Chapter three
The woman standing behind them wore all purple. The only colors that brought some contrast were her black shoes and her white collar. She had her black hair tied up behind her head using a purple elastic and was carrying five files.
"I trust that you are all ready to sign in? Your work begins in two days."
"Er….Who are you again?" Buck asked, twiddling with his thumbs. The woman in purple looked like she was in her late 30s, perhaps even early 40s.
"You may call me Mrs. Pauling, I will be your 'administrator' for most of your tasks. Now please follow me, we haven't any time to waste."
She turned around and strutted towards the exit, her shoes clomping along the wooden floorboards. Eric was the first one to follow, and as if on que, everyone else followed the administrator down the hall and out the door. Outside, Mrs. Pauling motioned for them to follow her as she walked past the bunkers. As they walked, she looked over her shoulder and said, "This isn't really the RED base you know, our real base is a few miles west, but we can't risk anyone knowing. Not even our employed colleagues." She flicked her hand in the direction of the bored man in the booth.
"Great, more travelling," Savine whined.
"Oh no no, I assure you, there will be no more hour long road trips," Pauling mused while punching some numbers into a control panel beside one of the bunkers. The old rusty doors creaked and groaned. Finally it started to lift up, revealing two bright red objects, illuminating the room.
"One at a time please, don't worry, it's totally safe."
Andy looked down at the glowing metal contraptions spinning wildly in front of him.
"Are you sure?" He hollered back at the administrator.
"Its fine, look," Pauling stepped onto one of the teleporters and in a flash of red light, she vanished.
The group looked at each other anxiously. No one wanted to go first. But neither of them wanted to keep Pauling waiting.
"Ok, I'll go first, nothing to it right? Just… ya know.. having your particle bonds ripped apart and then reconfigured aint so bad? Heh... heh." Eric laughed nervously. Behind him, Savine noticed Sylvie getting impatient. She blew her snow, white hair away from her face and huffed. Savine was just about to suggest that she would enter first instead but Sylvie shoved Eric forward.
"Hey-" Eric's cry of surprise was cut short as he was surrounded in a sarcophagus of light and whisked away. Savine glared at Sylvie and raged," What was that for?! He could've gone in without help just fine!"
Sylvie crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue. Savine was just about to respond when Sylvie shoved her onto one of the teleporters. She stumbled a bit and regained her posture. Savine was about to give Sylvie a piece of her mind when she was engulfed in red, and like Eric, whisked away to the remote Red base.
Buck grabbed Sylvie by the shoulders and turned her around.
"What the heck are you doing?! What's wrong with you?" Sylvie elbowed him in the ribs, not hard, but hard enough for buck to back off.
Andy stepped between the two.
"Please, allow me." He stalked over to the teleporter with a cigarette in his mouth and a hand carrying his kitten. He too vanished in a blanket of red light. Buck and Sylvie followed suite, each standing on one of the two teleporters, waiting to join up with the group.
Savine felt queasy. She clutched her stomach as she tried to regain her posture. Her right foot accidentally crossed over her left and she tripped. She quickly brought up her hands to break the fall but someone caught her instead.
"Careful." Eric said while hoisting her up with his arm. He smiled a little and helped her up.
"Thanks.. I don't feel too well."
"Don't worry about that," Mrs. Pauling said," Your body will get used to it after three or four more teleports."
Savine nodded. The soft hum of the contraption whirred again, it sounded like a overheating laptop. Red sparks flashed above the telepad and out stepped Andy, cradling Marshmallow in his arms.
"Well now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Andy coaxed his frightened kitten. He looked up at them and nodded. Soon, Sylvie and Buck both appeared above the telepads and stumbled out.
"I feel like shit," groaned the soldier. The demo-woman clutched her stomach and propped herself up with her grenade launcher.
Savine glanced back to see Sylvie walking towards her. She put her hands on her hips and pulled a frown.
"Come to apologize?" Sylvie stretched her arms out and gave Savine a hug. For someone as skinny as Sylvie, her strength was surprising. It felt like someone had sucked all the air out of Savine's lungs and crushed her ribcage. The novice pyro was taken by surprise. She awkwardly eased her muscles and hugged her back.
"Apology accept." She said. Sylvie pulled back and smiled.
"Let's go meet the others?" Pauling suggested.
"Sure, been dying to meet 'em," Eric retorted, a little too enthusiastically. Buck gave a quick thumbs up and Andy shrugged.
After a short walk, the group made it to RED base. It was magnificent. A huge building loomed over a row of bunkers and a medical lab. Beside it were rows of trucks and ammo crates. If you looked closely enough, you could just make out the outline of three storage warehouses hidden behind the main building. While they walked, Savine noticed the dormitory was built into the side of the mountain. Beside it stood a puny electrical plant with wires running to the top of each building in the base. She hadn't noticed this before, but a cliff was located towards the left of the base. There were a few fences, but nothing else to prevent hundred meter falls with.
"Please, go inside, meet your team. I will be back at seven o'clock while you guys eat dinner. We will have a discussion about your jobs then. Toodles." Pauling waved them off and turned to the large building, carrying their files under her arm.
Buck grabbed the door and pushed it open. He went inside and held the door open for everyone.
Eric nodded a thanks and Savine just smiled. Sylvie gave him a fist bump.
"Thank you very much." Andy said, deep in thought, as he strutted into the room.
"There's no one here." Eric complained, sounding disappointed. He flapped his arms around and spun in a few circles.
"Stop acting restless; let's go have a look around. Maybe we'll run into some of them along the way." Suggested Savine.
"Welcome to yer new home." The lights behind them flicked on. A woman wearing a wielder's mask and a toolbelt welcomed them.
"Im the engineer here, you can call me Shelly if you want. C'mon, Ill introduce you to the team. She put her blowtorch on her belt and walked down the hallway to their right.
Shelly pushed through another set of doors and entered a brightly lit room. Inside, Savine saw three more figures. She couldn't make out any details until she entered the room because the frosted windows distorted the images of the people behind it. Once she entered the room, she saw three men, two sitting in conference chairs by a table playing poker, and one sitting on the carpet next to a tv, mashing his fingers on a controller.
"Ey boys, git over here for a sec!" The engineer hollered at them. The two men abruptly stopped their game and threw their cards down on the table, stood up, and walked up towards the door.
"That means you too. Zhang!"
"C'mon, this is the boss fight, I've been grinding for hours to get to this!" The person by the tv whined.
"I will stick my wrench through your console of you don't git yer butt over here this instant." Shelly threatened, but her voice was calm.
Zhang groaned and paused his game. He grabbed his cola and ran towards the door.
A slim man with a lab coat on smiled warmly. He shook everyone's hand.
"I am the medic, nice to meet you," He said in a foreign accent, careful not to mess up any pronunciation. His looked like he was from India and wore a pair of thick glasses. Savine couldn't help but imagine the medic as one of those stereotypical nerds you'd find in movies about high school life. But, she knew to keep that to herself.
The man beside the medic did not smile, his nose twitched a little, but that was it. He didn't stick out his hand or anything, but stare at the 5 newcomers. Silently judging them as his serious eyes scanned over every detail of their bodies. Finally he opened his mouth and spoke. It looked like it took him a lot of effort as his muscular exterior rose while he spoke.
"I am heavy, is all you need to know." He then pointed to a huge minigun propped beside the table with the cards." That is Sasha, my gun," he paused and leaned in closer. So close Eric could feel his breath on his face. "Do. Not. Touch. Sasha." He glowered.
Eric and Buck, the closest to the heavy looked a bit shaken up.
"Got it," Savine flashed heavy a double thumbs up. He nodded in approval.
"Yo whattup?! I'm the scout here," Zhang pointed to himself," obviously the most important class there is." He paused to chug down his cola. Then he continued," If you guy just listen to my advice, you'll be good to go, first off, boundaries. We gotta have boundaries. You see those minifridges back there? Thos are filled with my favorite cola. Do not ever go near that place, got it? That's where I-"
"Ok I think that's enough," Shelly interrupted.
"Hey, I wasn't done yet." Zhang complained
"Little Chinese man talks too much." Heavy leaned on the table and shook his head.
"Oh yeah? Jokes on you, im only seventeen, im not legally an adult yet, moron!"
"Do you wish for me to pound you into ground, little baby man?"
"Oh yeah, I'm real scared," The scout taunted.
Eric looked back at Savine," quite a bunch eh?"
"Sure is," Savine's eyes widened as the heavy picked Zhang up and stuck his head under his beefy arm, giving the scout a massive nuggie.
"Well, that isn't usually how we folks are, it's just that the things that have happened recently are quite taxing on all of us. Heh…heh…." Shelly laughed uneasily, clearly embarrassed.
"Oh, and what might those events be?" Asked Andy.
"I'll tell you guys later, c'mon, let's go grab a bite shall we?"
"Ah, yes, I am starving" The medic said as he left the room," I am craving the pizza." He chuckled to himself as he pranced down the hallway, towards mess hall. Shelly followed him and told the heavy and scout to move along. Savine and the gang followed behind the heavy, who was now carrying the scout over his shoulder with an amused smile on his face.
"Lemme go you bald fat fatty fat fat fat!" Zhang wailed while pounding in the massive russian's back.
Savine heard Sylvie giggle behind her.
She took another look at the heavy and something inside her stirred.
She felt like she had seen him somewhere before.
But couldn't remember where.