Page 7 of Wrong Squad, Right Mess

A noise from our left had me shifting, putting myself between it and Yun. We’d run into a few monsters in our travels so far, but not many. I had to guess that was because of our distance from the portal. From what we understood, monsters would head towards that portal as soon as it opened. It made that area the most dangerous. Since we were still a few miles away, the monsters had been far and few between.

Still, I knew never to let my guard down. That was exactly the time that things always went to absolute shit. The bushes shifted, and purple glowing eyes appeared between the sparse leaves.

The thing didn’t attack right away, which sounded like it would be a good thing, but in my experience anything that veered away from the normal when it came to a dungeon was usually a bad sign. It meant that the rules as I understood them had changed, and I didn’t care for learning new ones.

It stepped from the underbrush slowly, its massive claws sinking into the soft ground.

And yet again, it paid me little to no mind. Instead, its gaze locked on Yun, a terrifying intelligence in those eyes that said it knew exactly where its target lay.

Over my dead fucking body.

I shifted again, breaking its line of sight, forcing it to focus on me. It snarled, revealing massive fangs and dripping saliva.

There we go, that’s the monster I know and hate.

Carter walked back from up ahead, strolling as though taking a lovely walk through a park. “Why are you playing with that thing?”

“I’m not playing. It just showed up. Don’t you think it’s acting weird?”

“Maybe? Who knows? In fact, who cares? I heard gunshots, so we should be close to someone, at least.” He spoke about the monster like we were talking about a stray kitten.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the thing was watching Yun, that it had more smarts to it than they usually did. Could Corsa be watching through those eyes? Connected somehow? Able to control the beast and have it report back?

I didn’t love that, but it made sense.

Still, even if we killed it, it wouldn’t stop it from reporting back. It still would send whatever information it had already gathered, assuming they were telepathically connected.

Before I could come up with a way to deal with it, another noise from the other side came, so soft I nearly missed it. A rustling—no, maybe just the shifting of air.

Whatever it was, it signaled something moving fast in our direction. I caught Carter’s gaze, and only years of working together gave us the ability to communicate with just that look. I dove forward, taking Yun with me, out of the way, forgetting the monster.

It didn’t seem to want to hurt us at the moment, and we had no idea if the same held true for whatever sailed at us.

Carter caught the thing—a woman, it turned out when a small figure dangled from his grip, held by her throat. I’d seen her at base, though hadn’t seen any reason to actually speak to her.

There were few people I saw a reason to speak to, honestly. She had hair dyed purple, and bright blue eyes. Her body was small, the sort that would trick a person into thinking they were innocent and harmless.

However the speed in which she moved told me she was an elemental esper, likely a wind type, or at least one most closely bound to wind powers.

Carter dropped her, not bothering to help when she collapsed to her knees, hacking and coughing as she tried to catch her breath. “What are you doing here?”

She gagged, dry-heaving a few times, before the antics died down. “I could ask you the same thing. Last I heard, no one could find you assholes.”

“Assholes? Well, now, that’s rather rude,” Carter said, crossing his arms as he stared at her.

The monster remained in place, seemingly content to watch it all unfold.

She wiped her mouth, then stood. At least she looked more like an esper when on her feet. “How the fuck did you get here? When we left base, no one knew where you’d gone.”

Carter waved around him. “A tear seemed to open and drop us in here. We’ve been headed toward the portal for the past few hours.” He paused, then added, “Where did it open, exactly?”

“On the California–Nevada line. It’s bigger than last time—no idea how many civilians are stuck right now, but the estimates say likely thousands were trapped inside. A good portion are likely already dead.”

“And you’re part of the scout teams?” Carter asked.

She puffed out her chest. “That’s right.”

“What squad?”