47 Smoldering Embers

"Company? How can-" Zosimus's question was then interrupted. He felt the tremor beneath his feet again.

An unparalleled fear rose within him. The last time a swarm had surrounded him. . .

His knees nearly buckled upon remembering that horrific battle. However, his long time friend Kallisto was on the ground, incapacitated.

Valerio was from the surface, so surely that medicine could get her back up in time to flee, right?

But alas, he was told to get in a defensive formation.

Would this be it? A century or so of suffering and he'd go down under the orders of someone he'd only known for hardly thirty minutes?

'This life. . . it hadn't been worth it in the end, huh?'

Zosimus's internal turmoil was bubbling within him violently, but in the end, there was nothing he could do. He'd either die like a coward, running for his life pathetically, or die trying to protect his comrades.

In his mind, there was no question about it. . .

He made a run for it like a mad man!