"You will be one of my chosen warriors if that is what you wish, and we will send you north to the enemies` dearest city. A divine instrument of punishment, and a decorated officer in the service of Invictus. I shall be your Devotee in this war, and you shall carry the banner before the rest come to aid you."

　　"Are you sending me to die?"

　　"That is up to you, Zoe Bari. You have such potential, but not as an ordinary soldier. An ordinary soldier is made to obey out of fear, out of awe for the one who commands. You are something else, and it would be foolish to force your hand."

　　-Zoe and the Emperor

　　244 YT, Autumn: Just outside of Kivv

　　 After spending so much time in Kurikuneku, Zoe had forgotten what the world outside of God`s embrace really looked like.

　　 The voice of the Invictan Emperor whispered in her ear, a constant buzzing behind all other sound, as she walked up toward the gates of the city. They were practically deserted. While the rest of Zoe`s squad waited in the trees nearby, she crept forward, glancing up at the walls to make sure she wasn`t being watched or followed. Once, only once, she saw a figure walking along the wall, and she flattened herself to the ground, a hand held forward with fingers tracing along and through the dirt, the other hand on her rifle. The watcher did not even turn in her direction as they passed.

　　 The Rust Gates of Kivv were ill-guarded today.

　　 It didn`t take long for Zoe to confirm that they were, nonetheless, guarded. There was no way that the group would be able to enter by the front way. When she drew closer to the wall she was able to adjust the camera-mask with her free hand, and she saw that there were four guards inside the gate, arranged so that no one could pass the gate undetected. There were a few other sentinels walking the walls, though none of them seemed to come near the Rust Gate itself often.

　　 "The gate is a trap," Zoe whispered. "It only looks unguarded."

　　 "Alright." That was Maksym. "Back way?"

　　 "Only way in, yeah, unless you want to fight your way in."

　　 "We probably could," Wiktor offered.

　　 "Maybe so," Zoe whispered. "But that`s not our mission. We fight if we need to."

　　 The retreat was quick and easy without the overwhelming fear of being seen, although Zoe did cast a few quick glances over her shoulders as she made her way back for the trees. When she regrouped with the rest of the saboteurs, she immediately slung her rifle over her shoulder again, fell to one knee, and raised the radar-screen.

　　 Beside her, the rest of the squad waited. Their breath was too quiet to register over the whispering of the Emperor in Zoe`s ear, but she could feel the tension in the air between each of them. The ticking of the device grew louder, and Zoe watched the screen, her eyes darting up and down to view the wall and then the screen and the wall again.

　　 The image of the wall, black-and-white gridlines on her radar-screen, curved around until it became the opposite side of the city, and with each press at the device the image shifted, the pitch of the clicking changed.

　　 "Our schematic of the city shows that there`s only one direct gateway that hasn`t been covered up by the Valers since they occupied this place," Catia cut in. "There`s an old railway that used to go in the east side of the city - the tracks are still there, but that gate was covered up."

　　 "How do we know that? Aren`t we the first scouts to be here in years?" Zoe didn`t look away from the screen, except to check the walls. But obscured as they were by the bushes and trees, even if someone from the walls happened to look their way it was unlikely they`d be spotted. Zoe took note of the branches swaying in the breeze - good that there was already natural motion. It would confuse the eye of an onlooker. The light wind was enough to shift the tree branches, but barely registered as a sensation for Zoe.

　　 "Informational Institute in Kurikuneku hacked a satellite," answered Catia. She grinned as Zoe turned and looked up at her. "An Old-World device, floating in the sky. Apparently they can take pictures from all the way up there." She pointed up into the dark morning blue. "Didn`t you read the briefing?"

　　 "I read the briefing, but I didn`t memorize every path into and out of the city. They said we wouldn`t be expected." Zoe tried to moderate her irritation, but the air was tense and, she had to admit, Catia was starting to get on her nerves. It was the way she stood by Maksym, even since that night on the river& Zoe took a deep breath.

　　 "Right. Well, what do you suggest?"

　　 "Our best plan is to scale the wall where it`s unguarded and sneak in like that," Zoe replied. "There`s no way we`ll be able to disguise our way in like my team did at Etyslund. The Valers are too much on guard now, even though they don`t expect us to come. There`s a stream of refugees entering the city every day, but if we tried to sneak in among them, we`d be caught. These people recognize their own, within their own villages at least. Even if you can disguise yourself as a Valer, you can`t disguise yourself as being from a specific village unless you actually are." She lowered the radar-screen. "There`s a place with not much motion, back toward the old gate. That old railway you mentioned? I think that`s our way in."

　　 "Right, then let`s get moving." Catia nodded and readied her shotgun, attaching a bayonet to the end.

　　 "Keep close, all of you." Maksym checked his sidearms, his knife, the grenades on his bandolier.

　　 Wiktor grunted, checking the chamber of his rifle and peering down the scope. "No need to order us around. We all know the score."

　　 Thankfully, it was easy enough to stay hidden among the trees, out of sight of any who might pass by along the ramparts of Kivv`s walls. The voice in Zoe`s head guided them, and although she did not whisper back to it even once she found the presence comforting, like a friend standing beside her, a friend who knew exactly what she needed, knew her fears, and always knew the right thing to say above all.

　　 They moved around the south side of Kivv`s wall after briefly surveying the north. The lay of the land was just like what had been recorded in the maps Zoe read - there was a great lake among mountains, thick with trees. The group stayed behind the treeline while Zoe scanned the walls with his eyes and Wiktor kept watch through the scope of his rifle. When they were at the crest of a hill, Zoe called a stop.

　　 "Everyone down," she barked, and lowered herself to the ground, grapsing the trunk of a nearby tree. With her face inches from the dirt, she stared up, eyes aching from rolling toward the top of their sockets. There were two watches on the walls. One of them was a short figure, their shape obscured by a heavy coat. The sentry`s hands danced near the handles of knives strapped to their sides. Next to that one, there was another, one whose face Zoe recognized even at this distance.

　　 And the voice in her head confirmed it, though it did not say her name. Its wordless whisper became restless and angry. The tall woman on the walls of Kivv had a familiar black braid that came down in front of one shoulder&

　　 DO YOU FEEL SHAME? FEAR? DO YOU FEEL ANYTHING?

　　 Zoe reeled.

　　 "Hey. Hey, Zoe. What the fuck?"

　　 Catia was holding her by the shoulder, dragging her along the path and further back from the city. Zoe stumbled, blinked, and looked up at the wall. The two sentries were gone, moved further along. Zoe glanced at the ground and saw bile among the red-brown leaf litter. She felt the burning of it in her throat, but struggled back up to her feet and continued on.

　　 Catia asked again: "Zoe. What the fuck? Are you okay?"

　　 "I just remembered something," Zoe muttered. "A whisper from the Emperor." She flexed her fingers and with a jolt of realization, panicking for a moment, turned to look at the ground behind her. Then she felt at the strap that ran over her shoulder and across her chest, and she realized that her rifle still hung there, not discarded in the woods behind. Catia Severo tugged at her arm, and she lurched, letting herself be dragged along behind Catia and toward the east. Zoe glanced at the wall again. There was no one there, the air between her and the walls of Kivv was clear and the rifle was slung over her shoulder, secure within her grasp.

　　 To comfort herself, as she continued to run behind Catia, she shifted the strap of the rifle so that the cool metal - the air was growing cold and the breeze more noticeable as they went - was smooth against the palm of her hand. In the hollow of the palm was one of two things which kept Zoe grounded during that dash to the east. The other was the whispering, angry voice in Zoe`s mind, now louder than ever and not quieting even as time went by.

　　 The voice promised something sweet as milk and tantalizing as berries: satisfaction, violent satisfaction.

　　 East of the walls of Kivv it was at first warmer, with the wind coming from the west and stopped by the city. Catia led the group, even after Zoe pulled her arm away and came to pace with Catia. They made their way through the edge of the forest and around the northeast corner of the city`s walls. The stone was marked by rust, enormous and ancient bricks pocked with the marks of a death-filled history.

　　 Out from the old east gate of the city stretched a railroad track, which went through the thin forest beyond. Past the city walls it was incredible how quickly the wilderness reclaimed its place. There were no great fields in the outskirts of the city, or if there were, they were inside. Surely Kivv`s food supply must come from elsewhere - perhaps the great western road that reached out from the Rust Gates. In spite of all they knew, in spite of the maps of the city they`d acquired, the plans of the major structures within, the Invictans still had not figured out even basic aspects such as this of the city`s economy.

　　 Such things were not important, Zoe reflected, because the plan was to cripple Kivv by the gun and the blade, not by the plow or the flame.

　　 They would break the city not so that they could subjugate the Valers, but so that they could kill them. If a siege came, and there were indeed fields inside the city walls themselves, it would be much more difficult to starve the Valers out. But here, today, Zoe and her companions could bring down these walls and open a path to let in the invaders so that all those awful people within would die easily and quickly.

　　 The railway reached through the wilderness, between birch-trees and twisted willows and berry bushes. The old gate, the east gate, from which the railway stretched was enclosed, plastered over. A mass of white interrupted the grey and rust-red stone of the ancient walls. Zoe guessed that the job was fairly recent. She wondered what material had shut the gate.

　　 "Most of these bricks are Old-World, older than that, even." Wiktor tilted his head, looking through the scope of his rifle, scanning across the walls of Kivv. Nobody on the ramparts who had even a chance of seeing them now. "But some of them are new. You can tell, because there`s no rust on those. I`ve seen rust like that before. It`s a product of the Desert, when the first waves of destruction swept through here. The walls themselves survived, but they were changed by the moment of apocalypse."

　　 "No one cares," Maksym growled.

　　 Zoe didn`t care, either, but she still snapped at Maksym. Wiktor`s rambling didn`t annoy her much, but Maksym`s anger? "Be quiet," Zoe hissed. "Do you see that gate?"

　　 "It`s sealed," Maksym said. "We`re going to have to scale the wall, aren`t we?"

　　 "No," Zoe said. "Listen to the wind. I have an idea."

　　 Twenty minutes later, Zoe and her companions were all in place, and the voice of the Emperor in her ear whispered louder than ever. She whispered back to it, and for once - in a way it never truly had done before - it answered her. Not in words, not exactly, though she understood the voice`s intention and she knew that she was working alongside it as she stepped toward the old gate, walking along the railway. She balanced, arms out, and put one foot in front of the other along the old metal rail. One half of the ancient railroad, miraculously having only a little rust on its surface, was her track when she stepped toward the gate. Far behind her, she knew that Wiktor was watching the walls, and so she did not fear being shot down from above. Instead she allowed her vision to focus entirely on the plastered wall. She did not see beyond it - she did not hear beyond the zone around herself - she scarcely smelled the air beyond the faint scent of blueberry that hung around her after she brushed her fingers against the branches of bushes she passed.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

　　 Shshshshshshshshshshshshshsh the whisper of the Emperor in Zoe`s ear.

　　 Shshshshshshshsh

　　 Shshshshshsh

　　 Reachreachreachreachreach

　　 The other voice in her ear. Not the Emperor, but Wiktor. "I hope you know what you`re doing, Zoe."

　　 She whispered back: "How often did you listen to the speakers? Zhiren? The one to whom he is -"

　　 "I`ve never had many concerns outside my duty to Invictus," Wiktor replied over the radio. "But I don`t doubt the power those folks wield, if that is what you mean."

　　 "I, too," Zoe began, smiling. "I, too, rarely have listened to the speakers. Indeed, I once resented them their authority, because of how my life had been changed against my own will. I didn`t know just how good I had it. I didn`t know I was on such a vital path, every moment I walked." She looked down at her feet. "Every moment that I walk, now." The walls of Kivv before her, grey but for the plaster, grey and red with rust. "I, too, have a Devotee."

　　 The plaster crumbled. Dust rose up in a plume, and the wind blew it east, toward Zoe. It went past her, running between the branches of the berry bushes whose fruit she absentmindedly plucked with her fingers, but there was no sound from the crumbling plaster. As it disappeared into the wind, gone as easily as if it had never been there, as if the flimsy shield they`d put up had never existed.

　　 "Let`s go," Wiktor`s voice said in Zoe`s ear, followed by a cough. "This dust is awful. Zoe, couldn`t you have sent it elsewhere?"

　　 "We don`t want to alert them," Zoe whispered, smiling in unhidden joy. "Come on then, let`s go. We don`t have long before they notice."

　　 "Wait," Catia said, just as Zoe was starting to pick up her pace.

　　 "What is it?"

　　 "Perhaps Wiktor should&"

　　 "I`ll watch the walls, and if anybody tries to raise the alarm, I`ll take them down," Wiktor said. "It will buy the rest of you some extra time to do your sabotage."

　　 Maksym snarled at that. "If we leave you alone out here the Valers will take you out and kill you! We can`t get separated or we`re dead!"

　　 "Says who?" Wiktor said, unbothered, his voice barely above a whisper. "I am hidden here. I can take care of myself. Go on."

　　 Zoe motioned for the others to follow and started for the old gate, now revealed after the unmaking of its covering. Wiktor`s voice spoke again after a short time. "And besides, our mission is to weaken Kivv for the invasion, so it can be destroyed utterly when the army arrives. Whether we leave the city or remain here is immaterial." There was no pride of service in his voice, no emotion at all. In all Zoe`s years, the chilling nothingness of Wiktor`s admission was one of the most troubling things she`d heard.

　　 And just like that she and the others entered the city of Kivv, the old city of the Valers that had stood through the Passing of the Desert, the city that could only be brought down - for good, for the sake of the world - by Invictus, a sacred mission.

　　 It was surprisingly easy to get into a hidden position, out of sight of the destruction they`d caused at the gate. Even when that was discovered - though Kivv`s loosely organized militia would no doubt search the city thoroughly - it wouldn`t force them into a battle. Over the radio, Zoe muttered, "Wiktor, you still in position?"

　　 "Yes," he said, though the signal was a little garbled coming back. "I can see your building. No one on the walls appears to have spotted you, just give me the word if you suspect otherwise. I`m still in the clear, and I`ll let you know if that changes."

　　 "Scan the east wall, north of the opening we created," she replied, glancing at Catia and Maksym. Both were huddled near to Zoe, sorting through their supplies. Sapping equipment, viral electronics, timed and sticky explosives, corrosives to eat the bricks and mortar and tear holes in the ancient stone. Zoe, meanwhile, simply stared down at her hands.

　　 The whisper of the Emperor resolved into comprehensible words again, for just a moment: teardownthewallsofthiscorruptedworldteardownthewallsofthiscorruptedshshhsshshshshshshshshshshsh

　　 And then another whisper, but it was not the Emperor`s voice, it was a young voice, a girl`s voice: "Not sure what this is&"

　　 Zoe shook her head. She was imagining things. Side effect of the gift of such a powerful Devotee. She heard Wiktor again, through the same static as that girl: "You`ve got at least ten potential hostiles in buildings to your north. There`s a large-ish house not far from the canal. Or maybe it`s not a house, I`m not sure, but it`s a rectangular building. Seven hostiles are in there. Based on their movements they`re battle-ready and using Invictan-style weapons."

　　 "Adma?" Catia queried.

　　 "Probably." Wiktor sounded indifferent to the possibility, as much as the name Adma set the hairs on the back of Zoe`s neck to rising, like a cool chill draft had come through the walls. "I wouldn`t be surprised if the regular militia is supplemented by Adma troops."

　　 "Has anyone seen Adma this far north?" Maksym asked, pouring a measure of powder into a grenade`s case.

　　 "A few squads have met them, yeah," Catia said. "Not their most dangerous units, though. They`re not used to the terrain, so their tactics aren`t quite as effective. Some parts of the Vale are conducive to ambushes, others not so much. We took a path that doesn`t really allow for ambushers, thankfully. And once the main army gets gathered and sets out, it`ll be a moot point. The Adma are guerillas. They can`t fight a war."

　　 "Sure," Maksym muttered. "Sure." He handed the powder over to Catia, who took it gratefully and shook the case lightly to settle the powder into a flat layer before getting to work.

　　 Zoe took a series of long, slow breaths as she turned away from her companions and glanced up at the window. Outside, she saw a clear line of sight to the walls. There were two figures walking the walls together, side by side, and it looked like they were speaking to one another. The man with heavy coat, knives strapped to his sides. The tall girl with the braided hair, dark and angry eyes, a sword belted to her that she held with one ever-shifting gauntlet.

　　 There was no mistaking her anymore.

　　 Zoe dropped so that she could not see through the window and turned toward the others. "Hurry up and get those things planted," she said. "We don`t have long and there`s no guarantee the fire will spread far from here."

　　 "It`s fall," Catia said smoothly, without missing a beat. She raised an eyebrow at Zoe, betraying her concern, but none of it reflected in her voice. "Dry leaves everywhere. Fire`ll spread, at least this side of the canal."

　　 "We need to hit their strategic points, though." Maksym screwed tight the cap of the grenade, turned the dial and slid it into a bag of millet grain. "One hour to detonation," he whispered. "Intelligence said some of their weapons systems were concealed in towers and in the ground."

　　 "Yep," Zoe drawled. On the map of Kivv, she pointed to a few spots. "These watchtowers will be easy enough to spot - but not easy to take down without alerting their watchers. The underground systems are the bigger issue. Some of them have been detected by our satellite, but only a few, and we can`t be sure of destroying them while they`re concealed under the ground. Also, they have explosives of their own."

　　 "Valers have that kind of technology?" Maksym groaned.

　　 "Did you not pay attention the first three times?" Catia chuckled a little. "You`ll be the first to die, Maksym, mark my words. The Valers may not produce such advanced technology themselves, but they are scavengers through and through, and their Abrist friends in the Adma will supply their arms, not to mention the Ordian merchants."

　　 "One day we`ll bring Corod to heel too, then," Maksym muttered.

　　 "One day," Catia echoed. "And one day the Desert will be vanquished, yes, by the restoration of the old, pure and uncorrupted order. The dream of Invictus, the pride of Aivor, of God!" She laughed, and Zoe detected more than a little cynicism in that laugh. "We keep our eyes fixed on the horizon, Maksym. Not on the stars, though we hope to reach them one day."

　　 "How poetic." Maksym`s voice was dry, sardonic.

　　 "Maksym, I might be dead in a couple of hours. Let me be a little poetic."

　　 Interrupting the both of them again, Zoe said as she raised her head to glance through the window, "Those sentinels&." For a moment, she saw Kamila Zelenko`s face before the young woman climbed down from the wall, calling up something to the other sentinel which Zoe could not hear. "That`s&"

　　 "You freaked out when you saw them before, too," Catia said. "Zoe, are you alright?"

　　 "I`m fine," Zoe replied, and ducked her head under the window. "The area`s clear."

　　 "Are you sure you`re alright?"

　　 Zoe tried not to let her voice be too terse. "I thought they might have been looking our way, but it`s fine! One of them just crawled down from the wall, the other is still patrolling."

　　 "I see her on the scanner," Wiktor replied. "She`s not headed your way. No need to take her out yet."

　　 "Right." Zoe stood up, making sure now to stay out of sight of the window. "We have three more main targets - the Reapers` and Sowers` monasteries, and the watchtowers. Those monasteries are well protected and populated by powerful Mirshalite magic-users, so we can`t enter them directly or they`ll detect us. The Mirshalites appear to have some kind of limited precognition. They know your moves before you make them, but they only take notice if they`re in direct danger."

　　 "We were issued corrosives," Catia offered.

　　 "Yes, that`s what they`re for." Zoe nodded, letting the whisper of the Emperor guide her. "We should go for the Sower monastery first. They`re weaker upfront but the greater threat in the long term."

　　 "I thought Reapers were the fighters and Sowers were just their support units," Maksym said.

　　 Zoe shook her head. "You`re thinking in military terms, and these people don`t think like we do. Reapers are the upfront fighters, yes, and they`re terrifying up close, but they can be defeated using conventional means. I`ve seen an experienced Sower in action, and it`s not something I want to repeat. We have to shut them down before they get the chance."

　　 "You never told us that story," Catia said, adjusting her armor and weapon.

　　 "And am I a bard or your commander?" Zoe replied coolly.

　　 "It might be prudent to tell us what we have to expect."

　　 "Alright." Zoe walked toward the door but did not reach out to open it. "It was at the Battle of Etyslund, an old man I thought couldn`t possibly have been a threat. Even though I suspected he was a Mirshalite he didn`t put up any fight at the start of it. Seemed like the most pathetic Valer. Well, Cigdem and Fatim killed the guy`s wife, shot his kids - well, they survived - I mean, they beat me half to death multiple times, but&"

　　 "Sounds like a real mess," Maksym snorted. "Get to the point."

　　 "You ever had a five-ton chunk of rock hurled through the air at you at fifty miles an hour?"

　　 Maksym held up a finger for a moment, then sighed. "Uh& no. I can`t say I have ever had that specific thing happen in my life."

　　 "Good." Zoe leaned and put her ear up against the door, then after a pause, she slipped the door open. "Let`s go. You know where we`re headed?"

　　 "Yeah," Maksym said, pushing past Zoe to take the lead. "I know. Let`s take that tower down."

　　 It didn`t take long for them to reach the tower. They had to stick to alleyways, and when it came time to cross the canal they couldn`t take the main bridge. Luckily the thin stream of water running through the city was easy to cross, even with the gear they carried. Zoe went first, checking both directions for potential watchers before she dashed out into the small open space and threw herself over the water. Once on the other side, she got into cover quickly, fell to her knee, and placed the watchtower in her sight. "Wiktor," she whispered into the radio. "Are you in position?"

　　 "Almost there," Wiktor replied. "I have the watcher on scanner. Will let you know when I have a clear shot."

　　 "Right." Zoe glanced through her own scope but kept her finger far from the trigger. The watcher`s back was turned, head obscured by the smooth curve of a helmet. Zoe drew in a breath and did not let it out. Catia and Maksym came into the cover behind her, watching.

　　 "Don`t take the shot," Maksym hissed.

　　 "I know," Zoe whispered back angrily. "I`m not going to. Waiting for Wiktor."

　　 The watcher turned toward the north, and Zoe got a good look at her face. Not her. She let out the breath and lowered her rifle, then began to creep forward. At the end of the narrow alleyway between seemingly-abandoned structures, she pressed herself against the north wall of the building to her left and peered around the corner.

　　 Not far south of their current position, the ground sloped down and gave way to a great expanse of prefabricated metal. The buildings made a maze across much of the valley before reaching the south wall - almost impossibly dense, and within that maze Zoe even saw a few people moving about. There must be plenty of hiding places down there.

　　 "We`d get caught instantly if we went that way," Catia whispered. "Plenty of places to hide, but so many people, plenty of places to get caught too."

　　 "What are all those people doing there?" Maksym groaned and turned toward the north, moving to the opposite side of the thin alley and peering north.

　　 "They`re hiding," replied Catia, calm.

　　 "I have the shot." Wiktor`s voice over the radio.

　　 "What was that?" another voice, unrecognizable. In the background of that, faintly, yet another voice. "Avi& who& doing& where"

　　 "Hey, captain. Zoe. I have the shot."

　　 "Take it," Zoe whispered.

　　 The gunshot was distant and faint from the south, and the watcher fell quietly without much trouble. The bullet took her through the lung and heart, judging by the way she fell, slumped against the tower`s rampart, hand clutched to her chest. As Zoe checked both her directions and raced toward the tower, she noted that there was no exit wound. The bullet must have gotten stuck on a rib and lost its momentum. That was probably for the best - less mess, less chance of being noticed.

　　 Once she`d forced the door and gotten inside the tower, Zoe found a spiral staircase heading quickly up to the watchtower. Catia and Maksym entered the tower behind her, with their sapping devices ready to disable the tower`s weapons. Zoe dashed through the tower`s middle room - a bed and a bookshelf dominated the place - and she came out on top of the tower and grabbed the body by its feet, dragging it back inside. A trail of blood followed her.

　　 As she pulled the watcher inside, Zoe heard a low groan, and felt a twitch run through the body she held. Bloody hands pressed against the stone and the watcher twisted, straining to turn toward Zoe. She opened her mouth, but couldn`t speak. Her eyes were all red, her nose filled up with thin blood.

　　 Zoe pulled out her knife as she saw the watcher`s hand shaking, haltingly reaching, struggling toward her hip. Zoe thrust the knife under the watcher`s chin and let out her breath only when the body stopped convulsing and was quiet. After she cleaned her knife and put it away, she carried the body down and pulled aside the bed`s sheets with bloodstained hands, then wrapped the body in the bed and pulled the sheets up over the watcher`s head.

　　 Having set their sappers and their charges, Catia and Maksym came down the stairs from above, headed for the floor. "Let`s go," Catia said. Zoe nodded and followed them.

　　 As she started down the stairs, she happened to glance out a window to the north.

　　 There& walking in the far distance, away from the north wall& that same figure.

　　 "You two head to the next tower," Zoe said. "Wiktor, keep an eye on them. I need to eliminate a threat."

　　 "Wait a second, what -" Maksym started, but Zoe had already shouldered her rifle and begun to run in the opposite direction.

　　 "Zoe, you can`t abandon the -"

　　 Zoe ignored Catia`s call as well. That Valer girl was mocking her with her continued life. Everywhere Zoe turned, every direction she tried to take, there was Kamila Zelenko again. Do you feel anything? The girl just couldn`t leave well enough alone. You`re a slave! Killed Plato. Killed Arshay. Killed&

　　 A nagging thought stung the back of Zoe`s mind when she thought of Arshay`s name. She remembered something - a knife in her hand, hot blood running between her fingers. Arshay`s face, horror and pain going numb.

　　 That was Kamila`s hand& it& had to be&

　　"Continue with plan C," Zoe said into the radio as she went, making her way to the north. "I`m not abandoning you, I just have a threat to eliminate - before she finds us all. We`re taking this city down, don`t you worry."