Chapter 26

Byzas, Thracia Province, Actium
May 6, 2545
1524

Selene

"RIDDLE, LOOK OUT!"

Selene glanced over her shoulder to see a stream of radioactive green fire headed her way.

And then everything went dark.

The next thing she knew, she was being dragged against the ground.

"FALL BACK, FALL BACK! ALL UNITS, FALL BACK!" someone was shouting in the background.

"Hang on Selene! Just hang on!" someone else yelled. Was that Kingsley's voice?

"Oh shit! On your left!"

She felt hot brass beginning to pelt her body, but for some reason, the roar of the gunfire seemed to be coming from far away. The world began to spin before her very eyes before everything went dark once more.

Selene cracked open her eyes.

Her head was bobbing up and down, like she was on a boat, but she couldn't smell any water. It took her addled brain more than a few seconds to realize what was going on: she was on someone's back. And that someone was running.

"You know, you'd probably run a lot faster if you just ditched her," someone was saying. Was that Shin's voice?

"I'M NOT LEAVING HER!" someone else yelled. That was definitely Kingsley.

"Then you need to find a way to pick up the pace: we're getting let behind!"

"I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO STAY WITH ME!"

"Yeah I - BEHIND YOU!"

Selene suddenly felt herself falling before she abruptly hit the ground. Gunfire began ringing out above her, followed by the bone chilling roar of a Covenant Elite, which in turn was followed by more gunfire. She could hear the shuffling of feet, yelling, someone screaming in pain in the background, but she couldn't tell what was going on. It was all too -

Selene woke up, feeling groggy as hell, like that time, back in high school, she had been confined to her bed due to a bad bout of mono. She didn't know where she was or what was going on. She heard what sounded like someone gagging in the background, but it ended before she could figure out what it was, so Selene instead focused on trying to find some answers. She had enough presence of mind to realize she was not currently lying in bed inside her probably-more-expensive-than-it-was-worth apartment, with her pet cat, Fig Mewton, curled up next to her, but aside from that, she couldn't figure anything else out. Which then begged the question: where in the heck was she?

Doing her best to shove away her exhaustion, Selene forced herself to sit up. The world started spinning, and she sat there for a moment, waiting for it to stop, before finally taking a look around. She was sitting on some hardwood floor, in some room she had never seen before, and dressed like she was ready to go on patrol. There were no windows to the room, only a single door in or out, but at least the lights were on. She could hear what sounded like thunder in the distance, but with no windows, she had no way of telling where it came from.

"Well. You are alive after all."

Selene couldn't help but jump at the unexpected voice. She whirled around, nearly collapsing because of how dizzy that made her, to see a vaguely familiar looking Oriental man sitting on what appeared to be an overturned trash can in the far corner, just staring at her. He was wearing what she recognized as a UNSC military uniform, but oddly enough, he was also wearing a standard issued BPD class IIIA ballistic vest, complete with the word "police" in white letters strewn across the front.

She frowned.

"Officer Selene Riddle: do you recognize me?" the man asked and Selene shook her head. "Take your time. It'll come to you. Getting knocked unconscious sometimes affects your short term memory."

Selene's frown deepened. Clearly the man knew her, which meant she should recognize him, but for some reason she just couldn't -

"Shin. Your name is Shin," Selene suddenly remembered.

Shin grinned and nodded. "Yep. You remember what happened?"

At once, everything started coming back to her. Jets flying through the air, evacuation procedures, Covenant landings...

"There was a firefight!" Selene exclaimed.

"If that's what you want to call it," Shin dryly commented. "I think I've been in battles that had less fighting than that but sure, we'll go with that."

"What happened?" Selene asked, barely paying attention. "And why do I feel so exhausted?"

"You got knocked out. Falling debris or something like that, I'm not sure," Shin patiently explained. "As to why you're exhausted, well..."

He jerked his head in the direction of the door and reflexively, she turned to see what he was looking at. Abruptly, she felt a prick on her arm.

"Ow! What the -"

She turned to see Shin had unexpectedly jabbed her in the arm with a needle. She stared at him in shock.

"What are you...?"

At once, adrenaline began surging through her veins, like she had just drunk an entire pot's worth of steaming hot espresso. Her heart began racing, beating at like a hundred thousand beats per second as all of her senses seemed to come alive. Selene practically felt like she was about ready to explode, and she found herself gasping for air.

"Feel better?"

"What the hell was that!?" Selene demanded as she started taking deep breaths in an attempt to slow her heart beat down.

Shin shrugged. "Beats me. Found it in some medkit."

"You just injected me with something and you didn't even know what it was!?" Selene exclaimed, outraged. "Do you know how fucking irresponsible that is!? That could have been toxic! Or I could have been, I don't even know, allergic or something!"

"Well, you're yelling at me, so that means you're not dying, nor does it appear that you're going into anaphylactic shock. I'd say you'll be alright," Shin calmly said, infuriating Selene even more.

"How can you be so calm about this - !?" she started to demand, but Shin held up his hand.

"You seemed to be very concerned about the past," he mildly chided. "You should be more concerned about the present. What's done is done. You're not dead, you're not breaking out into hives, so, let's move on. We've got other things to worry about.

As reluctant as Selene was to agree with him, unfortunately she knew Shin was right. There were other things to worry about. Mainly -

"Where are we?"

"City of Byzas."

Selene resisted the urge to throw something at him. "Yes, thank you, but I figured that out already," Selene snapped. "I meant specifically."

Shin shrugged. "Who knows? All the signs are gone and even if they weren't, it wouldn't have helped me very much: this is the first time I've ever set foot in this city. I was stationed aboard the UNSC Richard Bong," Shin reminded her. "The only reason why I'm here is because my ship was getting resupplied. And the only reason why my ship was here is because Actium was the rallying point for fleets that had been damaged during the Battles of Draco III and Newsaka. All I know is: at the moment, we're somewhere behind enemy lines."

Selene stared at him, shocked.

"Behind enemy lines - !?" she faintly began, but before she could enquire further, she suddenly noticed they weren't the only two people in the room. There was someone else laying in the corner just opposite to them. "Is that - KINGSLEY!"

Staggering upright, Selene dashed over to Kingsley. He looked terrible. Despite his dark skin tones, she could tell he was dangerously pale, nor did he appear to be breathing.

"What's wrong with him!?" Selene demanded to know as she started searching for a pulse, but her hands were far too numb for her to locate one.

"Heart attack, I think," Shin vaguely answered.

"A heart attack - !?" Selene incredulously repeated. "But Kingsley has never had any heart problems!"

Shin shrugged. "Doesn't matter. A Covenant attack of that intensity... well, the adrenaline rush alone is enough to cause some people's hearts to seize up. Your friend is not the first person to die because of something like that, I doubt he'll be the last."

"Die...?" Selene echoed. Tears began welling up in her eyes as she realized the truth: her boss, her coworker, her friend, was dead.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

"Oh god, his kids!" Selene exclaimed.

"What?"

"Kingsley had two kids: Remus and Nymphadora! How am I going to tell them their father is dead?" Selene gasped.

"Well, maybe you don't have to. Don't you cops have someone to go around telling people their families are dead? I know the Air Force does."

Selene glared at him through the tears in her eyes. "Do you not have a heart?" she demanded.

"I do, actually," Shin replied. "And as much as I would like to go around crying and screaming and... kicking at grass like the best of them, I unfortunately also have a practical mind. And that mind is telling me this is neither the time nor place for something like that. We're behind enemy lines Officer Riddle. I don't know if you have the context to be able to grasp what that means, but basically? You should be very scared right now."

Selene bowed her head. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Shin was right. Again. She couldn't afford to fall apart. Not now. Not when Kingsley had already done so much to make sure she had made it to this point.

Kingsley's eyes were already closed, but at the very least Selene could move his arms so they were crisscrossed over his chest. Leaning over, she kissed his forehead and whispered, "I'm sorry Kingsley."

"Why?"

She whirled on Shin, who lifted his hands in a placating gesture.

"I'm just saying: you weren't the one who killed him. Hell, you aren't even the reason he's here. He volunteered for this shit all on his own."

Selene gritted her teeth and shook her head, not wanting to hear anymore of Shin's reasonings. She had only known him for a few hours and yet she was already getting sick and tired of him.

"What's our plan for making it to safety?" she asked instead.

Shin grinned, and gave her a single nod of approval, one that instantly filled Selene with shame. "Now you're talking sense."

He pulled out a small piece of cloth covered in with what appeared to be inane scribbling. As he spread the cloth out on the ground, Selene realized that no, they weren't scribbles, it was just a poorly drawn map of the area.

"You'll have to forgive my chicken scratch," Shin began. "Art was never my strong point. I did some reconnaissance of the general area while I was waiting to see if you'd ever wake up again, and as far as I can tell, we're the only living things within a five block radius. That's the bad news. The worse news is, this is most definitely bad guy country. Covies got combat air patrols all over the place, as well as hunter-killer teams scattered throughout the area. And from what I can tell," Shin looked up, and Selene could see just how grim he looked, "the Covies are deployed in a search pattern: they're looking for something."

Selene felt the blood in her veins run cold. "'Looking for something'. Like, us?"

"Doubt it," Shin replied. "Unless you're someone more important than I realized. But, given that this is the Covenant, I doubt they would object to shooting a couple of lost humans in the face if they so happen to stumble upon them, so, we should probably avoid getting found."

Selene felt faint. "You said that was the 'worse news.' I assume that means there is some good news?"

"There is, actually," Shin brightly said. "Covie patrols finished their search of this grid 'bout ten, fifteen minutes before you woke up which means, I estimate there's about a fifteen minute window where no one is looking in this direction. That's the good news. The better news is: you hear that rumbling in the distance?"

"The thunder?"

Shin shook his head. "Not thunder. Artillery. That's good because that means the battle is still ongoing. If the battle is still ongoing, that means the city, and conversely, the colony, has yet to be lost. That means if we can make it to friendly positions, we can get extracted off this shithole. Unfortunately, that does mean we have to find friendly forces. Preferably one with a working radio."

"But you're in the military," Selene pointed out. "Couldn't we just find a radio, and you call someone to get us out?"

Shin shook his head. "First off, the military doesn't work that way. Second, I don't know any of the local frequencies, encryption codes, authentication sequences, or challenges for any of the units around here. Even if we did find a radio, no one would pick up. Last, well, like I said, unless you're someone important like a senator's daughter or something, even if we could get someone's attention, no one would bother to pick us up."

"Bottom line is," Shin concluded, "if we want to get out of this alive, we're going to have to do it ourselves. Together." He paused. "You with me?"

Selene sighed as the enormity of the task that laid in front of them hit her. She had no choice really. She was so out of her depth here, she wasn't sure she would have made it this far without him. She needed his help.

"What do we do first?"

Shin smile. Somehow, that made him look even creepier than he normally did. "First? We take inventory. We need weapons. Last thing we want to do is get into a pitched firefight against a Covenant patrol, but we should have something to defend ourselves in the event we get compromised. I ran out of ammo about half an hour ago. What do you have?"

"I think I still have my stun gun," Selene started to say as she reached down to her holster, only to feel nothing but air. Her holster was empty. She looked up to see a guilty look appear on Shin's face.

"Yeah... about that..." he awkwardly began. "Apparently Elites don't like it when you shoot them with over a hundred thousand volts of electricity. Found that out the hard way..."

"Okay..." Selene said, sensing a story, but not really wanting to know. She began patting herself down. "Then I guess I'm unarmed t- "

She paused as her hand brushed against a pistol grip of sorts. Reaching into her vest at the small of her back, she found her off-duty piece, her Caveria PX40 pistol. How it got there, she had no idea but as she drew it out, she was surprised to see that it was not only fully intact, but, as she ejected the magazine and checked the chamber, it was also fully loaded.

"Well, that's a start," Shin noted. "Not quite an M6, but at least we're getting somewhere. How'd you manage to hang on to that all this time?"

"I don't know, Kingsley must have made sure I had it, just in case," Selene whispered, awestruck. She bowed her head and whispered a word of thanks to Kingsley for his foresight. "It's completely intact too."

She regarded the pistol in her hand for a few moments, before coming to a decision. Sticking the gun back into her holster, she offered the entire package to Shin.

"You should take this," she reluctantly said. "You're probably a much better shot than I am. And I don't have any reloads so... we need to make sure every shot counts."

Shin glanced at her, then at the pistol, then calmly pushed the weapon back towards her.

"Keep it," he said simply. "It's your gun. Plus, I think you'll need it more than I will."

Selene wasn't sure if she should have been offended by that comment or not, but truth be told, she wasn't all that interested in arguing the point.

Bobbing her head, she stuck the weapon into her belt, feeling infinitely better knowing she was armed. Still, she couldn't help but feel guilty. She was armed, Shin wasn't. She patted herself down once more just in case she had another gun stashed somewhere, but unfortunately all she had left was her Asp.

"Here," she reflexively said, handing the Asp over.

Immediately she felt stupid. Let's see: gun? Or extendable baton? The two weren't even close to being the same caliber of weapons.

Still, Shin didn't seem to mind as he took the Asp without question.

"Thanks," was all he said. "Couldn't hurt."

Selene nodded. "So. What's next?"

"We figure out our escape route." Shin gestured at his map again. "Figured we got to go north. Covies were making landfall due south of us, plus that's the direction all the Cunt Munchers are running in."

"What ever happened to those guys?" Selene asked, looking around but not seeing any uniformed bodies.

Shin waved his hand dismissively. "Probably dead. Who cares? Anyways, key is to avoid detection. Out in the open, Covies have eyes and ears everywhere. Like fucking hawks. With laser guns. I figure our best bet is to do what moles do: go underground."

Selene blinked at the randomness of the analogy, but decided not to comment.

"Our best bet is the subway," Shin continued. "Figure, if this place is like any other city, then there's got to be several hundred klicks worth of tunnels running in all directions directly under the city. One of them is bound to be heading in the right direction."

Selene shivered. The idea of traveling through a dark confined tunnel just didn't sit well with her. She had been down there once, helping Metro PD look for a suspect that had tried to escape using the tunnels. It had been creepy as hell back then, even when she was searching alongside ten other officers and they had a full radio connection back to dispatch; she hate to think what it would be like now, during an alien invasion, with no one but Shin around.

But then again, it's not like she had any better ideas...

"Guess our next step is to find a way into the tunnels, huh?" Selene commented, doing her best to hide her unease. "Like a subway station or something."

"Oh, I already did," Shin triumphantly announced. "Found a subway station and a service entrance." He gestured at his map. "So, there's a subway station about two blocks east of us, and a service entrance about three blocks west of us. Despite being closer though, I'm thinking our best bet is the service entrance."

"Why?"

"Subway station is too open," Shin patiently explained. "Too many angles. Service entrance is a lot more discreet. We'll be able to get in and get out, with no one the wiser."

Selene thought about it for a moment. That... sort of made sense.

"When do we leave?" was all she said though.

"No time like the present. Plus, our window is closing," Shin announced, gathering up the map and tucking it inside his vest before pausing. "Unless... you've got a reason to delay?"

Selene glanced at Kingsley's body. "No," she mutely replied. "No I do not."

"Great! Let's go then," Shin said as he got up, slapping Selene on the arm. "I'll lead, you follow. Do exactly what I do and whatever I tell, when I tell you. Got it?"

Selene nodded.

Without another word, Shin walked over to the door. Pausing at the doorframe, he looked around to see if the coast was clear, before gesturing for Selene to follow. Throwing one last look at Kingsley, Selene left the room.

Once outside, Selene was startled to realize how cold it actually was. There must have been some sort of heater back in that room. Shivering, she was half tempted to walk back inside, but she that wasn't a possibility any longer. She had to press on.

As they swiftly but carefully made their way down the street, Selene took the opportunity to look around. The city was surprisingly more intact than she would have thought, especially given what was going on. That's not to say it was completely untouched: the buildings surrounding the street were showing signs of some serious damage, including broken windows and holes blown into walls. Plus, a large number of debris was clogging the streets and more than once, Selene and Shin found their path partially blocked by wrecked vehicles and craters blown into the pavement. Still, everything was still standing and nothing was on fire. Selene had seen more damage done when a TV news helicopter had accidently crashed into a skyscraper a few years ago.

Furthermore, there weren't any bodies. Obviously, as part of her job, Selene had dealt with her fair share of deceased people. Murders, bad car accidents, fires, even just accidental deaths, Selene had seen it all. Despite that, she never quite got used to seeing the sight of dead people, especially dead children, so she was a little more than grateful there were none now. That being said, she also had to admit it was a little unnerving; the complete lack of life, even recently deceased one, was rather unusual for a city this big and this dense, and made Selene wonder if she and Shin were the only ones still around. If that was the case, then that could be either good or bad: Selene just wasn't sure which one it was just yet.

"Here we are," Shin suddenly announced and startled, Selene looked up. Apparently she had been more distracted than she realized as they had already made it to their destination without her noticing.

They had arrived at what looked like a small concrete shed. There were no windows, only a couple of metal doors. The shed and the doors were completely unmarked, but Selene had seen one of these before and knew it was a service entrance to the subway tunnels below them.

Shin wrenched open one of the doors, revealing a small metal landing and a long flight of stairs going down into the darkness below.

Jamming a piece of brick in between the door and the frame, Shin suddenly turned to Selene.

"Are you ready to enter the lair of the beast?" he unexpectedly asked her in a dark voice, with a slightly unnerving grin on his face.

"That's... really creepy you know," Selene told him.

"Is it? Sorry," Shin replied, not sounding apologetic in the least bit. "Shut the door behind you, will ya?"

Without waiting for a response, he started down the staircase.

Selene shivered. She was starting to think this was a bad idea, following Shin. But then again, what choice did she have? And at the very least, she had a gun and Shin didn't, so if he tried to do anything, well, Selene would be able to defend herself.

Mind made up, she yanked the brick out from the door and followed Shin through and just barely managing to prevent herself from jumping as the door slammed shut behind her.

Inside, it was a lot warmer than she thought it would be. She could feel wind blowing up the staircase shaft and in the distance, she could also hear fans running. The lights were on, indicating the city, at least this part, still had power, which was good as now that Selene thought about it, she didn't have any night vision goggles or even a flashlight, which would have made navigating through the tunnels almost impossible. Maybe if they were really lucky, the maglevs would still be working, and they could ride the rest of the way to safety.

They reached the bottom of the staircase without incident, and Selene watched as Shin force open the doors leading into the tunnels itself. Pausing long enough for Selene to catch up, Shin entered the tunnels and without hesitation, turned left and started walking. Selene automatically followed, but after a few minutes of walking, she started thinking: they were supposed to go north. But how did Shin know which way north was? There weren't any signs.

Speeding up so that she could catch up to Shin, she grabbed his arm.

"Shin, wait a second."

"What's up?" Shin asked as he slowed down but kept walking.

"You said we need to go north, right?" Selene asked as she followed in his wake.

"I did."

"Well, how do we know the direction we're going right now leads north? I haven't seen any signs or any indications that this is the way we want to go. Are we sure we're going the right way?"

"This is the right way," Shin insisted.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Selene narrowed her eyes. "How?"

She could see Shin shrugging in the dim light. "I just am."

"Shin, stop!"

With an audible sigh, Shin came to a stop and turned around to face Selene.

"Yes?" he asked with obvious strained patience. Not that Selene cared.

"Shin. How do you know this is the right direction?" Selene insistently asked. "These tunnels stretch for kilometers, and if we take the wrong one, it could be hours before we realize. We need to be absolutely sure we're going the right way. So, again I ask: how do you know we're going in the right direction?"

Shin sighed. "Okay. You feel that breeze on your back?"

Selene nodded.

"That's the result of all the circulation fans inside the tunnels. You know, to keep the air moving so everyone traveling through here doesn't die from asphyxiation?"

"What about them?" Selene cautiously asked.

"Well, the fans are always installed so that the air flows from south to north. Ergo, if we feel the wind on our backs, we're going north. It's that simple."

Selene skeptically stared at him. "That sounds... completely wrong. But even if it isn't, how do we know this tunnel isn't going east to west? I presume in tunnels like that, the airflow wouldn't be going south to north?"

Before Shin could respond, all the lights suddenly went off, plunging the entire tunnel into darkness. Selene looked around, startled, but before she could react, someone grabbed her and shoved her against the wall. Reflexively, Selene started to shout, but then someone clapped their hand over her mouth.

"Quiet," Shin whispered into her ear. "Try to keep all noise to a minimum. I'm going to let you go. Are you going to shout and scream if I do?"

Picking up on Shin's alarmed state, Selene did her best to remain calm. As best as she could, she shook her head.

"Good."

Shin removed his hand.

"What's going on?" Selene whispered as quietly as she could, but even then, it still sounded way too loud to her ears in the now dead silent tunnels.

"I'm not sure," Shin admitted. "But that's the problem. Could be a power failure. But then again, it could also be... something else..."

He trailed off, but Selene could easily figure out what the other possibility was. It could be the Covenant. And if it was, that would be a huge problem.

"Keep one hand on the back of my vest, and the other on the wall to help you navigate," Shin commanded. "Try to move as fast as you can, but not so fast you'll fall over and make a lot of noise."

Reflexively nodding her head, even though Shin wouldn't be able to see it, Selene did as she was told. She realized her heart was racing, and she sounded like she was close to hyperventilating, and she did her best to calm down. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy. She had forgotten how dark these tunnels could get with all the lights off, and the thought of stumbling across a Covenant patrol in these conditions was making her panic.

Still, Selene forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down. There was no use panicking over something that hadn't happened yet.

"You ready?" she heard Shin ask and in lieu of a verbal response, she tugged his vest. "Good. Let's move it out, nice and slow."

They shuffled down the tunnel, all the while, Selene did her best to keep her growing fears at bay. As a cop, people were always asking her how she stopped herself from being scared when she was on patrol alone at night, or about to approach a potentially hostile crime scene. Truth be told, there was no secret technique to not being scared. Fear was a human instinct. It was a raw, primal feeling that everyone, to the smallest of children to the largest of soldiers felt. To be scared was to be human.

There were, however, techniques to minimize one's fear, the key of which was to simply stay calm. By remaining calm, a person was able to think things through in a rational manner, and then act accordingly. A lot of times, people's fears were simply the result of their overactive imaginations, and once they were thinking clearly, they would realize things weren't necessarily as bad as they had thought.

Of course, staying calm was a challenge in and of itself. For Selene, her normal technique was to constantly remind herself that she was a professional, and that the situation she was about to enter in, there would potentially be someone there who was probably even more scared than she was. And that, if Selene couldn't stay calm for herself, she could at least stay calm for that person.

Unfortunately, none of that was working for her at the moment. In this alien invasion situation, Selene was very much out of her depth. Secondly, Selene herself was potentially the victim here, only, there wasn't going to be anyone around to save her. The only saving grace she had was Shin who, much to her immense jealousy, did not seem bothered in the least bit by the situation they found themselves in. In fact, and it was obviously hard to tell because it was so dark, but Selene almost got the feeling that Shin was enjoying himself.

Without warning, Selene heard the echo of something thumping in the very far distance.

"What was that?" she couldn't help but ask.

"Not sure," came Shin's calm reply. "Almost sounded like gunfire."

Selene stared at the dark spot where she knew Shin's head to be. "Should we be able to hear the fighting that's taking place above ground?"

"Nope."

"But then... that would mean..."

"There's fighting taking place inside these tunnels?" Shin finished. "Yep. That also means: there are Covenant inside these tunnels. So... the best thing you could do right now is… you know… shut up."

Selene got the hint. She shut her mouth so quickly, it actually hurt her jaw.

They continued to make their way down the tunnel as more and more gunfire could be heard reverberating in the distance. Selene wondered what was going on, and if there was any way they would be able to avoid the fighting. However, the problem was, given the acoustics of these tunnels, it was next to impossible to figure out which direction the fighting was taking place, much less how far away it was. One thing Selene remembered from the last time she was down here, was just how far sound traveled. One of the only ways they had been finally able to catch the suspect they had been looking for, was because he had had a negligent discharge, and the reverberation from the gunshot had allowed dispatch and the city Superintendent to triangulate his position almost instantly.

The gunfire continued, unabated, for several minutes, but as time went on, Selene's ears began to pick up on something else. It almost sounded like... wings?

Without warning, Shin abruptly grabbed her and threw her onto the ground, causing Selene to let out a squeak in alarm, as the adrenaline in her veins abruptly spiked.

As she laid there on the ground, doing her best to calm herself down once more, Selene couldn't help but feel a stab of irritation.

"You really need to stop doing that," Selene hissed, but then Shin put his finger on her lips. Selene immediately stopped talking, and Shin moved his hand away, but before she could do anything, Shin immediately replaced it, before moving it away once more.

At first Selene was confused, as she wasn't making any noises. But when Shin repeated the gesture once more, she suddenly realized what he was doing: he was pointing at something.

Grabbed a hold of his hand before he could repeat the motion, she allowed him to dragged her hand until it was extended out in front of her, and she realized there was something in front of them Shin wanted her to see. She stared into the darkness, squinting, as if that would magically grant her the ability to see in the dark. There didn't seem anything out of place in the tunnels in front of them -

- aside from the small glowing green ball of light floating in mid-air of course.

That gave Selene pause. That... was weird. What the heck was that?

Selene stared at it, trying to figure out what she was seeing. Her first instinct was that she was hallucinating, probably the result of whatever the drug Shin had injected into her system. But no, that was impossible because Shin could clearly see it too. So, what else could it be?

Abruptly, the ball began to duplicate. As first, one ball became two. Then two became four. Four became eight and so on and so. Not only that, Selene was also beginning to see other colors too, like electric blue and neon purple. At the same time, the sound of fluttering wings began to grow louder and louder, almost as if the balls of light and the wings were related -

Oh.

Selene slapped a hand over her own mouth and tried to lower herself even further into the ground as an entire Covenant patrol, all carrying their glowing plasma weapons, rushed right past her. From the glow of their weapons, Selene could make out just enough of the features of the creatures holding them to realize what they were: they were giant insects.

Selene did her best not to scream in both fear and disgust. Covered in slightly luminescent yellow and orange exoskeletons, each one of the beetle-like aliens was massive, standing a full head taller than Selene did and probably weighing twice as much. Their bodies were comprised of five distinct body segments, and they appeared to have three sets of limbs that were completely covered in claws. They also appeared to have a series of mandibles for a mouth, like regular insects, only these were obviously and horrifyingly much larger than those found on even the largest of Earth insects.

In short, these aliens were everything Selene's worst nightmares were made of.

Fortunately, none of the bugs seemed to notice the two small humans cowering on the ground not too far away. Instead, the creatures seemed intent on flying in the direction Selene and Shin had just come from, which, Selene was belatedly realizing, was the direction where all the gunfire was coming from. Dozens upon dozens of bugs flew right past them without stopping or pausing, and just when Selene was afraid their numbers would never run out, it did.

Selene waited until the sound of the flutter of their wings faded into the distance before sitting upright.

"What…" she couldn't help but ask, "the hell... were those!?"

"Drones," Shin calmly replied, and she could hear him brushing himself off. "As you can tell, they're some sort of bug-like aliens that fight for the Covenant. They're a pain in the ass to deal with because, as you saw, they can fly in relatively short spurts. And those fuckers are strong too. They can lift a fully grown and equipped airman pretty far up into the air, which makes things a little awkward when you shoot one down in middle of doing something like that."

"They're horrifying!" Selene exclaimed with a shudder. "You guys have to fight things like that?" she asked, her respect for soldiers suddenly increasing tenfold.

She could hear Shin shrugging. "Sort of. Don't normally see them on the battlefield because they love dark and damp places, just like a real bug, but they always seem to show up when you least expect them."

"Gawd!" Selene exclaimed, shuddering once more. It was official: once they got out of here, Selene was taking a very long and very hot shower, just to try and scourge the image of those creatures out of her mind. Just thinking about them made her skin crawl!

"Anyways, we should probably leave while the Drones are distracted," Shin said, and Selene could hear him climbing to his feet. "Covies like to use Drones to flush out their enemies from enclosed spaces like bunkers, so there's usually - "

Shin abruptly threw himself onto the ground once, only this time Selene didn't need his help to figure out why. Emerging from around the corner in front of them, was an entirely new Covenant patrol. Unlike the Drones though, Selene could instantly recognize these aliens: it was an entire patrol of Jackals and Elites, the same type of aliens that had attacked her oh so many hours ago.

Selene quickly held her breath as the patrol casually walked down the tunnel in their direction, following in the wake of the Drone swarm. With their glowing plasma weapons and energy shields, they lit up the tunnel, making it a lot easier to see them, unlike the Drones, but somehow that made things a whole lot worse, rather than better.

For one thing, it allowed Selene a chance to see just how big and vicious looking each individual alien actually was. Even the smallest alien of the group stood a good thirty to forty centimeters taller than Selene did, and each one of them looked about as strong, if not stronger, than Shin did. Plus, they were all armed to the teeth with plasma weapons, though they obviously didn't need them as each alien clearly had been blessed to evolve with some rather vicious looking fangs or claws.

Secondly, to Selene's growing horror, she quickly realized the extra light would make it that much easier for the Covenant to spot them.

Without thinking, Selene glanced in Shin's direction, who glared at her long enough for her to realize moving around like that would be the last thing she wanted to do, as it would probably increase their chance of detection. Still, despite that, she couldn't help but try to slowly wiggled backwards so she was closer to the wall, in the hopes that her navy blue police uniform would help her blend in a bit more with the concrete.

As the patrol got closer, Selene could see that she and Shin at least had one thing going for them: it was clear none of the Covenant were paying attention. The Elites all appeared to be conversing amongst themselves while a number of Jackals appeared to be completely zoned out. It was obvious that this patrol clearly assumed the Drones had already cleared this part of the tunnel, and that any hostiles that may have been remaining was no threat to them. Which, to be fair, was true, as Selene had seen firsthand how ineffective her bullets were against even the smaller aliens.

Despite being in such proximity to these hostile aliens, Selene couldn't help but be pleased by what she saw. It was easy to fall into the trap of assuming the Covenant were nothing more than mindless automatons, always on the offensive, relentless, and vicious killers whose sole purpose in life was to kill humans.

But seeing them now helped remind Selene that while the Covenant were extremely dangerous and not to be taken lightly, they were still living, breathing creatures. And like all living, breathing creatures, they had their flaws. Flaws that Selene herself had fallen for more than once. Flaws such as: putting too much trust in their numbers. Basically, it was the idea that the more people there were, the less likely individuals would do something, simply because they assumed someone else had already done it. Selene couldn't even begin to count how many times she and her coworkers had lost a suspect due to something simple like not checking a car, simply because they had already assumed either the city Superintendent or a fellow police officer had already done so.

As the patrol started to wander off, Selene couldn't help but feel relieved that the same concept applied here, that this patrol wasn't looking for any human survivors, simply because the patrol ahead of them had already done so.

The blanket of darkness began to return as the Covenant started to walk away from Selene and Shin. Selene waited until they were out of sight before slowly climbing to her feet. She'd been laying on the ground for too long; now her entire body was pins and needles.

Still, she was alive, and that's all that mattered.

Reaching out into the darkness, she groped around until she near collided into Shin.

"Shin? You okay?" she whispered.

"Yeah. We have got to get the fuck out of these damn tunnels," he said.

"No kidding."

"There's got to be a station up ahead: can't think of how else those assholes would have gotten down here," Shin declared. "Let's get back onto the surface while we still got a chance."

Selene nodded, even though she knew Shin couldn't see her, and started forward.

CLANG!

"Whoa!" Selene instinctively cried as she accidentally tripped over one of the train rails. Shin was able to catch her before she landed face first into the ground, but Selene wasn't paying attention, horrified by what she had just done.

Her cry echoed down the tunnels in both directions, including the direction the Covenant had gone. Shin summed up the situation rather succinctly.

"Shit."

The two of them stood there, hardly even breathing, as they waited to see how the Covenant would respond. Selene could feel her heart racing inside her chest, beating so quickly, she was afraid it would leapt out from under her skin.

The seconds ticked by, but nothing happened. Eventually, Selene began to become convinced the Covenant, by some miracle, had failed to hear her.

Shin must have agreed because he abruptly pulled her, holding onto her until she was upright.

"Let's try that again," he suggested, but before Selene could take another step, he stopped her. "A bit more quietly, this time, perhaps?"

Selene could feel her cheeks start to burn.

boom.

A low rumble coming from the direction the Covenant had gone caused Selene to freeze.

"What was that?" she asked as she began to pick up slight vibrations in the ground. "Is that an earthquake? But... how? Byzas is located nowhere near a fault line."

She glanced in Shin's direction and somehow, even in the dark, she could tell he had gone pale.

"Run," he said.

"What?"

"RUNNNNNN!" he screamed and startled Selene obeyed.

They sprinted down the tunnel towards the station, abandoning all attempts at keeping quiet. All the while, the rumbling and shaking continued to grow in intensity.

"What the hell is happening!?" Selene yelled as the walls began to visibly shake.

"You know what else causes earthquake-like effects that isn't an earthquake!? A really big fucking bomb! Now MOVE!"

Selene hurriedly picked up the pace. As she ran though, she noticed her shadow was beginning to get casted onto the ground in front of her. Not only that, a loud whooshing noise was filling the air behind her, reminding her of the Drones' wings, only a hundred thousand times louder. Despite knowing better, Selene just couldn't help it: she looked behind her.

"HOLY SHIT!" she screamed as she spotted the massive fireball that was consuming the entire tunnel and quickly gaining on her.

Selene thought she had been sprinting at full speed before; at that sight, she found herself running even faster.

They reached the station in record time, and Selene somehow made it up onto the meter high platform in a single bound. Ahead, she could see daylight peeking out from the top of the station staircase. They were almost there! All she had to do was move just a bit faster!

They were almost there...!

Just a little more...!

They were going to make it...!

... and then suddenly the entire staircase collapsed, and Selene found herself with nothing but air beneath her feet. Just before everything went black, one last conscious thought passed through Selene's mind:

'They weren't going to make it.'

1. In case it wasn't clear by now, Kingsley is actually supposed to be based off the character, Kingsley Shacklebolt from the Harry Potter series. Why Harry Potter? Well, aside from the fact that I lack originality, that's because the character of Selene Riddle is actually taken from a Harry Potter fanfiction I had planned on writing years ago (though I'm sure the name itself isn't all that original either.) That's actually why her name is Riddle.

No, don't worry, Selene Riddle wasn't supposed to be some secret lovechild between Voldmort and Bellatrix Lestrange (though I'm sure that's been done at some point.) No, Selene was supposed to be a bobby (British police officer) who was the Muggle granddaughter of Tom Riddle Senior (Voldmort's Muggle father.) I don't remember exactly what the plot of the story would have been, as I lost/delete my outline year ago, but I do remember it had something to do with Harry Potter realizing that because Selene shared the same blood as Voldmort, she could have been used as a great weapon against him using some sort of blood magic spell or something like that (plots like that were all the rage in HP FF back then.)

At any case, that story never made it past the planning stage, but I liked the name so I kept it just in case it ever proved useful.

- For anyone who would like to know what was going on at the end of the chapter, well, you can either wait for the next time Selene shows up, or you can go back and read chapter 3 of Missing in Action :)