Naylor: That Familiar Swooping Noise
"And... heave!" Ryan called out to TK and Lucas as the three of them pulled an enormous rack of folding chairs out from the cupboard underneath the stage. We had come straight here after the mission debriefing, much to my confusion.
"Um..." I tapped Josh on the shoulder. "Why are we in the auditorium? I thought we were going underground." I couldn't help feeling baffled at our current location.
He smirked at my confused expression. "You'll see," he said, walking towards the cupboard with everyone else. Ugh. Fine, then.
"All right!" Ryan shouted as he loudly cracked his knuckles. "Let's go!" And then everyone started climbing into the cupboard. But instead of having to squish themselves in as I'd expected they would have to, they just crawled in one by one and seemed to disappear from sight, as if the cupboard was bottomless on the other side.
"C'mon," Josh grabbed my shoulder and started shoving me in the direction of the cupboard. "Don't just stand around. We're going."
"I-in there?" I asked as I pointed to the tiny cupboard, peering into the darkness, of the small, cramped space inside. I knew this school was unpredictable, but this was a little too weird for my taste. Did I have claustrophobia as well of acrophobia? I wasn't particularly eager to find out.
"Yes, Naylor," Josh sighed exasperatedly, addressing my apparently stupid question. "In there. Now let's go." Josh was probably the one person that I trusted here, even if he was an idiot at times. Shrugging, I crawled into the tiny space like everyone else. And I kept crawling and crawling forward. This place sure was bigger than I expected. That's when I felt something cold and hard on the cabinet floor. What? I rapped my knuckles on it and found that it made a harsh, metallic sound. Running my hands along the smooth, cold surface, I found that I was sitting on some kind of trapdoor. It was large and metal, and it had one of those giant wheels instead of a doorknob, like a safe.
"Here, lemme help you," Josh said as we both turned the enormous wheel and opened the door. Underneath the door was a long metal ladder that led downward to who-knows-where.
"After you," Josh gestured. "I'll close it on my way down."
Climbing down the ladder, I found that the rest of the Battlefront was already waiting for us at the bottom. Slowly descending to the ground, I found that we were in some kind of underground mining tunnel. When I made it to the bottom, I took a look around. The tunnel stretched farther than I could see in both directions, and it was dimly lit by old, half-burned out lanterns hanging on the dirt walls every few feet. Where were we?
"There's someone here!" Jared gasped as he shone a flashlight ahead of the group. There, ahead of us in the tunnel, I was just barely able to make out a tall, dark figure in the distance... holding a halberd. I mentally groaned. Not this guy again.
"Ugh. Don't worry about him," Josh scoffed as he walked up next to me. "It's only an idiot in his natural habitat." Pfft. He was one to talk.
"Naylor!" Kyle growled menacingly as he thrust his halberd towards me. "I still don't accept you as one of us yet!" I could almost literally see skulls in his eyes, he looked so angry.
"Why did he go out of his way to wait for us down here?" Josh asked, his head in his hands.
Michael shrugged. "Kyle likes to stress the importance of the moment."
"I just don't get him," Josh shook his head to himself.
"Look," I said to Kyle, irritated. "I don't really care if I'm not accepted by you, all right?" I was so tired of this guy.
"Why, you..." Kyle snarled. "How would you like to die again?" He started stomping towards me, halberd in hand, and I gotta admit... I was kinda afraid at the moment. I clutched my Glock in my hands, as if it would actually provide any form of protection from this maniac.
Suddenly, I heard a very familiar swooping noise, and saw a large, dark shape swinging towards Kyle. He turned and saw it, too, but he was an instant too late. The object hit him square in the chest and shoved him into the wall, causing the dirt wall to crumble and bury him underneath it. Then the dark shape swung back and just hung there in the middle of the tunnel. That's when I noticed that it was a giant hammer, just like the one that had killed me (and Kyle) before.
"Defensive positions!" Alex shouted as all the Battlefront crouched down and pulled out their weapons. I just stood there like an idiot until Josh grabbed my shoulder and dragged me to the ground. I was too busy staring at the pile of dirt and rock by the wall. Nothing seemed to be moving from under the pile. Was he... dead? I mentally shrugged. If he was, and that's what it looked like, then he would just wake up in an hour or two and dig himself out.
"Wait a minute," I asked, finally becoming aware of the situation. "What's going on?"
"Just what it looks like," Josh muttered, his eyes darting back and forth. "The route to Guild is armed several anti-Angel instant death traps. You just saw the first one in action."
"Why are the traps still active?" Ryan called out frantically, still in his defensive position. "Are they trying to kill us?"
"Maybe... they just forgot to turn them off?" Michael shrugged uncertainly.
"No," Alex said with much seriousness. "The Guild simply used their own judgement and reactivated the traps."
"What?" Jared squawked. "Why would they do that?"
"It's simple," Alexis said calmly as she got up from the ground and crossed her arms. "Angel has appeared."
"Down here?" I shouted. I guess the 'secret' entrance wasn't so secret anymore...
"Just wild, then," TK said, his tone dreamy and his eyes strangely distant.
"How stupid," Skyler spat in a lethal tone, holding her kodachi knives at the ready.
"Hold on a minute," I interrupted everyone's frantic chatter. "Guild knew we were coming down here, right? And they still reset the death traps?" Some 'allies' we've got...
"Naylor," Lucas cut in with a monotone voice. "It appears that you don't fully understand the situation. No matter what happens, we can't die." He nonchalantly pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "It will just be excruciatingly painful for us." That's the part I was afraid of... I looked over to the heap of dirt and rock burying Kyle. I definitely didn't want to end up like that. "Guild supplies all of the weapons that we use in our war against Angel," Lucas continued. "If Guild's whereabouts were to be discovered, we would lose any chances of winning the fight."
"Guild made the right decision," Alexis said, an unreadable expression on her face.
"Then should we go after Angel?" Josh asked, holding up his gun.
"While the traps are still set?" Jared cut in. "Are you crazy?"
"Hold up," I held my hands up, interrupting their squabble. "The traps should take care of Angel, right? So can't we just leave now?"
Alex shook her head. "The traps won't completely stop Angel. They'll only slow her down."
"So... what do we do now?" Josh asked awkwardly, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"Easy," Alexis smiled with a devilish grin as she started walking down the tunnel. "We'll just beat her to it."
"Forward march!" she pointed forward with her gun as we all began hesitantly moving forward after her, I not yet aware of the violent dangers yet to come.