How To Survive A Calamity

There was the sound of a powerful explosion that took us by surprise, and for a moment, the entire world seemed to shudder in its wake.

"Wh-what the hell was that?!" Chelsea screamed in alarm, holding on to me tightly for balance.

A powerful gust of wind swept through the vicinity, raising swaths of desert sand into the air and whipping past our faces.

The residual shockwave forced us to lower our heads and raise our arms over our faces to block the debris. The force of the explosion lasted only a few seconds, and a short moment later, it was over.

The powerful and raging gales subsided, and the deep, thunderous sounds dissipated into the expansive Blood Desert.

The sound of the explosion was so sudden that some of the cadets threw themselves against the ground in the crater.

Now everyone's attention was drawn to the massive, dark mushroom cloud of smoke burgeoning upwards towards the blood-red sky. They stared at the spectacle with wide eyes, and I wasn't exempt.

The sight was truly ominous, sending shivers of bad feelings through my body.

"That explosion..."

"It came from the direction we just came from," Deandra observed.

I pulled my arm out of Chelsea's grasp and stared uneasily at the climbing pillar of smoke.

"What happened back there?"

"Uhh, do we have to know?" Chelsea asked, with Trise nodding vehemently next to her.

Meanwhile, Don seemed to have gone unconscious at some point. He leaned limply against Trise, supported in her arms.

I glanced at the anxious face of the usually bright and nonchalant Chelsea.

Well... I could understand how she felt.

I did too.

Sometimes, we were better off not knowing.

"Unfortunately, whether we want to know or not, we are at massive risk if it's something bad for us," Deandra said, refuting Chelsea's hesitation and emphasizing her point.

"You felt the force of the explosion even all the way from here. What if others felt it as well—!!"

"Heeeaaaiiiiaaakkkk—!!!"

All of a sudden, a sharp, piercing sound tore through the air like a writhing cry.

"Kuegk-!! Wh-what is that?!"

"Argh! My head... It hurts!"

The cadets immediately cried out in agony from all around us.

I felt an insane amount of piercing pressure mount in my head as my eardrums threatened to rupture from the shattering scream.

It was a wretched cry that made my skin crawl and the blood underneath boil.

"Heeeaaaiiiiaaakkkk—!!!"

Urgh! What the hell is that? I grabbed my head between my arms and gritted my teeth.

The blood-curdling cry resounded painfully in my head, and my eyes felt like they would pop out.

It was a sudden, wretched experience that lasted mere seconds but felt like an eternity. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and my face was covered in cold sweat.

By the time it was over, I found myself clutching my chest, side by side with the others, trying to catch my breath.

I feel feverish... I could barely stop my body from trembling and my teeth from gnashing against each other.

I forced a deep breath through my mouth and pushed down the repulsive feeling swirling inside my gut. It was a bitter sensation left behind after the wraith-like cry.

"Hueck-!!" Trise clutched her stomach and bent over to throw up in the sand.

Her face was pale, and her expression was incomparably strained and deep with distress.

The same could be said for Chelsea and the others as well.

"What the hell was that?" Chelsea asked after regaining some semblance of composure. The areas around her eyes had darkened from stress and tension.

I'd like to know... I thought, staring at the ominous pillar of smoke.

"I think it came from that direction as well."

"Just like the explosion? Is there really something going on back there?" Trise said, rubbing her mouth and lifting Don up.

"N-no, no. Screw all this, I can't take it anymore! I'm leaving!"

"H-huh? Wait, hold on... The bracelets aren't working?!"

"What? What do you mean the bracelets aren't working? Don't screw around—h-huh...?"

The cadets from the other two groups began to panic one by one after hearing the cry. The unease only continued to grow.

But, hold on...

I turned around, faced one of the panicking male cadets, and forced myself to march right up to him.

"What did you just say?"

"What?" The cadet stumbled backward.

He flinched at my sudden actions, but I pushed forward regardless.

"About the bracelets—what did you just say?"

He shuddered, his eyes trembling with fear, tears pooling at the corners.

"Th-they aren't working, dammit! We're trapped here, can't you see?!"

Fuck! I cursed bitterly in my mind and leaned back, my expression contorting darkly. Grim thoughts clouded my mind as the weight of the situation sank in.

Eventually, I could only sigh.

Then someone walked up to me, their voice faltering with uncertainty and unease.

"What does he mean the bracelets aren't working?"

It was Chelsea.

I turned around and glanced at her.

"It means we're trapped here in the dungeon."

"!!"

It was the second worse possible outcome i dreaded.

No.

I glanced over my side towards a certain spot where a particular headless corpse laid on the ground.

'From the moment i watched that Barn's guy get killed without being withdrawn immediately, i guess it was then i should have known we were fucked.'

But i was in denial and refused to accept the glaring facts.

In the first place, deaths aren't supposed to occur during this exercise. The bracelets were too make sure of that.

But yet...

"Someone died..." Trise muttered as she followed my gaze slowly in realisation.

"Wait, so you're saying we can't go back?"

"I'm not sure." I replied unconvincingly vaguely and gathered my thoughts.

What was happening?

There were various strange and terrifying factors that suddenly started popping up out of nowhere.

Wasn't this exercise supposed to be basic? It was supposed to be at a skill level the first-years could handle, and even extra security measures had been taken with the forfeiting function of the exercise.

Did the instructors lie to us about the bracelets?

No, that couldn't be. I couldn't understand why they would do that and let all this happen.

Wait.

Are they really watching us, though? I suddenly had a doubtful thought.

[It's unlikely. Interfering in a dungeon with surveillance of any kind from the inside out is highly improbable, if not outright impossible. Whatever happens in a dungeon stays in a dungeon,] Meta said.

Then is it safe to conclude that the instructors know nothing about what's happening in here right now? I asked.

[On the premise that they aren't involved in this, affirmative.]

...

I glanced back at the headless corpse of Barns, while filtering out the cries and desperate expressions of the cadets around me.

Is... is this also part of the exercise? Like a test? I felt my head throb as I struggled desperately to make sense of the situation.

But wasn't this going too far for a test?

"Victor, whatever you're thinking, we have to move now." Deandra's warning voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I looked at her and blinked.

"What?"

Deandra raised a finger with a grim expression and pointed behind me, towards the opposite direction. Then she clenched her teeth and spoke in a heavy voice.

"That."

Rumble!

The approaching storm from before was now looming over the horizon, appearing much closer than before.

"What is that?"

"Is that a storm? It looks like a natural disaster!"

"No way, are we really going to die here?"

"That's a massive storm, isn't it? How are we supposed to survive that?"

Now that the storm was this close, the cadets began to notice it all at once.

A storm in a desert like this didn't sound pleasant.

I don't like how this sounds for any of us.

"We also need to check out the source of that explosion from earlier," I said, and Chelsea was the first to snap back instantly.

"Huh?! Are you crazy? Why do we have to endanger ourselves?!"

"I get how you feel. To be brutally honest, even I don't want to. But we have no other options or choice. Not with that behind us right now." I pointed backward at the incoming, ominous storm.

It loomed like a massive wall of darkness and shadows across the horizon, mowing down everything in its path like firewood. The winds were rapidly picking up speed as the storm drew closer.

I doubt that thing has water or an oasis in it...

Before Deandra or anyone else could say anything, I walked up to the headless, bleeding corpse of the late cadet Barns and took off his bracelet under the piercing gazes of everyone around me.

"Hey, you bastard! What do you think you're doing?" Trise was the first to rebuke my actions, but I didn't mind.

"What does it look like? This guy might have something useful stored in his bracelet. I can't just leave it behind for the storm in an environment like this, you know?" I replied matter-of-factly.

"But isn't that too much..."

"Say what you want. This is for survival."

'He could have water in there, you know...'