DEAD ERA- Afterworld

Chapter 8

They were taken to a room filled with countless guns and ammo of all kinds 

  and sizes. They all began to set up their gear, getting ready for the mission as the commander waited impatiently near the door watching them carefully

Finally, after five minutes the commander turned to face the group.

“Any questions?” he asked as they all shook their heads no

“Good, now let's get going. Remember your objective is to bring the antidote back to the compound and rescue everyone from being eaten alive!”

As the group exited the room and went to the hallways they began to head to the exit but the commander stopped them before he left.

“Hey, wait, I'll go with you,” he said as he turned to look at his crew. “Someone is going to stay to watch over these idiots and make sure they don't do anything stupid”

Everyone nodded their consent as they started to walk away

  A chopper landed on the field, controlled by two pilots, “Here is our ride, right?” Bali asked the commander who nodded to his question

  

Once everyone was on board and the helicopter lifted off the ground and rose high into the air they headed towards the direction of the lab complex, as Bali was busy looking out at everything around him.

The chopper continued flying along the route heading towards the research facility, taking its passengers closer and closer to their goal

. 

Bali sat quietly staring ahead watching as they flew past buildings and vehicles along the road. He couldn't help but look outside as he listened to his fellow passengers talking among themselves, the chatter continuing throughout the journey.

       Bali looked at Levi who prayed silently, “I don't trust them” the stranger whispered to Bali

,

“Trust what,” asked Bali in response, confused as to what he meant by such a statement

“Their intentions,” the stranger answered while still keeping a close eye on the soldiers around them.

Suddenly a voice broke into the conversation of the soldiers, “Excuse me,” one of them said, “but may I ask you a question?”

“Sure thing” Bali replied, “what’s your name?”

“My name is Paul” the soldier responded as he walked beside Bali, “Do you mind if I join your conversation for a bit?”

“Yeah, we're just chatting about what's going to happen today,” Bali answered with a smile and moved further down the cabin

“g to ask you some personal questions,” Paul responded as he stepped forward so he was next to Bali 

“Ok, shoot” Bali responded with a smirk, leaning against a seat

“I heard you guys say you had come here to save everyone” Paul stated

“Oh yeah, we came here to find the cure”

“That is very interesting”

“Yeah, it is,” 

“What are the risks?”

“I am sorry, we don't know” Bali admitted

Paul sighed “Okay, thanks,” he muttered under his breath.

After an uncomfortable silence, Paul spoke again: “Well then good luck, and remember we'll be counting on you guys”

“Thanks, man, you guys too”

Paul gave Bali a nod in return as he got back to his original position.

Bali leaned his head back as he watched the scenery pass by. His eyes started to drift shut until suddenly, the commander yelled out

    “Everyone we are close to our stop, so everyone grabs a parachute we are jumping off from here”  he announced. As everyone quickly started searching for a secure spot for their safety gear, they were soon joined by two other soldiers holding parachutes for their use

“Are you alright?” one of the soldiers asked Bali

“Yeah, I'm fine,” Bali answered. “Just tired from traveling all day and not sleeping much,” he added, “how long have you been doing this?”

“I have been doing this for over 15 years and haven't done anything like this before. Not because I've never jumped before but because we've always stayed behind once the mission started. We never leave our base” the soldier explained

“You're lucky,” Bali commented, “I'd hate to jump out of my ship. I mean, it's probably one of the most dangerous things there is”

As everyone finished tying their parachutes he looked down the edge of the helicopter to see the land far below. 

Bali dived out of the helicopter as everyone followed suit. Diving into the sky they started to slow down as the wind rushed through their faces. After about 30 seconds, everyone opened their parachutes to catch air as they slowly made their way toward the facility. 

Landing on top of the fence they all stood on the side as they checked their surroundings. The facility was dark and covered by darkness which didn't make it any easier for them to navigate.

“Let's split up and check inside, we'll meet up at the center of the facility to figure out what happened” the commander commanded

everyone nodded in agreement before splitting up into two groups. One group went through the fence and started checking around the perimeter while the others searched inside.

After an hour of walking, all of them found no results except a dead-end at the bottom where they all met up and decided to start searching from the bottom up. As everyone searched. The stranger held his gun as close range as he could while keeping the scope focused on the floor, not wanting to waste any more bullets than necessary.

‘If we don't find anything in here by tomorrow, we might as well give up and call it quits. We'll never be able to find the antidote without proper supplies’

Just then the stranger saw movement at the end of the hallway leading to the basement of the facility, and then, another and another. Soon, several figures showed up. The stranger narrowed his eyes and kept scanning the area around him to make sure that it wasn't simply a coincidence. Then he and his team decided to explore everywhere in the facility.

As they traveled deeper and deeper in, the strange man felt something odd. Looking closely at the ground, he noticed small marks forming a spiral pattern, and when he pulled back and looked closer at the walls he discovered similar patterns on both sides of the tunnel.

‘Wait! What’s happening?!’ the man thought to himself as his mind started to race, trying to figure out what was going on. He tried to remember all the training he had done to try and calm himself down as he began to panic.

'It can't be true… It can't be possible!' he continued to think. 'No, this has to be a coincidence. This whole place has to be a huge fake to hide the truth. That must be why they took Bali away. Because this wasn't part of their plan to save the people! No, it had to be planned. Someone must have put a fake path that leads straight to the underground laboratory’

Suddenly, one of the men who had been following him shouted

“Guys we found something” he called

Immediately the rest of them ran toward him. The stranger kept his eyes focused on the man, waiting patiently for him to finish his report. The man then proceeded to explain what he had found

“See this” Paul pointed as a large claw made on the wall went deep into the wall. “It looked like it was made by a creature, but it also appeared to be made out of a type of plastic. I wonder who or what did it” he said.

“Let's get moving, we don't know what is out here with us,” the stranger said as he motioned for his team to follow him.

They all walked together through the hallways of the building, stopping every once in a while to inspect any signs of life. They knew they wouldn’t find anything, as whoever had created this room had gone into hiding and hidden their tracks perfectly. 

Now and then someone would stumble across the remains of something which would lead them to believe that they found evidence of a struggle that had taken place recently, but each time it was only an empty room where no bodies had been discovered.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a set of double doors

“This must be it,” the stranger said, glancing around the door

“There should be a code key card to activate it” the commander announced. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, “How does he know that?” the stranger asked, annoyed

“We’ve been trained in how to use those” the commander stated as everyone moved toward the doors

Everyone gathered around the commander waiting for him to unlock the door.

Suddenly, a loud bang echoed around the entrance as glass shards were thrown onto the floor. All the soldiers froze in place as they stared wide-eyed at the door

“What was that?”