The burning rubbles around me, witness to the same massacre that spreaded its reach until horizon's end. Fire was seemingly everywhere, its golden haze filling up the night sky like a backdrop of damnation.
Death. Death was surrounding me, as the bodies of people too burnt to be identified remained lying lifelessly as the night went on.
Hope. There was simply none.
Holding her hand deeply in mine, I could only plead to God as I saw my whole world destroyed right in front of me.
Nothing came.
The only thing that accompanied me was the forever lasting sound of the flames, and the echoes of a whistling that shall forever be etched in my mind.
A whistling of a madman. A demon. The Devil's Incarnate himself.
And yet here today, as I walked down these sewers, the same exact whistling had come back to haunt me.
***
As I once again plummeted myself into the depths of the sewers, away from the beautiful view of the Sun, I was met with a tune.
A tune that at first, I thought nothing of. A tune that I had believe to only be a figment of my own imagination. A tune that even I couldn't dismiss once I knew it was real.
Memories began to flood my mind, memories of past I didn't want to remember.
All the hatred and all the anger I'd kept inside raged its way through my whole system, as the thought of "him" came back to the limelight.
The Dark Marksman.
The catalyst to this journey of vengeance I'd taken upon myself. A harbinger of death, assassin known all over the lands, murderer of thousands of people over the years. He who was hunted by many Kingdoms and yet protected by some, so hallowed was his name that many did not even dare speak it.
But how could he possibly be here?
In fact, just thinking about it, my whole body tensed up more than it had ever been, and sweat began flooding my face.
If this was true, if he was here, I would simply die. There was no question about it.
My heart stopped at that exact moment just like my feet, and I tried to escape into the shadows as much as I could. It was only after a few seconds had passed that I finally realised what was happening.
He wasn't there.
It was a simply a recording, echoing throughout the sewers via a PA system attached to their walls. In fact, after closer inspection, I found out that my fear was completely unjustified.
For even if the tune was an exact copy of the one I remembered, there was something different.
And how could I ever forget the original one?
Someone among them, I thought to myself. Someone here knows about him!
Having come to such a revelation, my body willed itself back into walking. No longer did I feel pain nor fatigue, and I began to power my way through the watery path in front of me. Not even the Reaper's rambling could stop me from setting forth on my search!
I needed to find the source of this broadcast, and I needed to find it quick.
"Funny how your emotion changes as soon as he is involved--," the Reaper managed to get in, after having stayed silent for quite a while.
"Shut it." I said harshly without a second thought.
"--funny how you were scared for your life just seconds ago too."
Rifle close to my side, and eyes paying attention to every single detail around me, I ventured into the uncharted parts of the sewers. I was on a mission. This took priority over everything else.
I followed the cable of the PA system for who knew how many minutes, but still I kept awareness of my surroundings. As soon as the cable finally dug its way into the walls though, I knew I had reached my destination.
What was a surprise was that the sight that came to greet me was not one I had expected.
Certainly, it was something that felt out of place to be in the middle of the sewers. But hey what would I know?
Right in front of me was a bunker; one that had to have been made centuries past back when the Apocalypse had just happened. To say that the structure blended into its surroundings would be an understatement, for even I wasn't able to see past through its camouflage for the first five or so seconds.
The place had a whole rustic feel to it, as I could see pipes leading both inside and outside of it. It was fitting, to say the least.
Holding my hands onto the metallic door handle on the front door though, I couldn't help but feel very worried about the whole thing.
This was practically the enemy's base for all I knew.
Hell, who was to say this wasn't a whole completely new group right from the get-go!?
Of course, it most likely wouldn't be. But then again... Worries: what would I do without them?
To hell with this shit! I finally decided.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded to myself a face of determination before slowly turning the door handle in. Rifle still close to my chest, heart pounding, I slowly pushed the door inwards as I tried to peek inside.
Once the whole place had been certified clear, I made my way inside the bunker slowly and dove right into this first room.
Boy oh boy, what a room it was!
It was like a classical living room which looked nothing like what the exterior would've suggested. Books, armchairs and even a rug covering the whole floor! All of these things graced the room which I had just entered, and I got to admit, they all looked absolutely beautiful. Not to mention, the small chandelier hanging from ceiling, providing a gorgeous golden glow to the whole room.
Even with these mixed emotions welling up inside me, the sight of the thing gave me some peace of mind.
And yet, still something felt off. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was, but it was there nonetheless.
However, I continued to press on as I tried to locate the source of the tune that was playing.
Poking my head out of this living room, I looked into the next room to find a small corridor that led to what seemed to be different parts of the bunker, separated by different turns and doors.
A long, enclosed space, I thought to myself warily. That's not good.
What else that was not good was that my whole body had finally begun its process in catching up to my actions.
The adrenaline was wearing off, and I could feel my body feeling heavier and heavier by the minute. My throat, whose pain had been ignorable for a good half of the last hour, had also become hoarse yet again. Like a desert, I felt no single drop of water in it, and it hurt me physically to even gulp...
"Seems like you're in a pinch," the Reaper finally made his return, knowing that I no longer had the ability to verbally shut him up. "Don't you just love it when things get exciting like this!"
Eyeing the demon from the corner of my eye with malicious intent, I continued to ignore him.
For now, I need myself focused solely on my current objective.
...
It was clear as ever that the whistling was coming from one of the rooms present in front of me, but which one was it?
A minute had gone by, and I still couldn't do it. The echoing through the small corridor just wasn't helping.
Wait... Echoes?
Looking intently once more at the corridor, I paid particular attention for any of the doors which might have been left ajar. Sadly, the angle proved to be my greatest enemy for it left me no way of seeing each door.
And so, I needed to make my way up across the corridor and checked each of them myself.
Ah crap, I mentally cursed at the thought.
Raising the rifle up to my eye-level, careful not to let any mishap occur, I swiftly began my sweep and started scanning through each and every single room.
Quietly. Or as much as I could possibly hope for with this pair of weak knees.
At first, my steps were indeed clumsy, but they slowly grew to relax after having done in a couple of doors. It was only until I arrived at the second to last one that I finally found what I had been looking for and my legs could have their rest.
With light escaping through the small slit present between the door and its frame, I quietly opened it and entered.
Inside, all I saw was yet another well-lit room filled with all sorts of things you could imagine. Spoils from all those people unfortunate enough to have stumbled upon this piece of land, killed on the spot without any remorse.
This was the storage room, I was sure about that. In fact, I'd say this whole bunker was a form of storage.
But amidst all of these riches and troves, there lay one thing at the center of the room which easily grabbed my attention ever since I'd laid my eyes on it.
An old record player.
It was playing a tune. Not a whistling but an actual song done by a piano; one that I'd been hearing all this time.
It was never a whistling, I realised. I had been too caught up in my own head that I didn't even notice. The whole damn thing had been in my head all this time!
And yet here I was, having run blindly all the way here, risking stealth, all for... All for what, exactly? Nothing? A coincidence?
Oh, fate could be quite the cruel mistress at times for this to simply come down as coincidence.
Letting out a small sigh of half-amusement, I was just about to turn around when the sound of a gun cocking stopped me.
"Don't you even think of moving, kid."
Speak of the devil.
By the tone of the voice, I knew immediately who this was. Hell, I could even smell the simplicity from behind me.
Good old four-eyes.
"I knew you would come," he began. "Nobody could've resisted from coming here, especially with all those Undeads occupying the perimeter. I suppo--"
WHAM!
I turned around at that very moment, hitting my elbow right to his aimed shotgun. Enough was enough! I wasn't having a gun aimed at my head in point-blank range any further!
"You son of a--!"
"Too late, my guy!"
I barely avoided the shot he had released in the middle of the frenzy, but as soon as I did, I used the loud noise to my advantage.
Using his sudden shock as a base to my attack, I hit his temple with the back of my rifle and as he tried to recover, I followed up with a kick on the other side.
It was a gruesome clash, and he was surely stronger than what I'd expected. Nevertheless, I did end up managing to get free and so, I immediately went for the door, leaving the man behind.
Running frantically through the corridor, I willed myself through the pain and aching.
I needed to get out of here! That was simply all that I could think of.
Closer. Closer. We're almost there. Only a few steps away from the exit!
But no.
Things were never meant to get any easier.
Out of nowhere, another figure appeared from the living room. A muscular man, with height that did not really match his mass came in, and in his hands was...
My damn hockey stick!
"Oi!" I yelled out loud. "That's mine!"
But the man did not listen, instead opting to swing the whole thing straight towards me.
Crap. I'm too slow!
But that would not matter for my legs decided at that exact moment to conveniently die off. Sliding onto the floor, I barely managed to dodge the whole thing, but a dodge was a dodge.
However, the man turned around as soon as I slid below his strike, catching me by surprise when he landed a solid blow straight to my sides only seconds after that.
Air was pushed out of me, and I could only gag in such a short span of time. A span of time I couldn't afford to waste in the first place.
Capitalising off of this, the bulky man once again delivered with a follow-up of yet another strike, this time onto my head.
The guy was practically using a bat!
Fortunately, I was able to cut this off by taking out my rifle and blind-firing at whatever I could until there were no more bullets.
Surely, one would land... Right?
How naive I was.
The moment I opened my eyes, the only thing broken was the lights above us, and that was not what I had planned.
Not long after that, everything became constant flashes of black and white. No signs of the bulky man from before.
Standing up, groaning as my whole body ached, I tried to assess my whole situation. What I didn't realise was the fact that I was still not yet alone. In fact, I was very, very far from being alone.
"Don't even try a thing."
Pointing his gunshot straight at me was four-eyes, and he looked pissed. Meanwhile, bulky-guy over here was busy standing menacingly in the corner, listening patiently. He didn't show it, but I could see that he was injured.
Whether it was the work of mine just now or the one back at the mall, it did give me some comfort.
Yep, one more person I could take advantage of later on.
That was... If I could even move by the time a chance would present itself. Worries would still be worries, but still, I had much more urgent problems at the moment.
"Dallas, call the boss," four eyes told his injured friend, still keeping his full attention on me. "And make it quick."
Without any complaints, Dallas did just that and disappeared into the storage room from before. I wasn't sure what exactly was he doing, but as soon as a new melody could be heard from within that room, I knew.
Those songs were signals used for communication. Ingenious to be honest, although I hated to admit it.
And that also further increased the probability that these people didn't know anything of the Dark Marksman. How stupid was I to not realise that a whistling could be based on a tune of an actual song!?
Truly, in the matter of only an hour, I realised that I still had so much lacking in me.
Damn it, I wanted to curse out in frustration.
"And well, that's that," four-eyes said, deciding it was now the perfect time to smile. "Welcome to hell, kid. Hope you enjoy your stay."
And with that, I finally let it all out.
"Damn it," I cursed out in frustration.