When it appears that all hope is lost, do not give in.

  - UWO Field Manual Section 12.5.2 -

  It’s been a few hours, and they no longer have to drag me with them, my legs move on their own in the shifting lights of the tunnel. We don’t know where it goes, anywhere is better than where we left… Mwangi. A deep choking feeling strangles my chest. Guilt.

  Barlow glares at me, “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t give up.”

  My jaw tenses, but he’s right.

  “Carry the torch,” I say.

  “Carry the torch,” everyone in the tunnel around us replies weakly.

  There is no hope here, no rose colored glasses, only the swaying lights on the barrels of people’s M4 rifles. Our last hope was Lieutenant Tenny, she was brave, like Staff Sergeant Mwangi…

  “You okay?” Cortez asks me softly.

  Fuck, wallowing won’t help bring them back, own it and keep moving. Decompress later, if there is a later.

  “I’m fine,” I lie, her eyes are red, she’s been crying, “Are you?”

  “Hooah,” she says weakly.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She nods, Tran looks back at me, his eyes are red too. He doesn’t take the guilt, but he nods too.

  “If we all decide to dip, you come with, no bullshit about saving lives, this isn’t a regular run, we need to survive,” Barlow says.

  “Yeah.”

  The thud of metal boots still echo down the passages, but the pace does not increase, it’s like before, deliberate, purposeful. It’s like they want to maximize our fear before reaping us. Sick bastards.

  “So, a named boss, what did he say his name was?” Barlow asks.

  “Aderaic,” Cortez answers.

  People ahead of us look back at her like she’s just uttered a curse on us all.

  “Flame type, and our only ice type is… well, gone,” Tran grumbles, his eyes flit back behind us every so often.

  If the pace of those in front of us slows, the black clad knights will catch us. There isn’t much we can do about that now though. We are all worried, scared, I can even smell piss from a couple soldiers up the line. Not judging them, at least it’s not shit.

  “High Apostate,” Tran says, ruminating to break the tension, “Not sure what the Order of the Undying Flame is, but it sounds dumb. Fuck him.”

  “It’s part of the Cursed Legacy Pantheon,” Cortez says, looking at our dumbfounded faces, she rolls her eyes, “You guys really need to read more, fucking blockheads.”

  “I do read,” Barlow says, defensively.

  “Manga doesn’t count,” Tran says, giving him an eyebrow.

  “Then neither does Manhua,” Barlow retorts.

  “Wow, wow, wow, don’t be shitting on my people,” Tran says, giving Barlow a playful look.

  “Tran’s a Vietnamese name,” Barlow retorts.

  “My mom was Chinese,” Tran says, Barlow gives him a disbelieving look, so Tran admits, “Half Chinese.”

  Both laugh weakly. This conversation is the only thing we can do to keep us from facing reality.

  “Regardless, I’m sure it’s better than the romance novels Cortez reads,” I say.

  She blinks, turning to glare at me, “Excuse me?”

  “What?”

  “You’re such an ass.”

  “True, but I’m your ass,” I say, looking at her now, she pauses, studying my face.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Tran coughs, “There aren’t any ammo cans to count down here are there?”

  “One, two, three, four,” Barlow says, pointing to the stone blocks.

  Tran and Barlow pick up their conversation again about reading literature. Trying to give Cortez and me as much privacy as possible, which isn’t much. Considering we are surrounded by people on both sides, at least the pace is brisk again. The thuds are becoming less ominous from this distance.

  "So, we never did get to have that talk," she says, there’s no blush to her soot covered cheeks this time, no walls, no hiding. These might be our last moments. We both know it.

  “Yeah, now a good time?”

  “My schedule’s a little tight, but I think I can squeeze you in,” she says, giving me a faint smile. She’s strong. So are Tran and Barlow. I’m lucky to have them.

  “Why did you…” I begin, she looks away for a moment.

  “Why did I throw my life away to be near the guy I care about?”

  If I wasn’t coming down from the adrenaline rushes earlier, I think my chest would be pounding.

  “What happened to your rule?”

  “Which one?”

  “Not to fall in love with you.”

  “I said you shouldn’t,” she says, looking away, almost a tinge of embarrassment, but she fights it back, she’s had worse things to push through today, “I never said I couldn’t.”

  “So, you’re saying…”

  “Don’t make me spell it out,” she says, giving me a look, one that I’ve wanted from her for months. But now, with everything that’s going on, I can’t help but feel she has horrible timing.

  “You couldn’t have said something weeks, or months ago?” I ask her.

  “I didn’t realize it,” she admits, looking up at me, “Until I thought I might lose you.”

  In the spirit of honesty, “I don’t think you could have picked a better time.”

  She laughs, somehow, despite the death that comes in rhythmic metal bootsteps, she becomes the light in the darkness and actually laughs. Fuck, I wish she would have told me before. I’ve been into her since the first time I talked to her. It’s been torture to pretend that it’s not serious to me. All this time I was afraid if I tried to make it more, she’d end it.

  Letting out a sigh, “Well, thank you, Cleo.”

  She smiles, I rarely use her first name, then she gives me an eyebrow raise realizing what I said.

  “There’s nothing you want to say back?”

  “You already know how I feel.”

  “Just fucking tell her Novak,” Tran sighs.

  “Don’t be a pussy,” Barlow says.

  “No balls otherwise,” Tran adds.

  Fuckers. Turning to her, I’m about to speak, but there’s shouting coming from ahead.

  “What are they saying?” Cortez asks Barlow in front of us.

  “Something about a cave.”

  “Caves usually have more tunnels right?” Tran asks, shifting his rifle strap, “That could be a good thing.”

  It doesn’t take us long to find out. Within a quarter mile we reach a large domed cave. If my nerves weren’t so frayed, it might have taken my breath away. Glittering lights spill from the ceiling, moving in waves, bioluminescent plants of some kind. The endless colors fracture into waves, rippling across the entire ceiling. It’s beautiful. The waves of colors seem to coalesce on a singular point on the other side of the cave, a large statue, of a woman.

  The statue of the woman dwarfs the rest of the carved statues in the cave, people of different races and species, dressed in different kinds of armors, each looks unique. Each one is large, about the size of a bus standing end to end. The statue of the woman though, monolithic. Whoever carved it, really loved their craft. Stepping further in, there are hundreds upon hundreds of murals, each with writing that glitters in the waves of bioluminescence. It’s too far to make out what they say. Strangely though, none of the plants grow upon the woman’s statue. They all stop short of her pedestal. Weird.

  There are a lot of soldiers gathered here, off-worlders too. Looks like most of the survivors followed Barlow’s gambit and braved the tunnel. Most aren’t sitting around though, they’re looking frantically, pulling plants off the walls, I think they’re trying to find an exit. Shit, is there no exit?

  “Caves usually have more tunnels…” Barlow grumbles a look at Tran who shrugs, keeping an eye on where we came from.

  There were no other twists or turns in the tunnels, this was the only path that wasn’t collapsed.

  “We need to find an exit,” I say, looking around again, “Let’s go, my bet is that it’s near the big statue.”

  We move together, the four of us. Our pace moving to a hurried jog, it won’t be long before the Knights will catch up.

  When we get closer, I study the statue with Cortez while Tran and Barlow check the wall behind it. I can’t tell what kind of stone its hewn from, but it’s not the same as the cave, and somehow it looks like one solid piece. How did they get it in here? At the base of the pedestal is water in a pool, it glows with the rest of the plants, but brighter, able to illuminate most of the statue. The woman’s eyes appear to be looking down at something, tracing my eyes to it, I see she’s looking at something beneath her. A small raised stone that juts out further than the others.

  Moving to it, I kneel next to it, pushing the plants away.

  “What is it?” Cortez asks.

  “I got a hunch,” I say.

  “A hunch?”

  “I’ve heard stories about gates with special treasure rooms. Solve a puzzle get a prize sort of thing. Maybe this is one of those.”

  She sighs, kneeling down and pulling at the thick vines. Something glints under all the foliage, something silver laden.

  “They’re coming!” someone yells across the cave. Their voice barely echoing on the tall ceilings.

  Turning, I see glowing swords in the distance, less than a hundred paces down the tunnel. No one’s found an exit yet either. Shit, we need to hurry. Shaking it off, I help Cortez pull off the last bit. Exposing a silver plated mural.

  Words are carved around the edges of it. It’s strange having the system convert the language. Like, I can see it’s clearly another dialect, but I understand it like my own. I read it out loud.

  “Behold, the True Mother of Death, Ulana, Goddess of the Forsaken, sovereign of the unyielding will…” before I can finish, Cortez grabs my arm tightly.

  She points to the cave entrance. Flaming swords dance back and forth. In perfect formation two in a line they march, cresting the tunnel’s entrance. The first two breach the cave, opening their stride and holding out their blades.

  Suddenly, the air shifts, the multitude of colors on the walls shifting to only one… red.

  The Knights stop in their tracks, wind gusts and the ones inside the cave, their blades extinguish. Looking down at the blades, then toward us… no, toward the statue. The Knights fall to their knees, dust pluming from their armors. Until it falls apart, clattering to the ground, empty. The rest of the Knights in the formation halt at the tunnel’s edge, daring not enter. Their red eyes all fixed on one place before they take three generous steps backward in unison.

  My eyes follow their gaze up to the statue, the statue is looking toward the tunnel… wasn’t she looking down before? Did I imagine that?

  The lights of the cave slowly resume their normal rhythms of color, I turn back toward the Knights, their gaze resting upon the floor in front of them now. None of them are moving forward into the cave, all the ones that did, are ashes now. What is going on? Looking up at the statue again, my eyes blink three times, she’s looking down again. What the fuck?