RAZE

Chapter One: Training Day

Christopher Raze was shaken awake by his alarm clock. Holding his pistol, the Magnum T2, tightly with both hands he aimed and pulled the trigger. The alarm clock went flying up against the wall and cracked. This was the second time this happened. He looked around and stared at the camera in the corner of the wall. They were watching him. But that was no surprise. They had ignored him for exactly 24 hours. Even the guard at the door who he always had chats with fell silent. He fired a bullet at the camera and watched fall to the white tile floor.

That ought to get their attention, he thought.

It was Training Day. Chris wasn't too psyched about it, though he knew the others expected him to. It was an honor in the military to be part of the Raze Task Force. But this was different. Chris was a pawn, an experiment for the military's scheme.

Chris crashed on the bed and looked at the white walls and the silver doors. His bed let out a shriek, since it had begun to rust due to the oddly humid atmosphere of the room. Mold and mildew started growing underneath the bed. His toilet, had been in the camera's view, took on a fecal smell. Usually in morning, Chris would do his business in front of his uninvited guests, but seeing as he neither ate nor drank he remained on the bed until the stainless steel door separated. His suit and gear remained on the other side of the room. Resistantly, he dressed himself, as the military couldn't even provide him any half decent pajamas to sleep with. But hey this was the military. Don't ask, don't tell, right?

His suit, which was basically a flexible material with a strong exoskeleton, was black with blue stripes. His helmet was a bit of a motorcycle helmet with elongate spike forming in the back. The top was brown while the sides were black and the plexiglass protecting his eyes was tinted. He attached clips of ammunition to his belt for his pistol and more for the other weapons he carried. He also attached the pair of Bio Uzis to his belt while he placed his Assault Rifle and Flame Shotgun to his back. The sound of a woman came from the speaker in the back of the room which he hardly ever paid attention to.

"Alright soldier, since you're new to the battlefield we're going to run you through this quick obstacle course in our facility. Complete in and you'll be killin' aliens in no time!"The voice then went silent. Although Chris was not new to the military, it had been three years since he had ever fought a battle. He tried to search in his rigged memory for how old he was, but he couldn't find anything.

Cautiously, Chris stepped onto the "obstacle course." The doors shut behind him with a snap. He held his pistol tightly and observed the room. The room was hall way with a mini power generator to his left and a railing to his right. Also, to his left he saw the desert through a window. Chris couldn't recall the last time he had seen the outside world. He stared at the blazing sun in the distance and flat landscape curving until it made a single mountain accompanied by a smaller hill off to the mountain's right. He wondered if this was the real desert or the aftermath of the invasion.

"Have you forgot how to move?" said the voice. Chris snapped back to his senses and ran down the hall into an elevating ramp. He jumped over a ledge and double jumped one using his boosters in his boots. Fire ejected from the bottom of his shoes with a satisfying "whoosh." He approached a platform that intrigued him. He had never seen it before. It was surely an Alien-made technology that humanity had replicated.

"Some areas may alter your jump like this one. It will allow you to jump very high off of it."

Chris stared at the flat platform. Carefully he approached it and jumped. His rocket booster flew him up like a rocket until he landed on a small walkway supported by two thin metal beams. Across from him was an electrical barrier of sorts which was a bright and gooey green color. Standing between him and the beam was a metal post hanging from the ceiling. Below him was a metal crate next to a small pool of water. Chris could hear the people in the speaker debating about whether he'd make it across without falling, as most people do not make it the first time around.

Chris made a run for it and forgot all about the metal post hanging from the ceiling. He rammed his head into the post and flipped in the air while falling. He landed in the pool of water face first. If it weren't for his helmet, he would have had a concussion.

"Some areas will have effects on you which may alter your speed, gravity, jump height or even damage you."

Chris wanted to tell the lady to shut the hell up, but there would be no way of making the Raze Task Force like that. Furious he double jump over the metal crate onto the Jump Boost Platform and jumped again. This time he knew what to do. He ran across the narrow walk way and walked through the air avoid the metal post. As he was falling, he made a jump motion in the air activating his boosters and throwing him into the next room.

While passing through the beam he witnessed his body change in nothing but an outline of a rag doll. The outline was as green as the beam itself and his body seemed completely animated. This he had been expecting however, since in order to be part of the Raze Task Force, one must successfully prove his or her skills in Virtual Reality or the VR for short. He expected it to be a bit bigger though, although it may have been the first prototype that was created three years ago. Everything was surrounded by a computerized green with a very enhanced but hard visibility in the place.

Chris jumped over the wall in his way and noticed there were two more, so he double jumped and landing safely on a ledge connected to the wall, all while keeping his pistol ready. It had occurred to him for the first time he didn't know what he was up against, because when he looked in front of him, he saw nothing except the virtual ground, a ledge on the wall opposite from him and a ledge between the two that dangled in midair. Then he heard the sound of an incoming missile. He attempted to climb back over from where he came from, but the wall was to high up and the projectile impacted the ground beneath him he fell on to the floating platform.

He lost his pistol, so he frantically reached for his pair of Bio Uzis, but the Training Bot grabbed his back and threw him to the ground. Chris heard thump next to him and knew it was a sticky grenade. In less that a second he rolled away firing bullets of toxic waste and acid. Although he could not see it, he could hear the acid eating away at the Training Bot's armor and face. While making for the ledge opposite from the one that was destroyed, he saw the Training Bot pull out what seemed to be a chaingun. Chris quickly dropped his Uzis and from his back grabbed his assault rifle and fired. The Training Bot fired back in madness unaware of its surroundings due to its inability to see. Chris quickly dived for the bot's back and stole its grenade launcher. Although he had never seen one before he had enough knowledge to just pull the trigger. Chris rolled away back on to the ground and in a second the bot blew to bits. Chris threw the intriguing weapon aside and reached for his shotgun. The training bot head was still connected to its body and its nearly disjointed arm reached for Chris' pistol in the wreckage of the broken ledge. Without hesitation, Chris blew the bot's head off.

He sat in silence and pain for a few second until he asked to the woman on the speaker "Are we done here?"