As the alarm slowly dies down, the small party of raiders walk towards the camp. Once the alarm finally stopped, the raider leader yelled, “Where is that bastard? Where is Emmet? I know that him and his crew are hiding here.”

By this time Alex and Jack have already reached the front line of defense. Alex upon hearing this asked, “How do you know Emmet? What did he do?”

“This little shit attacked one of our camps, leaving behind an absolute mess. When survivors sent word about what happened, they sent us to track him down.”

“Well, the way I see it, he is a traveler in our domain, which means he is under our protection. You, and your group, on the other hand are not welcome here. So, leave before all of you end up in a pile of blood and guts.”

“Hmm, a pile of blood and guts. Even though that is very intimidating, we don’t plan to leave until we have Emmet and his crew in tow.”

“Then, the time to talk has passed.” Alex stands his ground and activates his Sophia. “SOPHIA: HONOR BOUND.” A red glow appears around Alex and his now drawn gun.

The leader cracks a smile, “A stat boost, and powerful one at that.”

“Shaking in your boots. Wait till you see mine.” Jack said with a grin. “SOPHIA: EYES OF ALLIES.”

The raiders pull out their weapons, but none of them active their Sophias.

“Prepare for your worst night-” Jack suddenly stops mid-sentence and then franticly looks around.

Alex looks over, “Jack… hey Jack, what’s wrong?”

“How is this possible….” Jack said with fear in his eyes.

The leader of the raiders now had a full grin and crazed look.

“Jack? Jack! What are you seeing?” Alex, at this point, was shaking Jack trying to get a response out of him.

“We… we are completely surrounded. There are more raiders hiding in the forest, but…. that’s not the worst part. All of them are class A, and their leader is a class S.

“Wait…. How can that be? Unless they are… the Depraved Demons.” Alex’s eyes suddenly widen.

“So, you’ve heard of us. This makes it easier. It would be best if you hand over Emmet now.” The raider leader then raised his hand, “SOPHIA: RELENTLESS AGRESSION.” Afterwards, hellish looking dogs spawned from the shadows of the trees.

Alex falls to his knees. Many thoughts are racing in his head. Ultimately fear wins in the end. Alex brings up the words, “Mina. Bring me…. Emmet and his crew. Now!”

“But we have a duty to protect them. Would you really be willing to throw away your pride for this?” She replied.

Alex looked at her with broken eyes, “It’s either us or them. Besides, it’s their fault for attacking the raiders. Why should we suffer too?”

“But…. Alex.”

“Don’t worry”, Emmet said as he walked up. “We will surrender ourselves willingly. At the most, thank you for trying to defend us Mina.”

Mina then escorted Emmet, Conroy and Sora to the raiders. When Emmet passed Alex, he said, “I told you, you would choke on your pride.” Those words shocked Alex. In fact, it shocked him so much that he felt the urge to vomit, but did what he could to suppress it.

Once all three of them were given over, the raider leader clicked his tongue and said, “Man, this was boring. The only one who made things interesting was this girl.” He sighed, but soon after, his crooked smile returned.

“I know what would make me feel better! Capturing this girl and killing everybody anyway.” He then snapped his fingers and all the dogs lunged toward Alex and his squad.

Mina did what she could to run back to Alex and Jack, but one of the raiders caught her before she got too far. Jack ran forward in order to save her, but before he could reach her, a dog jumped up and grabbed Jack by the neck. As they both fell to the ground, the dog bit down and severed his head. Seeing this caused Mina to get light headed and her vision to get hazy. As she was carried away, she saw all her squad-mates viciously being mauled and torn apart. Alex, already mentally broken, just sat there accepting his death. As Mina saw him get torn apart, the mental stress got to her and she blacked out.

****

“I think when tragedy occurs, it presents a choice. You can give in to the void: the emptiness that fills your heart, your lungs, constricts your ability to think or even breathe. Or you can try to find meaning.”

- Sheryl Sandberg