Seth woke up to pounding headache. He wondered how he had survived the explosion. That last thing he remembered was a burning, all around his body. He opened his eyes, only to shut them again. There were white lights pointed at him, and they burned his eyes. Careful not to look at the lights, he opened his eyes again. He found himself in a large room. It looked like a medical bay. There were beds (one of which he was lying on) and other medical equipment. He shuddered. Seth hated hospitals, and hospital oriented buildings. They reminded of sickness and death. He didn't like killing, he only did it when he had too. His thoughts were interrupted when a nurse walked into the room.
Seth felt a wave of fear wash over him. For the first time he thought about his situation. He didn't know where he was. For all he knew he could be at an insurrectionist base. They could be getting ready to interrogate him. The nurse walked up to his bed and looked at him.
"Good, you're awake." She said smiling at him. She looked like any normal nurse. She wore a white coat, and had her hair in a bun.
"Where am I?" Seth asked her, slightly nervous. She didn't answer him right away; she just looked at a computer screen with wires that ran to pads stuck to his chest and back.
"The counselor will be in shortly." She finally said. She then proceeded to walk out of the medical bay. Seth laid his head back the pillow, and sighed. He began to think none of this was worth it; sure, he joined the army knowing it was gonna be tuff as all hell, but this? He got blown up, and his squad was more than likely dead. He wondered if the objective was worth it. He highly doubted it.
No inanimate object was worth a man's life, let alone whole squad's lives. His thoughts were interrupted when the door to the med bay opened again. A man walked in. He wore a blue and black tracksuit. He was African American, and stood with his hands behind his back.
"Hello." His voice was eerily calm. "I am the counselor. Do you have any questions?"
"Yeah, where am i?"
"You are currently, in our medical bay." The counselor said, still using the calm voice. Seth remembered the second's right before he had been blown up. He shuddered just thinking about it. He could hear his vitals spike, just by thinking about it.
"What was that thing that retrieved?" Seth asked.
"That…is classified." The counselor stated, still using the calm voice. Seth knew something wasn't right about him. "You have a mild concussion, and had to have shrapnel removed from your back. You will be permitted to leave the medical bay in fourteen hours." The counselor added.
"What am I supposed to do till then?" Seth asked.
"I would suggest that you get some sleep." The counselor replied, before leaving again.
Seth was extremely confused. How had he even survived the explosion? Where the hell was he even at? The thing that scared him the most was the way the counselor said he should get some sleep. Almost hinting something. He sighed, and tried to go to sleep. It was nearly impossible. He was too scared to sleep. People usually think that if you're in the army, you don't feel emotions anymore. This wasn't true. He was allowed into the army, was because of his skills. He was an O.K. shot, except with sniper rifles. He sucked ass with one of those.
He was pretty good in hand to hand combat, being pretty strong. Seth was tall, and very strong for his age. His face still looked like a teenagers though. He was able to dodge a fair amount punches, and land a good few at the same time. This didn't mean he couldn't take a punch though.
Seth eventually fell asleep, in his thoughts. It was not a peaceful sleep however. His night was filled with nightmares of all kinds. But, there was one thing they all had in common. The coming day.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Seth awoke to voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying, just that it was a man and a woman. He heard a door open, then close. He looked toward the door, to see a nurse coming to him. It was the same nurse from last time. She started disconnecting wires from him.
"You are fine to get up and walk around, just be careful of your shoulder." The nurse said to him.
Seth wondered what was wrong with his shoulder. He stood up and immediately felt a burning all around I his shoulder. He looked at it with disbelief. It was beat red, and blistered.
"Most of your burns were focused on that shoulder." The nurse said, seeing him looking at it. "The pain should dissipate over time, but the burn scars will be there forever"
"Thanks." He said to her "Where am I supposed to go now?" The nurse didn't respond. They both stood there in silence for a few minutes. Then the door to the med bay opened. The man calling himself the counselor walked in.
"If you would please come with me." He said to Seth, calmly. Seth walked up behind the counselor.
He followed him out of the med bay. They entered a hallway. Seth noticed how clean everything was. It was spotless everywhere. After about five minutes of walking, they came to a door. It had and a hand scanner on it.
The counselor put his on it, and it whirred. After a couple of seconds a female mechanical voice came over the loudspeaker.
"Welcome back counselor." She said. The door opened and they both walked in .It was a medium sized room. There was a very large computer at the back end, There was a man standing in front of it.
"Director, our…..Friend…..is here." The counselor said.
The man, who Seth guessed was the Director, turned to look at them. He wore a tracksuit, and glasses. He had a goatee and stood with his hands behind his back. He looked at Seth. He seemed to be sizing him up. After a while of uncomfortable staring, he spoke.
"I would like to thank you for retrieving our package for us." He spoke in a southern drawl. "It was of upmost importance that we got it back."
Seth was confused. How did this man know about the objective? Suddenly, a grave realization crashed over him.
"You're the one who-" Seth was cut off by the Director.
"Ordered your squad to attack the insurrectionist base." He finished.
Seth felt anger wash over him. He wanted to tear this man apart. He let Seth's squad die for, for what? What was so important that they had to die for.
"You…..let them die." Seth said, taking a threatening step toward the Director.
"Actually," He said, a bit annoyed. "My team saved them."
Seth felt relief knowing they were alive.
"Then why didn't you just send YOUR team in." Seth said, a sharpness in his voice.
"My team was…..preoccupied." The Director replied.
"Ok, so what now?" Seth asked nernously.
"You will come with me" A calm voice said.
"HOLY SHIT!" Seth jumped, forgetting that the counselor was behind him. They both exited the room, and took a different hallway. They walked for a while. Damn. This place is huge, Seth thought. After walking for about 5 minutes, they came to a hallway with many doors on both sides.
As they went past, Seth noticed there were nametags on the doors. He caught what one said, it had WASHINGTON/MAINE, on it. They kept moving, until they came to an unmarked door. The Counselor motioned for Seth to open it. He did, and looked inside.
There was a bed, and a bathroom. It wasn't necessarily small, but it wasn't very big either. That's when he noticed it. A closet door, although it looked weird. He walked closer and inspected it. It was made of metal, and had a blue button next to it.
Well, blue buttons never hurt anybody, only red ones, right? Seth thought to himself. He pressed the button, and the door slid open. Inside was a full suite of body armor. It looked like modified Spartan armor.
It had a large visor, and was midnight black, with white ice highlights. Seth turned, and saw a slight grin, on the calm man's lips.
"Welcome, to Project: Freelancer."