With Rocky nowhere in sight, I considered my options while careful to avoid any large movements…

Rocky was gone, and there was no way he would return…

I didn’t worry about Rocky all that much because if there was one thing you could depend on Rocky to do, it was to survive…

Agne clung to my back tightly, stifling her frightened whimpers into my shoulders… she was aware that sudden noise or movement would be the end of us…

Even Rena, in all her tomboyishness, maneuvered her body slightly behind me…

I felt slightly comforted that she could finally see that I was much more dependable than Rocky…

Actually, I don’t even think she recognized Rocky had left as yet…

Rocky disappeared with minimal sound, and Rena could tell the Rats were more likely to attack the moment our eyes left their formation, so she didn’t have the luxury to glance around…

Agne and Rena were understandably scared…

Hell! Even I was scared, but trembling at this very moment would just advertise the flexible meat of my muscles for the thousands of red-eyed, hungry rats ahead…

They stacked atop each other like a tsunami that paused mid-destruction…

It was easy to tell that the Rats were not normal…

An obvious hint should have been their poodle-like size, but such things were common in the Slums…

Still, these Rats were elites amongst the elites…

These were Rats that survived amidst the toxic, resource-scarce environment of the Sewage Systems for nearly a decade…

Even the roaches in these tunnels were deadly, so everyone knew that the tunnels were no place for man…

Ironically, that made it a perfect place to hide my sister, but on days like today, it made retrieving something hidden that much difficult…

I examined the rats very carefully, considering how much time I could buy if I left both Agne and Rena to their deaths…

I was definitely not as heartless as Rocky, but I was a survivor nonetheless…

However, I doubt Agne and Rena would make much of a difference…

These rats could probably chew through bone in an instant, and I was in no hurry to find out for sure…

The darkened tunnels lit up a bit as old system lights barely managed to flicker on…

This would happen as nightfall descended, telling me that it was prime time for the more dangerous creatures in the tunnels to make their debut…

I glanced at the toxic waters to my right and considered our likelihood of escape that way, but all I foresaw was an even more agonizing death…

It was better to have your skull chewed through by rats than to leap into toxic waters that would take an entire hour to melt your skin…

I had witnessed people in the slums dying from toxicity poisoning, and it was more gruesome than radiation poisoning…

‘Fuck…’ I cursed inside my mind, tensing my muscles to prepare for an escape that would put John Dillinger to shame…

Of course, as an avid Sewer Explorer, I had seen Rats before, but never so many at once, and these guys seemed somewhat intelligent…

Rather… it was best to say ‘crazy’…

Was there really a difference in the slums?

Obviously, something had stirred up the animals in the Sewers, and I could only think about the possibility that others had taken this route just earlier…

This thought was further reinforced by the fact that this was a Rat-Olf’s territory…

Rats didn’t step into an area marked by a superior species unless that creature had died…

It especially didn’t bode well for me that someone in the Sewers was strong enough to kill a Rat-Olf…

Very slowly…

So fucking slowly that I would put a grandma crossing the street to shame, I carefully backed away from the reddened eyes of the hungry rats…

Rena mirrored my movement, and I was half-hoping she would just run away, drawing the attention of the rats…

Her sacrifice would have been greatly appreciated…

As Rena and I slowly took another step backward, the rats seemed emboldened and ventured forward by a couple inches…

The eerie sound of toxic water rushing through the rusty pipes somewhat disguised my rapidly beating heart…

“I feel something touching me…” Rena whispered into my ears, trying very hard to keep her cool, but I could tell she was a faint breeze away from a nervous breakdown…

“Just slowly back away…” I replied, glancing back to see if there were any exits nearby…

And that’s when I saw it…

Dark hands of death stretching from the shadows, slowly approaching Rena…

There was a moment of incomprehensibility as my mind processed what was happening…

Danger in front and danger behind… the world was trying to fuck me over…

“Rena…” I mumbled, about to shout my lungs out, but before I could…

“Ahhhhh!” Rena yelled a voice of absolute terror as her feet were grabbed by the dark hands of death…

Before I could even react, Rena was pulled into the darkness…

The air solidified…

I was terrified…

Agne was terrified…

And even the rats froze in place…

Whatever had dragged Rena into the darkness was some next-level shit!

Even after she was pulled into the darkness, the reality didn’t hit me until Rena’s screams grew more and more odious…

Next, a stream of blood flowed from within the darkness, slightly splashing on my rubber shoes…

There wasn’t much blood, but in my mind, it was like the entire Sewer System became flooded…

Before my mind could process what was happening, my arms fastened Agne to my back, and my feet blurred…

It felt like an eternity, but mere milliseconds later, I was approaching a slanted tunnel…

The Rats were hot on my heels, their tiny feet splashing about in the toxic sewer waters…

The small creatures were the least of my problems since I wasn’t trying to outrun them – I was attempting to outrun fate, itself…

I was outrunning destiny…

I was outrunning poverty…

I was outrunning breast cancer…

I was about to outrun everything negative about humanity…

Such was my determination to survive…

This sensation of desperation was so potent that if I believed I could fly, I would actually fly, but I didn’t dare to because I was afraid that my soul would depart my body…

It was moments like these where the impossible became possible…

I leaped forward, falling down the slanted tunnel with the ease of pro…

I had done this a million times before since this was a regular route to the bunker…

However, just as I was about to touch the metallic ground, a sudden panic attack churned the pits of my stomach…

---BANG---

What should have been a graceful landing turned into a spiraling collapse as my knees became weak at the last second…

I regained my wits mid-fall and managed to toss Agne from my back, ensuring that she would not suffer any severe injury from the fall…

Agne rolled across the tunnel, hitting her back against a nearby railing, but other than that, she seemed relatively okay…

I, on the other hand, banged my forehead into the ground…

Anyone else would have been knocked unconscious, but banging my head against the ground just woke me up…

I was thinking more clearly than I had in days…

The invasive feeling of someone else inside my mind was gone… the ground had either knocked me crazy or knocked me sane…

As for which it was, I didn’t bother to determine…

I hopped to my feet and leaped forward as soon as I heard the screeches of rats falling from above…

The Rats created sparks as their teeth collided with the metal flooring of the Sewer System…

The Sewers were filled with combustible liquids so I was surprised when nothing was set on fire…

While the rats were scurrying to their feet, I dashed toward Agne, but another pang of panic attack caused my running to falter…

And that’s when I saw it…

Dark hands of death escaping the darkness to claim the second sister…

First was Rena, and now, Agne was gone as well…

She was pulled into the darkness before I could even react, or at least, that’s what I told myself to avoid the guilt of knowing I could have probably grabbed her by the feet…

Honestly, latching onto Agne’s feet wouldn’t have saved her life… it would have just made her die with one less shoe…

Just like before, the air stilled and blood flowed across the metallic ground…

My mind ceased functioning at that moment…

Or maybe, my mind was elevated to a new level of consciousness…

I could see everything clearer than I ever had before…

Rocky was gone… probably dead – FUCK HIM!

Rena was definitely dead – GOD BLESS HER SOUL!

And now, Agne had been claimed by the darkness as well…

Suddenly, everything made sense…

I had probably died earlier in the tunnels, but my soul ran out of my body…

Then, my soul was transmigrated to another world where death-like hands would peer out of the dark abyss to kill me…

But… my system would probably kick-in about any second now…

“That’s the only logical explanation…” I grumbled, but some part of my mind retained its sanity, laughing at the reality I was trying to convince myself existed…

Still, even when my mind was grasping at straws, my feet were searching for a more tangible solution…

My feet were already moving, putting a considerable distance between myself and the chasing rats…