“So I’m telling you, Kains, there’s a lot of a market out there for magicians once you’re done with the soldier life. The war’ll be over soon.”

“Not sure, Yan, family troubles back home. Wife converted to fucking hanzai.” The guard groused.

“Are you kidding me? Fucking whore.”

The air remained clear; stagnant, even. Dirt and pebbles pressed onto the floor meshed together with the imprints of boots, but only a few poorly-clothed slaves passed them by, the hallways of the prison largely deserted. The pungent odour had not vanished.

“Yeah, I got a letter from my son the other day, saying they’re going to send her to the church for a punishment. I swear, the woman’s getting too ahead of herself. Last I saw here she was complaining about him going to be a soldier. Filthy fucking bitch, I tell you.”

“Why d’ya even let her talk back? Good smack should do it.”

Shirin and Wei both walked on, leading Rie and Tooru along; the sound of their feet tapping along the grimy floor only audible when the men stopped speaking.. As she was led along by two guards Shirin’s eyes continued to glaze over, moving along slowly but surely, always staring at the floor.

Dimly-lit hallways continued to grace the group’s eyes as 8 elven guards led them along the corridors, passing by a few other guards once in a while. They wore no helmets, only holding up what appeared to be wooden bats and light chainmail armour wrinkling around the sides, all wearing the same othala armbands. Wei’s eyes lay fixed on the metal contraption two guards in front of them were holding, him glancing up and down at the men.

*splish*

Water. Shirin looked up at the ceiling and noticed a pipe burst; a tiny stream gushing out onto the floor, forming a tiny puddle.

She glanced back behind her at her own sister; Rie following closely behind her, as far as the guard dragging her along would allow.

Jab.

Shirin narrowed her eyes as the guard smacked Rie forward, snickering.

“Oy. You.” He pointed at Shirin. “This thing’s your sister? Gotta tell you, your sister isn’t meant to be sold off tomorrow!”

The guards at the back laughed, a chorus of giggles and snickers as Shirin turned back to the front and looked around the walls. The stained walls’ paint tapered off, the stone revealed chipped and damaged in various ways. Turning a corner they passed by a large open room with a massive pile of luminescent blue orbs strapped into the centre, Shirin’s eyes briefly widened at the sight.

“Sokovs…?”

“The hell’s that?”

“It’s either that thing inside your chest,” She pointed at the glowing point on Wei’s body, “Or the most effective explosive devices ever developed.”

“Hey, you two. Shut the fuck up.” One of the guards at the back remarked with a hoarse voice. Wei and Shirin both stopped.

Tooru, behind them both, remained silent as not a single conversation was started with him. He stared over at Rie, his eyes half-closed, his lips shut. No one gave him a glare or a look throughout the entire journey.

“You got any idea why the woman wants to do anythin’ here?”

“Something about the weapon you an’ I are holding. Just between you and me I think it’s hokey. She sent a bunch of a shit newbies out to go and do the suppression job and she trust the shit they make up?”

“Somethin’ tells me she ain’t got much of a capacity for thinking.”

Finally a bright, positively brimming light shone out from a doorway in front of them. The two guards carrying the gun scampered into the room as the other guards stayed outside, keeping the group under control. The guards moved away, however, separating into their own little cliques and holding their own conversations. Shirin glared at them, before scooching over to Rie and leaning in.

“You okay?” She whispered, patting her on the back. “This is gonna be over… soon.”

Rie nodded. The cold walls rubbed hard against the back of her head.

“Don’t say a word. She’ll let us out, and then that’s it.”

“Hey! Get in here!” A guard leaned out of the doorway, flicking his hands towards him. The group clamoured into the room, passing out of the darkness and into a spotlight so strong their shadows were as sharp as possible.

Miru stood around, talking to the various guards in a corner of the room as one of them untied the ropes on Shirin’s and Wei’s hands. Shirin, freed, strolled over to the wall while leaning on it. She looked around. A long range stretching… thirty, fourty metres, a ceiling roughly the height of three people. A large block stood right behind the log denoting the range, with two lines on either side leading all the way back to the wall.

Shirin continued to look towards Miru on the left. It’d all be over if her plan worked.

Wei, standing around, looked at Tooru and sat down next to him in the corner of the room. He pointed towards him, motioning towards his head and then a thumbs-up and thumbs-down.

“What’re you trying to say…” Tooru uttered.

Wei sighed. He leaned in. “Y’know the plan?”

“...yeah.”

“Good. Listen, I may not be able to help you out ah, so…”

Tooru shrugged. “I get it. Die or don’t die doesn’t matter.”

Wei stared at him with wide eyes for a moment. “No, that’s not the point. You either follow me or you follow her. Your choice. You’re not dying. Who?”

“...you.”

“Gotcha.” He stood back up.

Miru’s conversation with the guards ended and the group separated, before coming upon Shirin’s presence and furtively walking over. Her trenchcoat had water dripping from the bottom, her eyes drooping.

“...whoa there, you’re looking mighty…” Shirin’s voice trailed off. “I got nothing.”

Shirin pointed towards the corner. “Let’s talk.” Miru’s lips remained glued shut, unmoving; she moved in the opposite direction.

“You are making this extremely fucking hard-” Shirin whispered into Miru’s ear. “-I want out now. Get the other guy to do your testing, me and Rie are outta here.”

The guards, engrossed in their own conversation, scarcely paid attention to the goings-on between the two women. Miru muttered, “Do a test first.”

Shirin shrugged. She’d considered the decoy bullet that the two had added to the weapon beforehand. They’d just be passing it on to someone else and the consequences passed elsewhere.

“Fine.”

Then, a tap on Miru’s shoulder. Wei. “I’ll do the testing first?” He asked, loud and clear.

“No, it’s not necessary. She’ll do it first.”

“Oh. Okay…” He muttered, walking to the side. Rie and Tooru had already sat down in the corner.

Shirin, on the other hand, began to sweat bullets.

She looked at the lines on the floor. She’d be standing there if she did the testing. Miru being so insistent on her testing. Splitting the gun with magic wouldn’t be too hard for a trained soldier in this environment. And then she stopped-

-and noticed a few stone pieces on the floor.

She’d be dead if she tested.

Shirin’s eyes widened. Her pupils dilated. She began to retreat, backing away. She looked at Wei. “Oi, um... could you do the test?” She remarked, a trembling in her voice.

Wei shrugged. “She said you do it first.”

“Nah, nah. Uh. You do it.”

“What the hell? You want me to do the first shot so much you go ask her!” He crossed his arms, rolling his eyes. A sweatdrop went down his face.

It closed in. She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder; turning around to see one of the guards grabbing her over at Miru’s direction. With narrowed eyes her instinctive reaction was to send the elven a roundhouse to the face, knocking the guard down and turning many pairs of eyes.

Shirin shook. Shooting glances all around her she could see the guards all peering at her, Wei in the corner with an incredulous expression, Rie having stood up. She looked back at Miru. “Y’know, I could say it right now motherfucker so you might not want me dead.”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Miru uttered, before looking at her own soldiers. “Go, and do, the first test. Or did you trap it?”

“Heh. Maybe?” Shirin blurted.

“What the fuck, Kodai!” Wei shouted. His eyes lay wide open as he slowly backed into the corner.

“Hey. This is the plan. This is all, part of… I dunno. Rie!”

“S-sis?”

“We-” She headbutted one of the guards in the head,

“-are-” rolled over to the door,

“-LEAVING!” She kicked one of the guards in the crotch before finishing her yelling. Rie scrambled over, seemingly falling over on her older sister as the two scampered out of the room. The guards, falling on each other, only began to follow seconds after.

Wei, staring at the doorway, was left alone with Tooru and three guards fell on both of them, instantly holding them down on the floor as one of them screamed “Where the hell’s the rope! Give me the rope!” The other guards sprinted out of the room and Miru had vanished like there was no tomorrow.

He was held down on the floor now, the guards tying him up. “I’m gonna fucking kill that bitch.” He stared up at his captors as they held down his arms and legs. “Now, you fucking animal, you stay here and be a good fucking dog can you?”

Wei shuddered.

“That’s right, good animal… very good little dog…

You fucking DOG! Ren mu gou yang ah!

Something came back to him, from the very back of his mind.

The image.

Of a man, trampled over a dozen times, a dozen sticks beating him.

The adrenaline rush was unavoidable.

A tooth went flying.

The guard next to the one holding Wei down turned to see his comrade punched against the wall and Wei standing up.

Wei’s fist acted faster than his mind did.

It was as if he simply watched something play out, pushing the other guard to the ground.

And he picked up the bat.

Tooru’s eyes widened as the blood flew.

The elven’s face caved in.

By the time Wei had come to his senses a minute later, two bloody corpses lay at his feet with a bat leaking with a crimson red similarly splattered across his face. He stared at the blue-haired boy next to him hiding in the corner.

“Hey.”

He motioned to Tooru, before leisurely strolling over to the gun lying on the ground and picking it up.

“You coming?”

The hallways rang with footsteps, echoing over and over.

“GET BACK HERE!” A scream. Shirin continued to rush down the path with Rie in hand, her heat beating like the fire of a machine gun. Rie’s grey skin glistened with sweat as she followed closely behind, panting; the two continued to sprint as if - well, their lives indeed did depend on it.

“Rie, in here!” She said, suddenly lifting Rie off her feet and shoving her into a storage room in the side of the wall. The two watched as the guards rushed by, unnoticing of the open door.

“You, split there! We’re going there!” The voice came in from the distance.

Shirin wiped off her sweat before pulling a thick piece of parchment from under her sleeve, unfolding it to reveal an unfinished map of the prison, scrawled across the entire piece.

*cough*

She wheezed as she followed the pathways and pulled out a pen, adjusting the map; dropping her pen from time to time as she scribbled down a few changes. Running her finger down the corridors and rooms she slammed on one room she’d just drawn on. “This is it.”

Tapping on Rie, she stood back up and glanced out at the corridors. The distant sound of footsteps getting louder. She nodded, and motioned to Rie to follow her; Rie nodding in response.

Scampering across the junction, she hugged the cold, rough-edged walls tip-toeing her way to their next destination. Shirin bit her lip as two guards sprinted past and turned - in the other direction; sweat flooding down her face. Rie remained entirely silent, although her mouth lay ajar.

“This way.” She muttered, pointing towards a corridor with water leaking all over the floor. Scampering around a box left in the way they came back upon a flooded hallway, water gushing in from a leaking pipe above they’d passed earlier.

“Shit… there’s a way around, then-”

“THEY HAVE TO BE AROUND HERE!”

“Fuck.”

Shirin looked over; a junction in the distance past the dozens of doors.

“Let’s go, Rie.”

The two ran down the water-flooded room, the sound of their feet sprinting through the water loud enough that-

“-Oy! Squad 2B?”

Both of them saw the silhouette of a guard coming by the wall and immediately ducked into the doorways, splashing torrents of fluid; both to one opposite the other. The oncoming guards stared at the waves of water moving in their direction.

“2B?” One of the four elven asked. The others stopped as well. “...get into a line. Check every cell.”

Shirin’s heart beat as if a drum was pattering for the final of a rock song. As the first guard came into view she looked up at the bent pipe and-

*crack-crack-crack*

Using magic she spooled the pipe and struck a guard in the forehead; water hitting the guard behind him face-first. The flushing noise of water going down the guard’s face rang through the air as he closed his eyes while his comrade fell on his face, a domino effect knocking down all of the guards.

Shirin jumped out, grabbing a bat from the floor before stepping on the first guard’s face. “Augh!” He yelped, as Rie followed and ran across the guard’s body. Shirin then sprinted across the second guard’s chest and rammed the wooden bat against the last two guards’ faces; blood mixing into the water as she yelled, “C’mon!”

Rie panickedly replied “Right!” as the two ran off, the guards incapacitated. Shirin knew just exactly where to go.

Panting. Wei and Tooru found themselves ahead of a wide doorway, two sliding doors partially opened.

“They… left the door open?”

As they walked into the red and yellow-lit room, they found dozens of weapons lining the walls; anvils accompanying tables and bows in boxes. Arrows and their holders, stacked to the brim in chests; and then Shirin and Rie.

“...how did you get in here?”

“Well, wait for someone to come out and things work out surprisingly well.” She replied, pointing at a bloodied soldier on the ground with his ear bent out of shape, profusely bleeding from the side of his head. “Fucker’s never going to be using that ear again.”

“If he lives.” Wei muttered. “Did you find-”

Before he could finish, Shirin threw over a weapon - his gun. The blood splattered across his face, he released the magazine, the sight of brass greeting his eyes once again. Checking the little holes in the side of the magazine, he counted down the shots left.

“23.” He muttered. “Did you find the others?”

“I was supposed to find what?”

Wei groused. “The rest of my magazines. C’mon, we rehearsed this plan like five times.”

Shirin sighed. “Yeah, I didn’t exactly expect I’d actually have to do this plan.”

She looked at his face. “What the fuck did you do anyways? Did you beat the blood out of someone’s head?”

“...was pretty excessive…”

“Naw, that was a fucking splendid job. You showed ‘em.” Shirin looked over at Rie. “Just remember, stay behind me, and use that thing if things go south.”

Rie, holding a small dagger, stared over at her sister, trembling.

Meanwhile Wei walked by the swords and sheaves to a small side-room with large black words scrawled on it. “What’s it say?” He shouted.

“‘Only high command, use crest.’”

“You checked all the other rooms?” He muttered. “Shit.”

Wei raised the bat, aiming it up, before whacking the door handle; the bat splintered instead, and a red mark was left on the bronze handle.

“What the fuck?”

“Did you even check the rest of the rooms first? Your stuff might be there - I mean, hell, they didn’t even keep your gun in there.”

“Gotcha…” His voice trailed off as he glanced over at the other doorways, passing the bows and several lances as he did. The bare red hue on his skin reflected off the spears and swords in the centre; a few rectangular shields propped up against the wall as he passed.

Eventually he came upon his ballistic vest; a large, gaping hole in the middle with the compartments shoved out of the way. He grimaced looking at it, sighing as he stared at the chains tied all over it, locking it to the wall. Wei turned around, went out to the armoury to pull out a dagger before slowly filing away at the chains.

“What the fuck is taking you so long?”

“It’s my vest - it’s chained.”

Shirin turned around, groaning. “Can’t you just shoot it?”

“If the bullet ricochets, no.”

“Here, lemme…” She ran over and held out the chain by magic, pulling it away from the vest. “You try now.”

“Fuck.”

*DA*

A small smokestack emerged from the floor. Wei began to untie the various chains on his vest while checking the various compartments. It remained unchanged; the magazines still in their own pouches, his walkie-talkie still in its own pocket. Unravelling the metal draped across it it revealed the Singaporean flag; a black square underneath.

He stalled for a moment. Then, he used his dagger to cut off the red-and-white flag, the crescent and five stars lying at his feet as he slipped back into the vest, the hole roughly fitting the orb implanted into his chest.

His helmet remained missing; he figured he didn’t need it. Slipping the strap of his gun over his shoulder and his holster up his pants he slightly ached, but once again, Wei had weapons. The blood spread across his bearded, branded, scarred face only jarred with his exhausted expression.

“You ready?”

“I still have this.” Shirin remarked, presenting the contraption the group had built earlier. Wei narrowed his eyes. “Why? It’s a bomb. We don’t need it.”

“We need a distraction... “

“Then, we set off the trigger and run the fuck away.

“Not enough people die that way. What was the fuse?”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Then I know exactly where to dump this fucking mess. You take glasses, I’ll take Rie.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Danger close.”

“I wouldn’t trust you with her.” She remarked. “Rendezvous at the exit?”

“Alright.” Wei muttered. “I’ll be leaving without you if you don’t show up in a few minutes, I can’t fight them off with this forever.”

The two looked at Tooru and Rie; both of them standing there silently, holding blunt weapons as large if not larger than their hands.

“-let’s do this.”