The story up until this point has followed the main quests pretty closely up until this point, only a few changes here and there. This chapter is where things deviate pretty heavily from what we know. The ending will still happen, just very differently, and a bit less of a disappointment than the one in the game.

Also, fair warning about this chapter. It gets pretty dark and gory, so if that's not your thing, sorry, but it had to be done. If it gets too much, just close your eyes for a while.

Without further ado, the first half of the sewers to Old Town. Enjoy.

I don't own Dying Light. Even though I may want to.

All hope of finding him again was gone.

And then there were the Saviours.

Valerija

Water dripped from the ends of pipes, rhythmically tapping on the ground. Moss was growing in abundance, the walls green with the plant. A river of water ran down the middle of the tunnel, flowing deeper into the labyrinth, and the man in front of me hefted his rifle up higher. I scanned the dark paths off to the sides, my flashlight flickering shadows across the walls, creating monsters out of nothing. Several times, I could have sworn I saw something dash down a pipe. When I asked the guide, his only answer was "There's nothing, we've checked."

For some reason, I didn't trust him. There wasn't anything overly obvious, but something about him struck me as off. The way his eyes kept flicking back to me, making sure I was still following, or maybe the way that he kept readjusting his rifle, as if he was waiting for something to happen. Everything was putting me on edge. My hand rested on the handle of my axe, the smooth leather grip giving me some small measure of comfort.

The tunnels seemed to drag on forever, and more than once did I think that we were going in circles. The same moss, the same pipes, the same shadowed monsters. It was when I heard voices that I let out a breath.

"Come on, we've been waiting here for hours!"

"Shut it! You want to get through alive? What about your kid? You do? Then you wait 'til we get the all clear, then you can go."

"Surely you can't be serious? These tunnels go straight through. An hour to walk at the most! There can not be that many infected. We've been here for almost 7!" I rounded the corner and saw two men arguing in the middle of a small maintenance room.

One of them wore a white business suit, spattered red with blood. A pistol was tucked into the back of his trousers. He looked familiar, and I racked my brain to figure out where from. The other, who I'd never seen before, wore runners clothes: track shoes, cargo pants, and a light jacket. He had an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, and a scimitar on his hip. The runner was obviously the one smuggling the people through.

"Listen here..."

"Dawud." Shit, he was the guy who shot a guard, took his kid, and ran.

"Well, Dawud, you paid me double the normal cost to get you and your shit of a kid through here. I got you into this group, I can take you out of it. So that means you can fucking well deal with it. Are we clear?" Dawud gritted his teeth angrily.

"Crystal." The runner clapped Dawud heavily on the back.

"Good, good. Do it again and I break your legs." With the warning delivered, he pulled the scimitar from his hip and started sharpening the blade. Dawud grumbled angrily and went to check on his kid. There were several other people in the room, a man and a woman, and a girl, probably a bit older than me. The Saviour who lead me through the tunnels waved me over to a barrel fire.

"You're gonna get to go through before everyone else, we've sent two men through, they should radio in a few minutes. Until then, just hold tight, won't be too much longer." I nodded and held my hands in front of the flame.

"Thanks..."

"Hale." He turned back to the fire, closing any further conversation. I watched the fire for a while, letting the warmth seep into my hands, before Hale's radio crackled, and a tinny voice floated through, echoing in the small space.

"Got some bad news guys. Tunnels have gone down all over the place, we've had to loop out into the bay. You're looking at a 12 hour walk to get to Sector 0. We cracked into a nest of Volatiles beneath the stadium. There's only six of the fuckers, but they're riled up something fierce. Something down here's got 'em going. We've sealed it off as best we can but it's right in the path. We're asking for someone to head in from Sector 0 with some explosives, but it'll be a few hours from now before they get here. They're having some trouble with a horde topside, so Troy can't spare anyone 'til it's dealt with. Sorry guys, seems like you're in for the long haul." A collective groan rippled through the gathered survivors, the Saviours only showing mild signs of distaste. Hale clapped his hands, gathering everyone's attention.

"You heard him, pack it in for the night. We'll wake you when you can move. Tayyar, you're on first watch." He turned to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Take my advice, and get some sleep. You'll need it if you want to make it to Sector 0 by tomorrow." I thanked him and laid down on a nearby mattress. It was lumpy, stained, and torn, but it was better than concrete. In minutes, I was asleep.

I was running. Twisting through alleyways and streets, vaulting over cars and fences. I could hear something heavy behind me, crashing through obstacles that I had avoided. When I looked back, I could see nothing but blackness.

The creature behind me grew closer, I could feel it breathing down my neck. I tripped on something, and suddenly, I was on top of a tower. The wind blew around me, tossing my hair out in a curtain. A blade whistled towards me, and I unconsciously brought my own up in defence. There was no person holding it, just a shapeless black mist, the blade floating ominously in front of it. We traded blows for what seemed like an age, before I heard something clatter behind me. I turned my head, and saw Ari standing there, watching silently.

I felt the machete cut into me. I looked down, frozen in shock. The engraved blade stuck from my stomach, blood slowly trickling down its surface. The mist coalesced into the form of a man. Rais. He smirked coldly and kicked, sending me towards the edge of the building. I heard my sister scream.

And then I started to fall.

I woke with a start, breathing heavily. I sat bolt upright at the memory of the dream, and ran a hand across my stomach. Nothing, no wound, no scar.

It wasn't real. I repeated that thought over and over in my head. But no matter how many times I said it, I couldn't shake the bad feeling I got. I wiped the sweat off my face and scanned the room.

The fire had died, casting a weak orange glow around the room. Dawud was curled up in the corner, his son slumped next to him, a toy sword in hand. One of the Saviours, Tayyar, was sat in a folding chair, rifle leaned against the side. Every so often, he would mumble incoherently in his sleep. Hale was leaned against the single door frame, scanning the pitch black tunnels. A thin stream of smoke drifted from a cigarette that hung from his mouth. He turned when I walked up beside him. He grunted in greeting and held out the packet of smokes. I pulled one from the packet and held it out for him to light.

The bitter smoke burnt my lungs as it went down, but it was exactly what I needed. Hale reached up and pulled the cigarette from his lips, not turning away from the sewers as he spoke.

"Couldn't sleep?" His voice was rough from disuse.

"No, how long was I out?"

"About 5 hours. I'd have expected to hear from the others by now."

"Maybe something's holding them up?" I took another pull of the cigarette, letting the smoke drift lazily from my mouth. He shook his head.

"No, they'd have said something if it was going to take longer." He dropped his smoke on the ground before crushing it with his boot. We talked for an hour, about nothing in particular. The wrong feeling I got from Hale faded as we talked. It turned out that every so often, as they were leading someone to this room, that someone would just disappear. No traces, nothing. Every so often, I could have sworn I heard something echo through the tunnels. Every time I looked to Hale for his reaction, he did nothing but shake his head slightly.

Maybe it was my nerves playing up from the nightmare, or maybe I was just tired. Either way, I jumped when his radio came to life.

"Hale, Tayyar, come in. Now!" The urgency of his voice startled Hale into action. He gripped his rifle tighter and held the radio to his mouth.

"I'm here, what's happened?"

"You need to get out of there! Now! Whatever riled the Volatiles up just tore through the barricade, we're trying to keep the Vollies in but you need to leave! Blue and fucking huge is all I can tell you about it. Look man, I don't know what the fuck it was, but it's coming your way, and fast. You've got about 20 minutes before it gets to you." 20 minutes. That would get us out of the sewers. But we wouldn't be outside. Would we be safe?

I shared a look with Hale that told me he was thinking the same thing. He lifted the radio again. "Copy, we'll leave as soon as everyone's up."

"For your sake you better be fucking quick about it." The line went dead. Hale turned around and yelled at the sleeping group.

"Alright, everyone up! Now! Something big and angry is coming for us, and I don't know what it is. We need to leave! Now!" Dawud was the first one up, his face a mixture of anger and fear. The couple followed soon after. The other Saviour, Tayyar, had to shake the other girl awake.

"What about getting to the other side? I paid for you to get me there!" Dawud yelled, his face red from anger. Hale stormed up to him, backing him into a wall.

"Listen here you piece of shit, if you want to go and tango with whatever the fuck is storming through these tunnels on its way here, then be my guest. But if you want to have at least some chance of you and your son surviving, you come with us back to the slums." He paused, letting his words sink in. "What'll it be?" Dawud looked like he was going to argue back, but the thought of dying overrode what he was going to say, and he nodded meekly. Hale immediately snapped back to business. "Alright, everyone, let's move, now!"

Everyone stood and headed to the door. The couple were the first out, and the man was immediately dragged off into the darkness by some unseen being. His wife gave a piercing scream, before being hauled back into the room by Tayyar. Whatever was coming, had already arrived.

We were huddled in one corner of the maintenance room. The heavy steel door had been shut and locked, sealing whatever was out there away from us. There were only six of us left now. The man's wife had broken free from Tayyar's hold when she heard her husband calling for help. She suffered the same fate he did, being hauled off into the darkness.

I had caught a glimpse of it in the frantic torchlight. It was huge, almost as big as a gorilla. Blue, reflective armour glinted in the brief light. That was all I saw before it charged, and the door was slammed shut.

Everyone shared a moment of panic as the door groaned, and creaked under the immense weight. But ultimately, the heavy steel won out, and the creature backed off. Every so often, a screech or a roar cut through the silence. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

I had always thought that Volatiles had the most hair-raising sound. But this was something completely different. It sounded like something directly from hell. The way the tone started off quiet, quickly growing in volume to become a warbling cry. It screeched like tearing metal, while at the same time sounding like a dying bird. It was not unlike the sounds you hear about in ghost stories.

Except this wasn't a ghost story, it was real. And it was deadly.

We didn't know what to do. We had rolled one of my grenades out the door, but all that seemed to do was make it angrier. We used Tayyar's scimitar to cut the mattress into a human shape and threw that out the door. The creature gave a sound that was like a laugh, as if we were insulting its intelligence. That was when realisation washed over me.

It was toying with us.

It could have torn the door down ages ago and been done with us. But it hadn't. It was letting us try and escape. My head snapped up to the door as it started to groan, as if something was pressing against it. My eyes widened. It was coming in. Everyone seemed to notice this at the same time, a few seconds after I did. With a snap, the hinges gave way, and the door crashed to the ground.

The creature was bigger than I thought, almost twice the size of a gorilla, sitting on all fours just outside the door. Its jaw was split, like a Volatile, but instead of the two sides hanging limply apart, it seemed to be split into four pieces that could move, almost like a spiders pincers. There was no tongue hanging from its mouth, instead there was a hole lined with teeth. Its blue armour plates covered its whole body, leaving nothing unprotected.

It loped forward, stopping on top of the door. And all hell broke loose.

It was hard to keep track of what happened. One second it was by the door, the next it had the girl up against the wall. The Super Volatile had her throat in its hand as she clawed frantically, her eyes wide with fear. Tayyar had started firing his rifle at it, but the bullets just bounced off. It continued staring at the girl, tilting it's head to the side. Time seemed to freeze as the creature leaned in further, tightening its hold on her neck. She twisted her body around, trying to loosen its hold, but the monster still didn't let go. It snarled at her, it's jaws parted, and it bit down on her head. Her screams echoed through the room, her hands beat weakly at the creatures face. It jerked its head back, and the girls screams were cut off with a sickening crack. Her legs twitched as the monster threw her head against the wall. Her body dropped to the ground with a thud, and the Super Volatile turned its head to stare at the rest of us.

Tayyar was the next to go. He fired a shot at the creature, striking it just above the eye. It whirled on him faster than I thought capable. He had a shocked look on his face as it barreled into him, swiping at him with the back of its hand. He flew across the room, slamming into the wall. Another crack echoed through the room, his back had twisted at an unnatural angle and blood pooled from his mouth.

When it turned to Dawud and his son, only a few seconds had passed. I leapt into action. I ran forward, pulling my hatchet from its loop. It turned and roared at me, jaws splitting, spraying a mix of blood and saliva.

It closed the gap between us in less than a second, I barely had time to roll under its claws. I came to stop under its stomach, buried my hatchet in the joint of its knee, and tore all the way through. It gave an ear shattering screech of pain as it's leg gave way. I spun on my heel behind it, and jumped up onto its back. Hale pelted it with shots, trying to score a lucky hit.

It gave a roar of annoyance, and twisted around, trying to throw me off. I threw myself higher up, grabbing onto the ridge of armour behind its neck. It threw its body around more, trying harder and harder to throw me off. I dug my hatchet into its armour, cracking the plates as I did so. I pulled my handgun from the back of my belt, and pressed the barrel against its exposed neck. I gave a war cry, and pulled the trigger over and over, emptying the magazine into it. Its body jerked with every shot, spraying blood over my face. The gun clicked empty, and I pushed myself off its back, dislodging my hatchet, and rolling to my feet. I spun, just in time to see the creature give a shuddering gasp, and fall to the ground, convulsing. Blood flowed freely from its neck, pooling in every direction.

It was over.