Rei stared ahead at the people before him, terror flooding his brain.

What was he going to do now? Was there any real hope of escape?

Was this the end?

A million panicked thoughts clogged his mind, making it impossible to do any real thinking. This felt just like the time the Exterminator had confronted him last time; when he and Marc were still together.

Except this time he couldn’t just run… Or maybe he could? Yes, he could; maybe he could escape through the restaurant’s back room. Rei didn’t remember any window or door he could use to escape through there, but right now it was his best bet with two Exterminators right across the room from him.

Rei was about to turn his head back to take a look at the door to the restaurant’s other room when he quickly stopped himself, knowing the people in front of him would catch wind of his escape plan if he so much as nonverbally suggested where he planned to head by mistake.

All this time when Rei was frantically plotting his dangerous plan, the Exterminators stood silently, unmoving before Rei as they continued to stare at him. It was extremely unnerving.

They all stayed like this for a moment; standing still, staring at each other, the atmosphere tense. Rei felt a bit of sweat accumulating on his forehead, refusing to move and wipe it off despite the slight discomfort. He tried to control his erratic breathing, but he was too nervous. He didn’t even know why they were all standing like this in some sort of face-off.

After some more silence one of the Exterminators quickly pointed her shock gun at Rei, shooting it without a moment’s notice. The shot caught Rei off-guard and he barely had any time to react, but somehow managed to swing himself to his right just in time. The shockwave sent by the gun hit the wall instead, the blast site transformed into a gaping blackened hole. A shot from that gun definitely wouldn’t be survivable.

Rei, knocked sideways onto the ground, quickly pushed himself to the door using all four of his limbs, hastily scrambling to his feet and grabbing at the door handle. All the while the one Exterminator was firing shots haywire, each one barely missing Rei, some grazing him and causing his body to painfully sting all over and millions of light electrical currents to tingle through him. Rei vigorously pushed down on the door handle and swung it towards him, speedily entering the back room before slamming the door shut again.

He noticed a large coffee-colored wooden table next to the door. Rei was about to attempt to construct some sort of barricade before remembering the door opened outwards. That left him with only one option: to escape as fast as possible. He could already hear the Exterminators’ footsteps growing louder as they neared the door.

Rei turned around and frantically looked throughout the room, landing his eyes on  a large window about ten feet up in the air in the far right corner. He formed a hastily-made plan in his mind before pushing the wooden table to the corner, grabbing at a tall metal stool with his left hand along the way.

Just then the door burst open, revealing the two chasers. The same one from before promptly began madly shooting at Rei, missing him every time as he frantically scrambled around. The other Exterminator just stood there watching the action unfold, not bothering to use his own gun and help his comrade. Rei stacked the stool on top of the table as he clambered onto the stack of furniture, leaping for the window and grasping onto the window ledge, trying to swing himself upwards.

He wildly flailed from side to side as he felt a powerful shock on the edge of his right foot. Rei yelped in agony as his grip on the ledge faltered, barely catching back onto it with his left hand before falling back down. He gritted his teeth together as he winced, trying to ignore the unbearable pain coursing through his body, which urged him to just give up and let go of the ledge. But he had to escape. He had to find Marc; he had a responsibility. He held on tight, trying to calm himself down. Rei noticed that the Exterminator had stopped shooting.

“The gun’s out of energy,” she mumbled to the other Exterminator, not wanting Rei to hear although he heard despite her attempt to whisper.

“Mine was already out,” he mumbled back, glancing unsurely at Rei. Both Exterminators stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do. Rei picked up on the fact that they weren’t all that much of a threat after all right at this moment. It wasn’t until Rei fought through the pain and attempted to swing himself upwards again that one of the Exterminators sprang to action, running towards Rei’s furniture stack in an attempt to catch him. Rei quickly kicked down the metal stool with his left foot, hoping to hinder her chase, even if just by a few seconds.

He heaved himself up with his arms using all his strength in one final attempt to swing himself upwards, finally succeeding. He hitched his shoes onto the ledge as he hung onto it with all of his arms and legs. The pain in his right foot grew painfully stronger as Rei pushed downwards into the ledge with his legs, generating the force he needed to reach out and grab onto the horizontal wooden bar of the window frame. Just then the Exterminator was on top of the stool which had been placed on the table once more, trying to catch onto the ledge. Rei needed to hurry.

He looked at the window, noticing there wasn’t a way to open it. He lifted his left foot, preparing to finalize his escape. With a powerful blow Rei smashed his foot into the glass window, the glass shattering into millions of tiny shards. He hastily kicked at the weak material again a couple more times in order to create a hole large enough for him to get through as the loud sound of breaking glass reverberated throughout the room. Rei slid through the hole just in time; the Exterminator had just managed to swing herself up onto the window ledge.

He landed on the ground with a grunt, rolling over onto his side. After spending a moment lying limp on the ground Rei picked himself up, crossing his arms as he hurried across Mentrin. He glanced back a couple of times, not once seeing any of the Exterminators behind him.

“Maybe they’ve decided to give up,” he thought to himself hopefully.

He struggled to make his way across several city blocks before feeling safe enough to take a stop. His foot really hurt; the shot had taken a heavy toll on him.

He located a small wooden bench in an area that seemed to be some sort of park, resting down on it as he sighed. At this point all this running and getting away from the Exterminators seemed like some sort of joke. Rei was honestly confused as to why he was still here, still free, still alive. He chuckled dryly. As he sat there reflecting on the last couple days of his life, a thought hit him.

“The bag,” he sharply whispered to himself in frustration.

He’d forgotten the bag at the restaurant building; he must have dropped it at some point when trying to get away from those Exterminators. He decided to ignore that fact for now; he could get it later. Hopefully the Exterminators wouldn’t take it or anything; it had all of his resources. If he’d lost the bag then this whole experience would have been for nothing. A bitter feeling filled Rei, giving him a twisting sensation in his stomach. He really hoped he hadn’t lost all of his resources. His entire plan - heck, even his life might be ruined if he’d lost everything.

Rei lifted his right foot to assess his injury, gingerly peeling the sticky, leather-like boot off his foot, the dark material drenched with sweat and terribly singed from the shot. His injured foot was slightly blackened, but otherwise fine. His boot had taken the majority of the shock. Rei sighed as he pulled the boot back on, wincing because of the slight pain and wondering what to do next.

Maybe he’d go back to the restaurant in a day or two to get his bag back. Hopefully it was still there. And hopefully the Exterminators were gone. It was the best Rei could do right then, at least.

He stood up from the bench, deciding to scout around for a place to stay for the night. Now that the chase was over, he was more aware of the pain in his leg because of the shot. He limped around, searching for a good building to stay in. After mindlessly strolling around the small area of the city for a couple of minutes, an apartment building similar to the one he and Marc had picked out earlier caught his eye. It seemed like a comfortable yet inconspicuous place to hide.

“Maybe I could spend a while there. Like a week or something,” he thought to himself. Yeah, that sounded like a solid plan.

He went over to the building’s entrance, a worn-down oakwood door. The door didn’t have a handle, so Rei pressed his hand to the dark wood and pushed to see if it would help. Sure enough, the door opened, giving way to the deep darkness of the building’s interior.

He slowly walked inside, wishing he had a light with him. Rei was pretty sure he had a couple of flashlights in his bag. Now he was feeling annoyed about losing the bag again.

He walked around the apartment for a bit, groping around to find his way while waiting for his eyes to adjust to the low level of light. After around five minutes he could see somewhat, and managed to locate the flight of stairs upwards. Rei always preferred staying in the upper floors of buildings, although he wasn’t sure of the reasoning behind this preference. Maybe it was because he was less likely to be found or something along the lines of that.

“Wait…” he thought, a sudden idea forming in his head. “What if the Exterminators keep on finding me thanks to the tablet signal?”

Yeah. Now that he thought about it, it made a lot more sense. It was the best explanation for everything; the speeding car chasing after them, the Exterminators in the restaurant…. Rei felt a sour feeling envelop him. Maybe if he’d tried to cover his signal better he wouldn’t be in this situation. After all, he was the one in charge of the tablet and software and stuff like that, when he and Marc were still toughing it out together.

Heck, maybe if Rei’d been careful he and Marc would both be safe. They’d be together.

Rei tried to fall asleep, but couldn’t. Not with that painful feeling of guilt frozen in the pit of his stomach, nagging at him. What if Marc’s life was in danger because of his ignorance?

What if this was all his fault?

Here he had been thinking he was the rescuer, the survivor on some sort of noble quest to help his captured brother.

But here he was, more likely than not the sole reason why his brother was gone.

The painful sting of guilt weighed more heavily on Rei than being shot in the chest.