Team A Perspective
The forest was thinning—finally. After hours of weaving through skeletal trees and decayed brush, Team A could see the faint shimmer of moonlight marking the end of the Metro outskirts. Delta City's distant glow flickered like a dying flame on the horizon. They were close.
Ron lifted his wrist-comms.
"Team A to Netoshka. We're approaching the tunnel exit outside—"
Static. Then a harsh, metallic shriek.
—rrrkkk—s…stop…rrr—
Serah flinched.
"The Wire's jamming everything again."
"Keep trying," Battery muttered while carving a path with her shock-blades.
"If Team B's still alive, they'll need to know we're ahead."
But before Ron could reply—
A rustle.
A snap of branches.
A wet snarl.
Then shapes emerged from the smoky underbrush.
Ghouls.
Dozens of them. Bent, half-feral humanoid figures with cracked masks fused into their skin. Their eyes glowed with Wire static—like corrupted fireflies.
Raine sucked in a breath.
"Aw fuck. They're not supposed to be this far west!"
Alev's hands ignited instinctively.
"They won't be for long."
The ghouls lunged.
Team A scattered into formation—
Battery forward, Serah covering mid-range, Ron and SP3CTR firing from the backline, Ginny tossing impact grenades while Renzo provided suppressing fire.
It should have been a manageable fight.
But the forest betrayed them.
Alev launched a flame arc to push back a cluster of ghouls—but the dry brush erupted instantly.
WHOOMPH.
A wall of fire surged upward, racing across the trees like it had been waiting for the tiniest spark.
Serah yelled,
"ALEV, YOU IDIOT—"
"YEAH YEAH !" Alev waved his arms helplessly. "I HAD NO CHOICE, DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD CATCH THIS FAST!"
More ghouls stumbled into the fire, screeching, their silhouettes writhing like burning puppets—but the others only got more aggressive, as if the flames blinded them with fury.
Ron grit his teeth.
"MOVE! The fire's spreading too fast—everyone FALL BACK!"
They sprinted through thickening smoke, silhouettes weaving between burning trunks. The ghouls chased relentlessly, some throwing themselves through the flames, their charred limbs sparking with Wire corruption.
SP3CTR fired a concussive blast that sent three of them flying.
"THEY'RE OUTNUMBERING US!"
"They always outnumber us!" Raine shouted
"Just shoot!"
The air became suffocating.
Embers drifted like burning snow.
Visibility dropped to almost nothing.
Ginny hurled a grenade behind them—
BOOM.
Trees collapsed, briefly blocking the ghouls, but the smoke worsened.
"Ron!" Serah coughed.
"Try the comms again!"
He raised them to his mouth.
"Netoshka, this is Team A — we're compromised — forest fire — enemy hostiles — we are evacu—"
—skKRRRhhhhh—bzz—NETO—rrrhk—CAN—'T—HEA—YOU—
Then silence.
The Wire severed them completely.
"Perfect," Battery growled.
"They want to cut us off from Command."
"Doesn't matter." Ron pointed through the swirling smoke to a dark outline ahead—
A wooden cabin, isolated at the forest's edge.
"The Rendezvous Checkpoint. MOVE!"
Team A burst through the last stretch of burning brush.
The moment they broke out of the fireline, clean cold air hit their lungs—and they collapsed momentarily, hacking, gasping, half-burned but alive.
Behind them, the forest continued to burn—a massive orange wound spreading across the horizon.
Raine looked back, eyes wide with guilt.
"Alev… you didn't just start a fire. You started a signal."
Alev swallowed hard.
"Yeah. Every creature within ten miles is gonna notice that."
Ron steadied himself and raised his weapon
. "Then we don't stay out here. We go Inside towards the cabin—NOW. We regroup, reinforce, and hope Team B makes it out before the tunnels collapse on them."
As they moved toward the cabin's door, the comms buzzed faintly again—
but only for a second.
Just enough to hear one fragmented voice:
—Te… B… still…ghting—don… let… die—
Netoshka's voice.
Then the static swallowed her again.
Team A had officially made it out.
Team B was still trapped below.
And the fire behind them roared louder—like something else had awakened inside it.