"Actually, I think I'll head to the entrance of the building, something eating away at me because nobody's watching it," Riven says, picking up his speargun.
"Well, we wouldn't want any unwelcome guests coming here," Shado said, tinkering with what looked like an earpiece.
"Oh, here take this." Shado said, finishing some adjustments on the gadget he had in his hand.Then tossing over the little thing to Riven.
"An earpiece?" Riven said, looking down at the gadget.
"It's more than that; it can track your location and vitals in real-time," Shado said, turning to face Eryndor.
"And this one is yours." Shado opens his palm to Eryndor, handing him an earpiece as well.
"Tap it on the side once to activate it, and tap it twice to deafen," Shado said, looking at the two.
"Right…" Riven said, leaving the room and heading down the stairs, his footsteps leaving a faint echo with each step.
"I don't get why he's always in a rush to be somewhere, or just finding somewhere to isolate himself," Eryndor said, watching as Riven left.
Shado smirked underneath his mask. "Well, that's the Riven I remember, albeit a bit different."
"Different how?" Eryndor asked, examining the earpiece.
"He used to talk rarely. Only discussing things related to the mission or something."
"Really? I only met him a day ago, back in the wasteland, where he saved me; he didn't strike me as someone so cold… or at least that's what I thought of him. He and I talked a ton for the short period of time I knew him."
"Ehhhh… when I first met him, he always gave everybody in the group a weird look, but… that's to be expected after the shit he's been through," Shado said, dropping his voice to a low tone.
"What do you mean? What has he been through?"
"He never told you how he first joined the commonwealth guards?"
"No, never… he just told me how he knows Garrick from working under him…"
"Makes sense, like I said, he's never been the one to talk about things anyway."
Shado takes a seat in a corner of the room, far from the hole that beamed the orange light through the cracks and crevices of the room.
Eryndor leaned against a nearby wall, fiddling with the earpiece before putting it in. "You make it sound like he's got a whole graveyard worth of stories that he keeps hidden or something."
Shado looked up at him, the dim light cutting across the scratched surface of his mask. "Well, we all do, some of us are just better at hiding them than others."
That made Eryndor shut up for a moment. Making the room fall quiet once again, outside, the distant gunfire was the only ambience the two could hear, mixed with the occasional hiss of broken pipes or the flickering of lights, which also added to the already uneasy tension.
"Hey… Do you think we can really close the gate?" Eryndor asked hesitantly.
Shado shrugged. "I mean, if we don't, then we're done for. Half the south sector has already been torn apart anyway, if there's anyone still alive down here who isn't sent in by the nobles or scavengers like us, then it would be nothing short of a miracle."
Suddenly, Riven's voice cracked through both their earpieces, his voice sharp.
"Shado, Eryndor, I got movement outside the main door."
Shado immediately stood, looking down at the floor as he touched his earpiece. "H-how many?"
"I see roughly two, maybe three people. But I can't tell if they're friendly or not. All I can tell from here is that they're not forgelings at least."
Eryndor's body tensed, glancing toward the stairwell that sat at the other end of the room. "Could it be Liora?"
"I'm not sure," Riven replied, controlling his breathing. "But they're not walking like anyone who would be on patrol. No formation or anything."
Shado moved toward a broken window through which he could barely see the front entrance of the building. He crouched low, peeking through the cracks of the frame. "Stay put Riven Don't do anything rash."
"Wasn't planning to." He said back, the dripping of a leaking pipe echoing in the background of Riven's earpiece.
Then, the channel went silent for a moment. Shado exhaled heavily, his filter releasing a low sound of hissing that could be faintly heard.
Eryndor stepped closer to Shado, "Any chance it's people from the Dominion?"
Shado's eyes narrowed under his mask. "What are they wearing, Riven? I-I can't get eyes on them from up here." Shado says, pressing a finger against his earpiece while his other hand motions at Eryndor to grab his rifle. Eryndor cautiously made his movements as precise and calm as possible despite all the thick tension in the air.
"It's hard to tell… but…" Riven shuffles under some cover to try and get a better look.
"I think they're wearing black… no white…"
The footsteps of the nearby trio approached the building, their faces still unrecognizable from the hoods they wore.
"I'm contacting Liora now; if it's her, she'll pick up the call in front of you." Shado grabs the rifle Eryndor had gotten for him. Lying it on the ground just in front of him, Shado uses the holo-transmitter once again, ringing Liora.
Outside by the entrance, the figure standing in the middle reaches into their pocket. Pulling out what looked like a holo-transmitter as well.
Riven took a peek behind a piece of rubble from within the bottom floor of the building, seeing the person in the middle of the group reaching into their pocket.
"Anything on your end, Shado?"
"Yeah… my transmitter is beginning to illuminate."
After a few seconds, Shado's transmitter glowed and beamed out a hologram of a figure wearing a white cloak.
"Liora, where are you right now?" Shado says hastily.
"Just outside the rendezvous point. Why is something the matter?" Liora said back, her voice muffled from the poor transmission but still enough to get what she was trying to say across.
"No, no, it's just we thought that someone was approaching the lookout."
Shado taps his earpiece, murmuring something to Riven and Eryndor.
"Will meet you at the entrance, Liora," Shado said, grabbing his rifle from the ground. Eryndor began to head down the stairs already, not wanting to waste any more time.
"Understood," Liora says, hanging up the call between the two.
Riven stood up from his cover, facing the three approaching members. Eryndor reached the bottom layer, looking on as the group came closer.
The front figure-the one who'd pulled out the matching holo—transmitter—lowered their hood just enough for the light outside to catch the edges of their mask.
"Well… looks like we found our unwelcome guests," Riven muttered under his breath, tightening his grip around his speargun.
The holo—transmitter in the stranger's hand flickered for a moment, then shimmered faintly before dissolving, meaning the call had ended on both sides.
Shado now reached the main entrance too, stepping out with his rifle slung over his shoulder, the fading sun catching the white highlights of his hair.
Eryndor followed close behind him, his boots crunching on the gravel below.
Riven sighed and then followed the two. Not taking an eye off the trio ahead.
Shado glanced behind him, seeing Riven's unwavering look behind his mask. "Ease up, will you? We already know who they are."
"You can never be so sure. For all you know, it could've been poor timing."
"Poor timing my ass…" Shado whispered to himself, turning to face Liora and her companions.
"It's good to see you again Liora." Shado said, nodding as Riven and Eryndor stood just behind him.
"Likewise", Liora says, dropping her hood. "And it's good to see you two still kicking as well."
Liora said, walking past Shado and the others to enter the building.
Is that all she had to say? I for sure thought she would give us an earful." Eryndor thought to himself, watching as she passed by him, he and everyone else walked back inside. Barricading the entrance this time with fallen shelves and desks.
"So Liora… What is this plan of yours?" Riven asked, cracking his neck as he dropped onto a collapsed shelf.
"Yeah," Eryndor added, pushing off the wall, crossing his arms, "we've traveled a fair amount in the south with Shado over there and yet you still haven't told us what we're going to do about that gate."
Liora stopped in the center of the room, the two other people wearing white cloaks staying silent as they crouched near a corner of the room.
She took a long, slow breath, glancing at everyone's faces before speaking.
"Well… the plan is pretty straightforward, but I can't do it on my own…I'm not sure myself, but I think the Dominion is planning on collapsing the south sector and all the other sectors as well. And if we don't move soon, we will be crushed right along with everything we know."
Riven raised an eyebrow. "So what—you want us to follow you to the edges of the city?"
"No, there's no need, will go underground."
Eryndor blinked rapidly, confused about what Liora was implying. "You mean under… the city? Like the underworks?"
Liora nodded. "There's an access point just about three blocks north of here. If we can get to the gate systems underground and use the manual override system, we can seal the gates and even possibly salvage the south."
Shado's posture stiffened. "The override system still exists…?"
Liora nodded, looking down at the ground, then looking back to meet Shado in the eyes.
"It does, but the Dominion assumed it was destroyed when the forgelings swarmed through the city."
"So why attack the train station if they knew that the gate couldn't be sealed?" Eryndor asked quietly.
"It's obvious, they clearly wanted to inflict more casualties and make sure their plan was in full force. Garrick and his arrogant men were, in their eyes, we're the only thing that could salvage the south," Riven replied quietly, using his speargun to support himself as he stood up.
"But this plan has too many flaws in it; besides, we don't know for sure if the switch is truly untouched," Riven said, pressing Liora.
"You're welcome to stay here if you want. But once the second wave of forgelings pour through that giant fuck-off gate, we're as good as dead."
Riven let his head fall back against the nearby wall. "Great. So instead of dying out here, we get to die underground."
The room went quiet.
Eryndor swallowed hard, glancing at Shado, then Riven.
Shado exhaled, the filters on his mask faintly. "Well… It's not like we've got a better plan anyway."
Riven rolled his eyes, then pushed himself off the wall. "Fine, but if those tunnels collapse on us, I'm haunting all of you."
Eryndor gave a weak laugh, shaking his head. "Can't haunt us if we die alongside one another."
"And what about the other two who are over there?" Shado asked, looking at the woman and man who stayed silent in the corner of the room.
"They're just some people I found roaming the streets, so I thought I would bring them with me," Liora replied quietly, clearing off some dust on a table.
"That kindness may come back to haunt you, Liora…" Shado said, stepping close to the table.
"Alright, here's how we will make it out alive," Liora said, pulling out a metal cylinder.
She held both ends of the cylinder at the same time, then tossed it on the table. The cylinder shook, then flickered a light blue beam out, expanding into an almost see-through and relatively wide rectangle.
"If you look just down here." Liora pointed at a flickering red square on the map. "This tells us our current location."
"Where we're trying to go is just…" She moved her finger slowly across the map, then pointed at a small circle that flickered green. "Here"
"I see…" Shado said, crossing his arms as he looked on.
Eryndor and Riven watched from a distance, noting the routes in their mind.
"It's a short trip to the underground maintenance tunnel, but from there it'll be a bit of a walk towards the gate, and it should be safe…" Liora said, closing the map and then picking up the metal cylinder again.
"Will leave first thing in the morning tomorrow, I'm sure we could all use the rest after everything that's happened."
Liora said, turning to face the group. Then she walked to the other two members she brought with her.
Shado approached Eryndor and Riven. Giving a pat on their backs as he found a quiet corner where he could sit.
"I guess it's do or die tomorrow, huh?" Eryndor said, stretching, then facing Riven.
"Yeah… soon as Solis hits the streets, it's showtime."
Riven let out a long breath, then slid down the nearby wall until he was sitting on the dusty floor. "I am not looking forward to tomorrow…"
"You could say that again," Eryndor replied.
Across the room, Liora and the two other cloaked strangers settled opposite the boys. One of them unrolls a thin sheet of paper from one of their pockets, which contains what seemed to be a breadroll. The other just leaned back, their head tilted like they'd slept on worse. Which they probably had.
Shado prompted himself on the same table used earlier. Tapping the sides of his mask, then swapping his filter quickly. "Everyone should get some sleep. Like Liora said, we'll be out by dusk."
"Yeah.. yeah, we know," Riven muttered, also tilting his head back against the wall again.
Eryndor kicked some rubble aside until he cleared a small patch on the floor, just enough not to worry about shards of glass or rubble bothering him as he lay uncomfortably on the wooden floor.
"Comfortable? Because you sure look like it?" Riven said, under his mask.
"I wished," Eryndor said, laughing weakly, as he looked up at the ceiling.
Eventually, one by one, the room began to fall quiet.
The two strangers were the first to fall asleep, curled together in their cloaks. Liora stayed awake a bit longer, adjusting her cloak as she leaned back, eyes fixed on the dying glow of a cracked ceiling light. Eryndor's breathing eventually steadied, his eyes soft and rhythmic as his eyes became heavier and heavier. Riven lasted longer than he wanted to admit, but even he slumped sideways, his speargun resting across his lap as his eyes finally slid shut.
Only Shado remained awake.
He sat near the entrance, rifle across his knees, his mask turned toward the door. The faint light of the room shining on his visor, making his eyes look darker, sharper even.
Every so often, he'd tilt his head—listening.
"Footsteps? No… can't be…"
"Wait, hold on…Was that metal scraping? No… I'm just imagining it…"
Shado listened, listened for anything that screamed danger. But the night stayed eerily quiet.
Outside, the wind pushed broken signs, rattling them against their frames. Carrying ash and dust across the empty hollow streets.
Shado exhaled quietly, lowering his rifle just enough to rest his head against his arms.
"Tomorrow, we make our move…"
He didn't sleep. Someone had to keep watch over the group after all.
And until Solis rose over the ruins of the South, that someone was him.