Two Gunshots

“You sure Mike, you know what it’ll mean right?” Bai asked to make sure that Micheal was sure of his decision.

“Yeah I’m sure, just do it, and stop calling me Mike” Micheal replied with a steadfast look which meant that he had made up his mind to face whatever was coming.

“Okay Mike” Bai said and pressed a button, acting like he hadn’t heard Micheal’s warning not to refer to him in that manner.

“BEEP BEEP” The machine suddenly let out two loud beeps putting everyone on guard.

“I got it” Bai’s expression lit up as the screen flashed, displaying several video feeds.

“Okay let’s see what was so important that it had to be wiped away” Hai said with a curious expression.

“BEEP BEEP BEEP” The watches on the group’s hands suddenly went off beeping which caught their attention.

“What’s this?” Henry frowned in confusion, not understanding the reason for the watch’s behavior.

“The scan picked up life signals some distance away, we have to go over to see what it is” Yoshi answered clearing away the confusion as he glanced at Micheal who then glanced at the control center.

“Yoshi, how long would it take you to copy the video files?” Micheal asked with a thoughtful expression.

“A minute maybe” Yoshi replied picking up what Micheal was implying, he nodded and walked over to the control center, his finger taking the shape of a drive which he inserted into the control center.

“They’re moving out of our radar, we have to be quick” Racheal prompted the others who glanced at Yoshi whose eyes twinkled with a light glow which lasted for a minute before disappearing.

“I’m done, we can move now, I already sensed the system initiating the self-defense mechanism” Yoshi took out his finger from the control center and turned to the others.

“Okay then let’s leave” Micheal quickly said before leaving, they rushed down to the last floor and left the control center tower, but just as they were about to leave, Micheal passed something onto the wall, his actions so swift and inconspicuous that the others didn’t see.

Just as they dashed out and moved some distance away, the first floor of the control tower suddenly exploded, sending a deafening sound across the entire area “BOOOM”

“Shit, that most definitely alerted everything around, I guess we don’t need to worry about loneness anymore” Bai joked which sent the others chuckling except for Micheal who seemed to be in deep thought.

“Did anyone notice that the path on which we detected the life signals coincides with that which Captain James claimed to be the ‘safe path’?” Micheal asked out of the blue, only now bringing the other’s attention to it.

“Dude chill out, I think you might be overthinking things” Bai replied with a pat on Micheal’s shoulder before yawning and wiping his eyes.

“Overthinking things, am I the only one thinking straight here, why isn’t anyone else realizing that there’s something strange going on here” Micheal said with a look of surprise at the other’s behavior.

“I think Bai’s right Mike, maybe we should just relax for now and continue tomorrow” Racheal also said with a yawn, making Micheal frown and turn to Hai and Henry who also showed similar behaviors.

“They seem to be under a certain spell or something” Yoshi’s voice sounded behind Micheal opting him to turn around to see him acting totally normal.

“Wait! Yoshi scan the air for any chemical particles” Micheal said suddenly thinking of something.

“Huh? This is strange, there are traces of nitrous oxide in the air, which must be the reason why they’re behaving so strangely, nitrous oxide is commonly used for sedation and that’s in small quantities, but there are abnormal traces of it in the atmosphere, taking in too much into your system could knock you out or even lead you to suffocate” Yoshi explained causing Micheal to flinch in shock as he turned to the others and placed a palm on their shoulders.

“BZZZ” A light jolt of lightning was shot into the bodies of Hai and Bai who shot up like a bullet in anger staring at Micheal who did the same to the others quickly.

“Switch to your helmets quick, there are chemicals in the air” Micheal urged them immediately the jolt brought them back to their senses, they quickly did as they were told before letting out sighs of relief.

“Thanks, Mike, that was close, I suddenly felt myself growing sleepy and I didn’t even realize what was going on” Bai thanked Micheal who gave a light nod.

“We have to move now, we’ve already lost enough time, while you were almost knocked unconscious, we noticed that the life signals we detected were on the safe path given to us, which meant that either there were some survivors, or the safe path is no longer safe, due to our limited time, we need to move quickly to not end up destroyed by the nuke” Micheal said to the others who massaged their shoulder where he had zapped them.

“BEEEPP” Similar to before, the watches suddenly started screaming out and beeping.

“What the heck is wrong with this watch, how the hell do you place it on silent?” Hai said angrily pressing it to stay shut.

“Shut up just deactivate it, it’s voice activated, just say shift voice to helmet” Yoshi said to him with a frown glancing at the map where several red dots could be seen moving around just as the sun came up.

“Holy shit” Henry muttered in shock staring at the map.

“We have to move now, let’s go” Micheal quickly said rushing through the streets to a house which he spotted, the others following behind him as he turned the knob to discover that the door was open.

“Stay alert, move” Micheal opened the door wide, holding it open for the rest to move in with guns akimbo before he finally followed behind them watching their rear as he closed the door and then turned around.

“Hai, Bai, and Henry, take the top, Yoshi, Racheal and I will take this floor” Micheal instructed, receiving a nod from the others who split up according to his orders, with Henry, Hai, and Bai moving up the stairs in a co-ordinated fashion.

“Yoshi, find something to board up the entrance with, Racheal, take that side and I’ll take this side” Micheal turned to his people and also gave them orders before moving to the side he had picked.

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I cautiously walked through the door of the room to the left, I placed my hand on the doorknob and was about to turn it when, I heard a slight rustle from my left, almost on instinct, my hand moved to the gun which was quickly aimed at the wall where I spotted a hole in the wall the size of a basketball, switching on my flashlight on my helmet, I crept toward the hole, ready to fire at anything that came out.

As I got closer to the wall, I grew warier as my mind tried to picture what could have created such a hole in the wall and was responsible for this, with every step my imagination grew crazier, but I wasn’t scared instead I was curious, why was this, I guess it was because my ability to be scared was lost a long time ago, with this thought in mind, memories resurfaced that made me pause and close my eyes for a second before sighing and dispersing all my thoughts, I needed to focus on my current mission.

“Hmm, nothing’s there” I muttered in surprise after discovering that the hole was empty, I looked through to see that it ran through most of the walls in the house, after not finding anything, I moved back to the door and turned the knob to find something that I never imagined.

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I knew I was on a mission but somehow my mind kept wandering to a video of a cat that I had seen the previous day, the cat had black fur and was clothed in red clothes, it was made to stand on a miniature pulpit where it made several meowing sounds that looked like it was preaching, the video was really funny and because other cats stood before the preacher cat that occasionally made their own sounds like they were responding to what he was saying, after watching that video, I had then watched another version of the video which had been dubbed.

But what made it funny to me the most was the fact that the Preacher cat’s voice sounded similar to that of Henry, so whenever I looked at him the picture of the cat popped up in my mind which made me want to laugh, I turned to glance at him and It seemed like he noticed because I could see him frown as I quickly turned around, pretending like I hadn’t done anything.

“I’mma take this room, you guys take those two over there” Henry said turning to the room on his side.

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‘What’s wrong with that guy, he keeps glancing at me and chuckling, he couldn’t be….” I turned the knob of the door and then grabbed the gun which I used to push open the door before stepping in.

“CREAK” The door squealed open as I stepped in cautiously sneaking in while scanning the interior for any signs of an enemy, the first thing I sensed was the strong pungent scent of blood that filled the room, it smelled similar to a slaughterhouse that had it’s doors closed for a long time so the smell had been sealed into the room.

“Urrg, damn that’s fucked up” Henry muttered in disgust, it was never easy to get used to the smell especially one this thick.

“What happened here?” I wondered stepping fully into the room to see blood splattered across the walls, as I walked closer, the stench infiltrated my nostrils giving me a nostalgic feeling, I tried to swipe some of the blood off the wall and realized that it had hardened which meant that it had been there for a long time, I looked around the room and discovered a that a part of the wall had a hole in it which grabbed my attention and made me walk toward it slowly with my gun aimed at it.

“RUSTLE” As if sensing my approach, something inside moved in the darkness which made my finger instantly curl around the trigger ready to squeeze at a moment’s notice.

“Guys, I think I just saw something in the walls, I’m approaching now to see what it is” I alerted the others while slowly approaching the hole, as I got closer, my eyes got slowly got accustomed to the shape of a figure in the dark hole.

“What the hell is that?” I asked myself staring at the figure trying to identify it when suddenly something unexpected happened.

“SCREECH” As I was trying to identify it, the figure suddenly let out a loud screech and leaped at me.

“FUCK” I exclaimed in my mind as my finger squeezed the trigger.

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“BANG BANG BANG BA….” Gunshots suddenly rang out from two different locations in the house as everyone’s attention turned upstairs and downstairs where the sounds had sounded from.

“That came from Micheal’s location” Yoshi said immediately spotting Racheal who was rushing toward him.

“Didn’t that come from Micheal?” Rachael asked glancing toward the room that Micheal had entered.

“Yeah let’s go check it out” Yoshi said to her before heading to Micheal’s room together.

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“That was Henry right?” Bai asked his brother who nodded as they both got out of their rooms and then glanced at the room which Henry was in.

“Let’s go” Hai said clutching his gun tightly before rushing to the room with his brother to see what had happened.