Chapter Twenty Three: Labyrinth

"Which way?" Kirsty asked. I looked to the left, and then down to the right of our position. There was only the two choices.

"What if it's a trap?" Shandana asked.

"Chances are, left is a trap." AJ muttered.

"Yeah, and right is always the way to go." Misha spat.

I closed my eyes. I couldn't handle it. This. This, situation. What exactly just happened? Wesker had been killed by… a little girl? Any normal person would have gone mad by just the thought. It was impossible. Yet, it had happened. And I wasn't any normal person. None of us were.

We'd all been through hell. Death seemed to follow us everywhere we went. And to make matters worse, the only allies we'd had, were now cut off from us, leaving us on our own. I felt a hand touch mine. I looked over at Ouida, who just nodded. I sighed. "Come on, guys. We're going left."

"Um…" Shandana murmured.

"Unless you want to split up."

"Coming!"

I held up my pistol, and stepped up next to the corner, and peered around it. All I could see was a brightly lit corridor. I held up two fingers as one and waved them forward, and moved into the corridor.

As we moved down it, I couldn't help but notice the camera at the end come on. "We're being watched." I murmured. No one said anything, as we moved down past the camera, where the corridor curved around to the right, merging up with the corridor to the right. As we followed the now single hall down, we came to the end, where there was a single steel door. There was a code key next to it, and up in the right hand corner, was another camera.

I looked at the code key. The buttons were simple. One through nine, the pound and star key. As I reached to enter a random code, there was a loud whirling sound coming from within the door. It was as if latches were being undone. Suddenly the door slid opened. Everyone looked over at me, as I stared into the dark of the room.

I felt my heart racing. I felt dizzy suddenly. I closed my eyes and let out a breath and sucked it back in again, as my stomach turned. "You okay?" I heard Kirsty ask. I swallowed and nodded slowly. Then I took a step forward into the darkness.

I heard everyone else file in behind me. Suddenly the door slid shut, and the entire room was flooded in more bright white light, revealing a massive circular room, almost like an arena. "What the fuck…?"

"Welcome." A voice from the center of the room said.

"Who's that?" AJ asked. Suddenly the lights in the center of the room came on, revealing Caroline Kuhne, David Hower, Darth Revan, and a few battle droids. In the front of them sat on their knees, Aayla Secura, Violet Squad, Alec Weston, Carina Evans, Casey, Sarah, Chuck, Rhodey, Vanessa, Christian, Tim, John White, Chloe O'Brian, Carrie Underwood, Fox Mulder, and Dana Scully. Everyone whom had assisted them, or had been on their side, was down on their knees, a battle droid squad behind them.

And in front of them, stood a lone figure.

"Jesus." I breath.

"I, uh, don't think he can help us." Lara murmured.

"Matthew Smith. Ajmina Khan. Misha Khan. Shandana Khan. Emily Spence. Lara Hall. Kirsty Harrington. Ouida Brown."

"How the fuck does he know our names?" Shandana asked. I gritted my teeth. "Gee, why don't we ask him?" I stepped forward, and let out a shout. "How the hell do you know our names? Who the fuck are you?"

"My name; is Clymore. I am the leading General on the take over of your planet." I blinked. "He gave us that line way to easily." Ouida muttered. I nodded. "Why are you taking our planet?"

"Simple. You don't deserve it anymore."

"And who made you God?"

"No one. I took the position. Now. I'm going to give you the entire story, followed by your options. Listen closely. I will only go over this once."

He paused, waiting for objections. We just looked down at him. He started.

"Over the millions of years that the planet Earth has been here, we have finally taken it for granted. The pollution. The oil. The hell that you are seeing now; You created it. I am here to see an end to it all."

"You really think that we're just going to stand here and let you…"

"That brings me," Clymore said, cutting me off, "To your options." He smiled. "Join me, and you will remain alive."

We waited. "What about our other options?"

Clymore chuckled. "I forgot to inform you. I don't have any other options for you. Because if you don't join me, you will perish. Regardless of if you simply stand aside, or stand and fight, you will still perish."

"And if we join you, will they be allowed to live?" I asked, indicating the friends on the floor. Clymore smiled. "No. They will stop at nothing to shut down my plans. They will be killed regardless."

I closed my eyes. "Before you make your choice. I would like to mention, that, I have foreseen your future. Your… destiny."

"And what might it be?"

"I'll leave it at this; it's not good for you. Or those close to you."

Clymore turned, and started away. "Kill them." He whispered to Caroline. "You are to be the only one who returns, understand?" Caroline smiled, and nodded. Then General Clymore left the room. And Caroline waved to the droids. "Kill them." She said, activating a button on her wrist computer. The door behind us opened, and we spun around, as several beings approached us.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Misha muttered. Suddenly they all vanished in front of us, and then something slammed into each of us, knocking us down. A loud speaker went off. "I would like to introduce you all to my special soldiers. I trust they will take very good care of you."

I scrambled to my feet, and reached down to my hip for the pistol. As I pulled it out of it's holster, one of the super soldiers appeared and knocked it from my grasp, and threw a punch, knocking me backward.

Across the room, the battle droids marched forward, drawing their blasters and putting them up to their enemy's heads. "Last words?" Hower asked. "Yeah. Perhaps, you should get a new day job. Henchman isn't working for you." Casey hissed. Suddenly he fell forward, and kicked the droid's legs out of under it, causing it to drop it's blaster.

He snatched it up, and blasted the other droids before they could respond. Blame it on their poor programming. As he turned to help up Alec, he felt a strong source of heat plunge through his stomach. He looked down and saw a glowing red blade of energy sticking out of his abdomen. "Casey!" Sarah and Chuck both screamed. Alec snatched up the blaster from Casey as he fell to his knees, and dropped to the ground, unmoving. But as Alec raised the blaster, the red blade came up, slicing the weapon in half, and then quickly followed up with a swift slice into Alec's chest.

Revan turned his head and looked over at Sarah and Chuck, and raised his blade, and brought it down, as Carrie leapt forward, knocking Chuck and Sarah clear from sudden death. Revan did a double take and raised the blade again. As he started to bring it down upon them, he suddenly froze. The three looked past the masked Sith lord at Aayla, who had one arm extended out toward Revan, her eyes focused heavily on him.

She was using the force to keep his blade from moving. Sarah pulled Chuck and Carrie to their feet and they moved away. Carina had grouped up with Sydney, Vanessa, Tim, and John. Mulder was on his feet, and rushing toward Hower, who turned, and fired a blaster from his Iron Man suit's right palm blaster into Fox, sending him backward onto the floor. Scully grabbed Christian, as Caroline ran forward, drawing a sword from her back.

As she leapt forward, blade raised high, Sydney tackled her in mid-air, and they both hit the ground, the sword slid away. They both quickly got to their feet, and was in combat stances. "You can't win." Sydney said. Caroline just smiled. "We'll see about that!" And the two attacked each other furiously. Punches. Kicks. Ducks. Dodges.

As Sydney moved for an offensive attack, Caroline quickly counter-attacked, and dropped Sydney to the ground, and somersaulted over her, swiping the sword up without breaking a sweat. As Sydney got to her feet, Caroline raced forward, making one single slice forward, before stopping in mid-step, her back to Sydney, who stood there, a shocked look on her face. Finally, she dropped to her knees.

I looked over at her, as a super soldier had me pinned on the ground. "Sydney!" I shouted, as she looked down at her abdomen, before collapsing forward onto the ground. There was a loud "oof!" and I knocked the soldier hard in the helmet, and kicked him off me, to find Misha sitting on top of another soldier, bashing her fists into his helmet. A few feet away, Shandana and Ajmina stood back to back, as several super soldiers circled them.

As I scrambled to my feet, the super soldier I'd kicked off me just seconds ago, shouted at me. "Hey, Kid!" I looked over at him, and there was a flash of metal, and I felt a sharp pain spark in my left lower abdomen. I looked down and saw a small knife had been jammed into me. I looked up at him, as the pain made it's way through my body. "What the fuck was that for?" I shouted, the shock rolling through my voice. I reached down, and yanked the blade from my abdomen, and then looked at the soldier, before sprinting toward him with a loud roar.

I leapt up and tackled him, slamming the blade into the side of his neck – the only place where armor was not located. Blood splat from his arteries. But I didn't stop. I jumped to my feet, grabbing the soldier's assault rifle, and turned and open fired on the soldiers who had Shandana and Ajmina surrounded. They went down by their own specialty weapons.

"Matt!"

I turned to Emily's voice, and she was knelt on the ground, pointing across the way. I followed her finger, and saw Ouida pinned against the wall by a super soldier. I rushed over, and grabbed the man by his head, and suddenly twisted, until a faint SNAP sound could be heard. Then I released him onto the ground as Ouida let out a gasp of air that had been restricted from her lungs for that brief time period.

Suddenly I was grabbed from behind, and I saw the glimmer of another knife. I felt my heart rate increase. My breathing deepened. I reached up and stopped the knife and the hand that held it in mid-air, before leaning forward and yanking hard, pulling the man over my back and shoulder, and dropping him on the ground, before plunging his own knife through his helmet, impaling his face.

Suddenly there was a rumble. I stood, as Kirsty, Lara, Misha, and Emily rushed over to the rest of us, to look out at the rest of the arena. It was doing… something. Shape shifting almost. Suddenly a ring of flooring broken away, falling into what seemed like a bottom-less pit, leaving the center of the arena floating alone.

Caroline rushed forward, and Scully threw Christian aside, and prepared for a fight, just as Caroline jumped forward, knocking Scully backward, and she fell over the edge. With a long scream, she fell into the black of the pit. Christian peered over the edge, and then looked back as Caroline swung her sword almost showing off as she paced in front of him, smirking.

There was a heavy clanking sound. David turned and glared at Rhodey, who shook his head. "Stop this madness."

Hower smirked. "Why don't you stop playing around?"

Suddenly he fired several blasts from his palm blasters, before firing off several rockets, sending Rhodey and his war machine flying backward. "I told you to stay out of this! Stark learned his lesson the hard way. Now you will too."

Hower charged up his palm blasters for a brief moment, and blasted Rhodey multiple times, and finished with a satisfied smiled on his face. I looked over at my friends. "We've got to get over there!"

"That gap is too long. You'll never make it." Lara hissed. I looked around. "There has got to be a…"

There was a scream from Vanessa, as Carina ushered her to safety as Caroline moved toward them. I looked around, panicked. Then I saw it. A ladder. It was moving up along the wall, toward the ceiling. Which meant…

"I got it!"

I rushed over to the ladder, and examined it's end. It seemed to lead to a vent opening. "You have got to be kidding me…" Kirsty muttered. I shrugged. "Come on." I started climbing, jumping up the ladder two or three rungs at a time. As I reached the vent, I stopped and popped it open. I peered into the darkness, which suddenly I saw a flash of red, and suddenly the little girl was scrambling toward me.

I felt my heart rate increase rapidly, and I felt my hands slip, and I started to fall backward. "MATT!" I felt for something… anything, as I fell. After all, I was about 100 feet in the air. Suddenly I felt contact, and squeezed onto the hand of Shandana.

"Matt! Hang on!" I felt beads of sweat drip down, stinging my eyes. I looked up, and saw the red-dressed girl peering down at them. "Guys, look out!"

"Shut up! Grab onto the ladder!"

I reached out with my free hand and found my footing on a rung, as the rest of them climbed up into the ventilation. I looked up and the girl was gone. "What the fuck was that?" I muttered to myself. I climbed up into the vent and I followed the group around to the right, which had us staring down a long vent shaft with seemingly no end to it. I looked back, and saw there was no going left. It was just a fast running fan to help the ventilation.

More screams echoed through the shaft. I closed my eyes.

We had to hurry.