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Abe stumbled forward, panting, his ribs heaving like bellows. His blue skin was streaked with ash and blood—some his own, some not. Behind him, Alf and Toby kept pace, their breaths sharp and ragged. Mudokon footprints trailed behind in the soot. Frantic, bare, uneven—three sets only now.
The only light came from flares lobbed by the Slig patrols, casting long, flickering shadows across the charred path.
“Almost there!” Abe shouted hoarsely over the gunfire. “Just a little further..”
But there was no cover. No caves. No turns. Just a broken stretch of ridge that narrowed into a bottleneck. It was a deathtrap.
“SHIT!” Alf barked, skidding to a stop just as a flare popped overhead.
Abe turned. Behind them, the shadows moved.
Sligs.
At least four, maybe more, slithering through the dark on mechanical legs. Chant suppressing drones hovering behind them. One spotted them. The telltale buzz of a targeting laser ignited red across the smoke.
“Found ‘em! OPEN FIRE!!”
The scream of machine gun fire ripped the silence.
RATATATATATAT!
Rock burst into splinters around them as bullets shredded the air. Dust and debris flew into Abe’s face. He dove behind a fallen slab of concrete, pulling Toby down with him.
Alf crouched low beside a half-crushed pipe, teeth clenched.
“We can’t outrun 'em!” he growled. “They got line-of-sight down the ridge. They’ll mow us down!”
“No, no, no..” Abe hissed, clutching his temples, rocking back and forth in the dirt. “There’s gotta be a way.”
More bullets whined past.
Toby cowered behind Abe, pressing his palms over his ears, trembling.
“They’re gettin’ closer!” Alf shouted. “D’you hear that?! They’re coming around!”
The Sligs weren’t bothering with strategy anymore—just suppression. A straight corridor of death. The moment they moved, they’d be torn to ribbons.
Abe looked at Alf. Alf was panting hard, blood running down one arm, soaking the crude wraps he wore. But Alf wasn’t scared. His eyes were locked on Abe—and something had shifted behind them. Acceptance.
“No.” Abe whispered, already feeling it.
“I gotta buy you two time.”
“NO!” Abe lunged, but Alf shoved him back.
“I said I gotta!” Alf barked, louder than the gunfire. “You got Toby! You get the kid out!”
“I won’t leave you!” Abe’s voice cracked, raw with fear. “You can’t—”
But Alf was already running.
Straight into the fire.
The red laser dots danced over his body even before he rose into full view.
“HEY, YOU SLURG-FACED FUCKS!” he roared, voice echoing across the ravine. “COME GET ME!”
He raised both arms and gave the Sligs two flipped birds.
The response was immediate.
RATATATATATATAT!!!
The bullets struck him in bursts. First in the shoulder. He spun, stumbling. Then in the gut. Then the leg. And then—everywhere else.
Abe watched, paralyzed, as Alf’s body convulsed with each impact, the force throwing him backward, then down. Blood burst from his mouth as he fell to one knee coughing.
He collapsed face-first.
Abe screamed.
His voice tore through the smoke, echoing like a soul ripped in half.
Toby grabbed him from behind.
“ABE! ABE, W-W-WE GOTTA GO!”
But Abe fought him. Clawed at the dirt, reaching toward Alf’s twitching body in the open. “I CAN SAVE HIM—I CAN—LET ME GO—”
Toby wrapped his arms around Abe’s waist and yanked with everything he had in his small frame.
Bullets peppered the ground near Alf’s corpse—no, not a corpse. Not yet. His hand moved. One last defiant twitch as he tried to lift his head, eyes wide with searing pain. And then a final spray of bullets struck his back, arching his body violently before it slumped for good.
Abe howled like a wounded animal, his scream laced with agony, guilt, and rage.
“WE HAVE TO GO!!” Toby sobbed. “ABE, HE WANTED US TO—H-H-HE WANTED—”
Another flare hissed into the air. More Sligs. More shadows. They were out of time.
Toby yanked again, and Abe finally stumbled backward, choking on tears, blood spattered across his chest and face. They ran down a narrow crevice just to the left of the ridge. A small tunnel. Just hidden from view.
Behind them, the gunfire slowed. One Slig barked out. “Search the body!”
Abe collapsed in the tunnel minutes later, clutching his chest, his body trembling. He curled inward, shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Toby sat beside him, equally broken.
The silence that followed was thick and infinite.