You see double of this first sentence because the editor on fan fiction is being stupid for me for whatever reasons. This is only the prologue, and is just a taste of what is to come.
Prologue
The inside of the bunker was barely lit, casting eerie shadows on the walls that seemed to reach for you as you passed by. The walls were made of solid Grantite, a harder substance than concrete. The Grantite was smooth to the touch, and felt like you could break it in half with your fingers, but nothing except the strongest of weapons could even hope to penetrate the Grantite. A lone man walked down the hallway; a pulse rifle on his back and a lit igniter in his mouth; similar to a cigarette, without the nicotine or smoke. It was a safe way to relax tense muscles; however they were reserved for military use and the wealthy only, due to manufacturing problems.
The man was clothed in a red body suit of the Anarchic Cooperative, or AC, with his helmet off. His chest plate was sparkling clean, and flexed to fit his specific body structure. There were black stripes down the sides of the suit, with dimly glowing white lights along the line. On his left, right above his heart, was a glowing name tag. Sergeant Arden Snyder walked slowly, looking sadly at the walls around him. He had been here for ten years now, and the depressing atmosphere around the place seemed to age him past his years. His hair was a brown distinguished with grey, and his brown eyes projecting a long sadness, followed by the creases of age upon his face. His entire expression was one of boredom, tiredness and sadness. As he made his way forward, there was a booth over to the side, with another soldier, who was busy watching sports on the vid-screen. There were two other soldiers standing at ease off to either side of the hallway. The soldier inside had his feet up on an old wooden desk, with his helmet lying off to the side. Arden walked in, placing the igniter in the recycler as it beeped its usage empty. He walked to the man, and looked at the screen. All they ever had down here was sports from years past, and the soldier was busy watching major league baseball. Arden shook his head, and placed his hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Don't you ever get tired of that shit Hayden?"
Without looking back, Hayden shook his head, making his long red hair fly around slightly. "It's the only thing to watch, so why should I get tired of it?" Arden sighed, and walked around him to the desk. Despite the lack of regulations down here, record of patrols was always kept under tabs. Arden tapped a holographic button on the desk, and a transparent sheet came before him. He wrote his name with his finger, and then wrote the time. He tapped the accept button, and the sheet disappeared. Arden walked around Hayden, who still had his eyes glued to the vid-screen. He walked out the door, and gave a courteous nod to the soldiers as he passed. He still had another half a route to go before he could relax in the outpost. He started down the hallway, a couple soldiers passing him as he went.
Walking down the hallways, he lit another igniter for himself, and went through his thoughts yet again. He still had another ten years before he could get out of this hell hole. While he guessed it was better than being in threat of getting killed, he would prefer frontline duty to this. They were just told what to do, and not ever question it. Arden shook his head, and looked around. What he wouldn't give for even the tiniest window of sunlight to come down. His skin was deathly white from being the depths of the bunker for so long. He even pitied soldiers like Hayden, who were just beginning their tour here. They still had another nineteen years to go here.
Out of force of habit, he slipped his pulse rifle from his back, and checked the energy cell. Of course it was fully charged, but he did it to get everything off his mind for a brief few moments. He looked down the scope, which automatically conformed to his specific skull structure; fitting around his eye perfectly. It made the entire hallway turn a light shade of red, and a targeting reticule was in the middle. The rifle itself was painted red to acknowledge it belonged to the AC, and was a small, but powerful weapon. The energy cell was loaded into the side of the weapon; it fired off concentrated lasers powerful enough to rip a hole the size of his fist in an unarmored target. Its nozzle was slightly bulky, but was needed to concentrate the laser itself. He lowered the weapon, and looked around yet again. No matter how long he had been here, he could not get used to the fact of not seeing a window.
His mind continued to wander for the remainder of the patrol, accounting for ten minutes. As he made his way back, he was glad that he would finally be able to kick back, and laze around the rest of the day, or at least, he suspected it was day. He rounded the last corner, and found that the two guards that had been there earlier were gone. He shrugged it off, the others would usually ditch post for awhile to go get a drink or just wander. As he made his way in the office, he was surprised to see that Hayden was gone. Usually the soldier waited for Arden to get back before he went on patrol. Arden shrugged that off as well, he was not the kid's father, and Hayden could go where he pleased on this level. Arden walked over to a set of lockers on the far side of the locker, and put his eye up to the scanner. It read his retina, and opened his locker for him.
The inside was quite bare, other than two things, it was completely empty. His helmet was set down at the bottom of the locker, and a single photo was on the shelf at the top. He set his rifle in the locker, and took out the photo. He had taken the photo right before he had entered the bunker; it was his only remaining memory of the topside world. The sun was setting in the distance, overshadowing a set of rolling plains. It was one of the most beautiful things that Arden had seen, and he did not want to lose it. He went to the desk, and brought up the same sheet to mark his time. Once he was done, he went to the same seat Hayden had been sitting in, and made himself comfortable. He tapped a button on the seat, and the T.V. came on. What he saw, was not what he expected.
Someone had switched the television to the security cameras on this level, and usually there was an assortment of soldiers patrolling, but in this case, there was not a single soldier. Arden leaned closer to the screen. "What the fuck?" He tapped a button on his right shoulder. "Ben? Carlos? Patrick? Hayden? Where the hell are you guys?" He waited a moment, but there was no response. He tapped it again, and repeated himself, but again there was no response. He got up, but just as he did, he caught the slightest motion on camera five. Had he not been intently looking at the screen, he might have missed it. It was so quick, he wasn't even sure it had even happened at all. He backed up slowly from the vid-screen, and went to his locker. He quickly opened it, donned his helmet and rifle. The helmet was a slender thing with a darkened slit of glass for the eyes. The helmet had hidden air holes to allow breathing, and also had an oxygen supply for up to ten minutes. Whatever was happening here, it was not natural. He checked the cameras once more, but saw nothing but empty halls. He double checked which camera he had seen the motion from, and walked out of the office.
He wandered through the halls, his rifle in his hands, carefully making his way forward. The camera that had recorded the motion was about a five minute walk from the office, and there had not been a single soul from the office to the destination. His radar integrated into the bunker's motion sensor system had not picked up any movement other than his own. The more he walked, the more he got freaked out. Something strange was happening here.
Finally he arrived at the camera, and was greeted by more nothing. The camera was a simple blue dot high on the wall to his left, and was barely visible. Yet, even as he walked around the hall, he knew that he had seen something move here. It was impossible that what he saw could be a glitch. He wandered around scratching his head. There was no one anywhere, and it seemed like he was the last man down here. It was something he was not comfortable with.
He heard a tap behind him, and whirled around in a crazed fashion, bringing his rifle to bear. There was more nothing, but he was certain he had heard something. The bunker's motion sensors had yet to pick up anything else other than him, and the entire atmosphere was starting to get to him. Then the world seemed to phase in and out, like a vid-screen switching channels. At first he thought he was hallucinating, and then he saw more soldiers. They kept fading in and out, as if they were holograms, yet he knew these soldiers were the ones from the office. He could barely make out what they were saying.
"Are you sure that there was something on the camera? I'm still seeing nothing on the radar, and there's nothing in front of me."
"I'm sure I saw something, just keep checking." Came the familiar voice of Hayden as he communicated to the soldiers.
The soldiers sighed, and walked around some more. After about another minute, the soldier tapped his communicator to say something, but stopped. "Did you see that?" asked the first one.
"Yeah I saw it? It was just a blip, but it was definitely there." They wheeled around, and checked their six, but relaxed as they saw nothing.
"I know I saw something." The soldier tapped his communicator. "Hayden, are you getting anything else on the cameras?" He waited a moment, but there was no answer. He repeated himself. "Hayden, you there?" There was nothing, and then there was a great burst of static from the comm. unit and then nothingness.
"What the hell was that?" The second asked, but they didn't get a chance to respond as the lights started shutting off.
"What the fuck?" The first one said as they were enveloped by darkness. There was a sound like finger tapping, and then the lights came back on. The soldiers were nowhere to be seen. Arden tried to walk closer, but as he did the vision got blurred. He stopped, looking for the soldiers, but finding none.
Suddenly a blackā¦thing came out of nowhere lunging at him. Arden screamed and fell to the ground firing his rifle. His eyes were slammed shut, but he managed to open them. The vision was gone, and so was whatever tried to kill him. Something had taken his soldiers, and he knew he had to get some help down to them. He slowly got up, and looked back towards the office. He started walking, and then heard a slight pop behind him. He looked behind to see the lights all shutting off. He froze in fear, realizing that whatever took the soldiers was in the darkness. He snapped himself out of it, and ran with as much energy as he could back towards the office.
He reached the office, and brought up the transparent sheet again; this time touching the button 'Problems and Issues". He immediately touched the button marked 'Downcast'. Downcast was their immediate emergency code, it was to be used only in the most dire of situations. The screen started recording.
"This is Sergeant Snyder issuing a downcast warning. Something has taken all the soldiers on the fifth level of bunker 9811, and has probably done so for the rest of the levels. I have no clue what it is, but it's hiding in the shadows! The lights are all shutting off, it's following me! Just send help, please! I probably won't be alive when you get this message, but please respond to this message! Help us!" The poping sound of the lights returned, the lights slowly following the sergeant. He quickly tapped a few more buttons, and sent the recording to his superiors. He then ran out of the office towards the emergency elevator.
As he ran, he heard the popping noise get more frequent, and made the mistake of looking back. What he saw took his breath away.
He saw his fellow soldiers looking like they were screaming in immense amounts of pain, they were sort of blurred and in a hazy circumstance, but he was sure that was what he saw. He thought he could make the outline of some sort of thing, but he had no idea what it was. The lights were shutting off faster, and he knew he wasn't going to make it to the elevator. He took off his helmet, and ran with it tightly gripped in his hand.
As he rounded the corner, he saw the elevator, open and ready to receive occupants. The elevator had been opened on the downcast emergency call, but even if he made it to the elevator, the thing would follow him inside. He needed to at least prepare whoever would come with what he saw. He threw his helmet into the elevator in a last ditch effort, and saw it bounce into the elevator. He raised his rifle above his head, and threw it at the controls, smiling as it hit home on the up arrow. He reached the metal door just as the darkness overwhelmed him. He turned around, and looked up.
Sergeant Snyder didn't even have time to scream.
