[Erick Sanders]

I panted, stumbling on an irritating root and scowling at Jacks back. My body was stronger and fitter than I could ever have imagined, though I had never been one for fitness and my stamina here reflected that. After six hours of running I was on the verge of collapse.

We had swung west along the tops of the ring of mountains, hurling another peak before dropping down onto the flats. We had made good progress, and I unwittingly thought that the others would want to slow or rest, though the firm flat ground pushed them from a jog to a run.

I stumbled again, slapping my hand against a tree to support myself, my breathe coming in rasping gasps. “Do you need to rest?” Mia asked. She and Samantha had slowed to a stop behind me, “Jack. Your brother needs a rest,” She called. Jack slowed and turned to watch me.

“No, I’m fine, let’s keep going” I hissed. When I wake up I was going to drag myself for a run. I needed to get fitter. I thought huffing air. My legs gave in to the thought of rest and I slid down to the grass, trying to regain my breath.

“Okay, we’ll rest,” Jack said, exasperated in an all too familiar way. He would blame me for slowing us down. I ripped a chunk of grass from the tree as I pulled myself back to my feet. “No, keep going,” I said, walking slowly on aching legs.

“He was the first to tell us to leave the others, If he cannot keep up, then he should be left behind,” James spat into the dirt, “We still have at least thirty kilometres to go” he argued.

“We are not leaving him! If you want to keep going, that’s on you,” Jack growled, dropping his bag and looking around at the others.

Mia and Samantha didn’t hesitate, they dropped their things, “I’ll go get some water from that creek we passed a few minutes ago,” Mia said, strolling off into the trees.

James grumbled, hissing about wasted time he dropped the bag and stalked off after her.

“I’m sorry man” I muttered, dropping my head and accepting the defeat from my fatigue.

“Don’t apologize, it would be tactically idiotic to leave you behind. We’ve made good time. Just rest, I want to be moving again in a few hours,” he tossed his pack at me and I pulled his canteen from it, guzzling water.

Now that I wasn’t concentrating on collapsing, I studied the surrounding forest. Down here on the flats the trees had thinned out, making way for open patches of thick grass, purple and blue flowers spotted in the morning sun. It was peaceful. I rested my head back against the tree and closed my eyes.

I didn’t feel as I drifted off to sleep, but I certainly felt being ripped awake. A hand clasped over my mouth and someone whispered in my ear. “Quiet.”

My eyes snapped open, looking directly into Mia's face, her large brown eyes inches from my face. She slowly removed her hand from my mouth and motioned behind me.

She leaned forward, her warm breath on my ear as she whispered, “A section, fifty meters out, moving right to left, sixteen in total.” I stretched out my EM sense but they were outside of my range. Mia shuffled silently off me, and I rolled slowly in the grass and glanced around the tree.

The section was stretched, pair walked through the forest, scanning the trees, their rifles at the ready. I looked sideways at Jack who had his back pressed to the tree beside me, Keg lying prone in a patch of longer grass beside him.

Jack shook his head at me and I frowned.

Sixteen was too many. If I didn’t know they were all higher than rank 95 I might have had a go, though I knew that with the sparse cover, as soon as I was spotted there would be a bullet in my eye. All I could hear was Mia’s measured breathing as we waited. The section slowly streamed past us until they were out of sight.

Mia breathed deeply, pulling her legs under her and standing. “Sorry to get so close and personal” she smirked, grabbing my arm and pulling me up.

“No worries, lovely way to be woken up,” I said sarcastically, tossing Jack back his bag.

“I think we should probably move…” Jacks words were cut off by a gunshot from behind me. A bullet slammed into the back of my head. Blurring my vision as I stumbled forward. Jack grabbed my arm and dragged me behind a tree, the others following suit. I breathed a sigh of relief, the round must have been a smaller, assault rifle calibre, to not knock me out. Though a dull pain now pulsed through my head.

“two hundred and twenty meters,” Keg called before the shock wave from his rifle rang over my ears. I reached up and raised my helmet, It slid into place, drowning out the harshness from the rifles as Olivia, Jack and James opened fire.

Mia and Samantha, sprinted across the grass before they slid to a stop and began firing from a new angle. I drew Havars swords and peeked around the side of the tree, a bullet glancing off my helmet. “mother fuckers!” I swore, ducking behind cover.

“There are too many of them” James called as he also rolled behind a fallen log, sheltering from the onslaught, He slid the launchers cylinder forward and slid a grenade into place. Popping back around the tree he shot it downrange, the resulting explosion showering dirt through the forest.

My heart pounded against my chest. And I swore to myself again. I was useless right now. While they were this far away there was nothing I could do. I slammed the swords back into their place on my back. I needed a rifle, and I needed practice. It dawned on my how limited I was in a long-range fight.

“We have to move!! There are too many!” James yelled over the roar of his rifle.

Jack flicked an empty magazine from his rifle and slammed another one home.

“Erick, start moving when Olivia and James do!” Jack called to me. Then to the others, he began shouting instructions, “Peel off! In twos, forty meters! Mia and Sam first! Go!” He ordered.

The others acted without hesitation, I watched as Mia and Samantha jumped up, immediately sprinting away from our attackers, then splitting and darting behind two adjacent trees, coming out the other sides to begin firing again. As soon as they did, Olivia and James got up and began sprinting towards them, “Erick! Go!” Jack yelled. I rolled to my feet and weaved through the trees after them, my legs pumping under me.

I followed Olivia and James as they ran between Samantha and Mia before sprinting another twenty meters. They also split apart, ducking behind matching trees and began firing. It was only a moment before Jack and Keg hurtled past us. We repeated the movement, leapfrogging through the trees until the enemy was out of sight, and their bullets no longer riddled the bush around us. Then Mia grabbed me by the arm as she ran past, pulling me with her. We continued to haul ass until we were out of danger.

Four kilometres and fifteen minutes later I vaulted a rotting log and splashed down into a calf deep stream. Jack smiled, “Follow the stream?” He asked the others. The didn’t reply, only began trudging through the water.

We followed the stream north west for the rest of the day. The seven of us spread out in a thin line, silently watching for any movement among the trees. I tried something new, stretching my EM sense out in a tight line as far as I could, sweeping it around me in a circle like a radar. I felt the others as it passed over them, I even imagined a light ping sound in my head as though I was in a submarine. I felt no one, and nothing other than a few small rodents. When the sun began to set, I sighed in relief.

The sky glowed to our right. “We overshot a little” James growled, fucking Alaria.”

“A proper map would have been nice.” Keg muttered in agreement.

I pulled myself out of the creek bed stalked through the bush, stopping behind a dense shrub. Stretching before of me was fresh cut grass. It ran in a circle around a concrete walled tower. Six stories of dusty grey, and tinted windows. In front of us was a wide door, and open door. Inside I could see tables piled high with meat and drink.

It was right there, but I hesitated. The others knelt beside me scanning the tree line.

“Make a break for it?” James asked in a hushed whisper.

“Do you think someone is going to try an ambush?” Mia hunkered down.

“Fuck it. Might as well find out” James hissed, he smashed through the bush and began sprinting across the field. He was over half the way to safety when a stream of flame erupted in front of him. James skidded to a halt and his was immediately rocked sideways, a bullet cracked into the side of his head, He tumbled to the ground, likely unconscious.

Jack responded immediately, His head jerking around to ward the direction of the shot and his trigger clicked and there was a pop from his launcher and the tree line one hundred meters to our right exploded. “Olivia, move! We’ll cover,” he ordered as they all started lighting up the trees, hitting anything that even twitched in the wind.

As Olivia began her sprint across the open, I did the only thing I could. Drawing both blade I pelted off around the tree line. Without a rifle I needed to get close, the low light and long shadows helped as I skirted along the edge of the clearing.

Scanning with my EM sense it dawned on me that we were in trouble. Three bodies lay prone on the ground, firing across the clearing. A scouting team? I wondered. Stretching my sense, straining it like a rubber band about to snap I could feel four more people hurtling towards them. And there’s the rest, Fuck.

I didn’t have long. In a now well practiced move, I leapt over a shrub, coming down on top of one of the still prone attackers. I stabbed down as I hit the ground, right through the spine and chest of one of the men. I released the sword, pinning the man to the ground and twisted. A bullet glanced off my chest as the man on the right drew his pistol and fired as he rolled in the grass.

I kicked, knocking his second shot wide and slashed out. The pistol and his arm falling freely to the ground, the metal hand glinting in the dim light. I flicked Havars sword through the air and the man gagged as his throat was opened to the air.

I drew my pistol with my free hand, firing a shot down at the third man as he rolled away. It thudded into the ground. Fuck.

I only had seconds before the rest of the section was on me. I twisted the dial in my mind, risking the pain from muscle strain, I lunged through thick air and stabbed him in the stomach. I followed it with a hard kick, knocking him into the clearing. Two metallic cylinders, circled fell free from his vest, cut loose by the swords edge. In my slowed state I had time to read the thick word across its side. [Smoke: White]. A small smile cracked the sides of my mouth.

The man grunted as I pulled the sword out of the ground and out of his body.

Slamming both swords home onto my back, I dove after the grenades. I pulled the pin on both, tossing one on the groaning bodies and another into the clearing as the rest of the attacker’s section came into view. I ran for it, not stopping as two bullets hit me in the back, the force absorbed by the armour.

I prayed Jack had been watching as I hurtled through the exploding smoke. True to form he hadn’t missed a beat. He came into view as I came free from the smoke. He and Keg were dragging James unconscious form across the grass. They tossed him through the door, and ran through before me, Mia taking up the rear. I twisted time back to normal.

Just like that we were finished, through the door and safe. Relief flooded my body, followed shortly after by hunger and the smell of salted meat hit my nostril.

Mia smiled and handed me a glass of clear amber wine from the table. “You don’t waste any time do you.” I grunted, dropping my helmet, I took the drink and downing it. The cool liquid washed my dry throat, leaving a hint of ginger on my tongue. “Its good,” I said, placing the empty glass down and grabbing another. “Hiteshian, this shit isn’t cheap, Not going to waste it.” Mia grabbed a slab of meat with her hand and bit into it like an animal. Groaning with satisfaction. I laughed as juice ran down her chin. She looked like a wild woman, grass, leaves and twigs woven into her hair and her face splattered with dust and dirt.

“You’re a sight to behold, you know that” I chuckled, Pulling a piece of meat and taking a more delicate bite. She smiled at me with a food filled mouth.

I stepped over to Jack and Keg who leaned over James, slapping him in the face. James groaned, the rasped “stop fucking hitting, mate. What happened.” He looked at Jack then at Mia still stuffing her face, “What a thing to wake up to” He added, reaching a hand up to rub his head.

“You got shot,” Samantha told James, handing him a drink.

James used the wall to pull himself to his feet as five people came running through the doorway. Two of the men came through the door first, followed by two women, between them they carried a man, as he dripped blood from a chest wound.

When he saw me, his eyes lit up, “That’s the mother fucker” He growled through clenched teeth.

The first two raised their rifles. What remained of my section mirrored them.

We stood in the hallway, glaring at one another. If looks could kill we would all have been dead. A voice broke the silence, “That’s enough! You’re done. If you are firing those guns, I will flay you alive and send you screaming back to earth!” It shook the room and broke the tension. Standing at the far end of the hall was a rock of a man, his thick metal arms rested on his hips and he glowered more aggressively than anyone I had ever seen. Like Alaria, his skin was translucent, thick veins shifting along his face as he clenched his jaw.

The rifles lowered and gazes dropped. “Good, Now shift your asses. You two, get him to third floor medical, there is a staircase, second door on the left,” The man ordered, stepping to the side and waiting patiently as the two women dragged the man forward, shooting me challenging looks as they passed. When they were gone, he looked back at the rest of us. “This way.” He ordered, leading us down the hallway and out into a room lined with bunks. “Rest, we are still waiting on the final thirty-two, they aren’t far off. The rest of your kin are through there,” He said, pointing through a wide set of double doors. “Join them when you’re ready.” He strode past us and back down the hallway.

“These rooms seem to be a staple of the Grey Scarred Company,” Mia said, dropping onto a bed and closing her eyes, A few moments later she hopped up. “Ok, I’m good, shall we go see who beat us and who is still missing?”

“What was that?” I asked watching her with a sideways glance.

“Set your respawn point you idiot,” She said, looking at me as though I really was an idiot.

I muttered under my breath and stretched out on the bunk beside her. Slowing my breathing until I felt a familiar sense of calm and a slight hum in my body. I rolled off the bed, looking over to Jack and Keg who had just done the same. Jack had a deep scowl plastered over his face.

“What’s your problem?” I asked.

“My fucking problem is that, of the two hundred people in that fucking race, we only beat thirty-two people!” He hissed. “I don’t know what’s coming up next, but we’re now on the back foot” He scowled at the floor.

He was right. We were at the back of the pack, and I began to worry about how that would affect our chances in the next challenge.