Our footsteps echoed the length of the tunnels. Since the curb we were standing on was not wide enough to accommodate everyone, our group was cut into the left and right walls. I ended up with Dr. Yap and Rustia.

  "So, where does this tunnel lead to?" Indigo asked.

  "This tunnel is actually a part of the sewage system of the entire city," Dr. Yap said. "So it leads to anywhere."

  "So Biringan?" I asked, hoping for a yes.

  But she shook her head. "According to the plans the Lucarians had stolen, Biringan is a self-sufficient, off-grid fortress. It's not connected to the city's power lines, water pipes, or internet. You can actually live there for more than a month and not run out of power or water."

  "What are the chances of getting eaten by a half-man, half-snake monster?" I heard Cana say.

  Reina smirked. "Pretty slim, I would say."

  "Wait, what?" Indigo said. There was genuine fear in her voice.

  "You don't know?"" Cana asked. Then her face lit up with an idea. "Wait, you guys invented that, didn't you? To keep this place hidden?"

  "Oh no," Reina said. "We just made use of that. Cause, you know, it's a popular urban legend.

  "So..." Indigo started. "What does the half-man, half-snake do?"

  "Oh, it eats the people that fell through the floor of the changing room," I supplied.

  "Oh..." Indigo said. "I'm not sure I'm in the right headspace to meet said monster."

  "Oh don't worry," Cana said. "It's just an urban legend. Unless..."

  Reina turned to us. "Sorry but they've explored these tunnels many times. No snake monster was found."

  There was a lull in the conversation. I changed the subject.

  "So we can go anywhere in the city," I said. "But where are we going?"

  "For now we need protection," Dr. Yap said. "So this way."

  "We already have one," Cana said, turning on her U.V. light flashlight.

  "Protection against..." Dr. Yap paused. "Non-Shade threats."

  I shudder at the implications. Because I already shot another human and I am not keen to do it again. But I said nothing.

  The rest of the walk was uneventful, only occasionally stopping and turning our necks to locate the source of the splash of water behind us or the echoing noises in front of us. But nothing comes out of it. Thankfully.

  After some time of walking in silence, we stopped at a door.

  We followed Dr. Yap and the rest into some sort of room. There were huge machines here that I don't know what to call them.

  Inside, the adults started bringing out duffel bags from every nook and cranny, every secret compartment in this room. The bags looked new. Sure, there are some dust and dirt sticking to the bags but only on the side where the bags met the floor.

  "Grayson," Dr. Yap said to Wispy Mustache Guy.

  "Yeah," Grayson said. He knelt and unzipped one of the duffel bags on the ground. It was full of black pouches which he immediately handed out. Curiosity got the best of me so I wasted no time unzipping the pouch. My eyes popped when I saw it was a silver gun. I took it out. It was so small that it literally fits in my hand, from the top of my middle finger down to my wrist.

  "This," Indigo said, admiring the gun in her hand. "And the bag looked new. But the secret passage we went through smelt like it was never opened for a long time..."

  "That's because it wasn't opened for a long time," Dr. Yap said. "After Luca took over, we stashed weapons in places near our safe houses."

  "This isn't the only place with hidden guns?" Cana asked.

  "No," Dr. Yap shook her head.

  "Umm...," I said. "There's no way you would be giving out a toy gun to us right now, right?"

  "Bea," Dr. Yap said. "Show him."

  Muscle Lady nodded. She then took the gun from my hand and fired at the wall to her side. The blast rang in my ears and echoed throughout this small room. I could feel the vibrations on my skin. I looked at where the smoking gun is pointed. The wall had a bullet size hole in it. Then she handed me my gun back.

  "Yep," I said. "It's real, real. And I suppose we are expected to use it?"

  Bea crossed her imposing arms. "Well, I don't expect you to hold onto it for good luck."

  "Is there a problem?" Dr. Yap said.

  "Yes, there's a problem," Indigo said. "You've just handed us kid a live weapon."

  "You had no problem shooting me in the leg," Rustia said to me, pulling up the bottom of his pants up to the ankle to show the bandages underneath.

  "I shot you," I said. "Through closed eyes. I didn't kill you. I...couldn't."

  "Well, thanks for that," Rustia said.

  "We'll help you practice then," Dr. Yap said. She then ordered the long-haired asian guy, Lee, to take out empty cans and plastic bottles from the recycling bin and place them in a row on the ledge of one wall of the room.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Wouldn't someone hear us down here?" Cana said, staring up at the concrete above us.

  "We are standing directly under the middle of the road, so no pedestrians should be over our heads," Dr. Yap said. "And the thick concrete would do a good job of blocking the loud gunshots."

  She turned to me. "Now you're lucky you didn't hurt yourself when you first shot a weapon," she said. Then she turned to the other two. "When firing a gun, it is important to practice proper gun grip so you avoid what we call a slide bite."

  "A slide bite is when the slide of the gun—"she paused, holding up her gun and pointing at its top part—"cut the web between your thumb and your forefinger," she continued as she put her hand up, fingers spread, the palm facing us. Her other finger pointing at the web—"as the slide retracts after firing."

  She gripped the gun with both hands now and turned to the side. "We can prevent this with proper gun grip. Your dominant hand grips the gun tight. If you're right-handed, then your right-hand grips the gun. The other hand is for support. Like this." She said. She held the gun with her right hand while the other sort of cups over the base of the gun and the dominant hand.

  "Grip the gun too high and the slide will cut you. Grip it too low and the recoil might cause the gun to fly off of your hand and hit you. Or worse."

  "So what you want," Dr. Yap continued. "Is to grip the gun with your dominant hand tightly just below the backward path of the slide."

  She pulled the slide back. "To check, rack it back. If it hits your hand, then you're gripping too high."

  She turned her body fully to us. "Understand?"

  We nodded. Then she had us do it one by one and assessed our grips. She had us make tiny modifications with our grips but it didn't take long before we passed her examination.

  "All right," Dr. Yap said. "Let's move on to shooting."

  She turned to me again. "Since you've already fired a gun before, why don't you go first?" She said and then gestured for me to go to the middle, facing the cans and empty bottles."

  "Now, remember, we're not looking for perfect shots," Dr. Yap said. "We just want you to get familiar with shooting a gun so that when the time comes, you'll less likely to freeze and get shot yourself."

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. I can't help but feel like that comment was directed toward me. Of course, they have no idea how much I froze during life-and-death situations these past weeks. In fact, I am convinced that they say that to all beginners they train. But the guilt just made me so defensive that I immediately aimed at the empty cans and emptied my magazine in seconds. I kept pulling the trigger even though all that can be heard was the dull clicking of the trigger.

  "Looks like you're not afraid of the recoil," Dr. Yap said. She looked at the bullet-ridden walls and the undisturbed plastic bottles and empty cans. "Don't worry about missing. Your real targets would be bigger and much easier to hit."

  I put down my gun at my side. I rubbed my shaking hands together. "It's weird," I said. "I can't seem to remember any of these sensations the first time I..." I paused and looked at Rustia.

  "The first time you shot me," Rustia said, finishing my sentence.

  I looked down and nodded.

  "The situation was different then and now," Dr. Yap said. "You were in a fight or flight mode. Your brain put all of its processing power into keeping you alive. It literally didn't have time to process anything else. Not consciously, anyway."

  "And you shot me at an open space," Rustia added. "Instead of inside a closed room like this one, where the noise had nowhere to go."

  "Sorry about the leg."

  He just shrugged. "Good thing you only managed to graze me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get back with your friend here," he said, stabbing a thumb at Indigo.

  "All right," Dr. Yap said. "Cana, how about you go next?"

  I walked away as Cana take my spot in the middle. She looked at the gun in her hand. And then at Dr. Yap.

  "Don't even think about it," Dr. Yap said. Then she stepped forward to Cana's side.

  "Take a deep breath."

  "Good."

  "Now show me how you hold it before."

  Cana did as told.

  "Very good."

  "Firm grip."

  Cana locked her hands in place.

  "Now pull the trigger."

  The shot rang and bounces off the walls and ceiling of the room. The plastic bottle bursts and stumbles in the air before finally hitting the ground in a weak rattle. Smoke rising from the hole on its body.

  Cana turned to Dr. Yap, a smile plastered on her face.

  "Good job," Dr. Yap said, returning the smile.

  "I thought it was scary," Cana said. "But I didn't expect it to be so exciting!"

  She cupped her hands over her mouth.

  "Life-changing, isn't it?" Grayson said.

  I looked at Rustia at my side. "It didn't felt like that at all."

  "Again, different circumstances," Rustia replied without looking at me. "You shot because you felt threatened, she was shooting for the experience."

  "Huh," I said.

  "Indigo, you got to try this!" Cana gushed. "It wasn't scary at all!"

  Cana practically dragged Indigo towards the center by the hand.

  But Cana's excitement didn't seem to rub off of Indigo.

  "Hey, I was scared too," Cana said. "But it turned out to be fun! Just follow Dr. Yap's advice, it'll be fine."

  "It's not that..." Indigo said. "Okay, it is partly that. But that's not really the reason..."

  "What are you afraid of?" Dr. Yap said.

  Indigo lowered her head. "We're going to be shooting people...right?" she said. "Your friends..."

  "I see," Dr. Yap said. She lowered herself to Indigo so she can look straight into her eyes. "You are very sweet. But they are not our friends anymore. They are traitors. I think I speak for the rest of us when I say that the next time I see any one of them, I will shoot them dead."

  I looked around and not one of cultists objects.

  "So how about this?" Dr. Yap said. "I give you permission to do the same. Before they do it to you."

  "That's the problem!" Indigo shouted. Her voice forced everyone to focus on her. "I can't do it...I can't shoot another human being..."

  She turned to me. Her eyes welled up with tears. "Vergil, you understand, right? You said it yourself. You couldn't kill Rustia. And now I'm alive because of him."

  My throat tightened. She's asking for my support. After all, I was the first to voice out the same sentiment. But that was before... Like what Rustia keeps repeating. Different circumstances. Just like when I left Indigo for dead only to realize later that Rustia's plan didn't sound too bad. Now I dread the disappointment on her face once she learned that I wouldn't be able to be on her side on this one. "You're right, I didn't kill him. But I did shoot him. So maybe just shoot to run away?" I compromised.

  The disappointment in her face was too much that I had to look away. I listened to the others as they tried different ways to convince her. I don't know think anyone is getting to her because she just kept quiet.

  "Well, let me help you decide," Reina said. "Look at your friends."

  Surprisingly, Indigo followed.

  Reina bends down a little to whisper to her ear. "If you could have saved any of them just by pulling the trigger, but you didn't, then that's on you."

  Images of Kent, Eris and of Demi's death flashed through my mind. My hand gripped the gun tighter.

  "...It's easy then," Indigo said.

  "Show us," Dr. Yap said.

  Indigo took her position. Aimed at the targets as she was instructed and fired. 1 can was sent tumbling down at the third shot. Indigo lowered her smoking gun.

  Dr. Yap put her hand on her shoulder. "Good job."

  Indigo nodded. But she didn't look happy.

  "Just try to remember everything you've learned," Dr. Yap said. "But don't worry, we're here to make sure you wouldn't have use it."

  That's what the soldiers protecting us was meant to do as well. I thought.

  "All right," Dr. Yap addressed the room. "Time to go."

  I noticed Reina was never asked to join us in practice all this time.

  I turned to her. "You know how to shoot?"

  Reina walked to our spot, pulled out her gun, and aimed. She shot all the bottles and cans we missed, only needing 1 bullet for each.

  "I've been shooting since I was a kid," she said.

  "Her dad made me train her," Dr. Yap said.

  Dr. Yap then instructed us haunteds to get out last. Grayson already had his hand on the doorknob when a thick trail of shadow zipped underneath it.