Straw blonde hair. White skin. Blue eyes and a weary face.

  There was David Einrich again, his neck gripped by tentacles this time, choking him to death. It squeezed just a bit harder than his flesh could handle and David’s head popped off like a loose cork to the fountain of blood now spilling out.

  Anya turned wordlessly to the base and slammed shut the doors. They rang with the sound of pain and desperation, but no one heard. Even the monsters didn’t take note, though it wasn’t like they could come inside anyway now. She reached inside her pocket and dumped 7 pills down the hatch, shuddering with the enhanced senses and distinct lack of restraint. It was a short span of minutes before Anya reached Central, but there was only one thought in her head.

  Ok, maybe two— that the clock had not ticked forward, and that she needed to save Raethor. It was most important that she saved Raethor, with his command they could do anything. Solve any problem. Fix this situation. And with the clock not running out it didn’t seem so bad. They could do this. They could win.

  She flung open the door with a quick and brutal stab of the finger to the skin lock and witnessed true horror within. Raethor was dead on his knees. Melissa clutched his fingertips, trying desperately to heal him with minimal contact, but for all the blood? She stood no chance.

  Luther was alive this time, but Alissa, Alex, and Jesús were all dead. Luther explained that Jesús had immediately tried to shoot him.

  “I fucking knew it.” Alex had said, killing him the instant before his round could fire, but Will had been prepared for the outcome and shot him almost as quickly as Alex had shot Jesús. Alissa, unfortunately, had also been prepared and lept in front of Will’s first shot. He shot again, however, killing Alex before any more damage could be done.

  “What happened to Raethor?” Anya asked him.

  “He was silent for a moment.” Not Luther, Raethor.

  “His Mandate didn’t like that and he erupted into a fountain of blood.”

  Anya cursed. It was like God Himself was fucking with her. Removing the one person she could count on in the situation just to watch her squirm and she was fucking sick of it.

  She took the remaining seven pills and her skin turned instantly white.

  “Where are Peter, Lululu, Dio, and Will now?” She demanded of Luther.

  “Dio and Will went to heavy weapons. Peter, Lululu and Henry are… Emperor knows where.”

  Anya sighed. They’d atomized even further. Dio, Will, and Jesús formed one block, likely because Anya had killed Jesús in the last loop. Alex and Alissa… were probably still on her side, but Peter, Lululu, and Henry had formed another faction. She just hoped those who remained would stay by her side. They needed to stick together, and they needed leadership. Even if they didn’t have that she’d have to be enough.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Listen,” Luther started, “am I a burden to you?”

  Anya was taken off guard, but answered quickly. “What? No…? No!”

  “I can tell when I’m not wanted in the room, and that’s the second time Raethor died because of me.” He put his head in his hands and sighed deeply, rubbing his eyes.

  “I just wanted to serve my country, you know? They said I could defend my homeland and put food on the table for my family. I just… I wanted something better for them. Chris tells me the sun goes black and kills off this side of the planet in a couple hours. Is that true? Can we even stop it?”

  Anya started speaking, but he didn’t wait for her to answer.

  “I know we can’t. After all we’ve been through. After all we’ve done. It was all for fucking this! All the fucking kills I made were supposed to protect something. To be. For. Something. Not this. Not this!”

  He put his rifle to his chin.

  “Listen. I know when I’m not wanted in a room. Just… let me out of this. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to do this again. I don’t want to suffer.”

  He tried to pull the trigger, but Anya forced his hand off the rifle. She did not snatch it away from him, an act equivalent to saying “I won’t let you, and you can’t stop me from stopping you. You’re here to stay bucko. Now buckle up.”

  Luther started crying. “I don’t want to fight an unwinnable battle when my comrades want me dead. I don’t want to be a burden. Just let me—”

  “Shut up Luther, you little bitch.” Melissa screamed from across the room, storming over to them and immediately slapping him in the face. Yuna flinched at the words, but said nothing. Luther reached up and touched the red mark on his bearded cheek. Melissa didn’t stop berating him, but didn’t slap him again either now that he was semi-lucid.

  “I know your mama didn’t raise you to be like that. I know your family wouldn’t appreciate their breadwinner giving up on them like that. I know you didn’t fight all the way here just to give up like that. Stand up and fight! Not in spite of the fact Will and Dio and Jesús,” she paused and spat, “hate your guts, but because they hate your guts. Fight and die and come back and fucking win! You’re not a soldier because you gave up in training. You’re not a soldier because you can’t take the heat. You’re here because you’re up to muster, not because you lick boots or like shooting the kinds of people Command wants you to shoot. You’re here in spite of the fact you’re one of the people Command wants shot. Why? God knows I don’t, but you’re here for a reason. If you don’t have one, fight because I told you to, and because Anya ordered it.”

  There was silence in the room for a long minute.

  “We’re going to explore the base now. Are you in, soldier?” Anya half ordered, half commanded.

  “Yes.” Luther said in a small voice.

  “I SAID ARE YOU IN SOlDIER?” Anya demanded much louder than her voice ordinarily allowed. She started coughing afterward, but luckily Luther’s booming voice drowned it out.

  “YES, COMMANDER!”

  “Good, then move out.” There was nothing to load, only their bodies to move wherever they were going. Luther, Chris, Yuna, Anya, and Melissa were together this time around, and they would find the secret at the heart of this base if it killed them. And it would. They would die again and again, but with time to figure things out it wasn’t so bad. They could throw bodies at the problem until the problem solved itself. The only danger to the situation was also their main advantage: that everyone knew they were in a loop from the moment it began. While of course some of them died earlier into the loops than others, it meant they could all share a common basis of understanding to the situation and its many intricacies. They could all respond knowing in their core they weren’t going to die. There was no uncertainty about it. There was no doubt. They had all experienced first-hand what it was like to die, and they had all been revived.