No one argued with me. This had been their final straw as much as it had been mine. The fear had been building in each of us for days now, and whatever made that sound had given us all the convincing we would ever need. I waited until the energy signatures got far enough away for me lose track of them, preparing my blasters as much as I could. The Gerresians were quick to follow suit, taking advantage of what little we did learn about the weapons. I didn't try to mess with them too much, but their constant presence on my arms had given me a degree of familiarity I didn't always have.

The presence of the scavengers had gotten worse everyday we stayed, and in our minds most of us figured it to be a death sentence to let it get any more dangerous.

I wasn't sure how much power I had used since I had acquired them, but I did know I favored the one on my right hand, and that I couldn't have fired anymore than a few dozen shots each. That left me with more than enough for a prolonged fight if the need came about, and then some. I waited twenty minutes after I couldn't sense them anymore before I slid the door open, slowly and quietly. Marriv and V'hun wrapped some burning cloth over bones, leading and lighting the way for us. We grabbed what we could carry, and pushed outward.

I kept my focus on my senses, the fear somehow making my sensing ability sharper. I stopped the group a few times as I felt them flickering at the edges of my range, keeping each of us quiet and hiding in side rooms as we waited for them to pass us by. I wasn't questioned for my ability to notice them coming, a mixture of respect I feel I haven't earned combined with a history of success in avoiding the scavengers whenever we were out and about. Still, it was convenient enough for me.

We moved slowly, but still made decent time reaching the stairwells, ascending with as much speed as we could quietly muster. Being caught below or on the surface were both things we wanted to avoid. It was a testament of our fear that we didn't dare speak to one another in spite of the fact that we actually didn't have a plan for once we left the damp underground for the burning desert above. Not one of us relaxed until we passed the first couple of floors, slowing and catching out breath as we went higher and higher up. First ten floors, then twenty, and finally thirty, roughly half the distance we needed to cover. As we climbed on I couldn't help but regret bringing us down here.

Hiding as deeply as we had wasn't quite as clever an idea as I thought it was. I hadn't felt a single alien defender so much as take a single step down into the water supply, and with everything that had happend over the past weeks it was beginning to get easier to guess why, Something was wrong with this place, wrong enough for them to avoid it outright in spite of the fact that they almost certainly needed water. Something that likely had a connection to those creatures.

I stopped as I felt something flicker into existence, letting the others get ahead of me. The group slowed, Marriv turned, and looked to me, still slightly out of breath. "Whats wrong?" He managed to gasp. It felt familiar.

It was behind us, but far closer than it should have been, even with the difficulty I had sensing the scavengers. Less than two floors below us, only a couple of bounds up the stairs. Unmoving. I could almost feel it looking at us, judging our reaction.

I swallowed, clenching and unclenching my fists as I fought fear and apprehension. I felt like a deer in headlights. I licked my lips, and exhaled. I have no intention of dying today, but for whatever reason it felt almost inescapable. It slowly moved forward, no more than half a step. I made up my mind.

"Run." It came out a whisper, too quiet even for me to make out. I could only think of one thing. Caution to the wind.

"What?"

"RUN!"

I burst past the group in a moment, pouring energy into my legs as I took the steps three or four at a time. The screaming started a moment later, and the heavy footfalls of my companions were soon echoing right behind me. Never had I been more greatful for ki than that moment. We took off at speeds that would put olympic runners to shame. The Gerresians might have been weak, but they weren't human. I might have been weak, but I wasn't a normal human either. The only problem was, it didn't matter.

I cringed as the screaming grew louder, closer. I tried to pick up some desperate burst of speed, but I was already running like hell. I heard the metal under my boots give out slightly as I uselessly pushed more ki into my legs. Shalex pushed past me a moment later, practically flying up the steps in a manner I quickly found myself jealous of. Marriv pushed ahead of me too, trailing just behind him, leaving me and V'hun neck and neck for last place. I shot blindly behind me as we ran, not even bothering to face the direction of our pursuer. Even if I could see it I don't think I want to.

Dar'fel was the slowest, running and panting behind us for only a few moments before I felt his energy disapear, cut off so quickly it wasn't so much like he died, but had instead teleported somewhere far from here.

The screaming only intensified at his disappearance, growing louder and closer. So much so I knew it had to be breathing down my neck as we ran. Over the sound I heard V'hun desperately chanting to himself. "I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!" I almost joined him when I felt the scavengers join the chase, some ahead of us on other floors, and some below running for the stairs."I don't wanna die!" He screamed. I grit my teeth and pushed on, ducking instinctively under a swing I only barely managed to sense coming, the whoosh of air following the creatures attack telling me I probably would have been dead before I could even realize it.

I fired a blast down a doorway as we passed it by, sending a red beam of energy down a scavengers throat just as it tried to lunge in my direction. I stumbled as I dodged the body flying past me, before I felt something grab at my shoulder. In my panic I turned and fired.

The pale face of the Gerresian back at me, and then to the rapidly cooling hole in his chest.

"I don't wanna die." He said. I flinched at the sound of flesh tearing, and the sight of his body being pulled away. I stared into the shadow, listening to the others get further and further away, before I turned and ran after them. The first time I had ended someones life, and it had been one of the few I could safely say I had no intention of hurting.

The screaming stopped altogether as the monster tore into the corpse, leaving me to run in silence. I felt a guilty spark of relief, happy that it wasn't me. I felt V'huns life fade away, the creature rapidly falling behind as it did.

The energy of our pursuer hovered over the body giving me nearly a minute to put distance between us, before it too flickered away. I couldn't feel it now, but I knew in my heart that it was after us again, moving just as quickly as it had been when it took our comrade. Not a sound followed its movements this time, leaving me almost wishing for it as I was forced to rely on my ki to uselessly try and follow the creatures movement.

I felt as Marriv and Shalex actually reached the surface, waiting for me in the sunlight that even now was beginning to peak down into the darkness below, promising some hope of escape. A flicker of energy growing closer by the moment told me it was false.

I held off the urge to slow down and look back, knowing that even if I couldn't perceive the creature, it was still far closer than I would ever want it to be. Instead my mind went to the pipes. Were the others had turned and climbed up another set of stairs I thundered down a hallway perhaps ten floors from the surface, feeling a whoosh of air as a claw tore away a portion of the back of my shirt. I pushed myself harder, ignoring the pang of surprise at how quickly it had managed to reach arm straightened outward, and I fired my blaster into a few scavengers crouching ahead of me, either not expecting me to come their way, or more likely waiting to lunge as I passed them by.

I grimaced as my eyes barely made out a sharp turn ahead of me, before I fired into the pipes to my side, sending a torrent of water just behind me. I managed to laugh at the sound of something heavy hitting the wall with enough force to bend the pipes on the opposite side. The angered scream that answered it killed the growing smile on my face. I slammed into the wall, jarring my shoulder as I did, before pushing off and running to my right, knowing I didn't have long before it caught up again.

I fired into a couple more pipes as I ran, trying to put as much distance between myself and the screams as I could, noting that many of them lost the water pressure after only a few seconds. It didn't stop me from running. I slammed shut every door I passed, I killed every scavenger that tried to sneak up on me as I did, avoiding any large numbers of the creatures I could. I ignored the ever growing list of cuts and gashes my body accrued as one or two of them occasionally got lucky, or I got too complacent. Eventually though, I got tired. The constant running, the feeling of my body losing more and more blood steadily beginning to overcome the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

I ran into a square room, nothing more than a dead end with piles of rubble and debris along the ground. I tried to turn, to backtrack, only to freeze at the feeling of over a dozen scavengers cutting off my escape, the screaming creature not far behind them.

They all slowed, noticing I had finally run myself into a corner. For a moment I pointed my blasters at them, determined to go down fighting, before the scavengers parted, letting the creature pass them by. Even with the red glow of my blaster, overused and glowing with heat, the light around me only barely revealed it.

It's horrible mouth closed, mercifully ending the sound that I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life.

It was tall, taller than me, standing on insectiod legs. Its head was too wide, its mouth pulled into a disgusting frown. It had two blade-like hooks for arms, still lightly dripping with blood and water. It hissed at me, revealing far too many teeth. It almost hurt to look at it. None of them moved after it finally showed itself to me, the nightmare letting me take the initiative, knowing I would die regardless.

I considered bringing my own blaster to my head, figuring it as an act of spite but still a disgusting act of defeat, before a vicious grin pulled across my face. My blaster turned to pipes at my side, these ones leading straight down, before blasting a hole in the metal and forcing the entire group to take a few steps back. When the water died down to nothing more than a stream, and they began to slowly pace forward I made my move.

"Fuck you."

I shot another pipe, this one on the opposite side of the room, before diving at the one I had already burned open, and leaping into the cold expanse of metal, choking out laughter as I tumbled down. The pipe barely let me fit through, and I met water below.