Chapter 5 – Burnt Out

Alice and Donnie were standing high up, on top of the watchtower. Alice was leaning on the banister, looking north, while Donnie was sitting on the floor, leaning back, trying not to fall asleep. It's been a long night. Meanwhile, Doyle was asleep on the floor, using his damaged jetpack as a pillow, while DOC-27 had gone down to the camp to help out.

"Hey, Alice" - Donnie said after a long yawn. "What time is it right now?"

"2:40. A little bit more and it'll be his turn for watch duty and then we can go down and catch some Zs."

"20 minutes? Dang it, that's like forever when you're trying not to fall asleep." – Donnie yawned again. "Wish this place had coffee machines. It's not fair, Mandark's Airship has a couple of them on it and there's even one at our Plumber camp. Why did Providence have to go all cheapskate?"

"Well, funding has been a bit hard to secure for Providence after the end of the Nanite event. Bobo once told me this camp was a "used banana peel dump" compared to the outposts Providence had built right outside Abysus. So the luxuries of hot water and coffee machines is something we were denied, I guess." - Alice answered.

"Heh. That sounds about right. So who's Bobo?"

"Oh yeah, I guess you wouldn't know him. Bobo Haha, one of the Special Agents. He's a talking chimpanzee. But he's been MIA for a couple of weeks now, and we've had no luck in finding him so far." – Alice answered.

"A talking chimpanzee? Haven't met one of those before. We had all sorts of weird aliens up in the satellite HQ, but no, um… Yeah, no chimpanzees." After a pause, he added "Does he drink coffee?"

"Haven't seen him do it. Not that he'd get any over at this outpost, anyway. But honestly, Bobo's antics energized by coffee is both frightening and hilarious to think about." – Alice laughed. Donnie obviously didn't get it, so she added "You'll know what I mean when you meet him."

"But if he's been MIA for weeks, what if he's…"

"Who, Bobo? Nah, There's no way he's dead. He can look after himself. You'll see."

"Well, if you say so..." – Donnie shrugged. But he didn't seem too sure – the Darklands was a very dangerous place, after all.

They kept silent for a couple minutes.

"You know, I don't really need coffee right now anyway, think the adrenaline from the battle is enough to..." - she gave out a long yawn - "keep me up all night".

"Yeah, sure. Wish Captain Calan didn't put me on guard duty though, it's boring as hell and I'm trying my hardest not to fall asleep. You think I definitely have to obey his orders?" – Donnie asked. Alice turned her head around towards him. "I mean, I'm not technically a Providence agent…"

"I don't know, we might be beyond organizations and ranking officers at this point. If we're really cut off from the mainland, we're on our own. Stranded, marooned. Whatever. And if Calan's right and there's another attack incoming tonight, well, right now we're even cut off from the rest of the Darklands as well. If that wasn't enough, the comms aren't working, so even if the reinforcements, if there are any, could arrive tonight, we can't call on them. You can go ahead and disobey Calan's orders, I guess, but he's only doing it for all our sakes." - Alice answered. "And also, Calan would probably rip your head off for slacking. I've seen him do it." - she added with a smile.

Donnie gave out a small squeak. "Yeah, alright, I don't think I was really THAT sleepy anyway" - he got up and stood next to Alice, looking over to the north. A lot of people were running around the camp. From up here they looked like an ant colony. Some were going outside the gate, others were running between the barracks, walls and the storage cellar. Alice looked over at the medic's tent. So many people got injured in the battle that they didn't fit inside the tent and were lying on the ground outside. She saw a pair of Agents carrying something from there towards the gates.

"You really think we're still in danger?" - Donnie asked. "I mean… It's been like 3 hours since the first attack ended. Wouldn't they have attacked already if they were going to?"

"Calan thinks it's best if we stay on guard for tonight. We know this attack was planned by Fusion Courage, and that… creature is pretty fucked in the head. Like, it's sadistic."

"Well, yeah. Pretty much all of the Fusions are like that. You don't want to see the stuff the Fusion Eds were doing around Hero's Hollow before the SACT was able to stop them" - Donnie said.

"No, dude, most Fusions are still content with just getting their job done for Fuse. It often involves mass murder, yes, but Fusion Courage is different. It's like, it wants to see how much he can make us suffer before he kills us all. Like a cat toying with prey, you know?"

"Well, in this case, a dog." - said Doyle, who had just woken up. "What's the situation?" – he asked as he got up and put on his "pillow" on his back.

"Nothing new" – Alice said and yawned again.

Donnie looked at his wrist, but he wasn't wearing a watch. He took Alice's arm and looked at the NanoCom at her wrist. It was 3:04. "Finally." – he gave a sigh of relief. "I'm gonna go have a lie down. You coming?" – he asked Alice as he started descending the stairs.

"Hold on. We should find someone else to keep an eye on him just in case he falls asleep during his shift." – she answered while jerking her head towards Doyle and followed Donnie down the stairs.

"So. Still alive, huh?" - Noah asked. Fortier did not respond. They were walking on the wall surrounding the outpost, on patrol.

"I told you we could do it. You just need more faith in this, Fortier." - Noah kept going.

"Faith? You think all Jackson or Infantino need is more faith? What about Szeles, Nixon? You really think that?"

"Look, I just-"

"And I told you. Even if we don't all get killed tonight, we're still gonna be stranded in the middle of the Darklands, with no communications, cut off from the mainland and miles away from anyone else helpful. We are all going to die. Better accept that, Nixon. There's nothing left for us out here."

"That's not entirely true" - Noah said. Fortier glared at him. Noah thought he looked more irritated with him than angry. "We can at least make sure we take down as much of them as we can before we bite the dust." - Noah went on.

"Hmph. On that, we can agree, at least." - Fortier replied. He muttered something else to himself. Noah didn't catch what he said but he wasn't exactly keen on continuing this conversation.

They kept going in silence. Other Agents passed them by as they went on along the camp. To their right, was the outpost. "Still standing, for now…" - Noah thought. "I wonder how much longer is this place gonna last, if we do survive tonight?" To their left were the Fireswamps. Lava streams, jets of fire, burning oil, an occasional withered plant. Monsters, however, were nowhere to be seen. Noah and Fortier reached the north-west corner of the camp and turned to the right. Now Noah could see a couple of Agents who were outside, carrying a body bag. "Could Fortier be right?" - He thought to himself, but then he decided to try not to think about that. "These kinds of thoughts will not only get yourself killed, you'll put everyone else who's depending on you in harm's way as well" – he told himself. Then he looked at his watch.

"2:42 AM. I'm not usually on night guard duty. This feels a bit weird." - Noah thought to himself. "Oh well. Calan did say we needed every soldier that could stand for tonight. He knows what's best. There is a lot of work to be done tonight anyway, even without the guard duty. Yeah. Instead of going to sleep after my shift is over I should go over and help out some other way."

It was 2:55 AM now. They had gone around the camp a couple of times in silence. Then, the medic's tent caught Noah's attention. "Wonder how's Maison doing tonight? I can't imagine this must be easy for her. That body bag can't be the only one tonight. And she was the one who had to take care of them before they died. Even more people on her conscience. Can May really take that? And not even just that, there's also the injured. Cindy as well… I'm gonna ask her boyfriend to talk to her if I see him later. She's gonna need his support." He looked over to where the communications dish was, but it was obstructed by one of the guard towers. Noah looked up. "Oh, hey, Alice is up there. That Plumber dude we met earlier tonight is with her too. They got stuck with the early guard shift as well? Heh. They have a better view than me, at least. Don't have to put up with…" He looked at Fortier in front of him. "Maybe I'll hang out with them after the guard shift is over, unless they decide to go to sleep."

Noah looked to the other side of the wall again. "Still no sign of any monsters. This doesn't feel… I guess Calan's right. The night isn't over yet."

Calan was sitting in the Captain's quarters. It was dimly lit by a table light. A detailed map of the Fireswamps and the Firepits was on the desk in front of him, a broader map of the entire island was pinned up on the wall to his left. A monitor was on Calan's desk. Calan had opened the file on Fusion Courage and was looking at the screen, his eyes moving frantically, but he wasn't really taking in a single word of that file. His mind was racing elsewhere.

Calan remembered the time he was at a Providence outpost in a remote jungle just outside of the Abysus border. Back then, Providence had better resources and more men. He remembered the day a bunch of Van Kleiss' EVOs raided the camp. They were cut off from the other camps, comms were down and there was no chance of calling for backup. No Rex to save the day, either. Calan couldn't help thinking how similar that day was to this one. They were all slaughtered that day, all because of a single moment where Calan hesitated. In reality, it might not have been completely his fault, but in his mind, all of this was definitely on him. The five remaining survivors of the camp, including him, wandered around the jungle for days before coming across a settlement, and two of them died before they reached it.

Calan knew that he was responsible for all of this, but surprisingly, he was not demoted for it. He was not held accountable. An oversight on White Knight's part, probably. The only reason he didn't quit Providence that day himself was because he knew that there would come another day when he would be put in a similar situation. A single moment that would decide everything. Ever since then he's been waiting for this moment because that was the only way to fix his mistake. He promised himself that he wouldn't hesitate this time, he thought about it almost every day but now that he realized that that moment was coming, Calan wasn't sure if he'd be able to do it. Suddenly, he realized that he was shaking.

"That day has come" - Calan said to himself. "All this time, I knew it would, so why am I only afraid now?" He ran his hand over his nose and felt his own scar. "It is inevitable…"

"Captain Calan?" - someone came inside. Calan didn't need to turn around, he recognized Noah by his voice.

"Nixon. Anything happening out there?"

"No, sir, there's nothing. Still no sign of the enemy."

"Well, what is it, then?"

"Nothing, sir. I just…" – Noah stopped, he didn't know how to explain it.

"Get back to your post, solidier." - Calan said, without even turning around.

"Sir, I was on guard duty for the first half of the night."

"Then go rest up, you're gonna need your strength in the morning."

"Actually, sir, I-"

"What is it?" – Calan finally turned around.

"I don't feel too tired, so I just wanted to ask you if you needed me for anything else."

Calan considered something for a moment. Then he told Noah "Everything's under control. You can go to sleep. You've earned it tonight."

"Yes, sir." – Noah left.

Calan turned back to the monitor. He wanted to keep thinking about the upcoming decision, the inevitability, his own fear… But his mind kept coming back to what just happened. Noah kept piling more things to do on himself for the good of the camp. Even he probably couldn't explain it, but Calan knew what it must have been. He kept thinking. For the first time in a while now Calan saw one the other Agents as something other than a subordinate or a soldier - everyone at the outpost was a part of a brotherhood, something bigger than themselves. Not just Nixon, everyone. Calan now realized why exactly he had to make the call. He had been looking at it wrong for all these years. "Guilt be damned…" – he muttered. Calan wasn't gonna do it to fix his own mistake, redeem himself, clear his conscience. No, none of that, it was to save everyone else. He was so proud of his newfound sense of direction that he didn't even realize he wasn't shaking anymore.

It was 4:47 AM. Doyle saw a massive blur in the distance, moving on the ground. Calan felt the tremors. Noah heard the thuds, growing louder every second. Everybody knew - the second wave was coming.

Calan turned the alarm on and ran outside. He didn't even have to give the order the Agents to do anything, everyone was assuming their battle positions and even the ones asleep in the Barracks started rushing out, battle ready. This time they were more or less prepared – Calan explained the defensive formation they would take should the enemy strike again.

Alice, Noah and Donnie, who hadn't gone to sleep after all, were already positioned near the north-east corner. DOC-27 was with Doyle on the guard tower. Agents Thompson and Alvarez were in the north-west turrets, just like before, but Agent Morrison, who saw what happened to Agent Infantino with his own eyes, refused to man the turret again, so Helzinger had to do it instead of him. Fortier was in the middle of the western wall, but he was one of the only ones. Last time, the monsters attacked from the north, and a small force came from the south. It would have been foolish of Calan to think that the enemy would repeat their attack strategy, so he ordered most of the soldiers to stand ready at the corners in order to assist the eastern or western walls should the enemy attack there. Soon, everyone could see the force coming from the north. They were led by Tar Titans, just like last time. Only now, it was just five of them. The Agents on the turrets knew how to take them down this time, however. They all focused on one of the Titans. "Donnie, fire at the one everyone else is firing at!" – Noah shouted, his voice barely audible over the sounds of a hundred guns and launchers firing. "Yeah, I saw what they did last time, I was here too, you know!" – Donnie shouted back. Everyone else was doing the same and so, even though they were one turret short, all of the Tar Titans were taken down before the rest of the monsters even got close to the wall.

"That was surprisingly easy…" – Alice thought.

"This will be a piece of cake!" – Donnie said to himself, but no one heard him over the gunfire.

"DON'T STOP FIRING NOW!" – Noah shouted.

Then they all heard Calan shout – "Enemy Lizards incoming to the eastern wall! Move your asses over there!"

They all looked over to the left. A horde of Lizards had managed to sneak up on them while they were firing at the Tar Titans and Miasma Hulks to the north. There was no time to check, but Noah was sure that the situation was the same to the west too. The lizards were almost at the wall. The troops started firing at them, but it was too late – the Lizard Kings and Lizard Queens had reached the walls and started digging under them. A bunch of them went up in an explosion, which Noah and Alice recognized as a Tactical Bio-Plasma Cannon blast. Despite Doyle's help, it still felt like their forces were too divided. Calan was ordering more and more people to defend against the Lizards, but as a result the Miasma Hulks kept coming closer.

The situation was similar on the western wall as well. Fortier was firing at the Lizard Kings with a blind rage. Fix was right next to him, but unlike Fortier, each shot was calculated and well-timed. Thompson at the north-eastern corner turned the turret around to take down the Lizards as well, but that didn't stop them from making through. Several of them managed to dig through and got within the camp's perimeter. They started running rampant, attacking everything in sight. Several people from the towers had to jump down from the towers to fight them off. The Miasma Hulks made it to the wall and started throwing fireballs again, while the Lizards made it inside on the eastern border as well. Noah was pushed to his edge. He always performed better in an actual battle than in practice, but now, he felt like he was on top of his game – shooting at the Lizard Queens without missing, dodging fireballs. Still, this was not the time to be satisfied with his own performance, because the battle was as intense as ever. Alice summoned Nano Rex and was stunning Lizards left and right, while Noah was shooting them. Noah thought of saying "Hey, this little dude looks like someone I know", but this was no time for quips and banter. The Lizard Queens that made it inside the camp now targeted the medic's tent. Noah tugged on Alice's sleeve and pointed at the tent. "Holy shit, Maison! Come on!" – Alice shouted and Noah and Alice jumped inside the outpost walls.

Those of the injured outside the tent who were still conscious managed to get up and start firing at the monsters, at least from a sitting position. Maison was also there, frantically firing at the Lizards with an Antacid Gun but her hand was shaking and her aim was off. "NO!" – she shouted as one of the Lizard Queens bit Agent Zebedee's left arm off. Zebedee managed to finish the monster off with the Suction Laser in her right arm, but collapsed immediately right after, and Maison ran up to her to try to stop the bleeding. A Lizard King was heading towards them, but Maison didn't even notice it – she was dead set on saving Zebedee's life. Alice and Noah were already running to her, but they couldn't reach her in time and they couldn't shoot the monster without risking hitting Maison. The Lizard King was inches away when it exploded into green goo. Noah looked over to see who did it, but Alice couldn't move. The sight of Maison hunched over, about to die, wouldn't leave her mind.

The saving shot came from the tent – Cindy List, the Agent who warned the camp of the incoming attack right before collapsing outside the Providence outpost walls, had woken up. She dropped the Pinto Cannon, tried to walk over to Maison, but fell down on her knees. Noah ran over to help her. Meanwhile Alice snapped out of it and ran to check up on Maison, but she hadn't even realized that she had been in danger and so, Alice decided not to tell her. By now, Zebedee's condition was somewhat stable.

Noah helped Cindy get to Alice and Maison. They just now saw that Cindy had woken up. "Oh my god, Cindy, you're okay!" – Maison shouted and hugged her. "Someone get her off me, this is really painful" – was the only thing Cindy managed to say while Maison was squeezing her tightly. Noah and Alice couldn't do it, however, as more monsters were heading their way.

"Whew" – Cindy sighed when Maison finally let her go. "A bit longer and I would have been out cold for a couple days more."

"Sorry about that" – Maison apologized. "I've just been too worried about you."

"Although, judging by the circumstances, I'd rather be back in the tent, lying half-dead right now" – Cindy added after looking around. "I was woken up by that damn alarm and the gunfire, but I couldn't get up. I barely managed to crawl out of the tent, and, when I saw you in danger, yeah, you saw what happened". She picked up the gun again and tried to fire at a Miasma Hulk coming their way, but she was still too weak and fell back because of the recoil. Noah managed to kill the Hulk instead.

"I think that's all of them in this part of the camp" – he told Alice.

"Yeah, but if the Hulks are making over the walls now, we should help out north."

"What about the Lizards at the east?"

"Look! They aren't crawling under the walls anymore! Donnie and the others must have taken care of them!"

"Alright. Cindy, you stay with May and the other injured. Come on, Alice" – Noah said as he headed towards the northern wall.

The situation still looked bad – Miasma Hulks were climbing over the walls in the north-western corner of the camp. They had already destroyed the communications dish. Calan and several other fighters were shooting at them from behind the corners of the barracks to avoid incoming fireballs. Several Agents (including Doyle) from the top of the towers were shooting at them as well. Despite that, several Hulks had managed to get past them and attack other parts of the camp, just like the one that was heading towards the medic's tent.

"Nixon. Quickfeet. How's the situation?" – Calan asked Noah and Alice as they arrived. Noah went up the tower Doyle was in, while Alice stayed with Calan. "The monsters digging under the eastern wall were repelled. Medic's tent is secured, sir." – Alice reported.

"That's good. Derrickson reported the same thing on the western wall." – Calan said.

"So just the Hulks left then?" – Alice asked, then leaned around the corner and shot at the Miasma Hulks.

"So it would seem."

Noah got up to the top of the tower and joined Doyle and DOC-27. "Would you look at that. His highness Nixon finally blessed us with his presence!" – Doyle remarked while shooting at the Miasma Hulks at the bottom of the tower. Noah ignored him. DOC-27 pointed out "If you shoot 74 degrees to your right in a 28 degree downward angle, you will defeat the optim-" but Doyle interrupted him – "Yeah, yeah, DOC, I can see them" – and shot at crowd of Miasma Hulks still approaching the wall.

"Nice one. But I can do you one better" – Noah said with a smirk. "Oh really? Let's see it then?" – answered Doyle and handed him the Tactical Bio-Plasma Cannon. Noah aimed it at a cluster of Miasma Hulks trying to climb over the wall. "Yeah, it's hard for those Hulks to climb over that wall, so why don't you make it easier for them by blasting a damn hole through?" – Doyle went on.

"Shut up, I know what I'm doing" – Noah said. He fired and the explosion hit right outside the wall. Several Hulks were destroyed while others were knocked back. The wall itself, however, was not damaged in the slightest. "That should make it easier for the guys down there" – Noah thought.

"Oh, and you're welcome for the save earlier, by the way" – Doyle added. Noah had to suppress the extremely strong urge to say "I totally had those back then".

The number of Miasma Hulks climbing over the walls dwindled and all the other monsters running amok in the camp were destroyed. Noah felt a sigh of relief because it seemed like they were gonna make it through after all, but at the same time he felt guilty for allowing himself to let loose this early.

Then Noah saw it in the distance. A black mass was clouding the night sky towards the north-west, and soon it was obvious that it was heading towards the camp. It took Noah a moment to figure out what was that but when he did… Cold sweat came over his entire body. He could feel his heart beating as hard as ever because… He realized the battle was lost.

Noah tried to shout, but nothing more than a quiet moan came out of his lungs. He hit Doyle on the shoulder and pointed at the incoming darkness. It took Doyle a second to figure out as well, but then he saw it.

"HOLY SHIT! BUGS!" – he looked at Noah. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! GET DOWN! WARN CALAN!"

Noah immediately dropped the weapon and bolted. He was skipping three stairs with each step, almost fell rolling down, but he made it to Calan.

"MASSIVE SWARM OF FUSIONFLIES IS HEADING TOWARDS US RIGHT NOW!" – Noah screamed at the top of his lungs.

"WHAT?!" – Calan was shocked. He knew that it had been too early for victory celebrations but he never expected anything like this. The walls of the camp were useless against the attacking Fusionflies, and they didn't have any defenses against flying monsters.

"What the hell does this mean? Why are the Fusionflies in the Fireswamps? This is not their ecosystem!" – Alice was talking to herself.

"Quickfeet, this is not the time for your Fusion ecology nonsense. You must-"

"The cellar!" – Alice interrupted Calan.

"What?"

"The cellar, the cellar! If all of us get in and wait out the attack, we can wait them out! They won't be able to take take the heat for long!"

"I see! The remaining monsters will demolish the camp in the meantime, but it's the only way any of us will be able to hold out against the attack. Well, don't just stand there! GO AROUND THE CAMP! ROUND EVERYONE UP! GET THEM HERE!" – Alice, Noah and several other Agents ran off.

Alice immediately headed towards the medic's tent to help Maison and the injured.

"What's happening?" – Cindy asked.

"We need to get everyone to the cellar. Come on! Anyone who's feeling fine, help someone who can't stand on their own. We need to get everyone to the cellar! Quick!" – Alice explained as she helped Agent Zebedee up. Cindy and Maison started helping the others.

"This one's still unconscious!" – Cindy shouted. "You'll have to carry him!" – Alice told her. "Carry him? I can barely stand myself! Hold on…" – Cindy answered as she tried to wake the Agent up.

Meanwhile, Noah got to the Captain's quarters and got the megaphone. "EVERYONE! ABANDON YOUR POSTS! EVERY AGENT GET TO CAPTAIN CALAN AT THE BARRACKS! I REPEAT! GET TO THE BARRACKS!" – he was shouting while running around the camp. He got to the northern wall. Meanwhile, the swarm of Fusionflies reached the camp and started descending. All of the Agents saw what was happening. Most of them listened to Noah and ran towards the camp, some had decided to stay at the wall to try and hold the monsters off. Agent Helzinger, however, had apparently decided that it was now safer outside the camp walls than inside, so he abandoned the turret and jumped off outside the walls and ran away from the outpost, with his hands covering his head.

Noah looked around. Barely anyone was left on the walls, except one figure to the east – it was Donnie! He was having so much fun, finally managing to aim right and destroying all of the remaining Miasma Hulks that he didn't even notice the approaching swarm, nor did he hear Noah running around the camp with the megaphone. Only when Noah shouted "DONNIE! GET OUT OF THERE!" he realized what was going on. He jumped off the wall into the camp and ran south along the wall. He turned around and tried shooting the bugs while running backwards, but stumbled and fell down. His gun was knocked away from him, and before he managed to get up and grab it several Fusionflies snatched him up into the air. In a matter of seconds they tore him apart. It was over. Noah was too far away to help, and he knew that if he tried to approach he would attract the Fusionflies' attention and he'd be next. He had to ignore what had just happened and keep running to the barracks, to Calan. Yeah. Calan would know what to do.

Meanwhile, on top of the guard tower, Doyle was still there, firing at the Fusionflies, thinning out the horde. His aim was so well that the Fusionflies in the sky around the tower were not able to reach him. However, there were still a couple Miasma Hulks running around below, and they had set the foundation of the tower on fire. Doyle smelled the burning wood, but when he realized what was going on it was too late, the tower was already in motion, falling on its side. Doyle jumped off and reflexively activated his jetpack, not realizing it was broken. The jetpack gave out an explosion of fire that lasted for two seconds and immediately went out. However, it was enough for Doyle to survive the fall. The tower collapsed on its side, burying what was left of the communications dish under it and almost reaching the two barracks buildings. There was no way DOC-27, who was also in the tower with Doyle, survived the fall. Doyle managed to get up, but he could feel that he was bleeding. He limped towards the narrow gap between the two barracks, as he saw that everyone else was heading there. Meanwhile, the other Agents behind him were getting snatched up one by one, and he heard the one of the other guard towers fall as well.

Captain Calan was right outside the gap, telling everyone to go into the cellar. The entrance to the storage cellar was right in the middle of the two barracks, in the narrow gap. One by one, the Agents entered the cellar that stored both the weaponry and the entire food supply of the camp. However, a lot of people were getting attacked before they could reach it, and Calan was doing his best to cover them, but it still wasn't enough. Noah arrived soon, but instead of getting in the cellar, he stayed outside and helped Calan fend off the swarm of Fusionflies. Doyle wanted to help, but he was too injured so Calan ordered him to get inside. One of the Agents got snatched up by a Fusionfly, but with amazing precision, Noah shot it down and the Agent fell to the ground, almost unharmed.

Despite all of their efforts, only twenty or so people made it to the cellar. "Is that everyone?" – Calan asked Noah. "I think that's… Wait, no, there's a group approaching from the medic's tent!"

Alice, Maison, Cindy and the other injured still hadn't made it to the cellar. They were moving slowly, as a lot of them were limping, or needed support to walk. Now that almost everyone else had made it to the cellar, they would become the main target of the swarm.

"They'll never make it!" – Noah said.

Calan realized what he had to do. This was what he was waiting for. No hesitation this time. "Give me your gun, Nixon"

"What?"

"YOUR GUN! NOW!" – Calan yelled. He ran in the opposite direction of the injured, screaming at the top of his lungs and shooting out of both his own and Noah's guns wildly. It worked. He attracted the monsters' attention. Calan shot down as many as he could, but he was just one man. Yelling "CAPTAIN CALAN! NO!" – was all Noah could do as he saw another one of his comrades get lifted into the air by the Fusionfly horde. Luckily, Calan bought Alice, Maison and the injured enough time to reach the gap between the barracks. After Noah led everyone into the cellar and got inside himself, he got one final look at the night sky before closing the hatch. It had started turning light blue. It was dawn.

End of Chapter 5.