"There!" I panted, out of breath.

Lor shoved aside a curtain of dead vines covering the rock face, revealing a small cave behind.

She was carrying a limp razkur in her arms and a male Zhaguai slumped over her shoulder while I carried First Thunder hobbling against my shoulder.

My hands and ears were trembling. Adrenaline could no longer override my exhaustion.

"Are you sure we weren't followed?" Lor gently lowered her barely living cargo onto a dry stone slab protruding from the wall.

"No," I helped First Thunder take a seat on a flat rock.

"We heard nothing for miles," First Thunder straightened his wounded leg and winced as he sat down. "But that doesn't mean they weren't watching."

Lor let out a long breath. We were helpless, and only five of us remained.

"Here," I handed her the canteen clipped to the utility belt slung over my chest. "Drink."

She shook her head but gave in when I shoved it at her.

The cold moist cave was littered with murky pools of water and babbled with soft ambient random drips echoing from the darkness further within.

I stripped out of my torn lab coat and ripped the fabric into long, thick ribbons.

"Let me see your leg," I crouched next to First Thunder and began bandaging the open wound on his thigh.

I could feel Lor's eyes burning into my exposed skin showing below my black t-shirt sleeves.

She noticed...

My throat felt dry, and I wanted to vomit.

Of course, she noticed! You do a shit job of hiding it!

Just before that corrupted Zhaguai started eviscerating our last surviving crew members, Lor spotted the one compulsion I've never been able to escape.

They're all dead...

I took a breath to steady my hands.

Lor managed to deliver a mortal blow to the corrupted Zhaguai, but not until after he slaughtered nearly everyone and we didn't stick around to confirm that he was dead or if any of the bodies were free from infection.

We only had time to gather the living along with a few lightweight items before going on the run.

"We might be infected," First Thunder was the only one of the injured three who was still conscious.

"Your personal shields are intact," Lor assured him.

But none of us were confident that the flimsy devices were safe to trust.

"We're close to the shuttle," I finished tying off my last knot, then slid on a razkur-sized helmet to confirm our position on the virtual map. "We might see it if we climb the wall of the cave entrance."

"Here," Lor passed out rations. "Rest, eat. I will scout the terrain ahead."

I was too tired to argue for her safety.

This is the horror that the citizens of Thorngate endured for a thousand years...

Or maybe this was only a fraction.

I was born to a family of engineers and physicists, but the mystery of Thorngate and Menthla's past drew me underground. As a youngling, I was raised on tales of my most renowned ancestor, a prodigy electrical engineer who had her career cut short by the tragedy of Thorngate. It was the catalyst for my passion and the root of my foolish belief that knowledge of the past might better inform us of the path ahead.

Click, click, click.

I balled up my fist when I realized I was unconsciously flicking my claws.

I wish I knew how to stop this...

"The shuttle appears to be intact," Lor reentered the cave.

"But?" I spoke up and shoved my anxious hands behind my back.

"Minions," Lor sat down with a groan. "Large-plated worms swirling and eating through the rocks between us and the shuttle. And there are more of those toxic bog pockets we encountered before."

"How much protective gear do we have?" First Thunder glanced at our meager pile of gear on the floor.

"Not enough helmets for us all," Lor sifted and took inventory of what little remaining gear we had available.

My hand stung.

The bandage covering my palm where Lor bit me was coming loose.

I'm lucky that's the only damage she did...

I tore off a section of my shirt and re-wrapped the piercing marks leftover by her fangs.

It was peculiar, the way she squirmed up against me and instantly settled in my arms after I nipped her to be quiet.

I had no idea that much muscle could relax all at once.

And her forked tongue... and those quills when they snaked around my hand...

I stared at Lor's mouth and mane as she spoke to First Thunder. Beyond those rows of fangs, the supple pink interior was soft and warm.

Is it strange that I wanted to take my time and explore?

"We can fashion a few more weapons from the scraps," Lor began separating our gear into piles. "There's enough armor here to cover two and a half razkurs."

Or one and a half Zhaguai...

"We should travel together, if possible," Lor miraculously abandoned her survival of the fittest directive. "If the shuttle can fly or even get us into orbit, we will need to take the opportunity if it's available."

"If it comes down to a choice between us and attaching the booster," First Thunder made his voice heard.

"You can't possibly expect us to–" I chimed in.

"We discussed this while the two of you were out in the valley. The decision was unanimous," First Thunder cut me off, then turned to Lor. "As you stated, Primary, our priority is getting a signal to Sahei."

I clenched my teeth, knowing damn well he was right.

Lor and I stayed up making weapons and kept our helmets on to make as little noise as possible while we let First Thunder and the others sleep.

"You handled yourself well with a spear," Lor spoke through our helmets' closed network while her hands persisted in working diligently.

Oh yeah... when the corrupted started hacking into people, I foolishly jabbed that thing with the nearest weapon available and tried to lure it away from the others.

"I imagine you've faced down many dangerous creatures during your archaeological expeditions in the Menthla's underground," Lor continued.

"Never intentionally," my ears dipped. "Occasionally, violence was necessary to protect my colleagues."

"Clearly, it was a sufficient amount of times that your first reflex was to position yourself between the danger and those in your care. You even put its backside to me and gave my blades an opening."

"Was that luck or intentional?" She added without turning to me.

"I don't know," the gory scene replayed behind my eyes. "It happened so fast. I can picture your pike, kinda, but my focus was on all the blood staining its claws."

"It's the culminating moment all Zhaguai train a lifetime to attain. We seek it out in every battle," Lor sat up straight and paused her hands. "That sacred juncture when we are overwhelmed and our fates are decided by a fraction of a second. Only when we prevail do we prove that we are worthy."

"I don't feel worthy."

"That moment has passed," Lor angled her head at me. "Right now, you are alive and ready to challenge death another day."

"You'd be surprised how often history repeats itself," I let out a morbid chuckle.

Lor's face popped up on a small window in my viewscreen. Her brilliant pink eyes stared into mine. "Who did you lose?"

"There was a radiation breach," I confessed. "Everyone died except me."

"Back then, I used to sing with the teams under my command all the time," my eyes stung and I wanted to blame it on exhaustion. "I was too friendly and naïve... and it cost my friends their lives. According to several of the female medical staff responsible for treating me afterward, I was a very lucky, clever male. As I was only exposed to a mild dose of radiation."

I looked down at my white claws. "Their deaths and that poison are forever on my hands."

"When I worked for the Institute," Lor shared her darkest memory. "I lost an entire Corsair squadron shortly after I gained the rank of Forged."

I listened carefully.

"We were infiltrating a human compound to seize a prototype wormhole drive," she explained. "The technology was beyond them and all our simulations had them on track for causing a solar catastrophe. We succeeded in our mission, but I only cut down their commander a few seconds after he initiated the compound to self-destruct. An Institute Warden Unit found my body, and I spent a month in a stasis recovery pod."

"My wounds healed," Lor touched the exposed center of her chest. "But the scent of burnt flesh lingers in every breath."

"Where are we?" One of our injured comrades woke up in a startle.

"Gentle now," I hurried to the groggy male Zhaguai.

"I can't feel my legs," the Zhaguai struggled to sit up.

His name was Guzu. He was a member of the second-shift survey team and had suffered severe spinal damage.

"We know," Lor spoke softly to keep him calm. "You're not infected, but you were injured. We're working on getting you to a safer location and medical equipment."

"Where's Nissia?" The other razkur opened her eyes.

"I'm sorry," I knelt beside her. The razkur's name was Twisted Pebble. She was a pilot. "We're all that's left."

"But I heard her," Twisted Pebble insisted.

"Perhaps an echo," Lor pointed to the dark hole on the opposite side of the cave.

"Can't you hear her?" Twisted Pebble turned to me. "I think she needs help."

Lor stroked the razkur's shoulder and encouraged her to lay back down.

I knew it was pointless, but I humored her claim and walked around the cave with my ears up.

There was a sound!

Soft and irregular, like a cricket but long like a murmur.

Without saying a word, I swished my ears sharply and stared at the dark hole filling the far end of the cave.

Lor recognized the cautionary signal.

She hushed the others and quietly woke First Thunder.

"It's getting closer," I whispered to Lor through our closed helmet network. "I can't make out the shape, but it's much more than one."

Lor began gathering our gear and a harness we constructed to carry the injured better.

First Thunder grabbed Lor's arm when she approached to strap him into the harness.

He shook his head and glanced at our injured comrades.

The other two nodded.

"Go," First Thunder whispered as he opened the emergency flap on his gauntlet. "We will take as many of them with us as possible."

I hated everything about this, but from the incoming sound, we were about to be overrun. It was impossible for all five of us to make the precarious trek to the shuttle.

First Thunder unlatched his few remaining intact pieces of gear and tossed them to me.

My throat tightened, but I put on the armor.

Lor gathered the rest of the vital equipment, then we bid our companions farewell one last time.

"There's a passageway this way," I led Lor to the left when we exited the cave.

According to Lor's scan, there were fewer bog pockets along this route but more plated worms. We had no means to combat the toxic air, but I was willing to place my trust in Lor and her ability to kill the monsters in our path.

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