We tumbled to the side. Her strong frame easily moved me out of the way. The oxygen escaped my left my lungs in rough grasp. We slammed into the ground hard, rolling out of danger.

Insight flashed again. I grabbed onto Mira and rolled with all of my might. We slipped off the platform and down onto the rails. I landed on my back. The full weight of both of us crushed my spine into the rail hard enough to bruise.

The drop in elevation gave us just enough time to recover from the ambush. Mira rolled off of me and jumped to her feet, unloading a mag in the general direction of our attacker. The bright flashes and sounds played havoc on my head.

I bolted to my feet alongside her. My light flicked to our attacker. A creature stood at the edge of the platform, glaring down at us with a repulsive hunger. It looked human- er, it looked like it had been human at some point. Its body looked heavily warped by HMV. Such a thing was incredibly rare. It was called Human Mutation Virus after all. Ghouls

Ghouls were the victims of the incurable AGD, or the Aetherial Ghoulification Disease. They typically had invulnerability to other viruses and diseases. If, by some serious misfortune, a ghoul caught HMV shortly before AGD, both would kick into effect creating such a monstrosity.

It had several limbs like a spider. Its four original human ones hung slightly shorter than four additional bony protrusions. Its body was hunched back due to the shortness of its human limbs. Its mandibles, as if it wasn't creepy enough, clacked together sharply.

Aetherial Perception triggered. The monster had a halo of corruptive influence about its head. It was a nauseating mess to look at. I shut the Perk off almost instantly, obscuring the stomach churning halo. If I stared at it any longer, I might keel over.

I didn't hesitate to follow in Mira's footsteps and aimed my shotgun. I locked onto the spider creature the best I could and squeezed the trigger. My spread was all over the place, and the kick hit me like a sledgehammer. The shot had good impact though, catching the monster by surprise.

The creature easily scurried behind the abandoned train, leaking a trail of rotten blood. Its legs allowed it to move fast- faster than a creature its size had a right to. For the most part, it looked unharmed too. It was a glancing blow. And it looked like Mira didn't do any particular damage to it. Must have some thick skin.

"Backing." I double tapped Mira on the shoulder and backed up. I kept my gun levered at the subway train and put up distance. We had the range advantage here, so it'd be best we used it. Mira thought in a similar process to me, and we both moved back as she reloaded.

Mira cracked a glow stick and tossed it at the train. The dim glow gave us a far better visual of the monster's hiding place. She spoke, practically screaming, several times louder than normal. Her voice bounced around the subway tunnel even through the mask. "Shit! Just your luck to run into a variant ghoul."

"You're blaming me for this?" I asked in faux outrage, catching onto her plan immediately. I likewise lifted my voice. I popped open the breach, my hands shaking slightly. An empty shell hit the floor. I missed the hole a few times before I managed to get a shell in and reloaded.

Ghouls were nothing more than instinctual hunters, with variants sometimes being a bit smarter. Such a low intelligence level made engineering its psyche, if I could even call it that, incredibly easy.

"Who else would I blame?" Mira stomped her foot and turned towards me. Her gun moved loosely in my direction. She was careful not to point right at me though.

At that moment, seeing our 'fight', the ghoul burst out from the train. It threw itself at us with all four of its spider legs. Jumping in combat was generally a poor idea. There wasn't any capability of dodging. I squeezed the trigger once more. Mira followed a beat later.

The variant moved its spider limbs, using them like ballistic shielding. It somewhat succeeded, bullets and shotgun spray plinking off. At least, some of them. The rest obliterated its limbs, sending it sprawling to the ground in a spray of rotten blood,

The ghoul struggled to desperately crawl away with its last arm. It didn't get far. Mira popped the rest of her mag into the beast's head. It's brains blew out with a spray of rotten grey. The tension faded from my body just as the last of the monsters life faded.

"You okay?" Mira panned the area with her SMG, watching for other threats.

I finished my reload and pressed a hand against my back. Yep, that'd leave a mark. A short lived one as soon as I got some sleep. "A bit bruised… you?"

"Nova." Mira dropped her mag while I kept watch and quickly threw another one in.

"Listen… that stuff about my luck… it was all part of the act, right?" Seriously, I'd been wondering recently. I seemed to be on a whole other level.

Mira's eyes shifted side to side from behind the mask. The flashlights caught them just right. "'Course! All- all just the act!"

"Chek… chek. I have good luck. Just- just sometimes it doesn't go well." Like with elevators recently. And stairs. And… actually, this was a dangerous line of thought.

We waited for several minutes to see if anything else would come running at the sounds. Nothing did. We cautiously moved back toward the platform and then to the train itself. Since it was flipped over sideways, there were enough hands and footholds to easily get up onto the ruined vehicle.

The top, or the side where the door had been, had a massive hole in it. I didn't even need to see into it to know it was the variant's nest. The stench was enough. I was almost knocked off the top by its overwhelming strength.

I flashed my light down into the hole. It was filled with a mess of gore, half-rotten bodies, and blood splattered everywhere. Bones sat like the scattered twigs of a bird's nest. Bits of cement and metal wrapped around the windows as if to further reinforce the train's defense.

Mira gagged and backed up several steps. "That's- hells, that's disturbing… man am I glad these things mostly filter out scents."

Oh- right… kinda forgot I had one on. It was way stronger than I thought then. I took a step closer and crouched at the edge of the opening. Most of the recent corpses looked like they were Scavs. The scrap armor proved ultimately useless for their survival. Good riddance.

Buried underneath the mounds, though, I spotted destroyed body armor. Not the shit stuff that the Scav's used though. More like- "Look like FSA armor to you?"

Mira shot me a look with her nose curled. There was a look of pure disdain in her eyes. She slowly kept forward and peeked in. "L-looks like. No way I'm going to check. I-I'll keep watch?"

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"Can't even handle a bit of gore?" Coward. I looked around a bit more, making sure there wasn't something lurking there. It looked clear. I jumped down, feet squelching against a rotten pile of clothes.

Mira popped up over the top of the hatch, hesitations completely forgotten. Her light flashed through the space. "You alright?! I can't believe you just jumped down there, psycho!"

"Chek!" Ugh- the smell. It was so much worse down here. And much more disturbing. I ignored the sights and smells and checked the armored corpses. There, almost lost in the mess, glinted an FSA dog tag. I moved around the rest of the nest, collecting nine other tags. "Looks like I found one!"

"Damn… what a shit way to go. Anything Salvagable?" Mira's voiced echoed through the train.

I glanced around, but most of the gear had long been ripped to shreds. It looked like the variant wasn't a fan. Especially the guns. They were ripped to shreds… I could probably find some ammo down here, but I wasn't desperate enough to dig through the muck. I stretched my hands up. "Nothing. Help me up."

She hefted me past the ledge like I was nothing more than a feather. "Dang, girl. You should eat some more."

"Hasn't exactly been on my to do list." I checked the name on the tag. Not little Eddie, but definitely one from our list. I offered it to her. "Just have a hundred and ninety-nine left."

Mira sighed and tucked the dog tag into her pack. "At least we know we're in the right area."

— — —

We took a short bake to reload and rearm. It'd already been several hours since we popped down here. We'd have to turn back soon if we wanted to back it back before dawn. It was past midnight already. Neither one of us particularly wanted to sleep down here, so we pressed on down the tunnel.

I checked the map. Unfortunately, we passed our mark by without a further hint of the military's presence. The best hint so far was that variant ghoul nest. Maybe we could find a work around to get back to Talus Tower?

The subway tunnel had collapsed into a tight cave at some point, plunging down toward the depths of the planet. In the distance, I could finally make out water lapping. How weird.

Mira stopped me from moving onward. "I think we passed it back to the platform."

I checked the Mapp one more time. "Maybe we can get up into the old metro from there?"

"Right." We walked back for a time in silence. "Think we'll actually find them?"

I stayed silent, really giving it some thought. Originally, I didn't think we'd find any of them. Now though? We'd already found one. Realistically, the other hundred and ninety-nine were around here somewhere. "At least the remnants."

"What do you think happened?" Mira bounced ahead stiffly. It looked like she was trying to have her usual pep, but was too guarded to fully pull it off.

"Who knows? Conspiracy, maybe. I don't know though… too many moving parts. It'd have to be quite a big group to pull off." Then again, it was common sense that more moving parts directly correlated to difficulty to hide. Though, I guess, it didn't stay hidden. Granny Smith was one of those moving parts that moved just out of line.

Mira glanced at me over her shoulder. "Have to admit; conspiracy makes sense. I mean, it's not everyday two hundred soldiers disappear."

There were just so many other reasons. It'd be foolish to limit ourselves… then again, usually the easiest solution was the correct solution. "Maybe."

She coldly tsked at me and rolled her eyes. "We were getting chased around above ground, so obviously something is going on."

My shoulders rose into a shrug. "I guess. Still, it could be some other group than Fedra."

There were all kinds of groups out there in the world aside from gangs and corporations. All sorts of weirdo and wackos. There were even a ton of bio-terrorists, which was weird considering the surrounding desert. Could literally be anyone behind this.

"I guess." Mira sighed. "Still, Fedra makes the most sense…"

We returned to silence for a time. Mira jumped up onto the subway platform when we arrived and dropped a hand down to me. With unbelievable ease, she plucked me off the ground like a pet and hefted me up onto the platform.

"Stop." I called after a few steps. Insight gave me a pulse that something was wrong. The platform itself had three of the exits leading to cave ins. One path, though, one path leads further up into the old metro system. It was likewise where I focused.

"What is it?" Mira stepped right behind me, looking over my shoulder.

I moved forward a bit more and crouched down to get a better view. My glow stick illuminated the area well enough to make them out. "Prints… fresh. Very fresh."

Mira's clothes rustled slightly and she brought her gun back to attention. She backed up to the edge of the platform and set up a firing position. "Someone else down here? Chances it's that group?"

I followed after her. "Without us noticing? No chance."

She snorted, shaking her head. "Coulda. Pa always says pride before the fall."

"I remember." There's no way we were followed all the way down here though. "Tracks don't line up. Came from further in the metro, not behind."

"Drawn by the variant fight?" Mira visibly loosened up, though her grip tightened around her SMG. "Guarded?"

"Maybe. Went back the way they came." I nodded to the tracks. I stepped back and passed her my glowstick. "I'll check ahead."

Her eyebrows knit into a frown underneath her mask. "Ambush? Look at those tracks. Looks like a large group, and I'll be too far back to do anything."

"Like you could do anything if a Fedra Death Squad set up an ambush? Better I go then both of us. Might be able to sneak by." Besides, I had a higher chance to get out. Not to mention Quick Healing should anything go wrong.

"So now you admit it's Fedra?!" Mira sighed deeply. She rested her hand on my shoulder, making me feel quite… well, quite small. When did she get so- so tall? Had I just not grown? "L-look- just be careful, kay?

I eyed her hand, resisting the urge to shake of the mark of my shame. "No problem, mikata. Stealth is my middle name."

Damnnit! Why do I keep defaulting to calling stuff my middle name? Surely there was something cooler I could say? I just sound dumb defaulting like this all the time. Ugh-

"Right, right. I'll hang back here. Come running if something goes wrong." She chuckled, though it sounded far more force than usual.

"Chek." I nodded to her one last time and then ascended the staircase into the old metro itself. I was careful to avoid making any traces.

The old metro opened out into a rather long hallway with dozens of abandoned shops lining it. Ancient dust and debris covered the majority of the shopfronts. Except for the group, no one had been through here in a long time. It was odd- almost like looking into a massive time capsule. The tracks lead down the middle of the path, further into the depths of the metro.

Insight sent me a warning. I darted forward and ducked into a shopfront. Up ahead, just past some turnstiles, stood a group of people on guard around the entrance of a larger cave. Seven of them, to be precise. Likewise, all looked heavily armed with uniform outfits. Maybe they were part of some larger group?

I ducked down further into the shadows when one of them turned my way. No way was I going to reveal myself to them. Not only because of the usual shoot-first mentality of the group, but also their vibe. The posture and uniformity suggested men beyond a local gang.

No, their equipment and obvious training? It suggested something a bit higher up then just a gang, but not quite an elite team of operatives. Maybe a corporate security team or some other paramilitary group like- well, like Fedra… Maybe Mira and Uncle Ezra were right after all.

I watched them for a bit longer to make sure I had all the details. I slunk back into the darkness and silently made my way back to the subway platform. Mira paced back and forth just at the entrance. "Back."

Mira froze up for a moment, her shoulders sagging in relief. Just as quickly, she straightened back out. "So?"

I related what I saw to her, including my suspicions about the group. I didn't get a particularly friendly vibe from them. Approaching would like wind up with one of receiving a bullet.

"So, let me get this straight. They're probably hostile, and the odds are vastly out of our favor." She rubbed a hand across her eyes- or, at least, she tried to. Her mask blocked the motion. "Can we… sneak by?"

I looked at her like she was insane. "I might be able to get close, but definitely not you. Regardless, though, they stood at the entrance. I'd get spotted."

We both went silent for a long moment, trying to come up with ideas on how to proceed. "Do we just… just ghost?"

Mira shook her head. "Not now. Not when we're so close…. Sides that groups likely guarding this area. Even if we tried later, they might still be here. And we don't have enough evidence of foul play. Pa won't be able to make his move."

Ugh- I really, really didn't want to admit it. The odds of this whole thing being a conspiracy were going through the roof. 'Course, there was the chance, however minor, that they were just a group traveling through the area.

She was right, though. There was a far higher likelihood that they were guarding this section of the Underground. Otherwise, why would they stick around the area for hours after the variant fight? They had ample opportunity to move on.

Mira quit pacing and looked over at me. "Should we… ambush them?"

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