"What?" Jang-book said, fear coating his words.
The rest of them remained quiet, digesting the news as a person would digest a boulder.
"If we hurry, we could..."
"But you said the distance is well over twenty kilometers." Dok-su cut Min-ho short. "How long will it take us to get there?
"It should take around six hours if we ran nonstop."
"Wouldn't the sun have set by then?" Sae-wee chimed in.
Jang-book still sat confused, he didn't want to believe it.
"If we're fast enough, we could make it before then," Min-ho said.
"But it's not a guarantee," Dok-su said. "If that sun sets the streets will be crawling with Spectors."
He pointed at the rays of light shining through holes in the building.
"We don't really have a choice," Min-ho said, heightening the dread brewing within them.
He got onto his feet.
"We just have to push forward. Avoid any Spectors along the way and keep going. I'm not dying in this Tower today, and neither are any of you. So let's go."
***
Running through the streets of the ruined city, the sounds of their footsteps somehow seemed to echo across a vast space, stretching far and wide, almost like a dinner bell calling anything that would answer.
Of course this was all in their heads.
Four hours had gone by and they had only managed thirteen kilometers. Even while running at full speed nonstop, they couldn't go any further.
The pain coursing through them and the occasional stops because of Spectors and terrain had eaten into their time.
It was getting late and the sun was on the far side of the sky, ready to set in a few hours.
THUD!
Everyone came to a screeching halt upon hearing the sound. Bending over and breathing hard, they turned to the source of the sound, only to find Sae-wee on the floor.
She looked like a broken doll as she barely held her shaken self up on all fours. Her breathing like the rest of them was laborious and pain-filled.
Glancing at the sky, Min-ho felt the world pressing down on him as the reality of what would follow this darkness settled into the forefront of his mind.
Taking a step forward, he squinted as a wave of pain exploded throughout his body. They weren't able to purchase anymore Blood Burner as their daily limit had been reached. Not that they even would purchase any, as the price seemed less and less worth it.
As he slowly made his way to Sae-wee, Im-hee kept coming up over and over again in his head.
Perhaps allowing her to heal them wasn't such a bad idea.
Upon reaching her, Min-ho got on one knee with a wince.
"We…" he tried to control his ragged breathing. "We… have to keep moving."
They still had a ways to go. And they had very little time, none enough to rest up.
She nodded her head, then forced herself up, only to fall once again.
Seeing her failed attempt to eise, Min-ho grabbed her arm, then helped her up.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, suddenly feeling hatred for herself for being so weak.
Min-ho didn't respond, he didn't know how to.
He turned to the others, they were all equally drained, the bruised and beaten fighters in the team more so than Im-hee and Ji-su.
"Let's keep going," Min-ho panted, then threw Sae-wee's hand over his shoulder, holding her close. "We'll take a short break and walk for a while, then…"
"Ahh!" Ji-su screamed, clutching his head as he crumbled to the ground.
Everyone froze, Min-ho felt his heart jump out of his chest
'Has his Whiplash kicked in again?' he wondered, his heart thumping. 'Not now.'
Dok-su bent low, gripping his brother by the shoulders.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Ji-su turned to his brother, his eyes sunken and his spirit a distant memory.
The void look on his face left everyone aghast, fear taking root in their hearts.
"A hoard… a… a hoard…"
"Spitbit out Ji-su!" Dok-su shouted.
"A hord of Second Tiers are coming…"
Silence fell, a deadly cold consumed everyone, chilling them to their bones.
"What did you just say?" Jang-book asked.
"From where Ji-su?" Min-ho asked, doing everything in his power to remain strong.
Ji-su paused.
"Twenty meters that way." Ji-su pointed.
Min-ho traced the invisible line Ji-su pointed at. His heart thumped.
It was in the direction they were headed.
Silence blanketed them.
"We have to get out of here," Im-hee said, her words stuttering. She turned to the east side of the road. "We co… could go around."
"That'll put us back," Sae-wee said, her disposition frail yet logical.
"We can't face them Sae-wee," Im-hee said, her voice barely a whisper.
"How the hell are there some many Second Tiers so soon?" Jang-book said, pacing, his hands erratic.
"Getting out of here is our best bet," Dok-su said, raising his brother to his feet.
Ji-su shook his head.
"Ther… there are to… too many of them." He turned to face his brother. "Going around won't be possible."
"Maybe we should turn back." Jang-book turned to the location they came from.
His blood immediately turned to ice.
Seeing his odd behavior, everyone turned toward the same location, one by one they froze.
Min-ho paused, his heart thumping so hard he could physically feel pain in his chest.
He slowly turned around, and his eyes widened when he saw it.
The Fog.
They stood, frozen for far too many seconds.
"What do we do?" Im-hee barely said.
***
Shrieking cries floated into the air in whispers as over a hundred Spectors slowly walked across the streets of the broken city.
The creatures despite basking in the dim light of the evening sun were pitch black, the only feasible features present on them being a single red eye in the middle of what looked to be their heads, and a wide smile with razor sharp teeth below the single eye.
Scattered across the area were Min-ho and his team. Ji-su and Dok-su had hidden themselves under a pile of rubble, Jang-book and Im-hee had done the same inside an artificially formed cone of stone placed at the corner of a destroyed building on the left side of the road.
Min-ho and Sae-wee were in a similar building to the right side of the road.
Their dispersed hiding spots a last ditch effort to not get the entire group killed if one of them was discovered.
As they waited, each and everyone of them felt their hearts beating so loud they feared the Spectors would hear.
Im-hee held her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, while Jang-book tried to remain strong, even if his body felt to crumble under the subpressive weight these Spectors brought about.
Ji-su pressed his head against the ground, not wishing to even look at the creatures, Dok-su did the same.
Sitting beside a frozen Sae-wee, Min-ho dug his fingers into his thighs as he tried to hold himself together.
But the power exuding off a single one of these Spectors threatened to bring him to his knees. And there were over a hundred of them.
'We'll make it out of here,' he tried to reassure himself. 'We will make it out...'
CRUMBLE!
His breath caught upon hearing the sound. All the Spectors froze in place, then they turned toward Ji-su and Dok-su.