The two officers reached them quickly, boots crunching over broken glass and spent casings.
The older man—the colonel—looked them over with a flicker of surprise on his weathered face.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said. "Didn't expect to find a bunch of kids still standing in the middle of that mess."
He glanced at their gear, their bloodied clothes, the exhaustion in their eyes. "Judging by your age and the direction you came from… you students from Starlight State University?"
"Yes, sir," Ethan replied with a nod.
The colonel gave a low whistle. "Impressive. Didn't think any of you would've made it out of there, let alone with this kind of strength."
Then his brow furrowed. "But how'd you end up surrounded like that? That wasn't just a random horde."
