Chapter 03 Voices Beneath the Rubble

Aria clenched her teeth, straining to hear. The signal was fading fast, but she had to get more information.

“Major, repeat! What’s the situation at the evac point? Can we make it?”

There was another burst of static before Dyar’s voice came back, even fainter than before.

“—point overrun. Mutants... new... regroup... possible evac... forty clicks south...—”

The signal died completely, the display on her wrist flickering out. Aria cursed under her breath and slammed her fist against the wall.

“Great... Forty clicks south with me like this? Not exactly a stroll in the park. But hey! We don’t have much choice, we die here or we die trying, and I chose to at least struggle for a bit before I become food for the mutants,” Elias muttered, eyes half-open.

The safe point they'd been moving toward was now a death trap, overrun by mutants. Their only option was to push farther south, to whatever fallback position HQ had mentioned - if it even existed.

Aria leaned against the wall, she tried to piece together their next move. Her wrist display was on its last legs, and the drone wouldn’t stay airborne for much longer. Their chances of making it forty clicks in enemy territory were slim, especially with Elias in his condition.

"In any case, we can’t stay here. If we wait too long, the mutants will be on us."

"I know. Just... give me a few more minutes, my wounds started to bleed."

Aria nodded, though her mind was already back on the strange readings from the drone. Whatever was out there, it wasn’t good. They were running out of time, and the clock was ticking down fast.

For now, she’d have to trust the drone to warn them of any immediate threats. But that signal from HQ? It wasn’t promising. Their extraction point was compromised, and the route to safety would be filled with danger.

“Waiting will not stop your bleeding, I will have to try and cauterize the wound. I know it's primitive but we have no option, it will at least stop the bleeding.”

"Do it, as long as I can move. I don't want to be death weight that caused your death just because I could not carry my weight."

 She grabbed her particle rifle and removed the heat sink from its ionized heating barrel. The weapon, designed to fire near-silent rounds of supercharged particles, wouldn’t draw unwanted attention. But its barrel could be heated to extreme temperatures if discharged fully.

She pointed the rifle at the ground, squeezed the trigger, and emptied the charge, the barrel glowing white-hot within seconds. Without hesitating, she pressed the searing barrel against Elias’s wound, the smell of burnt flesh filling the air. He clenched his jaw, a weak groan escaping through gritted teeth, but he didn’t scream. The wound smoked and hissed as the heat sealed it shut.

“Done,” she said, pulling the rifle back and checking the burn. It wasn’t pretty, but the bleeding had stopped.

 “Take a few more minutes to rest, then we move.”

Elias gave a shaky nod, his eyes squeezed shut as he fought through the pain. 

“Yeah... thanks.”

While they waited in the ruined building, Aria scanned the streets through the drone’s fading feed, her heart sinking as the signal flickered and glitched more frequently.

When the time came, they moved carefully, keeping low and silent as they navigated through the rubble-strewn streets. The city was a graveyard, its towering structures reduced to skeletons of twisted steel and cracked stone. For hours, they crept through the ruins, dodging Aegis mutants and finding temporary cover where they could.

But as they neared what had once been the city’s industrial zone, Aria’s worst fear became a reality. The drone gave out, sputtering its last burst of life before crashing into the ground somewhere out of sight. At the same time, her wrist display finally flickered and died, the screen going completely dark. They were blind now. No drone, no scanners, nothing to detect the mutants lurking in hiding.

Elias, leaning heavily against her, noticed her hesitation.

 “No more drone, I assume?”

“Yeah, we’re on our own now,” she muttered, scanning the area with just her eyes.

To make matters worse, the weather had taken a sharp turn. Thick, dark clouds overhead finally broke through with heavy rain. The downpour intensified quickly, hammering against the ruins and reducing visibility to mere meters. The sound of the rain masked their footsteps, but it also drowned out any noise that might have warned them of approaching danger.

After trudging through the rain, they spotted a small, half-collapsed building up ahead. Its roof was partially caved in, and its walls were cracked and crumbling, but it offered some shelter from the storm.

“There,” Aria said, pointing.

 “We’ll take cover in that building. Rest for a bit and figure out our next move.”

 They reached the building, slipping inside through a gap in the wall. Aria helped Elias down to the floor, leaning him against a cracked wall, and sat beside him, wiping rain from her face. The sound of the storm outside filled the silence, but in her mind, a thousand thoughts raced. They couldn’t afford to stay put for long, but moving in this weather with no drone and no tactical readings? It was suicide.

Then, something caught her ear - faint, barely audible beneath the steady drumming of the rain. A low, guttural growl. She froze, her eyes darting toward the cracked wall.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered, gripping her rifle tightly.

Elias didn’t respond right away, his back slumped against the wall as he stood up. Aria’s pulse quickened. They couldn’t afford a fight right now, not with him in critical condition.

Another growl - closer this time. Whatever it was, it was coming.

“Elias, stay behind me. There is something outside, in the street. I need you to focus, and listen to me.” 

“What... what is it?” Elias’s whispered, fatigue heavy in his words.

“I think the mutants have found us,” she whispered back, her eyes narrowing as she strained to listen beyond the drumming rain. 

“If a battle starts, I need you to get out, through that hole in the wall behind us. Cover as much distance as you can. I’ll hold them off for as long as I can, but... I don’t have much left. One particle battery is all I’ve got.”

"All right, I will try. But you better be coming after." 

 Aria moved quietly to the gap in the wall, her hands on her rifle. She peered out, but the rain made it nearly impossible to see more than a few feet. The dark, wet haze obscured everything, but she could sense it - something nearby, lurking in the gloom.

“It’s too dark,” she whispered.

 “And the rain... It’s making it hard to see, but I think I saw something. Big. Might be a Valkys, far off. If one of those things notices us, we’re done for. We’ll have to move soon.”

She continued scanning the broken streets, her nerves on edge. But there was nothing, just the rain falling heavily, the distant growl of thunder, and the occasional rumble of collapsing rubble. She bit her lip, heart racing. Something was out there; she could feel it, but it stayed hidden.

“I’ll keep watching for a while, Elias,” she whispered, still focused on the street. 

“But I need you to be ready to move, okay?”

Silence.

She glanced back over her shoulder. 

“Hey, did you hear me?”

Still nothing.

Her heart skipped.

 “Elias?” She turned fully this time, her breath catching in her throat. 

"Elias, do you hear—"

She froze, her blood running cold. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and for a moment, time seemed to stop.