Will weighed the three options.
Leave. Fight now. Follow.
The chained man's eyes were burned into his memory. I know you're there and please in the same breath. Will had seen that look in hospital waiting rooms and in his father's face across a kitchen table stacked with debt letters. It was the look of someone who had run out of options and was betting everything on a stranger deciding to give a damn. It stopped his hands from moving. It stopped the math.
He was done being the stranger who walked away.
"We move now," Will whispered.
Good, Khan's ancient voice rumbled behind his ribs. A general who ignores his instincts is merely a clerk. We claim them.
We aren't claiming them, Will thought, his heart hammering against his bruised ribs. We're just not letting them die.
Maddie nodded, her jaw set tight. Don looked terrified, his hands shaking slightly, but he held his ground.
"The lieutenant took two men north," Will whispered. "Two guards left. We take them simultaneously. Maddie, I need you to draw one away. Don, you're the backup."
Maddie slipped out of her jacket and handed it to Will. "If I die, tell Allison she gets my boots."
Will crept through the undergrowth. His boots sank into the wet, rotted earth. Every twist of his torso sent a burning spike through his ribs. He was operating on pure adrenaline and borrowed time.
He reached the edge of the camp, crouching behind a stack of metal crates. His hands, slick with sweat, rummaged through the corporate cache. He found a quiver of real, balanced arrows and slung it over his shoulder. He snatched a set of small brass keys hanging from a hook on the supply cart.
Will nocked an arrow. He tied the keyring to the shaft using a frayed piece of his own shoelace. Forty meters away, the large chained man was hauling a heavy generator, his broad back to the treeline.
Aim for where he will be, Khan instructed.
Will drew the string. His hands shook. A targeting reticle from the System blinked erratically into his vision, pulsing an intrusive, glowing red that made his stomach churn. It felt like a parasite trying to pilot his arms. He squeezed his eyes shut for a microsecond, forcing the UI away. He relied on his own depth perception and released the string.
The arrow struck a buried root three yards to the captive's left. The wooden shaft snapped, sending the brass keys skittering into the mud.
The big man froze. He looked down at the keys, then glanced at the guard facing the cage. The captive dropped his shoulder, mimicking a buckle under the weight of the generator. He hit the dirt hard, scraping his forearms across the sharp rocks to reach the keys. His thick fingers fumbled in the mud, pulling the brass ring close just as the guard turned around.
The man stayed on his knees, breathing heavily, hiding the keys under his thigh.
"He's smart," Allison whispered beside Will.
"He's been waiting," Will said.
Good soldiers, Khan noted. Someone trained them.
Maddie executed the distraction exactly as expected. She grabbed a heavy wooden supply crate and shoved it violently into a weapons rack. The metal clashed loudly, echoing through the quiet forest.
Both guards whipped around. Maddie sprinted back into the thick brush.
"I got her," the larger guard barked. He drew a heavy kinetic baton and charged into the trees after her.
Maddie tore through the underbrush, her lungs burning. The terrain was a nightmare of slick moss and jagged roots. Her boot caught a fossilized root. She went down hard, her knee slamming into a rock with a crack she felt in her back teeth. She rolled onto her back, the leg temporarily dead.
The guard burst through the foliage with his baton raised. He lunged immediately, his heavy boot pinning Maddie's ankle to the dirt. He reached down, grabbed her by the throat, and hoisted her half off the ground.
Maddie choked, her hands desperately clawing at his armored forearm. The angle demanded an ugly, desperate street fight. She jammed her thumbs directly toward the guard's eyes. The man jerked his head back with a curse, his grip loosening just enough.
Maddie drew the heavy scavenged blade at her hip and twisted her torso. She threw her entire systemic 15 STR into a chaotic, two-handed swing aimed straight at the unarmored gap behind his knee.
The crushing momentum of the strike completely depleted her stamina in a single violent motion. Her Tier-0 cardiovascular system cracked under the Tier-1 combat output. The blade bit deep, popping the joint. Maddie instantly dropped the heavy weapon, her chest heaving as she gasped for air, completely drained.
The guard roared, collapsing sideways. He thrashed in the mud, clutching his ruined leg, permanently grounded.
Maddie slumped back into the dirt, coughing violently, her lungs burning as she waited for her stamina bar to recover.
Thirty yards away, Don watched from the bushes. His chest heaved as he crept forward and began ripping the armor off the bleeding guard. His hands shook violently as he undid the clasps. Don pulled the chest piece over his own shoulders. It hung awkwardly off his frame, the metal plates clattering against each other.
He stepped out of the treeline, walking back toward the camp. The second guard was pacing near the cage, his repeating crossbow lowered. He heard the metallic clatter and turned. He stared at Don. The armor was wrong. The gait was wrong.
"Hey!" the guard yelled, instantly raising the crossbow.
Don froze, terror locking his joints. He held his ground. The guard pulled the trigger.
The brutal, concussive punch threw the younger man backward, knocking the wind out of him as he crashed into the dirt. The guard racked the crossbow to fire again.
Allison broke from her blind-spot angle in the brush. She moved with ruthless efficiency, driving her scavenged spear hard into the unarmored gap behind the guard's knee. The man roared, his crossbow shot going wide into the dirt as his leg buckled.
The chains rattled behind the guard.
The big captive had already unlocked his cuffs and the cuffs of the man beside him. They lunged. They were starved and exhausted, their movements sloppy and desperate. The big man tackled the guard around the waist, driving him into the side of the metal cage. The guard thrashed, dropping the crossbow and drawing a serrated combat knife. He slashed wildly, opening a deep gash across the second captive's forearm.
Will burst from the treeline, sprinting across the open ground. He dropped the bow and tackled the guard's arm, pinning the knife against the dirt. The big captive drove his elbow repeatedly into the guard's faceplate until the visor cracked and the man went still.
The camp fell dead silent.
Will stayed on his knees, his chest heaving, his bruised ribs screaming in protest. He looked up. Maddie limped out of the trees, her knee bleeding freely, her face pale. Don sat up in the mud, clutching his bruised shoulder where the bolt had struck the armor, his eyes wide with shock. Allison stood beside the downed guard, her spear lowered, her breathing steady.
A pale blue System prompt flared in Will's vision, casting an invasive, unnatural light across the muddy camp.
[Combat Encounter Resolved: Tactical Elimination.]
[Hostile Threat Neutralized.]
Will swiped his hand through the air, dismissing it. There was nothing tactical about it. It was just desperate people trying not to die.
He looked at the big man sitting in the mud beside him. The captive's wrists were raw and bloody from the iron cuffs. He breathed hard, staring at Will with wide, disbelieving eyes. The man slowly pushed himself to his feet.
He extended a massive, dirt-stained hand toward Will. Will reached up and grabbed it, letting the big man haul him to his feet.
"Francis Tyson," the man rasped, his voice thick with emotion.
"Will."
Tyson gripped Will's forearm tight.