Chapter 11: Tyler Schoditsch

As I made my way down the cord, I started to think about why I was doing this. I mean, I jumped at the chance to come down here, but I hate the dark. And I don't mean I'm scared of it or anything. I'm not afraid of a monster attacking me or some bullshit like that, but I hate the fact that when you're in darkness, total darkness, you can't see shit. If something comes to attack you, you're fucked. Hard.

And don't get me fucking started on that night-eye shit. If you are in the dark for ten to fifth-teen minutes than you will be able to see almost as well as if you where in the daylight. Bullshit. No matter how long you stay in the dark your eyesight never gets above; well, I can kinda see.

That's why I hate the dark. Not any other reason. So the fact that I'm going down into a basement that is completely pitch-black and could have anything in it made this out to be one shitty mission. But, by the time I was contemplating coming up, I was at the bottom. I couldn't see my own hands in front of me, nor could I see where I was. I turned on my flashlight to illuminate my surroundings.

My fears instantly came true. The elevator shaft ran down about ten feet to basement. My flashlight peered through the elevator door opening into a long hallway, a door only slightly visible at the edge of the flashlight's beam.

After waiting there for minutes just trying to get a feel of my surroundings, I stepped out of the shaft and into the room. For a place this old it was actually in good shape, though the smell of mildew still permeated the air.

As I walked through the area with flashlight in one hand and gun in the other, I couldn't help but think what Guardian and that prick were doing. Probably talking about me and how I'm such an ass. Or about how we're in this situation because of being betrayed. Betrayed.

As I walked through the door at the end and into a series of metal corridors, I realized I hadn't thought about it once yet. Honestly tried not to. But I couldn't think about anything else at the moment. About how you have one friend and how you and him were supposed to stick together till the end. About how, no matter what happens, the two of you have each other's back. About how, after countless fights and brawls you've had together, all of it can change in an instant.

To be honest, if I had been cut a deal to betray one of my own, I knew what I would've done. I would have taken the contract, rolled it up, and strangled the guy who gave it to me. You see, you never betray the family, your brother, never. If was forced to betray my family, I'd die before I'd do it. Any less is.

My brain began to wander again, trying to keep itself away from what lurked in the corners my flashlight didn't reach. It was something I hoped wouldn't come up. The hooker. The cunt that ended up paralyzing me and making me look like a faggot in front of everyone in Ruf. I still couldn't believe a woman, of all things, had beaten me up. But, if I ever got the chance again, you better believe who will be the winner.

Then, by the time my brain had run out of things to mull-over, the darkness was starting to get to me. After only a few minutes and a couple hundred feet, I forgot where the entrance was and had no idea where the generator was either. I kept thinking, have I already been this way, and, where is this fuckin' generator?

Then, out of nowhere, I heard a noise. I couldn't tell exactly what it was but it sounded like footsteps. I peered around with my flashlight seeing a turbine and then looking over to the other side and seeing mop and bucket. My heart was now beating faster and my hands where getting sweaty. Turn after turn, I kept hearing things. Footstep here and a rattle here. Footstep there and rattle here. I knew as my heartbeat got ever faster that there was someone here, playing with me.

"Fucking come out!" I yelled into the dark. My body and face was now beet red with anxiety and rage. My leg hurt for no damn reason and, in a moment of adrenaline, I fired my gun into the blackness.

This was it. Now was there chance to attack. Kill me and leave my body to the Rads. Out of nowhere, I pictured in my mind the one thing above all that I feared and out of desperation, I pushed my fingers into my eyes. I kept pushing till the image would go away.

"Make it stop!" I screamed, half crying and half enraged. "Make it go away!"

I could feel blood running down my palms and I still couldn't get his fucking face out of my head.

"Make him stop mom! Please!" I was on my knees, crying, what would be crying, with the blood now at my elbows.

Then out of nowhere I heard a familiar voice.

"What the hell, are you doing?"

I pulled my fingers out and tried to look up. Everything, and I mean everything, was blurry. But the outline of his body and the detail of his coat made him a dead giveaway, even from my position.

"Jim?" I asked.

"Who else would it be?" He responded while just standing there and, I assumed, just staring at me.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to fuck you in the asshole in the dark of this abandoned basement." I laughed a little, knowing he was joking, and whipped the blood from my face. I stood up, given a little wobbly, and pointed the flashlight at him. It sure was Jim. From his black hair, to his gay skinny jeans, to his red jacket he, we, found in an old junk-yard. My vision was still very bad so his entire body looked a little distorted and fuzzy, and my eyes where killing me, but honestly, I felt a lot better now. Now that he was here.

"What are you really doing here?" I questioned again.

"I'm here to help you. I'm not going to let own brother just kill himself, am I?"

"Are you?"

Jim smiled and started to walk pass me. In what felt like a moment, he was already walking away. I wanted to say something but my mouth wouldn't speak, so I just walked behind him with my flashlight leading the way and providing light for the two of us. It was a little strange though; it almost appeared like the light was going through him. Never-the-less, we just walked, the two of us, for minutes. Not talking or making even a noise. I just followed him as he walked in front. It again appeared as if he, for a while, was just walking in circles. But after sometime, the two of us got to a lever that I guessed was the switch for the building.

"This it?" I asked. He didn't say anything, but I could tell it was a yes. This was the bitch I came to flip. As I went to turn it, I remembered that I needed to contact Guardian beforehand. So, I put my gun back in its holster and picked up my talkie.

"Guardian? You there?"

After about ten seconds I got a reply. "Tyler? Did you find it?" Guardian squawked through the static.

"Of course I found it you piece-of-shit! Why the fuck wouldn't I be calling you if I hadn't!"

"Woah, calm down. I was just asking. So you did find it?" Guardian asked again.

"Yes." I said angrily into the talkie. It again took about another ten seconds for him to answer back. Probably telling Pally about how I didn't fail as they thought I would and were now disappointed by the fact.

"Good, turn it on. I found a terminal that will probably tell us where this thing is." He finally responded.

"Oh, you mean," I flipped the switch, "the thing that he still hasn't told us about? Yeah, that thing."

The entire building came to life. A single light bulb illuminated the small room I was now in. The metal corridors from where I just came from stood to my left. In front of me, a large machine with a single lever facing down. And to my right, a large glass window.

Through that glass window, I could see row after row of light turn on one after another, going back for miles. I had a higher view of the place and was left in awe. It was a gigantic manufacturing warehouse. But this was different, this was something else. The place outfitted for something else. There was only one thing being made here.

"Guardian. I think we have a problem here." I said into my talkie, still looking around and trying to grasp the situation.

"Yeah? What is it? I'm almost done finding what we need… Hey, what's that noise?-"

-"Guardian!" I yelled.-

"Get down!"

His talkie went off. I tried to contact him, nothing. I snapped back to reality and the situation that I was in. Then I realized that Jim was gone. He was standing right next to me no more than two minutes ago and was nowhere to be found. This sucked.

I was alone, tired, and couldn't see well. Now would be the moment to attack me, I thought. Now would be the moment to kill me if someone wanted to. But, I will not give them the chance.

Within seconds, I was already jogging to the elevator shaft, where I think it was, and started to hear strange things. Banging and clacking, steam-assembly and something I didn't want to know. It was the feeling of just awakening the beast and now you must run.

Before I could even image what kind of shit I had just gotten myself into, I got a glimpse of something black. Right as I was outside the elevator door, I stopped and turned around.

A robot the size of a brute was standing still at the end of the hallway about a hundred feet away. It had no face or legs, just a metal chassis on wheeled tri-pods, and it had a laser gun in one hand and a missile-launcher in the other. A sentry bot.

Before I had the chance to even say hello, the robot fired a missile right at me.