Death. Death. Death.
All I saw was Death, all I heard was Death. Water was everywhere, safety nowhere in sight. I was choked with fear, subdued by panic, struggling to get myself free from the iron grip that had set its roots onto my legs. I constantly lost my breath and continuously gasped for air. One moment I had my head above the water, the next it was already submerged again.
Twist and turn. This and that. Absolute, utter chaos, it was simply just that.
And yet... Somehow, I actually managed to live through all of it.
The current gradually became much more bearable as time went on, and I was able to get myself some air to breath in. But just as I thought things were finally over, I found myself falling off into what had to have been the main sewer channels.
Oh lookie there, the Undead bastard was still holding onto my leg!
"Fuck you!" I managed just before the two of us splashed into the deeper and even more disgusting water below us.
Having regained my bearings by now, I tried to break free from the Undead's grasp — sadly — to no avail.
"Come on!" I shouted out.
I could feel the Undead piercing its rotting nails as deep as it possibly could into my flesh, and I was not having any of it. Knowing that such a thing could lead to further complications if left unattended, I took one deep breath and brought my head down into the water in an attempt to push away the perpetrator.
Well... Let's just say that the sight that greeted me was not something I'd like to see ever again.
All around me were white rotting corpses, all of them slowly making their way towards me from the murky depths. I didn't even realised it before but there were literally gallons of water underneath me. Hell, it was already a miracle that I could stay floating!
Still, this was not the main problem that I was being faced with.
At first, I could only see short glimpses of white specks in my field of vision swimming around me in the depths. However, as time passed by, full-sized humanoid figures revealed themselves from these shadows, baring their razor-sharp teeth.
Underwater Undeads. Or as I'd like to call them, demonic mermaids.
It seemed that these sewers might have hidden more than what meets the eye, but I surely didn't have the intention of finding out.
Gasping for air as soon as I lost my breath from the horror, I tried to find the some solid ground to which I could hold on to. I needed some place to get away from all of the creepy-crawlers down below! I needed one quick!
Unfortunately, it seemed that the Undeads sensed this sudden change in plans of mine, for as soon as I tried swimming toward the edge of the sewers, I was immediately pulled back down into the water.
This time, there were already five of them awaiting.
Shit! I cursed out mentally.
Before anything else could be done, they all began pulling me down into the depths of the abyss below. Not only did I begin to panic, I also had no way of utilising the rifle I had which remained tightly secured in my right arm. Even that, they were also trying to get rid of!
Fear enveloped me as water began filling my lungs. The surface above was slowly getting further and further away from reach, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
Come on, you piece a' shit! Come on!
I was drowning, and the weight of all of these Undeads was just too much for me to handle.
Of course, it was at this exact moment that I finally heard his bloody voice again. Messiah complex, I swear if I ever met one!
A burning sensation began creeping up my right arm, and before the Undead even knew what was coming, the Mark of the Binded had already been formed.
Blood rushing through my veins, all my senses quickly became enhanced under the aid of the Reaper's Authority. No longer was I drowning, and in just a couple of seconds, no longer would I be dragged down.
Life began coursing through my body once more, and even my injured left arm grew to be no longer numbed in pain. I was able to move, and first thing I did was to break free...
Like that wasn't anymore obvious!
I let out a loud yell underwater, and immediately a small shockwave was released around me. Pushing off all the incoming Undeads, I grabbed back my rifle from their clutches menaces and went straight towards the surface, no time to lose.
It certainly didn't help that I just gulped a mouthful of the murky water, but I kept on pushing forward.
From behind me, I could feel the movements of the Undeads. They were clearly not ready to let me go just yet, but they were much more careful about it this time.
Fortunately, this hesitation of theirs allowed me to climb onto the safety of the edge walkways.
Coughing out every singe drop of water that I could, I was on all-fours as I tried to regain my bearings.
Headaches, broken arm and nausea. Great! Just what I needed, I thought to myself.
Without a single second even ellapsing since this thought came into my mind, the Reaper decided to make an appearance all in the sake of mocking me. I swear, he was a git at times.
"You know that the only reason you could be so lax at times like these is because of my Authority, right?" He asked, having just read my mind. "Otherwise, you would've been killed, my dear boy."
"Oh, shut up," I responded, as I sat with my back against the sewer walls.
So far, no signs of the Undeads but I still couldn't be too vigilant. I knew they were somewhere down there, lurking, waiting.
Having to recover somewhat from the huge exertion of energy I just did, I was forced to stay stationary there for a while. Even with the Mark on, I couldn't run away from my own body's limits. It simply just up the boundary by a notch, and that was it.
Still, you'd be surprised by how little really was needed by one's body once it was in full strength.
"So... What do you want?" I managed, as my left arm began to feel numb again.
"Just wanted to say that you did an absolutely wonderful job today!" The Reaper smiled. "It takes more than a boy to live through that you know."
"Sure," I said saracstically. "The hell's your reason of showing up only now then if I was so wonderful?"
"I have faith in you when it comes to escaping human confinements. Call it a hunch."
Knowing exactly what he had meant, I decided not to respond. Instead, as I slowly got back onto my feet, I pondered on yet another question that the Reaper's words had ignited in me.
Just exactly how long had I been in his sights? Back during my time as a slave? That was practically a decade ago...
"Confused, aren't you? Care for me to explain?"
"Forget it," I quickly rejected the offer. "You're just going to throw me into another loophole for entertainment's sake."
"Fair enough."
And with that, he disappeared yet again into thin air. Talk about making an exit.
"Showoff," I grumbled.
As soon as I did this though, I noticed that something was making its way towards me in the surface of the water. Turning around, I aimed my rifle straight towards where I had seen the movement, but there was nothing by the time I'd actually got there.
Wherever they were, they were clearly growing more and more uneasy. The weird movement I coud sense inside the waters was testimony to this.
Not wanting to engage as much as possible, I decided to just run right there and then.
However, they were not going to make things that easy.
Heads began popping up one after the other, and some also began climbing onto the walkway behind me.
Realising that one was chasing after me, I quickly picked up the pace. Most of the time, I was pretty calm when it came to the Undeads, but when you had one running towards you with its limbs spreaded out like a spider, you know you'd done and screwed up.
"Fuck this shit!" I said.
Thus, the chase began. Words couldn't describe how much blood my heart was pumping that moment. With every passing second, I could hear them coming closer and closer. Water splashing. Pipes clanging. Unclear groanings. All of these were enough to make one mad, but still I persevered.
Even with the Mark still growing brightly as ever, I didn't want to end up like yesterday. I needed to conserve my energy.
After all, this was not a sprint, it was a marathon. At least, between me and the territorist group, this was true.
Me and the horde of Undeads behind me however? Now that was clearly a sprint through and through.
Although I would've been dead tired by now, the Mark allowed me to keep on pushing forward. I could feel it disappearing from my skin, but I did my best to ignore it. The only slight complain that I had, apart from the obvious, was that my throat was slowly getting dry. However, even that was only an afterthought, so I didn't think much of it.
Come on, think! I pleaded to myself, holding my rifle so tightly in my hand it began shaking. To be honest, my whole body was shaking.
This was fear when met with frustration.
From one thing to another, from a tank to this. I was tired, I was having a bad day, and I wanted nothing more but to just get out of this hellhole.
Splash. Splash. Splash.
Come on think!
Splash, splash, splash!
God, this whole thing's giving me a headache.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
"I SAID SHUT IT!"
Turning around, with a loud yell, I began firing at whatever I could. Left, right, up and down. In the water, out of the water. Walking, swimming, flying, I couldn't care less! I was not going to let things go on any further until every single one of them had become nothing more but ashes.
Death. Death. Death.
All I saw was Death, and all I heard was Death. Nothing more, nothing less.
With the Mark giving off its last burst of energy, the Authority coursing within me aided me as I aimed. I hit every single one of them with all of my shots. They all went tumbling down, disintegrating into nothing but piles of dust, and all I had to do was to just turn around and open fire.
It was amazing how much the mind could control one's action at times...
Although I did have my suspicions that the Reaper had had some play into this. After all, I was pretty sure there were more Undeads than a mere twenty before. Still, I was just relieved to have things come to an end.
All became still and all became quiet, leaving me alone in the middle of the dark. The only thing that accompanied me was the sound of the water flowing, and the rifle still held tightly onto my right arm.
Tired, I fell onto the ground and felt my whole body become drained as the Mark disappeared. It was done. It was finally over.
I let out a sigh of relief, thinking that at least that was out of the way. All I needed to do now was to get my things back. Hopefully, that shouldn't be that much of a problem.
...
Right, there was a tank, wasn't there?
"Aw, come on!" I groaned, putting my hands over my face. "Give me a damn break!"
And yet reality did not budge. I was still in the sewers, tired and complaining. Hell, even the Reaper did not come back ever since that small cameo of his.
In short, I just had to get on with it.
And get on with it, I did.
"Alrightey then," I muttered as I slowly got up, finally coming to terms that complaining would do me absolutely no good.
Making sure that nothing else was following me, I began to walk upstream, back towards where I had come from. Even if there wasn't a glimmer of light that could be seen from where I was, at least I could find solace in the fact that I was still alive.
And so I continued on to march into the darkness in front of me, as I slowly reached out towards an exit.