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. Come on, this isn’t funny,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

  After a few seconds 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 corner.

  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 come 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 needed to 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 exchange for a pass out of here. If they weren’t reasonable then my death would be imminent, but at least it would be faster and less painful than starving to death.

  It took me a while to maneuver one of the ladders from the corner 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 managed to slowly drag myself back into the vents. I slid through the vents in complete darkness, as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to advertise my presence, not when there was even the slightest chance I could slip away unnoticed.

  I strained my ears, listening for sounds of movement, more gunfire, 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 concerned, that was a good sign. Moaning meant 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 on the trigger. 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 come 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, unable to contain myself. “FUCK!”

  This vent was a death trap. Although I’d heard there were aliens the size of buses, there were also versions smaller than me. They 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 chance of surviving the next two minutes, at least until I got to a nearby bolt hole. On the other hand, the weapons hadn’t really helped the Scorpions.

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

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

  When I reached the gun the smell of blood was overpowering, the sight of the severed hand nauseating. I still managed to pull the hand off, carefully placing it on the ground. The instinctual part of me wanted to throw the severed appendage as far away as I could, but the intellectual part of my brain held back. Throwing it meant noise, noise that could get me killed.

  Once I had the gun in my hands, I sprinted towards the nearest 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 become a charnel house. There were a half dozen Antithesis corpses dotting the area, strange plant 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 was propped up against a half destroyed wall a few feet away, covered in blood and one of his arms was twisted unnaturally.

  I glanced 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 and gently poked him with my foot, “You still alive old man?” I whispered.

  One eye cracked open, his voice was rough. “Teddy? Shit, I forgot 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 need to move,” I whispered as I grabbed his good arm.

  He shook his head, “Sorry girl, I doubt either of us will get out of here.” He raised a finger, pointing at a section 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 plant 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 or anger– it just glowered at me and tried to rise on the ruined limb. There was no way I was going to give it a fucking chance. I adjusted the SMG, put the sights directly over its ugly face, and I fired again. This time two rounds hit it dead center, causing its head to explode.

  I stood there, high on adrenaline and breathing heavily. I scanned the area, looking for the next threat. 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 pillars They were thirty feet away, at most, and closing fast.

  I pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, and didn’t score a single hit. It was the fourth burst that caught the front Antithesis in the face, which slammed into the ground and slid another foot before coming to a stop. The other stepped on the corpse, using the body as a platform to pounce at me.

  My heart stopped, but my finger didn’t.

  Through sheer dumb luck, the last burst struck the last dog straight in the face, killing it instantly but doing nothing to stop its momentum. The creature's dead weight struck me, center mass, and sent me tumbling away. Once I came to a stop I just lay there for a minute, staring at the underside of the city plate above. I was in severe pain, but alive.

  Dante let out a wheezing laugh, “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.

  Congratulations. Through your actions you have proven yourself worthy of becoming 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 Claire, and become a protector of the weak!

  You can call me Nyx.

  My brain struggled to absorb what the voice in my head said, but it was too much information, 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 percent.”

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