Kai stood in front of the half-opened ramp, staring into the darkened interior of the massive ship. Beside him, Derniere shifted uneasily, her arms crossed over her chest. Bell rested inside her pocket, only his tiny head poking out, his nose twitching at the air.

  The ramp had once been carefully concealed, hidden behind well-placed rocks and at some point covered in foliage. Now, only the rocks remained. The vegetation had long since decayed, leaving behind nothing but dry, dead branches.

  Kai peered inside. He could only make out a small portion of the interior before the darkness swallowed everything else. The space beyond looked untouched, abandoned for centuries. A thick layer of dust coated the ramp, disturbed only by a set of small footprints from Bell.

  No one else had been here.

  "Should we go inside?" Derniere asked, her voice carrying a note of hesitation.

  Kai smiled. “We’ve come this far, so I think we kind of have to, don’t you?” He was eager to explore, especially after what he had seen inside the buried U.S.S.F. ship. The Ark—Earth’s generation ship. Humanity’s last hope. But if that was true, then this wasn’t the only one. The ship he had seen in the poster had another flag—red, white, and blue. This one was Japanese, it was a different country.

  "What if there are more of those things that attacked you? The ghosts or whatever they were," Derniere said, glancing uneasily at the darkness.

  "They weren’t ghosts," Kai corrected. "Ghosts aren’t real. That was... something else. And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what they were either. But you can think of them as nano-machines — tiny, microscopic robots that do things at an almost invisible level."

  Derniere frowned, tilting her head. "I didn’t think we were advanced enough to make something like that." She hesitated. "Although, to be fair, most of what I know about the world comes from books, so I could be wrong."

  Kai shook his head. "I don’t think we made them." He let the words hang for a second before continuing. "I think they were made by aliens."

  Derniere laughed—then stopped when she saw that Kai wasn’t laughing. Her mind flashed back to what she had seen before—Kai’s eyes glowing in the dark, his blood fighting against something she couldn't even hit.

  A new thought settled in, one she had been trying to push away.

  "Kai..." Her voice was quieter now, more careful. "I apologize if this offends you, but... you’re not normal, are you?"

  Kai exhaled. He wasn’t surprised by the question.

  "I was normal, just like everyone else," he said. "Until I was attacked by a strange liquid—the nano-machines I told you about. They did something to my body, changed me, gave me the ability to do things that normal humans can’t."

  Derniere’s curiosity flared. "What can you do? I know you can see in the dark and breathe in toxic air, but there’s got to be more." She eyed him with intense interest, as if piecing together a puzzle she hadn’t realized she was solving.

  Kai smirked. "Let’s see... I can also track moving targets, see through walls…" He raised an eyebrow. "Derniere, are you asking all these questions so you don’t have to go inside the Ark?"

  Derniere immediately looked away, her gaze falling to the edge of the ramp at her feet. "I’m scared, Kai," she admitted. "I’ve never been here before. I don’t know what we’re going to find... and that terrifies me."

  Kai opened his mouth, ready to say something reassuring—something about being brave, about how she was awesome, about how she had a gun. Words that might have helped.

  But then they heard it.

  A deep, echoing horn. Loud. Trumpet-like.

  Then gunfire. Short, controlled bursts.

  Kai’s expression hardened. "I think we’ve been found." Without hesitation, he started walking up the ramp.

  Derniere glanced between the collapsed wall behind them and the ramp leading into the unknown.

  On one hand there were gunfire.

  On the other was the pitch-black interior of a ship that had been sealed away for hundreds of years.

  In the end, the choice was easy.

  Better to take her chances with the dark than get shot by a gun.

  With a sigh, she followed after Kai. "What the hell," she muttered under her breath. "If those nano-whatever come back, you can always puke blood at them again, right?"

  -----------------------

  "I'm out of ammo," Robert shouted.

  Eliana tosed him one and Robert caught it in mid air, "remember to shot with controled short bursts."

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Robert ejected his empty mags and inserted the one Eliana have him, chambered a round and continued shooting, "tell that to the swarm of drones that's coming to cut you with there sharp, spinning blades."

  The swarm had been deminished to only the half of its original size, but so was their ammo supply.

  "I'm down to two mags." Ivan said, we have to retreat further, towards the generation ship."

  They reteated while covering each other and continued to fire at the swarm. The swarm was nearly at the entrance and Ivan was afraid that if it does, it will spread out and come at them in multiple directions, and he really don't want that to happen.

  "Let's just go for the ship, I don't think we can waste anymore ammo on this, we don't even know where Kai is yet." Ivan ordered and they hurried towards the Ark.

  For some reason, the drones refused to come into the light, they stopped at the entrance just outside the crumbled wall.

  Teresa chucked, "well, that was a lot of ammo wasted unnecessarily."

  "Hey, we didn't know what would happen so we just did what we have to do." Ivan said.

  "We still don't know where Kai is yet, I don't think he will make it very far without food and water." Eliana said, worried.

  "Let's just check out that ship, if I'm right about Kai, he was probably the one that caused all this destruction in the first place." Robert said with a laugh.

  "You are not wrong about that, I think he was getting a little too comfortable in the training room lately." Ivan said.

  Eliana listened with a smile, everyone liked Kai, and she loves him. Robert is right, Kai was probably hiding in the generation ship right now waiting for them with a warm hug and a bright smile. For some reason that made her want to tear up.

  ----------------------------

  Kai tightened his grip on the heavy piece of machinery in his hands—something that looked like an old battery pack or power cell. He wasn’t sure what it was, nor did he care. All that mattered was that it was heavy enough to deliver some serious blunt force trauma to whoever was about to step through that door.

  “I think they have rifles,” Derniere muttered, her voice tense as she peeked through a small viewport toward the four approaching figures. “They must know we’re here. They’re heading straight for us.”

  Kai stepped beside her, his eyes narrowing as he studied the incoming squad. These weren’t random scavengers or lost wanderers. Their formation was tight, their movements disciplined.

  “I think taking out the walker must’ve triggered an alarm,” Kai said. “Probably sent a signal topside.”

  They were close now, and he could see them better. Hazard suits. Full combat gear. These people were prepped for something dangerous—which meant they knew exactly what they were walking into. He clenched his jaw.

  His eyes flicked to Derniere’s rifle—a single-shot bolt-action relic compared to the sleek, modern rifles their enemies carried. If they executed the ambush perfectly, she might be able to drop two of them before they could react. That still left two more for Kai to deal with using nothing but a heavy chunk of metal and his bare hands.

  He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to steady his breathing. This wasn’t the worst odds he’d faced—but he’d be lying if he said it didn’t make his blood run hot. He glanced at their suits again. Reinforced armor plating, sealed visors, full environmental protection.

  Yeah. This was a cleanup squad.

  Not just some grunts. These were specialists sent to eliminate anything down here that wasn’t supposed to exist.

  He swallowed. These people looked tough. He didn’t like it one bit. The operative at the rear suddenly raised their head, scanning the area.

  Kai instantly ducked away from the viewport.

  “Let’s get ready,” he whispered.

  Derniere gave him a thumbs-up before settling into position behind a large metal desk, using the surface as an anchor to steady her rifle. She mocked the motion and worked the bolt back and forth in the air, making sure she could cycle rounds quickly.

  Kai positioned himself beside the doorway, pressing his back against the tilted metal wall. The ship’s uneven landing had left everything at an angle, but he adjusted quickly. The hallway outside was silent except for the slow, deliberate sound of boots against metal.

  They were inside now.

  He gripped the battery pack, raising it over his head, waiting for the first one to step in. He stole one last glance at Derniere—her body low, only her head and shoulders exposed. She was ready.

  His vision shifted back to the hallway. Four outlines. They moved smoothly, covering their angles with textbook precision.

  He clenched his jaw. They had night vision. That complicated things.

  Derniere’s lamp would’ve been real useful right about now.

  They were getting close. Just outside the door, just a wall away from Kai.

  Come on… come on… step inside… let me end this quickly, Kai thought.

  But no one did.

  Instead, something bounced across the floor.

  Kai’s stomach dropped.

  A stun grenade.

  He barely had time to curse before it detonated. Blinding white light swallowed the room. His ears registered nothing. Not even the explosion—just a loud of pain.

  His body reacted on instinct. He swung—fast, hard, and violent. He felt his attack land but he was no longer holding on to the battery. His empty hand collided with a helmet. It was not enough.

  Pain flared up his wrist as another pair of hands grabbed him, twisting hard.

  They were trying to restrain him.

  Even half-blind and deaf, he was still faster. He shifted his weight, driving his knee into the first operative’s gut. The impact sent them staggering back, their grip loosening for just a second.

  Kai slammed his elbow into the next attacker's face. The reinforced visor rippled under the force, and for a moment, he could tell the guy was dazed.

  He needed to keep going. If he stopped, he was going to get shot and die, and Derniere will die too.

  Someone tackled him from the side. He hit the wall hard, the ship’s angled surface throwing him off balance. His vision was still swimming, his ears ringing, but he could hear them now—muffled voices, shouting commands, shouting his name.

  "Kai! Kai! It’s me!"

  His breath caught, he recognized the voice.

  It cut through the haze like a blade.

  His vision was still blurry, but he saw a helmeted figure looming over him, visor reflecting the dim light.

  His heartbeat slammed against his ribs.

  It was her, it was Eliana.

  For a second, his body didn’t react. His mind refused to believe it.

  Then everything snapped back into place.

  He stopped struggling.

  Eliana wiped her hand over her helmet’s visor, revealing tear-filled eyes. She was crying — joyful tears that was the result of his much she had missed him.

  "Eliana…?" His voice came out hoarse, still raw from the fight.

  She didn’t answer—not in words. She grabbed him, pulling him into a crushing embrace.

  He didn’t hesitate. He wrapped his arms around her, holding on like she was the only thing left in the world.

  Her voice was muffled against his shoulder. "Kai, you idiot… I thought I’d lost you."

  He let out a breathless, shaky laugh, his grip tightening.

  He had missed her. More than he realized.

  She shifted slightly, her voice half-laughing, half-scolding. “Kai, you’re—you’re going to break my suit.”

  He finally loosened his grip, barely.

  His mind was still spinning, emotions slamming into him all at once.

  He needed to find clean air.

  Because the first chance he got… He was going to kiss her.