Shifters

Plan of Action

"How are things coming along on your end?" whispered Shaw's voice through a glowing pebble strapped to Elle's wrist. 

"It'd go a lot faster if you weren't checking in every five minutes or so," Elle said in an annoyed tone as she brushed stray tufts of loose soil off of her shoulder for the millionth time since they'd began their journey, "As long as you guys play your part well everything will proceed as planned."

"We're all set over here," Shaw replied in a muffled tone as if reviewing his troops from an overhead perch. 

"You'd better be," Elle went on, as the stone glowed a continuous reddish colour, "I'd rather not be tossed into a skeleton dungeon, blindly awaiting whatever unspeakable horrors come my way."

"You wo-" Shaw said, suddenly cut off as Elle forcefully shut off the connection. 

Chuckling silently within his mind as the reddish glow flickered before going out, Josh followed behind Elle and Cassandra as they carved their way beneath the earth. Trailing closely behind was Patricia, followed by an unnamed, supposedly elite soldier that brought up the rear. Chancing a backwards glance, Josh nearly faltered as he spotted Patricia's face plastered with a worried expression. Correcting his position before his unintentional mistake caused him to fall, he carried on, hoping that his actions had gone unnoticed. Just as he concluded that he was in the clear, a shuffling pitter patter of footsteps waddled up to him from behind. 

"You can say it," Patricia whispered, voice unsteady as she spoke.

"Say what," Josh shot back, in an equally soft tone, barely stifling a gasp by her sudden movements. 

"I-it's my first time doing something like this, so if I look a bit-" she stopped suddenly. 

"Scared?" Josh said, attempting to finish her sentence. 

"Try terrified," Patricia corrected, "I'm more surprised that you're this calm." 

"Like you said," Josh said, thumb rubbing the underbelly of his ring, "Although this may be your first time, it's not exactly the case for me," he paused before continuing, "Besides, we have a few seasoned veterans on our side so as long as we stick to the plan we should be alright."

"I wouldn't plant those fairytale ideas into her head if I were you," Elle whispered loudly, a few paces ahead, "Anything can happen on this mission. Even with our presence, I can't guarantee that you'll all come out of this alive. After all, even Joana, the best of us, wasn't able to escape her fate."

"What exactly is her fate?" Josh questioned. 

"No one can be sure of that," Elle replied, cautiously choosing her words, "That's why we should talk less and move faster."

"That goes for you as well," Cassandra whispered loudly down the expanding tunnel, "We're nearing the castle perimeter, so keep it down all of you!"

Nodding at her request, the group continued on as Cassandra continued to expand the tunnel. Traveling once more in silence, Josh once again took note of their strike team. Aside from Cassandra, Elle and the quiet elite soldier, both he and Patricia were the least experienced members of the team. Despite this however, Patricia, who was specially requested by Joana to be a part of the mission, unlike him, had a clear role in all of this. Although he'd insisted on joining the team, Josh had yet to figure out what exactly he was bringing to the table. In fact, he was quite surprised by Elle's earlier outburst in defense of his wanting to tag along. Though unsure of the reasons behind her backing him, he'd decided to push them aside temporarily. As thoughts of teammates filtered through his mind, Josh sighed quietly as his mind lingered on Herman. A day prior to their current excursion, they'd tried everything within their power to hail the large man. However, to their dismay, no matter what what means was attempted, they remained unable to both track or contact Herman.