I woke up feeling like burnt shit.

  Everything hurt in too many ways. Parts of me were sore. Other parts were enfmed. My chest ached like literal fire was in it. I had a fever and cold sweat was breaking out of me as my body shivered. I felt sick. Thirst and hunger grasped at me, their urging unfamiliar.

  I’d been coddled.

  That was the first thought through my hazy brain. I wasn’t ready for this, I wasn’t prepared for this. Master had devoted everything to helping me break through and increasing my power. The rest… he’d left me on my own. To live or die.

  But at that moment I hated how much he did for me. I hadn’t gone hungry or been sick or evehirsty in over a month. He’d always stabbed me with nutrients or hooked me up to an IV or shoved me into the healing tank. It was like I’d had another paradise ripped from me.

  I snorted in amusement.

  Yeah, it sure didn’t feel like a paradise when I was living it.

  Then agaih from disease and iion and feeling like your stomach will fall out of you in three different ways ged your perspective. I breathed deep, fog. I wasn’t safe. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t remember finding any pce I could pass out in. But apparently, I had.

  I was… for the life of me, it looked like I was in a crevibsp;

  There was a single small hole leading out near my feet and all around me, just rock. My body ractically squashed inside here. The hole was so small that I didn’t know if I was going to be able to eve out. I was shocked I’d mao get in.

  But I had to leave. Something had made this, no doubt about it. And whatever or whoever’s home I was invading, could chew through stone brid rock given enough time. Hiriously, I hoped it was a rat. If it was anything else, my ces would go from low to zero.

  I didn’t want to move. My body was exhausted, my throat was dry, my body was covered in brutal wounds and scratches that had only barely closed, if at all. I was hungry, felt like I oisoned, and could feel an iioing in on every single pce I’d been hurt. My gi and underwear were soaked with my blood, rat blood, and more. It stuy skin in a way that made me feel disgusted.

  Even dying in agony hadn’t felt so totally miserable. It’s as if someone had dumped every single awful way a human could feel at on top of me. It was rapidly taking the third spot on the worst way I’d ever woken up. Right behind waking up from Vega and when I thought the Smile pany was trying to drown me in a healing tank.

  I breathed a shaky breath.

  I still o get out of here. Death was close by and would only get closer, not farther. I needed healing, I needed help, and I needed power.

  I wasn’t going to get that by sleeping and dying in a hole in the wall.

  It took me lohan I’d wao get out. I didn’t know what was oher side, which was terrifying, and I didn’t want to make too muoise. Not to mention that the hole was barely wide enough for my hips, I felt like I was truly dying, and everythi sluggish and sore… it probably took me the better part of an hour.

  I’d begun to think I was stud would never be getting out. Mutai, died in a hole. That would be my end. It wasn’t a f thought, which just made me struggle all the more.

  Once I finally got out, I scrambled to my feet, eyes staring out. I had nearly died twice within an hour of being here and I saw no reason that would ge. Except there was no way I’d be able to run ht in my current dition. I was on a walkway, where I’d somehow mao find and crawl into a random hole. The only indication of the way I came was the trail of dried blood leading to here.

  I o find somewhere safe to eat, drink, and heal.

  It dawned ohen, painfully. I wasn’t getting out of here in a day or two. I needed my wounds to heal and they were only going to do that slowly. I his fever and disease to break if they did at all. I needed food and water that hopefully wouldn’t poison me.

  I grimaced, hard.

  I was going to be in this sewer for weeks, maybe months.

  And I didn’t have any idea how to survive in this enviro. In so many ways, this was worse than being lost in a forest. There were a lot more things trying to kill me, the water I could have oisoned, I was hopelessly lost, and all the ‘food’ would fight babsp;

  “God damn it old man… was this really the only way?”

  This was a death sentence disguised as training. I was incredibly grateful to Master… but I hadn’t been wrong about my impressions. His eyes were like steel dipped into ice. Dead and hard. His nonce was just the ultimate expression of not g about anything. I was grateful, so incredibly grateful for what he’d done, but this…

  We would have to talk if I survived this.

  The first thing I had to do was get lucky. If I ran into a swarm or a rge rat I was dead. I couldn’t make too muoise either but that would only go so far.

  Quietly, cautiously, I walked through the dark tunnels. Only to stop. I looked back, ideas dawning ohis area… retty safe. The rats made too muoise, they’d get eaten by the alligator. If I was very careful and very quiet, I could survive. As for the rats… I eyed the water.

  A good throw would solve my problems if it was a rge one. I’d just have to hope the alligator didn’t murder me too.

  I resolved in my heart, this was going to be my base. I’d have to be deadly quiet but there was value in livio an apex predator.

  I felt, smarter. I had never been stupid but this… I didn’t remember ever having these kinds of survival instincts. But maybe I had. The same feeling that made someone look away when someorong came at them was now screaming at me.

  Food. Water. Shelter. Power. Prote.

  Evolution itself was guidihrough this primal world.

  I coughed out blood and nearly fell head first into the water.

  I could worry about my sudden crity ter. I o start finding food and water now.

  *****

  There was really only ohing to do. I tinued on, following the path I’d been heading. I didn’t dare drink the water flowing nearby. That wouldn’t be a good way to go out, drinking sewer water. I was feeling siough as is. That would probably seo the afterlife within a day… or maybe an hour, depending.

  I need fresh water. My throat ached and burned. My body shivered and a stant feeling of lightheadedness wouldn’t leave me. I stumbled and even fell, each time more terrifying tha as I froze, worried a hungry gator monstrously strong would be my end before I even had time to realize it.

  It wasn’t but I never let my guard down, keeping my ears sharp. That had been my only warning for the rats before.

  And before long, I heard it.

  Skittering.

  I panicked. It was ing from the walkway oher side but everything ected. Would they hunt me down if they saw me? Would the gators eat them before that? Heart hammering, my mind raced, trying to e up with something, anything! I o hide. I o somehow hide on a ft walkway right now.

  The skittering grew louder, I could hear it eg. Down in the distance I could see small brown dots. I was running out of time. They’d see me, they’d screech, they’d hunt me down.

  They’d kill me.

  Now. I o do something now!

  Survival grabbed me by the wheel and took trol. I swung a fist, shattering a light. Darkness desded in the area and I hunched, unmoving within it.

  Moments ter, moving quickly but more quietly now, was a family of rats. Three of them, all bigger than my head but smaller than the first one.

  [5]

  [5]

  [5]

  My heart beat erratically in my chest, the tension nearly made me retch, and I did my best not to move a muscle. The rats walked by… a going. They didn’t look at me, they didn’t see me, and when I couldn’t evehem, I finally let out the breath I’d been holding.

  I colpsed with my back towards the wall, sliding down it. That had been too close. I looked at my hand, adding broken gss to the list of injuries. It was so small pared to everything else. Barely a minor invenienbsp;

  I hadn’t been thinking, I hadn’t known what to do. I’d just, I’d panicked and smashed the light out of some primal instinct to hide.

  But I couldn’t linger. Nothing had ged. I was still dying of thirst and soon, I’d be dying of everything else if I didn’t get food before I grew too weak.

  I tinued on, following the walkway. Slowly, it began to do something I hadn’t seen before. It had already gone lohan my vision could see but now it… began to bend. Instead of a sharp turn, the path was bending.

  My nerves spiked up. I already had no idea when I’d meet aerrifying creature or even just another rat but not being able to see what was in front of me was horrifying. I could walk around the bend and run right into a monster.

  Forward I went, heart hammering, nerves on fire. My body shook like a leaf, my knees felt weak, and I suddenly missed my mother’s cooking so, so much for some reason. Blood loss was terrible. I felt dizzy and my body felt both so hot and so cold.

  Finally, I was around the bend and-

  …

  I realized two things in that moment.

  Ohe person who had made this pce was crazy.

  And two, whether male or female, I was going to kiss them when I got out of here.

  In front of me was something I was fairly certain no sewer ience should have actually had. There was a wide walkway, a massive area, where the water ended, hitting a grate. From the sides, small flows of water pooled down, causing the massive room to have what looked like a thin coat of water evenly spread out across the ground.

  I didn’t know how it ossible. I didn’t know why. Some of the water spilled towards the river going into the grate but most seemed to just stay still like a pond after the rain.

  And it looked fresh.

  I was never going to get another or better ce. Caution was observed but it was a wide and mostly well lit area for once. Massive lights hung from the ceiling, only causing further fusion. Why was this area so well lit but the rest had signifit areas of darkness all around? Why have prhting here but nowhere else I’d seen in this byrinth?

  I pushed away my fusion, it could wait. I hobbled my way towards one of the streams flowing down. If I was unlucky… this was going to be terrible.

  I leaned forward a some fall in my mouth.

  I waited for a moment. Waited for a terrible, awful, disgusting fvor to take hold of my senses. Ihe water tasted… .

  I cried.

  Pure tears of joy streamed down my face. I’d somehow found water in a sewer. Was this part of the process of ing it? Did they not just dump it all out into the o?

  Whatever the answer was, I had water.

  I’d ake it franted again. I’d never realized how precious water was till I . Another day and… I wouldn’t have sted another day I realized. My body was weak enough as is, how much longer could I have searched? Before I grew too tired? Before something found me? If I hadn’t found any today… I sure as hell wouldn’t have tomorrow.

  I stared at the water in awe.

  It almost made me miss the croaking.

  Warix_Viviana