The hurdle
In the middle layer, three figures covered by the thick fog could be seen fighting for their lives. The moment the trio entered the middle layer, the undead crowded in from all sides, as if attracted by their scent. Already injured from the previous explosion, the trio suffered scratches here and there from zombies that managed to slip past their formation.
"Watch out!" Maya shouted, spotting a zombie that had leapt from behind Alex. Her three arrows were already busy taking down different targets.
Seeing this, Connor, immediately used his hand to defend against a bite from a zombie pushing through the pain, he swooped in between Alex and the lunging undead, immediately chopping off its head. It was a close call. Unfortunately, Maya's shout had alerted a searching Hetram unit, who were now charging toward the source of the voice. The trio remained unaware of this as they fought off the zombies, desperately trying to find a safe place to hide within the facility.
"Alex, Connor, can you sense it?" Maya asked.
Connor turned to look at her and nodded, but that moment of distraction cost him a deep scratch across the chest.
Maya continued, "This isn't a normal rend."
"But how can an E-rank rend be unstable?" said Alex, retreating to support Maya's flank.
"That's what I'm confused about, too."
"Whether it's unstable or not, it doesn't change the fact that we'll die at the hands of either the zombies or the Hetrams," Connor said, stepping closer to them after dispatching a nearby threat.
Just as they were discussing their next course of action, a series of sharp gunshots rang out. Judging from how loud the gunshots where, the trio knew the Hetrams where quite close and if not for the fog they will be able to see each other. This caused them to be on high alert.
"Maya, the Hetrams seem to have us surrounded! What should we do?" Alex urged, panic written all over his face.
Hearing that, Maya took a deep breath in defeat. "Protect me," she said.
In that moment, her pupils turned a golden sheen before disappearing entirely. Her eyes rolled back into her head as blood began to trickle from her nose, eyes, and ears. Her body went limp, but Connor caught her before she could hit the ground. They could barely fend off the horde as it was; now, with Maya down and Connor carrying her, their situation turned from bad to worse. Alex looked around frantically for cover, trying to make as little noise as possible to avoid attracting the Hetram guards. He spotted a broken-down brick building, large enough to hold the three of them yet narrow enough to allow only one zombie inside at a time.
Alex rushed toward it, with Connor moving in tow while carrying Maya.
In the broken building Connor placed Maya on the ground and started to dress the horrifying bite wound on his hand. Alex stood at the narrow entrance to kill any undead that passed through the gap.
................................................
The moment Maya activated her unique talent she found her consciousness being yanked out of her body into a vast, silent expanse of shimmering light orbs. It was a space where the shackles of time seemed non-existent. Countless possibilities of the past and future stretched out in every direction all around her. She reached out mentally searching for a thread of survival. Suddenly, a specific sequence of images crystalized before her. She saw a blurred image of a group of people entering a facility which was the very facility they trio was currently in. She watched mesmerized as the figures reached a particular warehouse. The scene fast forwarded to the group surrounding a man in military uniform, keying in a series of digits into a terminal, 7...4...8, she had managed to capture the final sequence when a violent time storm tore through the vision. The space around her cracked, the shimmering begun to swell, as her consciousness was swept in a vortex.
Back in the physical world, dead zombies were piled up thickly against the entrance of the brick building. Inside, Alex sat close by while Connor finished tending to his own wounds. As the two boys kept watch over the quiet space, they noticed a sudden shift in movement and immediately rushed over to where Maya lay.
She slowly opened her eyes, her face smudged with dry patches of blood. In a weak, trembling voice, she whispered, "Our chance of escape... it's in... it's in the core area."
"The core area of the rend?" Alex groaned, shaking his head. "We can barely fend for ourselves in the middle layer. If it were just the zombies, it'd be fine, but the Hetrams are hunting us too."
Maya shook her head weakly, cutting him off. "We're not going to fight the horde or the Hetrams. There's a warehouse at the periphery of the core area. We can make it."
The trio decided to rest a bit, at least until some colour returned to Maya's face. After resting for an hour, they packed their selves to leave the hideout. But the hour rest was not wasted, they used that time to device a plan. The building they where currently in was the living quarters and from the vision Maya saw, to move from here to the warehouse they had to pass through the facility open square. Fortunately, due to the fog, unless someone was within five meters of you they won't see and that distance will keep shrinking as you go further. The trio moved at slow pace moving through the square to engage as little zombies as possible. Alas, things do not always go as planned. When they reached the centre of the square, they appeared in the field of vision of the a Hetram guard. The guard immediately shouted, "found them", at the same time shooting at them, Alex activated his skill successively, this released a continuous shockwave burst, that slowed down the bullets. "RUN!!", Alex warned. The trio bolted, "To the left, hurry", Maya urged while being piggy backed by Connor.
Due to the guard's alarm and Alex's shout the surrounding guards where able to pinpoint their actual general location and begun spraying bullets in that direction. Alex was able to able to slow them down to reduce the impact, but the hits were painful, nevertheless.
enduring the onslaught for three more minutes, they realised that the fog around them had intensified, the stench of decay was unbearable, a sign they have reached the core.
. We've reached the core area. We have to be careful," Alex warned. "Maya, in which direction is the warehouse?"
"The warehouse is on the left when you exit the square," Maya replied, gesturing in its general direction.
They moved slowly and cautiously, making as little noise as possible whenever they engaged the zombies in their path. As they progressed, the occasional crack of gunfire echoed in the distance, a reminder that the Hetrams were still hunting them.
Finally, a shadow emerged from the gloom. Though barely discernible, its towering frame matched the structure of a warehouse. Throwing all caution to the wind, Alex sprinted forward and blasted the main entrance with a powerful shockwave.
"Go!" he urged.
The trio rushed inside. Maya slid down from Connor's back and hurried toward a section of the interior wall, frantically tapping against the surface as if searching for a hidden mechanism. Her hand struck a subtle depression, triggering a low, mechanical creak.
The floor in the centre of the warehouse shuddered, and a concealed terminal rose from the concrete. The trio gathered around it as Maya's fingers flew across the keypad, entering the complex passcode from her vision.
With a pressurized hiss, the terminal descended back into the floor, leaving behind a circular opening reminiscent of a manhole. A metal ladder was welded to the side of the shaft. One by one, they climbed down, and the moment their feet touched the ground, the hatch sealed shut above them.
Connor reached into his tactical bag, pulled out a flashlight, and clicked it on. The beam illuminated their surrounding, revealing a narrow underground passage. The air was thick, heavy, and damp with humidity. A thick carpet of moss clung to the walls.
They tunnel felt endless as they had been walking forward for a while. With no landmarks to gauge their progress, time lost all meaning, though it felt as if they had been walking for nearly an hour.
Eventually, the beam from Connor's light hit a massive barrier hidden under layers of overgrown roots and grime, sealing the passage like a dead end. Alex stepped forward, pressed his palms against the surface, and released a low-frequency shockwave. The subtle yet intense vibration rippled through the barrier, causing sheets of thick moss and centuries of built-up dirt to shake loose, falling away in wet clumps to reveal a heavy, reinforced metal vault door.
Maya and Connor moved closer to inspect the mechanism. After a few moments of silent examination, Connor spoke up.
"I can unlock it," he stated.
"You can?" Alex asked, his voice laced with doubt as he stared at the rusted, reinforced slabs of metal.
Maya shot Alex a stern look. "Connor's skill is Master Key, remember? He has a high success rate with any lock, whether it's electrical or mechanical." Because Connor's skill was non-combat and supportive, they had almost overlooked its utility..
Connor stepped up to the mechanism, pulling a specialized set of tools from the bag strapped to his waist. He placed his hands against the cold metal and activated his skill. Maya and Alex waited in tense silence for ten full minutes until a series of sharp clicks echoed through the passage, followed by the screech of grinding metal. The heavy vault door groaned as it slowly parted from the centre.
The trio stepped through the threshold, eager to uncover the secrets hidden inside.