The light illuminated the figures better. They appeared to be human, but were dressed with what appeared to be armor on their legs, bodies, and arms. The people continued to shout toward Garrett. He counted eight people, each of them pointing a weapon in his direction. Garrett stayed completely still for several minutes as the people shouted at him. The people began to approach him, and Garrett brandished his weapon and shone his flashlight at them. One of the people fired their weapon, and what appeared to be a tracer round flew past Garrett. The shot was relatively silent but was by no means silenced. Garrett had developed a very good aim in the military, and he quickly focused on the man's forehead and fired a single shot. The shot flew clean into the man's head. The shot knocked him down in what Garrett knew was a fatal shot.
The seven remaining men opened fire on Garrett. Their unusual firearms created a whirring noise when fired as opposed to a cracking or thundering noise. Garrett fired another several shots at two other men and got up. He broke into a run, switching his gun into his left hand and firing several shots at the men as he ran in front of them to create a harder target. He could hear thuds as two shots struck unprotected flesh and metallic clanking noises as most of the remaining shots struck the peoples' armor. Garrett stopped walking and took aim for another shot. This shot struck another man in the head and knocked him down. There were now three men dead on the ground and one other man bleeding.
Garrett was now closer, so when he shined his flashlight at the men they were forced to shield their eyes. Their shots were not ineffective, so Garrett took aim and shot each of the remaining men in the head. The area fell silent.
"What is down there?"
Garrett focused his weapon on the door.
"There are people here. This is unlike anything I've ever seen!"
"What?"
"For one thing there are people alive down here. On top of that these people…"
The door opened, and Garrett fired several shots. A man fell backwards, struck by the shots.
"These people don't speak any language I've heard or seen before. And they have armor and weapons and doors that can't be from thousands of years ago!"
"Can I come down?"
"Fine. Pull up the climbing rig I made and use that. And bring the assault rifle!"
Garrett continued to aim at the door. After several minutes Jackie joined him.
"Who are these people?"
"I don't know."
The door opened. Garrett fired at the people standing in the door, and was soon joined by the weaker fire from the 5.56mm rounds from the M4 that Jackie had brought down with her.
"Move off to one side a bit and cover me if you see anyone move at the door."
Garrett moved up to the bodies. He tossed the firearms away from the bodies and picked one up. This gun had a trigger and an iron sight, but that was the only similarity between that and any other gun that Garrett had used. Garrett flipped a latch on the side of the gun and exposed a glowing panel. This was similar to one that he had seen on a specialized anti-missile system mounted on a Humvee.
"Damn. This gun is a laser."
Garrett heard the activity inside the building. He aimed the laser at the door and pulled the trigger. A pulse from the laser shot out and struck the wall right inside the door. The wall was apparently metal, since the short wavelength light in the photons emitted by the laser caused sparks to fly from the wall. This was something that would only happen with the photoelectric effect and ionizing radiation. Garrett decided that he would try out the laser, so he approached the door. It was still open, so he swept across the hall inside the door. The hall ahead forked, so Garrett motioned to Jackie. She joined him.
"You look left and fire at anything you see that has a weapon. I'll look right."
Garrett peered around the corner. There was a man approaching the intersection who was armed. Garrett aimed with the laser and fired at the man's neck. The intense light burned a shallow crater into the man's neck, and he flinched back and then passed out. Garrett fired one more shot at the man and assumed that he was dead. Jackie did not see anyone. Garrett told her to watch and see if anyone entered the hallway on the left half, and Garrett began walking down the hallway. He passed two bunkrooms. There were fifteen beds in each room, and Garrett had counted sixteen casualties.
Another man, without armor, jumped up from behind one of the beds with one of the lasers. Garrett heard one of the man's bones crack as he stood up and turned. The man had not even aimed his weapon when Garrett fired. This time he aimed for the head and killed with a single shot. Garrett walked over and saw that these people were very similar to humans, but they appeared to have evolved slightly to cope with the near darkness better. Inside this building it was not completely dark, as there were very dim lights recessed in the ceiling overhead. However, these people had slightly different eyes, and larger and differently structured ears. Other than that, these people were human.
Garrett kicked the laser away from the man and checked the room once again. He then heard gunfire in the hallway and stepped to the door. A woman had just stepped out and Jackie had fired several rounds into her, one shot apparently having broken her back. Garrett turned around and walked into the next bunkroom. This room was empty. Garrett motioned for Jackie to come join him.
"There are thirty people here and eighteen are casualties. Now…"
Garrett stopped talking as he heard faint footsteps. He stepped over to a door and it slid open. Garrett laid down the laser and pulled up his Kalashnikov. Someone stepped out of the door and before Garrett even saw who it was he slammed the butt of his gun into the side of their head. The woman collapsed to the ground. Garrett slid her gun back to Jackie. This was another one of the lasers that it appeared was the only weapon here. Garrett looked into the room that the woman had just come out of and there were three other people in here. The people turned upon hearing the woman hit the ground and fired their weapons at Garrett. He quickly ducked around the corner. Sticking his gun around the corner, Garrett sprayed the room with automatic fire. Once his clip was emptied he put in another clip and looked around the wall into the room. One man on the ground fired at him, but the shot missed and Garrett fired a shot into the man's head.
"Now there are twenty-two casualties. Watch out for anyone else and listen."
Garrett entered the room with the three dead men and women. He slid their weapons away from them and saw that the room that he was now in was an armory. There were four gun racks, each with room for ten guns. There were ten guns remaining combined remaining in the racks, so everyone remaining alive was armed. Garrett walked back into the hallway and checked the rest of the rooms on this floor. In what appeared to be a kitchen, Garrett found another woman who was armed. She, however, had the armor, so Garrett was forced to fire several shots to knock her down and then had to knock her unconscious with the butt of his Kalashnikov. He took her weapon, since she was still alive, and then walked to the end of the hall. Upon opening the door, he found that there was a large indoor garden. The lights were brighter here, and there was a water pump which piped water into the rows of plants.
Garrett entered this opening and immediately had two shots go by him. He ducked behind a row of plants and swept the area. One of the attackers was standing up and aiming in his direction. Garrett put his head down and heard a thud as the laser struck the soil in the planter in front of him. He lifted his rifle and fired a round into the head of the man. He then began running down the row of plants and swept his gun around looking for the other attacker. At the end of every other row of plants there was a tree, so Garrett climbed up into a tree. From here he could look down and spotted another man in a window on the second story of the building. He aimed and fired two shots. The window shattered and the body fell out of the window and to the ground. A shot then struck the tree near Garrett's head. He turned and saw two more men standing near the door. However, there was a sudden burst of fire. A round exited through one man's head. Both of the men fell forward and Jackie stepped over them. However, Garrett then saw a round fly over her head. He traced the round's origin to one man and fired at him.
"I had to kill two other people who came into the hall."
"Then that should be all of them."