Garrett

I take the rifle off my back, watching him trying to get out of the pit. He is slow and deliberate about it, picking the best spot to put his hands on. I move closer, careful not to step on any treacherous areas, then take an aim. His head is at my gunpoint as he's beginning to extract himself out of the dirt. Now what is left is to pull the trigger, and hurry to the city until the things get out. There's no time to waste.

Yet I hesitate. Julian is oblivious to my presence. Killing someone so unaware he's about to die just doesn’t feel right.

Then, something happens. It looks like some invisible force jerks him down. I gape at him being dragged under the surface, struggling, until the dirt closes over his head.

I lower the gun. Looks like my dilemma has been solved. I won't have to take care of him.

I move around the edges of the collapsed crust, closer to the place where he disappeared. There seem to be a movement under the surface. Then, a few bubbles of air pop out, and then, there's nothing.

I stare with mixed feelings. I came here to kill him. Yet, suffocating in a dirt pull is a kind of a death you wouldn’t wish even for your enemies.

Then comes a mild splashing sound. A hand appears out of the dirt, then another one—so covered with the grey substance that I first take them for tentacles and back away. The hands grab around, but there's nothing for them to hold to.

Before I know what I'm doing, I reach out and place the barrel of my rifle into one searching palm.

It grasps it immediately, and I begin to pull. The second hand joins the first one, and their grip is strong enough—desperate enough—that they don't slide off the barrel even despite all the dirt. I keep pulling, and, slowly, the head and the upper body emerge. I reach out, grab the back of his shirt covered with slick grey dirt, and pull Julian over the edge onto the firm surface.

He wriggles on the ground like a giant grey worm. Despite being outside, he still struggles to breath, with dirt clogging his nose and his mouth. He coughs and spits and makes retching sounds, and tries to crawl away, all at the same time. His face is a dirt mask with only a general indication of where his nose and his mouth are. He finally uses both hands to clean it up. I can hear him taking a few loud, gasping breaths with his mouth open, and then he pauses, shaking, leaning on both hands, with his face turned down, to do only that for a few seconds—just breath.

I sit down on my hunches, and watch him, pondering on how on earth, having come all this way to kill him, I ended up saving his life. I will still need to do what I must. Nothing has changed. What other options do I have—bring him back, so that others could do it for me? They've already been accusing me of being too soft with this captive. I'll be the joke of the day if I bring him back alive.

"Haven’t gotten far, huh?" I say.

He jerks at the sound of my voice and sits up, turning his head, searching for its source. His eyes are still glued shut. He tries to clean them with his hands, then with his sleeves, but he only smears the dirt around. Finally, he manages to open one little slit of an eye and squints at me, looking pretty comical.

"All that trouble to go away," I say. "Attacking Kano, making us search for you. Did you really think you'd just have a pleasant walk to your base?"

He tries to say something, then pauses, spits out more dirt, and looks at me with one eye again.

"Why are you smiling?" he says hoarsely.

I become aware of my grin and wipe it off. "Well, you're quite a view. If you could see yourself, you'd find it hilarious."

"I doubt it," he wheezes, before going into another coughing fit.

I stare at him. What do I do now? Do I just wait for him to stop coughing, put the rifle to his head, and pull the trigger? It surely is an easier death than the one I saved him from. Almost a mercy.

Oh fuck, who am I fooling? I won't be able to do that. I may be good in dogfights, but I suck in executions.

Anyway, I can decide on it later. Right now, we're out in the dark, and it's no place to be.

"All right, get up," I say, getting to my feet. "We need to go to the city."

He stops coughing and looks at me, this time with both eyes. "You know it well?"

"Been there couple of times." I shrug. "Come on, I'll take you places."

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