Garrett got back up and just as soon as he could get back into his apartment, he got a call from Montague.
"Some of the missing hunters have returned."
"Yeah, I managed to get rid of the dragon."
"Is its corpse there?"
"No, it disappeared just like all the other animals do."
"Is there any residue left?"
"Yeah, lots of that."
"Good. I'll need to get some samples."
Garrett hung up the phone and began putting his things away and reloading his black powder weapons. As he was doing this, he heard the door open. He turned around to see that Jackie was coming in. She had apparently been down on the surface. She also didn't look like things had been going easy for her, as her clothes were covered in dirt and ash.
"What happened to you?"
"They've opened up a new area, so I went down to check it out."
"Do you mean the underground caves?"
"Yeah, how did you know about that?"
Garrett tapped the large rifle leaning against the wall.
"I opened that place up with my little friend here."
"Where did you find that?!"
"A scientist I was working for let me have use of his facilities."
Jackie picked up the heavy rifle and shouldered it.
"This would be a lot better than that M4."
"I don't know if you could handle the recoil, but I'm sure the doctor would let you come with me to his lab so we could make you something."
"How long would that take?"
"Not too long at all. All I need to do is design what you want me to and a machine like a 3D printer would just make it automatically."
"Cool."
"You want to go?"
"Not now, I am exhausted."
"All I did was break into the entrance of the cave. I didn't actually go in. How was it?"
"Everything there is different. And the things are much stronger. You can shoot them in the head but that won't even kill them in a shot."
"Damn, but then again that M4 has got some pretty weak rounds. We'll have to make some stronger weapons."
The next morning, Garrett and Jackie prepared their equipment. Garrett gave Jackie his more powerful Kalashnikov so she could leave behind her M4, and he brought his photon rifle and MG34. He figured there wouldn't be anything like the dragon that he faced, so he would only come back for the heavy armor piercing rifle in case he had an extreme need for it. They went up to the teleporter with their things. Now they could choose either the forest or the cave. Garrett selected to go to the cave, and soon he and Jackie were standing in that first room, with the partially destroyed door at their backs and a new one before them.
"This is where his lab is?!"
"Nope, but before we go off to make weapons I want to see what we're up against here."
"It's not too good in there though."
"Well, now we're better armed. Wait, what's this?"
Something on the bottom of the teleporter caught Garrett's eye. He bent down and saw that there was something there that was not on any other teleporters. It looked like clay was stuck around one of the photon tubes from a weapon. Then he realized that it was plastic explosive.
"Crap, it's mined!"
Garrett ran toward the door and pulled Jackie through with him. He quickly glanced around the large room that he was in. It was extremely hot and dry inside, with lava flowing from vents in a couple corners and into a lake of liquid rock that the room seemed to float on. It was also empty. Garrett didn't have any more time to look around but pushed Jackie away from him and to the ground on one side of the doorway while he himself jumped to the ground behind a small ridge. A huge ball of green fire burst from the doorway, pieces of debris riding on the explosion. After the dirt and smoke had settled, Garrett got up and turned towards the carnage scene he had just come out of. The room was slightly larger from the explosion, the steel wall that was part of the door between that and the dragon's lair being still barely intact but every door gone. The teleporter was also gone. Garrett turned around to see if Jackie was okay.
"Just before the explosion I saw those doors sliding shut."
Jackie was pointing at the doors on the far side of the room. Garrett instantly thought of Jardem, who had abandoned him and a few others in the forest.
"I think we should think about going back."
"How? That teleporter was just blown to pieces!"
"In the dragon's lair there was another teleporter. We can just use that."
Garrett and Jackie turned around and walked through the gutted teleporter room. However, as soon as Garrett stepped into the room he heard a faint whistling noise. He looked up and saw another dragon circling near the top of the room.
"Damn, another dragon!"
"You killed it before though?"
"I did, but I guess there are more than that one."
"Well you killed one before, so how hard could this one be?"
"I used that huge armor piercing rifle to take it out, and even that took two shots. I don't think what we have now would even scratch it."
Jackie aimed her Kalashnikov up at the dragon and fired off two quick shots. The sound of the shots was muffled by the size of the dome, but it wasn't enough for it to escape the dragon's hearing. It banked its wings, turned its head, and spit out a large ball of fire at Garrett and Jackie, who quickly jumped back through the small room into the other large one. They ducked behind the ridge and after the ground shook another huge ball of flame, this time orange, leapt through the door.
"It can't fit through, let's go."
As flame continued sporadically shooting through the door, Garrett and Jackie turned around and crawled prone halfway across the room. Strangely enough this room was still devoid of any enemies. Garrett motioned for Jackie to go check two boxes sitting against one side of the room, and himself walked up to the door. As he got close to it he saw that it was locked. He made a spot check for explosives on that side of the door. Annoyed, he turned around to Jackie.
"What did you find in the boxes?"
"Just a couple healing things, what's up with the door?"
"It's locked. It doesn't look like it's rigged to blow though, so I think we should check the other door."
Garrett walked over to the other door, which was on the side of the room opposite where the boxes were. This door wasn't locked on this door.