Survive

Black Blade, Red Liquid

At the entrance of the gate, Annaliza Domingo, a twenty-eight year-old photographer by profession was smoking a cigarette. With her sunglasses on, you'd think she was a model or an influential celebrity. But in reality, she's the older sister of the group. She enjoyed drinking beer and protecting Calliope and Francisco, since they were the youngest in the group. Even so, when she smokes this early in the morning, the two knew better than to disturb her.

Out the back of the house was the incomplete chassis of a Nissan Frontier and a shed. Working on the restoration of the vehicle was a tall man in his thirties. The de-facto leader of the group, this man was Sergeant Ronaldo Gutierrez a former military combat engineer. The man wasn't all muscular, but he wasn't lean either. Standing at almost six feet, Ronaldo had a fearful, yet cheerful aura surrounding him. 

"Oy Kuya Ron!" Calliope called out. Ronaldo turned around from the pickup truck and smiled at her and Francisco. "Ah yes, you finally woke Isko up." He walked over to the two and pointed towards the field in the distance.

"You guys see that?" He pointed at a thick column of smoke near the horizon. Francisco squinted at the rising black clouds. "I need you two to get close to it and try to find out what's happening there." Ronaldo gave Francisco a slight pat on the back. "And while you're at it, take care of Calliope, Isko." He told him in a whisper. 

Francisco nodded and looked at Calliope. 

Calliope looked back at him and grinned. "It'll be fun, Isko!" She says in a cheerful way.

"Okay, make haste so you can be back for dinner!" Ronaldo says loudly.

It was normal for the two to be sent out to retrieve supplies and other items. The two were prepared for situations like these and stocked food, water and weaponry inside backpacks that were kept at the living room. Ronaldo had trained them sufficiently on the use of firearms such as the MP5 submachine gun and the Glock 17 pistols that they acquired from looting a police station. 

"Isko." Calliope said while they walked along the road on the way to the smoke. "What do you think is out there?" She asked Francisco. Francisco retracted the stock of the MP5 he was carrying and let it hang from its sling. "It was a large plume, so probably an explosion." He shrugged. 

"Let's hope it's not a ballistic mutant." Calliope laughed. 

"Same." Francisco started whistling as they walked.

As the smoke got closer and closer, the two found themselves becoming more anxious about what awaited them.

"We're almost there." Francisco chuckled. He got his gun ready and looked at Calliope. The girl had been doing the same, checking the ammunition of her gun's magazine. "I know." She said to Francisco, while looking around cautiously.

The two eventually approached a large crater. "Oh." Francisco looked around the crater, searching for anything other than ash and dirt. "Seems to be twenty or thirty meters in diameter and a meter or three halves in depth" Calliope muttered to herself while tying her windbreaker around her waist. Francisco gave her a jolt by putting a hand on her shoulder. "What?" She asked Francisco in a surprised voice. 

Francisco pointed at a figure apparently crawling at the other side of the crater. Calliope nodded and followed him as they walked around the crater to get to the figure. It was a person with body mostly burned by the explosion that caused the crater to appear. "Are you okay?!" Francisco walked up to it and asked. 

The person ignored Francisco and kept crawling using one arm. Their lower body was charred and damaged, while the other arm was bent out of normal orientations. Francisco grimaced at the sight, but took a deep breath and called out to the person. "Are you okay?"

"...fire." The person muttered in a low voice. "...gas leak..." The person kept muttering. "Calliope, are you hearing this?" Francisco asked his companion. Calliope nodded and continued to stare at the crater. "What else do you have to say?" Francisco crouched down to hear the person better.  "...black... ...scratch-"

"-BLADE." The person suddenly shouted.

Francisco put one hand over his left ear because of the ringing caused by the person's shout. "Blade?" He said to himself. Calliope turned back to Francisco because of the sight and immediately cried out. "ISKO!"

"What?" Francisco turned around just in time to see Calliope pushing him off balance. 

With a blink, he saw something black rapidly descend from above his field of view.

He blinked again.

This time, when he opened his eyes, he wanted to blink once again but couldn't.

For there was an arm in the air.

And Calliope was squirting a red liquid out of the place where her arm was supposed to be.