Standing in the same room he woke in, he peered outside through a small slit of cloth, light just barely creeped into the room from the slit. He watched as the people below him went about their day. Shar ta'ak came in and stood opposite of the room. "I have to get back to my people" Jared said as he watched the street below. "You said your base was attacked. Where are you going to go?" Shar ta'ak asked. Jared sighed and turned away from the window "anywhere, I'm too far behind the lines. This is Hand of the Prophet territory, if they catch me, who knows what they'll do" he responded holding his ground he realized his hands had tightened to a fist and loosened them. Shar ta'ak took a few steps closer. "I can help, I have a few weapons, meant for defense and are old but they work." he motioned for him to follow, Jared followed. They entered a part of the house he hadn't seen before the room was nearly pitch black, he lit a candle and carried further into the dark room he opened a small chest and pulled out a small carbine and a plasma pistol. "I need one for protection but you can have either one" he said holding both out. Jared reached out and grabbed the plasma pistol. "I don't want to take your only protection against anyone" he said opening the top heat shield and inspecting it before closing it. "I will leave tonight, right after the sun sets." Jared walked out the room, Shar ta'ak followed him out. He approached a window on the opposite side of the room and opened a slit in the cloth covering it. "Still a few hours before dark" Shar ta'ak said moving towards the main room with his family. Jared followed behind him and sat down on a small cushioned chair, separated from the others, out of respect rather than prejudice. Still feeling like a burden and a risk he sat in silence as the family conversed between each other. Jared sat watching the child play with a small trinket. "Isn't it hard to see families like this, living in fear." Cato asked, her presence mad his spine feel cold. "I'm not sure what to think." he thought in response. "How so?" she replied. "Well look, none of them seem to be in terror or scared, the only one given it thought was the father. And even then" his facial expressions shifted and he began to have a blank stare. "Everything alright?" the father asked plainly. "Uh-of course" Jared stood up and walked into the kitchen. Standing by the table where he once laid, blood staining a corner. "I don't want to be a burden to your family. I need to get out of here as fast as i can." he said leaning against the table, to show how big these creatures really were, the table was up past his stomach. Silence filled the room Cato sent her general cold shiver down his neck "This would be the best time to leave. The sun is almost down, we won't have much to go off of to get out of the city by then." she said. Jared let out a sigh "i guess you're right" he said before walking into the living room towards the door. Not making eye contact with any of the family members. He opened the door, peering both sides. Before he could take his first step into the empty street he was pulled back inside. "That's how you get caught" the sangheili said closing the door. "Follow me" they walked towards the rear of the house. "Here" he said lifting up a small tattered carpet revealing a trap door. 'How do you get the time to build one of these, let alone the idea to' Jared thought before opening it "where's it lead?" he asked, "near the outskirts, don't think you're out of the city when you get there, that's the farthest i could go without risking getting caught." he said before closing the door on Jared. Dust settled on and around him as the carpet covered the trap door. "And i thought it couldn't get worse, it's pitch black. Cato?" he said lifting up his hand, her figure phased in, casting light on the walls around him. He shrugged "better than nothing" he said and began walking. "So now I'm an expensive flashlight?" she responded looking in front of them, casually glancing at him. He remained silent to her comment. Traversing the long hall took what felt like ages. The sand around them had been compacted but the lightest brush could send a substantial amount of sand to fall. Luckily since the tunnel was planned for sangheili, Jared could pretty much stand and not hit the roof of the sides.
Eventually reaching the end of the tunnel. Nothing covered it but a piece of sheet metal. The sky above the hole was nearly pitch black. He hefted himself out of the hole and crouch walked to a wall adjacent to a street. The street was littered with oddities of trash. "Should call it the shanties the way how i see it" he thought, "well not everyone get the glory" Cato responded in his head. He began running alleyway to alleyway staying in the shadows. The darkness helped and hindered his progression, occasionally tripping over something either in the streets or the alley. He made it to the end of the road. Across the street perpendicular to the on he had been going across stood a wall, not a strong wall, but rather a well defended one. "Man why can this be like them games kids play nowadays? The walls always have some sort of hole in them" he thought. Cato sent a shiver "maybe if you'd ask nice enough someone might help you" she said slightly annoyed "i'm here for a reason" "alright scan then, please?" he responded in thought. "There's one entrance to the west of the wall. Granted it is the checkpoint but it's the only one" Cato responded. "How deep is the wall? Can i dig below it?" he asked. She remained silent. "Guessing that's out of the question" he thought and sprinted across the street into the ditch on the opposite side. Mud coated his pants. He shrugged it off, it was the least of his problems. He began sprinting to the checkpoint. Small lights illuminated the area. "There's only three of them from what i can tell" Cato said "well it could've been worse" Jared thought. A vehicle came to the checkpoint, stopped, then was let through. The vehicle drove past Jared hiding in the ditch "any clue how to get through this?" he asked Cato "well best solution is to sneak past" she responded. He remained silent in disagreement of her suggestion, sneaking wasn't going to work and he needed blunt force. "Power of the plasma pistol combined with something heavy enough to knock one of these fuckers out should do" he thought and began searching through the ditch for something hard. He eventually found a rock the size of his head. He snuck up closer to the checkpoint, now less than fifteen meters from his first soon to be victim he charged the pistol. The bright green glow mad the elite turn to face him. But the elite was too slow, the green blast struck the elite disabling his shields and burning a hole through his armor. The elite stumbled backwards, the rock struck the elite directly in the back of his head, falling backwards like a rag doll. Jared struggled to drag the body into the ditch. By the time he got the elite in the ditch and covered another approached and called out for his friend. "Bad day for you" he said out loud. The elite turned to face him the plasma pistol already charged, the ball hit him before he could yell out for help, staggering back like the last. Instead of hitting the elite with the rock he used the carbine from the other elite to place a round through his skull, the blue blood from the elite sprayed against the wall behind him and the elite dropped like jelly. The final elite yelled for back up and rushed to the scene of the now two dead sangheili. Jared used this time to slip past and get past the gate. After hopping the small gate placed he sprinted far away from the checkpoint. Having to drop the carbine to continue running he kept his hand clenched on the pistol nearly tripping over mounds of sand and rock as he ran. His body begged him to stop but he knew he couldn't and wouldn't, not till he was safe. After running a great distance, he could no longer see the checkpoint rather than just a small dim light he began to walk and cool off. The star speckled sky with their moons the ground was dimly lit as he walked. "I made it out of there, now where to?" he said over his huffs and lifted up his hand. Instead of Cato appearing a map phased over his hand "we are here" Cato said. A red dot over a blue map blinked. "Head west. Around the mountain then towards the city of Bdaoro City. That's the rendezvous position for the attack." she responded. He stopped turned to face west and began walking. The direction was still away from the city so it didn't bother him. "I need to sleep, if at all eat. I should've grabbed food before i left." he said he went searching for shelter and a place to hide for the night. Over a half an hour later he found a small wooden shack that had nearly been blown over and covered by sand. He opened the door to the small shack and stepped inside. The shack had nothing but a bench and a cabinet. Jared opened the cabinet to find it empty. He sat down across from the door and slowly drifted asleep.