I sat against the wall with one knee up, hands soaked in blood that wasn’t mine. I leaned my head back, eyeballs drifting off to the dead body that was a few feet away.

  “It’s only a matter of time…” Said a voice within that wasn’t my own.

  It’s been a while since I heard the parasite’s voice. Usually, I respond harshly. This time, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything, not after the horrors that lay a few feet away.

  “Maybe it’s better if you take me…” I mumbled, then sighed, getting up.

  “Jill, can you read me?” It was Alice who spoke in a wary tone.

  “I’m here.”

  “Sydney, are you here?” Alice asked.

  A painful groan came from the other side. “Yeah… they hit me good.”

  Alice spoke faster. “Ridley knows about our operation. He’s leaving the premises and heading towards two vans as we speak. One has Roger, the other, Avery. Jill, check on Sydney and see if she’s ok.”

  Sydney informed me of her location. She went toe-to-toe with Ridley, only to be blindsided by an SCAR agent.

  “Ya.”

  I raced out of the room and back downstairs, running through the unfinished halls. I remembered the rough area where Ridley and Roger were. Luckily, there was only one door that led to a massive room. To the right was a giant hole, with demolished concrete blocks and scattered rubble. Sydney lay on the left, her hand on her head as she curled up into a loose ball.

  I ran over and placed my hand on her shoulder. “You ok?”

  “I will be. Just a little… fuzzed… that’s all.”

  I helped her stand, in which she struggled and stumbled. She shook her head and assured me that she’ll be alright. She glanced at my hands and shirt and questioned the blood. I waved her off, saying what happened was done. She didn’t like that answer, and it showed.

  She pushed for a response. “That’s not nothing. That’s a lot of blood.”

  “It’s over. We move on.”

  Before she could push again, Alice’s voice crackled in my ear. “They’re loading their stuff into the van. We need to get a move on.”

  “Let’s go,” Sydney said.

  Then it came.

  The rumble started so low it felt more like pressure than sound.

  Sydney paused mid-step. “You feel that?”

  I did. The ground vibrated through my shoes. An odd feeling I never felt before.

  Then the first crack split the concrete.

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  A snap echoed through the construction site as a support pillar broke in half. Dust flew into the air, and steel collapsed.

  “Jill, move!” She shouted.

  We barely cleared the doorway before the interior collapsed inward. The unfinished warehouse imploded, concrete slabs slamming down like small blocks.

  Alice’s voice spiked in our ears. “What the hell just happened?”

  “We need to get out of here!” Sydney said. She grabbed my hand and raced to clear the area. “We’re going back to the motorcycle. Fernando, Alice, meet us wherever.”

  “Copy. I’ll inform Fernando. Wait. Shit! They’re getting a move on. Both vans left the premises.”

  “Jill, let’s go. We get one van, Alice and Fernando get the other.”

  “Smart idea,” Alice said through the earpiece.

  Once outside the construction site, that’s when the situation changed for the worse.

  The ground shook again, though it didn’t collapse. It moved.

  The rubble at the center of the site shifted outward, pushed aside from below. Concrete blocks rolled away as something massive rose through them.

  It was a metal surface first. Then came the shoulders. Then a towering frame hauled itself upright with a hiss that drowned out the wind.

  It stood easily six stories tall.

  Black SCAR plating wrapped its body in full armor. Its limbs were long yet bulky. Blue-white energy pulsed through the cracks in its joints, illuminating the dust cloud around it. Its yellow visor stood out, though it was darker than the usual SCAR agent’s.

  Sydney was still beside me.

  “What the hell is that?” she asked in distress.

  Alice’s voice came through. “I’m—I’m looking at the backside of this monster.” Her voice shook, almost as if she saw a demon from Hell. “A clean… unmistaken number 4.”

  Fernando stepped in. “A SCAR unit with a number on its back plate indicates that it’s a Galactic-tier.”

  “Meaning?”

  He responded. “It means… It’s the 4th strongest SCAR agent in all of Ionia.”

  The giant SCAR unit straightened fully. Each movement was slow, yet rough. Its head rotated, sensors sweeping the area. When it locked onto us, the air itself seemed to tense.

  The ground trembled again as it took a single step forward, the impact cracking the ground beneath it.

  Sydney swallowed. “We are not equipped for this.”

  The SCAR unit raised its hand and aimed a strong hammer with an attempt to crush out bodies. Sydney told me to stay put as the slow hammer came right at us. Confused, I covered my eyes with my palm facing outward and leaned back. Sydney quickly deployed a shield bubble, which blocked the impact and fractured the shield.

  “Jill, we need to run to the motorcycle now! Alice, Fernando, you guys are coming, right?”

  Shots fired from the other side. The massive SCAR agent slowly turned around, directing its attention onto something else.

  “Change of plans,” Fernando said. “Alice and I will keep this thing busy. Y’all focus on getting Roger and Avery.”

  “How do—how?!” I asked in genuine curiosity.

  “Not the first time I took on someone bigger than me. Besides, I got a fresh cigar in my mouth. Need to put it to good use.”

  Sydney grabbed my hand. “Leave them. Let’s go.”

  I swiped her arm away. “You can’t expect them to take this giant on by themselves?”

  “What about Roger and Avery, huh? We need to get them before they are locked into a section of prison where they are unreachable. We can’t waste any more time.”

  She was right. The entire purpose of this mission was to save Roger and Avery.

  I had to trust Alice and Fernando to stay alive.

  “Let’s go,” I said.