Are You Ready To Try Again?

Zenos sighed.

"Should we continue?"

Killian tried to stand up, but suddenly cringed and fell to his knee.

"Haha. It hurts a little more than I thought."

Damien rubbed his knuckle against his temple.

"Ah right, it's probably going to be hard for you to move with that injury."

Adonis raised an eyebrow.

"So he's just going to sit on his ass the whole time?"

Damien shook his head.

"Chances are, all of us will have to move forward while injured at some point. Giving leeway when the three of us are healthy is simply inefficient."

Damien turned to Killian.

"That said, we should give him some time to regain his bearings."

Killian opened his mouth then closed it. His lip twitched.

"Just a bit of time."

Damien shrugged his shoulders.

"We don't have forever after all."

He pushed aside some of the corpses next to him and sat down. Zenos walked away from the corpses and sat down by himself. Adonis remained outside of the room and sat there.

The room was white, other than the monster corpses and their blood. On one side was the entrance they had just come from, and on the other side was the gate to a new room.

The room the four just cleared had a counter that went all the way along the walls with cabinets above and within. Some of the doors for the cabinets were missing entirely and some of them were hanging by one hinge.

The few that were intact were wide open and all of them were empty, save a few pieces of broken glass.

The middle of the room contained various tables with a similar structure to the countertops.

Damien was resting his back on one of these tables with a frown on his face. He was shaking his hand and rubbing his fingers against his wrist.

His lack of physical strength really was no joke. In reality, his wrist was part of the reason he wanted to take a break.

The wrist pain came mostly from firing his assault rifle. He fired in small bursts, but the recoil was nothing to scoff at. Shooting his pistol and swinging his katana were not nearly as bad, but definitely contributed.

His arms had not given up on him yet, but he knew they would get strained fairly quickly. The only silver lining was that Damien knew he would be able to move through fairly intense pain with no problem.

And he could keep moving even if he was on the edge of death.

Killian was in deep thought and frowned.

"What triggered that... let's call them reachers."

Zenos was turning over his snub nose shotgun in his hand.

"Though I find reachers to be a bit bland, simple names are best when communicating with each other in high-pressure situations."

Killian shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, anyways there wasn't a light on it and it was perfectly still before. So why did it just stand up outta nowhere?"

Adonis scoffed.

"Sure you didn't just whiff?"

Killian frowned.

"I'm sure."

Damien sighed as he held his head with one hand.

"Maybe... the sound? You did grunt after all."

Zenos furrowed his brows.

"The slashes from our katanas are quite loud, no? Not to mention the splattering of their bodies afterwards."

Damien's eyes narrowed.

"What if they can only hear things next to themselves? ...Actually, what if they only react to sounds within a certain proximity?"

Zenos held his chin with his index finger and thumb.

"If that is the case, asking me to help you with the two pale-skins was the right call."

Damien sighed.

"That also means Killian is going to struggle in killing them stealthily."

Adonis had his arms crossed and turned to look at Damien.

"Huh? How does that make any sense?"

Damien tilted his head back.

"If making a soft grunt is going to get us exposed, groans of pain from his stomach wound surely won't go unnoticed."

Killian was groaning in pain before, but they softened after Damien finished his sentence.

Adonis clicked his tongue.

"Whatever."

Zenos was going through the boxes in his backpack. He was looking at a protein bar wrapped in a thin layer of transparent plastic. There were two of these inside his backpack.

Zenos then searched for any other food he could find. He was able to come up with two five hundred milliliter bottles of water and a black box. The black box was labeled 'Basic Ration' and had a simplistic white drawing of a bowl.

Zenos opened it. The box contained one large white packet and a thin blue ring shaped piece of plastic with something inside it.

Zenos furrowed his brows and looked for some sort of instruction manual on the packages, however, there was none.

"They have not provided that much food. My prediction is that the food we were provided will last a day at the minimum. Hopefully, it lasts for longer."

Damien nodded.

"We should budget our time for finishing a mission to be around a day then."

Killian slowly got up to his feet.

"Well, since we have a limited amount of time, let's get going."

Damien stared at Killian, who was having trouble standing up straight and clearly not in the best condition to be moving.

"Alright, let's go then."

Killian picked up his mechanical suit, it was damaged, but when Killian placed his feet on it, the suit automatically wrapped around him. He then placed one of his hands against the wall for support and smirked.

"Hey Adonis, since you didn't do jack last time, why don't you lead?"

Adonis frowned.

"And what obligation do I have to lead?"

Damien sighed.

"Adonis, could you please be the first one to kill them? My physical strength is low, just the few swings I have done are already tiring me out."

Adonis sat there silently for a few moments. Then, he stood up and uncrossed his arms.

"I guess I did say that it would be me doing the heavy lifting. Leaving a task to someone so weak is asking for them to mess up, so naturally, I should take over."

Killian rolled his eyes but remained silent.

Damien picked up his flashlight and turned it off. Zenos did the same, sending the room into deep darkness.

In the dark room, Adonis's flashlight abruptly shined with a weak beam. He silently walked to the door and put his hand on the keypad.

A soft green light went up and down Adonis' hand and the gates silently opened.

He took a silent deep breath and walked inside the room.

In the darkness and silence, Adonis' senses were heightened. The sound of his beating heart felt loud and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

Adonis frowned, but methodically and silently walked into the room.

He walked straight, and there was nothing in front of him for the few steps he took.

Adonis' heart slowed down as he got used to the darkness.

Then his heart clenched.

There was a spasming coming from his front. He diverted the flashlight's beam to the left quickly, but his heart only beat faster.

There was another monster to the left that also started to spasm.

Adonis' breathing was becoming uneven.

In a panic, Adonis diverted the beam upwards, but there was yet another monster clinging to the ceiling that began spasming.

Adonis' eyes glazed over and his breathing became ragged. His heart was hurting from how fast it was pumping.

A scream was coming up from Adonis' throat.

Then, a hand covered his mouth and his flashlight turned off.

One of Damien's hands clamped tightly onto Adonis's mouth and the other had pressed the button on the flashlight.

There was a frown on Damien's face, but nobody could see it.

Adonis' breathing and heart rate quickly slowed. Damien slowly let go of his hold and gently tugged Adonis' arm backward.

Adonis caught on to Damien's signal and the two of them slowly walked back out of the room.

Damien turned on his flashlight, a weak beam of light shining from it. He pointed it in the general area of the keypad, and made his way over to it.

Damien laid his hand on the keypad and the gate closed. Once the gate was fully closed, He sighed and moved the slider for his flashlight all the way up.

Adonis was looking at the floor.

"Sorry."

Damien shook his head.

"Don't apologize, thank me."

The corner of Adonis' lip twitched.

"Thanks."

Zenos raised an eyebrow.

"Sounds like a disaster almost happened."

Damien rubbed his temple with his knuckle.

"He almost alerted the creatures inside."

Killian laughed.

"Some heavy lifting you did."

Adonis did not respond. Damien turned to face Killian.

"People have different starting points. As long as they are willing to improve themself, they do not deserve to be insulted."

Killian shrugged his shoulders and turned away.

Adonis' back was hunched over and his hands lay at his sides, trembling.

Damien gave a deep stare at Adonis.

"Are you ready to try again?"

Zenos furrowed his brows.

"You want him to try again when he almost got both himself and the rest of us killed?"

Damien turned to Zenos and shrugged his shoulders.

"We are stuck with each other, so we have to grow with each other."

Damien turned back to Adonis.

"So?"

Adonis frowned while his hands clenched tightly into fists. After a few seconds, his head slowly rose.

Adonis looked Damien right in the eyes as his trembling vanished.

"Yeah."