Drop Dead

"You have to help me," says Anna, "Ephraim is under attacked!"

Hiroaki stared at Anna for a while, and then he proceeded to walk at a direction where monsters are also looming. It was at this time Anna realized that there are other intruders—other people at another section of the glass pane separating the lab from the jungle.

Hiroaki then started to half-run as Anna trailed behind. He started to shoot the creatures he encounters as he run. Anna passed through them as she ran with Hiroaki. She was getting anxious at every second that passed—but she also knew that there are other people whose lives are at risk at the other end. She wanted to curse herself—she couldn't even allow them access at this distance.

Why did they have to botch her system?

When Hiroaki stopped running, she walked alongside him as they sauntered towards three people—the last of the intruders for today. She walked speedily. She had to make haste. There is no time to lose.

"Hello~ so I granted you all access to the laboratory," Anna smiles at all of them. "My name's Anna and I'm a Hologram. Now that the pleasantries are done, we must save a person from dying inside the laboratory. His name is Ephraim, and I don't know anything else. So let's go!"

**

The first time Ephraim got injured from an archeological dig was one of the fun experiences he ever had. They were supposed to go underneath a cave using ropes. It was past noon and he was scrutinizing every bits and pieces of information he could find. When it was time to go, every student had to climb up using a rope (strangely inconvenient because why can't they use a ladder instead?) . . . but their teacher was Mrs. Cassandra Bodt.

Mrs. Bodt was known to be a professor obsessed with keeping things 'old-fashioned' and 'hard'—and her usual retort to the people who criticize her ways was, "How do you call yourself aspiring archeologists? You lads and lasses tell me you dedicate yourselves in the study of the past yet you couldn't even rely on primitive ways!"

And so the rope instead of the ladder.

Many of Ephraim's classmate grunted in protest at the decision of using a rope to climb up, but they did it nonetheless (some had a hard time, but they managed); when it was Ephraim's turn to climb upwards. And it was harder than he thought.

"You can do it, Raim!" His classmates says from aboveground.

Ephraim wasn't so sure.

And he was right—in the middle of the attempt to climb, his foot slipped from the wall resulting his grip to loosen as his balance completely faltered. He then fell as he heard his classmates and his teacher scream his name. And it was at that time Ephraim realized how dangerous the job would be.

Ephraim wasn't so sure why he kept on remembering things from the past—perhaps it was because he dedicated himself to learning history. He had linked every action he took to the past—and he was doing it again now.

But the odd thing is he couldn't find a way to link such recurring event to anything with historical significance with only factual elements.

Running with his team with a probable broken rib as they get chased by 'monsters' straight out from a science fiction.

How could he link anything else to this? Only he could speculate and come up with his own theory.

"Dammit, I didn't sign up for this!" Samuel cursed. He was holding his wounded arm to stop it from bleeding. Ephraim then turned his head to Esmeralda who was panting as she ran with them.

Ephraim winced as he felt the pain in his rib. He hoped it wasn't broken.

They were running with Anna leading them with Berthold and Hiroaki shooting the monsters to clear their path. The monster earlier was chasing them now and could catch up to them any minute their speed would falter. But almost all of them were now low on stamina.

Anna told them earlier before they ran that they need to follow her because she knows a 'probable' safe path.

"Why is it probable?" Berthold asks, clearly baffled and fascinated as he talked with a Hologram.

"It's because my system doesn't know the specifics of that segment." She says. "The scientists and engineers probably destroyed my memory or removed my chip that stored the data about that part of the lab,"

"How do we know it's safe then?" Samuel asks.

"It's the only part with no monsters," Anna retorted. "I don't think there will be a safer place other than that."

This was why they were in a phase of escaping – killing – and then being chased at the same time. Anna didn't have the option of passing through doors for obvious reasons (because she was leading the task force to a safer route).

"A-are you okay, Leader?" Esmeralda asks through her breathless pants.

"I'm fine," Ephraim tried to tell in a clearer tone, but his voice was now hoarse and he could only mumble because of the pain in his rib.

"Hold on, Ephraim!" Says Berthold. "Once we get there, you'll be tended!"

Ephraim nodded as beads of sweat slowly dripped across his forehead down to his temples.

"We're almost there!" Anna says.

It was at this time Ephraim tried to think of the past. And it was at times like this he understood why he kept thinking of flashbacks—and how they foreshadowed his fate . . . fate, which he did not believe himself. He was thinking about the past to deviate his senses from the pain he was feeling.

He continued to do so for the duration of the escape—

Until he heard his name being spouted and yelled. This felt strangely familiar for him. He was hearing his name being called again. It reminded him of the day he fell so hard he was hospitalized for several days—they called him as he closed his eyes at that time.

". . . Ephraim!"

"Ephraim!"

"EPHRAIM!"

Ephraim slowly opened his eyes. He was down on the floor now with his face on the floor; the faces of his team members a blur to him. The gunshots were also muffled and silent even though supposedly it was actually loud.

"Leader! Leader . . .!"

"Oi, Ephraim! Don't you collapse on us!"

"He's losing consciousness!" Berthold exclaims. Hiroaki then eyed Ephraim for a second, and then pointed his gun at him.

BANG!

Ephraim's eyes widened as he sees the bullet etch on the floor, leaving a mark of its impact centimeters in front of him.

"Wake up," Hiroaki says. "We don't need a weakling who will collapse at the earliest sign of hope."

Ephraim fixes his eyes to Hiroaki, who then shot the creature coming near towards them.

"If you want to sleep," he says. "Then drop dead."