CHAPTER 73: BACK INTO THE FIRE

"Dear God," Im-hee whispered, her eyes sunken. She fell to her knees, unable to bear the weight of what this meant.

The rest of them couldn’t do anything but watch in horror as the Z-Tower mocked the very idea of hope.

Their racing hearts thumped so hard their chests began to burn.

Min-ho fell his gaze. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"This... this isn’t fair," Im-hee said, her voice half-turned to a sob.

Feeling the tension in the air, Ji-su knew something was wrong, but he was too afraid to ask.

While holding onto Min-ho’s arm, Sae-wee noticed something at the corner of her eye. She turned to her left, only to find a pathway that led to some unknown location.

"Everyone," she whispered, pulling their gazes. Then she pointed.

They paused for a moment, their gazes fixated on the path.

Though no one knew where it would lead, a stupid voice inside them begged to check. Perhaps it would be an exit.

They didn’t give it a second guess before making their way to the tunnel as though they were being mind-controlled.

Sae-wee hesitated, staring at the path, something stirring in her stomach.

"Sae-wee?" Min-ho called out, his voice weak.

She jittered, then turned to him—the same look of pain and uncertainty in her eyes.

"Let’s follow them," Min-ho said.

She hesitated, then nodded erratically. She gulped and then turned to the others, helping Min-ho along.

They didn’t have to walk for more than a minute before they came into a cave—a large and long cave that held what looked to be cocoons sprawled across the floor and walls.

Beside each cocoon lay... a Z-Eye.

All eyes widened when realization sunk in.

Min-ho froze, his stomach dropping.

As though the Z-Eyes weren’t telling enough, not too far was a cocoon that stood out amongst the rest.

Sticking out of the cocoon was an arm. It dangled from the side of the cocoon by a small piece of flesh. Dried blood trailed down the arm, its fingers crooked, telling of the pain this person had gone through.

Im-hee fell to the ground and began to hurl.

Everyone else looked away, except Min-ho. His gaze was frozen on the arm.

’This is... wrong,’ Min-ho thought, his stomach also in upheaval. But he didn’t give in.

Sae-wee froze in place, her very soul shaken by the sight before them.

"What the fuck?!" Jang-book yelled like a fool, startling everyone and forgetting that he could alert the Spectors to their location.

Despite them knowing this, no one turned to berate him.

Jang-book placed both hands on his face, trailing them up to his hair so he gripped a chunk of it.

"What do we do?" Jang-book asked, his voice for the first time desperate.

It was strange hearing him panic. He was always calm, no matter the circumstance—yet now he was shaken and frenzied. This only managed to intensify the fear sprouting in their hearts.

Ji-su was still left in the dark. The fear of what was going on ate at him. Yet he still didn’t want to ask.

Min-ho remained silent, his logical mind giving way to the madness of fear.

He just turned away, wishing to be anywhere else but here. Sae-wee slowly turned, helping him leave the tunnel.

Dok-su did the same, exiting with his brother in hand.

Jang-book was still pacing, attempting to rip out his hair as fear consumed him.

Just then, he felt a warmth on his arm that startled him a bit. Turning to the warmth, his heart sank when he saw Im-hee. She looked even more sickly than before.

Earlier, he could tell she had started getting better. But now it looked like her condition had declined sharply.

Yet she was still trying to comfort him.

He gritted his teeth and lowered his head. The pain was too much to bear.

She held his arm, and then gently pulled him along, following behind the others.

The group had retreated a good distance from their supposed exit toward safety.

Most of them sat on the floor, lost in deep thought and wallowing further in the dread that coiled around their hearts.

Jang-book was the only one to remain standing. He was pacing back and forth, his mind running amok.

Several minutes had gone by without anyone saying anything.

"What if..." Sae-wee said, the attempt to try and mask her fear unfortunately resonant in the pitch of her voice, "what if we tried the other tunnels on this side of the acid lake?"

Everyone went quiet. Jang-book paused, turning to her, curious.

"That won’t work," Min-ho said, staring at his dagger. "I saw it. All the tunnels will converge at that cavern. If they don’t, I doubt they’ll lead anywhere else but a dead end."

"So we should just sit here and do nothing? Or do you have a plan in mind?" Jang-book asked,

Pulling everyone’s gaze toward Min-ho.

Min-ho paused.

For the past so-and-so minutes, he had been running a lot of things through his mind. He knew that the exit housing hordes of Spectors was their best bet. Backtracking would only lead them nowhere. And if night fell, more Spectors would flood these tunnels. A death sentence.

No matter how he looked at it, he came to the same conclusion time and time again. They’d have to face them, head-on.

Min-ho sighed, then he spoke.

"I do," he said, responding to Jang-book’s question.

Everyone’s eyes lit up upon hearing this. Hope sparked in their hearts.

"What is it?" Jang-book asked.

Min-ho remained quiet for a moment. He dismissed his dagger and attempted to rise. While doing so, a sharp pain shot out from his leg, causing him to groan a little.

’This damn leg,’ he thought.

Sae-wee got up immediately and helped him onto his feet.

"Thank you," he whispered, and she nodded.

Once fully standing, he turned to the very thing that caused him this pain in the first place.

The pool of green had now settled into place, its frenzied splashing and waves finally quelled.

"What is the plan?" Min-ho echoed Jang-book’s words, the green from the pool reflecting in his eyes. "It’s not a very good plan. But it’s the only one I’ve got."

***

"Go, go!" Min-ho screamed at the top of his lungs.

He and his team ran behind the dozen or so Z-Streamers clambering over eggs and small patches of land to get to the exit.

Behind them, a Second Tier gave chase, running and tumbling over itself in order to kill the invaders.

Everyone ran as fast as they could. The exit was so close and—

"Ah!"

"Ji-su!" Dok-su screamed as Ji-su fell behind them, his leg stuck in a cracked eggshell. Dok-su ran back, trying to help his brother out of this predicament.

Min-ho paused, and so did his teammates. But the other Z-Streamers didn’t even bother.

He diverted his gaze away from Ji-su and toward the Second Tier Spector that was only three meters away from them.

’It’s going to get them,’ Min-ho thought, his heart sinking.