PROLOGUE:
Water trickled smoothly down the stream into a lovely little pond in the peaceful park. There were frogs jumping around the pool carelessly. Many trees were scattered in a random order around the water-side of which the beautiful little stream flowed into. Families of red squirrels thrived in the trees, they called it home. The ground was covered in a stunning layer of a mixture of acorns, leaves of all different colours, tufts of grass, and even lots of wild flowers. Contrary to the majestic beauty of the park, a lone rusty rivet, laid at an angle, just submerged under the still surface was visible. No one knew where it came from; it had always been there, for as long as anyone alive could remember.
A lonely man walked slowly up to the pond. The frogs scarpered, the bolt was unfazed. He looked down at the peaceful trickling water, and the rusty old rivet. A reflection of himself was calmly sat on the surface above the rusty bolt.
He wasn't very tall, but tall enough nonetheless. He always wore a light blue bracelet that he made for his mother when he was young, she never got round to wearing it. A second figure appeared. This time, the person wandered around the pond, so as to face the other man directly from the other side. This man was slightly taller than the first, but by far not as confident in his stature. The first man spoke,
"How's your aquarium?" There was a long pause and the second person had to think about the question before he realized the context of the conversation. The first man was awaiting a reply in which time he was looking down into the murky water below his feet. It was when the second man finally replied that the first man stopped day-dreaming,
"Fine, apart from how most of the small fish have died. I should be getting a new large fish tank soon, that way I'll be able to get bigger fish. I should be able to afford it after we've finished this new mission we've been assigned. Along with that, I'm planning on buying a new apartment".
"Yeah, me an' my wife are saving up for a retirement home in Spain, we've almost got the money and this mission will finish our savings". The two had not 5 years between their ages; the first man was 47, and the second man was 43, they had both been in the army since they were young adults. They looked over at each other for the next second, after which they gazed back down at the still water, listening to the trickling stream nearby. To end the silence, the second person asked,
"Hey, Steve, when are we getting back from the mission?" Steve breathed outwards really heavily before replying,
"They said the whole operation could take as long as 2 days, so we might need to spen' one night there. Where ever it is".
"That'll be tough", the second man said. He continued,
"What actually are we going there to do again?"
"Not sure, but they said that there is this place, that has been unvisited for the past forty years, and our job is to go there and…just…check it out…I guess", Steve stopped a moment and looked up from the rusty rivet that lay at his feet, to instead look over at his friend whom of which was no longer paying attention. Beside this fact, Steve carried on,
"Including you an' me, there's eight of us going", Steve stopped again trying to think of anything else to say. Instead though, it was the second person, who spoke,
"Didn't they say that this mission would be easy? Because I don't want any hard tasks just before retirement".
"They said that this would be a "walk in the park" so I'm sure that we'll be done within one day, they just said it could take up to two days because even if anything goes wrong, that's the maximum amount of time we'll be there for". When Steve stopped, he looked over at his friend again. His mind was blank. So he just concluded,
"You know Harry, retirement will be great".
Steve stared down at his feet, the bolt that had been on its side had now been pushed by the water onto its front.