Timeline - October 2nd | (4 days later)

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In some cultures, we know death intimately.

In a translated script, the highest expression of love is the phrase;

"ya'aburnee," translated as "you bury me".

It means, "I love you so much, I'd rather sooner die than bury you."

It was used by mothers in lineage, who were used to losing their young in war.

In culture, we cannot speak of love, without speaking death's name.

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"K-Keep ... M-Moving!" Mya's heart pounded within her chest, her palms slick with sweat as she tightened her grip on the sword. Her terrified, high-pitched voice echoed through the surroundings.

She submerged herself into the thick dense forest the soldiers and herself in the war game trials had taken into, running as fast as they all could to escape the Wranglers. It was an unexpected ambush on the cadets, staff, and her medic team, forcing them to split up to ensure survival.

The trials had taken an unforeseen turn for Mya, but she had no alternative except to keep moving. Maneuvering through the trees and grass, she attempted to escape the lethal steel thorns launched by the Wranglers.

Soldiers and cadets were falling around her, and there was no time to halt and assist them. The team leader had inadvertently entered Wrangler territory, prompting a swift defensive response with projectile steel thorns raining down upon them.

Surrounded by the falling bodies of soldiers and cadets, some lifeless and others on the brink of death, Mya pressed onward, grabbing those who had fallen and propelling them forward. There was no room for anything else; her own survival depended on it. The team leader, whose foolishness had led them into a Wrangler nest, would face her wrath when she got her hands on him. The idiot's actions had triggered a rapid defensive response, with projectile steel thorns raining down upon them.

The steel thorns resembled targeted bullets across the fields, aimed at the fleeing bodies.

With increased determination to escape the danger, Mya sensed a steel thorn whizzing perilously close, narrowly avoiding her. Horrified, she witnessed another soldier being impaled by a thorn, the woman's lifeless body crashing to the ground. With no hope of survival for the fallen comrade, Mya had to keep running, leaving the blood to spill onto the earth.

"Mya!" Jasmine's voice pierced through the chaos in search of her. "Don't go left! There's more there!"

Mya's feet threatened to entangle with each other as she fought to maintain momentum amidst the chaos of the battlefield, veering to the right. The cries of the wranglers resonated in her ears, and the sight of the agonized soldiers ahead nearly overwhelmed her. The hive's numerical advantage loomed large, and the inevitability of being overrun haunted them.

Warnings about these creatures had been issued, one of many threats in this hostile terrain, but it was too late. The wranglers, detecting their presence, unleashed a relentless assault. The Queen led the horde in a savage attack, leaving the soldiers desperately scrambling for survival.

Dodging another branch, Mya stumbled and found herself in a muddy clearing, desperately scanning for any sign of Jasmine. Orienting herself toward the distant sound of Jasmine's voice, she pushed her battered and bloodied body in that direction, determined to find her amidst the chaotic battleground.

Finally breaking into another clearing, Mya spotted Jasmine. She quickly turned against one of the larger trees to shield her body and decided to veer east towards Jasmine. However, the purple-haired soldier had been running in her direction, and the two women collided into one another.

Bleeding, dirtied, and stained with the black blood of wranglers on their attire, the two women regrouped. As the creatures closed in with their high-pitched squeals, Mya and Jasmine ran for their lives, desperate to escape the relentless pursuit of the hive.

"This isn't good!" Jasmine's desperation was palpable, each breath labored. 

"We have to keep moving," Mya urged, her voice strained with the effort of running. "We can outrun them. Once we're out of their territory, they'll return to their Queen."

The trees felt like whips and daggers against their skin, yet they persisted, running and dodging the low-hanging branches, seeking a break in the darkness of this ordeal.

The dense forest continued its relentless assault, feeling like an endless barrage of whips and daggers against their skin. Then, a clearing emerged ahead of them. Spotting a few soldiers and cadets provided a momentary sense of relief, but in the next instant, those individuals screamed and fled back toward Mya and Jasmine.

Jasmine slowed down, causing Mya to collide with her back. "What's happening?" Jasmine asked, her voice filled with confusion and concern.

Suddenly, a high-pitched, squeaking noise startled them. Critters appeared out of nowhere, quickly surrounding the girls and ambushing them. They came to a halt, their breaths ragged and filled with terror, mirroring the soldiers and cadets who had joined them. Together, they braced themselves to confront the tiny but fierce combatant death critters that threatened to tear them apart.

"If it's not wranglers, it's these damn hacker-jacks," Jasmine groaned. "What do we do?"

One of the soldiers spoke up in a tiny voice, filled with terror, "We can't run!"

"You don't need me to answer that," Mya said, her voice shaking.

Jasmine shook her head, turning to the soldier, and imparted the one crucial instruction, "Just don't die."

***** *****

The snow continued to pour down relentlessly, enveloping them in an endless white world of nothingness amidst the blizzard. Matthew took down another youma with his sword forcing its darkened blood to splatter against the pristine white. Toni stood nearby, arms crossed, seemingly unaffected by the chaos, and he enjoyed the snow as it slicked his raven hair to his face.

"So, Jesse tells you that Eko doesn't have any money, and what? You just hand over one of your cards you kept back home and let her go shopping?" Toni teased, a playful grin on his face, allowing the wet snow to seep into his skin.

"You're making it sound way more ..look.. it was nothing. So what?" Matthew said, coming to a standstill and rolling his head to face the grinning bastard he called his best friend.

"You like her?" Toni cocked his head to the side, trying to gauge Matthew's reaction, eliciting laughter from Richie beside him as their best friend chose to ignore their antics.

"There is no way I would give the girl I was sleeping with access to unlimited funds to buy a dress for the ceremony unless I was into her," Richie chimed in, nodding in agreement with Toni.

The snowflakes continued to accumulate on their bodies, splashing against their eyelashes and eyebrows, only to be streaked away by more falling snowflakes.

"There's a limit, relax," Matthew rolled his eyes. "Besides, we're just friends who occasionally have sex. Like everyone else."

"Friends don't act the way you both do," Richie scoffed. "Or texting non-stop. Seriously, you're glued to your device."

"Why are you guys dissecting my personal life?" Matthew turned briefly, sword in hand, to look at his two best friends, who still stood smirking at him through the heavy snowfall. "Can you go assist the cadets with their exams? That is what we are here for."

"They know where we are," Richie said, motioning with his hand. "The point is not to interfere."

Matthew rolled his eyes and exhaled, intending to walk away before his friends started up again. Unfortunately, their words sent his thoughts spiraling into chaos, which was the last thing he wanted.

"You don't see it, do you?" Toni asked, his gaze fixed on Matthew. Steel eyes scrunched his eyebrows together, questioning his best friend about what the hell he was on about.

"See what?"

"The way she looks at you, and the way you look at her," Toni explained. 

Matthew scoffed. "They all do this to keep their minds off what really is happening. We don't have seasons here; we have war and not war."

"I get that," Toni said, taking a step forward. "But you don't see it. She has the same look as you do."

Matthew scrunched his face in confusion and turned to Richie for an explanation. "I'm genuinely curious about what the love expert is trying to tell you," he quipped.

"What the fuck are you actually trying to say here?" Matthew snapped, his irritation growing.

"You look at her how she does at you," Toni attempted to convey his point once more, "you two idiots look at each other as if you are realizing that you were... well, you were everything you ever wanted."

Matthew's mouth was ajar before he scoffed, moving from his rigid state as he began pacing, taken aback by the audacity of Toni's words. "This isn't Disney, mate."

Richie howled in laughter, breaking the serious atmosphere. "I have to agree with old mate here," he said, trying to stop the tears from his outbreak. "Though. You are in love with her."

Snapping, Matthew turned on the traitor that Richie was now to him. "You are both fuckin' delusional. Absolutely-"

But Richie had more to say, "-then she's free to date?" After all, he was well-versed in the drama and gossip back home, having found out some information that he knew was going to turn things on their head.

Toni had specifically warned him not to do it.

"Because Luke's going to ask her to the ceremony," Richie provoked.

There was a momentary lapse of silence before Matthew gathered himself, as though his system had taken a stumble upon that piece of news. "Fine," he muttered before he began to pace. "We're friends, and she can do what she wants. If she wants to... date... other idiot men," the sneer was colder, "she is free to do just fuckin' that."

"Why are you annoyed then?" Toni pressed at his reaction. "You're swearing and pacing."

Matthew stopped, realizing he had been pacing without awareness. "We're friends," he deadpanned to his best friends.

But Toni wasn't convinced. "A friend you like, like," he smirked. "Besides, I didn't think you were the type to lose your sanity over a girl."

"I didn't fucking' either," and thankfully, with the howl of the two men and Matthew flipping them off, as he muttered away, an alert came from their communications, and the conversation was halted.

Three heads pulled towards their devices, dissecting the information.

"It looks like the Zulu team is facing some issues," Richie laughed, not entirely phased by what he was reading on the reports coming in. "You would think something so easy would be fine to manage."

"Let's go," Matthew ordered towards the aircraft. "The site is barely a five-minute flight from us. Toni, let Xerri know we're leaving."

Nodding, Toni relayed those instructions on his comms, and the men headed towards the smaller carrier.