I opened my eyes.

  My head hurts.

  I think I had an important dream, but with whom and about what was vague.

  I’ve got the urge to tell Lily I appreciate her, while also thanking Rich and Leo for being my friends. I wonder why I feel that way…

  I need a moment to recollect myself. I feel awful.

  Maybe nap for a few more minutes…

  I closed my eyes again, but realised something was off.

  I was supposed to be lying down, but there was constant shaking. There were frequent, sharp noises.

  “We should be close to the others. Any time now…”

  I heard Raven’s voice and woke up instantly. There was a hint of annoyance and subtle anger in the words he spoke. That was enough for me to realise something was happening.

  I looked around and found the reason for the discomfort I was feeling.

  On my left side, I saw Rich. On my right – Leo. They were carrying me while holding a pistol in their free arm.

  Listening closer, I could hear gunshots. Some distant, others – right behind me.

  I started to make slight movements with my body, attempting to wake up completely and free myself from their grasp. They needed to use their hands for something more important than carrying me.

  The Stalkers must have attacked us in our sleep, threatening to end us.

  I know I’m anything but a morning person, but this is the first time I’m having so much trouble waking up. The life-and-death situation we are in right now made me feel embarrassed for being such a burden to my team.

  “Are you awake?” Rich was the first to notice my subtle movements.

  “She is?!” Leo exclaimed with the happiness in his voice evident.

  “Mind putting me down and explaining to me what’s happening? I know we’re in a mess, but I need to know the bare minimum to understand the situation.”

  Leo and Rich stopped moving, made sure I had a good foothold and let go of me. Afterwards, they readied their automatic firearm and prepared for battle.

  All the while, Leo informed me about the situation in the fastest way he could.

  “Stalkers. Many of them. We barely survived the first attack. Been running for a few minutes by now…”

  In front of us, Roosevelt slowly retreated, firing with his gun.

  One Stalker jumped from the ground, trying to slice him with its claws.

  Roosevelt shot it down in mid-air, the lifeless rolling on the ground. He then continued firing.

  “No more ahead! We can keep moving!” he reported, after he stopped pulling the trigger, but continued looking ahead, prepared for more to come from the darkness.

  “Keep going! More are following us!” Lily said.

  Numerous gunshots sounded from behind her. She then turned and aimed, ready to intercept our pursuers.

  I then realised that Raven was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where is Raven?”

  I feared that during my unconscious state, he had to sacrifice himself, become a decoy or had already died in an attempt to protect me.

  Before anyone could reply, the cold, scornful and annoyed voice relieved one of my worries.

  “Sleeping beauty finally woke up? It was about damn time you did!” Raven scolded me without even looking my way, the path he came from requiring all of his attention.

  He was walking backwards at moderate speed.

  “I’m coming!” Lily told him.

  “No! Back away. Reground with the soldiers. Where is that bastard…”

  He was busy tracking something in the darkness. His flashlight wasn’t enough.

  Looking around, I realised that most of the lit fires and torches were put out, leaving large parts of the cavern unlit.

  I looked at where his gun was pointing, searching for the undead. Lily joined with her flashlight and together they spotted the pale monster.

  A creature with sharp nails was on the ceiling. It was coming closer to us.

  The second the light touched it, it made evasive manoeuvres, trying to stay undetected in the dark. Its movements were fast and agile, making professional acrobats seem like amateurs.

  I also got out my flashlight and turned it on. I shone the ground.

  With the three of us, we saw that more of them were approaching from both the ground and the walls.

  Raven opened fire. Lily supported him from a distance.

  Their combined efforts shot down one of the Stalkers and forced the rest to retreat for the time being.

  This allowed us to take a momentary respite.

  When we called it a day, the fuel in the fires was enough to last for a few hours. There should also be torches every few feet, but there were none. Only the remains of broken ones, lying on the ground, extinguished.

  When the Stalkers snuck in, they prioritised the light sources.

  That leaves one question unanswered: Why did they attack us?

  Even though we had light to cover us in this relatively open place for a cavern, they still proceeded to end us. This is abnormal behaviour from their side.

  Did they manage to sneak past the sentries or was there another entrance they used to surprise us?

  My thoughts were interrupted as someone spoke.

  “We were sleeping when Raven awoke us. His sixth sense or something detected them. You were hard asleep and we couldn’t wake you. Therefore, Leo and Rich volunteered to carry you while the rest of us secured the rest,” Roosevelt explained while continuing to keep watch.

  “If Mary is awake, how about you pricks start helping us? We almost got overrun at some point!” Lily exclaimed while looking at Rich and Leo, her voice filled with anger.

  But the one who was truly furious had the last word.

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

  “And get a fucking move on already! You must know that we are in deep trouble. The soldiers are also being attacked while we are wasting time on idle chatting!” Raven spoke.

  He had a point. We could clear the situation later. Now, we had to move.

  “Let’s go,” I ordered and I took my assault rifle.

  I could more or less understand the position we were in only from Raven’s curses. I have rarely heard him use them. The only occasions being when he is angry.

  Although I was a bit dizzy, my help counted for something. It wasn’t much, but enough to make the Stalkers keep their distance, hiding in the shadows and looking for an opening.

  We moved cautiously to rendezvous with the soldiers. The relentless gunfire from afar was our only information about their whereabouts.

  We had the following formation: I was in front, Lily and Roosevelt beside me; Rich and Leo in the middle, helping the sides that needed the most; Raven was covering our rear.

  It did wonders.

  I was in charge of the front and decided the pace we moved while the rest of my teammates proved that we have grown much since we disembarked on the Continent.

  After a while, we reunited with the soldiers.

  They were in a circular formation, the area around them lit up with the help of fires and green glow sticks. They were attacked from all sides, with numerous corpses of Stalkers littering the surroundings.

  The slaughter continued even as we had a clear view of their situation.

  Our front was clear and our rear had one of the strongest in my team securing our protection. The soldiers could use our assistance and we had the opportunity to help them. There was no reason why we shouldn’t.

  “Open fire!” I ordered.

  Our arrival and surprise attack forced the Stalkers to retreat, returning to the darkness from which they came. The ones closely following behind us were also gone.

  “They are retreating?” Lily asked, baffled.

  I understood her. The tides just turned and they ran. Such cowards, yet that is their nature.

  “Keep your guard up! You never know where one of them might be hiding!” Raven was paranoid.

  “How is your end?” Leo asked him.

  “Nothing to report. Yours?”

  “We are seeing the soldiers. The Stalkers are retreating from them. Move out. Let’s regroup with them. Be vigilant,” I ordered.

  Everything calmed down. The undead were nowhere to be seen. It was as if the ambush just moments ago had never occurred in the first place. They were just that stealthy.

  The eerie silence was the only sign that something was off.

  We went directly to speak with Olivier.

  “Any casualties?” Raven asked flatly as if it were small talk.

  “Some light wounds and one has died. The one you beat senseless yesterday,” Olivier replied and emphasised that Raven was the reason why the casualty occurred.

  However, Raven didn’t react to the provocation.

  Given the volatile state he was in, I was pleasantly surprised he didn’t bicker meaninglessly. I suppose we were in deep trouble if he was this serious.

  “Four are MIA. How about you?” Olivier finished reporting and asked us back.

  “All alive and well,” I replied.

  We were in pretty good condition. We were all well and possessed the majority of our equipment. As far as I could see, we had no wounds. Our teamwork in a tight situation was better than I thought! Even with such a dead weight as I was!

  “We have a light injury,” Lily interrupted my proud moment.

  Wait. We did? Who? Was I hurt while sleeping? I don’t feel anything.

  I quickly checked myself up. Everything was fine with me.

  “Yes, I could see that you have got one wounded yourselves. Is the cut deep?” Olivier said while giving Raven a look.

  I turned and looked at him.

  What I saw made me open my eyes wide.

  He had a mark from a single claw on his forehead. The wound didn’t seem to be deep and the bleeding was also minuscule.

  However, for Raven to get such a wound… How did he even get such a wound? If the hit had been a few inches downwards, he’d have lost his eyesight!

  “Since we were awoken earlier than expected, we’d better get off early. Our numerous light sources seemed to be inefficient,” Olivier said after checking the time and continued.

  “Treat the wounded! Have a fast meal! We have a few minutes of respite and we’ll set off! I’ve had enough of this cave and those monsters! Charlotte, supervise the wound treatment. Help them if there is a need.”

  “Yes, sir!” she saluted as she replied and moved to inspect the rest of the squad.

  The rest of the soldiers obeyed without a complaint. This was a soldier’s life – the battle. They were the best to follow in a situation such as ours.

  Or at the very least, until Raven takes charge.

  We, the six of us, plus the 10 leftover soldiers, means there are 16 of us left. The worst part is that we had yet to start emerging from the cave and already five are missing or have lost their life.

  The respite we had was the perfect time to ask what happened in detail. I could already feel the anger I would get for asking this, but I need to know.

  “What exactly happened?”

  “Approximately quarter of an hour to half an hour ago, Raven awoke us. Or at least all but you…” Roosevelt started.

  “We were first wondering what was happening, but soon we were ambushed by the Stalkers. It became ugly fast and…” Leo continued.

  “As we were unprepared and couldn’t cope with the sudden ambush, we took some hits. We were also forced to leave parts of our equipment, such as our sleeping bags…” Rich joined the explanation.

  Mind only one of you talking? It’s annoying and hard to listen to all of you at the same time.

  “Is that why Raven was hurt?” I asked with no ill intention, trying to understand from where his wound was and as a hint to make them realise to talk one at a time.

  However, he didn’t take it well. The rest stopped speaking the moment he opened his mouth.

  “By “took some hits” they mean I had to fight off five Stalkers at once while they managed to get their sleepy asses ready to help me. As I was only trying to defend, I sustained no serious wounds during that fight. But what made me lose my mind was the sleeping beauty that could not wake up,” Raven said with a tone filled with anger and discontent, while he was looking scornfully at my way.

  I could feel the desire to strangle me from him. It went out pretty quickly as Lily continued to explain what happened further down the line.

  “Leo and Rich volunteered to carry and protect you. We had no objections as someone needed to take the role. They also carried the supplies on their backs. The rest of us cleared the path and watched the rear.”

  That is why they were carrying me. Got it.

  “Then, when did Raven get wounded?” I asked with genuine concern and curiosity.

  I couldn’t feel any negative (nor positive) reaction from him this time.

  He was cleaning the blood from his forehead.

  “That is our fault,” Leo said while being next to Rich.

  “While we were carrying you, we hardly paid much attention to our surroundings and got ambushed by one of them. It came from the ceiling and it jumped at us. It was aiming its claws at you. We froze and couldn’t react in time. We were too slow to gun it down. Wasn’t it for Raven, you would have died back then.”

  I looked at Raven. I might really have to give him a “thank you kiss” sometime. For example, after all of this is over.

  “He pushed the Stalker away from us, but in the process, the creature retaliated, giving him an injury,” Rich finished.

  “He got wounded because of me? Poor him. All because of me and my incompetence…” I started saying, but became disheartened knowing what my state forced my teammates to experience.

  What he had to do to protect me…

  “Poor him? More like poor undead,” Lily said with mockery.

  It was her way to make me feel better. I appreciate it, but it wasn’t needed. I should reflect on my mistakes.

  “When he realised he was injured, he squashed the head of the undead with punches and kicks. But not before tearing all of its limbs apart. If it could beg for death, I bet it would have. The next few Stalkers that came to attack him ran after seeing what he was doing with one of theirs!” she finished.

  “I had no time to spare or else I would have done more. Way more. It really would have started begging me to end it all,” he said as if it was the normal thing.

  What is with you? Is this just another Saturday morning for you?

  I looked at the watch. It was nearing five o’clock in the morning.

  “The soldiers should be done by now. We should get a move on. Expect nothing less than what has already happened. Ever worse might be waiting for us. Be on guard and stay vigilant. Even I am not unscathed from those bastards,” Raven said and pointed at his forehead.

  The wound had already stopped bleeding, but the claw mark was visible.

  “Don’t you require more treatment? I’ll get bandages for you,” I proposed.

  “No need. Thanks nonetheless.”

  “Who should be carrying the provisions?” Lily asked.

  “How about we keep them as they are?” I inquired.

  Lily’s and Raven’s combat capabilities have once again proven their importance. We required them to be at their best. Encumbering them with the big backpacks seemed like a bad idea to me.

  “It’s fine with us,” Rich replied and Leo nodded.

  “Let’s go and speak with Olivier. Let’s compel them to start moving,” Raven said.

  If they heard the disrespect, they would surely have been compelled to shoot you if the situation allowed it...

  We went to Olivier as mentioned.

  “We have entrusted Rich and Leo with the provisions on our side,” Roosevelt informed him.

  “On our end, my deputy and I will carry them. If you are ready, we should move out,” he replied.

  “We can go anytime!” I replied.

  “In that case: Man! Ready your flashlights! Remember to check the ground, walls and ceiling! You don’t know where those monsters will be! We will be moving out starting now! Take position!”

  Olivier gave the orders to go and the soldiers followed them robotically.

  “You stay around the centre. Help the sides that require it the most,” he told us.

  We went along with them as per the plan and our unofficial contract with him.

  I hope we will make it out of here alive. Both my companions and the soldiers.

  I barely managed to hear Raven whispering under his nose.

  “Something scarier than the Stalkers is with us in this cave… I’ve been looking for you… Finally…”

  I should have asked him what he meant by that. I should have confronted him…

  The situation didn’t allow me to do so. And his reply… I’m not sure, but I got the feeling I wouldn’t like his reply.

  Whatever he meant, I believe in him. The time we spent together as a team must mean something.

  It means for me. It means for my friends. It must also mean for him, mustn’t it?