How To Survive A Calamity

"Fuck, how long is that bastard gonna sleep for?!" I shouted in frustration and lunged myself ruthlessly as the pitiful unconscious Don—

'Pitful my left ass! Let me hit him once!'

His ability to manipulate the win would be really handy right about now, too, but the bastard was busy fast asleep.

"Hey, Vic, calm down and take it easy. Don currently isn't in the right state of mind now. Go easy on him!" The one who said this was Chelsea who was suspiciously swift in latching on to me and holding me back.

"Not in the right state of mind? Which of us isn't?!"

"Hah! Clearly not you..." I heard Trise snort.

The side of my face twitched and i glared at her.

"What did you just say, you brat?

"B-brat? Don't you think it's about time you stop refering to us as kids? We're all the same age!"

"You guys, stop it right now!" Deandra's sharp voice cut in and said.

"We can't afford ti be doing this right now! Control your emotions, remember? Unless we want a repeat of what happened earlier to happen again? I get that every one of us is frustrated and scared and exhausted, but we need to be mindful of our words and actions from now on. For whatever reason, this dungeon has proven to be the worst place for infighting. We need to be careful!"

"Fine, but all I'm just saying is, wouldn't it be much faster if that guy just sent us all flying? At this rate, the incoming storm will get to us more quickly." I said.

Although, the storm would catch up to us anytime eventually.

Deep down, i knew you the opposite direction where the source of the explosion came from was only delaying the inevitable.

Once we found the area of the explosion, then what?

Forfeiting the Dungeon with the help of the bracelet was no longer an option, and we have absolutely no idea when or even if we'll be getting help from the academy outside.

That's on the condition they even notice something is wrong with the outside inside this place.

And that was also if something hasn't happened outside as well.

My mind was constantly racing.

I had already drawn multiple possibilities about our current situation, and not a single one of them seemed good for us.

That storm especially, and the strange and bizzare happenings.

In any case, Deandra was right about what she said.

The mysterious power that attacked us back at the crater was probably still at large.

It took over our minds by overstimulating oyr emotions and running them out of control.

We were more at risk of falling for it again if we experienced even the smallest emotional fluctuation or shock.

... just like the shock of watching Barns die unexpectedly.

-Rumble -Rumble

"Let's just keep going. I think we're almost close to the area of the explosion from before?" Chelsea glanced back uneasily at the approaching storm and urged we continued forward.

The blood red sky was slowly being corroded with dark red fuming patches of clouds that slowly ebbed and spread its carpet all across from above the desert.

Even the raging red sun had been blocked out at some point.

The horizon in the distance underneath the sky mowed forward at us like an ever encompassing wall of raging darkness and shadows, casting a gloom over the rest of the world.

I restrained myself from shuddering slightly at the sight and readily nodded at Chelsea and the others.
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After that, we quickly began to pick up the pace.

Eventually, at some point, i heard Trise's voice say with uncertainty,

"Hey... what about those other guys from before? Are we sure it was a good decision for us to leave them behind? I mean, with the way things have turned out now, wouldn't it be better if we stuck together and held out together long enough for the academy to notice something and come in to get others—"

"I've already told you this before. In the dungeon there is no right or wrong — only survival."

In the end, we had left the other cadets who tried to ambush us behind back at the crater after realising the threat of the storm coming closer to us.

There were some slightly mixed feelings in the whole action, but i thought it was something we couldn't help. The cadets were in disarray and confusion, especially after watching one of their own die.

It also didn't help that they were probably scarred mentally by the mysterious attack. And coupled with everything that happened, they found out the bracelets don't even work.

In the first place, if it did, Barns wouldn't have died as easily as he did.

After that, the thought process of the cadets, or anyone else, in that position was clear amd obvious to imagine:

'If Barns could die, wouldn't that mean i could be next, too?'

That kind of thing along those lines.

My lips parted softly and i sighed.

It was a despairing development. Actually it would be no suprise if those guys suddenly run out of control again after that.

But.

'There's nothing i, or we can do.'

It was long out of my control.

Whatever the case may be, leaving them behind was probably the best and most favourable decision we decided to take.

I didn't like the idea of traveling as too large of a group in such an open environment like this.

Those kids who are clearly mentally unstable and broken willed would most like have slowed us down.

What was a bit surprising was that even Deandra didn't seem directly against leaving this behind.

Well...

She didn't show it openly but i could see some subtle reactions every now and then.

I glanced back at the tensed and anxious faces of my group members. Don was still being held up by Trise and Chelsea while Deandra's face looked pale and she seemed to be in a turmoil.

The moaning wind were sharp and dry and felt like racing bladed against our skin.

And behind us, a massive wall of storm was quickly expanding and advancing towards us at a starling pace.

I shut my eyes and looked hack forward and continued to focus oj advancing.

'We can't be bothered to take care of others when we can barely take care of ourselves.' i huffed at myself.

"And besides, those guys refused to listen to us and insisted that they'd stay back while we go explore the cause of the explosion." I said.

They said they'd keep trying the bracelets in hopes that maybe it really wasn't damaged and merly turned off or something like that.

They would rather stay in place and wait for the storm to blow over — literally and figuratively speaking — than continue to risk moving around.

Those guys were...

"Bunch of fools."

"Huh?"

Discard hope and embrace fear... Those words...

I think i began to more clearly understand the twisted dark words of the vice principal from before.

Hope kills and fear is what keeps you alive.