't intend to abandon or betray them. After all, not everyone can be strong.

I looked out again and fired a burst at the brazen helicopters trying to pursue us. After that, they moved away quite a bit, but they definitely kept us in sight. Next time, the special forces will come for us, and we won't get away so easily. But it's vital for us to reach the Chinese. That's where I saw the manhole to the right sewer.

The thing is, there were two types of sewers: city sewage collectors (CSC) and city underground water collectors (CUWC). They didn't intersect, as the CUWC carried clean river water and the CSC - sewage. Checking the sewage was easy because all the maps were available, but finding us in the CUWC would be very difficult.

And right now, I had no desire to scurry around town looking for a suitable sewer. Besides, the Chinese was nearby, and that's where I saw the right hatch down. It would be easier for us to get there than to search for other hatches around the city.

In the meantime, Syringa had managed to scrape against other cars a couple of times, but eventually drove straight to the shopping mall. Without any hesitation, she pulled onto the sidewalk, then across the lawn, and stopped right near the entrance.

"Syringa, torch it! Box, Alex, Crowbar, cover us from the police, Geezer and I guard the other side!" Malu issued orders, jumping out of the car.

The van was trashed - that's the only way to describe it. All beaten up, with bullet marks and peeled paint. As if it had been dragged on asphalt on different sides. No bumpers, headlights broken, windows shot out by us.

People scattered in fear when they saw us, but we paid no attention. I almost immediately took aim at one of the police cars and began shooting at it. I deliberately didn't target the police officers, just made them hide and not stick out. Two more automatic rifles backed me up. People panicked and began to scatter in all directions, crouching down.

With a heavy barrage of gunfire, we immediately halted several cars. They, taking bullets to their bodies, stopped at a respectful distance, positioning themselves across the road, and didn't try too hard to approach us. And I knew why - my father was a cop, and he had talked about the protocols. They didn't rush in because they knew that very soon the police special forces would be here.

Unlike street cops, those guys don't count to three - they just start shooting. And then, they'll turn us into minced meat.

"Done!" Syringa shouted, bouncing away from the car with an automatic.

"Great! Box, lead the way!"

We dashed into the shopping mall. Crowbar and Alex fired at the police a few more times, for good measure, before following us.

We emerged on the first floor, which was quite convenient.

"Syringa, where's the fountain you used to toss coins into?!"

"Further ahead!"

"Lead us!"

We darted through the brightly lit main hall, deeper into the mall. Customers scattered around, hiding in the shops, sitting or lying on the ground, covering their loved ones. One thing I was sure of - the cops wouldn't storm in here immediately because of the people. They'd surround the place and very slowly tighten the circle to flush us out.

But that would only buy us a little time. We rushed through the hall to the fountain, where I saw a familiar hatch. Upon closer inspection, it was engraved with "CUWC." Just what we needed.

"Bingo! Start clearing people away from here and take out the cameras to delay the police. Let them not know where we've disappeared to. Well, they'll certainly figure it out, and likely, very quickly. But that's just a little more added to our bought time.

"You want to go down to the sewer?" Syringa was clearly not thrilled with this idea.

"No, to the underground rivers. We can get out from there."

"Won't they find us there?" Malu inquired.

"There are no accurate maps. Everything there is twisted and turned, built and rebuilt. Are the bags with the money waterproof?

"Naturally," he nodded.

"Then we need flashlights with batteries. And fast."

"I'll go," volunteered Alex. "I know where there's a store nearby."

"Grab some chest-high rubber wading pants, like the ones people wear for fishing, and a compass too!" I shouted after him.

While he ran for the flashlights and batteries, Crowbar, Geezer, and Syringa shot out cameras and shooed people away while we lifted the hatch. It wasn't at first, but using Geezer's toolkit, we managed.

From somewhere below, the distant sound of water could be heard, which was almost inaudible due to the fountain. Steps embedded into the wall led down.

"It's dark..." Syringa muttered. "This is a bad idea."

"Is it? Worse than getting behind bars?" Malu smirked.

"It's better not to go where people don't go. Who knows what's there."

"There's only water there," I replied.

"You know me, Box. And you, Malu. Who I really am. Now, rack your brains and think: there might be many more those similar to me. Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there."

I could see the tension in Syringa now, like an animal sensing an intruder but not yet taking any action. And I understood what she was talking about.

For me, this is an utterly ordinary and unremarkable world in all its aspects. Cars, impulse, weapons, technology, and so on. But here, a girl with furry ears appears suddenly. A practically miraculous occurrence that doesn't fit into our reality and shatters its standards.

Such a thought crossed my mind during our first meeting, but now, after her words, I could openly face this question: what do I truly know about this world? How many others like her are there? And what else astonishing or truly terrifying can be unearthed?

I never crossed the boundary of the human world, so I don't know what I might encounter. I lived in a standard world where there was definitely no place for such anomalies. I knew nothing about such and didn't even try to find out - because I didn't believe in it. But now, such an anomaly stands right before me. Does this mean that if I simply peek beyond the boundaries of my familiar reality, I will see much more?

How much can I expand my world? And do I really want to? After all, one could say that another reality is hiding from me, hiding from the entire human world. But once you peek into it, you can't return to who you were before.

"We have no choice, Syringa. If anything, just say it straight away."

"If it helps," she muttered.

At that moment, Alex returned to us, hauling stuff. He tossed a pile of rubber pants in front of us.

"I got flashlights, one for the head and one for the hand for everyone. Batteries, a compass, and pants, as requested. But they've cleared out all the people, so no one's anywhere - the mall is simply empty. And that means..."

"And that means they'll be here soon," Malu finished for him. "Guys, get changed quickly!"

We started pulling on the fishing pants quickly. They wouldn't protect against the cold, but they would definitely keep out the water. Syringa, being the shortest of us all, had the pants almost reaching up to her neck. But at least they fit everyone. We put the batteries in the bag with the money that Malu had.

"Alright, hurry-hurry-hurry!" He urged us quietly.

I felt the same thing he did. Excitement. When you're rushing and any second you could get caught. It feels like it can happen any minute now. You can literally feel danger approaching.

"I'll go first," Alex volunteered, slinging a bag with an automatic over his shoulder and strapping a flashlight to his forehead. He started descending quickly.

"Alright, Geezer, you're next! Then Syringa, Crowbar, Box, and I'm last. I'll close the hatch if I can."

That's how we started descending one after another. When it was my turn, I involuntarily remembered Syringa's warning and got goosebumps. I felt the effect of her words even more strongly as I slowly descended, plunging into darkness, where the only light came from our flashlights. You could immediately feel a bone-chilling dampness, which made your skin moist and cold.

When I dipped into the water, I didn't feel the temperature drop much. It was still relatively bright here due to the light from above, but a glance to the left, a glance to the right, and you realize you can't see anything at all.

The sewer itself was just a typical wide concrete corridor about three meters wide and approximately two and a half, maybe three meters high. The water was just above my waist.

The screech of metal on stone echoed from above, and soon the only source of daylight was gone.

We were left alone. In the darkness. And if we were to believe Syringa, one on one with God-knows-what.

"So where do we go now?" asked Alex, illuminating the sewer with his headlamp.

"Further from the city center. That means downstream, and then we'll try to figure it out," I replied. "Just be careful - it might be slippery here. If you fall into the water, you could really freeze. You see, it's definitely not warm here. And also, be alert - in the darkness and enclosed spaces, there can sometimes be hallucinations, both auditory and visual, so first talk about them, and then act."

"Yes, boss," Alex saluted me in jest. The others responded in a more uneven chorus.

But what I disliked the most was Syringa. Or rather, the way she seemed to stand a little aloof, staring into the depths of the tunnel where we were about to go. As if she already sensed something.