MILES POV
The siren cut out, abrupt as a switch-flip.
Violent screams tore through the air below, a chorus of fear I couldn't quite map.
Then the roars rolled in — deep, hungry, distant enough to feel more than hear.
The air thickened with smoke and the tang of burnt metal, gunfire stitching the scene together.
My chest rose and fell in quick, ragged breaths.
A hand gripped my shoulder and I jolted, Noah's touch steady but his eyes wide with fear.
He pressed my rifle into my hands, the metal cold and unfamiliar in the tremor of his fingers.
"I… I won't let them take us," he said, voice almost a whisper, and I saw the resolve replace the panic there.
I met that gaze, nodded once, and kept moving—bit by bit, breath by breath.
My eyes met Dylan's gaze, his face pale.
My hands clenched tightly around the gun handle, as we marched out.
Countless bodies collided against my shoulders. The roars drew closer. My steps slowed by something beneath my feet.
Bodies. Dead bodies of comrades, mangled. Claw marks.
My heartbeat rapidly increased.
"Attention soldiers!"
A voice tore through everything, my feet halted.
Our bodies bump into each as we stop. Or tried to.
The commander's eyes scanned over us, his face twisted with something unknown.
A faded scar covered his right face.
"This is what you trained for." The moment those words left his lips my stomach twisted. My grip tightened, our heads turned to each other.
He pulled out the rifle hanging on his shoulders.
"We've sent out a call to all sectors, we'll hold them off…"
"Did they say they were coming?" Ava asked.
He didn't reply. Our movements still.
Then he glanced sideways.
"We either stay here and die or have faith and hold them off."
He moved into the fog, I followed. Then everyone else.
We take shade behind a broken building, gunshots and screams rang out.
Then silence. Too loud, too sudden.
The wind carries the taste of blood and fear.
Something exploded. Closer than I wanted.
A shot rang out close to me.
My head jerked back instantly, Dylan.
The gun still held up, his hands trembling so hard the barrel shook.
"I'm sorry." He stuttered in a shaky breath.
The commander wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. It comes away streaked with dust and sweat.
"Every shot counts," he says.
His grip tightens on the rifle. Knuckles pale.
He jerks his chin forward.
"Stay on me…"
"Incoming!" A scream tore from behind.
Light splits the air.
Heat slams into my face.
BOOM..
The blast hits. Not sound—force.
My body lifts, then slams into the Wall.
Air rips out of my chest.
For a second, there's nothing.
Then ringing.
High, sharp, endless.
My mouth fills with something thick.I cough, red spits into the dust.
Grit grinds between my teeth. I spit again. But it isn't clear.
My hand closes around something.
Warm. Wet.
I grip tighter, pulling, It comes loose.
Too easy. I freeze, looking down. A sleeve– Familiar.
The fabric still wrapped around it.
The hand… slack, Commander.
I let go.
It drops into the dirt with a dull, heavy sound.
I push myself up.
My arms shake. Elbows buckle. I drag instead—palms scraping over broken ground.
Sharp edges bite into my skin. I barely feel it.
The air is thick.
Dust clings to my tongue. Coats the back of my throat. Every breath tastes like ash and iron.
Shapes move around me.
Some crawl, some don't.
A body lies on its side—chest rising, falling… then stopping halfway.
A mouth opens, closes then opens again.
No sound reaches me.
Just ringing, I blink. My Vision swims.
Red smears across everything.
I wipe my face. My hand comes away darker.
Something shifts in the fog.
A shadow– No, not a shadow. Too fast.
It flickers between the smoke.
Tall, wrong. A soldier ahead of me turns, a hand—no, something like a hand grabs him.
He's gone, dragged into the gray. No scream, Just…gone.
The dust swallows the space he stood in.
Like he was never there.
Get up. Come on!
I yelled in my head, if I don't… I'll be next.
My hands reached for a weapon, any weapon. A rifle, even better.
My fingers weakly clutched on the trigger.
I staggered forward, aiming at nothing except growls. An animal- like breeze brushed past me.
My legs tripped over a body and I fell right on top of it, another soldier. Dead now.
Before I could move, it jumped out of the fog. The ground hummed with vibrations of the movements of its footsteps.
Its breath is heavy, slow. Each step it took closed the distance between us. My heart pounded against my chest, my hands trembled with fear.
It sniffled each body it came across, soon I'll be next. What will it do to me when it discovers I'm not dead? I buried my face in the blood of the soldier I laid on top.
A shot behind drags its attention away from me, my moment to run.
I pulled back, as slow as I possibly could.
My eyes solely fixed on it, my backing step quiet as night. Until…
a wire sparks behind me.
Its attention snapped back to me, standing. My eyes locked onto its black four eyes.
Shit, I'm screwed.
I stumbled backwards, pulling the trigger and of all times the gun chose to jam when my life depended on it.
I collapse, my butt landing on the ground. Still backing away. Until I felt solid behind me, nowhere left to run.
Its head tilted as it slowly approached, a deep growl enough to feel the vibration of the ground.
This is it… the end.
The sentinel stood above me, its mouth opened up revealing its sharp razor teeth.
My jaw left open as I stared at my death.
A bullet whistles through the air into its neck, it jerks back and snarls into the fog, ready to charge.
A loud roar erupts from behind, from another. It hesitants to attack.
Waves of strikes. Orderly, in formation. Sector 3, it had to be.
Gun power rained down upon the sentinel, it turned its attention to me, growled deeply and retreated.
Then from the fog a soldier emerges, the approaching footsteps echoing in my ears. The soldier stops beside me, turned and my breath hitched.
That red hair, those amber eyes staring down at me. She wore the same face as her, the girl from my dreams.
"You… I know you." I muttered.
My eyes close, and my vision darkens.
Everything fades to black, in the midst of the chaos… she was the only familiar image.