Overwatch (editing)

The Pit and the Pendulum

4

We skillfully navigate deeper into the deadly temple. Its cracked stone walls are a ruse. The traps are functional - we accidentally triggered a few and we almost got buried alive.

We come to a large atrium with no way to the other side. The only option is getting atop a greened ledge on our side. There's nothing to climb that would let us reach it. These walls are also too brittle to scale using my claws.

"Hey," I call, "Can you get me up there?"

Kassandra looks at me. "I don't think that'll be useful. We need to get over there." She points to the other side.

"I just want to see something," I explain.

When I step in Kassandra's hands, I feel the trust in the way her fingers clasp my hind paw. She springs me up with unreal power. My paw pads touch moist, mossy stone. There is a cavity in the stone I couldn't see from below. What's strange to me is that it's trapped with silvery lines from earlier. Whoever built this temple didn't set up all these traps, I infer, These tripwires were set after the stone cracked and crumbled.

I weave through the web of taut wires: this area would be difficult to enter for a normal human being. Only snappy precision is allowed through here. I flex under and twist through the gaps - my every movement is calculated yet free. I instinctively sway my hips at every cable's sparkle. Stopping or hesitating would be disastrous. My every leap, flick and spin is an investment of my momentum. My balance has never been this close to perfection.

All the while I hear the groans from earlier. Perhaps they are the sounds of people who used up their voices and gave up on any chance of rescue. Perhaps these people are mentally-impaired and have lost themselves. These are unsettling noises.

I skip past the last tripwire to find a lever on the ground. It is crude but moves with two paws and a lot of muscle.

Kassandra appears below, covering a yawn as I land beside her.

This is a wide room with a deep, circular pit in the center. Several people wander in the pit. They breathe from their mouths. Some of them are missing hair. Blood colors the cracked stone around them. One of them senses me and looks up, but is unable to focus his tired eyes. He falls over.

These are infected. I didn't think this could be possible.

I crouch at the edge of the pit, feeling the Inner Feline speak. I understand perfectly.

"I missed you," I confess, "You haven't yet told me why you left."

The unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked behind me. I close my eyes and whisper, "Ah."

"Nothing you say will ever make me love you again," says she.

I turn wearily and reply, "Nothing you do could ever convince me you stopped."

Her gun roars angrily and I am pierced cleanly. I slip over the edge and fall backwards, my balance no longer so perfect and pure.

I fall for longer than I thought I would. Landing paws first keeps me alive - legs probably broken, but alive. My screams alert the infected around me. I wave my claws in warning, but they still advance. I want to fight but I hurt so badly already.

I fire my wrist weapon into the infected closest to me. He continues until I load another arrowhead and behead him. But a couple reach me before I can reach for another shiny shell. I shred them apart swiftly. My legs object strongly.

Dirty limbs surround me. Black stuff oozes out of them. I lay paralyzed by the pain and these murders. I saw their faces. It's like they couldn't know what they were doing. Hopefully they couldn't feel anything.

Water starts spitting into my face. Water falls into the pit, flowing in via a hose from the surface. Kassandra peers down, her skin peeling from the few rays of sunlight that flow in.

"Sentinel," I groan, activating my earpiece.

"Yes?" he replies.

"Agent Sorrows is compromised."

"Help is already on the way. We won't let these Asian bastards-"

"She is doing this on her own."

"What do you mean?"

The pit begins to flood. The water is rising too fast.

"She was harvesting infected here. I think she was feeding off them!"

"Where is she now? Where are you?"

The water wants all of me. It's greedy.

"I don't have much time left, Sentinel."

"Felix, you're going to be okay. Just sit tight."

"Tell Kassandra... Nothing you do could ever make me hate you."