I’m not sure how long I stood there, straining my ears for any sign of what was happening above, but when the gunfire ended I tried the radio again.

  “Dante, please say you’re alive. e on, this isn’t funny,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

  After a few seds of tense waiting, it became clear that all I was going to get in response was static.

  “Fuck!” I screamed, before throwing my radio into the er.

  I sunk to the floor and gazed at the vent above. I couldn't stay here. I’d either starve to death, or whichever gang that killed Dante would eventually e for me. Dante was a dick, but the Scorpions were a hell of a lot better than a lot of the assholes out there.

  I o check the entrance, if it was clear I could make a run for it. If I met a reasonable group I could probably bribe them with the knowledge of the fabricator in exge for a pass out of here. If they weren’t reasohen my death would be immi, but at least it would be faster and less painful than starving to death.

  It took me a while to maneuver one of the dders from the er of the room to a point where I could use it to climb up. Even then, I had to stand on the very top step, and go on my tippy toes to reach the vent again. I cursed my tiny stature. Not only had it got me into this, but it almost got me trapped down here.

  It was a little bit of a struggle, but through sheer determination, and a little upper arm strength, I mao slowly drag myself bato the vents. I slid through the vents in plete darkness, as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to advertise my presenot when there was even the slightest ce I could slip away unnoticed.

  I strained my ears, listening for sounds of movement, munfire, anything. It wasn’t until I was only a couple feet from the end of the vent when I finally heard something, moaning to be precise.

  Actually, as far as I was ed, that was a good sign. Moani someone was alive, and whoever attacked either was driven off, or didn’t perform executions. Since I couldn’t hear any movement I decided to risk popping my head out to take a look at the situation.

  I immediately regretted it.

  Just a foot or two outside the duct was one of the SMGs Dante and his gang had brought earlier. The bad news was there was still a finger origger. The really bad news was that everything above the wrist was missing. It was just a stump.

  There were only a handful of gangs that were disturbed enough to dismember someone, and they didn’t e to sector eleven that often. Even if they did, they wouldn’t have left a prize like an SMG just sitting around. That meant… The Antithesis were actually down here. I closed my eyes.

  “Fuck,” I whispered, uo tain myself. “FUCK!”

  This vent was a death trap. Although I’d heard there were aliens the size of buses, there were also versions smaller thahey could easily follow me back down to the fabricator, and devour me in the room.I could make a run for the gun. It was right there. Waiting. On one hand, it would give me a tiny ce of surviving the wo minutes, at least until I got to a nearby bolt hole. Oher hand, the ons hadn’t really helped the Scorpions.

  There was a tiny ce that the Scorpions actually won. The Antithesis devoured everything in their path, which meant no survivors, and I was y-nine pert sure the aliens didn’t moan, so there might still be someone alive out there.

  I bit my lip and made my decision; I darted out of the vent before I could sed guess myself.

  When I reached the gun the smell of blood was overp, the sight of the severed hand ing. I still mao pull the hand off, carefully pg it on the ground. The instinctual part of me wao throw the severed appendage as far away as I could, but the intellectual part of my brain held back. Throwing it meant noise, hat could get me killed.

  Once I had the gun in my hands, I spriowards the pile of debris and took cover. The area smelled like blood and gunpowder, so I took a moment to steady myself before peeking around the side of my hiding spot. The lot, where Dante and his boys had been waiting, had bee a el house. There were a half dozen Antithesis corpses dotting the area, stra dog hybrids with triple hinged jaws. Each of them had over a dozen bullet wounds, and none of them were moving.

  Dante’s boys were both dead, brutally mauled and dismembered. The aliens had literally torn them limb from limb. Just when I was about to turn away I saw Dante. He ropped up against a half destroyed wall a few feet away, covered in blood and one of his arms was twisted unnaturally.

  I gnced around. There didn’t seem to be any more aliens around, and Dante was in bad shape.If I was going to save him, it was now or never.

  I snuck over to Dante aly poked him with my foot, “You still alive old man?” I whispered.

  One eye cracked open, his voice was rough. “Teddy? Shit, I fot you were still here.”

  I crouched down and quickly checked his wounds. His arm had what looked to be bite marks, and there were deep gashes in his chest. He was bleeding profusely, but I couldn’t tell how bad it was. He was breathing and not coughing up blood, so it could be worse. “On your feet, we o move,” I whispered as I grabbed his good arm.

  He shook his head, “Sirl, I doubt either of us will get out of here.” He raised a finger, pointing at a se of the ruins behind me. Something moved in the shadows.

  I’d never fired a gun before, but I had seen them enough to know how they worked, at least a bit.. I put the stock up against my shoulder, carefully aimed at the Antithesis that burst from the rubble and pulled the trigger.

  The gun kicked, firing a three round burst at the mutant pnt dog. The first two rounds missed smashing into some random debris behind it, but the third buried itself deep in one of the beast's front legs causing it to stumble before it fell. It didn’t cry out in pain er– it just glowered at me and tried to rise on the ruined limb. There was no way I was going to give it a fug ce. I adjusted the SMG, put the sighs directly over its ugly face, and I fired again. This time two rounds hit it dead ter, causing its head to explode.

  I stood there, high on adrenaline and breathing heavily. I sed the area, looking for the hreat. I heard it before I saw it, the rubble shifted to my left and I twirled, SMG ready. Two more of the creatures bounded over a nearby pile of rubble, sprinting around broken walls and pilrs They were thirty feet away, at most, and closing fast.

  I pulled the trigger owice, three times, and didn’t score a si. It was the fourth burst that caught the front Antithesis in the face, which smmed into the ground and slid another foot before ing to a stop. The other stepped on the corpse, using the body as a ptform to pou me.

  My heart stopped, but my finger didn’t.

  Through sheer dumb luck, the st burst struck the st dog straight in the face, killing it instantly but doing nothing to stop its momentum. The creature's dead weight struck me, ter mass, a me tumbling away. Once I came to a stop I just y there for a miaring at the underside of the city pte above. I was in severe pain, but alive.

  Da out a wheezing ugh, “Shit Teddy, I never would have thought you had that in you. Are you still alive over there?”

  There was a beep in my head.

  System Initialized.

  gratutions. Through your as you have proven yourself worthy of being one of the Vanguard, a defender of humanity. I am Nyxous. I will assist you to uplift humanity so that you may defend your homeworld from the Antithesis threat. Rise Evelyn Cire, and bee a protector of the weak!

  You call me Nyx.

  My brain struggled to absorb what the voi my head said, but it was too muformation, which I was in far too much pain to process. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on so I said the first thing that came to my head:

  “Dante, I want more than fifteen pert.”