lifted off the ground and began to fly up, out of the city. I sighed to myself, my heart finally lowering, as I wiped off the sweat from my forehead.
“It’s hard to grasp this situation, isn’t it?” the guy in the green armor said, removing his headgear.
He looked about five or more years my senior, with a few battle scars on his neck and cheek. He sat opposite of me, with his rifle placed above his thighs, his gaze turning between me and the others.
“What are those monsters?” I asked him, my mind filled with unsettling thoughts.
“We have coded them Terror Beasts,” he replied, adjusting his left leg slightly. “These creatures can’t be stopped or contained; they are far too powerful.”
“I see,” I looked away, the weight in my heart completely unbearable as before. “What about my family and everyone else?”
“We will do everything we can to help them, but our resources are limited at the moment,” he smirked, checking his gun.”That means we have to draft in new recruits, and you all seems like great candidates.”
“Whoa! Whoa!” I stopped him, raising my hands up in disapproval. “What are you talking about? I am not a warrior or anything; I am just a graduate student.”
“But that’s why we need you, kid,” he shifted out of his seat, observing everything happening in the cockpit. “Not much of a choice for any of us; I know this isn’t just, but we have no choice in the matter. So when you all get to the secret camp, you will be given exams to determine which ranks you will be enlisted under. Good luck to you all!”
“Oh great,” I sighed, looking in all directions, sweat pouring down my forehead. “You rescued us just to throw us back into the mouth of the beast.”
“At least you will do it with a gun and a powerful armor,” he laughed, mocking me lightly. “If you ever want to see your families again, this is the only way, kids.”
“I guess,” I sighed, wiping off the sweat that was stinging both of my eyes.
He was absolutely right, joining the military was my only option left to find my family and friends. Without their resources and aid, none of us would survive this new apocalyptic world. I looked away, at the city, saying goodbye to the world I once knew.
XX-X
“Ow! My head hurts,” Shanna groaned, rubbing her sore head softly.
She looked left and then right, pivoting her body on the seat, while taking a deep breath. I took one good look at her jaw, my conscience starting to weigh on me; the feeling of hitting her from the back was rather unbearable.
It had been three hours since we took flight, our destination still unknown. We were flying over burning cities, the sight too gruesome for me to behold, so I never took my eyes out of the hover ship. Only less than seven, from our original crew, had survived the onslaught in the sewer tunnels.
“So where are we going?” Shanna stood up, her arms rested between two seats, glancing through the left window. “How far have I been out? I don’t really remember what happened to me.”
“It’s a long and complicated story,” I lied, my guilty conscience embracing me deeply. “I am just glad you are safe.”
“Be quiet for a second, Den! I am getting intel of group trapped 20 miles from our positions by the terror beasts,” the man in the green armor yelled, picking up his helmet and rifle. “I am going ahead to intercept—meet me down there in ten minutes.”
The man walked over to the exit hatch, opening it up halfway, before dropping out of flying craft. I crawled over to the left window, in time to see him burst into action; his flight system kicking into overdrive in a horizontal motion. It was astounding, the level of fine detail and expensive tech that went into building the armor cost more than my whole life’s savings.
“What did he say?” I panicked at the thought of going back into the heat of danger.
I had seen enough of those creatures for one day, and the thought of going back into that utter pandemonium, was not entirely appealing to me. Without warning, the pilots veered the hover ship left, lowering it down another thousand feet. They steered the craft away from the fire and falling buildings, bringing it down a few more feet closer to the ground. In front of us, there was one large building still standing and almost unscathed; it was a bit far off from the city, and it was almost hidden, close to the mountains.
“We have to land here, and get some gear to provide support,” one of the pilots said, looking back at us, his right index finger signaling us to the ground. “This is an underground military base, where we keep some of our most dangerous weapons stored.”
“Oh really,” I replied, sarcastically. “Just one giant coincidence that we were flying in the same direction as this base, is it?”
“Hush, Den,” Shanna stopped me before I could blubber more nonsense. “Stop complaining for crying out loud.”
Upon hearing her harsh words, I tightened my lips, as I moved to furthest seat, next to a crying kid. The hover ship finally stopped, landing on the ground silently. We all exited the ship, except for one of the pilots and the smaller children, marching for the large building. The complex was made from a hard, dense metal, which was probably welded even further below the surface, to deny access from any focal points. Assuming that was the case, then how were we supposed to get in? I mean, it’s not like they were going to allow civilians to get into an armory bunker without regular clearance, even if the apocalypse was happening. Don’t get me wrong, I am not always a pessimist—it’s just that I tended to look at all the outcomes of a situation, and chose the few with more than a high probability of happening. And in this case, I would say getting stomped to itty bits by a deranged monster was more than likely.
“Over here,” Shanna waved me forward, pointing to the access unit by this large gate.
I moved in closer, following the direction of her left index finger. She took out a small portable com pad and placed it by the wall, breathing softly, her gaze drawn between the access panel and the surroundings. She was right to be worried, we were on open field, with no defense structures or guards to help us fend off the creatures. My heart skipped a bit at the thought of being ambushed from behind by one of those creatures.
“I got it open,” Shanna sighed, her face brimming with joy.
“I don’t really think you should be happy with yourself,” I replied her, forgetting that she had told me to zip my lips. “Breaking into a government armory base is a felony.”
“Wait to go, Den, you really know how to spoil a girl,” she rolled her eyes, retrieving her com pad and placing it on her left arm deck.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, following behind her, once the large gate was opened wide enough.
“Never mind,” she replied, totally ignoring me. She brushed her hair to the side, dropping her left hand to grab a proton hand-burst pistol.
We walked in utter darkness for a few minutes; the absolute unsettling winds from the air regulators made a few of us shiver slightly. Aside from me and Shanna, there was one middle aged man, and a teenager accompanying us to this recon mission, or whatever they called it. The man wore a leather coat, almost similar in design to my shirt, with metal cufflinks at the end of each arm. He was holding a rifle, with an ion launcher on the side: he also had a bandolier strapped around his right arm, giving him the appearance of an assassin. The teenager, well, there was not much to say about him. He was a straight-up mess, and I will leave it at that. I was more of hologram gamer type of guy, so in the real world, I was not exactly what I would call reliable.
“Whoa! Awesome,” the teenager screamed, running ahead of us to these huge robotic machines.
He stopped, a few inches from one of them, extending his grubby hands to touch the black stripped one, on the left side. But before he could, I heard a metallic sound, coming from somewhere on the roof.
“No time to chat, guys,” Shanna yelled, running towards the robot, which I could only assume was remote piloted. “We are going to fly these babies.”
“I was a
fraid you were going to say that,” I sighed, running after her.
There were three of these large battle mech, each spaced 20 feet from each other, completely loaded with ballistic missiles and 35 inch Gatling guns. Like I said before, addicted hologram gamer, with a four kill per death ratio on the live virtual maps. Not to brag or anything, but I knew my virtual guns very well.
“Come on,” Shanna screamed, halfway up the metal staircase, her gaze upon me.
The roof of the armory was beginning to crumble under the weight of something enormously heavy. The man and the teenage boy boarded the second battle Mech, activating its systems within a matter of seconds. I watched as their ten meter giant robot came into action; it stood up slowly, rotating its head left and right, testing its reflexes and speed.
“You know, we are just sitting ducks in here, right?” I spoke again, forgetting that she was trying to ignore me.
As she sat in the main pilot seat, in front of me, she recalibrated the rotation and motion controls to a personal setting suited to her desire and convenience. I sat in the back seat, surrounded by the backup weapons systems —I really had no idea what I was doing. Real life weapons were nothing like the virtual ones; I mean, they were similar but also different.
“Here we go,” Shanna alerted me, raising our giant Mech up to its feet.
I felt the tremors beneath me as the robot began to move up and