The Last One Standing

Chapter 4

I swim through those sewers all the time when I sneak into the Dark City.  My stomach feels like it's about to shut down and explode as I swim more in the filthy sewer water.  This water actually reminds me that it still has waste from 8 years ago, plus all the garbage that the Dark ones probably recycle in those sewers. I occasionally swim underwater as much as possible to avoid the putrid smell on the outside and only resurface to breathe. Swimming kind of reminds of the times when my father, Quentin, I think his name was, took me and my younger brother, Neil  to Miami in the summers. I would always jump and dive in the ocean all the time, only resurfacing to check that my father was still there and breathe. While underwater, I would study the fish swimming around me and set records on how much I could hold my breath. I sigh. God I miss those times, when the world was a happy place, no war, no evil, just peace, and now I 've been living like a rat for the past 8 years, hiding from the Dark ones. I let go of the thought and continue swimming.

After a few minutes, I resurface and find a gate on a platform in front of me. I climb out of the water and try open the gate. Locked. Of course.

I pry the gate open with my climbing axe and start to jog down the maze of tunnels ahead of me, holding my climbing axe in one hand and holding a blue glow stick in my other one. Then at some point, I hear a moan in the distance with footsteps coming after it. I freeze and sprint to nearby small drainage tunnel and crouch down. Dark ones.

I remain absolutely silent as two Dark ones, both holding laser guns patrol pass the drainage tunnel I am crouching under. Just as they turn around the corner and disappear, just when I think it is safe to come out, five more come patrolling the tunnel. My hands start to shake and sweat dripples all over my forehead as I get more nervous. Based from my experience, the Dark ones don't patrol the sewers much and when they do, they are only like two Dark ones patrolling the whole sewer system. But why are there so many patrolling them now?

I look around the drainage tunnel and I realize it's a dead end. Which means the only way of getting out of the sewers and onto the streets is to apply my invisible spray and go through the crowd where the Dark ones are patrolling. 

I get out my invisible spray and spray myself. I wait for a moment for it to take effect and I come out of the drainage tunnel and start to go through the crowd of Dark ones patrolling, me being invisible.

A  nervous chant of "I am almost there, hold on" keeps chanting through my head as I go through the crowd. I have only been in a Dark ones crowd once, when I was 13, to get out of the Dark City because the streets were full of Dark ones doing some kind of parade to celebrate the 6th year since they wiped humanity off the planet. I ignore the memory and continue through the crowd when a Dark one shouts at the back:

"I smell human! "it says

"Don't be stupid, we exterminated all of humanity a long time ago. It's impossible that there's anyone left." says another

"Well I smell one among us!"

I think of only two words: Holy Crap.

Before I start to walk faster in through the crowd to get out, I hear waves of water rushing from around the corner. And I am right. A huge wave of filthy sewer water rushes from the corner and hits the crowd, sending Dark ones flying around. Much to my luck the waves brings good news and bad news. Good news: I will be a able to get out of the sewers. Bad news: I don't have much time until my invisibility wears off once I am in contact with water.

The water starts to fill the tunnels all the way to the top and I hold my breath as I dive down and start swimming quickly to a sewer lid I spot. Before I can reach it though, a series of strong currents come out of nowhere, slamming and pulling  me and the Dark ones around the tunnels. I try to swim through the currents, but they are a hundred times stronger and push me back. Some of the Dark ones drown and start to float around motionless, and while I am pushed back by the incredible force, I managed to grab with my axe a rung on a ladder and hold with all my strength. I get lucky and there is a sewer lid above me. Before I try reach it, fighting through the currents, a Dark one grabs my invisible foot and it holds on to me like I'm some kind of barrier. I grab my laser gun and shoot it dead. I look at my hand as it starts to become visible and so does my arm. I stop thinking about becoming visible because I have to get the sewer lid above me open or I will drown in those sewers. And that's what I do. Struggling to open the sewer lid, I manage to get it open and climb out, gasping for air.

                                                                                          ****

I find myself standing between two dark blocks. I look around and see that one of the blocks has fallen concrete. Typical but useful. Every building in the Dark City is dark, half damaged and a thousand lights on it. Occasionally there are holographic portraits up in the sky, representing the big leader of the Dark Ones, Darkles, the leader of the city, Dex and their government officials. Even the thought of thinking about them angers and disgusts me. Nothing but cruel creatures beyond limits that only know how to take and destroy. I crouch down and walk into the shadows to get a better look at what's the end of the street. As I get closer, I see from the shadows that Dark ones patrol the streets as well. I am not surprised by that because that's what they usually do. I jump on the wall where the concrete has fallen off on of the blocks, fit my climbing axe into it and start to climb up to the top.

When I reach the top, I lower my body a little bit and try to run through the shadows. I jump from building to building using my grapple as support. I stop jumping after about four buildings as I spot the Dark Headquarters ahead of me. I freeze there for a minute and fix my eyes on their headquarters. A large black and gray rectangle with guards patrolling the base. I've never been this close to it before, I think about turning back and returning to Nevada, but I can't. I have to find Mitchell. Before I can make another step, I hear and feel the ground beneath me shaking as it gets hot. In a flash, before I could run, the ground beneath me explodes, throwing me off the building and high into the air, so high that I fly past a building before hitting the ground. And when I collapse to the ground, I look down and I spot a bad wound in my stomach as I cover it up with my hand. I feel my eyes closing on me as I black out. Don't black out here, not now, the Dark ones will see you, I keep telling myself. Just before I black out, I see a very strange figure approaching me. It walks on two legs, but it's not a Dark one.  A wave of shock travels up my spine, then spreading all over my body. It is a human.