Chapter 9
Enrie heard someone mumbling from behind him, instinctively turning his head to look them at the edge of his helmet's peripheral vision. He caught the words, 'thank you' from the woman they have just risked their lives for.
"Just doing our job miss...", he retorted in his metallic voice before looking ahead once more, the Gates looming already from afar. "A few more boys and we are home again! Let's get going...", he said to spur on the group, quickening his own pace. He was itching to get back to the safety of the walls, to get back to his rathole of an apartment room that he had come to love. And also the fact that his hunch that they are in some sort of deep danger is still not coming off...
He realized that they were walking through what once was a park, open spaces obscured with dead trees on both sides of the path they were trodding on. No hiding places in case they got attacked.
This is bad...
He told himself to quicken the pace even more, but the woman they rescued is in completely no shape to start running now. He can NEVER leave anyone behind, especially not helpless civilians like this one.
Only silence accompanied them for the next few minutes of their journey back home...until a howl from afar destroyed the serenity of Enrie's hopes of getting back home without having to fight again.