The Hunters' Fate: Overcoming

An Unexpected Appearance (Rain)

I'm not really sure how they got split up from the group.

One second we're all racing toward the enemy forces together, and the next, I look behind me and realize that Stella and Z aren't with us.

Did they get lost in the crowd? Are they hurt? Are they lost somehow?

I stop and grab Milo's hand. He skirts to a halting stop and looks back at me, confused.

I open my mouth to tell him about our friends, when a force crashes into Milo. He grunts as he falls forward and into me. I lose my balance and fall right with him.

And then I keep falling.

Milo's still holding onto my hand, and I open my eyes to see him right in front of me, but we aren't in the same spot we were before.

We're in a portal.

I'm not really sure how to explain what a portal looks like from the inside. In fact, this is probably the first time I've even noticed it. I've always been too busy looking forward to our destination. It's kind of like a void. There isn't really one color, not really anything to look at.

The ride is short. The portal drops us off on Ecsporavet, just on the opposite side of all the fighting and shouting and death.

I scramble to my feet, Milo right behind me. There isn't anyone over here, just a big stretch of land between the two rivers.

"What just happened?" I ask him.

He looks around, turning in a big circle. The portal is still open, as if anyone could come through it at any moment. "I'm not sure, but my guess would be that somebody just made a portal and pushed us through."

I reach down and grab my knife. "Then they're going to come through there soon?"

"Most definitely," Milo replies, also grabbing a knife from his holster. "Let's go to either side of the portal. That way when they come through we can sneak attack them."

"Smart," I agree, heading to the right side. He makes his way over to the left.

I get in position and raise my knife, ready for an attack. If someone comes through this portal, I'll have to be ready to kill them.

Wait.

Kill them?

Like, 'end their life' kill them?

Can I do that?

"Hey, Milo?" I say.

"What?" he replies, adjusting his grip on the knife.

"Do we, like, really have to kill them? Can't we just, I don't know, like, capture them, you know? Because I really don't want to hurt anyone-"

"Rain," Milo interrupts. "I know-"

The sound of a gunshot interrupts him.

I immediately hit the ground out of habit, but there's no more gunshots, and not a single whizzing of bullets by my head. There's nothing to support the sound we just heard.

We look at each other from the ground. We're both equally confused here.

The gun sounded close, not like it was coming from the other side of the Academy where the battle was going on. In fact, it sounded like it came from right beside us.

Milo looks around the clearing and starts to stand. "What the fu-"

We both see it at the same time. A bullet flying through the portal, whizzing right in front of our faces, and shooting through the clearing.